The 4th of July

We had a nice 4th of July at home. The day before was kind of crazy as our fridge had leaked some water. It was probably just the fact that I had turned the temp. control a little warmer because it had been freezing some of our food at the back, but we decided it was time to bid the dinosaur a fond farewell. This started a mad dash to find a replacement quickly. So I looked on Craigslist (one of my newer addictions, love the list) and found several possibilities. The best possibility was in the Tacoma area(that's at least an hour and a half away) and it was being offered for $150. White, Kitchen Aid, Side by side, 26.5 cubic feet. It had been listed at 2:30 in the afternoon and by the time I was looking, it was 5:00. I called and left a message, but didn't think I had a chance. Refrigerators at an awesome price move very quickly on the list.
Colin got home around 6:30 and about 2 minutes after he got home, the phone rang. It was the man selling the fridge. Good thing he was a very nice guy. We had to call him back at least 3 times trying to decide if it would fit in our kitchen (it would if we ripped out a cabinet--bye-bye cabinet), when we should pick it up (right now or in the morning), and what time Colin would be there to pick up the fridge.
So Colin picked up the fridge that night and we bribed a neighbor with some homemade cookies to help Colin unload the fridge (it was after 10:30 after he got back-what a nice neighbor). We plugged the fridge in for the night so it would be cool in the morning and we would be able to transfer all the yummy food for our party. By the time we got to bed it was around 1:30 am.
We were up early July 4th to get everything ready for our little party. We transferred the yummy food and all the contents of the old fridge. Colin made several trips to Home Depot to buy a water filter for the new fridge and to go back for a part that he threw in the garbage there only to later realize, he needed that part. We got the old fridge out of the kitchen and into the garage. We cleaned and cleaned our formally clean house. Bringing in a new fridge and having my AtHome America supplies arrive the day before had added some mess.
Before we knew it, it was time for the party. We had fun with Colin's mom and his aunt and two of her kiddos. We cooked out burgers and hot dogs and the kids played with water guns in the backyard. Colin even got in our pool to cool off. The weather was beautiful (which is a welcome change out here, many years it's cold and overcast on the 4th of July). Our friends Dave and Dottie came later in the afternoon and we enjoyed setting off fireworks with them and watching the neighbors set off some fairly large fireworks. The big fireworks were making some big booms and then we heard a massive boom. I thought it didn't sound right. It was much too big. About five minutes after the boom we saw 2 ambulances, a rescue truck and a police car head down our street. We later found out that a couple of young guys had been using a pipe as a homemade cannon (that's what the paper said) and that it exploded on them and they were hit with shrapnel from it. Scary.
Overall, I'd say we had a great 4th of July at home. We avoided all the crowds and had a great time. I hope you had a great time, too!