Fourth of July Re-Cap

Rain was in the forecast:



So we squished as much as we could under a canopy.



We took a chance and set the bar up on the deck.



But I DID make sure there was plenty of seating in doors !



We had a preponderance of young ladies ready to blow stuff up early in the evening.



They had a special project:



After watching many barbies being blown up by brothers/boys over the years,



they decided to try Army Men.



Laid out on a roll of 250 firecrackers.



The Army Men did NOT stand a chance!



Fortunately it did not start raining until just after dusk.



The rain did NOT deter the young people heading off to watch the city fireworks display in make-shift ponchos.



Hope you had a great 4th!

SHIT

Every one else seems to be writing full posts and such. Not me. So bullets:

• We celebrated our TWENTY FOURTH wedding anniversary
• We paid off the house we bought in 1996. On a twenty year note. Seven years ahead of schedule.
• We are preparing for the annual white trash fourth of July
• Which my parents will attend for the first time ever
• I love my daughters
  

We had a good time

The Prep


The Magic Lanterns

The saint shows him how it's done

The Food



The Snakes

The Fireworks







The Aftermath



Did you have fun?

Happy 4th!

Thanks to you all for your prayers and good thoughts. Offer, counter offer, counter back, SOLD. My sister will be down the street before school starts. (Unless the inspection finds something heinous!) It's going to be hard, but we'll be able to do so much more for her and the kids from two minutes away.

As for the white trash extravaganza? The lawn was mowed and the tables & chairs are set up. The brownies are baked, the potato salad is made, the Saint is starting on the ice cream, then I'll do the baked beans. We've got Burgers, Dogs and Brats at the ready. Oh, and large quantities of fireworks from kid friendly sparklers and smoke bombs to ginormous blowy uppy things.

We plan to hit the pool for a few hours, then we'll throw it all together. Hope you enjoy yourselves today - and be safe!

I swear I will

I have great pictures I want to show you from our trip. In fact I might devote an entire post just to Precious Youngest's pics because SHE is quite a good photographer. And with the new LAPTOP and all, it should be more convenient, right?

Here's the thing. Work is kicking my ass because you know how shit piles up when you've been gone. Add to that, my boss was out most of last week. Her father had a heart attack while I was gone and passed away Friday morning. The funeral is tomorrow and I've done nothing but place and field calls about the arrangements in between catching up on everything else.

Saturday we did a pretty massive yard/garden maintenance session. Again, the problem with going away is all the stuff that the fairies don't come and do while you're gone.

And yes, we went to the lake both days too. But damn it the weather has been UNBELIEVABLE. We've had only one 90 degree day all summer. Mainly it's been 75 to 80. And I skied for the first time this season and don't feel sore AT ALL. Precious Oldest brought a couple of friends along yesterday and we got into quite a fit of giggles in the car on the way home telling stories from their high school days.

We also need to prepare for the annual white trash extravaganza that is our 4th of July celebration. It is illegal to sell fireworks in the county in which we reside. But not the one directly north of us. It is illegal to shoot off fireworks in most of the cities in our county. But not the one in which we reside. And we live on a corner lot so there's lots of room for engaging is such ridiculous behavior.

So ya, we'll be gorging on food and adult beverages while blowing shit up. This will be the 20th annual blow out. Do the math; we've been doing this gig longer than our kids have been alive. (We did miss one year when we travelled to Colorado for the 4th. And it snowed. No, we won't be doing that again!)

Then the city will do their fireworks display around 8:30 so we'll walk over to catch that. Around 11 PM the Saint and P.J. will get out the leaf blowers and snow shovels to clean up the debris. Because we're good neighbors that way.

All of that to say, I'm lame but intend to have a decent post up soon.