Happy Easter!

Hello, Hello! Sam here!

Hoppy Easter, everyone! (excuse the Easter pun, just couldn't help myself) Hope all of you have had a lovely Easter this weekend with family and friends. I know I did! Here's a few pics of the eggs my sisters and I dyed yesterday. Yes, I'm 20 years old and I still dye eggs for Easter...so what. That's what happens when you have younger siblings. They keep you young at heart. At this rate I don't think I'll ever consider myself a grown up...and that's just fine with me.

 

We even made an egg for Bella, Rylan, and Lyla

 

Go Green!

 

I really like the way mine turned out this year

 

 

Though dying eggs may not be the exciting event it used to be, now that I'm older I'm able to really appreciate these little things that I've grown up with. Things that I will always remember, like dying eggs, or opening just one present on Christmas Eve, or even making homemade ice cream for the 4th of July. It's these small things that help to make holidays special and I'll always be grateful for that.

 

Today we were also able to enjoy some nice sunny warm weather and I tried to soak up as much vitamin D as I could. It gives me hope that spring weather is just around the corner. Fingers crossed that soon the tulips will be popping up and I'll be able to wear shorts again. I'd say it's about time! I love winter, but I'm ready for spring. And then soon after that summer will be here and I'll be free! Can't wait for that! So here's hoping that spring is here to stay! We've certainly missed it around here. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

 

Love and Chaos,

Sam

A lovely little song

 

Hello, Hello friends. Sam here.

 

Because of a sad event that has happened in my family this week, I haven't had time for much writing. So tonight, I'm just going to keep it short and sweet and leave you with a song by a very talented musician. I've been following this guy on YouTube for awhile now and he just seems to keep getting better and better. His name is Lewis Watson and his new EP "Into the Wild" was just released on iTunes a few days ago. If you like this song, you should go check him out. This song, "Bones," is one of my very favorites. Hope you like it.

 

Love and Chaos,

Sam

 

Cousins

Hello, Hello friends! Sam here!

I have some very exciting news! A new precious member of my family has been born today!! My new little cousin, Lyla Jade. We've been waiting for her for what feels like a very long time!

Isn't she beautiful?!

She belongs to my cousin Scott and his wife Sunshyne who has become like an older sister and best friend to me. I love them both dearly and man, do they make some cute kids! Lyla's older brother, by just a little over a year is Rylan Jasper and he is my best little buddy!

What a handsome boy!

As you can see it's been a crazy past two years for them, but I think they've done such an amazing job as first time parents. Obviously I'm no expert on raising kids seeing as I don't have any, but I can't tell you how proud I am of them! It's still so weird sometimes, seeing my cousin Scott, who's been like an older brother to me all my life, with kids of his own, but he's been an amazing dad to Ry and I know that both Rylan and Lyla are lucky to have Scott as their dad. When I first met Sunshyne, or maybe the better word is encountered her, I was just Scott's cousin from across the street randomly peering through the kitchen window to find her eating her breakfast. We saw each other for a second, made eye contact, waved, and then I just kind of ran away. Despite my marvelously goofy first impression which we still joke about today, once I finally met her we hit it off right away, it was like she'd been a part of our family all along. She never fails to make me laugh or give me great advice and I'm so proud of how amazing she is with Rylan and how amazing I know she'll be with Lyla. Thanks for picking a great one Scott! Love you guys!! 







My whole family has been in a bit of a tizzy the past few years with babies being born, the first of which being my little cousin Carter who just recently turned three and then the addition of this girl right here who came along in 2011...

Isabella Marie saying "CHEESE!"

She can be quite the hurricane when she gets going, but man is she adorable! Her mom has done such a good job keeping up with her! With all these new babies showing up it goes without saying that my family is excited. These little ones are all just so freaking cute and I can't wait to see who they grow up to be, and I'm so very glad they get to grow up together because that's how it was for me, growing up surrounded by cousins.

