Friday’s Odds and Ends

I decided to stay away from the news most of this week, therefore I have nothing snarky to say about anything going on in politics or otherwise. Kind of a nice change of pace for me, and certainly better for my blood pressure.

Most of this week was devoted to family. As I said Monday, we all usually gather for the Fourth of July out here in the country, and everyone came, except our middle son and his family. They were in Seattle on the Fourth and built a snowman on Mt. Rainer. How cool is that? I mean really. It was nice and cool for them while the rest of the nation has been sweltering. That family lives in Austin, so it was a real treat for the kids to play in the snow and throw snowballs at Dad and Mom.

Back home on the ranch, the rest of the kids, their spouses, and one grandson were here for the cook-out and fireworks. Some of them came early in the week, and almost everyone stayed until late in the day yesterday. It sure was fun having them all here.

We are in the one small section of East Texas that has had enough rain we are not in a drought zone. I’m sure that could change any time if we don’t get rain soon, but we did manage to have a small fireworks show, which is what our son-in-law and one of our sons are usually in charge of. This year our grandson was invited to help them, and his mother said he had been waiting for years to be able to join the uncles in this yearly ritual.

Here are a few shots from this year.

This was one of those accidental shots that actually turned out pretty nice.

This was one of those close to the ground fireworks. The center got too bright to catch the detail

I liked this shot best. Looks like feathers.

This looks a little like confetti.

On Monday the annual Youth Drama Camp starts and runs for two weeks. I may not be posting much or even visiting the blog very often until after it is finished. The camp is all day, every day, with performances the final weekend. There is always a lot to do during the hours the kids are there, as well as later in the day and evening preparing for the performances, so that keeps me very busy.

On another note, my romantic suspense novel, One Small Victory, is one of  four finalists for Book of the Month at iBookBuzz.com. It was chosen by the book club membership out of all the submissions, and I was quite thrilled to be selected as a finalist. I am also very excited to see that the book is staying at the top in the number of votes. Voting is not restricted to members of the club, so if you would like to help me stay at the top, here is a link to vote.  Voting runs through July 17th.