7 years later....

I am sitting here, forgot completely about last week being 7 years since 19 crazy boys (they were not men) took over 4 planes and crashed them in various places and killing 3000 people.

9/11/01 I was in Boulder, Colorado with my family visitng my brother and my now ex sister in law who was pregnant at the time with Gaia. 9/11 was my brother's 25th birthday and to this day I remember joking with my brother growing up that his birthday was 9-1-1 and how cool it was. My mom and I were flying back to Washington DC and were in the air when the attack first began. The pilot came on to inform us that we were being re-directed to Alberta, Canada and it was odd, but he didn't tell us until we got onto the ground what had happened.

When we got into terminal, thats when I saw the 2nd plane hit the World Trade Center and that first image you never will forget. You won't forget what your first thought was when you saw that, and to be honest I didn't know what it meant. Then we heard that the Pentagon was hit by a plane and I looked at my mom and said to call my aunt and find out where my uncle and cousins were in comparison.

You couldn't take your eyes off the TV sets and watching what was happening in NY was just like a dream, nightmare more like it. Watching the twin towers fall, was unreal. I remember visitng 2 years before and being mesmorized by how awesome it was to be so far up in the air. Watching the TVs I never dreamt they would come down the way they did. And between those two, if memory serves me right, you hear about plane #4 crashing in Pennsylvania. Everyone around me was like America is under attack, and being 20 years old I wasn't comprehending what was going on and it was unreal. Even more unreal when the news came about my uncle...

Fastforward to 9/11/08....7 years later....5 memorials later....didn't want to get up and go to the ceremony, but I am glad I did. Trust me after 5 years straight, it got old for me, but this year they unveiled the permanent oudoor memorial to the victims of the Pentagon and Flight 77. 184 benches layed out like the shape (to me, might have been my imagination) of a wing of a Pentagon...and if you know what you are looking at it, you will also see the path Flight 77 took, there's a path and if you look straight ahead from it, it leads to where the plane hit. From the innocence of the children on board to the those who were in the prime of their life, it memorializes those who were taken from earth way too soon. It symbolizes them in life and death.

We mark the times that changed America forever each year on Setember 11th and we will never forget the events of the day, where we were that day and what that day might mean to people. It will always be my brother's birthday, it will always be the last time I saw my ex sister in law pregnant with my niece, be the day we joked that it would've been nice to have hit 2 birds with one stone if my niece was born on her daddy's birthday. There are so many thoughts/memories from that day, that have never gone away.

I don't think they ever will....

Finally posting an update!

There is one of the many pictures I captured of KoKo! We finally went and saw him last weekend! Isn't he cute? He tore into that bag trying to get his presents out of there. Sadie tried to help! ;)

The summer came and went so-so fast! I got a final few days in at the North side pool, and met Karen and Kate over there. :) I finally did something other than a front dive off their high dive...haha! Well thats because they cut the high dive down...so it wasn't as high! :) But yeah nothing really happened over there, minus me getting tangled up in the lifeguard buoy thingy. UGH! Ok I am sorry, when something is around my neck, I start freaking out and its exactly what happened! I tried to get off of me and was bobbing up and down like crazy, wound up in the deep end at the end too, but don't worry I got some help. ;) HAHAHA!

So last weekend we had Tropical Storm Hanna and then Saturday we went to see KoKo! :) Let me just say, he is the cutest cocker puppy! :) He's very very cute! Very indoorsy, doesn't like the heat and outside. (complete 360 of Sadie) Him and Sadie got along great! She took as much as she could before she started growling, but he backed off and started back at each other again. But it was very cute, they got along great! It was the best hour of my life seeing him and getting to see the new love of my aunt and uncle's. :)

So thats been basically it other than the weather being crappy during the week, its been HOT today and suppose to be HOT tomorrow! I am thinking about going to the lake to go swimming, hehehe. :)

Anyways I am off here...

What a day....

There's another picture of KoKo...isn't he cute? How can you not love that face?

I am having too much fun showing off pictures of the new puppy, yes! SORRY!

Well little miss Gaia is now taking on the sport of gymnastics!!!!! :) She had her first class this week and get this its at my old gym and she will probably have my old coach too. ;) I am so excited for her to take it on! hehehe She's older than I was when I started, but she really wanted to do it. And she didn't just like it, she loved it!

