thirteen things

thing one: We woke up super duper early on the 4th (5:30 for me, a little later than that for the kiddies) to drive an hour to Grandma's to watch the parade at 8:30. It's tough making my kids wake up that early but I love them. And I love my husband and I love that he loves his hometown parade. So we go (here's 2009 and last year). And I try to not be exceedingly grouchy but I don't quite make it. It's the thought that counts.

thing two: Danny got the lamest face painting ever at the park after the parade. Lame. I posted a picture on my Instagram so you can see it there if you really care. If you don't, I'll explain. Imagine a black house (just a square with a triangle on top) with a red door (a wonky rectangle inside that black square). That's it. It was supposed to be a castle. He didn't seem to mind when I took the picture and showed him so it's all good. I'm glad it was free.

thing three: We drove to Thanksgiving Point to see the big fireworks last night. We parked next to a big weed-filled field. A family was setting off fireworks in their back yard (that bordered the big weed-filled field). I made a comment to Dan that one of those sparks was going to drop over their fence and set that weed-filled field ablaze. Sure enough, moments later, a spark dropped over their fence and started a fire. A guy who was parked for the fireworks ran over and kicked dirt on it. It was out before it could get very big but it was still kind of scary, especially since we had just been watching the blazing fire on the mountain to the east. Sheesh. Danny said, "This is really freaking me out" and we went home.

thing four: I think Danny was happy to be home so we could finish watching The Little Mermaid. It was his first time seeing it. Grandma let us borrow her copy. I sang along to all the songs (with much gusto at times). Danny said (in reference to Ariel), "She's just too beautiful!" Ha! Danny loves a princess! I wish Cate was clever enough to pick up on that and tease him for it.

thing five: The parade float has been totally disassembled. It's gone. All that remains is a big wad of chicken wire in the back of our truck.

thing six: It rained today. Hopefully that took care of that fire on the mountain. Thank goodness for rain in July. It was 66 degrees at 5:00. Oh, if it could only be that nice every day in July.

thing seven: I bought some sparkly gold shoes today. And then I came home and put them on and took a picture in my back yard next too some puddles on the sidewalk. This Instagram stuff makes me do crazy things. (And having a camera on my phone makes it way too easy to take pictures of dumb stuff.) I needed a pair of sprakly gold shoes like I need a hole in the head. BUT Cate needed a pair of white sandals (just look at that poor girl in the picture at the top. pink fake crocs with her patriotic dress. big fashion faux pas. it's all my fault.) and it was buy one get one half off. My shoes were $12 and hers were $6. I call that an offer I can't refuse. Now where on earth am I going to wear sparkly gold flats? I have no idea. Nor do I care.

thing eight: Cate and I went to the grocery store today. I forgot to buy eggs. When I came home I told Dan that I had forgotten to buy the eggs. He told me that Haircut Angie (our neighbor) had just brought over a dozen eggs. It was meant to be. Or my lucky day. Rain in the morning, gold sparkly shoes and free eggs in the afternoon. Doesn't get much better than that.

thing nine: I went to the gym this afternoon. 4:00. That's when Oprah used to be on. I was hoping something good would be on tv at that hour. Ha. My luck ran out. My choices were news, news, news, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz or golf. That's worse than Saturday mornings when my only choices are cartoons and sports. I lasted 30 minutes flipping between news and Dr. Phil. Then I was so desperate that I actually jogged a mile around the track without the iPod. That's what happens when Oprah leaves, people. Horrible things at the gym...like jogging. I won't be making the 4:00 in the afternoon at the gym mistake again any time soon.

thing ten: I made cream cheese cake mix cookies last week. You should make some. They are scrumptious. I used a devil's food cake mix and semi-sweet chocolate chips. One of the best cookie recipes I've found in a long time. I made the mistake of not giving enough of them away to friends and I've been eating them for breakfast. Big mistake. Oh, but they are so good.

thing eleven: Girls Camp is on Tuesday. Four days away from Diet Coke and chocolate chip cookies. I'm taking this opportunity to detox from the stuff that's bad for me. Four days in the woods with a bunch of teenage girls and no hot water is also a good way to detox from what's left of my sanity and dignity so we'll see how that goes.

thing twelve: Grama Bama should arrive in our neck of the woods tomorrow. At bedtime tonight Danny guessed it would be 15 hours until she got here. Unfortunately, I think he's way off. I'm hoping that the next time he goes to bed she'll be here though. (Grandpa and Ethan will be here too and we do love them. We just talk about Grama Bama a lot more. We just lump everyone else in with her.)

thing thirteen: My new glasses arrived on Monday. This might not be a big deal to you but to me it's huge. I haven't gotten new glasses since probably 1999 (maybe 1998?). That was 3 prescriptions ago. My eyes keep getting worse and I change my contacts but the old glasses just stay around. I don't know why. Lazy I guess. Now I can be my old lazy self in the evenings and not squint to see the tv. It's heavenly. 

That's all. Wish me luck at camp with my new glasses. Putting in contacts in the woods at the crack of dawn is not my favorite thing to do. Now I don't have to!

Life is good (even though it's still summer).