We were in Toledo with Joel and Stephanie, and Sophia was tasting her first corn on the cob. The idea of moving to the Show-Me-State wasn’t a speck in any of our minds. Now all six of us, plus one, are living here, in much different roles. What a difference a year makes.
On Saturday night, we gathered at our new friend Kim’s house … with seven kids ranging from 7 years to 7 weeks old running and jumping and stumbling from one end of the yard to the other. With so many kids in that age range -- and so many toys to share -- there were meltdowns abound.
We downed burgers fresh from the grill. The kids jumped on the trampoline and played wiffle ball. We caught fireflies (At one point Phoebe, who was walking barefoot, accidentally stepped on one and suddenly was walking with a glowing heel).
It was a Fourth of July backyard barbecue at its best.
* * *
Despite our late night and having to deal with a crabbier-than-usual Phoebe, our church experience couldn't have gone better on Sunday morning ...
We ate lunch. And then each of us retired to separate rooms. I landed on our bed, and fell asleep as the Reds pummeled the Cubs.
In the meantime, it poured ... all ... day ... long. The weather forecast on Sunday morning gave a 90 percent chance of rain for Sunday and a 100 percent chance of rain for Monday.
For dinner, Kates cooked up some pineapple teriyaki burgers, which became a huge favorite of ours the night Joel and Stephanie served them up in Toledo last summer.
We had Phoebe in bed by 8. And then Kates and I settled in for a showing of “Independence Day,” completing the deal we made last year ... We actually made an emergency run to the video store Saturday night to get a copy of it because we couldn't find it in any of our moving boxes.
After all these years, I still think it's a classic. Watching the dynamic ensemble cast and the way the character relationships develop thrilled me from the first night I saw the film in a movie theater on its opening night. Ask Kates, I was like a giddy teenage boy all over again Saturday night ... It's the movie that made Will Smith a film star ... Jeff Goldblum's David and Judd Hirsch's Julius is arguably the best pairing of the movie ... Above all, the explosions, destruction and special effects actually appear real -- a far cry from today's money-for-nothing blockbusters. A musing Kates and I shared a couple times while we watched "Independence Day."
* * *
Today, we've soaked up a morning of sleeping in and a day away from work ... We also traveled to St. Joe -- or as Kates calls it, civilization -- for a day of shopping.
Traveling 40 minutes to shop at Target is going be an adjustment.
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