Getting Back in the Swing of It...

It's been so long since I've posted anything, I hardly know where to begin. Life has been (thankfully) so normal lately, just day-to-day things that I doubt anyone would even be interested in. But just in case anyone actually is interested, here are a few highlights from the long weekend.

Jim was off Friday & Monday, so he and Tom worked all weekend building a new deck. It is awesome! Damn, they do good work! Since we have an aboveground pool, and we had a partial deck that Jim and Milo built in the spring when Jim was home on leave, they extended it to an upper level with a gate and railings, so Jillian can't get to the pool without pulling a major Houdini! (Yes, I know nothing is absolutely kid-proof, so rest assured there will be much adult supervision as always...) But is is sooooooooo nice. Now we will be able to get in and out of the pool without climbing that crappy plastic ladder. I can't wait for spring now!

I took Jillian to Walmart today to get her portraits done. This is the third appointment we've had, and we finally made it! Actually, last week it wasn't our fault that we missed it--I got her all dressed up and ready, and when we got to the Walmart there were firetrucks, a hazmat truck, and police tape all across the entrance. I read in the paper the next day that some employees had found "mysterious bags" containing a "white substance" in a dressing room. So of course, they carried it across the store to show a supervisor. (Now, if you thought you had found some kind of terrorrist wmd, would you pick it up and parade it around a public place??? HEY FRED, DO YOU THINK THIS COULD BE THE ANTHRAX OR SOMETHIN???? Ok, they didn't yell in a redneck way like that, but when I read the series of events, that part kind of caught my attention. Maybe they should have some training on that. Just a thought.) But anyway, the store was closed for five hours, and they finally identified it as some kind of sodium (I can't remember exactly what kind) but basically it is the stuff you put on slippery sidewalks to melt the ice. And of course, the incident remains under investigation. Life in the post 9/11 world.

So to make a long story even longer, here is a sample of one of Princess Jillian's Royal Portraits...