JULY

I leave after work today for Destin! YAY! Five days in heaven here I come! Don't you just love all the exclamation points!!!!

Basically, a perfect day for me is a long walk on the beach in the early morning, picking up seashells and sand dollars, followed by breakfast. I am on the beach by 9:30/10ish with book in hand--Jimmy Buffett is on the radio--Dad brings lunch down to the beach so Mom and I don't miss any sunshine time (we tan with our serious face on). After lunch, its margarita time! There is lots of swimming, but I don't like to go TOO deep. There are WAY too many things with teeth in the ocean and I don't want to be featured on Animal Planet in NATURE ATTACKS, or something like that. Eventually, I come in and shower, more batches of margs are made, and then I feast on fabulous seafood somewhere, preferably crab cakes or stuffed shrimp. I enjoyed blackened fish as well, grouper or mahi mahi (spelling?). Perhaps I split some raw oysters with John beforehand. Don't you want to come with me?

The 4th of July was great fun. John did buy me some firecrackers and sparklers! We boated and ATE, hung out with friends and family, and ATE. In fact, most of the weekend involved a lot of eating, and my stomach has not been right for two days...



One of my very best friends got engaged on July 3rd, Alana Brown, to her boyfriend Kyle Whistle. Alana is my oldest friend, we go back to infantile days because our mothers worked together. She is my red headed friend. We did everything together when we were little. We were in EVERY elementary class together, save fifth grade, and rode together on the first day of school. We had matching outfits, which we would coordinate and wear on the same day. We went on vacations together with our families. We shared a love of horses, which for Alana evolved into a life long passion. As children, we planned on being veterinarians who lived on big farms out west in Colorado, which would be next door to each other of course. We would have the same number of kids and they would all be the same age and best friends. In many ways, and I know it sounds cliche, but we were more like sisters than friends. No one could make me more mad than Alana, probably even to this day, and vice versa I'm sure, but at the end of the day, we didn't want anyone else to be mean to the other. It was an instinctive loyalty. I'm sure many of you had childhood friendships like this, I hope that yours have lasted into adulthood like mine have. She'll be a beautiful bride (you should see the rock on her left hand) and I wish her and Kyle a lifetime of happiness and lots of red headed babies!

AND it is Alana's Birthday today...Happy 24th Lou!