In my family cousins are important. To us, our cousins are basically just like siblings who live in different houses. We've grown up together, we've played together, we've laughed and cried together, we've vacationed together and we've had some seriously epic games of wiffle ball together. I am who I am today because I had them around growing up. I understand that some families aren't as lucky as mine. They have cousins who live far away or cousins who they've never even met, but in my family growing up surrounded by cousins is like a tradition, each new generation growing up together and sometimes wearing matching Halloween costumes (once my cousin Josh and I went as Barney and Baby Bop). All of my earliest memories involve them in some way and I feel so incredibly lucky to have them in my life. It's like having a whole bunch of siblings who don't hog the bathroom or steal your things because they don't even live with you, but they still know how crazy your family is and they're there for all the important stuff; birthdays, holidays, vacations, all of it.

One of my first Halloweens. In case you were wondering, I'm the one in the Thumper costume sitting on Belle's lap...

Excuse our outfits, it was the 90s...

Some of us at the ZOO

One of my favorites...

Out in the woods by Mark Twain Lake

 Most of us with Great Grandma

Out on the pond. Another favorite of the Three Amigos...

Without all of you, my childhood wouldn't have been the same. You all helped to make it extra special and one that I will always cherish. You provided my sisters and I with older brothers and sisters, as well as younger ones, that we couldn't live without. You've helped me stay grounded while also cheering me on and supporting me in everything I've done. You've provided me with endless laughs and a treasure trove of memories that I will always carry with me. Because of you I've had a childhood some can only dream of. Thanks for being my cousins, my siblings who live in different houses, and most of all my friends. Let's play some wiffle ball soon, yeah? I'm getting a little rusty.

Meeting Lyla today and having Ry, Bells, and Carter in our lives gives me hope that our tradition of cousins will be carried on with them. I'm so happy that they'll all have each other now (as well as any new additions that come along) and I'm so excited that I'm around to watch the next generation grow up together, just not too fast, okay little ones. You're all really cute just like this. Hopefully someday my future kids will get to play some wiffle ball with you, just as I've done with your awesome parents. And just remember, you're never too old to chase lightning bugs, or get excited about the moon, or play ghost in the graveyard, or put one half of a watermelon on your head. Your parents and I are proof of that. 

Thanks for all the wonderful memories, the ones we've made and the ones we've yet to make. I love you all, always.

Love and Chaos,

Sam 

Because Poetry

Hello, Hello friends. Just your friendly neighborhood Sam here.

Today I want to share another poem with you. I've been really enjoying my poetry class lately and this week's assignment was to write a sestina. Now, I know what most of you are probably thinking...What the frick is a sestina, Sam?! Well, lovely readers, I will tell you! A sestina is a poem consisting of seven stanzas with a total of 39 lines that follows a specific pattern at the end of each line, in this case each line must end in the same six words, just in different orders, except for the last stanza. The order is repeated each time 6,1,5,2,4,3. Confusing, I know, but I'm bad at explaining things. If you want to know more Google it, people!  Anyway, I was a little afraid to even start this poem when my professor explained the assignment, but once I did start it just kind of took off. It's like how sometimes you'll be driving and then end up at home without any recollection of how you got there. Yeah, well writing a poem for me is kind of like that. I just start writing and by the time I reach the end I don't even remember how I got there in the first place. Be warned that this poem is a bit depressing. It's about my great-grandmother who has been suffering with a form of dementia for some years now. I wrote this for her and for my family. Hope you like it.

Corners

We have watched as the dust slowly covers the corners

of her mind, coating each surface in a gray film.
She forgets slowly, and then all at once it disappears;
names, faces, and sometimes even herself.
She doesn’t remember us anymore, doesn’t realize
the family resemblance between our faces.

Each time I see her I have to remind her that my face
is one she should recognize. She searches the corners
of her brain until she can pick it out again, until she realizes
that I am someone she used to know. The film
gets brushed away and for just a moment she is herself
once more. But it always disappears

again, a few minutes later. Her mind performs this disappearing

act every day now. Her own face
becoming a stranger to herself.
Quietly, she sits in the corner
muttering to herself about a film
she saw once when she was a girl, not realizing

that she is slowly shrinking, not realizing

that as she mutters she is also disappearing.
When you see this kind of thing happen in films
it is much more dramatic, but looking at her face
all I see is confusion lurking in the corners
of her eyes and mouth, as she searches for herself.

I can remember all the times when she was herself;

puttering around the kitchen, waiting for us to realize
that lunch was ready. When our parents came we hid in the corners
of that old house, trying to disappear,
so we could stay the night. A smile on our faces
when we got our way, and stayed up late with her watching old films.

