Happy 4th of July!

We are spending this very gloomy, but cool 4th of July with my sister, my nephew, my niece and her best friend, my brother and his best friend and my cousin from San Diego and her daughter. I'm going from one 13 year old in the house to 1- 13 year old, 2- 9 year olds, 1- 7 year old and 1- 3 year old and 5 adults. Party!! LOL

Spent yesterday unpacking and getting groceries for our barbeque today. We're having the traditional fare of Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Baked Beans, Chips, Corn on the Cob and a Jello Cake for dessert. I also made a Couscous salad with italian dressing and olives...yum!

I guess the gloomy weather is following me. This is pretty much what we had in St. Petersburg last week and it must have followed me north.

We've had the pleasure of having my cousin Jennifer (My Uncle Dic's daughter) and her 3 year old daughter Kendahl staying with us this week while she is visiting her Dad, who most of you know has been ill and in either the hospital or assisted living since February. My house is plenty big and it's been a LONG time since Jennifer and I have got to spend any time together. My cousin is 35 and her daughter is 3. She and Kendahl live in Del Mar, CA which is just north of San Diego. She came in last Saturday, but I had to turn around and leave first thing Sunday morning for St. Petersburg, but she's staying until tomorrow so we had yesterday and today to catch you. She brought a photo album (one of those old 70's sticky albums) and I scanned a bunch of photos of her and her Dad. I also gave her one of my 12 x 12 post bound albums and told her she needed to get her photos out of the old icky album that will destroy her photos. Another scrapbook and photos rescued! LOL

Here's a a couple photos from St. Pete....they're not very good. I only took my Nikon point and shoot and I really did haven't alot of photo oppportunities anyway.


The St. Petersburg Skyline from Cha Cha Coconuts at the Pier


A hungry friend



Got up and went to the gym this morning (I was pretty proud of myself for doing that). Did a half hour strength training session, 10 minutes on the elliptical, 15 minutes on the treadmill and when I got back home I did an hour of weeding out in the gardens.

On the iPod playlist today:
Taking It All To Hard - Genesis
Bent - Matchbox Twenty
Being Kind Can Hurt Someone Sometimes - REO Speedwagon
No Matter What - Badfinger
You Never Take Me Dancing - Travis Tritt
Unwritten - Natasha Beddington
Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Strange Way - Firefall
Heard it Through the Grapevine - Michael McDonald
Yelling at the Christmas Tree - Billy Idol
Yesterday Once More - The Carpenter
Where Do the Children Go? - The Hooters

Sure hope the rain holds off so we can do sparklers tonight......later...