Drum Roll Please. . .

And now, the moment I know you ALL have been waiting on the edges of your CHAIRS to see!! Oh, did someone mention CHAIRS?? They are done!! WHOO HOO!! They took way longer than I ever dreamed they would have--After all, the Lowes class said in 4 classes it could be done. We started in April, and now it is July. At least it wasn't all the week before the fair this year. We got them painted last Saturday, and moved them to their new position on the deck on Sunday. I love them, love them! I will be trying to coax the boys into looking them over once more to fix a couple minor paint issues. . . but the main stuff is done. We have a huge (like 12 foot long) wooden bench that is on our deck now. I think that some club must have made a million of them and sold them 40 years ago--there are several people around here that have them. . . we inherited it with the house. Many people have sat on it since then! But all the paint is peeling off of it. I moved it to run across the deck from east to west (for those of you who know our deck). Now it faces the four chairs and I rather like that too, can get lots of people to visit there. . . And because it only leaves a 2-3 foot area to walk through to get from one part of the deck to the other, it slows the skateboard traffic WAY down. (Got 2 birds with one stone there!) So now it needs to be painted too. I think that I will paint it the same color green and then move the colored chairs around a little. T and G's chairs are up against the house-to protect them a little more from mother nature until fair time. G's is the orange color and T's is the red. HMMM, maybe this fall we need to make a cute little coffee table to fit there??

Right behind me and D's chairs is the orange honeysuckle climbing up the deck. I have secured it up the posts and hope it keeps on climbing up there--a little shade would be nice! Maybe someday we will even see a hummingbird there!

The weekend was busy--I had quite a busy weekend at work, but managed to make it to most of the 4th party we were invited to. We had a great smoked meal with lots of good sides and several of the kids that were in 4-H had made some of their entries for the fair to try out on everyone! T made some cookies to take that were a winner in our eyes. I will post the recipe next week with their fair stuff so you can all try it. It was a chocolate cookie with 1/2 marshmallow stuck on the top and baked again for a few minutes. Then you drizzled it with a fudgy frosting made with a little taste of mocha. They were unusual! G had already practiced his entries last week for a food fair he attended while T was at camp. We have been enjoying the 4th for the last 12 years with the same group so we have the schedule down! It always includes a firework display of our own. Some years we head towards the lake to watch the big fireworks from a side road--this year we just did our own. J is usually the "official" fire master (a job he inherited many years ago when we were hosting the party)--now we just expect him to do it. The kids are always right beside him, our kids and everybody elses, handing him fireworks and hoping for a chance he might let them light one! Every family usually throws some fireworks in the pile and we usually have enough to watch for 30-45 minutes (occassionally longer!) The 4th rates right up there with Christmas for me--I adore it! I was glad to see the fireworks, which were finished for about 10 minutes before I had to go to work! The kids were all dragging Sunday, but they slept in a little, and rested after church!

Yesterday the boys labeled their geology specimens. It wasn't hard, as we have a field guide from the trip that has all the info, and we had identified most of them that weekend. But my, oh my, did it take them ALL day! Fussing and fighting. . . ALL. . .DAY. . . LONG! Wow--I was ready to sell them, or even give them away! Now all they have to do is glue their speci's down and stick the computer label that I typed using the information they wrote down, and put them in the box! Hope to finish that tomorrow night. We have a big weekend again. A church fish fry Friday night, the wedding of some good friend's kids (whom we also love!) J's brother and his family from Houston will be trucking in Saturday evening too, they will be here for a week. T turns 13 on Monday (THIRTEEN?? Somebody slap me!) So we are doing a family birthday supper for him on Sunday night. All he wants is money. How simple is that!?! We're planning on homemade ice cream--it has sounded SO good! BTW, Mom, you are invited too--Just didn't expect you would want to make the LONG trip when you will see us in another week! Next week is the county fair around here--so lots of activities going on! Then we are on the downhill slide to a VACATION--I can hardly stand it! (I need one, I am getting grouchy AND cynical!) Temps upwards of 100 for the next several days. . . I LOVE SUMMER!!