I am an American...

and it truly is a privelege to vote. Tonight it was an exercise in patience. Major Patience.

First of all, it was raining cats and dogs. Second, Knoxville has some of the dimmest streetlights I have ever seen. And third, the parking lots of the polling stations had no lights whatsoever.

So the rain - I just made sure the umbrella was in the car. But when it rains in Knoxville and it's dark, it's just bad. It is bizarre, the streets are so dark- I swear, growing up in Memphis the streets were all lit up like daytime, but not here. And I don't know what it IS about these streetlights, but not only do they seem to make it darker, they also somehow manage to make the streets as reflective as a mirror, which makes driving just terrifying. Lines on the road? You can't see them at all. We were to vote at a local middle school, and that parking lot had NO lights. Now, doesn't it seem like a SCHOOL of all places should be well lit? I mean, isn't that where we want the kids to be safe? And what was weirder, there was a row of bales of HAY in the middle of the lot! Not a clue what purpose that served.

So, we finally GET to the school.. only to find out we've come to the wrong school. We find this out AFTER we've already unloaded the stroller and baby and Erin went to park in the rain. So we load everything back up and go down the little (dark) access road to the correct school. While we are driving on what SHOULD be a road, we find that all of the lazy people in town have parked on the side of the road, making it impossible for two cars to fit on the street. Somebody up there WAS looking out for us tho; we were just milineters away from hitting a side mirror on an illegally parked minivan when I realized how tight it was and stopped our car. Whew.

Once we finally got inside, we did get good news. The line for OUR district was the shortest of all. So we didn't need to wait too long to get to the voting booths! We voted on the new electronic machines and finally were on our way home. At that point we decided it was a frozen pizza night.

All that being said, the polling stations were packed - which was nice to see. Even on the dark dreary night the lines were out the doors. Good.

(note: I realize that our little 'hurdles' are exactly that- Little. I realize this little rant probably sounds pretty petty. I'm just venting. I recognize there are people in the Middle East who literally risk their lives in order to get out and vote. I realize a little rain and darkness is nothing compared to what those folks face.)

Perhaps I'll put my voter's voice to some good and petition the county commission for some improved street lighting...

(oh, and Eileen managed to make it through the whole event without even a whimper! she's such a trouper.)

LB's and Inches...

By way of seriously high tech methods, Josh and I have some updates on Eileen's stats:

weight = 12 lbs
length= 23 inches
age = 6wks, 3 days.

Just over two weeks ago, she only weighed 10 lbs and was 21.5 inches. I've no idea what the normal rate of weight/height gain is, but she certainly seems to be growing at a fast pace!

(oh, and if you're wondering, the high tech methods were a tape measure, and Josh on the scale WITH Eileen and without. See, those college educations paid off!)

Last night we attempted to go to dinner at Aunt Sissy's house with some friends. We learned that we need to have earlier nights out when little Missy goes with us! We got there a bit late - it still takes us a while to get ourselves out the door. Right around 9pm, Eileen got hungry. I figured I'd just go upstairs and feed her, and that then she'd fall asleep just like she does at home. WRONG.

I don't know if it was just b.c she was super tired, or if it was b.c she wasn't in her normal surroundings, but she would NOT eat. Nor would she stop screaming. She was just so upset- we've never seen her that way. It was just heartbreaking. At that point we knew it was time to head home (which certainly bummed me out- I was SO having fun with the other adults). She cried most of the way home, and as soon as we got here she was just fine. Ate a large meal and then slept for 6 hours.

On the one hand- we were thrilled she was OK and that she slept for so long. On the other hand, perhaps I need to visit more people and make a point to feed her in different surroundings. And we're making progress with the bottle too, which will help. Slowly but surely we're figuring these things out.

She's definitely interacting with us now.. note the smile above! Josh took some videos today of her with his phone, and captured more smiles. If I can figure out how to load those up, I will get them on here for all to see!

In the meantime, here's a link to some new pics.. note there are two recent albums, both dated 11/5.. enjoy!
http://eileenloebner.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8IZt27Foyat4Y