Category — Uncategorized

If you claim to be THE biggest Tolkein fan to Stephen Colbert, you’d better have the chops to prove it.  Think you could cut it?

3:30 minute mark in this clip.  For the record, I knew the answers.

Who would have thought it would one day be cool to have

1. Actually read The Simarillion
2. Know how many elven rings there are and their names
3. Know who Morgoth is

Yesterday we went down to Froberg Farms and picked strawberries.  Drake managed to find the only mud puddle in the whole field and stuck two hands into it.  Carina was really into picking for a while, but then got bored.  Nevertheless, we got a whole bucket of fresh strawberries, which we’ve been running through as fast as we can.  After the second dessert of strawberries and ice cream, Gavin declared we’d found a new family tradition.

Today we mulched the yard, which is something I wasn’t sure we’d get to this spring.  Carina helped with the raking.  We should really get her a small rake she can actually push around, because she really seems to like using it.

“Something’s Coming” from West Side Story was playing on my iPod in the car this morning.

Carina: Mommy, what is coming?

Me: He doesn’t know, babe. What do you think it could be?

Carina: Monsters?

I find myself less dismayed at the thought of a government shutdown than I maybe should be.  I could totally use a few days at home without the kids, though.  And all my vacation is spoken for, and then some.

The Shuttle launch was officially delayed until April 29.  So it seems to be chasing Gavin’s trip to Denver which moved from late April to early May last week.  Seems the Shuttle likes to make my life as difficult as possible with regard to shift work.  I think I had one mission that was office hours in the whole history of my console support.  On the other hand, I am usually annoyed working the day shift because when the world wakes up the phone starts ringing.

The TOPO team, a group that I was ever so briefly a part of, just had a crazy week.  First, a piece of space debris was following them all over the sky.  There were 33 close approaches, which we call conjunctions, with it over a day that the team analyzed, categorized, determined the risk for, and eventually executed a debris avoidance maneuver to avoid the worst two.  That is a crazy conjunction.   They utilized every console certified person plus a couple of trainees to pull that off.  Then there was a Soyuz launch last night.  Then out of the blue a different piece of space debris appeared (it blew in with the solar storm we had over the weekend).  This piece had a very, very high statistical risk to the ISS.  Since it was too late to plan another burn, the team brushed off procedures to have the crew enter the Soyuz return craft.  Fortunately, a bare hour or so before the time of the conjunction, some more tracking was obtained that lowered the risk assessment.

That’s steely-eyed missile man stuff right there.  My hat’s off to the team that worked through all of that.

Tomorrow, I’m in Mission Contol evaluating a new back room flight controller for my VVO group in a position called VV Support.  A new Soyuz will be docking with ISS at about 7:15 tomorrow night.

My brother and his girlfriend have been here this weekend. This is the first time in about 8 years Jason has been here. We’ve been having fun. 

Today we took the kids down to Galveston for a few hours. This is the first time the twins have been to the beach since they became really mobile. They and Carina had a blast. 

The twins both ate sand first chance they got. 

Eleanor In the Sand

Drake at Beach

We even played all together a bit. 

Filling the Pail

Jason and Rachel played too. 

Jason and Rachel Playing with Drake

And the memory of the day… Look what Carina thought it would be funny to do to her baby sister. 

2011-04

We’ve gone out to eat twice already this week. That’s partly because Eleanor is up with Gavin’s parents and it is easier to wrangle one toddler at a restaurant than two. It’s also partly because the roast I was going to make on Sunday had a use-by date of March 14.

Today we went to Mely’s. It wasn’t the best dinner out ever. Drake was tired and cranky. Carina thought the cheese in her quesadillas was wierd. Gavin ended up taking them out front of the restaurant while I was paying the bill.

I came outside to find Gavin having a teaching moment with Drake: stopping him from running out in the parking lot, pointing to the curb, and saying no-no. After a few times, Carina apparently thought Drake needed some rationale for the no-no.

