Wyoming

We are having a great time in Wyoming, as always. Monday and Tuesday we left Carina with her grandparents and did some hiking. We went to Lost Twin Lakes in the Bighorn mountains.

It was about a 5 or 5.5 mile hike in. This is the first time I've used my new backpack for actual hiking; I bought it before our trip to Patagonia, and we haven't been backpacking since. I was pretty tired by the time we got up there, but I can still walk a ways, it seems. We camped below the "lower" Twin lake. Before hiking out on Tuesday, we were discussing hiking up to the "upper" lake. Gavin turned to the side, though, and said "I'm interested in what's up there." So, we climbed a small mountain, instead.


We've been mainly playing with kiddos since. Carina is having fun with Cousin Caroline, although Caroline is a bit much for her sometimes. Carina has also definitely started talking. In addition to "daw" (dog) and "meel" (milk), which she's been saying for a while irregularly, we have heard new words "bir" (bird) and "Dacks" (Jackson).

Check Ride Recap

Regarding my check ride... It was actually pretty vanilla compared to some of the other stories I’ve heard. I flew with an awesome lady who is one of the top acrobatic pilots in the country. She gave me a very low-key oral exam, just making sure I had things mostly stored off in my head or easily accessible to look up. Like most professional pilots, I think she was a bit amused at the lengths I will go to to plan a cross-country around class-B airspace. We went flying and I zipped through all the maneuvers. I wallowed a bit in the recovery from the power-on stall, but although it wasn’t the most graceful recovery I think it did show her I understood why the airplane was behaving the way it was. I got a bit low on airspeed during my simulated engine failure, which she forgave. I was also a bit fooled by the completely limp windsock and didn’t do my good crosswind technique on the last landing or two. My shortfield landing stopped short of a taxiway she didn’t expect me to be able to make, though. :)

On Saturday, I took Gavin and Pat out in the 150 as my first passengers. I think they both had fun. We told my daredevil niece that she could go next year. That kid isn’t even 4 yet, but she wanted to ride the roller coaster at Kemah.

I sent my sister’s family off on the 2-day car trip back to Wyoming this morning. I hope the kids make it in good spirits. They’re doing a LOT of driving this summer.

I Passed!

I don't really have time right now to do it justice, but as of yesterday I am an official Private Pilot! Several folks came over last night to celebrate, which was really fun. I think I might take Gavin and Pat out for rides tomorrow.

We took Caroline, Jackson, and Carina to Moody Gardens today. Everyone liked the acquarium a lot. Carina had a great time watching the fish. The rainforest wasn't as good for her, maybe because she was getting really hungry.

I haven't been capturing the best moments of this visit in photos yet. Caroline is being very sweet with Carina, but I seem to miss those moments and then by the time I get the camera out, one or the other isn't as happy anymore.

Mid-June Already

We are told Carina took three steps at daycare yesterday. I've seen her take about 1/2 of a step myself. I can't believe we're almost to the walking phase. I expect she'll be getting around pretty well by the time her cousins get here next week.

Speeking of her cousins coming - where did the last month go? Last time I thought about this it was almost a month away and all of a sudden it is next week.

I'm stuck in a two-day meeting of which probably about 1 hour cumulative is going to be interesting to me. I hate that. At least I remembered to bring my laptop so I can work on my e-mail.

Easter Photos

Carina's grandad took lots of great pictures on Easter weekend.

I love my Grammy, and Grammy loves me!

We got her "Easter toys" instead of Easter candy.

You guys, this dress totally messes up my crawling!

Grandad labled most of these "Carina Happy". I guess that pretty much summs it up.

She's starting to climb, people!

Shona is way more willing to get up close and personal with Carina than our dogs. Carina loves it usually, but that nose is cold!

Inspecting

I have three more shifts left during this mission after today. It has been a long, long mission. March has almost completely passed me by while we've been in space.

Today is the "late inspection" day. We're taking pictures of the Shuttle's wings and nose to look for any damage from orbital debris hits. After today, my console is on the downslope of the mission. It will mainly be about getting ready to undock and land. In non-trajectory world, though, there is still one EVA to accomplish tomorrow.

I'm feeling a bit blue about working this weekend. Meg and Mike are down to celebrate Easter with their grandchild (Gavin and I barely enter into the equation anymore!) :) I'm kind of bummed that I didn't get to see their reactions to seeing Carina crawl for the first time, as I was already at work when they arrived. Oh well, it looks like my parents will be here in a couple weeks, so I'll get to see that.

