Big Sigh....We have been home since thursday afternoon, but this is the first chance I have had to get away for a few minutes by myself. James' uncle Jeff and wife Cheri are here for a weekend visit and arrived friday morning at 9:30am from Bham. They left at 4:15am to head our way. I was not expecting them quite so early, but concidering that I called them to ask them if they would mind coming friday instead of thursday, I can't complain. (I don't know how it worked out for us to have guests after my almost 2 weeks out of town....)

Anyway, Jeff brought his sailboat and he and James went out yesterday. Today it is raining and I don't see sailing in the forecast anytime soon. A beautiful dark, rainy lazy saturday morning. James has been watching Nathan since 7:30am. I have been reading, showering and now writing. I missed being here.

The rest of our trip was much more restful. My son is a people person, its official. He was introduced to people right and left all day every day in North Carolina. He smiled on 'cue' and saved his whining for mommy. (He's so cute when he whines....Hopefully he will grow out of that though) My grandparents have lived on lake Norman since before my birth and the lake house is a very special place to me. There is a family reunion there every summer and I try to get there at least one other time each year when it is not so filled with people. My grandparents are so wonderful and still so full of life. They have many, many friends that live quite close (walking distance) that they have known for 25+ years. They walk together, go out to eat together, go on the pontoon boat together, share happy hour together, play bridge together, go to the beach together, etc. I hope that I have that one day. What a life. My grandfather is one of the only men that can still drive, so he is the chaufer. I think that is funny and sad at the same time. One of the men, Jim Marshall (who makes WONDERFUL, MOUTHWATERING pimento cheese) is physically unable to get out of his chair without help at times. He told me that it is so embarrasing to him. I didn't know what to say except that that's what the young folk are for - to help our elders.

I am glad to be home though. I am glad Jeff and Cheri are here, but I will be glad when the leave too. LET ME BRAG about my husband. While Nathan and I were gone my husband was QUITE busy. He cleaned and organized our entire garage (which had boxes covering every square foot except for two narrow walkways), cleaned all the carpets in the house, purchased a new vaccum cleaner and rug cleaner, put in a new dishwasher (our old one left food particles on the dishes and when I saw food particles on my breast pump I got ALL DONE with that dishwasher), he also put up a storage shed outside in the backyard, cleaned the whole house for the arrival of Jeff and Cheri, he also cut the grass and made the yard look great (About James and the yard - he doesn't make love to it all day the way Heather's husband Ryan does, its not a quick wham bam thank you ma'am like Megan's husband Al, its more in the middle - he gets the job done in a resonable amount of time. You wouldn't want him out there any less, or any more - but there are times that he doesn't take the time to weed eat properly and times that he spends too much time weed eating....Don't read anything into that, because there is nothing there.

OK, what else? Pictures. I have so many wonderful pictures that I would like to post. I am really thinking about getting the gold membership.....
I have pictures of Nathan's first boat ride, multiple picture of he and I in front of my grandmother's beautiful azaleas (spelling?), pictures of him with my grandparents, parents, their friends, etc...
I can't wait to catch up on all of the diaries that I have missed much. I need to go see what Nathan and James are doing and eat the poptarts that my hubby brought to me a while back.