the {4th}

We had a blast (lots and lots of them) this 4th.  My mom and dad came up from Cassville and spent the day, then our good friends the Swans came over for the evening.  We met at our neighborhood pool, which we had totally to ourselves.  Macauley and their 3 girls swam in the rather frigid water until we dragged them out, and we had a yummy potluck dinner.  Then we made our way back to our house and the kids put on quite the fireworks show for us.  Our front sidewalk has some major black scars now that may never go away, but all in the name of fun, I suppose...Today Macauley and I took my mom and dad to see Lindsay and Tyson's lake house near Kimberling City.  We went out on their new boat and had lunch at a little dock.  It was a beautiful day on Table Rock.  On the way home, we stopped at an antique mall and I liked a pair of Audubon prints but didn't leave with anything.  My mom and dad headed back to Cassville and when Ryan got home from work we were off to the pool at Twin Oaks CC for our friend Stephanie's birthday party.  Tomorrow we are going to meet Lane and Derek at a cabin on Bull Shoals Lake.  Feels like we have been constantly buzzing around for weeks now...Fun stuff, but busy, busy...Not sure when I'll get to put away the red, white and blue decor in the dining room. I am thankful to live in a country where I can do the things I want to when I want to do them, a place I feel safe and happy, a place where I am fortunate well beyond what I deserve.  What I did in the grand scheme of life to be born here and not somewhere else, I can't say, but I am grateful and need to pay it forward.

We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights;

that our destinies are bound together;

that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me,

a freedom without a commitment to others,

a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism,

is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.

Barack Obama