Max & Lilly

I just noticed a few of you have asked about Lilly Belle. She's still here. (For those of you who don't know who Lilly Belle is, click HERE for her back posts.) I remember the day I brought her home. It really seems like not so long ago, but then again a year long deployment is practically a time warp. She stayed with my mom during my little trip to Afghanistan, but she's back home with me. She wasn't too fond of us bringing home Max, but she's warmed up to him quite a bit. They're always playing and snuggling these days.

Lightning

Someone is hiding from the storm.

Day 268: Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

Someone needs a hair cut and has way too many toys... Ahhh.... much better. I just wish she'd sit still for the picture.

Happy Birthday... Lilly Belle!

Oh, I miss her so much! She's TWO today!

Day 190: Lilly Dreams

I've been having a lot of dreams about Lilly Belle lately. I miss her madly! Since I can't take a picture of my dreams or of her I thought I'd share a Lilly pic that I haven't previously posted. P.S. I'm back-logging a ton of pictures here on my blog as fast as this cruddy internet will let me. I'm just thankful to be connected!

Day 110: Thank you, Jayne!

Jayne sure does know what melts my heart! Look what she made for me:

Guest Blogger: Ella (My Sister)

"Goofy" Just a funny picture of Lilly. This was the original photo: This is the same photo just flipped around

Uploading

I'm still having a heck of a time getting pictures to load. I'm two weeks behind on getting them loaded. I'm still actively taking photos though. Today we had a training experiment in the aid station. We figured it'd be much better if we actually injected our food with condiments instead of dipping them. I have the whole thing in photos, so you won't miss out. I also documented the huge snowfall we just had during the past two days. There was so much that it even went over my boots. I went through half a dozen pairs of socks yesterday. It was quite annoying. Anyway, my sister, Ella, did blog about miss Lilly Belle today, so check that out by clicking HERE. She's fairly new at blogging, so send her a warm blogland hello! My cousin, Chelsea, also has a blog. You can visit her site HERE.

Day 20: Lilly Belle

This is another token from home that I was able to carry along with me. I packed it in my big tough box that shipped over here before I did. I used to have this picture sitting on my desk at work. Well, I guess since this place is my work now I can still say the same thing. I miss her so much!

Guest Blogger: Camryn (My Cousin)

"LAURA"

Current mood: crushed

Category: Blogging

OMG, Laura you have no idea how hard the last week was for me. I will miss you so much you can't even believe. Don't forget that i love you and even though i don't show it i am so freakin' proud of you. I can't help but think of all the fun times we had together and do you remember how i always wanted to be just like you. I still do believe it or not. You are amazing and i love you for everything you are because even though you have been through tough times you still hold true to your values. I only wish that we could have spent more time together. i have to stop crying and typing cause i know you are starting to tear up too now. Well i will watch lullie belle (i so butchered that name) for you and give you updates and i promise she will get played with on Fridays at least. I can't wait til your 15 months are up. You better make it back to my graduation. Let me know if you need me to mail anything to you and if you need any hand warmers LOL. I can't even see what I am typing because i am crying so much. What a baby. Well i won't say goodbye because i know you don't like that so i guess it will be a see you later.

I love you and thanking for fighting for my freedom. Most of all thank you for being such a good role model for me. You proved to me that I can do anything. LOVE YOU LAURA!!!!

Currently listening : Greatest Hits By Jo Dee Messina

Miss Piggy

I love this girl...

Closet Makeover

My closet has been driving me nuts lately. I've hated it since I moved in here almost a year ago now. It's one of those long ones with two doors, so I can't access the long spaces on either side. I'd almost prefer having those ugly sliding doors that always fall off the tracks. At least I could get to everything then. I also hate my dresser. I put it together myself way back when I was first stationed here. I'm surprised it's lasted three years anyhow. The drawers don't work quite right, and it's not designed very practically. I've always been a bit obsessively compulsive about having all the same type of hangers (huggable hangers rock!) and that my clothes are hung in color order, by season, and by type. You'd think that would be enough organization, but not for ME! I really wish I had a before picture, but the only thing I was able to snap was a photo of Lilly "helping" me organize. She's like a cat that tries to squeeze itself right into the middle of whatever you're trying to get done.