So this week the weather has been leaving you guessing what it might do and yesterday and today were good days over all. Sunny and nice! Well today I was down at the pool till 7, had the pool to myself minus the 2 lifeguards. HAHAHA! So on my way home the golf cart started making this weird noise as I was going downhill. So I actually stopped first and let people pass me, and then I got to the bottom and it was still making that weird noise. Not caring I was at the bottom of the hill (where DUH you can't see me) I grabbed my phone and called home and said something was going on, and my dad was like we'll be there in a few. Well I hung up my cell phone and I heard a car coming by and I turned to tell them to keep going, well I looked to my left and there's one of the lifeguards! LOL Morgan was like whats wrong? I was like something is wrong with the golf cart and I said that it was making a weird noise. Well she went ahead of me and pulled off and came to see if there was something she could do, and she's like me don't know a thing about the stupid carts! LOL So she was like I have to get home, but you're ok and not hurt and you got ahold of some one? I was like yes and she left. (yes I know I didn't say thank you...THANKS MORGAN! ;) )

Of course going home, the damn thing didn't make that noise! UGH! But getting home the tires needed air in them and so then my dad took it out and said it was going better, so I drove it and it was alot better than it was before all of this! But ugh this is twice this year its done something funky with me! LOL

Well that was my wonderful day! LOL :p I wanted to post that picture of KoKo, if I can figure out how to get the pics off my phone to my computer I have more of him. :D '

Marci- I'm glad you are feeling better, sweetie! Keep your chin up and things will even out. :D

Cortney

The summer is coming to an end....

There is KoKo (bottom) and Max (top) out shopping. KoKo is my aunt and uncle's new cocker spaniel and Max belongs to my aunt's co-worker's son. They are brothers, KoKo looks so tiny compared to Max, but aren't they cute?!

Wow how quickly the summer has passed. Seems like yesterday I was posting about going to Ohio and now here we are a week from Labor Day! Man this has been one busy summer and it has gone by so fast!

The beach was awesome! We had some great weather while we were there, we had like two storms and that was it, but never a complete wash-out. We went to Ripley's Aquarium, which was really neat. Its small, but it has a lot to see. We spent the mornings out in the water, swam at night and did stuff during the afternoon and ate dinner early in the evening so we could go back and swim or do whatever. I am not big about the beach, but I love going to Myrtle Beach. :)

So we got back from the beach and Gaia wanted to go swimming. It was funny, she was like is my lifeguard friend Megan (Morgan) going to be there? I didn't know for sure and the first thing that came out of her mouth walking up the sidewalk was "MEGAN IS HERE!" I was like who?! LOL Its like at least she has a name for her, LOL! But yeah its funny she claimed that a little girl made her eat a mushroom, which I doubt was true. When I talked to the girl's mom, she said that Gaia made her daughter eat one and its like it probably never happened, who knows.

The Olympics are over and all I can say to that is that the Chinese Gymnastics team were fake! They need to own up to lying about the girls ages and turn over the medals they won. I am tired of hearing about it and it's messed up! The girl that won gold on bars is one of those in question and she didn't deserve the gold medal at all! Don't get me started about that, but I am glad that they are over.

Well I am going to go here. The sun is trying to come out it looks like, we shall see. At least its warm! ;)

Olympics So Far....

This is for Marci....there's Caroline sporting her red white and blue for the USA! ;)

I have been watching the Olympics from the start, but I have to say one thing, I really hope China isn't cheating and putting little girls on their team just because they have talent at a young age. Alot of people thing the gymnastics team (women) is consisted of girls under 15 years old. I believe it too, there is only one girl that is over 15/16 years old. Its not a good way to win a medal by cheating and I hope the truth comes out in some way and that if they did cheat, that they have to turn back over their gold medal.

Congrats to the US Men's Gymnastics team on winning their bronze medal! :) It was well earned and they proved being the underdogs, anything can happen!

I think its a jinx to be the reigning world champions going into the team finals for the US Women. In 2004, we were the reigning champion and still didn't win the gold. We had done so well until we hit balance beam, and there was hope when one of the Chinese fell on the balance beam. I felt so bad for Alicia after she fell on beam and then its like we can redeem ourselves on floor and Alicia fell again. :( I felt so bad for her. Thats all I can say there.

Well I am off here. Packing for the beach trip tomorrow! YAHOO! :o) Can't wait! Have a good weekend everyone! :)

Olympics Start Tonight!

I keep finding some cute pictures from when Gaia was here. I forgot to download or I did and jsut now are seeing these ones. :)

So this time next week I will be in Myrtle Beach and I cannot wait! :o) I think my parents are trying to make it a tradition to end the summer down there. We did that growing up, our final trip of the summer was always to North and South Carolina for a week or more. :) Last year we only went for the weekend and this year we are going for 5 days. Ugh! I can't wait to go! LOL

So Gaia went home last weekend and the crap that has come out of her visit to her mom was all negative and its like what the hell did her mother say to her to get all the bad and nothing good out of the visit?! Seriously?! Some of the stuff that was stuff was so far-fetched and stupid it was ridicolous! I am not going to sit here and waste my breath on it.

