Summer memories.

Now that I have Calvin every once and a while I will get a flashback to when I was a child. Like the smell of watermelon reminds me of when my mother would always have that cut up in the fridge for us to have. Or when I lift Calvin out of his car seat when at the park. I remember mom taking me to the park. I feel like my life has come full circle. Ive always missed my mom, always looked for her in others and now see the parts of her that come out in me. I wonder, did she look at me and my brother the way I look at Calvin? Did she have this overwhelming drive to try and be a decent mom because she was a role model for others? Did her heart feel like it would explode into a million pieces every time one of us kids gave her a kiss? Id like to think those answers are yes. I picked losson park in NY for Calvin's first bday. We had my birthdays there a lot when I was a kid and I vividly remember this one time driving with her to that park and looking up at the sky to see a butterfly shaped cloud. I have amazing summer memories (and everyday memories) with my mother. Hope Calvin can one day say he has the same.

Some mushy advice:

Make memories because you never know when that memory can mean the world to the person you share it with.

Skip right to hell.

Im a firm believer that Ohio is A FIRERY PIT OF HELL. We didnt have a spring, went right from winter to blazing inferno. Its muggy and hot and my fake tan feels like its going to melt off of me. YAY for summer though! I wait all year for it to get here so I can find excuses to go outside other then to shop. This year is even more awesome as now I have Calvin to take places like the zoo and swimming. Dont even remind me of last summer where I was pregnant and hot and huge and cranky and did I mention, CRANKY! Now Im just hot. A little cranky sometimes too but I chalk that up to left over hormones hahaha.

Its not so bad though, Id rather have this hot then live back home in Buffalo with the winters. We will never move back home. I couldnt take the 9 months of snow. You laugh but Im being for real. Sorry Buffalo, I hate to say this, but Ohio grew on me.

Even if it is the Fire pit of Hell.

Got Junk?

Damn it we need to have a garage sale.

No my house isnt like a episode of Hoarders where I need an army of people to come in and sort through years of crap and mental anguish. Well maybe I do need someone to help with the mental anguish but thats another post all together. I get anxiety over things being messy so when we bought our house and moved all the stuff I had in the basement of our townhouse to the basement of our nice new house I almost had a slight breakdown. The men who helped move (who by the way were AWESOME and we couldnt have done it without them cause with toting a then 3month old I was basically useless) put all of our crap we will never use, use on occasion, or dont know what to do with all over the basement in one big pile. I used to never know where to start when it came to organizing it so I would ignore that part of the house but one day after changing the cat litter I finally had enough and tornadoed through it in 2hrs.

Now I have organized piles of decorations, baby stuff, a section of "Mikes junk that I dont know what to do with" and a section of yardsale crap. Stuff people bought us years ago, or hand me down Nick Nacks, maternity clothes (no more kids for me thanks) and other stuff that I no longer want or want to look at. I saved some sentimental things but for the most part, if I havent used it in a year its out the door. I unpacked crap that had Louisiana news paper from 2003! Yeah, sorry grandma, those mugs you gave us that we have no use for are going outside on the lawn with a 25cent sticker on it. Appreciate your thought though.

Im thinking of Calvin here. This way when he has to go thru our stuff he wont be like "why do my parents have so much useless crap and can I just burn the house down and collect the insurance?"

11 months!

The love of my life is 11 months today. Im busy planning his 1st birthday right now and it blows my mind because last year at this time I was busy anticipating his arrival. I just made out all his invitations and hopefully family will be able to make it to scare the crap out of him. Poor kid, with living so far away he doesnt know anyone. Thankfully he wont have any memory of this.

But there will be photos. Oh the photos....