Oh My - The Parade has Gone Rogue!

I'm so glad I was born an American child.



I wonder if there are people who don't feel their country in their bones.


I feel my country in my bones.

It's my primary identity, before girl, or Irish or Texan, or girl, or anything in between. I think if I were only allowed one word to describe myself, American is the word I'd choose.

God bless America. :)

I look forward to my Fourth card as much as I do my Christmas card, and I try to really have a different style each year. This year, I decided to use the Star Spangled Banner as my inspiration and make a worn, but vivid flag with direct to paper and a little inspiration from one of my stampy idols - Michelle Zindorf. I used Island Indigo and Poppy Parade for the flag, and then distressed the edges and sponged them with Basic Black. I stamped the image from Courage and Honor (retired) on it and then colored it in in black to make it a silhouette. The sentiment is from one of my favorite stamps of all time - the God Bless America stamp that benefited the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

I added some First Edition paper, distressed, and then the card base is Poppy Parade.

We are free. 

Freedom does not guarantee a smooth ride, you know.

We are in a really pretty eye-popping drought down here, but what that means is absolutely beautiful days. Hotter than the 4th of July, but gorgeous, sunny and dry.

This morning, I went for a righteous stomp, timed to end at the beginning of our neighborhood parade, which begins right by my house. Well, it's supposed to.

I show up and stake out a good spot for photos right near the beginning of the parade route. The fire truck passes me on the way to the starting point.

People and children and dogs begin to arrive, all decorated, at what I estimate is about 10 times the normal attendance for our parade so I'm stoked.

I run out of tea. It's hot.

The start time comes and goes. We wait.

Suddenly, the news goes through the assembled crowd that the parade has gone rogue - the rebels have left from the other side of the school and is heading away from us!! How can this be? The parade goes the same way every year!

We give chase. We're no pantywaists. This is no commie parade. We are Americans, and we will HAVE A PARADE.

We head around the school and sprint in a crowd towards the renegade parade. At the first street we see a sign that says "Parade this way ------>" so we rest. BUT HOLY FIRECRACKER IF THOSE REBELS DON'T CROSS TWO STREETS DOWN AND VANISH!

What the heck? Assisted by the police, they are completely off the reservation. We are confounded. There's revolution in the air.

We head down a street parallel to theirs and sprint about a half a mile. Along the way, we see tons of families who *thought* they were on the parade route sitting in their yards, playing music and waving flags.

At this point, it actually becomes quite hilarious. We had to explain while we were running by that the fire trucks and patriotic dogs and kids and bikes weren't coming. We were the 2011 Paul Revere's of the rogue parade. This pretty much sums up the reaction to the news.

It was like a chase scene in a Lethal Weapon movie, except with more dogs and crazy hats and giggling.

We finally get to an intersection - all 200 of us. We decide this is where we're staying, come hell or high water. If they wanted to keep going without us, we'd have our own parade.

And then, around the corner, we hear the fire truck.

Aaaah.... now we can join up with our fellow citizens amicably and head to the park. A peaceful reunion of the rebels with the main forces.

All is right with man and dog. Man and patriotic dog, that is.

I love those Statue of Liberty hats.

I

Is there anything better than a fired up boy scout on the Fourth of July??

Maybe wagon wheels are cooler.

Here's the video if you want to get the sights and sounds. Click here to watch if you don't see a video player below.

I hope you've had a safe, happy, if somewhat rebellious 4th.

Here in America, that's just how we roll.

Loveyameanitbye.