Happy Fourth Ya'll....

Whew...I am SO tired, so I will try to make this one short, allowing me to slip into bed.

Ok- first off, Friday I was not needed at Noah's Ark, so I ended up not volunteering, but rather staying home and making lunch for me and Tom and Ben. I also worked around home, took out the trash, and took a nap that was about two years over-due. I am really bad about taking naps when I need them, and I end up just worn out. I am always on the go, and it's hard for me to make time to stop in the middle of the day because I need to rest.

On Saturday, I got to Tom's around 10:15am to ride with the McFarlins to Atlanta to check out Tom's abode for next year. It needs a little work as far as painting and cleaning some of the things the previous dwellers left around, but overall, it is a great place for the guys to live. They each have their own bedrooms, closet space....or a place to hang things anyway, and there is a nice size kitchen, a large dining area, and a comfortable living room, with a free couch included. In fact the girls that lived there before left a LOT of random things...including some mold in the freezer. We are going up early on Saturday to start working on painting it and cleaning it, but lemme tell you- I AM NOT TOUCHING that freezer. UGH- it made me gag. lol. Ben and I kept opening it, and it really does produce the most entertaining faces- complete disgust is really interesting to look at. But the main thing they need to do before we get there is start up the power, and they are already on that, so it's all gravy. =) *wink*

Saturday afternoon, when we got back, Tom, Mr. Tommy, and I all washed our cars, and since I only wash mine about 3 or 4 times a year, it took me about 2 and a half hours, and that was with them doing the tires for me. It was worth it though, even if it did rain that night. (which didn't make me smile on the way home.) Everyone came over and we swam and watched the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring. We are going to try to watch all of the extended movies for The Lord of the Rings trilogy soon. They are some of the best movies to watch, but...whew- they are LONG.

Sunday, after church, Tom and my family (minus Kristen and James) went to the Crawfordville area to see my family at Aunt Mimi and Uncle Bert's house. That was a lot of fun- I love my family. Mema was down from Savannah, and I got to see so many cousins, their kids, my nephew and niece, and some aunts and uncles. Then of course, there were the dogs, horses, roosters, chickens, trampoline, and pool to keep us entertained outside. Tyler was so cute when he would say "cock-a-doodle-dooooooo!" for me when I imitated the rooster and told him to try it!! =) *smile* He and Maddie are both little fish in the water, so it was fun to play with them and Lindsey, my cousin Jennifer's six year old, in the pool. Tom, Jordan, and I left around 5:30 to head home, and then out to Tom's church. Everyone played volleyball, with a brief interruption from the rain that was just long enough for the ladies at the church to put us to work setting up chairs and tables for everyone at the Fourth of July BBQ the next day. We played some more after that, then we all headed to Tom's house to swim in the pool and hang out. That was followed by a trip to Waffle House- EWW. I hate Waffle House, and I am not a huge IHOP fan either, though it is much better than WH. Almost everyone I know likes one of those two places SOO much, and I just can't make myself like it. I wasn't hungry anyway, so I didn't pay for heartburn there and saved some money. Lacey needed a place to spend the night, so she came home with me, and we got there around 2:30AM or so- pretty late for me to arriving home, especially at my parent's house. But that was nothing compared to how late...or early rather....we were up. We ended up talking until about 7 in the morning. Poor Ben- we woke him up at 6:30am by sending him pictures of us that we were still not asleep. I didn't dare do that to Tom- I have no disire to wake up someone who goes to sleep human and wakes up as a grizzly bear if woken before his desired timing. But I had a great time hanging out with Lacey and catching up, and she is so fun to be friends with. We kept having to shush ourselves because we woke up my dad laughing about something around 3am and he was none too happy about it, and we didn't want to repeat that mistake.

Anyway, we decided we better try to sleep or we would be too tired all day, so we ended up oversleeping. Instead of arriving at 11:30 AM, we woke up at 11AM and got to the BBQ at about 1:17pm. Oh well....we weren't that hungry anyway. Tom, Ben, Lacey, Will, Robert Lee, Suzanne, and I all went to Tom and Ben's pool to swim/lay out and Tom and Will got pretty pink. I barely felt like I got any sun at all. After a while, we went down to the barn to listen to the boys jam on their instruments- super talented, so it was fun to listen to. We hung out at the house some then ate spaghetti (thanks Mrs. Patti!) and then went out for Bruster's ice cream after Travis, Beth, and Josh arrived. We came back to eat that and watch Ben set off some fireworks, which was fun, and then we all left pretty early for our group- about 10:15pm, but I was tired anyway, so I didn't complain. It definately was catching up to me that I had not slept but about four hours. So...that was my Fourth of July weekend. I know that the soldiers have a lot better things to do than get online and read my blog, but if one ever happens to stumble across it, I want it to be known that I am SO VERY VERY grateful for all that they are willing to do and give in order to let me enjoy the simple pleasures I had this weekend, and that Independence Day only survives because they give us so much, and I am aware of that and thanks so much. If you ever have served time in the military, in training, in any part of the government that makes America strong- thank you. I know that that includes several of my own relatives, and I do thank the Lord for them and for the fact that He has kept them safe.

I am going to finally get in bed, since this wasn't as short as I thought it would be...
Goodnight!
~Megs
ps- I am starting up a moblog, and once I figure it out, I will post some pictures from swimming at Amy and Ryan's pool to the fireworks that Ben did for us tonight. =)