God bless America....

We had a very nice fourth of July. We spent the day hanging out, playing on the slip-n-slide, and just enjoying being a family. In the evening we went to my sis -in-laws parent's house for a BBQ. After eating we gathered around their fire pit and enjoyed interesting conversation and made smores and stick bread (homemade bread dough wrapped around a foil lined stick and roasted in the fire. Delicious). They live in a lovely neighborhood and have great neighbors. We met two very nice couples and really enjoyed getting to know them.
One of the couples were 80+ year old newlyweds. They were so funny and interesting to talk to. They said that they had been engaged back in 1944, but he got cold feet and the marriage never happened. They remained good friends through the years and at one time they were even related through marriage (cousins). They have both lost two spouses and now after all of these years they are married to each other. They were so cute and he is a veteran of WWII so it was nice to get to talk to him about that during the celebration of our nation's birth.
His wife teased him about the little (and I mean little) star tattoo that he got on his hand during the war. He said it is so small because he sobered up while he was getting it and didn't want anymore. His wife laughed because in his old age, the star has lost its shape and just looks like a little black blob. She wondered what all of the young people who are covering themselves with tattoos are going to think when they are 80 and can't even recognize what the pictures used to be. It is sure to be ugly. I'm just glad that tattoos weren't popular when I was a youth because teens never think about the future. I know I wasn't thinking about the future when I lay out by my pool slathered in Crisco oil and fried myself silly. STUPID! And the really stupid thing is that I did it more than once (sure it's going to turn into a tan~ idiot).

On July 5th we went to the park and enjoyed an amazing fireworks show (why July 5th? I don't know. Weird) In "the valley" we always watched the fireworks from a parking lot or roadside far away because it was too hot to go early enough to get a spot up close, so it was a treat to get to sit in a nice cool park right where they were letting them off and enjoy the thrill of feeling the boom and watching the fireworks rain down right over our heads.
I love my country and I love this time to remember the sacrifices that were made so that Heavenly Father's great plan of happiness could be carried out to the fullest. My life has been blessed everyday because of it.