The morning after the Buffett concert dawned dark and stormy. It poured rain while Jay and I went to Mass. I made a mistake with my wardrobe: I wore a new pair of linen pants that had wide legs and were a bit long: the bottoms were soaked by the time I got into Church. We went straight from Church to the nearest minute clinic, which is at a nearby Target. It was early enough on a Sunday morning so the place wasn’t packed. The wait was under a half hour so we did some grocery shopping and then I saw the doctor and got my tetanus shot. It was free with insurance, although I would have paid and thought nothing of it if it hadn’t been. I’d rather pay $75.00 for a potentially lifesaving vaccine than $65.00 for an office visit where I’ll be told “You’re just old. Take some aspirin and quit running.” My kids will tell me that for free. My grandkids tell me that for free, with embellishments like “You’re old and fat!You look silly when you run. Stop it.” And they’re much cuter than my doctor.
The storms passed by noon and Jay and I were in the car, heading west to brother Tim’s house.
Jim and Meg were in town and all the siblings were gathering for dinner at the lake. As usual, we had a great time and the food was top notch. The last vestige of storm clouds had disappeared by mid afternoon, leaving us with a crystal clear summer day. We were able to take a boat ride around the lake, watching a bald eagle fish as we cruised by. We got within a few feet of a large, lazy loon as well. All in all, a perfect Sunday!
Monday, I was up and out early: over to MJs, where I’d promised to watch her kids while she and Katie went to NYC: they were delivering Molly to Acting Camp! It was very hot but nice and sunny. We spent a lot of time at the playground at the end of the block. Nanners, Bean and Tot are always as good as gold when I’m with them. Tot talks well enough now to have a conversation with but it always deteriorates into him asking “Why?” into infinity. Kent was able to get home by late afternoon so I was able to get a bit of work done before my own dinner.
Tuesday was a replay of Monday but it was drizzly out so instead of the park, we watched a movie. While the kids were so occupied, I pulled out MJ’s paint and finished a wall of her living room. She’s been changing it from yellow to blue over the course of the last month or so but it’s really hard to find the time+energy when you have a house full of little kids. So I helped out a bit.
I had decided on Saturday that getting into the shop on Tuesday wasn’t going to happen: I hadn’t gotten any work done anyway, so I had texted Ginny to let her know I’d be in after the
Holiday. I might even finish an order by then. I don’t know when, though: Jay and I had a party to go to Tuesday night.
Bloomington, two towns over, has their municipal fireworks display on the third. We have some friends who live a block away from the park that hosts the show, so they have an annual party to watch the display. Drinks and dinner first; they live in a large, gorgeous town house surrounded by a beautiful wooded grounds with a pond. The development is surrounded by high rises and even office parks but from their actual property it looks like they live in the woods. It’s really something! Dinner was buffet style; we ate in the house or on the porch. They have fireflies in their garden! I didn’t know fireflies could be found anywhere in the metro!
As usual, the fireworks were great! We had front row seats and plenty of bug spray.
St. Paul, our capital city, cancelled their fireworks this year due to being broke. Suburbs like Edina, Richfield and Bloomington made St. Paul look like a first class punk.
Wednesday was the Fourth! It dawned hot and muggy. The sky was grey but there was no rain. Jay and I left the house with our swim bag packed with suits and towels. First stop was my folks. My Dad had come home for the afternoon. We saw him comfortably installed in his favorite recliner before heading on our journey to Steve and Pam’s. There, we were surrounded by several generations of Pivecs and enough food to feed the Russian army. There were eight kids under the age of five, with two more due by the end of the year!
My favorite moment of the day was when Boop, who was in the sunroom, and Boopity, who was out on the deck, caught sight of each other through the sliding door. They ran to the floor to ceiling window, going nose to nose and hand to hand against the glass, laughing and squealing at each other.
Later, I was feeding them some dinner. I had one girl on each side of me and was alternating spoons of food to each. While I was giving Boop a mouthful of veggie goodness, Boopity stuck her hand into my spinach salad and pulled out a strawberry. She liked it so much she tried a bit of the spinach…she didn’t like that so much so she pulled it out of her mouth and dropped it right back into my salad, which from that moment on was her salad.
After lunch, Boopity found a box of sidewalk chalk. She loves anything you can make a mark with. I took her out to the driveway, which was blocked off from the street and filled with kids toys: balls, bats, tees, trikes, bigwheels, a teeter totter and more. She and I played for quite a while. She was on a trike when I started singing to myself. She hopped off the trike, grabbed my hand and started dancing!
Late in the afternoon, we went on down to Tyler and Megan’s place. Since the last time we were there, they had their driveway done. Fresh asphalt! Their driveway is even longer than ours. They also had the gravel turn around down by the barn expanded so it’s about twice as big as it was before. Finally, they built a play set for the kids over beneath the apple trees. It’s a very nice set with three swings, a climbing wall, a slide and a tree fort! By the time we got there, the party was in full swing, the place was swarming with little kids and brats were coming off the grill in battalions.
We had a lot of fun but decided not to stick around for fireworks. We were too wiped out from the past several days to stay till dark and drive home at 11:00. We were home before dark and I watched the Edina Fireworks show from our front hill. Jay was too tired to even come out and sit on the hill. I think he was asleep before the grand finale.
It was a good day!