Happy Fourth!

We had a fairly quiet Fourth of July. Friday night I went to the South Sound Mall fireworks as I have almost every third of July that I can remember. Since I met Bill, I always go with Francie. We have our place we park and sit every year. Jody often works during the holiday weekend, but this year she was off and joined us.

Another tradition for me is the Fourth of July parade the following morning. My friend Anna lives near the parade route and always saves me a spot plus whatever guests are joining me that year. We figure we've done this together about ten years. It's a nice small-town parade and is always a great kick-off for summer.


Bill and I relaxed at home that afternoon and went out to dinner that evening. Annie normally really hates the fireworks, but her declining hearing benefited her this year. This was Libby's first Fourth and she was a little fidgety. I worried about leaving her in her kennel when we went to bed. I pictured her in the bonus room with the room lighting up with fireworks and shaking with loud booms and her really getting upset. We let her sleep in our room and she was quite proud of herself - under the bed where she felt safe!



Bill is off for over a week and has a list of projects - golfing with his Dad, getting in miles on his bike, going to the dump, taking Libby on trips to Lowe's and painting the garage! Wow. He started today - first all the cars had to be moved.

Then everything in the garage had to be pulled away from the walls.

And then the painting. We knew once he tackled this project we'd finally discover what was making our garage smell so foul the last month or so. Shortly after I snapped this photo I found one culprit - a dead mouse behind the fridge Bill is painting in front of. Yuck.

He will paint the second half later this week. To be continued - whether the ceiling or floors will get painted this time around. That might have to wait for another summer.