This past 4th of July we were fortunate enough to spend with some family.  One of my husbands cousins and his family anyway.  We had a great time, with lots of food and fireworks!  Hubbys' cousins mom lives about an hour and a half from us.  He and his family drove to her house and we drove down to meet everyone.  It was really nice. Haven't been able to spend the 4th with family in so long.  So any family was nice.  Even if the majority of them weren't really family. It was nice to be around "a" family! 



What was really great was the son unit had lots of other kids to play with. Mostly boys, so he was in hog heaven, after being pretty much the only boy in the house and the neighborhood.  There is a little boy that lives across the street from us most of the time, (divorced parents so he splits his time between mom and dad) but he is my boys age. So when he is home, the boy has someone to play with.  Lately though, he hasn't been home much.  And with the girls still being in California, my son hasn't had much of anyone to play with lately.  So the 4th was really awesome for him!  He got to be an honest to goodness boy!  Play football, blow things up, and get really dirty!  Okay, so daddy and his cousins had just as much fun blowing things up as the little boys did watching them.  But hey, they are all boys no matter their ages! 



Those boys!  Started off small, then worked their way up to bigger booms!


We had these awesome rockets, that when fired up into the air, a little parachute guy exploded out of the tops.  These boys loved chasing them down. Each boy was able to collect a parachute prize!

Wait for it...
There!! Run, Run!!





Ahh, the treasures that were found!!


And the things that were blown up!



My little boy stuck to his daddy like a shadow...

When he wasn't leaping across burning hot lava, trying to escape from the demon alligators!

The adults had just as much fun with sparklers as the kids did! 




And the big boys.  Well lets just say, they weren't exactly being impeccable role models!  Warning: do not try this at home!

I sat back, and watched as my family, and new found friends had a blast! (Literally!)  I tried to work on my techniques of photographing fireworks.  But like last year, I forgot my tripod... boo!


Eventually, I just sat back and enjoyed the show like everyone else.  We all sat around and watched the big boys pretend they were part of some high dollar pyrotechnics outfit, swatting at the mosquitoes that were eating us alive, and ducking from the bats that were eating the mosquitoes alive!  I found it hard to pay full attention to the fireworks, because the fields surrounding this awesome country farm house were absolutely infested with firefly's.  That in itself was magnificent to watch!

I did however at one point, during the sunset happen to glance over and see this. 

With the purple sky, and the fireworks going off in small town America for as far as our eyes could see.  It was an awe inspiring sight.  The house we were at was basically right in the middle of a large circle of small towns.  From our view points, we could see the fireworks displays of each town.  Plus any neighbors in the area that lit their own.  Plus ours.  This was the perfect 4th of July celebration. The kind you read about in books, or might imagine seeing in a Norman Rockwell.  Sitting in a backyard, in the middle of corn fields on some back country road in Central Indiana.  Now if that isn't hick country.. I don't know what is! And I love every minute of it!
And I truly remembered what this holiday is about.  Freedom!  

Mozart? Bach? Pachelbel?

Nope

As, I sit here on the couch, somewhat into the book I am reading and halfheartedly watching t.v. at the same time. My husband wanders over to the piano (okay so it isn't a baby grand, but it isn't a simple keyboard either, it is really quite magnificent)


It was a whim of a purchase you could say.  A few years ago, my husbands grandfather passed away.  We inherited some money at that time, and were very fortunate to pay off several large bills, okay all of them.  It is almost irritating that at a time of great sorrow, some financial relief could come to us.  In any case, we had money left over.  While driving around town one day, my dear hubby wanted to stop in at a local piano dealership and just look around.  He ended up purchasing what we have now.  I was not completely up for it at the time, thinking to what we had just come from, and not wanting to squander anything and end up right back there.  But he is very persistent, and convinced me that it would be for the family more than anything. That maybe the kids would become interested and we could get them piano lessons.  Wouldn't that be cool, something I had always wanted as a child.  So I reluctantly agreed, who was I to really say no anyway, it wasn't really my money, it hadn't been my grandfather.  (That would be another blog though!)

Needless to say, the kids had no real interest.  Sometimes the son unit gets a wild hair up his butt and will sit and play random notes and tunes.  Much like I did as a child whenever I was in the vicinity of a keyboard or piano.


My husband on the other hand, is really quite talented when it comes to playing.  Although he would never admit it personally.  He has an ornate talent for listening to music and being able to play it without sheet music in front of him, not that the sheet music would do much good since he couldn't read it anyway.  My dad had this same talent. Dad could listen to a song once and be able to play it on the guitar.  To me he was a god, the kind that belong on a stage in front of thousands.  But he was a humble man, and like my husband, would just dismiss it as having lots of practice, nothing special.

