I took the photo myself. It's Jamie, Michael, and Me at Reelfoot Lake on the Boardwalk. YAY!
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So where to begin.
Jamie and Michael flew up to Atlanta to visit us. We had prepared by "baby proofing" the house as best we could, and borrowing car-seat for the boy (thank you Mina & Chris!). I ended up buying a pack-n-play-yard crib for him (since Jamie & I and the baby were travelling to my Grandpa's house also over the weekend). It was easily portable. We also got a portable booster seat (with straps), so he could eat at the table with us. and then lastly a "kid cage" as Matt calls it - an extra long accordian-like baby gate. You can enclose the baby inside of it, or you can stretch it out to cover doorways, stairs, bookcases, whatever you wanted to block him from getting into. It worked great, and was also portable for Grandpa's house. I didn't want anything that I had to "drill into the wall" to mount. Blah. Portable is best.
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Michael is a good little boy, he giggles, he laughs, he is independant and likes to run around by himself and wont' sit on your lap for very long, but is prone to occaisional temper tantrums and screaming (she says his terrible twos are starting early), and so we are now partly deaf, just fyi if you call me I may not hear the phone. Just kidding.
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Matthew even babysat one night for us, so Jamie & I could go out to dinner with Erika and Holly. Very cool!
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Aunt Julie travelled down from Iowa to meet us at Grandpa's, and we all had a blast. We dined on filet mignon with the Family Silver (which has been handed down for many years, and is now dad's), and the best part was that Grandpa got to meet his great-grandson. Hip-hip hooray!
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Links for
Photos .
Movies .
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I have to admit, the house is very very quiet now, and I miss the boy. Although, Sport is very glad that he is gone. He liked to chase the poor dog - pulling his tail and "patting" him (more like punching him with his toys) - and Sport was getting irritated. We mostly kept Sport out on the screen porch during Michael's visit. It was okay though.
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For such a GREAT visit (when she arrived, the plane was 30 mins EARLY - whoever heard of such a thin?), the last day was kind of a mess.
The FAA had a "
software malfunction" and my poor sister was STRANDED at the damned ATL airport for over 8 hours. I dropped her off around 5pm, and told her to call me if she found out her plane was delayed (we had some storms the day before, so I was hoping the weather wasn't going to be a problem) - oh that wasn't the start of it.
I drove all the way home (the other side of town), and then she calls and says her flight was CANCELLED and the next one isn't leaving until 11:30pm! Her "prepaid phone" was almost out of minutes, and she wanted me to call her husband to let him know. I also offered to come back to the airport to have dinner with her (but she'd have to come outside of security and then go back thru later), she said nevermind she was going to take the baby to the "play area" in the airport and stick it out alone. I said ok. So we hung up. Then I called her hubby. No answer. I left a voicemail, but he normally never gets those.
Typical.
I wait about 15 mins and call him again.
No answer.
I know from experience, sometimes you just have to call him over and over and finally he realizes his phone is ringing. so I did that.
On the 7th call (after no answer), I was about to give up, and he finally called me back but he was really rude, he goes "WHY is my phone ringing off the hook? What the Fxxx is so important?" and I said "well! Jamie wanted me to let you know she is delayed at the airport and her phone is almost out of minutes", he yelled "ok how late?", and when I told him, he goes "That's just f-cking great!" and hangs up on me. He never let me tell him the new flight number or anything.
about 20 mins later, he calls back and says (in a very accusing tone) - "well why can't you get her on a flight for tomorrow? so I can pick her up at a reasonable hour?" I tried to explain to Mr. Dingleberry how unpredictable this would be due to the FAA having caused the mass confusion at the airport, and how ALL airlines were affected. What a prick!!! And finally he goes "so she's just stuck there?" and I said "I don't know what other options we have right now" and then he hung up again. JERK!
so, I'm livid at this point. I call Jamie back and leave her a short message, hoping she gets it and saves her minutes. No, she calls me back. We are midsentance as I explain about her *sshole of a husband, and click - her minutes run out. I have NO WAY to contact her over a phone. Even if I WAS to go down to the airport again, I do not know where she is, I can't go past security (because I do not have a flight to board), and how would I tell her where to meet me in this VAST/LARGE building?
It's nearly 6pm, and she's stuck there for at least 5.5 more hours, and there is NOTHING I can do about it.
I'm starting to clean up all the baby stuff (the booster seat, the crib, the baby gate), and washing laundry, and I'm feeling VERY badly. I start to cry. I cry for the stress she is having at the airport. I cry for missing them already, I cry for the life she is going back to and hope that her husband doesn't treat her like he just treated me, because if he does, she has a long hard road ahead of her. I cry for my nephew, who I love dearly, and hope his daddy just had a bad moment, because I don't want him to have that sort of role model 24/7. I cry because I feel so helpless, and moments before they were safely in my car and we could have driven anywhere we wanted. Matthew tries to console me, and eventually things calm down and we go to bed.
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But I wake up at 12:45am to call her husband to see if she has arrived safely. He's tired and less cranky thank goodness, but tells me she was delayed again and won't arrive until 2am. I ask him to call me back and let me know they are safe or if she needs me to come get her. And he says he will, but he never calls, and I wake up at 6am not knowing where they are.
And today I write this, hoping that they are fine at home, and catching up on their sleep today. I will have to wait until the hubby gets off work to call. he never answers the phone during the day. Sigh. Jamie's phone is still dead as a doornail, no luck there.
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I go back over the pics from our visit, and Baby Michael's smiling face remind me that we still had fun, and even if the plane was delayed, the overall visit was a good one. Grandpa is happy in the photos too.
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Well work is the same as ever - and I have a loving hubby at home, a loving doggie, and tonight a chiropractic adjustment and massage. Maybe things are on the upswing again.
My grandfather passed away July 31st after a long battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis (an incurable disease which scars the lungs). He died peacefully in his sleep in the afternoon. I will greatly miss him. However, I know that now he can breathe again without the assistance of oxygen machines. He has also been reunited with the love of his life - my Grandmother. 
Photo Credit