So, I Just Stopped Stressing (and Pics of Last July 4th)

My Hubby getting a funnel cake and lemonade. He wears that shirt everytime we go out apparently. haha

So the house was clean when my sister in law and her family came over last Saturday. I was happy about that. That was also like the last day I did anything around the house...

I don't know why. I'm guessing it's because Hubby is on vacation this week and is always here. It's thrown my whole routine off. I kept telling myself it was OK because the house and laundry were not that bad and I could still keep them within the "15 minutes til clean" state. So, yeah I did actually do *some* laundry. Just not every night on my lunch breaks. I will do more tonight. It's getting to the *need* to do laundry stage which we haven't been at for a long time now. No one had run out of underwear or jeans or anything, but I'm starting to hear complaints. My 13 year old even did a load of her own clothes. *gasp* Could she be catching on? Nah. Not my kids. ;)

I'm chalking up some of the not feeling like sticking to routine to hormones as well. I was particularly grumpy and puffy this month, and it just makes the CHAOS even more pronounced.

Overall though I am really happy that I didn't let it all get to me. The visiting family left to go camping on Monday and they wouldn't be back til Thursday (yesterday), and I knew this. I did not yell and scream at my kids to get the house cleaned up Thursday morning. The Hubs and kids decided to go see The Last Airbender and arranged to meet the visitors at the movie theater since they'd just gotten back to town. I told them to come by the house afterwards for a late dinner and hang out.
I did not even vacuum or pick up stuff in the living room.

While I do want the house to be comfortable and welcoming,.. I can't be false about who we really are and how we really live. We really are 6 rather lazy over weight people all living in a 1200 3 bedroom 2 bath mobile home full of animals that really should not be inside and who like to poop wherever they happen to be. Yeah sometimes the kittens sleep on my kitchen counter which is way less than sanitary,.. and often I let them stay there simply for the AWWWW CUTENESS factor. Eh, this is us. Deal with it. Hey at least we changed the air freshener to spray cinnamon apple stuff at you when you walk by it. The visiting family is too cool to say anything about the house anyway. Thank GOD they're not OCD LOL. Besides it's a HUGE improvement over the old house!

So, tomorrow (the 3rd) is when our hometown (45 minutes from where we live now) has the all-day awesome celebration at the city park. We go every year. The best way to describe it is with pics from previous years. These are all from 2009:


Our screenhouse we have used the last 2 4th of July's - that has been stolen or lost or something since last summer. Had to go out tonight and buy a new cheap one that's harder to put together :(




Our friends Daniel and Kristen grilling up burgers and hotdogs.



The family chowing down on the fried chicken we brought in the cooler. The city pool there in the park is open and free all day every 4th of July. Poor Zoe... I didn't realize at the time that her bathing suit was way too small haha.




Corina being attacked at Water Wars water balloon fights that were free to play. The inflatables and rock wall climbing and other stuff were all free as well. Just had to pay for food, but some places were even giving away pizza and ice cream.

I really love fair food. :)


On the upper level of the park, (inflatables, games and our spot were down the hill), they have the big stage where there's entertainment all day long piped out over the entire park with HUGE speakers. There's also big screens so people in the back can see what's on stage better. Pretty high-tech compared to the 4th of July stuff they had when I was a kid. These pics were taken pretty early in the day. By the time evening arrived and sun was going down, there would be a sea of bodies and lawn chairs here. And when the main star took the stage, they'd be standing all the way back to where the hill goes down, and out to the road. This year, it's Aaron Tippin.



The sunshelter has been taken down and packed up along with most everything else while there is still light. Then we listen to the concert from our spot and talk with friends and family and relax in the cool evening air... then when the singing is done,.. it's FIREWORKS time!

So, yeah I am really looking forward to tomorrow. It sucks that someone took our sunshelter. can't think of what else happened. We have all the lawn chairs and the legs and supports for the shelter, but not the cover which was in the carrying case. Oh well, who knows. I didn't want to spend money on a new one, but we did. We're not opening it til we get there and decide we really need it. Last year it was actually cool on the 4th and I don't know that it was really necessary. Besides the tie downs can make people trip, so we have to put chairs by them to warn people heh. We'll see. If we do not use it, then we'll take it back and get a refund.

So, our visiting relatives and also my mother in law will be hanging out with us at the park , so that should be fun... or at least interesting. All our friends made other plans this year, so it's good to have family come celebrate with us. I know it'll be fun. I totally cannot wait for that first funnel cake!!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY Y'ALL!!!!