So I’m going to try and do that more often again. I tend to get tunnel vision sometimes and right now photography still has a firm grip on my attention and that’s what I spend my free time on these days. I work full-time, spend time with family and explore photography. That is essentially what I do right now.

Let’s see…what is going on with us right now.

Lyla is growing like crazy. It seems like everyday she does something new or different or funny or weird or crazy or exhausting. She is a free spirit, a bird that wants to fly. If you look away for a moment, she is off running down the street, over a hill or anywhere she feels like going. I don’t know what drives her…but she just wants to GO. It gets exhausting sometimes because unless she’s watching Toy Story, she doesn’t tend to just SIT very much.

But it’s something that makes me love her even more.

She calls me dad most of the time, but now and then she throws out a “MIKE!” when she’s calling me or if she’s just heard Jina do it. Cracks me up.

She is absolutely in love with Mickey Mouse and Woody from Toy Story. She sees them everywhere she goes. And announces that to us when she does.

One of the things I like more and more about her is that she’s starting to be a little more “cuddly” with me in general. I think she’s learning how to express love and it’s so much fun. Big, TIGHT hugs, kisses, head on your shoulders…even learning to say “Love yoooooo”…it all just melts my heart.

The most recent thing she’s learned only took a few days to teach. Jina wanted to make sure we all started eating together for dinner and praying before we ate, so Lyla would get used to that. She loved it. Ate it up. At the same time, I used to pray for her after laying her down for bedtime…so one night I told her “Let’s pray now…” and she sat up, put her hands together and we prayed.

Two nights later and now she sits up and says “Pay??” all on her own. Amazing how quickly they learn things.

As far as Jina and myself…we’re doing fine. The end of August/beginning of September is crazy busy. Vacations, wedding showers, babies being born, weddings…a lot is going on and we’ve been running ragged. This weekend was another drainer and we just sat around kind of in a funk yesterday, exhausted and lazy.

That’s about it…I have a few pictures below of Lyla and a couple of videos that I posted recently…the first is a hilarious one of her eating an ice cream cone for the first time, the other is her enjoying the windy weather.

It’s usually a way for them to guilt me into doing one. And I guess it worked this time! Thanks Tyler!

So sprinkled throughout this update are some of the more recent photos of Lyla in case some of the family hasn’t seen them!

Life is going well for us. We sold the house, but are in an amazingly long wait to hear if the bank is going to approve the short sale. We have no idea how long it’s going to take, but we should have had a negotiator assigned to us back on May 15th and that deadline was missed awhile ago.

Because of that, we haven’t even bothered to look for a place to rent yet.

Jina is busy with work, Lyla and her new side project: Hey Little Birdie. If you haven’t seen it yet, or visited, or bookmarked it, I suggest you do. She and two friends of hers pass on some great products to buy online, all for extraordinarily inexpensive prices. They don’t SELL them themselves, they just pass along cool items that they think you’ll like.

Visit it by clicking here: HeyLittleBirdie.com.

For myself, work is busy and the photography business is picking up. If you aren’t following along on my photography site, you can find it at MikeOlbinski.com.

I’ve had quite a few photoshoots in the last month, including a birthday party, three kids, a family of four, an engagement shoot. I have a baby shower party to photograph on Saturday and then a maternity shoot in a week and a half for the same girl.

My regular job is plugging along like normal…in fact, I may have to go to Holland in July for a big test on a project I’m working on. A great place to snap some photos I’m sure, but it’s hard to be away from my girls for the 10 days or so I need to be there.

What can be said about Lyla? She is just growing up faster than can be. She’s so close to putting together a phrase that I feel like it’s coming in a matter of weeks. She’s been getting better at various words and have now learned “Hello!” as opposed to just “Hi!” and is using it out in the world when we see people.

She’s become quite the climber and enjoys getting on chairs, tables and our bed.

The photo just above and below were taken on our bathroom counter as she watched Jina get ready. Our wonderful babysitter Shanna painted her toenails the day before so I wanted to snap a few shots of ‘em.

So she’s over 18 months old, a year and a half and it’s been an amazing ride. She just makes us laugh on a daily basis. Her love of Mickey Mouse is a big thing now…not just the TV show, but also some little dominoes, a Mickey book and some little candies that she gobbles up. She just loves to run around going “MIMI!!” for Mickey…

In fact, she’ll crawl up on our bed, grab the remote control, hand it to me and go “MiMi?”

