Memorial Day

Yesterday (Memorial Day) was a fantastic day.  I could not have asked for a better, more fun, or more relaxing day off.  The weather was perfect.  The plans got altered quite a bit, but 100% for the better.  Originally it was just a barbecue at Anthony's brother's.  But it ended up being an early parade with Anthony, the barbecue with not just his parents but his whole immediate family, and then everyone piling into their suburban for a spur of the moment Monday evening trip down to their beach house for a quick lawn mowing, and then onward to the casino with everyone.  Normally it is Anthony, myself, and his brother.  This time it was his younger brother, younger sister, and parents too.  It was just a perfect day.  I couldn't be more thankful to have found my way to this amazing guy and his equally amazing family; and it made for a great Memorial Day and every other day I get to spend with them.  It has always been a favored holiday of mine, but this year takes the cake, that's for sure.  

Funny side note -- that last picture is documentation of college students doing Anthony's sister's high school homework.  A useful bargaining chip that scored us an extra hour at the casino on a school night. ;)

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Memorial Day as well!

xoxo

mother's day

Mom,

Words can't express how grateful I am to you for your years and lifetime of care, worries, arguments, laughs, and most importantly, your unconditional love.  You are responsible for any and every good fiber of my being.  You were a solid foundation upon which I built my life, and even when life had its earthquakes, you still held strong for kids.  You are all I could ask for in a perfect mother and more.  I know you don't think you're perfect, and you probably feel some mistakes were made along the way, I wouldn't have my life any other way.  It and you brought me to where I am.  You told me once I would one day appreciate the "no's" and "because I said so's", and looking around at so many teenagers nowadays, I don't think I could be more appreciative than I am this very moment.  Your love and the desire to never intentionally upset you was the key ingredient to keeping me on the straight and narrow in life.  I never caved to peer pressure or "experimenting" with substances or anything like that in high school.  Not because I had some brag-worthy self-control, or because I was some model child.  It was because I knew better because of you.  It was because I had a mom who led by example.  A mom I wanted to be like.  And I hope I can make you as proud to be my mom as I am to be your daughter, and if I can be half the mom to my kids that you are to me, then that is a success in my book.  I can't even fathom life without you, and I am forever indebted to God for giving me such an amazing gift that is you as the woman I can call my mom.

Happy Mother's Day, Mommers!

Love,

Sam

holiday recap

Hey everyone! Just popping in to say hi and I hope you all had fantastic Thanksgivings with whomever you chose to spend it!

Anthony and I had started out at my mom's with her boyfriend and his family, and my brother for round one of Thanksgiving dinner/dessert. It was delish, and I may be biased, but I think it may have been a tiny bit yummier than round two ;). Even Anthony said the sweet potatoes were the best he had ever had. With no prompting too, so I believe him, hehe.

For dessert my mom made a slew of pies, my favorite being the banana cream. She even made an extra one for us to take home....... score!

After a little over three hours there, we headed out to Anthony's grandma's house for round two of Thanksgiving dinner. More turkey, cranberry sauce, vegetables... the works, and then another dessert.

Man oh man were stomachs bursting by the end of it all.

I love Thanksgiving.

First, you get to knock yourself up a pant size, and no one will judge you for it.

Second, it's a precursor to Christmas, and pretty much the opening day of the Christmas season, which I love even more.

Finally we are back to the days of Christmas music, Christmas movies, decorations, drinks, food... the days that I long for from the second January 2nd rolls around as the holiday festivities draw to a close, and the drearier side of winter rears its ugly head.

I so so so love the days between Thanksgiving and New Years, and I can't wait for the season to begin!

... After my double shift tomorrow, that is.

Nothing says the day of thankfulness is over like a swift kick to the gut that is spending the next 10 hours in hell. ;)

Hehe. Just kidding. Sort of.

Anyway, it was a fantastic Thanksgiving, and by far my favorite to date. I can't wait until the next one. :)

consider me attached.

Friday was ... interesting, to say the least.

Around 4:30p, my brother, mom, and I got in the car and drove to Baby Mama's house.

The way we were received, it was like nothing ever happened. It felt like we were visiting friends, it was friendly and only had a few awkward silences.

However because I know how BM and Baby Mama's mom did act, I didn't believe it for a second. And when I wasn't holding the cutest baby on the planet, I was taking pictures while silently analyzing the shit out of them and the situation.

But, enough about them. This was about one person. One sweet little angelic baby, Ellie.

I probably won't say this again until I have kids, but seriously... she is perfect.

Watching my brother hold his daughter was... not to sound cheesy, it was amazing. I even teared up twice, and I saw him fighting back tears at one point. It was such a great moment to witness. And even if things do turn sour with this (hoping not), I will always be grateful that he was able to meet her in such a civil setting.

