Happy 4th of July!

I'm at Mum's, so no photos til later this weekend. My back is much better, thank you--AND THANK YOU Dr. King. I asked him if he'd be in the office today and he said he was off, but that he'd be at the ice cream store across the street later today and to call him if I needed another treatment. How nice is that?!

Yesterday was Mum's annual 4th of July concert & picnic. We had a splendid time. The community band and the army band play, and Mum is the chorus. One year it was worth it just to hear Mum sing "ain't" when they did a medley of country songs. My sister came with her 3 kids and I finally gave her "5 Generations of Mothers & Daughters," the altered book I made for her. It was worth the wait. :-)

While I was there, I got a phone call from XM Radio Guy. A West Virginian accent on the other line was asking how I pronounce my name. I laughed. He said, "Really, I don't know who I'm talking to. I just found this cell phone in the parking lot." I howled. "You are too funny!" I was about to tell him to do his Mechanic Schtick when I realized it really wasn't XM Radio Guy. So I called his mother and she had gotten a similar phone call. I told her, "I thought it was a joke...you know, because it's your son." She laughed. She thought it was too when she got a similar phone call. 'member that Seinfeld episode about who was first on the speed dial? Anyway, when I spoke with her, he was on his way to get his phone.

Back to the picnic: I got to see my German teacher from when I was 16! So we had a nice chat. She was always so kind and I only had her for a year, but she was a wonderful teacher. At the time, I was a total Beatlemaniac so she lent me John Lennon's first book in German. Then she moved to a different school and I lost track of her. So here we are--I've saved the book for her all these years just in case. And the just-in-case showed up last night--how perfect would it have been if I just happened to have it? Yeah, well. We'll do lunch.

So we had a lovely picnic, and the kids all played, and the band played and then! Fireworks! My favourite! Last year, my nephew who was almost-five, shouted, "WOW! This is better than Christmas!" How sweet is that? Spoken like a visual kid! So it's the highlight of the evening, and everyone waits...and waits...and the band plays...and plays...and some old guy has pages of script he's reading from starting from excerpts of The Declaration of Independence working his way into the 21st century. Hehhhh....and it's dark already and still we wait...every year it's like this. And then! the fireworks start at 10 p.m. I LOVE fireworks. I forget until I remember my favourite sparkley ones--AWESOME. Of course, for a different angle of approach, you can read about fireworks here. Haha

This a.m. Mum made some AWESOME Gluten Free pancakes. The BEST, Jerry! And she pulled a card from her Grasshopper Quotes box & this is what I'll leave you with:

"The prescription for complaining is a dose of gratitude." ~The Grasshopper