As of tomorrow, June is over. It’s been quite the month. Already, the beginning of the month is nothing but a blur. I suspect it won’t be too long before the details about the rest of the month fade as well. I liken it to childbirth. You remember how incredibly busy you are but forget the details which make it so painful. I guess this is a good thing, right?
I definitely tried to take pictures to help remember our time in Branson. I hope you caught all of the action on Instagram. The dance team in general did really well, pulling out some of their best performances of the entire year. Competition was very stiff, as one would expect at Nationals, but we still managed to have two dances earn the grand championship in their division and age group. Another placed second, one placed third overall and one placed fourth. It’s difficult to be disappointed with those results! Outside of the hours upon hours spent at the theater, Holly and I went swimming with others from the team. We also just hung out and watched old dance videos. On Friday, the event ended early, so a group of us went to a permanent Titanic exhibit in downtown Branson. Honestly, it was one of the highlights of the week. The entire museum hosts some amazing artifacts, but more importantly, it does a fantastic job of recreating the feel of the ship and some of what occurred as it sank – air temperature, water temperature, angle of the ship, etc. We spent three hours in there, talking to curators and immersing ourselves in the experience. While I was relatively unimpressed with the kitschiness of Branson, this particular museum was just outstanding.
Holly and I came home on Saturday and immediately headed over to Connor’s girlfriend’s house to spend the evening with her parents and watch fireworks from their front yard. It was a wonderful evening, but Holly and I threw in the proverbial towel shortly after the fireworks show ended. Even though we didn’t do much on Sunday, I think it will take some time before either of us recovers from the late nights, early mornings, and rush of the past few weeks.
We have progress on the lot! It took approximately three semi-trucks, but the lot is officially clear and ready for ground-breaking. Unfortunately, we will be delaying that because the estimates we have been receiving are ridiculously high (hello, $85,000 for geothermal!!!), so we are tweaking our designs to make it as close to net zero as possible without putting us in the poorhouse. We’ve already had to make a few compromises on the designs, and I’m sure it will not be the last we have to make.
In spite of being incredibly busy and not reading much this week, I still managed to post my weekly reading update as well as reviews of Sarah Pekkanen’s latest novel, Things You Won’t Say, The Ice Twins by S. K. Tremayne, and wrapped up my thoughts of Stephen King’s Misery.
July should be quieter, relatively speaking. Holly starts summer dance classes on Monday; in fact, she is adding one more class to her schedule this summer. The classes are later in the evenings, which befits summer. Connor still has marching band practices twice a week, and marching band camp starts the third week of the month. Jim is traveling this month as well. Thankfully, we do have an adults-only weekend planned for the middle of the month to Door County. A three-day getaway sounds like a little slice of heaven right now. We are both excited about it. July also brings the Atlas Shrugged readalong planned by Ti at Book Chatter. I’m still working on catching up to all of my old review copies as well. Hopefully, the later nights and lack of homework means I can actually get some extended reading time. We shall see.
Have a great week, everyone. For those living in the U.S., have a safe and fun holiday weekend!
