Happy 4th of July

Just a note to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July. Every holiday is a bonus to us and we appreciate every chance to have Charlotte with us.

I, though not much of a flag waver, certainly appreciate the opportunities I have been afforded as a citizen of the United States of America. We all often take for granted the risks and sacrifices the Founding Fathers made to create this country. It's also amazing they didn't strangle each other given their widely varying backgrounds and religious beliefs.

Feel free to read up.

I, for one, need to go taste apple pies!

Rog

Update:

As the fireworks pop off in the background, it has been a very full day! We spent a leisurely morning getting ready for the Ashland Parade. Roger went down early to participate in the judging of the Apple Pie contest. There were over 20 entries and his "group" of judges had to taste at least 6 pies. Poor thing! He also marched as the leader of the "Dad's Brigade" in full dad costume. It was a very creative costume and I'm not sure if we have a picture...but he definitely looked like a "DAD".

Charlotte was in grumpy, antisocial mode. She would talk to folks but only on her terms and she didn't seem that interested in the day's activities. Her moments of happiness seemed to be in eating and hanging out with daddy. She sure looked cute though.

Uncle Kolbey helped entertain everyone with his performance in the Hanover Concert Band. The patriotic music was particularly good this year.

After these festivities, I went off with a neighbor for a spontaneous pedicure (what a treat!) and we kind of lazed the afternoon away until dinner. Dinner was a feast with homemade beef and turkey burgers, hot dogs, watermelon, corn on the cob, chips, veggies, salsa, and a few other assorted goodies brought by the neighbors. We had a houseful of friends and family and it was great.

Charlotte is now sleeping and Roger and I are actually doing some work (go figure). Got to do a bit more tomorrow too.

STILL no word from the doctor as to when we are expected in TX (despite my constant emails). I will get an answer one way or another, I guess. I'm not sure how they expect us to make travel arrangements (not to mention getting coverage for our business and all the other necessary procedures) with only a few day's notice, but somehow I know it will all work out.

Oh, I must mention our adventures of the previous night: Roger and I went for a bike ride after dinner. When we came home, my mom (who was watching Charlotte) was having a sudden asthma attack. She has had asthma her entire life but it has usually been very managable. It can flare up from time to time, especially if the weather is particularly extreme, there is excess pollen or mold, or if she is having a bout of bronchitis or some other respiratory illness; however, this attack came out of nowhere. She hadn't been having any breathing difficulty whatsoever. I got her albuterol and hooked her up to the machine but it didn't seem to get better so I called my stepdad and Kolbey to come home from cleaning at Romp n' Roll. When she continued to NOT improve, I called 911. So the fire rescue AND ambulance came and shuttled mom off to the emergency room at Memorial Regional. Oxygen, prednisone, and more albuterol seemed to do the trick and we were out of the hospital within 90 minutes. She has been fine ever since but that was a pretty scary episode. It didn't help that my mom HATES going to hospitals and HATES having to take the prednisone but she was a pretty decent patient considering the circumstances and her history. At least she was nice to the doctors. She did, however, shoot my stepdad the bird after he offered some comment that didn't make her happy. THAT was hilarious. I've never seen her do that before....If you want to figure out where I get my attitude from, you don't have to look very far.

Looking back, we realized that she has not had an attack like this (sudden without any known cause) in over 30 years. Crazy!

So that's enough drama for one weekend, I think. We will aim to keep Sunday quiet...

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th. The weekend will be over before you know it so enjoy.

Rachel