1.  On the 4th we went to our small community parade.  At the end, it's a water parade and everyone gets into this major water fight.  It's a blast!  Then we celebrated that evening with DH's family, which was really cool because his nephew and wife that lived with us for one summer in Denver was visiting from Arizona and his nephew who is battling cancer got to be there.  It was a great day, and I'm so grateful for all my blessings and my freedom.
And yes, I took one float picture -- I couldn't resist and knew I had to post it for brian_ohio  even though his blog is on an official hiatus :(


2.  This week I've been working a lot on revisions of previous novels and writing my WIP -- except it seems I keep coming back to this one scene in my WIP and rewriting it.  I've got about 5 versions of the same scene now and can't decide which is better.  This character could easily react different ways if pushed, hence the different versions.  I think I'm feeling insecure about myself as a writer.  I've read some really awesome stuff by many of my lj friends and others the past two weeks (kudos to olmue  for one -- her ms was super amazing) and I'm doing that icky comparison thing that comes as human nature.  I know all I can do is my best and hope it's enough, but still . . .
I am truly inspired by you guys and your talents.  You all make me want to be better!    I've had fun working on the revisions even if I feel in a bit of a Groundhog Day rut with my WIP.  :)

3.  I ran into one of my Colorado friends here on Tuesday.  It was so fun to see her!  And such a surprise! Then on Wednesday morning, my son's best friend growing up (since they were like 4) came with his family to stay with us.  I only got to visit with his mom for about an hour or so because they still had a long drive back to Colorado ahead of them that day...but it was lovely.  I miss her.  She is also one of my best friends.  And I keep looking at my son's friend and sighing.  I told him I feel like I should hug him everytime I see him (luckily, he's a very good natured teenager and knows me well -- he just grins and says it's a mom thing).  Then today, my dear friend robinellen is off to ALA.  I'd really hoped to join her but it didn't work out for me (long before my son's friend decided to come).  I'm so very excited for her and hope she has a great time.  But as much as I want to go meet all of you that are there and some of my favorite lj authors and get new ARCs (which I really, really wanted to do), honestly, more than anything, I wanted to go just to see Robin.
So to sum it up...I've been quite homesick this week.  I really miss all my great Colorado friends...which seems kind of odd to be homesick when I am in theory home.  :)  But just know I'm thinking of you and so grateful to have such awesome friends.  Hope all you ALAers have a blast.

4.  Summer!  I love the freedom of summer.  Yesterday, we just blew everything off, went swimming with cousins and friends, BBQd with my family (my sister and neice are in town from Florida), played night games with all the kids outside in the neighborhood...and just enjoyed summer!  I feel a field trip coming on...I need to go see what fun things we can do next week.

Hmm, I guess I only really have four this week.  I should change my title to Friday Four. 

5.  DH is off traveling again . . . gone for several weeks.  Maybe I'll actually finish my WIP and my valances (blushes, I've had the fabric for a year).  But ah, here's my number 5...I did finish getting the wild jungle known as my yard all ripped out, mulched, planted and whipped into shape this week (it was the project on the burner as soon as I finished camp).  So success!  Ha!  I guess now it's kind of a Friday Six!  Wish I'd taken some before pictures so that an after picture would mean something.  Oh well.

I'll stop while I'm ahead and don't completely bore you.

Enjoy your weekend!