Monday, July 6, 2009

I Love My Family, I Love My Life, God Bless America

So many changes and yes, I am allowed to feel emotional about them if I want to. I always cry on the 4th of July. This year was especially hard because it was going to be a first and a last all in one. Bug celabrated his first 4th with my family as hubby had to work. Yet, it is also my last 4th in Idaho for a long time. We are officially going to be moving to San Antonio on the 21st. Driving home from my parents house I was listening to the radio broadcast that is syncronized with the fireworks display and I kept getting all choked up. The mc who usually does the announcing/narrating died this last spring and he was a family freind. They did a little tribute to him and that got me started, but when Lee Greenwoods song blurb came on, oh, I totally lost it. I was afraid I was going to have to pull over and re-compose myself. I am so gratefull to live in a free country where I can marry the man who makes me whole, even though he's a different race than me. Where I can raise my son to love an honour God and Country and never feel ashamed of it. A country where my family has every opportunity open to us and all we have to do it take it. Where I can worship in a way that I see fit and live my life by standards that I wouldn't be ashamed of. America is truly great. Our leaders don't always make the best of decisions and are often too caught up in the media "coolness" of themselves. But on the 4th of July, every where I went, I saw families dressed up in red, white and blue, pulling wagons of kids and coolers, ridding bikes to parades, sitting on huge picinic blankets chatting with neighbors and bbqing. Being with the ones they love and hold dear and just getting back to the basics this country was founded on. I can honestly say it is my favorite holiday of the year. It's not about how many presents you are going to get or what kind of candy which house has or who had the coolest costumes. It is about family and the freedom we have to raise our families and work and live and be as happy as we want to be. And that makes me a little bit emotional and gratefull to live when and where I do.

I have to get back to the mad dash of packing up my house before Friday. Can't wait to take that four day trip to Las Vegas. Yes, we are crazy to take a trip less than a week befor we move across the country, but we need to take one last break as it's the last one that we are going to get for a while.