A Short History of (my) 4th of July

It's the 4th of July weekend, have you heard? It's a pretty big holiday around here. (And by "here" I mean the U. S. of A.) But it has flown below the radar in our household for the past few years. To wit:

2005: Bridezilla. Yes, I was planning and executing a wedding in 2 months flat. I literally have no idea what we did for the 4th that year (my apologies to any of you if this means I'm not remembering spending it with you). I was probably obsessively researching vintage caketoppers. I bet I imagined the fireworks, thinking they were all part of my fantasy wedding. Wait, that's silly: I would never have fireworks at my wedding.

2006: In labor. All day. Dave watched a corner of the Macy's fireworks from our roof in Brooklyn, while I watched on TV. We went to the hospital at 3 am and Clio was born the next morning.

2007: Sinus Infection. My first. Only, Dave didn't believe it was sinus infection and, since he doesn't believe in getting sick, made fun of me enough that I didn't go the Doctor. So I spent Clio's first birthday, and our trip to my sister in law's mother's cabin, blowing unending quantities of green snot out my nose. When I finally did go to the Doctor, the infection was so sever that the ENT doctor put these long-handled q-tips up my nose, dipped in some kind of medicine that made me break out into drenching sweat and hallucinate voices coming from the air vent.

2008: 41 weeks pregnant, on bed rest. If I recall this correctly, I may have broken bedrest to go the Staten Island zoo with Clio, feeling all weepy about her last days as an only child.

2009: FSBO. We were two weeks in to our bid to sell our house in Brooklyn. By owner. At the BOTTOM of the real estate market. Stressful? You could say that.

Which brings me to:

2010: We are planning to test the waters of camping. Dave is at REI right now, buying sleeping bags for the girls. We were invited to join Alex and Tamsin and their parents, who are expert campers and have all the gear. I imagine it will be fun. Except the part that involved getting Eleri to bed. And the part that involves me having a serious case on bronchitis.

We'll let you know how it all turns out.