here comes July!

It was the shortest holiday weekend ever, at least for me. I had to work summer school on Friday. Yes, I did! Can you imagine that I had to work 3.5 hours on the morning of an observance of a national holiday? AND I had to do a presentation first thing this morning for a school district. I know, you must be feeling sorry for me. Not at all.
After my recent rant about how I over-committed to work this summer, I have to admit that it has not been that bad. It has been enriching and I have met some great teachers and kids. It has been time consuming and I have not had as much time as I would like to do summery things, but then the weather has not been conducive to doing summery things. But I did get to go into the city to have a spur of the moment late lunch/early dinner with Lauren and Sally last Thursday. That satisfied my appetite for summer fun for now.

love this girl!

Our Fourth of July was good. One of the things that I enjoy about this blog is that I can go back and look at what we did last year and the year before. It is easy to forget.  Last year, the kids were all out of town as were several of our friends. We had a fun evening last year, spending it with Bucky. We even convinced Bucky to sign up for Facebook last Fourth of July!
This year, we had the kids in town and all four of them (kids + spouses) came to the parade, just like the old days. Jack and I had stocked up on hamburgers and bratwursts and other cookout fixings and were ready to have folks over. Lauren came (she skipped the parade and enjoyed some chill time by herself in the morning) and Christy and Steve stopped in for a bite to eat, too. It was fun and relaxing. We missed Bucky, though, as he was out of town.

parade watching

Otto weathered the cannon and gunshots. Brave boy

A picture of Jack taking a video of his favorite, Uncle Sam on stilts

Julie's sister and bro-in-law and nephew were at the parade too!

No fireworks this year. It was early to bed for Jack and Patty.