I put all of my winter clothes, extra uniforms (I have TONS), and my overflowing tshirt collection each into their own big lidded storage tub and slid them into one of the long ends of the closet. I then moved all of my luggage and large bags into the other long end. Okay, I'm already bored with hearing myself describe my closet organization. I don't know why anyone other than myself would find this interesting, so here's a picture in short:

There's a lot that can't been seen in the picture, but you get the idea. I labeled all of the drawers with little metal rimmed tags tied on with embroidery thread. Even all of my undershirts for my uniform are rolled to the exact size of a dollar. We had to do that in Basic Training. (I guess I did learn a few things other than how to throw grenades and apply a high shine finish to a pair of combat boots.) All of Lilly's clothes are in the big blue drawer on the bottom left too. She'd be upset if she didn't have her own space in the closet. Only one of the bins on the top shelf is full. It's holding all of my jeans. I still have two empty drawers, an empty shoe cubbie, and room for six more pairs of shoes on the door caddie too! Perhaps it's time for some more shopping! I just didn't have a place for my polka dot rain boots, but that's okay. I like having them out anyhow. I wear them at first sight of looming clouds. I love funky shoes. I think I need a scrapbook page about that now. I've been working on some more cards for submissions again. I haven't created a thing since my first one was accepted over a month ago. I was afraid of being a one-hit-wonder, but the mojo is back! Here's a sneaky peek:

Happy Birthday

LILLY BELLE!!!

Road Trip

Guess what?! I have nine days off from work... YES! I really didn't expect to have the time off, so there's not time to get a plane ticket. I'd have to take Lilly to the vet for records and shots verification to get her a plane ticket or kennel stay, so I just decided to take a road trip instead. The trip isn't too bad with all the stops I like to take. Between Lilly and I we need to take breaks of some sort every 2-3 hours. I left from Tennessee Sunday morning and arrived here in Texas around 2330 (11:30 pm for you civilians). I really enjoyed the trip. It's the first time I've really taken a long car trip alone. Well, I did drive down to Fort Benning, Georgia last year for Officer Candidate School, but it wasn't a terribly long trip like this one. I forgot how nice it is just to be away and alone sometimes. I still had to call about a dozen different people at every stop to check in, but it was still worth it.

Lilly's New Do

I finally took Lilly in for a hair cut. I've been debating over it in my head for a while now. I just couldn't bear the thought of cutting all that cute shaggy hair. She just looks SO different now. All the pretty black hair is finally gone. I miss that too. I'm not sure that she likes her new do though. I've been getting the stink-eye from her since I picked her up. She kinda looks like a little old man... Don'tcha think?

Vaccinate Your Children

I always let Lilly out back in the mornings for a few minutes before I let her run around in the house again. Normally she's sitting there by the door waiting for me, but today she must have gotten into some little adventure because this is what I saw:

Where Oh Where...

has my camera gone??? I have made a couple of projects that I want to share with you, and I still have the swaps to post, but I just can't find my camera right now. I can't seem to find anything. Things have been disappearing lately and turning up in places I just know I didn't leave them. It's really weird. My make up bag was open in the front of my car seat when I went to work this morning, but I haven't even worn make up in weeks, so how did it get there!? It's a little creepy... Anyhow, I haven't gotten home when the sun is still up anyhow, so I don't think my pictures would turn out how I prefer them. I'm having a difficult time typing right now since Lilly is licking my neck. I'm so ticklish! She sits on the back of the couch behind me while I watch TV and surf the internet. Usually she leaves me alone, but not when I want to work of course. Anyhow, I got a package from Stampin' Up! today... it was a new stamp set from the upcoming Spring/Summer 2008 Catalog! I'll be sure to make a project with it right away. I found one of the pictures I took of Lilly sitting by the back step when I first moved to my new apartment that I had been looking for. It totally cracks me up for some reason.