These memories we all play back in our heads like a film.

Remembering how she used to be because she can’t do it for herself
anymore. We let her stare into our faces
just one more time, hoping she hasn’t forgotten for good, hoping she’ll realize
exactly who we are this time. Hoping she hasn’t disappeared
completely, lost in her mind’s dark, dusty corners.

Her mind is all corners now, coated in a film so thick it is hard to break through anymore.

All we can do is watch as she slowly disappears, from us and from herself,
wondering if this is the last time she’ll realize the similarities between our faces and her own.


Thanks for reading this far, I know those 39 lines can be long. 'Til next time.
Love and Chaos,
Sam

 

 

What a Week

Hello, Hello friends! Sam here!

What a wonderful week it has been! I've spent the past nine days catching up on my sleep, getting some much needed sunshine, and catching up with some very dear friends of mine. All in all I'd say that Spring Break 2013 was a success! I haven't written at all this week because of how busy I've been and so now I'm going to rectify that with a run down of what exactly I've been up to. Prepare yourselves.

Monday was my day to relax. I spent my time sleeping in and vegging on the couch because during Spring Break you need at least one of those days...or two or three. Needless to say my yoga pants and I made the most of our veg time and spent a lovely day watching netflix. Then we went and picked up my sisters from school and drove around on the back roads a bit. It was wonderful.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent with my very dearest and oldest friend. We watched old scary movies, we had pumpkin spice waffles, we reminisced about the old days, we filled each other in on what's been happening in our lives, we drove around aimlessly whilst listening to Mumford and Sons on repeat, had pizza in one of our favorite restaurants, made a Starbucks run, got lost for a little while, and then finished the day with YouTube videos. It was perfection. I need more days like Tuesday and Wednesday. If any of you have ever seen the Evil Dead movies from back in the day, you know the laughs we had. If not you should definitely check them out, they're pretty "groovy." (<<Evil Dead inside joke). And Madeline if you're reading this, thanks for the great day and all the laughs. May there be many more to come! Love ya, chummy!
P.S. "Who's laughing now?!"

Thursday I went bowling with two of my very best friends and we ended up going to a last minute showing of the new movie 21 and Over, which was actually quite hilarious. It had Willard from Footloose, and Jesse from Pitch Perfect, so what's not to love, right? After the movie we hit the bowling alley and I lost...terribly. Seriously, it was sad the margin I lost by, but to be fair I hadn't been bowling in almost two years, so yeah, that's what I'm blaming it on. It was great to catch up with my friends though, despite my awful bowling skills, and I hope we will be able to do it again soon. For real.

Friday my cousin and I went to a local showing of "Bye Bye Birdie" which starred a few people I knew from high school and it was great. "Bye Bye Birdie" has always been one of my favorite musicals and this showing was no different! I couldn't get the Conrad Birdie fan club song out of my head all night. "We love you Conrad, oh yes we do! We love you Conrad, and we'll be true!" Oh well, it was worth it.

Saturday my family and I went to the big St. Patrick's Day Parade in Downtown St. Louis for the first time and we were severly unprepared for the cold. We froze our butts off is what I'm saying, but it was still a fun time. We ended up wussing out before the end and finding refuge in a local sub shop called Planet Sub. If any of you have ever been there you know how good it is. I wanted to stick the sandwich down my coat for a little while just to warm myself up because of how cold it was outside. After warming up in Planet Sub we made the long trek back to the car, but it was worth it to get to see my little buddy Rylan. Love that kid.

And so my friends, we've come full circle to today. Sunday. It's raining here of course, but I don't mind. If any of you know me you know how much I love the rain, especially on a Sunday. It makes me want to listen to soft indie music and wish I could speak French. Tomorrow I go back to school, but I'm not too downtrodden about it. I had a great week with some great people and today is St. Patrick's Day! So Happy St. Pat's to those of you who have Irish heritage like me, and to those of you who aren't Irish, but just like any excuse to wear the color green and have a pint. More power to you! I'll leave you with a picture I took at the parade of a giant leprechaun. Seems fitting.

Love and Chaos,
Sam

P.S. Am I the only one who thinks that leprechaun is holding a hot dog? Seriously, I think that's what it is. Anyway, HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!