My Holiday Highlights

Father: "Twist and shout."
Baby: (giggle)

Niece: "But, I want to make it dark."
Uncle: "If you can make Darkness, it would be best if we learn that sooner rather than later."

Grandmother: "The book of Norwegian Knowledge..."
Grandson: (grins)
Grandmother: "... oh, it's empty!" (much laughter)

Father-in-Law: "Want to watch Battlestar Galactica?"
Son-in-Law: "Sure!"

Aggie: "Whoop! Touchdown!"
(2 hours later)
Aggie: "Well, it was a good game."

Howdy from WY

Well, we made it to Wyoming, finally. Carina did very well on the airplane. We took her in to the doctor today, and her ears still have fluid in them. They may or may not still be infected, so we started her on a new antibiotic. She's still feeling well, though, so it's all good.

We've had like 18" of snow since we got here. There was about 15" at my parents on Christmas Day. Then we got a few more today. Carina doesn't seem to like the cold too much. Especially if it's windy.

There are tons of kiddos around this year. But we can't seem to get them all awake and happy at the same time for a picture. We definitely need to do that soon.

For Tracy...

Apparently, I've been terribly remiss in posting photos of the Chunk-A-Monk. Let's remedy that a little.

This one I like to call: I'll smile when I'm on my belly, but only if that other baby smiles back!


She won't consider washing dishes entertainment for long.


I love the doggie, and the doggie's scared of me!


Isn't that cute? With the slobber all running down her chin?

I'm Thankful For

We had a great time in Conroe for Thankgiving. We didn't do much; ate some yummy turkey; watched some football; played with the baby. It was perfect.

Just last Wednesday I was having trouble believing that it was actually Thanksgiving. Today, I'm having the typical post-holiday reaction: "I can't believe I have to work tomorrow." And have to work, I do. I have so much to do in the next three weeks or so before we take off for Christmas, it isn't even funny. I'm also a bit worried about being lead for the first mission after the holidays and taking 2 1/2 weeks off, but I'm trying to sooth the guilt with the idea that nobody else will be at work then either. I do expect that it will make January that much more hectic, though.

Auntie M and Auntie L

I can't belive that Thanksgiving is over already. This fall has gone by so quickly. Carina had fun having her Thanksgiving dinner (squash and peas) at the table with us while we had dessert.



Lauren and Melissa have been having fun getting reacquainted with Carina. She's so much bigger than the last time they saw her.

My flying plans for tomorrow are pretty likely to be scuttled by weather. It's hard to be terribly upset about not having to drive 1 hr each way to get there, though. Here's hoping for next weekend.

Welcome, Jackson!

I'm an aunt again!

Jackson Sheppard Weiss
Born ~12:00 PM 9/24/07
5 lb 12 oz
19" long

Jackson is in the nursery now because his blood sugar is slightly low. He nursed before he left, though, so he's in pretty good health.

It's amazing how things change. First, there were no kids. Then Caroline came along. Now all of a sudden, there will be three little ones running/crawling/rolling around when we go to Casper for Christmas. That's a lot of kids!

Nephew on the way

My sister is having her baby today! They went to the hospital at 1:00 AM last night. Soon Carina will have another cousin.

Back from ND

I have soooo much going on right now! I'm going completely crazy.

We had a good time in ND. My grandmother keeps her house a little warm for my taste, but after we convinced her to use the A/C, it was nice. My parents were able to come up, too. Carina has her grandma wrapped around her little finger! :)

The best part is that Carina did really well on the airplanes. All four legs went by with very minimal fussing. And the fussing she did was because she was hungry and her mean parents didn't want to feed her until the plane took off.

Blessed Silence

Well, the guest onslaught is over. Both Gavin and I are missing our niece today, but it is rather nice to have a quiet house again. Three-year-olds have tons of energy and no volume control. I'm not sure whether I miss being followed around constantly being asked "Whatchou doing?". A typical conversation would go something like this...

Caroline: "Whatchou doing?"

Me: "Feeding Carina."

Caroline: "What's Carina doing?"

Me: "Eating milk."

Caroline: "She drinking the milk?"

Me: "Yes."

Caroline: "Whatchou doing now?"

Despite some concern that she was fussing more than usual yesterday (and her rude inauguration of Cari as babysitter) Carina slept well again in her own room last night. I got 5 full hours of uninterrupted sleep last night between a 12:30 AM feeding and a 5:45 AM feeding. And she's been down since 2:00 PM this afternoon for a good nap.

We saw the new Harry Potter movie last night, and I was pleased. Since I've read the books several times, I was concious of the moving being a little thin relative to the book. It's unavoidable as the books get longer and more involved. I think they did a pretty good job with the movie as far as removing the details that weren't essential to keep the run time reasonable.

