We had a beautiful Independence Day celebration. Friday afternoon our Texas relatives flew in and we had some massive thunderstorms. All the rain was worrying us that all our outdoor plans would be ruined, but July 4th and 5th had the most beautiful weather that we have had so far this season! It is so nice to be on the lake when it is a holiday weekend and not be the ones to have to drive in all the traffic. :) Anyway, we had a wonderful time participating in the boat parade, eating, swimming (only the bravest, the water is still very cold!), eating, talking, watching fireworks, eating, hiking in a local park, and oh, yes, we ate. My Aunt and Uncle were up only Friday through Sunday afternoon, their visit flew by. My grandmother will be staying the whole month. She will be here for the birth of my brother's baby (already 11 days late!) and for Aubrey's second birthday.

I hope that this good weather holds because we have some outdoor work to do--we need to put deck preservative on the deck and we have some stairs that are falling apart that need to be replaced. Aubrey LOVES swimming and boat rides. She always asks Papa to "go FAST!" and then shrieks "Weeeeeeeeeee!" when he does.

And lastly, I just wanted to share a happy story:

Recently I have been trying to find doctors for us since it has been a few months since we have moved. I found a good pediatrician for Aubrey and then started looking for an OB/Gyn. I kept running into roadblocks and was getting really worried I wouldn't find one that met my requirements of a small all-female practice who encouraged low-intervention births who did not perform abortions. Everywhere I looked I found large (8+ doctors) practices of mostly men who provided abortions. With 8 abortion clinics in the small state you would think that an OB practice wouldn't need to do them as well! I looked for birthing centers: there is only one in the state 1 hour and 45 minutes away. I looked for midwives: the only ones I found were part of a larger practice with the above problems. I said, okay, I just need to prioritize what I am looking for and just let the other things go. So I decided I will go to a large practice and a male doctor if I can just find one that isn't an abortion doctor. I even gave up the idea of going to the closest hospital to us (1/2 hour away) and was going to look further afield. As I opened my computer this morning to start my search once again I prayed that God would guide me and lead me to the right practice. So I decided to look at the close hospital one more time and there was a practice I hadn't called yet! I called them up and found not only a two female doctor practice who do not perform abortions, but the head doctor specializes in low intervention births and VBACs (not that I need a VBAC but I think that says something about her philosophy on C sections.) I have an appointment scheduled to meet the doctors in two weeks, but I am fairly certain that I have found a practice that I can be comfortable and happy with. Praise be to God!