 Seriously. I was ready to let the water works start a-flowing. My brother is a daddy. Look how comfy that little nugget looks snoozing in the second pic. =]

 

When I was holding her I got a close up. She was just so darn adorable. She's 6 days old in these pictures.

One last shot of the little bean!

As far as how things were left... Baby Mama is just too young. She doesn't get it. She is being selfish and hopefully she will come around as time goes on. I realize she just gave birth, and the first month is probably the most exhausting and stressful, so we can "try again" for "why can't we all just get along?" a little later after things settle down. But I'm hoping it won't be necessary. She said something in a text to me about how she "just wants what's best for Ellie"... I could have taken that in one of two ways.

A. Whatever it takes to benefit Ellie, I'll do (aka, we'll make this work)

B. It might be better for Ellie (aka myself) to leave things how they are (aka, I'm going to make this as difficult as possible because I'm too young for this responsibility)

But... yeah... we'll see, I guess.

Hoping for the best, still.

But whatever. She is gorgeous, and I'm so thankful we got to meet her. =] 

Consider me attached.

Here's the thing

This post is a good thing because I was fresh out of post topics. Shocking!

But then, this post isn't a good thing because, well, I'm still not sure I want to mention this on the blog.  I brought it up way back mid-2011, and kept saying I'd elaborate. Well, things happened, stuff went bad, I was in denial, and so I just pretended it wasn't happening. Because that was the easiest thing to do. And, oh yeah, we weren't telling 1/2 my family because they don't have a lot of training in leaving their judgment at the door when it comes to people not being perfect (by their standards, at least).

To be super brief, both because I don't want to fully get into it just yet, and because I have to run off to work in a little while......... I'm an aunt again. At least I'm 99% sure I am.

My and his girlfriend got themselves into a little situation last April. That "situation" is named Eleanor (Ellie) Grace, and she was born yesterday.

Cliffnotes version? My brother did the right thing, supported her, didn't push her to do anything about it, and even came home with an adorable little Red Sox baby hat. Well, a couple months later his girlfriend got really distant, told him to go on a trip he agreed to back out of after finding out about the baby, and when he reluctantly went, he came back a couple days later (our uncle passed away so he didn't stay the whole time) to find her even more distant, and a month later, she broke up with him.

He has made efforts to contact her throughout the pregnancy, and they worked at the same place so he would see her all the time, but she wouldn't give him very much, and it just seemed like she did a complete 180. She was super sweet, and then all of a sudden treated my brother like he had the plague. It pissed me off, but I tried to keep my mouth shut just in case this was some hormonal thing.

Well, fast forward to yesterday, I got the text from her (we had texted back and forth over the last couple of months, her saying she wanted to get together and discuss a few things... never happened..) that the baby was born.

So I guess I'm an aunt. And I want to be happy about it, but I find that I'm still doing that thing where I want to pretend it didn't happen. Not because of the baby. I love babies. And I've always wanted to be an aunt. But I think I'm scared to get attached to the idea of a baby, because, his ex-girlfriend seems to be on quite the power trip, and judging by what I've seen thus far, she likes where she is, and she likes having the upper hand.

I don't know. I hope things work out. I'm still clinging to the idea that they will. Erg. Hoping hoping hoping...

But anyway, I need to go to work, so I'll leave you with a picture my brother just forwarded me from her (because she didn't tell him until after the baby was born.... nice girl, huh?)

Mean mama or no, she is one freaking cute baby. :)

nine tenths of a century

My grandma turns 90 today!

As surprising as this may sound, this is no shocker to any of us.

I know in most cases, 90 is a big deal, and I guess it still is. But, knowing my grandma, it was more like,

"why wouldn't she hit 90?"

If you met my grandma, she's, well, 90,

looks like she's 80,

acts like she's 70.

I think my aunt's Facebook status from a couple days ago speaks for itself...

That lady is going to outlive us all.

I don't have many pictures, since she all but swan-dives out of the way the second the camera emerges.

So I have a couple shots that I either stole from my aunts' Facebooks, or snuck myself while G-dawg wasn't looking.

two summers ago gardening it up in her yard

same day, inside, she started to look at me, so I had to act fast.. sorry for blur.. and for my Dunkin' Donuts making a cameo ;)

my grandma, one of my aunts, and my grandpa probably 18 years ago

grandma lighting up a cig at my cousin's wedding in 2003... she finally gave that up earlier this year.. hehe.

Happy 90th birthday, G-mama! I have no doubt there will be plenty more of these! Love you!

xoxo