I've got a hint of a sore throat today, which scares this new mother. First of all, I don't want the baby to get sick. Secondly, I don't want to be sick and have to take care of the baby. I have enough trouble getting things done as it is. Must get a maid...

Caroline and Carina

Here are a couple shots I took with my new camera of Carina and her Cousin Caroline.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Today is our 7th anniversary. I think 7 years is something around the average length of a marriage in the US. We're doing pretty good! :P Things have changed a lot this year, of course. We are no longer DINKs. Crazy.

Did I mention recently that my husband is awesome? He got me a new digital camera for our anniversary. It's good, because my old one was really having issues. If I used the flash, the picture came out really dark. If I didn't, it came out blurry. Plus, this one is really small, and I'll be able to carry it in a pocket. Yea!

Meanwhile, I couldn't find Gavin anything in the 2 hours I was able to spend in the mall this morning. So, I got him a very romantic and expensive dinner at Chili's, with desert at Marble Slab. I think he won the gift war this year. :)

Photos

Pictures of Carina during the last couple weeks.

Pictures of Caroline (and others) during her visit.

Changing of the Visitors

Time is flying. My parents have come and gone. I think they took more pictures of Carina in 4 days than we have in 4 weeks. (OK, maybe not, but a lot.) They got stuck in the airport yesterday for more than 6 hours due to the weather here, the weather in Dallas, and a bird strike on the plane they were supposed to finally leave on. I hope my sister and her family have better luck this afternoon.

I'm a little intimidated with the idea of having Caroline here now that it comes down to it. Our house has lots of baby gear in it now, but not much toddler gear yet. I hope she doesn't get bored. At least there's always the neighborhood pool. And the dogs - hope that works out well.

We have had Apache and Bennett for the weekend. When I agreed to take them with company here, I was thinking that we could always throw them in the backyard if it got to be too much. Well, it's been raining cats and dogs all weekend. I put them out for a couple hours yesterday after it stopped raining, and Gavin had to give Bennett a bath before we could let them in. Roxy is thoroughly annoyed with the whole situation. I've caught her on the couch twice in the last few days. She's definatley protesting.

Presidential

Yesterday, Melissa took Gavin and I on a behind the scenes tour of the Clinton Presidential Library. It was pretty cool. I was particularly amazed that they are expected to store all the papers from an 8 year presidential administration in one room. And it's not that huge a room. When I thought about the stacks at a presidential library, I had a room the size of the cavernous warehouse that's in Indiana Jones at the end. You know, where they store the arc. Not so much.

Tomorrow we head back to Texas. Sounds like it will rain cats and dogs most of the day, so that should be fun.

Little Rock

We're halfway through our visit here it Little Rock. We're having a great time. Today we took the dogs on a long walk down by the river. I got pretty tired toward the end - I really need to start walking more regularly. Roxy and I were going about the same pace at the end and she's such an old lady now.

It seems like everywhere we travel these days, it ends up being a menagerie. In addition to our two dogs, Lauren and Melissa have three cats. And, they're also pet-sitting a guinea pig. Everyone is getting along OK - meaning that the cats are staying to themselves in their room and hissing when the dogs get too close. So, Roxy and Zoya have been keeping their distance and trying not to look directly at the cats when they're in close proximity. Zoya is just as or maybe more interested in the guinea pig than she was in Nick's bird. It's pretty funny.

Missing Pieces

To celebrate the end of the mission and my return to the land of the people who sleep at night, we went out to dinner tonight with Becca, Cari, and Jose. We got back home to find that Roxy had chewed one of the presents from under the tree, torn up the plastic wrappings from our gifts from Becca, and eaten the continents of Austrailia, Africa, and South America from my jigsaw puzzle. Yes, SHE ATE THEM! I kept looking around for chewed up pieces, but they were nowhere to be found.

I got my uncle's Christmas letter today, and discovered that he bought a float plane! Hmmm... Maybe I'll have to go visit ND again soon. :) Anyhow, I feel like we ought to take the baby up to see my grandmother sometime soon, since she doesn't travel too much anymore. Good excuse.

Tomorrow, we get in the car with the dogs to drive to Little Rock for Christmas. Gavin brought up the fact that my car needs an oil change pretty badly. Oh, well. I gues we're not leaving as early in the morning as I hoped.

Homelife

Oscar went home today. I think Nick and Heather were afraid that he’d have had so much fun at our place that he wouldn’t care they were home. Not to worry, he spent a solid 10 minutes crying and running back and forth between the two of them. I was consoled by the fact that he’d spent the last 20 minutes before they got there sitting at my feet with his head lying on my knee.

