My Day

This Monday will be July 4th, otherwise known as Independence Day here in America. Many years ago I was born on July 4th, but not until I made my poor mother wait 10 days after my due date. Her father, my Grandpa, told her that since I was already late she needed to make sure I was born on July 4th or he'd disown us both. (he was kidding).




As a young girl my mom always knew she'd name her daughter Sandra. She intended to nickname me Sandy, but I never had the personality of a Sandy. Some neighbors growing up called me Sandy and if you're old and feeble I'll let you get away with calling me Sandy, but I am not a Sandy.



Once pregnant with me my mom never considered I was a boy. She just knew I was a girl. Ultrasounds were not available in those days. At least not according to my mom. However, on the way to the hospital she mentioned to my father how they should probably come up with a boys name just in case. His middle name is Edward so they agreed if I was a boy I'd be named Edward. No offense to the Edwards out there but I'm pretty happy I'm a Sandra and not an Edward.



As a child, birthday's were fun, but parties were problematic. When you're a summer birthday it's hard enough to find friends who aren't on vacation with their families, but when you're a 4th of July baby no one is available since it's a huge family affair.



Another downside to summer birthday's is you don't have classroom recognition of your birthday and you don't get to wear the birthday crown. Those are big deals to a child, if that child is me.



Something I do love for my birthday is an ice cream cake. As a child I'd always ask for one. My mom obliged sometimes, but more times than not she made my cake. I loved when the ice cream cake had a large firework decorated on it. This year my mom is getting me an ice cream cake. Just a small one since it will only be the 6 of us. I'm already excited.



Of course the fireworks on my birthday every year is pretty awesome. There have been a few birthday's with no fireworks, like when I went to horse camp for 2 week stretches a few times or when we just didn't feel like dealing with the traffic and parking, etc of getting a great spot to see a fireworks show or when I was little and scared of the fire crackers and loud noise they made. I " hid behind the skirts", that's what my Grandpa always said.. But for the most part I'd say I have seen fireworks on almost all my birthday's.


This year will be no different. My parents now live in a gated community with a lake and each year a very nice fireworks show, costing $20,000, is done over the lake . My parents don't actually live on the lake but their best friends do so we drive the couple minutes to their house a few minutes before the show starts, sit on their dock enjoying the show, then drive back to my parents house and put the kids to bed. It's really the best thing ever.



I hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend. I plan to have a great time up at my parents house, spending time on the lake or by the pool where they organize activities for the kids. I'll try to forget, that in addition to it being my birthday, I'm actually a year older. heh