Leave of Absence

I know a few of you have noticed that I haven't been posting for a little while. There are a lot of funky things going on in my life. That last trip to Washington didn't turn out so great, and for legal reasons I'm not allowed to talk about it quite yet. I also got the news that my sister is now engaged to a guy she has known for three weeks and wants to get married by December 1st. Woah! This isn't her first engagement by any means, but it's the scariest. Each new one was the scariest. I love my sister more than anything in the world. She's the only sibling I have. I grew up with her. Until her own kids live with her for 19 years there will be no one on this earth that has been with her longer or more than I have. Even parents aren't there for their children as much as siblings are. I was there for her in sleep, play, school, home, and EVERYTHING else. She does have a few faults though. She's never lived on her own for the first. Neither has this guy she wants to marry. She's not even responsible for her own finances yet. No car, no insurance, no money, no house... I could go on and on. Being engaged isn't the problem to me. It's the big rush that is baffling me. Why the hurry??? He still owes the military more time, so he's not going anywhere. Supposedly he's Mormon, so for his family it's appropriate for him to marry at 21 years old. (They're both 21.) If he's so in tune to his religion they why aren't they getting married in a church or in the presence of a minister/pastor?! They also say they want to get the military's medical insurance. If he's getting out then they'll have to pay for it anyhow. My sister already has insurance through the family, so that doesn't make sense either. My sister has been wanting to get outta the nest for quite a while. She's asked to move in with me a few times over the past three years that I've lived here. Every time I tell her that it's okay, but she'll have to pay half the bills, provide her own transportation and get a job. When I tell her this she flips and says I'm trying to control her, so she might as well live with Mom if I'm going to have so many rules! What??? I guess she thinks this guy is going to support her and she can continue to rack up debt and live like a princess. She doesn't even know what the generic brand of toilet paper feels like or the taste of the cheap cheese. I could go on and on about all this, but I've got to breathe after all. Okay. Okay. Here's a picture of Lilly I took yesterday. She lost five of her baby teeth last night. I didn't realize how big she's gotten until I started looking through old pictures of her. I have one of her sitting by the back door. She used to be shorter than the step. I had to pick her up just to get her in and out of the door. Yesterday she even jumped onto the couch all by herself. She's much more hairy than she used to be too. Her roots are even starting to show on her head. My baby is growing up! I need to get working on going through all the mail I've got piled up for me. It looks like there are some swaps waiting for me to discover! I'll be sure to post as much of them as I can. And...that's it!

Connection

Whew! I finally got a good enough connection to do a post. I only wish I had some pictures to share of this beautiful state. Washington looks very much like Kentucky, but still different in a more beautiful way. I never thought I could settle at Fort Campbell, but now I'd love to transfer to Fort Lewis. I think I'll put in for one! I've been sleeping and working most of the time that I've been here. My body's clock is way way way off at this point. I keep waking up in the middle of the night thinking it's time to get dressed for work, and of course there's no way to talk to my stomach about this new eating schedule. It just gets angry and growls when I try to explain it. I don't have a car either since only every other person who came here was authorized a rental car. I don't feel like paying for a taxi to drive me five blocks to the grocery store, but I don't want to walk that far in the rain with grocery bags either. LOL! A couple of us are planning to go into Seattle today though, so I'll be sure to take some pictures. I didn't bring my glamour shots camera, so I hope I get something decent to post and to hopefully make a real live scrapbook page! I haven't done that in a long while. Before I left, I did get a cute little picture of Lilly laying in the laundry basket. It's one of her newest favorite places to be. She loves snuggling up to a nice stinky Army sock.