Fireworks

I know, I know. It's been forever since I've posted something. My first excuse is that I got a new job and it has taken me a while to reorganize my schedule. My second excuse is that I'm not sure what to write about most of the time. When I started this it was to keep people informed of my escapades in California. It was a good way for me to stay in touch with people. Now that I'm home I see people in person and I most of the time feel I have nothing cool to talk about. But alas, I can't escape the need to blog every once in a while, so here are some pics from yesterday's Riverfest. Oh how I love fireworks. Nobody does it like WEBN in Cincinnati on Labor Day either. It's truly an experience. And although we ended up having some people behind us who were smoking pot and being extremely obnoxious we all managed to enjoy the fireworks. Dad and I were scoping them out in case we had to take them out. We were on a hill so Dad said we would have just had to roll them down it. LOVE WINS. Hehe. Anyway...


Kelly's big mouth. :)


Inside Newport on the Levee waiting for a table at Dewey's.


I dared Dad to do some push ups while we were waiting.


He's a geek and closed his eyes, so here's the retake. Not very good form, but we'll give him points for being a sport. :)


Mmmmm. Dewey's Pizza. We carried out because they were so crowded. It's not quite the same without the red cream soda though.


Cheese.


Gorgeous sunset before the show.


Look at all the orbs in the sky. So cool. That little bright puff is a firework, not an orb.


They had some people parachute in with fireworks. That was different.



Self-portrait, about the 4th one that finally wasn't blurry.

Bird Poop and Cute Elderly Couples

It's been a good, busy week. I've had several lunch dates with people and some good times outside. (If you haven't been outside in the last week, you should make it a priority. It's been GORGEOUS.)

Monday I went to the zoo with some kids I used to babysit. They're not so little anymore though. The oldest is going into 7th grade, which made me feel old. I've watched her since she was an itty bitty newborn. Anyway, after eating some Skyline we went to the zoo. It was the perfect day, not too hot. We were walking around, the kids were reading their maps and having a great time. And then it happened. The first time in my life ever. A bird pooped on me. Now, it couldn't have hit my shirt or my shoe or anything. Nope. Had to hit me in the face. Right in my eye. It was really gross. I didn't freak out or anything, but I was seriously squirming on the inside. Even after I had gotten home and showered just thinking about it made me squirm. Thankfully, most of it landed on my sunglasses, but I did have to wipe some from underneath my eye. After getting cleaned up and walking around a few more exhibits (probably about 20 minutes worth) the five year old looks up at me and says, "You still have poop on your face." Great. For the past 20 minutes I had still been walking with poop crusted up in my eyebrow and he was the only one nice enough to tell me. Yuck. Other than that it was perfect and the giraffes are amazing.

Today I was walking down at Fernbank and there were lots of people picnic-ing. It was a great day for it yet again. Some people brown bagged it, while others drove through the local McDonalds. There were lots of older couples enjoying lunch together and they just looked so content and happy with each other. By the river, there was a couple just relaxing in the shade in those old lawn chairs that are latched together with the extremely uncomfortable plastic/tweed material that always leaves horrible imprints on the back of your legs. They've probably had the chairs for the last 40 years but, they were content. I'm not explaining the feeling I felt looking at them very well, but it was good.

Monopoly

I played Monopoly the other day for the first time in years and I literally mean years. It was beautiful. I landed on Free Parking 7 times...if only I could collect this much money in real life. :p I also had the only monopoly on properties (I didn't even know this was a rule) so I put some hotels on those puppies and cleaned out the competition. And, I got into a really hard laughing fit at one point and I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Laughter is good for you, it justs makes everything better.

I also made a visit to King's Island over the past weekend. I was a little sad that the Racer doesn't go backwards anymore and at how rough it has gotten (or perhaps how old I have). However, Firehawk, the new rollarcoaster completely redeemed my sadness about the Racer. Good ride. As for the waterpark, they need to do something about all that concrete, it seriously hurts your feet and I've got pretty tough feet.

I don't know what happened to the weather today. Last I heard it was supposed to be 95 and sunny. Pool day. Then I wake up and it's storming. Guess I should do more job hunting. It looks like teaching is out for this year, no one wants me. :p

Christmas in July

July has been extremely good.

Reason #1: will not be disclosed. I know this defeats the purpose of making this reason number one, but one can't start a list of reasons with reason #2.

Reason #2: We went to Florida, which I've already blogged about. It was relaxing.

Reason #3: It seems like there may be a job opportunity brewing, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Reason #4: I just downloaded Bethel's Live Worship CD. It's like Christmas. I think someone even shouts something about Christmas. Hehe. Check it out here.

Pet Peeve #7

So I was on my way to a table at Olive Garden last night and I discovered another pet peeve. What is it you ask? I'll tell you. I can't stand this new small talk that restaurants are making their hostesses initiate. Like they really even care if I'm enjoying the weather. Not to mention, I'm sure they rattle off the same 3 or 4 questions to every customer. It's lame. Half the time I'm trying to talk to whoever I'm with. Seriously, I'm not offended if you don't talk to me. Just smile, take me to my seat, and give me a menu. That's more than enough.

true clip-its

We're back home now. Vacation was good, nice and relaxing. Not much to update about. I've been busy since I've been back...again. Summer needs to slow down.

Finally checked Claddagh's off my list, monte cristo sandwich...mmmm...

Also finished my ironing that's been sitting in my closet since I got home in June.

Now it's onto some administrative tasks that need to get done today.

It's been a good July thus far

It's been a while since my previous post...my apologies to all of my loyal fans. :)

July has been a good month so far, let's hope this trend continues. We had some family in from out of town for the 4th and it was really fun catching up with them. I also had a lot of fun with worship this weekend at church and then teaching Sunday night at C-HOP. I just felt so alive. It was exhausting doing all of this in the same weekend, but I made it.

The fam left for Florida this morning at 3am. Yeah, that was early. We arrived here at Treasure Island around 12 after getting the rental car and stopping for some Dunkin' Donuts. :) We walked on the beach and then went to the pool which was super warm. After getting over the initial disgust of the dreaded swim suit, it was nice to just hang out and not do anything.

After dinner we ran to the grocery and when we came out there was the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen in my life. It was so BRIGHT. I only had my stupid cell phone camera with me, so the picture isn't worth much, so you'll have to take my word for it. Then when we got back to the condo, there were dolphins really close to the shore that we could see from our balcony. God has certainly blessed and refreshed us today with His goodness.

We'll be hanging out at the beach and probably checking out the Lakeland Revival tomorrow...stay tuned for details. :)