4th of July

Did you read where at the big fireworks show in San Diego there was a malfunction that caused all the fireworks to go off at once?  People were complaining about it (of course), but I think it would have been pretty cool to see.  One lady said, "We waited out for three hours in the cold."  The cold?  Really?  How cold was it lady?  60 degrees?  (I just checked..it was 66 degrees). And you would have gotten that 17 minutes of your life back with the added bonus of no crick in your neck.

As it was, we traveled up to Wisconsin a few days before the 4th.  It was kind of a last minute thing, so we just packed up the car to the gills and took off for big adventure and the hopes of cheese curds.  

Actually, Brendan was working, so the big adventure Brixton and I had was at H&M where I got the little b a few fall goodies, including a gray cardigan with old man diamond shapes on it.  Not sure if that's the technical term for it, but that is what I'm going with.  

The truth is, we are scouting out potential places for our next move--the move that will also include the purchase of our family home and hopefully also involves my two dreams: putting the Christmas tree up in the same place year after year and having chickens (a dream I've had for five years).  

Wisconsin holds a few different locations that are on our radar, but we are also reconsidering a few places in Illinois, which makes me gulp and get kind of sweaty, since settling in Illinois sounds so...scary.  But we talked a lot on our trip about the simple beauty here--the gently rolling hills covered in corn, the pumpkin farms in the fall, the cozy winter nights, catching fireflies in the summer.  

And houses (with acres!) that are affordable.

Well, we enjoyed our short time in Wisconsin before heading down to my secret shopping wonderland DeKalb, Illinois.  I trudged through the 95 degree heat with Brixton while we looked around.  Again, Brendan was working so we had a few hours to kill.  

At our hotel, Brendan took Brixton swimming while I sat on the couch and stared at  nothing.  That's how it felt anyway.  I think I may have read, but I have no memory of that.  On the actual fourth, we went to a BBQ at the friendly home of one of the people Brendan works with.  

I was in baby heaven there as there was a 3.5 month old girl and a 2 week old boy.  I got to hold the girl and Brendan got all nervous and twitchy.  She was so cute!  I'd forgotten how light infants are and the gummy smile!  Ahhhhh!

We had good conversation, good food, and Brixton even got to splash around in the water a bit.  At the end of the evening there were fireworks and fireflies and discussions of faith.  Also, a lot of hot sticky humidity.  It was so hot, y'all.  

On our drive back to Chicago the temperature gauge read 109 degrees at one point.  I thought of all the people in the city that had no air conditioning.  What do they do?  How do they cope?  I am certainly thankful and blessed. 

And guess how many pictures I took on my big girl camera?  Not even one.  Sometimes you just have to live in the moment.