What I love about July 2010!

Happy 4th of July!!! Just remembering those who have served and are continuing to fight for our freedom today! Thank you to all those men and women!

Well, I'm kinda bummed this morning because I really should be in downtown Atlanta watching my husband and son-in-law run the Peachtree Road Race. But guess who came down with something, I'm not sure what, last night and feels yucky? Yes, me. I started running a fever about 6:00 p.m. and from then on I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. Who knows? I went to bed and feel some better this morning but could hardly get up at 4:30 a.m. when the alarm went off to go to the road race. I've been getting updates from E as she is quite the woman and went down with her in-laws at the crack of (before) dawn to cheer them on. Let me just say this, I'm quite impressed with my husband. He is one disciplined man. He eats only healthy foods and exercises on a regular basis. He's running a 9-minute mile and he's . . . 50-something. :). I can't wait to hear how it went!

I have so much to tell you that went on last week but I'm going to control myself and save that for another day!

So, what up in July?

1. Today, of course is the 4th! We are planning on going out on the boat this evening, having dinner there and then watching the fireworks on the water. There are several of us going so my contribution involves grilled vegetables, a green salad and the paper products. So I thought I would be festive and do this:

After that, I really got in the spirit and decided to do some chocolate covered "sparklers" (inspired by Martha Stewart). I'll give these as favors for all to take home.

Here's D's official "badge of honor" for the road race this morning.

2. This week is loaded with tons of good stuff on the calendar: Bible study, shopping with E, meeting with a young lady who I'm honored to mentor, a hair cut (woohoo!), office work, radio station, etc. Life is good and so fun!

3. Then on Friday and Saturday, we are headed down to LaGrange for a wedding! We love our job so much! I'm so excited about this wedding I can hardly stand it. The bride's family is from Gainesville but the bride went to school in LaGrange and met her groom there. Oh, they are doing some very cool stuff . We are helping with the Bridal Luncheon, held at her sorority house and it has a Lily Pulitzer theme, which I adore. Then we'll be working with the reception, held at their local country club. In addition to all of the traditional elements, she is adding an ice cream bar and photo booth. I just love how every bride's vision for her wedding is different. We are so blessed to be a part of this weekend with this family.

4. I will return late late on Saturday night only to leave at 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning to go on VACATION!!!!! I can hardly wait! We are headed to Orlando and will have a few days of fun in the sun before the Georgia Food Industry Convention begins on Wednesday. It is so fun. You want to know the best part? All of my children are going! At one point in the planning, none of them could go. I love it - one week of fun with the family! yea! The best bagger from the store and her friends are going to come down to participate in the best bagger contest on Thursday night. And that is a blast! I'm so ready for this week I can hardly stand it!

5. Later in the month, we'll head down to the Mart in Atlanta to do some heavy duty buying for the WindowShop. It's time to think about Christmas so we'll be knee-deep in trees, wreaths, Santas and ornaments right here in the middle of July.

6. I've got to admit the rest of the month is pretty quiet which is just fine because August is already proving to be quite the busy month. I have some cleaning goals for those last two weeks of July. Our home office is a mess. Things are begging to be cleaned and organized. This will be a project but it has to be done.

Also, I am finally finishing up the guest bedroom (E's old room). G has agreed to take on the painting portion of this project for which I am extremely grateful. My goal is for the room to be completed by the end of the month. I got a beautiful bed from the Paula Deen collection. I also have a chair and bench in there but they both need to be recovered. I have a nightstand/table that I got at a yard sale that I love but it needs to be repainted. So there is lots of work to be done.

Have a safe and wonderful 4th!!