Fourth of July and Some Random Thoughts

I used to love this holiday. When we were little, we'd have a party at our house and my uncles would come and bring sparklers and firecrackers. Once I read the book about the kid who became blind after holding a firecracker, I steered clear of them. My dad would barbecue and my uncle would bring the best watermelon and cherries. Looking back, whether it was 4th of July or not, it was another reason for our family to get together, eat good food and catch up. After Leo and I started dating, we ended up watching them from a car because by the time everyone we were with was ready to go, they had already started (that should have been a foreshadowing). After Leo and I got married, we went away with my whole family for the holiday weekend. I loved those times. After we had kids, we would either go to a party that our friends would have or we'd go away. We've been to Galena, the Dells and Lake Geneva. Once the kids became as involved as they are in their sports, it became harder to go away so we'd spend the weekend at my sister's. I love how close my kids are to their cousins.

This 4th of July is much different. If you've read previous posts, you know that all of our plans went up in smoke because Tommy had baseball and the girls were sick. What's worse is that my kids got my sister's kids sick so her plans went up in smoke, too.

Some Random Thoughts:
On a positive note, I started the "low carb" eating plan and it's not as hard as I thought it would be. I've only eaten two meals so I'm not sold yet and I am waiting for the sugar withdrawal to set in. I can't wait to start feeling better! Really hoping cutting out carbs will help with the energy that I am lacking. The whole "exercise to have more energy" isn't working for me.

Last night I attempted to play Scrabble with Leo. It's been about 5 years since we've played and I was reminded very quickly why that is. OMG! I could have edited one of my books, written a bunch of blog entries and fed and given Gia a bath in the time it took him to take his turn. He could not just find a word and put it down. He had to find one that had a double word or triple letter or combined with another word. He hates when I am winning and I had a word that I earned 36 points and it sent him into a panic that I was ahead. I finally quit when he argued with me for 20 minutes about whether IP was a word. Even after I challenged him, he still argued because if it was, he'd have gotten 50 points. I told him there was a new rule that if a word was challenged and it was not a word, the other person gets the points. He wouldn't agree, kept arguing and so I threw in the towel. We started playing at 9:00 and I quit at 11 because we had only made about 5 words each. Had we continued, it would have been a long night. Next time we decide to play a game, it is going to be Trivia Pursuit because I have a plethora of useless knowledge!