Fall Is Not My Season

You know when you have a negative/difficult/painful experience and it kind of haunts {no pun intended} that time of year for you? When that month or season rolls around again you get kind of anxious and some of the feelings you had related to that experience start to creep back into your head. That is now fall for me. I don't love fall to begin with. It's nothing about fall specifically that I dislike, it's actually quite a beautiful season, but it's both a signal of the end of summer and the impeding doom of winter {post-holidays, anyway}. Last fall was not good for me. And this year as fall quietly overtakes my beloved summer, I'm anxious. It's not that I expect the same things to happen all over again, I'm just reminded of them. Everything about fall is reminding me of what was going on this time last year. I just wanted fall to rush by so I could get to the holidays and have something happy to focus on. Of course, this is a new year with new things going on. There's lots of great, exciting stuff to look forward to, but also stuff I'm pretending isn't there. I find myself hoping to just breeze past fall and wake up one day happily on the other side. That can happen in real life, right?

In an effort to focus on the positive and not miss out on life, here's what I'm excited about this fall...
- I'm running my first half marathon in 2 weeks. Bonus: loving my long runs outside in the fall weather!
- I'm doing a Montessori-style preschool program {self-designed, nothing official} with Carsen, she is loving it. I'll write more on it later.
- Reagan is about to hit some really fun milestones. She started sitting on her own this week, she has a tooth, she has started babbling (bababa and mamama) and we're starting foods next week. Between now and Christmas she'll likely be crawling :)
- The roughly dozen birthdays we celebrate between our two families starting in October
- Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch with all the kids in my family. Seriously one of my favorite days of the year.
- Another holiday season full of family gatherings and yummy food :)
- Making priceless happy memories to help me feel better about fall again

Deep breath. I can do this. Here we go...

Summer Recap

I can't believe summer is officially over in two days. Even though it happens every year, I still get a knot in my stomach. I wait so long {9 months to be exact} for summer and then it's over in a blink {3 months to be exact}. It's like saying goodbye to a dear friend you know you'll see again, just not soon enough. Gah.

Sooo, might as well take a look back at how awesome summer was before it disappears for the next 9 months.

We went to the zoo on half-price night!

Went to a few weddings

(Carsen was a flower girl in one!)

Celebrated a few birthdays

Did some crafty things like make our own sidewalk chalk

Did just the right amount of snuggling

Tried some new recipes

Met a new cousin

Went to story time

Hung out at the park

and hung out at Oriole Park

Spent time with Great-Grandparents (Reagan met them for the first time)

Went on an amazing vacation

And Carsen started ballet!

AND since there's one more day of summer, I will add that my family's annual reunion picnic is tomorrow. I can't think of a better way to officially end my summer than a day spent outside eating awesome food and hanging out with my whole family :D