So yesterday we had the strangest weather you can imagine. I went swimming at like 2:00 or so and like 30 minutes later it started thundering and continued doing that until I guess 3:30 (cause you can get back in 30 minutes after the last thunder rumble) and I was going to go home at 3:00 I guess, but I stayed up and talked to Natalie about her trip to Myrtle Beach and the rest of Gaia's visit and such like that. So got back in at 4:00 and it was sunny and nice, had cooled off alot. And the day before I had finally got the nerve up to try butterfly the pool length and one of the guards that came on at 4 was like do it then and its like I don't want to. HAH! I am still hesitant about doing it, but unlike years past I am at least trying it this year. ;) HAH! I still look like a drowning dog, but at least I don't feel like I going to drown attempting it! ANYWAYS! Marci be proud of me, I did do it short ways last night! :) Except I don't have the stupid kick down. UGH! First it was my arms and now its my legs. So guess what it did before 5:00 or at 5, THUNDERED!!!!!!!!!! Ugh to that! Got out of the pool and soon after that it started pouring down rain and didn't really stop until 6:00 and I was on the golf cart and couldn't exactly drive home in the pouring down rain. I did get hom eventually! HAH! ;)

So there's this week basically. I am so ready for the Olympics to start tonight. :) GO USA!

To be honest....

THIS WAS A WEEK FROM HELL!
Thats just putting in simply for the most part because 95% of the time Gaia got into trouble with me, wait 99.9% of the time I should say, I got YELLED at for it!
This week was Gaia's week with my parents and this will happen every summer. I can't wait for the year where I will not be here to experience it because of the shit I got this week. Its so not fair that a 6 y/o does something wrong, why does the adult in charge of her get yelled at? I don't get it! It pisses me off!
This week was spent swimming at the pool everyday. She got here on Saturday and is leaving tomorrow. I think one day we were down there from 2-9! Talk about a long day! LOL Well we went at 2 because she wanted to see Natalie and she worked in the morning and that was the only way we could do it. But it was funny on Tuesday, I think it was, Natalie left and they switch shifts at 4 and so 3 new guards came on duty and the next thing I saw was Gaia over with Morgan hanging on her and I was like Oh my God! I was like Gaia did you make sure it was ok to do that, and I walked over and said just tell her to leave you alone if she bugs you too much. LOL It was an instant bond between those two, and Morgan had said she would babysit while she was here and I jokingly said to Gaia do you want to spend time at Morgan's house one day and she goes "Yes! She's the bestest!" LOL So it was drawn out over the next days and she kept saying she wanted to and on Thursday we said well we will call and let you know. :)
So yesterday, I woke up and saw that it was 10:30 and I was like woah, if Gaia wants to still go to Morgan's I have to call. So I called after making sure Gaia still wanted to go, and of course YES! So I called and said I bring her at about 1:00. So between that time we made a volcano, which was was kind of neat even for me! HAHA! So after that Gaia got her bathing suit on and got her little bag packed and off to Morgan's we went. The night before we drove by to see where the house was and Gaia said she tell me when we got close and she goes there it is! Like 2 seconds before I saw it. LOL So we got there probably after 1:00, I am not sure and so I was going to walk her to the front door, but Morgan met us outside in the garage and asked if she had ate lunch and Gaia said no, and said ok well we can do that and said bye to me and that was it. I left and the eerieness of the quiet was what caught me. I went to the pool at 2:00, and Morgan brought her down with her at 4 when she went on duty.
I wished I snapped a picture of those 2 walking up the sidewalk, because Gaia apparently got hungry and they made popcorn and I looked over the fence and saw the two of them walking with a bowl between them, Morgan was on the phone and Gaia was eatting! So so cute! I was even more relieved that she didn't act up and such too. They spent the entire time in the lake trying to catch fish! LOL So Gaia was worn out from the day and came back here early. Which was ok with me. But I did snap a cute picture of them together, eatting that popcorn! HAH!
Then today Gaia has been tired and grumpy and I wasn't going to deal with it, personally. I told my mom if they were going to bring her to the pool they had to sit there with her, OF COURSE THEY DIDN'T! Some one said something rude to me and she laughed at the comment and goes it was funny thats why I laughed and I was like oh you are not doing this to me. So we left just after 4:00 cause I wasn't putting up with it, and I GOT YELLED AT FOR NOT PUTTING UP WITH IT! Ugh whatever. I am done, I am locked in my room for the night.
Anyways....here are some pictures from the week....its about to storm here.