May in full force

I have a love-hate relationship with May. I love it because:

1. It's the month Sam was born.
2. Though Spring arrives in April, it's not that pretty until May.
3. With that, the weather is usually fantastic.
   
4. Other important birthdays too - both my brothers and my mother in law.
5. The academic year comes to an end and usually winds down some of my work.
6. Sandals.

I hate it because:

1. Along with Mother's Day and all the birthdays, I stress. It feels chaotic.
2. It signals that summer clothes season is here - I stress that nothing will fit, and stress that I'll feel bad about myself for not getting all skinny in time for summer. Again.
3. The lawn has to be mowed, and we have a completely obscene amount of lawn. Not that I personally mow it, but I detest that it needs to be done. By Tim.
   
4. May comes up and then just goes really fast...the first week has already flown by and I have barely planned for Sam's birthday.
5. I generally don't like the beginnings of ends...summer will end at some point, you know. Then we'll be back to the misery of winter before we know it.

Here's a couple new and old pictures to brighten the day:

MS Walk 2009

Sam and I participated in the MS Society's main fund raising walk event today. I raised $323 and my team, as of today, reached $2500!

Here are a couple of pictures from this morning. It was cloudy and crisp out, no rain. It's my favorite kind of walking/running weather, actually, because you stay nice and cool.

Sam enjoyed it, although he lost 2 balloons. He did not want to get his face painted - in fact he kept giving the poor ladies a very stern look, as if they were nuts. He did boogie down a bit by the speakers though, while he ate cheese. Can you blame him? Cheese and music. Good times.

The turn out was impressive for this area, I think. I tried to get a shot of the walkers as we went around the bend, but there are many more behind them that I couldn't fit into the shot. Also, we were in the middle, so there are just as many people walking behind me, so easily double what you see here.