record breaking summer

i celebrated the 4th of july on american soil
...with my family
...bar-b-qued several times
...swam in a pool
...and saw a couple firework shows!

yeah, i had a long weekend with my family. it was great. lots of rest and relaxation, except for mom's analness over the house looking perfect. you know no one will buy a house if there is a drop of water on the counter or if the pillow isn't positioned at a specific angle.

dad shot off his fireworks from our pier on sunday night. at the same time we were able to view numerous other fireworks from the openness of the lake. it was a beauty. then we went to the little community firework show on monday night at the local gas station. it was really good.

to back track, on saturday morning i went with my parents, aunt, and cousin to this huge yard sale-like thing. it was quite hilarious. they sold anything and everything. you can't even imagine some stuff.

two items that stuck out to me:
#1 "flying rods" - fly swatters attached to the ends of fishing rods
#2 "fried oreos" - yes, they actually fried oreos. after much debating with my mom (who thought they had to have spelled okra wrong) my aunt went back to buy us the mysterious fried oreos. sure enough...they fried oreos. it goes to show they do fry everything in the South. by the way, the fried oreos were pretty good.

overall the 4th was great. definitely different from the last three 4ths that i have had.

2004 4th: attended a Senegalese boat race, ate "sloppy joe soup", and found out kari and trey were getting married. no fireworks, no bar-b-que, no american family. kinda forgot it was the 4th.

2003 4th: first 4th ouside of america, visited with "the guys," travelled two hours to a place outside of dakar, swam in the ocean, praise on the beach, crab catching, slept in this huge bed that held about 10 girls, the place had AC and i seriously thought i was going to freeze to death, too cold to sleep. we actually did shoot fireworks though!

2002 4th: a day off from normal ICO (myrtle beach) activities, not the expected and so-called "week off" though, hung out on the beach all day with the team, someone's parents grilled for us all, watched fireworks on the beach

life is ever-changing. the things once thought to be so important, aren't. variety is good, its actually exciting and challenging, ... and i'm ready for it to come back my way. what's next?