this crazy little life of mine: long time gone

Holy cow...I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. I am also having a hard time with the fact that August is coming to an end which means September and preschool are right around the corner (for that whole story see what happened to july? for more on that). We have been to North Carolina and back (more on that later), cried during the Olympics and then cried some more because they are over, had Uncle Addy staying at our house for 4 wonderful days, finally spread grass seed in our yard and are currently watching with great anticipation for some green to start popping up all over our currently nothing-but-dirt yard. No wonder August is disappearing!

First off, the summer Olympics. Some people may already know this but for those of you who don't...I have a minor (OK maybe not so minor) obsession with watching Olympic swimming and especially with Michael Phelps and I can honestly blame it all on Cayden. Before the 2008 games in Beijing, I had never really spent much time watching or caring about the Olympics. They were on and I would sort of keep track of the medal count but never really watched any of the events. Then came August 2008 and me about 7 1/2 months pregnant with Cayden. I don't know how it is with other women but when I am pregnant some sort of new TV show or event catches me and reels me in big time. With Harper it was "The Office" and with Cayden it was Michael Phelps and the summer Olympics. I barely slept during that week and got so excited that at times I even managed to get my huge pregnant self standing on my bed or bouncing on the couch to cheer. Over the course of the next 4 years, my obsession did not wane and I made sure to watch every TV show or news story that featured or even mentioned him. As Cayden became more and more aware of what Mommy was doing he began to recognize Phelps and has even thrown a complete tantrum because there wasn't any more to watch of him at that particular moment. Needlessly to say, we had a great time watching swimming (and diving and beach volleyball and volleyball) and Mommy cried A LOT!

This is the best I could get of the kids together in the Team USA gear! I even got Cayden to start saying "Go Team USA"

As for our trip to NC...if you have about an hour I can tell you the full story of our horrible travel days that started with our final flight of the day (on our way there) getting turned around back to Atlanta about 15 minutes prior to landing in NC on time, canceling of said flight once back in Atlanta, nasty Delta representatives, 2 hours waiting for our bags, a very expensive vehicle rental and subsequent 4 1/2 hour drive and the stealing of my debit card number that resulted in someone removing $500 from our checking account via a Mexican bank. We did get lots of time time to relax at Pop and SuSu's new lake house (know to all southerners now as Bottiwood) followed by a wedding in the rain. Mandy and Josh wanted an outdoor ceremony and that is what they got. They were lucky enough to be under the gazebo and had no idea that the rest of us were getting soaked as we sat and watched them say their vows until the ceremony was over. It was funny, special and exactly what they wanted (an outdoor wedding with the mountains in the background). Our trip ended slightly better than it had begun but still resulting in a 2 1/2 hour delay of our last flight of the day on our way home. On our flight back to Atlanta that first day there was a guy sitting behind us that made a very true and pretty funny joke that pretty much sums up our whole crappy travel experience...What does DELTA stand for? Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport! I also just have to mention the irony of this awful travel in that it was the worst travel experience I have ever had and just happened to be the first time in over 2 years that Jake and I had flown together.

Here are some pictures of our NC trip (from my phone because of course on the trip from hell I also managed to forget my camera) and the rest of August so far: