July 5th or December 26?

Hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th. Our Kimball get-together went great. Bobby and his family didn't get to come, so we didn't have nearly as many people as we did last year. We missed them and they missed a lot of good food and a lot of fun.

We always ask Eli to say our blessing. He does such a good job. I should make a video sometime so y'all can hear it. It's absolutely priceless. You can certainly tell he's a little boy that's taken to church on Sundays.
Jeff and I really worked hard getting ready for everyone. We did some things in the yard and around the pool that I've been wanting to do for a while. It was good to get everything done, but boy, were we tired.

This is me, my mom and Jeff's mom, Jean. Wish we would've posed for a better picture. I haven't had one with the two of them and me made in a while.

Cam and Reid patiently waiting for their turn in line to eat. Cam likes to aggravate the stew out of me by not smiling for pictures, so excuse the confused look on his face.
Crystal shucked and boiled 30 ears of corn. They were good and I appreciate her doing that for me. I did it last year and it was one heck of a job.

Suz and Jason in an unposed picture. Love it.Here's Hannah Leigh Kimball. She's five years old. That's Luke and Libby's little girl. Isn't she precious? She has PaPa Kimball's big blue eyes, but also resembles MaMa too. She's got the cutest southern drawl you've ever heard. She can take a one-syllable word and turn it into two or three. I wish they could've seen her. She'd be rotten. They loved their grandchildren and great grandchildren. And she lives close enough, she could've visited them a lot. They passed away the year Hannah Leigh was born. Here's my handsome Ross. He had gone to the lake the day before and gotten way too much sun. In other words, he was as red as a lobster! If it weren't for that, he'd have been in the pool throwing all the kids. They love it when he gets in. He throws them high and they get on him like a ride at the fair. Poor fellow. You can tell Jeff was pooped. He's still getting over the creeping crud of a cold or whatever it is. Jason, Eli, Hannah Leigh and Alayna. Cam throws the kids too. Here's Alayna and him getting ready for a game of chicken or whatever you call that game. Luke, Libby and Hannah Leigh. Bandit came out and joined the party. We discovered that she LOVES watermelon. I think it was because it was ice cold and so refreshing.After she would eat it, she'd roll around in the grass where the melon had been. I think that's how she shows her doggie love.My Pop and Jeff's dad, Ed . My Pop and his best girl, Alayna.
After everyone left, Jeff and I quickly got ready to go to another party. The house we went to looked like something out of a magazine. It was absolutely gorgeous. They had gone to Alabama to get some fireworks and it was quite a show. They've just done a whole bunch of stuff to their yard. Here are a few pictures.This is their garden. They had the healthiest tomato plants. This is just a cool picture I took after dark. So yesterday was such a big letdown of a day. I was as blue as if it were December 26th. What was up with that? Did anyone else feel let down? I guess it was just all the excitement before the holiday and then, poof, it was over. In my mind, even though I can look at the calendar and see that summer is only beginning, I just feel like it's over. And here in Georgia, the days stay hot well into September, so we have really long summers. My thought is that since my beach vacations are over and the 4th of July is over, my brain is thinking my summer is gone. I was really in a funk yesterday. Next year, I'm going to stagger my vacations a little more. Maybe not take the family one until sometime in July. Ross will be finished with school by then, so we won't have to work around his school schedule.

All this time I've been priding myself on being so healthy and having such a good immune system. Cam was sick for weeks with that cough thing. Then Jeff got it, started getting better, then had a complete relapse. Well, I didn't escape the wrath of that germ after all. I've got it now and it's kicking my butt. I feel like someone's choking me, standing on my chest and beating me in the head all at the same time. It's a very brutal germ.

Speaking of germs, my laptop is still sick. I'm hoping I can get it back today. It's got my vacation pictures on it and I want to share some more of them on my blog.

Got a little court reporting work to do at home. I think work is a little slow this week. I guess lots of people are on vacation. Suz is leaving Friday for the beach. She's in full work mode this week. We have to work so hard getting our work out before we go, it takes about two days to finally relax once we're gone. She'll go next week, then Crystal and her family go the week after that. I'm always glad when we're all back together again.

Well, since I've spent a couple of hours uploading my 4th pictures and everything, I've got to get busy. I know it's Monday because I just spilled coffee in my keyboard.

Till tomorrow. Have a good one!