July Fourth

This was a good day - almost perfect. And by "almost" I mean tarantulas - yes, that was plural. I'll get to that in a minute. I slept in late to celebrate my freedom. Frank woke me up around 10 with breakfast made, which is so sweet. We planned to go to the big Melissa parade that morning because we were invited by one of the HS boys who would be in the drum line. The website said it was from 11-1 so we rolled in around 11:45, and it was OVER! We were pretty bummed that we missed it, but we got to see our student anyway. However, we did learn that apparently anyone in Melissa can sign up to be in the parade so we are SO signing up next year! That would be hilarious. I havent been in a parade since high school. Frank and I split ways around noon and I headed to Allen to meet my mom so we could go shopping and make returns. We went to Lowes first and returned some curtains, and then it happened - I found the PERFECT paint color for my kitchen/living room!!! YAY!! Sounds simple enough, but I probably have no less than 15-20 paint samples in my garage of failed attempts at finding this shade. So I now have a project for the weekend and I couldnt be more excited. Frank had to talk me out of breaking our July 4th plans so we could start paining right then. :) Anyway, my mom and I also found a really cute lamp to go in the Master Bedroom. I'm on a huge decorating kick, so that was also extremely exciting. After Lowes we headed to the mall to make some more returns. Of course, when you are a girl, "return" usually ends up meaning "exchange" so that would probably be a more accurate description of events. We both walked out with 2 new shirts!

That evening, Frank and I were invited to another cook-out at our neighbor's house (Charles and Peggy). Our neighbors are a very close group - so we knew it would be a good time. Big John was our cook for the evening. He grilled about 20 HUGE steaks that were delicious!! Everyone brought sides, and of course dessert.

They made frozen margaritas, but I really wanted my diet coke so I ran across the street to grab my beverage.

It was a beautiful day outside. There weren't too many clouds and there was a very nice breeze. I wasnt expecting good weather, so the evening was a pleasant surprise. Speaking of surprises - back to the tarantulas. I don't remember how it was brought up, but the neighbor in the house directly to my right mentioned that his grandson found one walking across his lawn last week. I'm in shock. Then Frank shared that the new neighbors directly to our left found one in their yard that day. WHAT?!! Then the kicker. Charles pipes up and tells everyone that he has one in his garage (present tense) and it's RIGHT BEHIND ME!!! Never have you seen me move so fast. I'm absolutely horrified that I live there now. I had sat in that seat the whole time I was eating - unaware that I'm sitting next to the lumber where his spider hangs out. Now, I did not actually see this thing, but I wasnt going to pick up the lumber looking for it either. That was all I needed to know. Frank now has to call the exterminator again and have them come out ASAP. I can no longer walk anywhere near grass and I'm afraid of my garage. I may start parking in the driveway. Why is this happening to me?? I'm going to start doing research on spiders and locate a climate where they can not survive and I'm moving there. I hear people say all the time "I feel the same way about snakes". My immediate thought is "Wow, that must be horrible for you! I hate it being afraid of something I will never find in my yard, but only in cages at the zoo. Yes, that's EXACTLY the same thing." I'm not bitter or anything. Whatever. Back to my "pleasant" story.

I think Frank ate like 3 steaks. Everyone got a kick out of how much my boy can eat. I think he even ate more than Big John. So proud.

Here's me in my festive red shirt hanging out with the other ladies in the neighborhood - sitting in my A&M chair, of course. WHOOP!

Here's Big John and Little John after LJ instigated some rough-housing. Guess who won. Haha.

Think again. LJ gets creative. They were funny to watch. Frank and I actually met Little John before we knew our neighbors. He came to the disciple now camp with our church youth group. He, Frank, and the other HS boys did a dance together for the "Disciple Now Idol" contest. I had video of the whole thing so I shared it with everyone. We had to watch it twice, because it was SO funny. Ok, you had to be there.
Charles was playing DJ all night so people kept breaking into random solo dances throughout the evening. Go Peggy!

Charles and Big John taking the stage while the rest of us took some incriminating photos.
We starting hearing the sounds of the fourth a little later, so we grabbed our lawn chairs and headed for a good viewing spot. We walked a little ways down the street and found a great place where we could view about 5 shows at once. As we were heading back we ran into the guys who just moved into the house next to mine and the were loaded with fireworks.

We followed them to the new area in our subidivision that only has about 4 homes built on it and set those off. It was a pretty good show, and a great way to meet the new neighbors. Welcome to the neighborhood!