God Bless the brokie road

that silly country song. gary had to learn it for a former student's wedding. now luci knows the whole thing by heart. it also happens to be the only song that calms lijah down in the car. we've tried tlc and other pop fuzz stuff... nope. i almost don't want to talk about it, because i'm scared it'll lose its magic. the minute he whimpers it's automatic. the unlabelled cd goes in to track 19. we joke that lij will be a country star someday, dressed in black jeans and a hat, chubby, with buck teeth. all affectionately, of course. lij is the spitting image of me. even his temperament. which means he may grow up to look like a male rudy huxtible at 8 yrs old. gosh i hope not. gary says i have big teeth. but he does too. so we both bit a piece of paper and did front tooth dimensions. his were bigger, aha! however, i had the bigger tooth to face width ratio.

we found the perfect beach up north. we'd actually been there when we were just dating. it's just that now we look at it through the eyes of a child. it's off of lane 26, somewhere between cheboygan and rogers city. the water was the cleanest i've seen so far. it was brisk but refreshing. the best part... 4 sandbars, so you could wander out 50 yards and still only be thigh-deep. which means you could 1) cool off without having to make the commitment of going deeper than the waist, aka, one of the forget this i'm going back to shore! anatomical places 2) go pee but pretend to be just wading around 3) catch minnows in your hand 4) crawl around on hands and knees. one of the most unforgettable moments was watching luci bravely walking towards me in her aqua ruffled bikini. she looked gorgeous with the sun in her hair and her big ol' grin.

i love summer.