Afterward, I had a nap on the floor with my dogs. Roxy is great to cuddle with. I put a pillow against her rump and offered my hand to be licked. She fell asleep with her head cradled in my hand. I think they’re getting used to me leaving them at night. Just in time for Gavin to get back home later today.

I was hoping that I’d be well enough adjusted to my work schedule to go flying for a couple hours after one of my shifts this weekend. I haven’t been able to sleep shift as easily as I normally do this mission, but I think by Sunday I may be OK. I need to decide tomorrow, though, if I want to try.

A Says 'a'

Tracy's post about Eva reminded me of something cute Caroline was doing when we were in Wyoming this time. She has this set of refrigerator magnets with the alphabet on them. When you place a magnetic letter on the main magnet and press it, it sings a song with the letter sound. Caroline isn’t playing with the magnets too much anymore, but she liked to sing the song at the dinner table.

"The A says 'a',
The A says 'a',
Every letter makes a sound
And A says --"

At the end she’d open her mouth in the shape of an 'a', but no noise would come out. Then she’d look across the table at you, raise her eyebrows, and smile as if to say "I know what it says, do you?"

Ding Dong

I took this video of Caroline "dancing" (sorry, no sound). My favorite part of it is how Shelby comes into the picture at the end and starts nosing Gavin's butt. Ha, ha! I know that isn't as funny as it seems to me right now, but I was just in tears when I first saw it.

Caroline's latest obsession is The Wizard of Oz. Over the last couple days, she started to march around the house singing "Ding dong on the witch!" She kicks her legs out like the munchkins while she marches. Last night, I wached her while she took her bath. She talked non-stop for about 10 minutes very earnestly, and the only thing I really understood was "And the wizard; and the witch is dead".

We're ready to head back to Houston tomorrow afternoon. It's always sad to leave here. Caroline grows up so much between the times we see her.

Family Moment

We're having fun in Wyoming. Caroline is, as expected, pretty much stealing the show. She is definitely 2 years old. Last night, I was instructed to "sit in the chair" rather than help color. Gavin seems to be the favorite at the moment.

"Break right, Blue Two!"

A few nights ago my sister Lauren and I relived our youth, courtesy of an old video game and the internet. We used to love playing the old Star Wars computer games X-Wing and TIE Fighter, where you fly as a starfighter pilot and complete various missions. LucasArts came out with a 'sequel' of sorts in the late 1990s, X-Wing Alliance, which has a great single-player game. But the multiplayer aspect is awesome!

My sister and I set up Ventrilo, which allowed us to talk to each other over the internet while we played our game. Jen was sitting down stairs and couldn't believe how clear Lauren sounded. It was like she was sitting in the same room with me! Seriously, who needs long-distance phones these days?

Over the next several hours Lauren and I figured out how to fly again. As it turns out, flying a starfighter is like riding a bike. You really don't forget. Soon we were deep in a swarm of TIE fighters, 10 Rebels versus 40 Imperials! There was green laser fire, red laser fire, explosions left and right! The Imperial March boomed over the loudspeakers as TIE reinforcements arrived! Every once in a while we'd call out for help, or just scream crazily like Han Solo! It was very fun. :)

Pictures from Casper

by jmendeck

Kids Say

OK, so it's way past time for me to post already.

I talked to my sister yesterday. She says that Caroline has been asking for us ever since we left Wyoming. She was in the grocery store the other day, and there was a guy that looked *a bit* like Gavin. Caroline starts yelling "Gabbin! Gaaaabbbin!" across the store. Jessica had trouble convincing her that it wasn't Gavin. They also took a car trip over the holiday weekend, and as soon as they buckeled Caroline into her car seat she started demanding "Jen! Come Jen!". Doesn't that just melt your heart?

I had a busy weekend. Here's the short version...

Sundance Grill in Seabrook is good, but the birds are mean (I got pooped on and pecked at) and the tiki tourches catch on fire - more than they're supposed to, I mean.

Talladega Nights is 60% funny, 15% boring, and 25% over the top.

We were the "Bubba Burger Lucky Row" at the Astros game. We got t-shirts and coupons for frozen hamburgers shaped like Texas.

I hate cleaning.

One more of my friends is 30 now.

Josh went to DC, and I ate lots of fried stuff.

Fire Update

The Casper Mountain fire is 30% contained this morning. The fire jumped Highway 220 overnight, but fire crews quickly put out the blaze on the west side of the highway and returned to protecting structures in the Goose Egg area.

