Oh, Life...

...I have 2 good friends who are having upheavals of sorts in their lives. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Our high school youth is in ECUADOR right now. I'm jealous, and I know that they're having an awesome time. I can't wait for them to come back so I can hear all about it and see pictures!

This year was my first FULL Fourth of July at home since 2001. Yes, you read that right: 2001. I've been at camp every summer since then. and the 4th had fallen in the middle of a session every year till last year when they started a week earlier. Last year, you may remember, the 4th was on a Friday, which meant that it fell on the last day of a session. So I was home that night, but not all day. That was weird, too, though. Every year prior, I would shoot off fireworks the weekend before the Fourth with the hubs (who wasn't the hubs yet) and an assortment of international staff members from camp.

A family in my church owns a firework stand in St. Pete and we always bought from them. on the 4th, the hubby and I went to his step-sister's and shot off a whole bunch of stuff, even in the rain and the lightning (I know, we're bright...). then last night, we went to the family that owns the stand and watched them shoot off a bunch of leftover inventory. (They have to buy all of their product, so what they don't sell they save for next year as well as shoot it off at this annual show.) It was pretty cool. They were exploding all these cool fireworks and we were having a pretty good time. No fatalities, though a shell did fly over and hit my friend's boyfriend's chest and burned him a little bit. Here are some photos I got on my little Canon digital point and shoot. (Not too bad, if I say so myself!)

**You'll have to click on the photos to see all of it... even when I make them "small," Blogspot doesn't seem to want to make them blog-friendly!**

I'm pretty sure we shot off just about all of these:


B and J setting up the Grand Finale:





Oh, by the way, the shop put in new grounding wires on my car's starter and it's working now. hopefully it stays that way! LOL. (knock wood!!

And Now I'm 23...

My birthday was yesterday, in case nobody knew that. It was a pretty good day, despite it being on Super Bowl Sunday. (By the way, this is the second time my birthday has been the day of the Big Game... the NFL needs to get off my date!) Church in the morning, then Jerometook me to Olive Garden for lunch. We spent some time at home and then I went to my dad's girlfriend's house to watch the Super Bowl. I was planning on only watching the commercials (many of which were AMAZING), but the game obviously got my attention. I was also enjoying asking my dad what all the penalties meant 'cause he would pretend to get real mad. hee hee. He was rooting for the Cardnials and while he was disappointed in the results, he was not disappointed that the game was such a good game.

As for the commercials, here are four of my favorites:


For Monster.Com


For Bridgestone.Com


Also for Bridgestone.Com


For Doritos.

Which ones did you like? Let me know in my comments!

I have a job fair this week. I'll be interviewing with 7 local districts. I'm really excited. I've also contacted a bunch of local private/Christian schools to see how their application process works (if they just want my resume, etc. Many of them have said that they aren't sure they're hiring next year but that they would keep my resume on file in case anything opens up. I want a teaching job so badly, even though I'm nervous as heck to get my own class. (Not because I think I'll do badly, just because I've never had my OWN classroom, you know?)

I might be going to Ecuador with our high school youth this summer and I am soooooooo excited! It all depends on how generous people are at our wedding because that will depend on how much debt we pay off, which will influence how much money we can save each week. J is sweet, though. I was telling our youth coordinator that if both of us can't go, neither of us will go 'cause I would feel bad. J basically said that I'm going, even if he has to pack my bags for me, shove me out the door, and change the locks so I don't come back in. Ain't he sweet?