Two for Tuesday: What I love about the 4th

of July that is!

Every year when we talk about our plans for the fourth of July, my Dad and I always have the same answer. We like to go to a town nearby. They have a parade, and a craft fair, and carnival food, and a really good fireworks display. So yesterday, none of us had to work (shock!) so we went over pretty early in the afternoon and made a day of it. It was so much fun that I had to share what I love the most.

1. Fireworks. I love them. I forgot my camera this year, so I don't have any pictures. But fireworks are amazing! The skill and science that goes into creating them and putting the show together and coordinating it with the music - it blows my mind! They're beautiful, intense, and entertaining!

2. The sense of  community. My Dad and I love going to this town because it's just that - a community! And everyone who comes on July 4th is a part of that. They've got the softball teams and the gymnastic groups and old tractors and the Civil War reenactors and the bands from the high school marching band to the seniors brass band sitting in the back of a wagon - all in the parade. It's so cute and fun and interesting. And when it gets dark and everyone gathers around the lake and there are people everywhere you look and you chat with the family behind you and share glow sticks and hold your breath as those first "test" rockets go off. Then the music starts and the show starts and everyone is united in such a unique way. They always play the same (or very similar) set of songs during the firework show and I love it, but this year there was a problem with the sound system. In the middle of the first chorus of "God Bless the USA" the sound cut out and there was a universal "HEY!" of frustration from the crowd. After a few seconds it came back on, but during the second chorus it cut out again. But that time, everyone just kept singing. It was a really special moment to have hundreds of people singing through the song.

I am proud to be an American and I am glad to live in this country! So here's a little music to continue the 4th for you :D



Next weekend our town does their fireworks display. I like that they spread it out so I can go to more than one!

Camp NaNoWriMo? Don't Mind if I Do!

First off, HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY to all of my readers also in the States. I think this is my favorite holiday. At least my second favorite.

Have a cupcake on me :)

But it's also Monday, so on to some writerly thing :)

Have you guys seen this Camp NaNo thing? It's basically the November version, but in July and without its own forums and such. At least so far. But it is a nice option for people that are insanely busy in November.

I managed to do and win NaNo in November (Do NOT ask me how. It was insane), but I had such plans for writing over the summer.

Thus far I have written approximately 0 words.
ugh.

So I decided to do Camp NaNo as a way to kickstart myself back into writing.

I'm working with the novel I started in November, but the thing needs a complete rewrite. As in I can't use anything really that I wrote before. So I figured why not take the accountability of NaNo and that word counter to give myself the motivation to get started. I love this story and I'm starting to get itchy because I can't get going on it.

How about you? Done any writing or revising this summer? Planning on joining Camp NaNo? What do you do to motivate yourself when you just don't want to write?

Fourth Fun!

I absolutely ADORE the 4th of July!

It's one of my favorite holidays. I consider myself patriotic and I feel extremely blessed to have been born in America.

I especially love the small town celebrations and parades. They have such a wonderful feel to them. There's one town I love to go to and it's been a couple of years since we made it over there, so I was so excited to go this year.

They have a parade where everyone gets involved... there are the mayor and people like that in the cool classic cars.

Of course, the homemade floats are always fun. Like this boat

Or the Boy Scouts 100th anniversary float

Then there are the historical societies and marching bands...

I love the little old men and their swing music. They're there every year.

More floats - a flying eagle!

And a dragon. A number of the floats had people armed with water guns that they tried to douse the crowd with.

This cool milk truck had a horn that sounded like a cow! It was the most amazing thing evar! I so want a horn like that!

These girls were SO cute - the tumblers on the first float doing flips and somersaults and handsprings WHILE the float was MOVING! so talented!

And these wee ones on the bar... so very ADORABLE!

As it got dark I pulled out the glow sticks that I had bought earlier this week. It's amazing how much fun you can have with a 15 pack of glow sticks. I got a bunch of tubes of them so we could each have one. You should have seen how excited Mom got when I told her the whole tube was for her. Even Dad got into it and we were having WAY too much fun. Dad would crack two different colors just on the end and hold them up so the light would slowly spread to see which moved faster. If you crack them a little bit at a time you can see the chemical reaction and it almost looks like something out of a Harry Potter movie or something - all this smokey light waving around on its own.

I made a halo 0:)

And bracelets

And a chain that Naomi had fun playing with :D

Then the fireworks started. They always put on a stellar show and play patriotic music in the background. It's so great. I love a good fireworks show. I actually got some pretty good pictures...

And here's a video of the Grand Finale! I can't tell if it's working or not, so if it isn't, my apologies and I'll try to fix it tomorrow. Or later today, actually.

I'm still going to be doing Day 1 of my BEA Bonanza! So check back later for the first day's giveaway!

Happy 4th!

I know I don't usually post on Sundays, but I just wanted to say

Happy Independence Day to all of you living with me in the US of A!

And Happy 4th of July to everyone else (because you should have a good day even if it doesn't happen to be a holiday in your country!)

And to say that I'm sorry my commenting and posting have been spastic. I totally miss you guys and I miss posting ramblings and I'm going to do better I promise! I may do my own challenge of some sorts (kind of like the A-Z challenge Lee hosted back in April) just to get my creative juices flowing again.

And I'm going to kick that off with (FINALLY) my BEA Bonanza Giveaways! It all starts tomorrow, so be sure to check back ... and it lasts ALL WEEK LONG!

(craziness I know.)

Well, I have to run, so talk to you later, lovelies!