Independence!

I was able to feel some freedom this week! I ran to book club on Monday (I was playing the part in showing up sweaty and smelly while discussing Wild.) It's been a long time since I ran without kids. It was tough, but felt great. I also got to go out (sort of) on Tuesday night. I picked up my brother and parents at the airport. We went out to dinner at the Brick on the way home. I got to catch up with Erik and his recent tragedy. And I got to hear about my parents amazing trip to Denmark. Wednesday, Suzanne and I surprised Erik while he performed improv with the local crowd in town. I even got up and did a scene! It was a fun week. I spent lots of time catching up with my bro, which is nice. We were invited to the beach to spend the day with the Boozers, which was nice. Great way to kick off the week! Lots of rain this week, which was a nice touch to the insane heat we are having. Even the 4th of July was sorta rained out. Luckily we got out early enough to enjoy some boating fun at FYC. I finally gave paddle boarding a try and loved it! I'm so impressed with Ellie on the kayak! She was out there paddling around all by herself! We did lunch with my parents and then watched the amazing fireworks at TCC. We had stayed up too late the night before. We did a PH with my bro and our neighbors. Before that we did dinner and pool up at FYC. That's becoming a fun tradition. Voss had a hearing screening this week (since they don't do that at the birth center, I had to take him in for a check). All is good, of course. Today was a busy day. We slept in until 9! Can you believe that!? We went to our neighbor's Birthday party with a super rocket water slide! The Freemans know how to throw a party! We did the contemporary mass then a Thai dinner with the neighbors. Now I have to pack up for a quick, emotional, exhausting trip to Mississippi tomorrow. But, I'll talk about that in the next post. For now, I'd like to leave on the thought going back to Independence Day. We are so blessed that we live in a country where we can sit together over a bottle of wine and have differing opinions and still laugh and enjoy the company. Cheers to my coffee club. I love it!