Scenes from the 4th.....

Better late than never.....here's how we spent our 4th (at my parent's annual 4th of July party).

Pippin: Well, bless his heart he wants to be included in the festivities but sweetie pie just doesn't like the heat. So he decided to sit under the tent and watch us all fishing from his shady vantage point. This probably made my parents happy since no one else at all ever sat under the tent.








Nephew caught 6 fish but I only caught one - this one. Not too shabby. The nephew's secret: live crickets (put on the hook by my brother.) In the category of "things you can see coming"....For some reason the little box of crickets was kept inside the house, in my parents laundry room (so they wouldn't "cook" outside). Sunday morning, about 5 mins before we're about to leave for church, my bro catches my nearly 7 yr old nephew in the laundry room - top off the cricket box. He swore only 3 got loose. Before we left that afternoon 4 crickets had been recovered, from various rooms in the house.








I like the expression on niece's face in this one - so much excitement regarding the caught fish!












And in the category of world's smallest fish.....my dad caught this little one which would've made good bait! (On a side note, no fish were harmed at this event, all were tossed back in the pond and one was kicked back in by my brother - earning him the name "scaredy cat" echoed by nephew and niece repeatedly because he didn't want to touch the fish.)












And we all tried out nephew's scooter. I like this pic because once I got on it my little comprade had to come along and make sure nothing bad happened to me. He's my 24-7-365 shadow. We were hoping for some good pics of either my dad or brother falling off the scooter that we could get lots of prints made for our Christmas cards, but everyone managed to stay upright on the scooter. Maybe at Thanksgiving!










There were also fireworks, but I totally missed those. Pippin HATES fireworks, and as soon as Brent started shooting them Pippin was howling, crying, and generally freaking out. Nephew had been amped about the fireworks all day, so in the interest of not spoiling his night and in the interest of "getting the screaming baby out of the restaurant" we went inside where he still cried a little and generally hated the noises going on outside.

So that pretty well brings you back up to now. With the whole sinus thing going on we really didn't go much of anywhere. We watched a movie, did things around the house, had a nap or two. Sat night I was ready to get out of the house and I was dying for spinach dip so we headed over to Green Hills Grille - only to discover that's it totally out of business. YIKES. We went to Bistro 215 next door, total mistake. Yuk and Yuk and overpriced. We ate their once a million years ago before a movie, and I think back then their menu was more cafe and less overpriced crap. They had spinach dip so we stayed, but I make way better spinach dip. Theirs had a huge glob of sour cream in the middle that completely overpowered the actual taste. A little glob is great - I love sour cream on a lotta things - but this was like half a tub. We both got chicken dishes and Brent's just looked gross to me and mine just did not hit the spot. My throat was so sore that it killed to swallow and I just couldn't eat it. Literally all we had were our two chicken dishes, spinach dip and 2 waters and it set us back $48. I make a much better version of the chicken dish I ordered at home, and if we had just stayed in and cooked the stuff ourselves it would've cost us less than $10. I don't mind spending a lot on a GOOD meal - but it should be impressive, or at least edible.

I was so miserable when we left that we stopped by Walgreens to talk to the pharmacist about some good medicines for me to take for my throat. I was over the sinus and drainage point, and mostly over coughing, but my throat was still SO sore - it's like I had really bruised it from having to talk and work so hard all week in Atlanta. Anyway, I got some stuff that's really helped me. My throat is still a little sore, but much better and I can actually eat now! If I get too hot I start coughing again, so yesterday I just did the elliptical and today I ran/walked, slowly. Any time I'd feel the "throat tickle" come back up I'd slow it down and walk a little. I've got a couple of 5Ks coming up over the next few months (one in Aug, one in Oct) so there's nothing really pressing right now that I've set my sights on, so there's no need to press recovering from being sick. I REALLY need to get back in the pool, but the Y pool has been jam packed at lunch recently, what's up with that??? Must be a lot of tri training going on!

In other thoughts, I want to do the Bride of Frankenstein dance from So You Think You Can Dance. And I want Twitch to be my partner. And I really, really think Comfort needs to go home for REAL this time. I am also in love with Josh and Courtney and Katee and Will (and Twitch, my future partner). And why does the tour not come here??? Charlotte?? Really?? It doesn't even go to Atlanta!!!!!!

Have a great night!