So funny.

For breakfast sometimes we go to Chick-Fil-A, mostly because it’s kind of quiet in the mornings and there is a play area for her. She loves to see the big cut-out Cow in the lobby and goes “Mooo!” when she sees it. Then she waves and says Hi! to everyone in the place, then we eat, then she runs to the playground when we’re all done.

Just the other day she went down the slide in there for the very first time, which turned into about 10 times and we finally had to drag her away

So that’s about all that’s going on with us. Our 12th wedding anniversary is coming up on June 19th, so that’s kind of a big deal. We’re probably going to look for a night away together, because we realized the other day that while we’ve both been away from Lyla on vacations and work trips, it’s never been together.

We’ve never BOTH been away from her overnight. That kind of shocked us. Going to try and make that happen for our anniversary.

As far as series finales go…like Friends, Seinfeld, Battlestar Galactica…this has to be one of my favorites. The very best. The way they remembered moments and scenes we loved from the first episodes

There is so much to write about, but I think the big question on everyone’s mind is WHAT the heck happened.

Okay, here is my read on things…which really seems to fit everything that happened:

The Island and everything that happened on it was real.

People are questioning what was real…like the Island, this idea of an afterlife now, etc. Well, the writers always said the show was about PEOPLE, and the Island was a vessel for the storytelling.

I believe that what we saw happen on the Island was part of the real, REAL world going on in this show.

The trick is to ignore the hydrogen bomb having anything to do with anything. That to me was a clever trick by the writers. All that happened at that point was the “Flash Sideways” story started to be told. The bomb did go off…but it didn’t “split the universe” into two or anything. That’s how I see it anyways!

The Island was a real place, Jacob was a real person there, the reason for it’s existence and why things happened the way they did are part of a mystery that obviously wasn’t going to be explained fully. But the fact is…Jacob, the Island…none of them had any idea about the “Flash Sideways.” It had zero to do with the Island…

The Flash Sideways was a sort of Multi-Religion Purgatory.

Like I said above…when the first episode of this season aired…we all link this Flash Sideways to the bomb. I think it was just a way to trick us. In reality, it was just the beginning of the story of these characters’ Purgatory waiting game.

Christian Shepherd pretty much summed everything up for us…and actually gave more answers than I thought they would about this “Flash Sideways” place.

Basically…if you can follow along…all these people had a connection in their lives that was the most important thing they had done: Saving the Island. Because of that connection, when they all eventually died, they came to this “Purgatory” that they “created” and waited for the time when they’d all remember and move on.

Like the Island being at the bottom of the ocean? Maybe it was part of their “creation” in this Purgatory. Nothing to do with the bomb, everything to do with the fact that it just wasn’t part of their afterlife.

One key thing at the end that Hurley said sort of gives it away: “Ben, you WERE a good number two.”

What you can read from that is Hurley and Ben obviously have a long story after Jack’s eye closes in the jungle to end the series. Who knows how long? Years? Decades? Centuries?

When Jack dies, people are still living their lives. Kate may have lived until she was 80…who knows.

But the point is…as Christian said…everyone dies at some point.

The real mystery at the end for me is…WHY these people and no one else? That’s the part that’s weird. Jina and I tried to talk that through and couldn’t come up with a good explanation. Maybe they all redeemed themselves in some way that others didn’t. Maybe that’s it.

Like Jina said…why Penny? Why was she there? She really wasn’t part of their lives aside from Desmond and rescuing the Oceanic 6.

Why not anyone else? Michael wasn’t there…Ana Lucia we actually saw last episode but she didn’t matter to Desmond.

So why them?

To sum it up:

The Island was real, the plane crash was real, the hatch, the button, the smoke monster, the light, Jacob, Man in Black (never find out his name!!!), the others…all of that was real. The Flash Sideways was their Purgatory.

But the point is…the Island wasn’t the focus of the series. It was just an awesome mystery along the way to help tell the story.

So what was the point???

Now, I don’t know how much I loved the final minutes of the series. On one hand, I thought it was very cool…on the other, being a sci-fi geek and loving so much the mystery behind the Island…I was hoping for a more “sci-fi” answer.

