Happy Birthday, America!

A few years ago, we received this homemade card from our son and daughter-in-law.  Both of their fathers were Air Force career men, so they remember the sacrifices that military families make.

I pray, as a nation, we never forget the men and women who have served and sacrificed for this imperfect, but still the best, country on the planet.  It's true that freedom isn't free.  Today, because of those who have served, we can:

1.  Grill and burn as many hot dogs as we want.

2.  Fight over the last corn-on-the-cob.

3.  Pellet each other with water balloons.

4.  Drink too much beer.

5.  Display the American flag on our property.

6.  Own property.

7.  Enjoy all kinds of red-white-and-blue Jello salads.

8.  Raise the water bill by running through the sprinkler all afternoon.

9.  Follow the town parade down the street.

10.  Write our name in the dark with sparklers.

11.  Spend too much money on firecrackers.

12.  Annoy our neighbors with firecrackers.

13.  Injure ourselves with firecrackers.

14.  Sing America, the Beautiful.  

15.  Spit watermelon seeds at each other.

16.  Vote.

17.  Argue over whom to vote for.

18.  Enjoy the DVD John Adams, the excellent (originally HBO) mini-series.

19.  Make a patriotic pinwheel out of a paper plate, a pencil, and a thumb tack.

20.  Remember that we are all created equal. 

Have a patriotic day!

I'm Moving. And I'm Nervous.

I'm getting ready to attempt a scary thing. It involves an arena that intimidates me and, frankly, confuses me. It's a change I have to make, but I'm dragging my feet.

I have to move to a new blog server and get a domain name email address.

See? I hardly even understand what I just wrote. I'm about as technically savvy as a worm. And when it comes to technology, I move about as slow.

I've loved being on blogger, it's a great site for beginner bloggers, which I was in 2010.  Six years later, I have things I want to do I can't do here. This means several not-so-fun transitions will occur:

1.  Formatting a new site. UGH. It took me six years to get this site to work as beautifully as it does. It's like my first little house. I know all the glitches, the cozy spots, and when to clean out the dugout. At the new place, I'll have to place and rearrange the furniture all over again. For a non-tech worm like me, it's kind of exhausting.

Source

2.  Moving readers. If you follow Adventures in the Ballpark now, you'll have to re-subscribe at the new site. It's not hard to do that, you just have to remember to do it. If you read a lot of blogs (as I do), it might slip your mind (as it has mine on occasion) and pretty soon, Adventures is off your radar. I hope you'll follow me to the new site, because I don't want to be over there all alone. 

3.  Losing readers. You might come here looking for the old Adventures, and due to some temporary cyberpsace glitch (they do occur now and then), the link to the new one won't work, and you'll just say, Oh, forget it. I pray you don't fall into a black hole during this transition. I'll tell ya - I'm gonna worry about this.  I don't want anyone flailing around in cyberspace, longing for the Ballpark Brownie recipe and not having access to it, or wondering how my parents (93 and 96) are doing.

4. It will probably be a few weeks before all the kinks are worked out. I could be wrong on this, but I have NEVER known any Internet transition to be without hiccups. Sometimes big ones. Being the pessimist I am, I'm expecting the worst. I'm going to be positive about this and pray God directs the entire thing. Then any mess-up will be His problem.

So....because you guys are my buds, I'm sharing my heart about this move, which feels like I'm ripping out bleeding roots off on a new adventure! This is my summer project. I'd rather be getting a root canal. I'll keep you posted here, or on facebook/twitter as to how the move is going.

If you get my newsletter, I'll keep you updated that way too. (If you don't get it, you can sign-up HERE.)

What are your projects this summer? Probably fun stuff like hanging out at the pool, making Popsicles, and catching up on summer reading.

I'm so jealous.