Spring Has Sprung!

It appears that spring has definitely arrived here in Colorado. Today could actually be mistaken for summer as it is a perfectly sunny day of 75 degrees. Although there are other more obvious factors besides the sun and the warmth that prove to me that summer is very, very near. The approach of summer is indicated around my home by these things:

**All of a sudden, my children decide that they need to pull out the sandles, shorts and tank tops at the crack of dawn despite the fact that it still may be only 45 degrees at that time a day. I warn them that it's still chilly out, but they refuse to believe me until they walk out the door for us to take Anakin to school and the goose pimples appear seconds later. Someday they'll figure out mama knows what she's talkin' about.

**In the same regard, they feel the need to pull out their little wading pool, or have me turn on the sprinklers decked out in their teeny weeny bathing suits and refuse to hear me tell them that the pipes probably barely thawed and the water will be colder than the north pole in December. Again.....mama knows. But they forget a day later.

**It becomes harder and harder and harder every day to get them to come inside and get ready for bed. What child can justify in their mind that it's bed time when the sun hasn't even set behind the mountains yet? I mean it's utterly ridiculous. I felt the same way as a kid, but now I don't care if the sun stays up til 2:30 in the morning. It's 8:00 and it is time. Mama needs a break. I'm searching for some wood or cardboard to tack to their windows to give the illusion that it's dark even if it isn't. Hey! Maybe that will help them sleep in longer in the morning, too? Wishful thinking.

**The neighborhood kids come out in droves and for some reason, I seem to be the only panicked parent who feels compelled to stand on the sidewalk and police the kids from staying out of the street. Why do no other parents seem to see this as a concern in my neighborhood? Especially when we also have teenagers who like to take the corners of our street in their Mustang or TransAm or whatever it is at 65 miles an hour.

**The ants! Oh for the love of ANTS! It seems that an ant colony approximately the size of Texas has made a home under our front lawn and once the lawn mower makes its first run over the grass in the spring, they flee the underground and congregate on our sidewalk. It is NASTY! We should take up some stock in Raid or something. Dude. Seriously. It looks like our sidewalk is covered with moving, crawly carpet.

**The smell of freshly mowed grass. One of my favorite smells.

**Open garage doors, loud music coming from out of garages, neighbors from across the street who like to have obnoxious parties with their little motorcycle gang (which they think are Harley's but they are really Hondas.....I think someone needs to clue them in.) Oh, and these are girl neighbors by the way. Doubly obnoxious.

**The neighbor's cat who seems to think that all yards in the neighborhood are fair game and therefore likes to present his little "gifts" that he kills in your yard. Last night, as all the kids were in our backyard playing, the neighborhood cat slinked out from behind the bushes in our garden clutching a poor, baby bird in his mouth. It was about the saddest thing I have ever seen. I, being the wuss that I am when it comes to seeing animals being killed, forced the children to chase the cat out of my yard. And then threatened them with all summer priveledges being taken away if they dared set foot anywhere near that poor birds remains. What?? You thought I was going anywhere near that bird to clean it up? Huh uh. The 6th grade neighbor "know it all" boy did it for me. Good neighborhood boy!

**The TV being off much more and the doors being left open to let in all sorts of fun creatures and critters. I'm just going to make a recording of myself for the summer screaming "SHUT THE DOOR!!!!" and run it over and over all summer from the open window so I can get on with other business.

And it's just May 9. Wow. Could be a long summer. But it'll be great.