That’s my only SLIGHT negative feeling about the show.

But I think…the message of Lost was loud and clear.

People need each other…need to ask for help, need redemption and those relationships are the most important things in their lives.  It connects them in a way that transcends real life and stretches into the afterlife, no matter WHAT religion you are or what you believe.

If you noticed, which my wife did astutely and I missed…the room Jack walks into with the coffin had almost every religious symbol of every religion out there. What you believe doesn’t matter…but redemption, love, relationships…that’s the goal. How we all CONNECT with each other.

Essentially…the Island and the stuff that happened on it bonded these people. Everyone was always looking for a point to the Island and WHY they all had to do this…and I’m sure there will be LOTS of annoyed people out there…the kind that “demand answers” and have forgotten what the show was about.

In reality…all the mystery of the Island, the good versus evil, all that…was just a way for these characters to bond and redeem themselves for the afterlife.

It’s almost kind of weird to think that five years of the show…the hatch, the Dharma Initiative, the Others…all that really wasn’t important to the end of the show…it just aided these people in discovering themselves.

Favorite moments in the finale

As far as series finales go, this one was brilliant. Loved so many scenes…so many of them. Jin and Sun doing the ultrasound together…Kate delivering Claire’s baby again…Charlie being there and recognizing them…all of that.

I had two favorite scenes though. The first was Jack and Locke fighting on that cliff. The wide angle shot was awesome…Jack up high, Locke down low…the storm, the rain…then Jack charges, jumps and the commercial break comes. Thought it was just an epic battle scene almost…fantastic.

And the second was right after that…Jack and Kate’s final moments together until they find each other again after death.

It was just a perfecting ending for them. They love each other and always have. That kiss was magical. Such a beautiful moment.

I also loved Hurley asking Ben to help him at the end. Ben…we’ve hated him and then we’re suddenly on his side…but the fact that someone finally found some worth inside of him to ask him for help…was a solid way to end his story as well.

Closing Thoughts

I don’t know what else to say. What a fantastic series. A solid story, solid adventure and a solid ending. The show changed the landscape of television as we know it now. So many serialized shows are on the air and successful because Lost first made it possible. And I do thank them for that, because I love this method of storytelling.

One of the best television casts ever assembled I’m sure. And some of the best quality in writing, acting and production I’ve ever seen. I think their level of quality overall made television suddenly leap to a new level.

People used to go to movies for the real stuff, but now lots of TV shows are just as well done as movies.

So thanks to Lost for a great ride and thanks for taking us fans into consideration and not wanting to extend the thing until the end of time. Thanks for ending things before it got old and stale.

What about you guys?

To the two or three people actually reading this, what did you think? Did I get it right or am I totally wrong? Did you love it or hate it?

But wow, did Caite win that little battle with Brandy…way to go!

Yes, Brent and Caite were disfunctional and Caite was a little TOO concerned about proving her intelligence, but Carol and Brandy really made me want to pull for the former Miss America contestant and her boyfriend. No one should be judged for the rest of her life based off one silly answer at a beauty pageant.

Dan and Jordan..congrats to them…they pull off a pretty lame move to step in front of the Cowboys at the airport, which really didn’t end up meaning much. The move to first class though was genius. I thought that would be a penalty, but I guess it’s only BUYING a first class ticket that is illegal.

Now, maybe they were jerks for cutting in line, but you know…if I were the Cowboys, I would have just squeezed in front of him and then see what happened. They kind of just let Jordan stand there and did nothing about it. This is a race for a million dollars…come on.

That move to first class and thus off the airplane before the other teams won the race for Dan and Jordan. And by the end, I was pretty happy for them, especially Jordan who just really wanted to win the Amazing Race. Kind of cool for his brother to do this just to help him win and they end up finishing first. Good for them.

Still can’t get over Carol and Brandy though…never have I seen a team so bitter and angry…and I can’t remember a single time where the finish line had so much drama. I think those two must have just been so upset over Caite taking it to them like that…they couldn’t handle it.

So now…on to the final standings of our contest and the person who wins the $10 iTunes gift card!

The Contest: Final Standings

Well, Tracy pretty much killed everyone…but on a personal (and selfish note), I’m proud of me and Melissa making a comeback at the end as we pretty much were in the lower half of the standings the entire season.