Back to the reason I sat down to write.  Hubby has been for the last year or so, composing you could say.  Nothing classical or operatic.  He has been writing a song.  I have listened to so many variations of this song.  He writes and rewrites. He changes chords and octaves.  He changes pitch and words.  He flips the intro with the outro, and reverses everything.  He gets completely frustrated and on the verge if lunacy.  Steps away and comes back to make the jumble of notes sound glorious.  I am a bit jealous of him.  To be able to sit in front of an instrument, touch keys, stretch his voice and sing and play a beautifully written song.  From nothing.  It is to me as though he is just reaching out and plucking this untouched piece of musical genius out of an abyss of nothingness and bringing it to life.  Playing as if he has played his whole life. 

Usually when he sits to play, I try to not speak. I become a part of the background, something I am quite good at doing.  I turn the t.v. down, and keep the kiddos to a dull roar in the next room.  I watch as he slips into another world. He drifts off toward the music he sees in his head, trying ever so hard to give it that shock of life, to revive it.  To bring the two images together and create one. The image of the finished piece in his head, and the reality of what he is playing.  I gaze with curiosity, and endearment.  With awe and, as I said before a touch of jealousy.  Jealous because I have never felt that talented.  He can take words and turn them into beautiful music. He can take cold ivory keys and turn them into a flow of harmonies I could never accomplish.  Then I think.  I can do somewhat the same thing.  I can take the words in my head and put them into a blog, and make people feel as if they have actually lived my thoughts, or so I have been told.  I also have my photography.  I may not be as great as some when it comes to photography. But I get to put what I see into images others can see.  I can snap the shot that will let others know how I felt at the time, or see what I was seeing, since we all know that no two people can look at the same tree and see the same thing.


So I tell my husband, "It will not come in a lighting bolt, it will take time"











Much like these photos I am posting here.  I took many the night I shot these. Most of them ended up in the recycle bin because I just didn't like what I saw.  They weren't the professional quality I thought they should be. Then again, these pictures are from last year.  I was still in the very, very early learning stages, and experimenting.  I know I have still not reached any sort of professional quality now, but I am getting better. 






Over time everything gets better.



I know one day, he will get his song to perfection in his mind.  To me it sounds perfect the way it is. To him, it just isn't there yet.  When he is satisfied then the world will hear his masterpiece.  I know he will be as overjoyed as I will be exuberant.


For now...
Keep Writing, Keep Photographing, Keep Dreaming and Keep Living!

The boy and I decided this morning to get out of the house this afternoon!  The day was turning out beautifully, and we definitely did not want to be cooped up in the house.  Why waste this day? Why not exploit it to every possibility?!  So that is what we did!

    Very pretty!!




Got the essentials!!... ( Yes, that is a monster Reid!! It's essential!)





  The boy said it wouldn't be a picnic without lemonade!



Still working on my tan... yes I know! pitiful!  But I don't tan as easily as some.. like, oh, say .. MY SISTER AND MY DAUGHTERS!!!  They are all three enemies to me!!  Tan snobs!!





He said the water was cold!




But it was hard for me to keep him out of it!!!  Although the cement was burning his little tootsies he said!!



After he played for a while, he decided it was time to eat some of our picnic!


Nothing like jelly sandwiches on a hot Saturday afternoon at the park!



Even if you do get jelly all over your wrinkly, pruned fingers!!






I even had one!!!


While I sat in the sun, working on my non-existing tan, with my orange toes!!



There were so many families at the park today.  Not as many as there had been when we first found the park, weeks ago. But enough that the boy had other kids to play with.  I sat back and enjoyed watching my boy run around with kids he had never met, acting as if they had know each other for their lifetimes.  Playing as though they had just seen each other yesterday.
There were families preparing sites for what looked like a family reunion, a family cleaning up from a birthday party, and others, just letting their kids run wild in the sun.  One woman chased after a child that seemed about 18 mos or so.  He seemed to have a never ending supply of energy, and a never stopping curiosity of everything. I remember when my kids were like that.. oh who am I kidding?  They still are!  This little one was everywhere at once!

Then, of course, I am the one writing this blog. And with as much fun as I was having watching everyone around me... I am me after all!

This is what I did, while attempting some sort of tan.....



I know.. I am a glutton for punishment!


I don't know what it is.  I ... well... really have no explanation for my actions!  I just couldn't leave it at home!!









Then again!!  I did take pictures also!!!





Tomorrow is the 4th, and we actually get to go spend it with some family!!! YAY!  We have not spent the 4th with any family in 5 years.  Hooray!!