July 4 - Happy Birthday, America!

Catching up from Friday's post - 
Saturday was an early morning (as usual). I started cleaning in the pool area them moved to that one flower bed that never seems to get attention. What a feeling of accomplishment - when you actually clean out the weeds to see that there are flowers under all of them! The girls and I spent the morning setting up the church garage sale then we worked more on the house and yard. Mark and I played the beat-the-rain game. With the help of bil Adam and dn Matthew, the acreage was mowed and trimmed in record time, the horseshoe pits prepped, and the garage straightened up.  The workbench was left the disaster that Mark created.

Sunday, July 3 - Party day!
It was a busy day, but I did manage a two hour nap on the front porch. Gotta love the porch; there's almost always a breeze on one side or the other. Pyromaniacs David & Luke usually lead the way into our July 4th celebration, however Marianne (sil) led the arrivals which was a unique twist.  We love her - but she definitely travels on Goulding-time!  Food was awesome and plentiful! As cuz Renee said - how can 40 people go through the food line and it look like we didn't even touch it. Desserts - Mom's choco chip cookies, homemade sugar cookies (if someone knows - who brought those?), and cuz Lisa's jello cake with blueberries and strawberries looking like the American flag- yyyyyuuuuummmm!  (OMG - I just realized that I sound like a small-town news reporter writing for the social section!!! If I start writing about blue hair dye, grain profits, and card parties - someone save me!) SO, the fireworks started around 5:00 with the flash and bangs then at dark (of course) moved to the light show. I must say that David and Luke out-did themselves with an AWESOME display! Neighbor, Barb, said she took pics to try out her camera at night, so I'll post some when I get. The excitement? D&L set up the display about half-way to the back of our property. Throughout the night, people migrated between the house area and fireworks area. (There were about 45 here.) The budding pyromaniacs have to observe the professionals to get their training, of course, so the kids were between the pool and fireworks. Well, it's dark, there are about 20 people out by the fireworks and the D&L van full of fireworks and a lit one fell over! It started shooting  all over the place including UNDER the van. People ran, and I held my breath for the van explosion! THANK GOD no one was hurt and the van didn't explode, but it was a heart-stopping moment! It was a potential tragedy, and I don't even think Lisa, medicine woman, could have fixed that one. New rules for next year - only adults in the fireworks area, no vehicles and definitely no kids!!

As for the GGLT, Lisa and David were totally excited to get the travel book (or game book as Mark calls it), and Lisa said she would definitely be reading the details out loud in their vehicle while we're on the road. Me, too! The t-shirts are a big hit, even if they will have scissors applied to them to make modified versions. David, Lisa, Luke, Mark and I talked quite a while about things we are going to do including our group shot at the starting point (in Columbia, MO). Lisa decided that D&L can't be anywhere near each other when we do the White Water Walk by the Falls (Niagara Falls). We are all beyond excited about the Top Thrill Dragster (TDD) ride at Cedar Point roller coaster park which is 310 feet straight up and straight down! We are on the countdown to the GGLT -  13 days.