Springtime

I've taken a short haitus from blogging lately....have you noticed? I think there are several reasons, but the one I will discuss is the following: I was put on probation for discussing the weather.

If you look at the list on the right, the "Weather" category has BY FAR more entries than any other. I guess that's because the weather has given us the most change upon our move to Wheaton and I think I just wanted to share with everyone a little bit of what we were/are experiencing. And when I can't blog about the weather, well, maybe there's not anything more exciting going on. OK, so not true, but I have found that moods here are closely related to the weather. Anyway, due to inactivity on my blog, I have been released from probation, so I thought I'd get another plug in here before my blog is shut down completely (by Texas neighbor, Jeff!) AND, as we close in on the mark of ONE YEAR as Illinois residents, I thought it only fitting to give one more weather update as I have not shared with you my experience of my first Northern Spring.



Spring was awful. April, and May anyway. It was cold. Much too cold for Spring. I was not bitter about the winter. I was not even bitter about the snow in March....I expected it. But April? By April I was ready for a change, and it didn't seem to come. It was cold and rainy, and I felt very far away from Dallas and outdoor spring soccer practices in the 70's. So I thought, May will be better. Much better.



Here's were you can set yourself up for a fall! When you have expectations, and those expectations aren't met, you get discouraged, and grumpy. So when May hit and it was still all rainy and cold, and still no shorts? I have to say that I was borderline ticked. Seriously, I went for a run early one May morning and had to wear long pants, two shirts, a jacket AND my gloves. IN MAY! I thought that was just wrong and I admit, it made me a tad bitter. The smile was gone from my face and I started to wonder what on earth we were thinking when we moved to this cold, terrible place.



But although it took it's time, and it was painful getting here, Spring finally arrived in Wheaton. Very slowly the trees came to life and we were surrounded with the most beautiful blooming trees I have ever seen! They were incredible! And I was told that since the temp was a little chillier than normal, the blooms actually stuck around longer than usual before they gave way to the fabulous green leaves to follow.



Then I watched life spring forth from my flower beds. I've never had flower beds like these before, but green started popping up out of the barren ground and now lots of those plants are flowering. (See, I don't even know what they are since I am inexperienced with flowers!!) But whatever they are, they are lovely, and they smell fantastic! It seems as though all of Wheaton is covered with blooms and it is so fragrant everywhere you go. All I have to do is open my doors and my windows and the smell just drifts in. It's awesome!



Today as I sat on my back porch to read (in JUNE mind you) and felt the warm sun on my face and the nice breeze in the air full of the aroma of lilacs, the smile returned to my face. All is right with the world and Wheaton again is the place we are to be. And I have all but forgotten the cold and snow. I think I might even be ready for it when it returns in November, just maybe.