But Tracy owned this thing from about 3 weeks ago. She had the Cowboys and the winners Dan and Jordan, so that sealed it.

Thanks for playing guys…if anyone has any suggestions for something new/different next season, please feel free to comment below!

• Tracy 160 <– Winner! Congrats!
• Nicky 128
• Melissa 113
• Mike 113
• Tyler 105
• Dave 105
• Jina 92
• Kathy 71
• Ryann 65
• Heather 59
• Josie 52
• Adrian 23

I do know one thing: Brent and Caite may have come in first two weeks in a row, but I’d bet anything that the Cowboys will win this whole thing Sunday night.

Contest Standings

I don’t think Tracy has a chance of losing this thing to tell you the truth…but she doesn’t have Brent/Caite as a team, so if they were to somehow win, there may be a chance to catch her!

Last week’s standings:

• Tracy 112
• Tyler 82
• Dave 82
• Nicky 77
• Kathy 71
• Jina 69
• Melissa 62
• Mike 62
• Ryann 52
• Heather 49
• Josie 39
• Adrian 10

This week’s standings:

• Tracy 120
• Tyler 97
• Dave 97
• Nicky 90
• Jina 84
• Melissa 75
• Mike 75
• Kathy 71
• Ryann 62
• Heather 54
• Josie 49
• Adrian 20

This recap, of course, comes so long after I watched the episode that I really don’t remember much other than the Cowboys are dominating and are likely going to win this thing. They are just so relaxed and so much better at this than the other teams.

The Contest

I’ve gotten a few questions this year about the NEGATIVE points for Yielding/U-Turning someone. The line of thinking was two things: 1) I was looking for ways to score some points for teams and make things interesting and 2) I’ve always kind of thought the U-Turn was something other teams always frowned upon or wouldn’t end up using. So it seemed like if you DID, it might be a negative thing. Hence -10 points.

We may switch things up next time around!

Last week’s standings:

• Tracy 99 f
• Nicky 69
• Tyler 67
• Dave 67
• Kathy 60
• Jina 54
• Melissa 54
• Mike 54
• Ryann 47
• Heather 39
• Josie 34
• Adrian 5

This week’s new standings…where it appears Tracy may be hard to beat.  25 points goes to the winner, plus 10 for finishing first on the leg, so who knows what might happen next week!

• Tracy 112
• Tyler 82
• Dave 82
• Nicky 77
• Kathy 71
• Jina 69
• Melissa 62
• Mike 62
• Ryann 52
• Heather 49
• Josie 39
• Adrian 10

I know everyone is dying for an update on what’s going on with our little family, so the wait is over!

Before I start though, I want to make a note on how hard it is to type on my laptop now that Lyla has destroyed my “x” key and rendered my left shift button semi-workable. It would be nice if she just wanted to push the keys, but instead she’d rather curl her fingers and just rip them up!

So as I wrote last time, Jina and I are picking up and moving to downtown Phoenix to help startup a new church called Day Twelve.  At that time we were in the process of listing our house and seeing what might happen.

Well, fast-forward to this week and we actually had an offer after only SIX days on the market. We of course accepted it and now the waiting begins. We have around 2-3 months to wait for the short sale process to get done…and hopefully not much longer than that.

So that is really good news. We’re sort of anxious to look for a rental now, but we know with 2-3 months to go, we should just sit back and wait awhile. Many rentals we’ve sort of found online in the last few weeks have already been rented out, so it’s kind of pointless even looking right now.

Otherwise, things are good, if not busy. Jina heads out to Memphis this week to see her sister, who is pregnant and finds out the sex of the baby on Thursday morning. Jina is soooo excited to be there when they find out. After that they are going to start some work on the baby’s room depending on the gender verdict!

I’ll be playing single dad for about four days and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m super-busy at work, but I’m hoping to get all 40+ hours in before Friday so Lyla and I can spend the day together and maybe go somewhere fun. Who knows where, but we’ll find something.

So that’s the story of us right now. Lyla is crazy as always, learning things all the time. In fact, she just learned how to open the doors in our house (see picture to the right), which has opened up a whole other set of issues. She’s pretty good about closing them when we tell her, so it’s not awful…but just one more thing to add to the things to watch out for pile.

She also is in the habit of answering”No” to any question you ask her. It’s always in a very happy tone too.