“NO, DRAKE! YOU WILL GET KILLED!”

What a week.

Gavin has been in Denver for some Orion or MPCV or whatsitcalledthesedays meetings. Since Tuesday morning. Not getting back until midnight tonight. Eleanor and Drake were sick – from a cold or their 15 month vaccinations or most likely both. At any rate I didn’t get to sleep a full night for almost a week. Carina spent the first part of the week at Grammie’s – which was good, was also sick – which was bad but at least Grammie dealt with it, and was really, really glad to see me when she got home – which was good but had the effect of making her slightly loopy.

Carina and I went to the dentist yesterday. Carina is a model patient; so proud of her. I apparently am starting to have some gum issues around a place that food tends to get stuck in my teeth and got a bunch of lectures about flossing, which I have never developed the habit of doing regularly.

Eleanor has started to bite. This is totally my friend George’s fault for coming to talk to me about his biting problem and making me utter the words “we haven’t had to deal with that yet”. I’m convinced it never would have happened if I hadn’t tempted fate. It isn’t very bad – yet – so we’re going to attempt to nip it in the bud, but I hear this is a really hard habit to break babies of.

On the bright side recently, Carina and I had a fabulous time at the rodeo last week. She was so fascinated. She rode the ponies without a bit of fear, as usual. Seriously, next year I’m taking time off to go for longer before the rodeo itself starts (I say that every year).

Drake is starting to progress from walk to run. He’s also getting cuddlier; he gives great hugs.

Eleanor learned the word “uh-oh”. She purses her lips up real tight and says “ooo-ooo”. It’s terribly cute. I bought her some sandles for the summer; size 3 and they’re still a bit big for her. She’s so petite, and her little feet are adorable.

Most people are already aware, but I did get to North Dakota in time to see my grandma. She was aware of my presence and that of the twins, and she tried to talk to us but we couldn’t understand her very well. My aunt said she talked more clearly after we left, and I think she was probably so excited we were there that it made it hard to remember how to form words. She passed away quietly during the last night we were there. I feel blessed that I got to say goodbye and that my presence and that of the twins helped both her and I also believe my aunt find some joy during a hard time.

So my grandma had a stroke about a week ago. She has not recovered from it much in the last week. She’s 91, and we kind of figure maybe she’s ready to go. I am making a mad dash up to North Dakota with the twins this weekend since she has never met them. I am going by myself because we only had enough frequent flyer miles for 2 seats and the tickets are running around $1400/seat.

Everyone thinks I’m crazy. It is going to be exhausting from a logistical standpoint. Grandma is going downhill pretty fast and may not be alert while I’m there.

Sometimes you just know you have to do things in life. I’m realistic about the chance that she won’t wake up much, and about the fact that having the babies in the room for a couple 1/2 hour visits will be about all I can do. I know it will be emotionally taxing for me. But also just know that if I have a chance to give my grandma the gift of hearing the voices of her youngest great-grandkids in her last days, then I have to try.

I thought I’d be waiting a bit longer for Carina to start having pop music preferences. However, she is now a fan of Lenka because of this fan video of Trouble Is a Friend set to My Little Pony scenes.

Since she requests I play it once or twice a day, and we usually have to listen to it twice each time, I’m glad I like it.

So, I realize that for the last year (or maybe 4) this blog has been much more about the adventure of having kids than travel, flying, or any of the other adventures it used to contain. I firmly believe in writing what I know, and for right now that’s kids.

However, I’m excited to announce that we just booked plane tickets to go skiing in two weeks. This will be the first trip we’ve taken since June. That’s a long time for us. So I’m very excited to be getting away, and will hopefully have some more fodder for the blog.

Not too fast, though! We were hoping to pawn one or two kids off with thier grandparents, but due to a confluence of scheduling we’re going to be going to Vermont with all three kids. So in the end I may very well have more to say about how it goes flying with 3 kids under 4 than how the skiing was.

It’s a start.