God Bless America...

Oh, the 4th of July.

Gotta love it. Good times. Good friends. And fireworks. The house got a flag in celebration. Kinda makes me want to say the Pledge of Allegiance. We spent the day hanging out with Kelly and then walked down our street, literally, to the town's fireworks display and celebration with our neighbors, J.J., Jena and Finn. 

Finn, me and Kelly waiting for the show to begin...

Kis, as Finn refers to him, was also ready...

Awesome...

Getting even better...

Pretty darn spectacular...

And, um...what is that? A new kind of firework? A UFO? Nope, a two year-old with glow sticks. "You have one? Kis have one?"

"You want to know how I fixed it?"

What is "it"? Um, the garage door opener that's been on the fritz since the weather hit the close-to-zero temperatures this past winter. Every morning since, it's been a balancing act of travel coffee cups, purses (me only no murses here), bags and lunches while lifting the heavy wooden garage door to get out. 


After we got home from our church's Easter service, we chatted with our neighbors in the backyard. Two year-old Finn told Chris "We need grass" for our yard that is currently dirt (with slight prompting by a speech-pathologist...) and practiced mowing the yards with the bubble mower, on both speeds of course- bunny and turtle. 

During our chat, J.J. asked if we'd gotten garage door opener to work yet. Um, nope. We were pretty sure it had bitten the dust and had been saving to buy a new one. Insert historical data here: It had stopped working once before this and J.J. fixed it by adjusting the down force on the motor. 

Ladder and Finn in tow, Chris and J.J. headed off into the garage to check for a pulse in the good ol' opener. Turns out it had one. Which is when the question was posed "You want to know how I fixed it?" by J.J. with a grin from ear to ear. Sheepishly, Chris and I responded "Uh huh." His response, still grinning, "The lock was on. I just hit the button and unlocked it." Seriously? Seriously? I was suddenly having flashbacks of almost-spilled cups of coffee all winter. Then the financial part of my brain realized that J.J. just saved us $250. For a savings of $250, I will eat crow any day. I am not perfect. But I am $250 richer, technically.

Why do I blog about these crazy moments that make us look a bit loco? Because I have a sense of humor. You have to. We have to. Everyone who decides to renovate a vintage home has to. And if you don't, you'll be walking around with a permanent look of consternation.

No mower, no problem

So, Chris and I don't currently own a lawn mower. You'd think this may be a bit of a problem, you know, to cut the few patches of grass amidst the weeds that make up our "lawn". Nope. Just move in to the house where the neighbor is so used to cutting the lawn for *grandma* (the 98 year old lady who lived in our house) that he will continue to mow it out of habit. True story. He just keeps going from his yard to ours. Awww, neighbors that take pity on us newbies to the home-owning game. IT'S GREAT! We had a cook-out with our neighbors last Saturday and their 18 month old son, playing with his toy lawn mower/bubble blower, starting walking it right across our yard.