“Are you hungry Lyla?”

“No.”

“Are you full Lyla?”

“No.”

We had some fun in the car the other day.

Me: “Lyla, do you love mommy more than me?”

“No.”

A nice retort from Jina:

“Lyla, do you love daddy more than Riley?”

“No.”

LOL

For those interested…she’s still sleeping about 12 hours at night (6:30pm to 6:30am) and then a 2-3 hour nap during the day (naptime is around 11:30). She turns 17 months on Thursday! She’s getting the speed-walking-running thing down, she can climb on furniture way better and she’s more adept at going down slides at various parks.

Below is a video of her from last weekend playing in the fountains by Liberty Market in downtown Gilbert. She was mesmerized by the water spouts for awhile then got the courage to get closer.

I never thought it would be Carol and Brandy, but they steadily lost all respect from me as the leg went on.

I am always amazed at teams that are shellshocked when they get U-Turned/Yielded. The girls’ one reason for it being “stupid” was because Brent and Caite should be getting rid of the “good” teams, not them. But all along, don’t they talk about how they are a pretty good team???

Obviously Caite made her own bed with that awful Miss America answer, but these two women were brutal on her about it and never gave her a chance. Once they were yielded, man…the bitterness was intense.

Either way, it was  a great move on Brent/Caite’s part.  And also a meaningless move for our little contest here on A Mike Life, because NO ONE had Carol and Brandy

Dan and Jordan finished first, having beaten the pants off everyone by getting the fast-forward (not to mention some big bonus points for those that have him!).

So I had a lot of funnier things to say about the leg, but I should have written the recap last Sunday night instead of waiting 6 days. On to the contest.

The Contest

So we had some crazy points going on this week. Negative for U-Turning someone, positive for the Fast Forward…good stuff.

Something kind of amazing about Brent and Caite. They are in the Top 4 now, but only have 4 total points for the season. They finally finish second (previous best was one 3rd place), but lose 10 points for U-Turning someone. Ouch. What a horrible pick.

Here are last week’s standings:

• Tracy 71
• Tyler 69
• Dave 69
• Kathy 59
• Jina 56
• Ryann 52
• Nicky 49
• Josie 39
• Heather 36
• Melissa 34
• Mike 34
• Adrian 10

And this week, Tracy flies ahead because of her Dan and Jordan pick. Not sure if she can be caught now! Also, so sad for Adrian to actually get to 10 points and then LOSE 5 this week! Love this game!

• Tracy 99
• Nicky 69
• Tyler 67
• Dave 67
• Kathy 60
• Jina 54
• Melissa 54
• Mike 54
• Ryann 47
• Heather 39
• Josie 34
• Adrian 5

Such a huge hit, the questioning in her eyes when it finally disappeared was super adorable.

The weekend itself was awesome…the church we’re helping startup in downtown Phoenix (Day 12) had its first preview kind of service on Sunday afternoon and it was so amazing to be a part of it.

So here are a few pictures of Lyla from Easter Sunday, in her cute little dress. Also one of her and Jina, they looked so great!

Jet and Cord, whether they win this thing or not, will always be able to boast about setting a new Amazing Race record:

From non-elimination to first place on the very next leg. Wow.

When they blitzed through the balance Detour, I had this crazy feeling they’d still end up back at the next cluebox despite the Speed Bump. Mostly because those Speed Bumps are usually cheesy, easy tasks that take little time to complete. Even this one was five kilometers away and they STILL got back waaaay ahead of anyone else.

I feel really sad for Steve and Allie, I was growing fond of them and wishing they’d go far. They played a good race, but just had that unfortunate crappy taxi driver, not to mention making a mistake in attempting to avoid traffic by running instead of staying in the cab.

Next week looks great…Brent and Caitie get into it with Carol and Brandy…love it!

The Contest

Last week’s standings:

• Tracy 60
• Tyler 58
• Dave 58
• Kathy 56
• Ryann 51
• Nicky 47
• Jina 45
• Josie 38
• Melissa 32
• Mike 32
• Heather 26
• Adrian 9

This week’s standings!

• Tracy 71
• Tyler 69
• Dave 69
• Kathy 59
• Jina 56
• Ryann 52
• Nicky 49
• Josie 39
• Heather 36
• Melissa 34
• Mike 34
• Adrian 10