Happy Independence Day!

I'm a day late but I ran too much yesterday to blog! I have pictures of our day but they are not available right now. I'll add them later in the week. I'll stick some from the phone here for now but they're crappy!

My youngest brother, Ed, carried the flag for the National Guard in the parade at DeSoto, Missouri. My mom, Julianne, & I watched the parade with Ed's wife, Denise, and his daughter, Aubrey. I hadn't seen Aubrey since Christmas and couldn't believe how much she's grown up! She's still not to big for Aunt Cyndi to hold her and carry her and I do both every chance I get! We were all so proud of Ed. It's hard to take a picture with your hand over your heart but we managed. After the parade we went with my cousin, Dan, (didn't hook up with him for the parade) to lunch. That was fun. I haven't seen Ed since before he left for basic training in January. He went to ATI training directly from there. I've missed him! We had a joyful reunion and I got my Aubrey fix. Life is good. Ed is the cute one, second from the right, with the Missouri flag.

I talked to Aubrey on the phone not long ago and promised to make her a doll blanket. She wanted a red one (a kid after my own heart!). Realizing Thursday night that I was going to see her the next morning I frantically ran looking for red baby yarn and ended up with Yarn Bee's Cameo in a gorgeous red called Carnelian. I am using size 11 needles and just knitting the whole thing. I worked on it some while I waited to meet up with the others before the parade and some at lunch. Aubrey had to help. There is a hole in the rows that she did but I can't take her stitches out. Her baby will just catch a draft. Aubrey likes the blanket so much she said that she would be under it. I don't think it's big enough for that, but who am I to judge?

After lunch Julianne & I hooked up with my other brother, Jim, at our gym. Julianne & I joined it about six or seven weeks ago with the intention of going 3-4 times a week--which we were faithfully doing. She has been at camp or Granny's house for the last three weeks but Jim has been going with me. He finally just joined himself, too. He dragged my fat heinie there every night while Julianne was gone! It's cool, though, because I'm really seeing results. Now that I can see it working I want to go more often. My mom said I looked "narrower" at the parade. COOL!

Julianne, Jim, & I ate dinner out and then went downtown to watch fireworks under the Arch. That was so nice! We have the most gorgeous fireworks display here in St. Louis that I can imagine! Jim had never seen our downtown display. He declared it almost as nice as Pilot Knob!