We can't get enough Olympics at the Kinton house.

I'm up every night past midnight and I start the DVR at 4 a.m. We watch all the NBC channels -WBIR, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Sports - sometimes at the same time. I have seen swimming, cycling, rowing, archery, volleyball, diving, shooting, badminton and gymnastics.

So far, my two-year-old and I like gymnastics best. She tries to stand on her head. She can hold one leg straight out to look almost like the girls on television. She says, "I do it!"

I cried right along with Jordyn Wieber when she didn't score high enough to compete in the all around competition. I cried again when little Gabby Douglas won gold in it.

I felt so bad for the Russians when their gymnastics team fell apart during the team competition. They had been almost tied with the U. S. for the gold but I guess they just got nervous and they all started tripping and falling. I had to remember even though we cheered for the U. S., these poor Russian girls have trained their whole lives for this too and it was sad to see them at less than their best.

Zeb, my four-year-old son, likes the equestrian events. We were painting one day and I suggested we draw something from the Olympics. Zeb chose to draw something from the cross-country portion of the equestrian events. The Olympic cross-country course is three and a half miles with 28 jumps. The terrain is difficult and more than one horse and rider actually fell. Zeb chose to draw a horse tripping over a jump and falling down. He made the rider flying through the air. I'm not sure what that says about my son...

Of course the big news of this year's Olympics is that our own Michael Phelps is now the most decorated Olympian of all times. He passed the previous record medal holder, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, when he won his 19th medal. He did it in a team-swimming event; they won gold. He thanked his teammates for helping him achieve the Olympic record.

Phelps' new record will not likely be passed in our lifetime. Latynina earned her 18 medals from 1956-1964. It took another Olympian half a century to unseat her. She attended the swimming events in London and was very gracious about the whole thing. She was reported to have said, "Forty-eight years is almost enough time to hold a record." She also joked, saying it was time for a man to do what a woman had done long ago.

I'm already having Olympic withdrawal thinking that there is just one week left. I don't know what I'm going to do. It's hard to go back to "America's Got Talent" when America's real talent, our Olympians, won't compete for four more years. I don't know if I can wait that long.

Anyone up for a Monroe County mudding competition? I know we could win gold in that. Instead of a medal though, we should be awarded a big, gold winch. It could be mounted to the front of the winning mud buggy and used to pull it out when it gets stuck. I know a place in Sweetwater where we can hold the inaugural event...

Melissa Kinton is a stay-at-home mom. She is currently rearing one son, one daughter, two cats, two horses, three dogs and one husband. She may be reached at willandmelissak@hotmail.com.