Meet the family.

We are at the beach with Spencer's family. Here are a couple of our traditional family-on-the-beach-wearing-khaki-and-white picture.


This is my world. Spencer, Mary Emma, Tait, and Camille.


This is Spencer's family. In the front row is Spencer, Tait, Angela (Stuart's wife), Stuart (Spencer's brother), and Jay (Stuart & Angela's son. Man, I love that kid. He's awesome.)
Back row - Jeff (Spencer's cousin who he thinks of as a brother. We are crazy about him), Camille, Yours Truly, Mary Emma, Peggy - aka Nam (Spencer's mom), and Ed - aka Pop (Spencer's dad).

They are all pleased to meet you and would shake your hand and give hugs if you were here.

Now I'm off to bed so I can dream of playing in the sand again tomorrow. And maybe the ocean if the gross seaweed would clear out. Nite y'all!

I'm here. I'm happy.

I Won! I Won!

Happy dances are the name of the game in my house today. Why? Because I won Queen B's Bloggy Giveaway!

I won an autographed copy of Chris Coppernoll's book Providence and an Amazon $10 gift card.

Now if that doesn't make me happy, then I don't know what could.

And since I've never won any random contest in my entire life, my faith in them has been restored.

All is well in the world.

Thanks, B, for hosting the contest. And thanks, Random Integer Generator, for randomly picking me.

Have a lovely day.

One Week From Today

Anyone know what happens one week from today?

Only my favorite sporting event of all time that makes me happy and makes me want to sit for hours and watch sporting events that I would never watch otherwise.

Yes, my friends, it's the Olympics.

My husband makes fun of me for watching the Olympics. See, he's a selective Olympic watcher. He will choose a couple of sports that he's interested in and maybe watch a few minutes of it. He dislikes the opening and closing ceremonies. He will not set a Tivo to record anything Olympic related.

Me, on the other hand? I love it. I. Love. It. I will watch it from morning to night and then Tivo all the stuff I'll miss while I'm asleep. I will watch sports that I have no interest in, don't know the rules for, and will not watch again until the 2012 Olympics. I will cheer happily for the good ole USofA and will cry when the national anthem is played for the gold medal winners. I will imagine myself being a 4'8" gymnast like Shawn Johnson who can do more on a 4" balance beam than I will ever be able to do on a floor. I will wear my white shirt that has a flag on it probably every day. Ok, not every day, because that could get smelly, but a lot. My laundry will only get done during commercials. My oldest daughter will start school the following Monday, and she and I both are sad that she'll miss part of it during school.

We are leaving Saturday for the beach with hub's family and are coming back Thursday. Opening ceremonies are Friday. Initially I thought that our beach trip conflicted with the Olympics' first day and I was about to skip the whole beach trip because I knew there'd be no way I could watch the Olympics like I want to in a condo with 10 other people in it.

Whew. Glad it didn't conflict because it would be very sad and out of character of me to miss any sort of beach trip of any kind. But I would've been very conflicted.

Actually, I'm pretty much a fan of anything that is patriotic. I love the 4th of July. I love Washington DC. I love stuff with American flags on it. I was at the very beginning of the 92 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and it was incredible. Especially being an American cheering for Americans in another country. Awesome. I think it's our patriotic duty to cheer for our athletes. Ok, well that might've been a little much, but you get my drift. I love the Olympics.

Any of you as obsessed with the Olympics as I am? Any of you go overboard like I do? Leave me a comment and let me know. It's nice to know there are other people out there who are as crazy as I am!

And Go USA!