Happy June!!

Ah, June. A good month, if I do say so myself. I DID happen to be born in June, so that might have something to do with it. Plus, I'm out of school. Plus, we get to find out our baby's gender in June. (I seriously have NO "feeling" about that... It could be either, for all the psychic feelings I'm getting. This week, I'm practicing thinking it's a boy. Maybe next week I'll switch the thinking to "girl".)

So, last night, Mary and Peter came by with root beer and ice cream and we had root beer floats outside on our front steps. We then had lasagna for dinner (my first time ever making it, and it turned out WONDERFULLY! Thanks , mom, for the recipe!!)
After dinner, we all went for a stroll and Mary and I played with our cameras... snapping a few photos so I could give her some pointers on her new toy.
{pretty girl, eh? This is in our neighbor's lilies.}

{do you detect a bit of a bump there? 'Cause it's gettin' harder to hide. Almost 16 weeks!!}

{Joe and our dog-in-law, Max... Who seem more mature, here? Ah, that's why I love Joe.}

Okay, so here is some other crazy news from my family: My sister Elise is smack-dab in the middle of that passport crisis that is going on right now. She applied in March, was told 10 weeks, and is now less than 48 hours away from her trip to England, HER DREAM OF ALL DREAMS, and...

NO PASSPORT.


Turns out, millions of folks are in this same crap-pile-- they all thought they had given it enough time, but the passports are taking more than ~14 WEEKS~ to be completed. It is a NIGHTMARE.
So i have been actively involved in her dilemma, anxious, worried, looking up any information I can for her online, trying to find ways she can make this work... and of course, on her end, in Indianapolis, she has been frantically seeking options as well. As of this morning, her regional office told her that her passport is done, but is in New Orleans. They told her they would pass along the message to "overnight" it to her, but that she should still call them back in a few hours to check the progress of the whole fiasco. This would give her exactly 36 hours to get this passport. YIKES!!!

Then she called this evening with an even more updated version of her game plan. Seems that when she called the office back, they told her it was still in New Orleans, no change there. BUT--- she could, now that she was under two days from her departure, go to Chicago's regional office (a THREE HOUR DRIVE), with every conceivable form of I.D. she owns (since her original birth certificate is, you guessed it, stapled to to original passport application in New Orleans)... and wait in their line to get a whole new passport. This means getting new photos, all the ID together, a copy of her birth certificate faxed to her from my parents, and then driving three hours to get to the office for her interview, at the end of which she should be able to walk out of there with a REAL PASSPORT... $75+ fee waived, of course, since her original check was cashed ages ago, for the OTHER passport.
Needless to say, I am nearly able to breathe easier for her, the poor thing, because it sounds like after SIX HOURS of driving tomorrow, she should still be able to proceed with her lifelong dream of going to England on Wednesday. Prayers really can work, y'all.

*PHEW!!!!!*

Anyway. I'm hungry again. I never can eat very much, but this beast within seems to demand food much more frequently than I am used to.... Weird.

Good night!