I talked to my dad last night, and he and my mom are feeling more inconvenienced than truly fearful for their property right now. There is a lot of smoke in town from time to time.

Here's a live webcam view of the mountain from the Casper Medical Center. It seems to go down from time to time - I suppose it's getting more traffic than usual.

On Fire

My little hometown of Casper, WY is making national headlines today. A wildfire burning on Casper Mountain, which is covered with cabins and homes, is on fire. Casper Mountain hasn't had a major fire in about a century, and there is a lot of dead, dry wood lying on the ground up there.

My parents, who live about 1/4 mile into the prairie below the forrested area have been evacuated from their home. Right now, most of the fire seems to be burning to the west - away from my folks house, but the fire is uncontained and unpredictable. My parents are staying with friends in town, and all the family animals got out with them.

The fire started on Saturday due to a lightning strike. That lightning came from the same storm that drove us back to our car early from our hike on Casper Mountain on Saturday. It smouldered without anyone realizing it was there until Monday (a couple hours after we left to catch our airplanes in Denver). Yesterday, it spread quickly and burned over the top of the ridge.

The fire is front and center of the Casper Star Tribune, understandably.

BlazeBlog
Photos

Keeping Busy

In the last four days, I have been hiking, swimming, horseback riding, and paint-balling. I'm a bit sore. It has been a great visit, though. Tomorrow, we are going to the County Fair and picnicking on the mountain. Then Sunday is Caroline's birthday party.

Monday, we're going to have to leave decently early to get to Denver in time to get through whatever crazy new security is in place at the airport. Who would have thought things could change so much in one week?

Sucks

We're in a station wagon speeding across the plains of Wyoming. Caroline, Jen, and Gavin are sitting in the back seat.

Caroline tosses her Poohbear onto the floor. Gavin sees it fall and reaches across the car to hand it back to her.

Caroline tosses her Poohbear onto the floor again. Gavin ignores it. Jen, who missed the first exchange, gives it back to Caroline.

Caroline tosses her Poohbear into Jen's lap. Gavin chuckles at Jen while Caroline waits expectantly. Jen gives Caroline a sideways look. Caroline looks very innocent.

Jen puts the Poohbear away, saying, "You're going to lose your Poohbear now. Yeah, that sucks, doesn't it?"

Caroline grins and says really loud, "SUCKS!"

As we all laugh her mom smirks in the rearview mirror, "Thanks, Jen."

Caroline

Caroline's been a lot of fun. She sings out loud while we hike through the mountains. She likes to make sure that everyone follows her outside into the backyard or wants to play with her cowboys and princesses. She likes pushing buttons, which I can completely relate with.

Yesterday morning I was relaxing in Jessica and Pat's living room when suddenly I heard a car alarm go off. I stood up, looked out the window, and noticed the trunk of our rental car was also wide open. A neighbor mowing his lawn next door was giving our car an amused look.

"Jen? Where are my keys?" I asked, remembering that I had just heard Jen talking with Caroline down the hallway.

I'm sure the neighbor knew exactly why our car was acting up.

In Wyoming

We're having a great time on vacation so far. We spent most of the day traveling, but we got here in time to play with Caroline for a couple hours before she went to bed. She calls us both by name already. Gavin and she bonded by playing in the sand table for 15 minutes.



More later...

Growing Up

I'm getting very excited about going to see my family in a couple weeks. While I've always wished that I could see them more often, it was never such a pressing thing until Caroline was born. Now, I'm always wondering how much she's changed since I last saw her. I wish she knew who she was talking to when her mom puts "Aunt Jen" on the phone. My mother told me the other day that Caroline pointed to a picture of me and said my name when she was babysitting the other day. I'm holding out hope that she'll make the connection between the picture she recognizes and the person that's coming to visit.

This picture was taken a year ago, when I went to Wyoming for her 1st birthday. It will be interesting to compare the pictures from her 2nd birthday soon.

Feast

Yesterday I went up to Mike and Meg's for Easter. I came back home with about half a turkey, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, asparagus, and biscuits. Becca came over tonight for dinner, and we managed to polish off pretty much everything except the turkey (she couldn't help much with that). So, it's turkey sandwiches for a few days for me. :)

Houston had rolling blackouts today. It didn't seem to affect anything down here where I live, but it really, really scares me that on the first hottish weekday of the year that the energy grid couldn't keep up with the demand. Houston is really unlivable without air conditioning. You sweat all day, and you can't sleep at night. Honestly, I don't know how people lived here before A/C.