Summertime...
Family, freedom, farmers markets, funnel cake, uhm... i"m on a roll... any more words to add to the allerated list that describe the fantastic-ness of summertime in the midwest?

Here we are... you wouldn't really say "out east" like when we go to NJ... and it's not "down south"... uhm... here we are "in the mid"??

Here we are in the mid enjoying our family... mom and dad who are busy sorting and packing for their big move to Italy in a few weeks. Lots of aunts and uncles and cousins... lots of cousins. For the longest time the DiCocco kids were the only children on my side of the family. When we'd all get together, they'd have to be siblings AND cousins to each other. Now, they are the oldest of 9 ... and besides Grant (who we'll see when we get back home again next week) we have played with every single one of those Fletcher cousins this week! It has been bliss.

We've played at all my old childhood hangouts... Silver Dollar City, George Washington Carver National Park, slip and slides, the playground, the zoo. Blogger pictures are rare, you'll have to flip over to flickr to share the moments. You will get to frolick with the geese with us, but you won't get to hear the cicadas chirping non-stop, or the country music blaring out of open truck windows, or the train tooting "shave and a haircut" as it passes through the town at 4 in the morning.

We've been in the car almost non-stop... our airconditiong is out again. Dang. And Harrison wasn't kidding about the heat. I actually have a picture of the 111 readout in my car. Don't worry though, it was only so hot because we'd been in the movie theatre and the car had been sitting in the sun. Once we started driving, it cooled all the way down to 103.

So... I'm not going to rant about the overindulgence of American culture... because it won't do any of us any good what-so-ever. I mean, I am just as guilty of jumping in my car to drive and get a Dr.Pepper with fabulous little ice nuggets from Sonic (yes Kate, Sonic!)... just because I can...
and it IS really good ice...
but what is printed on the side of the cup gets me thinking about our lives...

YOUR ULTIMATE DRINK STOP

At Sonic we believe in your individual choice. And in the spirit of choice, we offer you 168,894 possible drink combinations. Think about it. Starting with an orange vanilla sprite, you can have a different drink every day for the next 462 years. How's that for refreshing choices?

Did you catch that?

I'm not all together certain that it is wrong... it is just making me think about how different life is here than ... well, than so many other places around this world

... that's all.