the latest

hello all,
i must apologize for my recent sporadic updates. work has been busy and thalia and i have been travelling a lot lately. not to mention, it is hard having two computers...i have a desktop at my apartment and my laptop at work. and i am trying not to save pictures on both computers. but then i get into a situation where i don't have pictures that i want to post and therefore postpone giving you all an update. then of course a few days go by and i think, shoot! i still haven't posted an update! so tonight i am updating and tomorrow when i get to work i will post the most amazing pictures!!
so travelling - thalia and i went home to michigan this past weekend just to hang out. aunt steph and uncle barrett and liberty came and spent the entire weekend at our house which was awesome! i was so glad to have them there. saturday we went to ihop for breakfast and we were giving thalia little bits of pancake. we thought she was doing so well eating...then we went to leave and realized that probably half of the pieces were in the highchair!! it was too funny. then we decided to take thalia to the apple orchard and look at some pumpkins. it was a ton of fun! aunt steph took a bunch of wonderfully adorable pictures. thalia had a blast touching the pumpkins and the hay. it was a little chilly but we had her bundled in a cute fall colored hat that yiayia made for her. it matched the pumpkins perfectly! after that grandma and grandpa came over with aunt jen and uncle wj for a fantastic family dinner. i really appreciated that! it was a yummy meal, and it was great getting to spend time with everyone. sunday we went to church for the first time since i had moved. that was quite an adventure of hugs and squeals of delight as all of our friends saw thalia for the first time in over a month. and thalia hammed it up the entire time. it was really wonderful getting to visit with everyone.
now for the big surprise...thalia stayed in michigan! i have to fly back to michigan first thing friday morning for a wedding and with chris' family's help, we decided it was better for thalia to just stay up there and spend time with her dad and gamma and gampa instead of getting on so many flights in such a short amount of time. so i flew back to NC by myself and have been getting used to not having thalia here. the first day is okay because i caught up on some sleep and got some things done around the apartment that i had been putting off. but now it is getting weird. it's too quiet and i keep thinking that i am forgetting about her. just very strange. AND I AM FILING A FORMAL COMPLAINT BECAUSE I HAVE NOT GOTTEN ONE PICTURE OF THALIA FROM CHRIS IN TWO AND A HALF DAYS AND I WAS SENDING HIM PICTURES ALMOST EVERY DAY!!!!!!! so sad!
other than that, work is going better than i had hoped and just keeps getting better. we had our big meeting today that i had been helping plan and it went really well. now i just have a few things to tie up and the project is done! not to worry, i have a lot of things on my plate but i am handling the work well and love the people i am working with. it has been a lot of fun which has made adjusting to being down here by myself a little easier.
only two more days of work and then i get to come home again. i am hoping this weekend will be a little less crazy since we were just home but i am sure it will be nuts again. chris and i didn't even get to spend any quality time together last weekend. i am hoping we can go on a date this weekend. keep your fingers crossed for me.
i promise to post the fall pics tomorrow. they are awesome!! have a wonderful night. thanks as always for all your prayers and thoughts. we couldn't do it without you.

much love and a little more sleep,
c, c, and t