A Fun Fourth

One thing about life here, our neighbors are much friendlier than the ones we had back in Omaha. We lived in that house a little over 2 years and never learned much more than the names of the people on either side of us and directly across the street. We have met more neighbors in the last month than we did in 2 years. And they are very welcoming and inviting, always encouraging our kids to come play with theirs... We had 2 invites last night for fireworks viewing (the town puts on a big display every year from the neighborhood middle school; we get great views here in our own yards). We wound up at Charles' and Beth's place, where I sampled a great glass of Trader Joe's French Lemonade (can't find a good link to that, or it would be there!).... a nice switch from Country Time!! We actually had to don jackets to sit outside; I never imagined I'd be wearing a jacket on the 4th of July!

Earlier in the day, we walked a few blocks to sit and watch the town parade.... nothing fancy or fantabulous, but the kids enjoyed the free candy. Then we walked to the park where there were game booths for the kids (some free, some 50 cents/1 dollar... the for fee games were usually for a charity). I remembered to put sunblock on the kids, but not me. I have a nice farmer's tan/light sunburn on my right arm, which got most of the sun during the parade viewing.

Yesterday was also a day of accomplishments. First thing in the morning, I was in an industrious mood and reorganized my kitchen pantry. It was in total disarray and it was not very easy to find things. It is now in a logical order, with the various items easy to see and reach. I was also able to get the kitchen counter (island) cleaned off of the various things that had previously had no home. It looks so much better now.

The big accomplishment was that we finally hooked up the DVD/tv/stereo in the family room. This house has a built-in entertainment center with a whole bunch of wires to hook up speakers throughout the house (living/dining room, family room, master bedroom, garage, patio). We lack the know-how of getting everything to work at once, so we settled for just having the family room speakers hooked up. We can now listen to the stereo through speakers in the family room ceiling... Better than that, we can watch movies in the same way; sounds so much like watching in a theater!!

Now I feel like having someone over for dinner....