For the Love of Fireworks

I love fireworks. I guess you could say I am a fireworks "aficionada". We have a great party every July. We usually serve hamburgers, hot dogs, lots of sides, desserts, and all the soft drinks you can drink. We also blow up probably about $1,000 or more in fireworks. Don't you love it?

To support our fireworks habit, we have been selling fireworks for about 12 years (maybe more, I have lost track!). That lets us pay for the fireworks we set off and usually do something fun with the rest of the money. This year we are going to use the $$ towards our little jaunt to Florida in a couple of weeks.

The party this year was awesome as usual. Although this year, we did not serve dinner to our guests, only desserts. I was not quite up to handling the dinner this year (as a result of my surgery) so we changed things up just a bit. Sure hope no one minded...

I think everyone had a good time. Here are a couple of shots of part of the crowd that was there. I think there were around 80. Everyone brings their lawn chairs. They sit, they eat, they drink, they visit with each other. All of the kids runs and around and play.

David and I mingle the best we can while getting the food and drinks ready, handing out goodies to the kids, setting up the fireworks display, etc.

Then the show starts and WOW what a show. We keep track of the best fireworks we have seen and those are the ones that make into our show. We are just a little picky and won't just blow up any old thing. It's fun to hear all the comments about the fireworks and watch everyones reactions. Alyssa thinks this is "old hat" as they say. I guess she has been around fireworks her whole life and she thinks this is normal. Well who's to say what is normal ?

The project

Hello, I see you... Do you see me? I am peeking out the newly installed doors on the never ending building project going on in our backyard. Wow, it has come a long way in the last year. My handy-dandy hubby David has worked and worked and worked to get it up and useable. (Along with some wonderful helpers who have volunteered their time!) We are getting so close to have it fully enclosed.

The plan is to use it to store our new camping trailer. Wait...we don't own a trailer. Oh that's right, we have to have a place to store it before we can get it. It has a high ceiling on the "trailer" side and a two story section on the other side. See here's a photo from just a couple of months ago. You can kind of see the inside of the shop to see what I am talking about. Sometimes it is amazing to look at this huge structure and think that this was done by these talented and wonderful guys! A big thanks to all of them who have given so freely of their time - though I think they really do enjoy the building part of it. It's a guy thing. Hey once in a while we get the girls involved if we really need some extra arms.

One of these days it will be completely finished and we will be able to enjoy all of the extra space it will provide! I hope to get a little of that space to store some of all my extra stuff that is taking up room in the house and in the garage. It's funny, people who know where we live always ask about the shop and how it is coming along. We live next to a well traveled road and lots of people drive by everyday and have watched it's progress. I will be at Wal-Mart and someone will say, "Wow, your shop is coming along" or "Boy, that shop is sure big". It's fun to hear all of their comments. Sometimes I do the same thing, I step out into the yard and think "mercy" that is one big building.