July Reflections

A lot has happened this month of July and I though I'd like to chronicle it here. If I don't write it down somewhere I'm bound to forget it all.

July started out with high prospects. I had been longing for summer and it had finally come around. I had planned to spend the whole hot month carefree and lazily on beach. After all, what's the summer for?

July 1st - First of the month I began planning our Fourth of July - my favorite holiday. I wanted to have a huge party and invite all my favorite people. Ideally I'd have rented a huge beach house for the weekend and we'd have bar-b-qued lots of chicken and shot off lots of fireworks. But obviously I had waited to long to get all that in order. So instead I tried to think of easy things we could do at home. My planning didn't last long as it was rudely interrupted by something brewing in the Gulf. Hurricane season decided to come early.

Hurricane Alex at 65mph was headed straight towards Mexico and Southern Texas. Not exactly good news for a fireworks party. The storm was predicted to hit south of Angleton. Even so, Brazoria County was in for quite a storm.
Alex made landfall the first of July. I don't know how all the folks down south faired during the bad weather but here the rain was pouring - non-stop.

Being the little adventures we are my little sis, my older brother, and I decided to suit up in our windbreakers and sneakers and brave our share of the hurricane. We ventured out to our gully ready to face the little waterfalls and mud slides. The rain still being persistent added to our fun. The gully, which is usually dry, was flooding and the water was up to our knees and moving swiftly. We decided to climb to higher ground and trail the water from the bank. The ground was awful muddy and extremely slippery. I must have fallen and slipped back into the water a least three times. To my relief, our gully is heavily populated by very helpful trees and I was able to grab hold of one or two and pull myself back to land.
Wanting to get to the other end and to the creek we hurried our way through the densely foliaged gully. I know we must have all felt like Tarzan as we swung in and out of trees. Our adventure lasted for hours and the rain never let up. As we journeyed through our little wilderness we came across several deadly antagonists including a copperhead we all nearly stepped on, a very huge garden spider, and a set of very scary rustling bushes.
We eventually all tired and drug ourselves back home to dry off and sit out the rest of the storm.

July 2nd - It continued to rain throughout the night and all the next day. The creek in our back yard was rising and rising quickly. Mom had to leave that morning for Houston and asked me to keep an eye on the creek. I dutifully obeyed my mother and headed outside to check the creek's ever rising water level. On my way to do so my poor barefoot foot happened upon a very sharp piece of glass. You can read the rest of this story below. Just know I ended up in the emergency room with seven stitches in my foot.

The next 17 days - I lied on the couch - foot propped up, pains meds at an arms length, and lots of books and movies to keep me company.

July 20th - The day before my birthday my good, longtime friend took me out for a surprise birthday outing. We had a luncheon on the beach ( I finally made it!). My friend took the time to fill several coolers and picnic baskets with many fine delectables including a carved watermelon filled with peaches and plums, and kiwi! After spending an hour or so combing the beach we headed to Lake Jackson and hit the mall. We shopped at Clair's and took several pictures on my friends iPhone. After the trying on of many headbands and necklaces we were fatigued and headed for the pretzel shop. When our bellies were full once again we headed down to the picture booth and took some fun photos. My birthday outing ended with a dinner and a movie.

July 21st - Well well, believe it or not I lived to see, as some would put it, "the ripe old age of 19". I woke up Wednesday morning (late of course) to a breakfast of eggs, bacon, English muffins, strawberries, orange juice, and coffee. Compliments to the chef! I spent the next several hours doing normal things such as cleaning, cooking, and reading. That evening Mom took my sister and I to Sugarland to celebrate my birthday. We went shopping at the indoor/outdoor mall. I believe we spent most of our shopping time gazing and dreaming in Williams-Sonoma. That wonderful store is a chef's dream shop. They have gadgets and gizmos for everything. I found mango pitters, and peach slicers, avocado scoopers, and pink dough mixers, and all sorts of other odds and ends. Once we finally were able to remove ourselves from there we headed over to the Cheesecake Factory! Without a doubt they have the widest variety of foods on their menu. How was I supposed to choose just one thing??? Seeing that I am a horrible decision maker I ended up ordering the "Factory Combination". I could choose two from several dishes to combine into one dish. I ended up going with the Shrimp Scampi and Herb Crusted Salmon. It was delish.
After we were done eating we got back into the car and drove a long drive home. Awaiting my arrival was a little party (consisting of my other siblings) of cupcakes and and a birthday present - A $30 shopping card to my favorite clothing store!
Yep, I had a great birthday.

July 24th - Oh happy day! My dear, dear friend from Oklahoma, Rebekah Sides, gave birth to her very first bundle of joy! Zebulen Day Sides was born somewhere around 5:00 that morning. You can find a picture of him below.

July 27th - I didn't receive any happy news that July day, as I so hoped I would. My beloved dolphin Gordy, the one I volunteer to work with in Galveston at TMMSN became very ill and had to be put down. He was suffering from bacterial pneumonia. You can read all about it here: http://www.tmmsn.org/news/po464.htm
I suppose I should be comforted to know he is no longer sick and suffering...

July 29th - Today I got my hair cut. My favorite stylist in all the world, John Kelley, gave my head a brand new do. I usually go in and tell him to "keep the length, just add layers". This time I wanted a little change and had him cut it a little shorter. To my surprise a little turned into a lot! My hair before was to the middle of my back. My hair now is at my shoulders. I nearly had a heart attack when he pulled my hair around to the front of my shoulders and showed me how much he had cut off. My mother also nearly had a heart attack when she saw me walk out of the hair salon. My hair is a lot different but I think I like it. Its a nice change and SO easy to wash and manage.

July 30th - My cousins from Nacogdoches came down for a visit. My mom and Aunt Jennifer are going to a homeschool conference in Houston this weekend. And what does that mean? - Lots of new school books for all the little children. August is almost here and school is right around the corner. My dear, precious summer is almost over and gone. Thank goodness for crazy Texas weather. It should still be warm well into the fall season and there should still be many beachy days ahead. You are not rid of my yet, Beach!

July 31st - Dear me. I began writing this post at 12:00 AM on July 31st. I just happened to glance at my phone and saw that the early morning hours have slipped away and its now time for the roosters to start the day. Its now 5:30AM and I haven't had any sleep. I think I'll go and see if I can't catch some shut-eye for a few hours. I look forward to awakening and enjoying my very last day of dear July.