Current mood:	good
Current music:	(at work--none)

Visiting a friend
< Missy Alert!

If you're not in the mood to hear about a trip I took with my sister Missy sweet_missy, then skip this...



Saturday was a total blast!

First, I had Missy to myself for the day. That doesn't happen all that much away from home, so we were both excited about it.

It was nice for both of us to be getting away, too. (Dad's been down pretty sick with the flu for some time, and I've even had to take time off work for several days to help care for him and to mind Missy. I'm not complaining, but I think Missy and I were both pleased for a break from being at home.)

We spent the morning 'tidying' around the house and making sure both of our dads were settled in, happy and comfortable. (It just makes my heart leap to see how 'motherly' Missy can be. She's a darling little homemaker when she wants to be.)

Finally around 10:30 we were ready to leave!

We took Dad's car. Mainly because Missy's carseat is there (and I didn't want to switch it over to my car). (I guess I should get one for my car at some point.)

Anyway, I got Missy all settled and buckled in. Have I ever mentioned that Missy hates wearing hats? She won't wear one even when it's raining out or rain is threatening. Or to keep the wind away from her ears. She's pretty stubborn, too. So I made her wear her little gray jacket with the hood--just to be safe. lol.

She had an entire bag of 'babies' with her. Sammy Bear and Bag 'O Cats and so on. Fortunately she's not one of those little kids who has to drag a blanket everywhere! She has little friends who do that and I find it so annoying.

I put on Britney for her to sing along with. She knows most of the words and has such a good voice! When she wasn't singing we talked. She was just chattering away she was so excited to be going with me.

She's been experimenting with some new words. 'Ga-zempt' is her attempt at saying 'exempt.' 'Apparently' pops up all the time, by the way. (She says it really well and seems to understand exactly how to use it.) But she still says Satur-dee (not day). (That's true for all the days of the week, and for words like 'birthday.' Seeing as we love it, we're not anxious for her to stop any time soon. lol.)

It's a short trip, really. Only a little over half an hour. Both Kevin kevinr and Kris kris_royal greeted us at the door!

They've got a good-sized, older house (I guess it actually belongs to Kris' dad) in a quiet neighborhood. It needs painting (Kevin said he's hoping to get to scraping down the old coat soon), but it's still nice.

They were so sweet to Missy! She was practically bouncing off the walls she was so excited.

Kris took her in to meet her dad and Kevin took me to his 'office' so I could see how he had things set up there. (I could hear Missy jabbering away, so I knew she was having a great time. lol.)

Kevin and I spent ages discussing XML. I want him to think about re-writing his website pages with XML (in place of HTML). He seems enthusiastic, even though it'll mean a lot more work for him. lol.

Kris interrupted us and had us come out for lunch. We were a boisterous party of five! At lunch I discovered that Kris' dad Jim had told Missy she could call him 'grandpa.' She was obviously delighted and called him grandpa every chance she got--which seemed to equally please him.

Then while we were still eating James jamesr, Hallie and baby Thomas came by--a total surprise! Missy was beside herself. She just loves babies! They were so sweet they even let Missy hold Thomas in her arms. She became the most 'grown up' person in the room (and her usual bossy self... lol). We were all beaming watching her and Thomas together.

They joined us for dessert and then Hallie and Kris went off with the baby somewhere and Jim (grandpa) took Missy in the living room with him. James, Kevin and I went back into the office to discuss computers. lol.

Every so often Missy would have to run in and tell me something exciting that was going on. Jim was actually playing with her and her babies! And they were also watching TV and talking and she was having a wonderful time. lol. I just loved seeing her face so flushed and her eyes so bright. lol.

And Kris and Hallie would peek in now and then, too. Finally we quit playing on the computers and everyone gathered in the living room to visit (while we had more dessert and coffee).

When dinner time rolled around Missy and I said goodbye and started gathering up to head off.

Kevin pulled me aside and gave me two Backstreet Boys books (a total surprise). I didn't have either of them, so I was really thrilled. And he handed me a paper sack and said that there were some small presents inside from all of them for Missy's birthday (which is the 22nd).

We got home to find pizza (another welcome surprise) for dinner and two well-rested and happy dads. lol. So a great day was had by all!

Missy can't wait to go visit there again...



/end of Missy alert

Sorry I've been so quiet here. It remains busy at work. And with Dad so sick with the flu these past couple of weeks I just haven't spent much time online away from work...

I owe a bunch of you emails--sorry I've been slow to answer! I'll try and get to it this week.

Well, break time is over, so back to work! Just wanted to post this seeing as we had such a good time.