June 22, 2009, Nashville, TN., 10:14 a.m., D.S.T.~

Dear Journal~

Hi!  Sunshine Lee here!  Hope this finds y'all well!  I am doing great!

The Fourth of July is coming up fast; seems hard to believe that Mother's Day as well as Father's Day has come and gone.  Now we have the Fourth of July staring us in the face; it won't be long before we see the fireworks exploding in the night time skies!

I love the fourth of July:  besides the fireworks, I love piggin' out on junk food, getting sprayed with the water hose at the park, and watching the marching bands and floats going by during the city's parade.  There isn't anything I don't like about the fourth of July:  next to Christmas and my birthday, July Fourth ranks right there at the top!  :)

My brother and I will be thirteen years old this year.  Seems hard to believe that we'll be teenagers in a few weeks.  I like to think that we have fireworks going off in honor of our birthday; that'd be a neat way to celebrate a birthday!  :)  (Just like my sister and brother, Ronee' and Johnny:  they celebrate their half birthday next week; we'll have a party for them, as we always do.  They'll be 17 come December.  They get to celebrate their birthdays with presents, Christmas lights, and Christmas carols.  I get a little jealous of them because Andre' 's and my birthdays are just plain boring!!)

Next week our city is having their annual fourth of July celebration downtown; there'll be the nation's biggest fireworks display, top name entertainment, military flyovers, carnival rides for the kids, contests, and food and fun galore!  Over 100,000 people come to this event; it's a big deal!

Speaking of my sister, Ronee' is getting ready to leave for Las Vegas, Nevada, within the hour.  She will be flying out of Nashville International Airport at 2:30; she is trying out for "America's Got Talent".  Hopefully she'll do well; we'll have to watch the show tomorrow to see if we may see her on television!  I hope she makes it; she's practiced so hard!!

And my brother, Johnathon, is not doing very well, in terms of his muscular dystrophy.  He has to breathe with a respirator now; his lungs have gotten weaker.  It's really bothersome to see because I remember when he could walk (with crutches); now he can't even do that.  He needs a lot of help with a lot of things.  I hope he is around for a long time to come; Johnny is a great big brother:  funny, smart, incredibly handsome, and kindhearted.  All the girls who see him go ga-ga over him; they think he's sexy-cute!  :)

I don't blame them one bit! :)

We have had some bad weather here lately; today we may get more storms.  I am so sick of severe weather I can just spit!  It seems we've had round after round of storms lately, including the threat of tornadoes; frankly, I'm more than ready for the storms to go AWAY!  For good! 

When it's not been storming out, we've been swimming.  I love lounging about in the family pool with hardly a care!  School suddenly seems like a million miles away; we don't have to think about school until after Labor Day, which is fine with me! :)

Well, I have to go now:  daddy and Ronee' are getting ready to leave; I want to say bye to them and wish my sister all the best in her competition.  I will write in here again soon, probably before the Fourth of July, or maybe on the Fourth, maybe even after. Until then, this is  Sunshine Lee saying so long, everybody, and God bless!

~Love, your friend, Sunshine Lee.  :D