Happy Independance Day! I am happy to have the day off from work and so thankful to live in this USA. I would be "amiss" if I did not take the opportunity to publicly thank all of our previous and present military that has served this nation, including my brother-in-law.  We greatly appreciate everyone's sacrifice.

 Well my wonderful day started without an alarm clock.  It is very rare that my husband doesn't set the alarm to get up in the morning.  If I had to guess how many times that has happened since we have been married I would say it has been less than 25 times in the last 11 1/2 years.  Wowser, that may not seem like a big deal to everyone but it was to me. And on that note another big thanks to my f-i-l, b-i-l, and nephew for feeding the cows this a.m.  My plowboy and I made bacon, sausage links, and fresh peach pancakes for breakfast. I even allowed myself a sugary cup of coffee.  The kids aren't used to daddy being home in the morning. He has normally gone to work when they get up, so they were quite hyper. After breakfast,  we all made a grocery store run and picked up a few items. The next photo was an important purchase for our little lunch celebration. Can anybody guess why?                   

We were gonna have a SHRIMP BOIL! This bag is used to keep all of the ingredients together in the pot.  We have never done this before, but after eating at some new friends for supper one evening, plowboy has been itching to try it.  We used to have a huge 4th of July BBQ every year down at the watershed but as we had more and more and more children, it just became a little overwhelming. So this was our attempt to still have a get together but in more simplified laid back fashion.

We called our buddy and he came over to join us and help.  Thank goodness.  I will not be able to write with alot of detail because other than some of the chopping, I didn't have much to do with the food.

They got a huge pot of water boiling in a giant gas turkey cooker and added some "Old Bay crab boil" The old bay seasoning and creole seasoning was added to the water after the shrimp and veggies were added.  For our shrimp boil we had shrimp(obviously), polish sausage,sweet corn, red potatoes, onion and a few squash.  While the fellas were outside cooking, I grabbed a few more brawny men. We literally rolled back the living room carpet and brought in some tables. I just couldn't bare to think of anyone eating outside. We wrapped the tables in brown paper. Each table had salt and pepper and each place setting got a "pad" of butter. We just poured the food right onto the table and everyone gobbled it right up. It was alot of fun. I was so busy getting everything in order that I forgot to get pics before everyone sat down. It was only a few minutes before I thought of it but it was too late. The pics I took of half empty tables just didn't look good so I hate to post them. And I really wish I had a picture of the tables with the newly tranformed living room/ eating area, but I was too busy sweeping up the dust and finding tons of game pieces under the couch. I guess I was just trying to prove my baby sister wrong. After showing her my blog, she read one sentence and said "GRAMMAR." "What?" I say. and she said "grammar, you are definately gonna have more trouble with grammar than taking pictures."  So I forgot to take tons of photos. Nothing of the homemade ice cream, pasta salad, oreo desert, my m-i-l making her wonderful homeade lemonade. This is not a shock to me, I have always had trouble trying to stop and smell the roses. Maybe this blog will help me to slow down and take in the moments that make up my life. 

 I so enjoyed my day and hope you all had a wonderful day off.  If I could take a second to ask for a  favor. Would y'all take a second to pray for rain?  Our crops are in awful shape and the soybeans may still make it if they could get some moisture. I hope to post anoher blog soon and share with you about some of our garden that has thrived.