Happy birthday, America!

Who doesn't love July 4th? Ice cream socials, block parties, so many fireworks that my neighborhood sounds like Baghdad. My church has an annual patriotic service that always gets me in a celebratory mood, and this year's was no exception! The tears began flowing when the choir sang each military branch's song and the veterans from each branch stood while their song played. Following the music was an extremely moving video featuring shots of our church members in their military uniforms (usually formal pics from their much younger days.) My friend Raynes and I were practically holding onto each other and blubbering by the end of that video. Seeing SO many men who I knew and who were willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING for me... it simply took my breath away. I looked around and was shocked by all of the faces I might otherwise never have known should fate have chosen a different ending for them in war.

We threw a big bash at church... guess who PUT IT AWAY on the dunking booth?! Yours truly, of course! It totally cracked me up... I stood in line behind at least ten unsuccessful people before my turn to throw at the target, and I nailed a bulls-eye on the first pitch! Better yet, the person sitting in the booth has, ahem, "frustrated" me quite often on several occasions, and I must admit that it felt very good to watch him going down after all of his trash-talking. Hee hee hee. And there was even a crowd watching. :)

Nashville was fun... made it a solo trip... treated myself to lunch in a funky little cafe downtown, did a bit of shopping, visited the state museum and the capitol building. A somewhat flirtatious staffer at the capitol noticed me wandering around peeking into rooms, and he proceeded to give me a personal tour of the galleries, pointing out items of interest to a Knoxvillian, and taking me behind the velvet ropes. It was quite unexpected, but fun.

Brian and Heather had their baby on Saturday! 30 hours of labor and one c-section later, and a 9-lb Jacob Daniel greeted the world. And Heather actually called me on Saturday to tell me this! That girl is nuts, but I love her! I could not be happier for them, and I can't wait to meet little Jacob. He does not know how fortunate he is to have such fun people for parents!

Yikes, though, this means that Don and I need to hurry up and start havin' babies so our kids won't be too far apart in age to play with Hops and Brian's! (Yes, I actually worry about stuff like that.)

And get this, Christine's in LOVE!! Her boyfriend has only been crazy about her since high school, and he's been waiting for her the entire time. He's made a life for himself... bought a house, working on his doctorate, coaching high school football and wrestling. But he never got her out of his mind, and he told her he has everything he ever wanted except her. It just took her awhile to realize that he was what she wanted, too. I am totally psyched about meeting him... gotta give him the infamous 20 questions, right? He's now in DC visiting her for the week... and I predict a rock on her finger by the end of the year!

Anyway, from the way she'd described him to me over the years, I was expecting Steve Urkel. But he's pretty hot... I mean, the guy's biceps are bigger than my head! Christine, crazy girl, she was holding out on me!!! See for yourself:
http://www.northwestgeorgia.com/sports/images_sizedimage_325225104/resources_photoview