I'm back!!!

What? You didn't even know that I was gone? Well, I wasn't really gone. I've been in a blogging rut. Not that I don't have stuff to blog about. Wait, I don't have stuff to blog about. Well I do, but I have been forgetting to take photos. And I was kind of hoping that someone else would post something. Oh yea, Eric posted something, but just not any photos.

In Eric's defense, he was having problems uploading photos. He said he was at work (don't tell his boss) and all of his photos are in a file called "Kodak" (imagine that). But his computer won't let him access the file. Good story Eric, I ain't buying it! Just kidding. Hopefully he will figure out how to upload photos. I'd like to see Havasupai again. I haven't seen it since I was 16 years old. Eric did say that it changed a lot just from last year because of the flash floods they had at the bottom of the Grand Canyon last year.

Then we had our annual 4th of July pool party. This is an annual party that started 4 years ago when we moved into our house. Since nobody in our family had a pool until then, we couldn't very well have an annual pool party without a pool. Ok, I guess we could have used a kiddy pool, but it wouldn't have been as fun.

Well this year, the 4th fell on Saturday. Mom, Dad, Jodi & Andrea all drove up together. The rest of Andrea's family is on "tour" with their punk band Jakked Rabbits. So they were out of town and couldn't come. So it was a pretty mild party. Eric's family came as well, but they are pretty well behaved. Unless Andrea's boys are here. Then look out!!!!

Eric's family was pretty wiped out from going to the beach the day before. Jeannette's legs were sooooo sunburned. I hurt just looking at her legs.

As you can see, there are no photos to go along with my post as I forgot to take any. I was so busy playing hostess that I forgot. Jodi took photos & I asked her to post them. But so far, she hasn't. Hopefully this will motivate her to do so.

We ate, swam, ate some more, swam so more, and finally had a BBQ. We were suppose to watch a movie outside at the pool, but everyone was tired & went home early. So Mike, Jesse & I watched Twilight all by ourselves in the house. Thanks Danica for lending me the movie. Remind me to give it back to you. In say, a year or two. lol.

I loved the movie. I may just have to watch it again. But I'm sure I won't see as many times as Danica & Taylor. But it did motivate me to start reading New Moon. I got about 1/2 way through & now I have slacked off again. I wish I had the time to sit down & read a book all the way through in one sitting. I'd enjoy it so much more that way.

And finally the last thing I have to blog about is from early Sunday morning. It was about 2:30am when we heard a loud screeching of brakes sound which finally ended in a crashing sound. We live on the corner of 2 streets. So many cars turn our corner going a wee tad too fast. So we get a lot of screeching of tires & brakes. But usually they are not followed by a crashing sound. So this was a new sound that got our attention real fast.

We jumped out of bed to see what happened. It seems some young gentlemen were going a bit too fast & didn't realize there was a corner until it was too late. They crashed into the curb in front of the house directly across the street from us (luckily we live on the side of the street that cars are not going to be crashing into). The car then jumped the curb, skidded across their front lawn. Mowed down one of the dwarf palm trees & then spun around & landed in the neighbors driveway parked backwards.

I couldn't believe that it didn't hit the house, the garage or the car parked in the far end of the neighbors driveway. If you didn't know what had just happened, it looked like the car was suppose to be parked in the driveway. Just backed in.

Luckily none of the 3 people in the car were hurt. One of their tires was completely broken off & the other tire was bent all the way under the car. One of the passengers rolled the broken off tire into the street & they tried to tell the neighbor when he came out that their tire had fallen off & that is why they missed the corner. But we knew better as we saw them roll the tire into the street.

Mike told us to call 911, but Brandon had his police scanner on & we had already heard the call go out for the accident. So we knew we didn't need to call.

The 3 young men then started walking up the street & leaving their car parked in the neighbors driveway. About this time the sheriff came (even though we are now technically a city & have our own police, they are still subcontracted with the sheriff dept). So the young men figured it would be in their best interest to walk back to talk to the officer.

The sheriff made the driver do the drunk driving mumbo jumbo & I guess he passed as they didn't haul his butt away. I tried walking with one foot in front of the other as well across the street & I didn't do so good. Note to self, don't get pulled over for drunk driving as I will not be able to pass this test even if I haven't had one drop to drink.

The cop did make him call his parents. They refused to come down & help him. They told him he got himself into the mess, he could get himself out.

The only neighbors who came out during all this ruckus was us, the neighbors across the street whose house was involved & one other set of neighbors who live across from us on the side street (they are the ones to call 911). The only time we see these particular neighbors is when the police show up on our street.

I don't want to give you the wrong impression of our street. We live in a nice safe area. We just have one particular family who fight like cats & dogs all the time. So the cops come out every month or two on domestic violence. And every once in awhile they haul the guy off to jail. But this is a different story for a different day.

Where was I? Oh yea, I got bored watching once the drunk driving mumbo jumbo stuff was done so I went in to bed. I did hear the tow truck come about 4am.

So needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. I was really tired yesterday. Too much excitement for this old lady.

Since this happened in the middle of the night, I didn't get any photos. I was going to take photos yesterday of the skid marks, but it was just too hot. And I didn't want to get sweaty. You understand, don't you?

I guess this story wasn't my last for this post. I do have a couple of more things:

Did you notice the new look on this blog for summer? What do you think?

Have you checked out my other blog Starshine Chic for my decorating stuff? If not, what are you waiting for. Get other there. I just posted a metamorphosis of the decor in my family room for the past 6 months. You can also find my new summer decor.

Are you going on vacation this summer? If so, where to? If not, why not? We don't get to go on a real vacation this summer. He are horning in on Mom & Dad's vacation. Well they invited us. They are going to Cave Creek, AZ again in August & felt sorry for us that we don't have money to go anywhere. So they said we could come stay with them in their timeshare condo for a few days. We just have to pay for gas & food.

Even though we went last summer & it is blazing hot in Arizona in August, this is better than not going anywhere. So we will be getting out of town for at least a few days next month. That is if we can scrounge up the funds for gas & food. If anyone feels sorry for us, donations will be accepted.

I think on Friday's I'm going to start a new theme called Friday Family Throwback. You can post anything about your family or any of the family members of the Manning Family Tree. This can be old photos, memories or stories about anyone in the family. Or even share photos of your vacations from the past. Since a lot of us can no longer afford great vacations, it would be kind of fun to live vicariously through others. I would love the see the places you have visited. And it would be fun to see old photos of each other & hear stories about the good old days. What do you say, are you in? If not, you'll have to suffer through my stuff. You have been warned!

Well I guess I have rattled on long enough. Maybe next time I will have photos.

Kim