I am so sorry for the long absence. When I get a phone call from my mother that I have't blogged in too long of a time and she wants more pictures uploaded, I know it's time to get my butt back to the computer. I've just been busy. And sleepy. I'll tell you all about the busy if you can tell Annika to please sleep through the night. PLEASE. Last night I was up late working on a presentation for work and only got 5 hours of sleep. Thankfully Annika decided to sleep between the hourse of midnight and 5am so my 5 hours were at least uninterrupted. However, Sunday night? She was up 4 times. 4. She is not an infant anymore people. I am not used to this. I am sleepy.

On to why I've been so busy. So last we talked I was preparing for our garage sale. I prepared last week Monday - Thursday evenings and was open for business Friday and Saturday. The garage sale was a big success. Amanda, Krystle, Mathias and I made over $450. My garage is still full of stuff but I'll be working the next couple nights on boxing that up and bringing it all to Goodwill. It's all going. None of it is going back in my house. It feels mighty good. And I'll be glad to get the vehicles back in the garage too.

Work has been very busy too. I was running an all day design review today and was busy preparing for that last week and yesterday and making sure all my other presenters were ready too. The meeting went pretty well, I think, and now I can relax for half a second at work. I'm taking Friday off to have a nice long 4 day weekend too. Only 2 days of work to go!

Thursday I got a letter from the National Marrow Donor Program. Here is what it said. "Thank you for your recent participation in additional testing. This testing compared your tissue typing with the patient's typing. The results of this testing indicate that you and the patient could be considered a suitable match. If the physician determines that the patient needs a transplant, you could be considered as a potential donor. However, the patient is not ready to receive a transplat at this time. If the patient becomes ready to receive a transplant, we may contact you to consider blood stem cell donation." There's more after that but it's all administrative stuff. So, I'm on indefinite hold I guess. I'm hoping this means my recipient is not too sick to receive a transplant but that other treatment options are working for her (she's a 36 year old woman with Hodgkins Lymphoma). I cried when I got the letter and several times since. I just keep worrying that I'm too late to help. Ugh. Moving on so I don't break down again.

Sunday was Kris's 29th birthday. We had a small BBQ at Nana and Papa's house to celebrate. It was a beautiful afternoon. It was a bit windy and chilly but wearing a jacket and it was just fine outside. We spent the entire afternoon oustide too. Either on the deck or visiting the horses or goofing off in the grass. I've uploaded a whole bunch of pictures from the afternoon (Annika #10 album). Annika had a great time and was in a great mood. She even gave hugs and kisses good-bye to all the grandparents and great grandparents. I think I need to print those out for each of them. She even got to experience two firsts. 1 - She got to ride in and "drive" a golf cart. Great Grandma and Grandpa have a golf cart to help them get around the farm and Annika took it for a spin with Nana. She had a blast. She had so much fun that when I took her to Lowe's today to buy flowers, she insisted on riding in the cart with a steering wheel. She "drove" all around Lowe's and never once insisted on getting out or leaving. 2 - She got to meet her palomino horse, Goldy. What, don't all little girls have horses? Just my spoiled little girl? Yes, Annika has a horse. Papa made sure of that. At least she won't be begging for a pony for her birthday one of these years, right? When she gets a bit older she can ride it. She couldn't get enough of those horses. Every so often she would take off and walk over to the barn for another look. She is one lucky little girl.

Michelle called tonight saying that Robyn gave birth last night to the TaterBabe! Everyone is happy and healthy and doing just fine. We don't know TaterBabe's first name yet (Tate will be his middle) because Robyn and Kris want to have a naming ceremony. They, too, are still calling him Tater for the time being so they don't slip. I'm so excited for them and the new addition to their family.

Kris called me at work today to tell me that his friend Chris and Chris's wife Courtney are expecting their first child in December. I'm so excited! Yay for babies!

OK, I think I've shared all that is new around our house. Now I must go sleep before Annika wakes up!