It's July 5th. A significant day for us on a few levels. First of all, it is the day hubby and I decided we would discuss whether or not we'd continue with the adoption. We have had a really bad June with too much heartbreak to mention here. So 3 weeks ago we agreed to give it three weeks to play out and see where we stood. I'm happy to say that I think we are standing strongly on two feet. So onward forward. I think we'll have a referral in the next 3 weeks.

Also we were supposed to hear about our home equity loan by this date. Last week we heard that it should be out of underwriting this week and hopefully there is still a chance we could build our deck this summer. This is great on multiple levels but feels just like a luxury, either way. It has been a mild bummer to live in this beautiful house with such difficult access to our own back yard. Our kitchen has this great doorwall onto the back yard with one big snag - it's 20 feet off the ground :-) So it's time. I hope.

And last, we are now beyond the christmas-birthdays-holiday rush that happens from October - July. From now until October, it is essentially smooth sailing. No planning, no parties, no holiday rush, no preparation. We can just enjoy the summer and wait for our referral, plan our travel and then probably take off for Vietnam just in time for the 2006-2007 holiday rush to start up again in October :-)

We had a really busy holiday weekend. We ended up hitting three different fireworks over the past few days. We lucked out with timing, parking, leaving, the whole bit. Until last night. It was the strangest thing. The MINUTE the first firework was exploding in the sky, a whole bunch of people booked it to their cars to leave. What was the point of coming only to leave as soon as the 'works began?!?! Well, we soon learned, first hand, what the benefit of this is. We hit the worst post-fireworks traffic EVER last night but we made it home around 12:30 (2 hours after the 'works ended), finally. Crazy.

Otherwise we had a great day yesterday. We went to our old stomping grounds, visited a local fair and bought the cutest little sign for christmas that has each of our kids' names on it, including our new baby! So now her name is official, signed in ink :-) We went home and made a huge fruit salad, grilled some shrimp and mushrooms and had rice pudding and jalepano potato chips. A strange combination, yes. But yummy.

Bring on the holiday-less season!