Gramma and Lilly.  

Lilly seems so much older. She doesn't seem any bigger, but definitely has more hair. I had changed her diaper. When I went to put her jeans back on, it was met with a firm "No!". Yes, the Terrible Twos are starting!

How do you handle multiple calls? 

Multitasking! 

Lilly age 23 months now. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I thought I posted?
Where did they go?
I thought I had posted a few days ago and now, it appears to have been a dream.
I have tried to post almost every night this week. I sit down in front of the computer, wake up, (usually as I fall out of the chair hours later), and I then go to bed.
Highlights of the past week:
Spent a good portion of the weekend at the folk's so Rand could install a new garage door for them.
Willie got turned down on his question, they broke up, and now: they are back together. I'm too old for this much excitement.
I haven't had a day off in two weeks.
I have this weekend off. I'm going to rest and clean.
And not necessarily in that order.
But then again, I have a pretty nasty cold going now. Rest has a head start.
I may have one more weekend off before the new year. No guarantees.
I have been doing two orientations a week. We are still trying to get staffed for the holidays. The paper work is piling up on me and the computers have been acting up for the past few days.
The need a new computer guru at headquarters is clear and we need a much bigger server. That is truly the problem. It is the server. When there is heavy traffic, things always slow up horribly.
As everyone's workload has increased because of the coming holidays, the entire Midwest has just been pretty well come to a stand still this week. Reports are dropping. At times, we can't even get the most basic of our programs to load.
Rand has a new specialty in the kitchen. 'Cajun' pizza. With a heavy accent on the blackened part. He's fixed it a few times over the past week or so. It starts out as frozen pizza, take and bake, left-overs; it don't matter. It all comes out the same color.
Willie was over on Monday evening. I fell asleep on the couch. Rand and Willie ran to the neighborhood Take and Bake pizza place. I woke up to all three of our smoke alarms going off. Rand was running from one alarm to another, but not getting a lot accomplished. I suggested he grab a chair and start pulling batteries before the neighbors panic.
He finally got them all turned off. I asked if he was burning the pizzas again. He swore they weren't even closed to being done. The apartment was so filled with smoke I opened a patio door to air some out and turned on the vent.
Rand checked the pizzas again. They were very well done again, but not 'smoking' done. I'm looking close to see if something dripped on a heating element. I'm checking the microwave, dishwasher. There was a lot of smoke, but seemed to be no source. I finally decided we were in no immediate danger and figured something may have been on the bottom of the baking sheets.
We eat what we can of the pizzas and Will eventually heads to work. (He is one the overnight shift now for the holidays)
Right before he goes to bed Rand looks like he has been struck with a thought and tells me he may have an idea where the smoke came from. He takes me in the kitchen and says, "look in here".
And he takes the lid off of the garbage.
Lying in the trash is one of my new kitchen towels - most of it is ash now.
That hubby of mine had set a towel on fire and decided I didn't need to know.
He let me look through the entire kitchen and apartment searching for the source of the smoke.

Okay....I fell asleep and hit save as draft instead of publish.

Three months today........
I have been very broken hearted this evening. Having one of my extreme
missing Lilly" moments. Then I get on here and reread only to see the counter at the end.
It has been three months, today, since we have seen Lilly.
We are guaranteed at least until sometime in December before we get to see her, and honestly, no guarantees then.
My computer sits next to the rocking chair I have spent hours holding Lilly. The same night light still illuminates this new room. Her crib sits empy behind me.

Too much and no lid
How do you know when this ends?

Willie, Amanda, and Jaida came to visit yesterday evening.

Jaida was a bit tired. She fell alseep on the way over.

Jaida was quite taken with Camper, but I can't say the feeling was mutual

Here is Miss Anna's fall photo shoot.
Yes, she has an adorable giggle to go with that infectious smile!

I keep thinking I should change the music, but far this seems to still be where my heart is.

Hearts on the edge of forever
Willie has presented the appropriate love token and asked the question of a lifetime. Amanda is a careful girl who looks and thinks before she leaps. So we all wait on the edge of forever with Willie for her answer. (Send some prayers his way!)

welcome to November
I hear it's been too long since an update, so let's play catch up.
Last Saturday (who hasn't updated in even longer) ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Marathon. He did quite well, although running with a crowd was a new experience.
After the Rob ran the 5K, he came over so I could document, in photo, his shining moment and first marathon run.
Rob stayed for lunch and we watched a movie.

Later that afternoon, Bec, Dianna, and Heath stopped for a visit. Heath and Dianna explored my walking path and even took pictures with their digital camera to show me the sights! We had a wonderful visit!
I, of course, didn't think to get their picture, even though my camera was out from Rob's posings.

I did catch the sunset later that evening.

Losing light here at the end.
There was a moon rising as well.

Camper has a new favorite toy. Cats are like kids. You can buy them all the interesting toys in the world - they are going to be more interested in the box. Or in this case the shiny string wrapped around it.


Camper is still playing with that string, days later.

Rand and I made a huge decision and commitment. We joined Netflix. We are not"movie people", but we decided to shoot for a movie night at least once a week. Quiet time, just the two of us (actually at home at the same time), and a little entertainment.
Our first movie arrived, last night we got take-and-bake pizza, and settled in. Half way through the movie it froze. We restarted, tried scene selecting past that point, but it was scratched and would not play beyond that. We reported it as non-working, returned it, and now await movie number two.
Following our disaster of our first official movie night; Rand watched CSI while I napped, asleep on my laptop. I had higher aspirations, but didn't get further. Rand kept waking me up to tell me I was sleeping.
Never ever wake a sleeping bear.
By the third disturbance, I was really pissed. I verbalized this to him.
I will take sleep how ever and when ever my sore body will allow it. He seems to think it should only be done properly in a bed. Even if he gets that rare chance for a nap, he will lay on the bed. The sofas are for sitting on and meals should be eaten at the table. I don't feel so compelled to follow all furniture rules all the time. (And they think I am OCD!) If I had a dollar for every time my hibernating brain bounced off a monitor or keyboard.........

The DUH award of the week goes to.......
Rand!
This week he actually had the evening off from his second job. Rand went to his favorite barber for a haircut. While there, his phone rang. It was second job calling. He ignored it telling his barber, "Somebody probably didn't show and they are trying to get me to come in". After the third call during the haircut, he quit ignoring it and just turned his phone off. Later, he ran to fax some paperwork concerning his new vehicle. While taking care of that he remembered his phone and turned it back on. And guess who called. He decided the only way to get them to leave him alone was to answer and tell them he wouldn't fill in for someone else that evening.
Guess who was taking the wrong day off?