My Niece and some AWESOME pizza pie

My niece, Jenna, is in the gifted program at her Middle School, not surprising since she is a brilliant young woman. Recently she has been involved in a special program to teach young adults around the state about how the United Nations works by having teams of kids represent as countries. She is part of Italy. My sister in law, Linda, is one of her team coaches. They got an article in the newspaper about their experience learning to throw pizza dough from a local champion pizza maker! Let me tell you, this pizza is the most amazing pizza EVER. I miss that stuff....hmmm, pizza sounds good...follow the link to read the article on my amazing niece and her experience. There is also a photo of her!

http://examiner.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9553%3Atossing-with-a-champion&Itemid=55

Coolest Parents

Photo of my dad that my mom snapped right before they went for a few runs (they just got about 2 Ft. of snow)!

My mom and dad are SO COOL. They are skiing right now. They both have passes to the local ski resort I grew up next to in Ohio (yes, we do have a bit of skiing in Ohio, crazy). Matter of fact, you all will see an Olympian that grew up around that very resort, Louie Vito. I babysat him a few times when I was younger, and Chris went over to his house skateboarding a couple times years ago. Now Louie is famous and we are so proud. Can't wait to see him tear up that halfpipe next week!

Anyway, I am so proud my parents still do awesome things like go skiing together. I strive for Chris and I to be that way. Enjoy doing fun things together for years and years. I love it...My mom and dad are the coolest ever.

A Week It has Been

My Bear Bear last night while having dinner.

A Few nights ago he decided it would be fun to SIT atop his Tool Bench, nice...

Ah, and the day that everything happened this week....our garbage disposal was broken, by me, by putting noodles down it. Whoops!

I need prayers right now, for so many reasons....so if you have a second, pray for me and my family. We are going through a lot.

Daffodil

I saw Daffodils in a neighbors yard a couple of days ago. I think I need to go see them again.

The meetings happening at work today are so sad, tears swell up in my eyes every other 15 minutes or so.

I HATE POLITICS! The politics are killing my hopes and dreams at my job. The vision the agency was given by a prior administration is being yanked away just 5 short years after it was given. How is that going to help us? The people that work at NASA are unlike any other place you'll ever see, us space geeks are unlike any other breed, and I am not even a huge one! I was sucked in when I became a flight controller. I just hope this administration does not completely kill it, because right now, it is not looking good.

I need to go see those Daffodils...

Have not

I have not wanted to write lately because I am frustrated, understandably so. Chris is almost laid off totally and has not found anything yet. He has networked like crazy and there are tons of people trying to help him out, but there is nothing so far. THEN we got the glorious news that our oh so wonderful president (can you detect the sarcasm) is going to try to axe the program I work on for NASA, Constellation.

The frustration I feel cannot be put down in words. I could go on and on about the INCREDIBLE INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL that this country WILL LOSE (the amazing minds that I know can and will work elsewhere if they lose faith in this administration) and I could go on and on about how NASA gives this country no less than an 8:1 Return on investment (they are called 'spinoffs' LOOK IT UP, Think computers, microwaves, Teflon, Smoke Detectors, Memory Foam, numerous medical devices) OR I could go on about how the NASA budget only takes up 1 tenth of one penny of one dollar in taxes....but I won't because I am tired. I am tired of stressing about what he is going to do to the space program.

I don't know what to do. I don't know what is best for my family at this point. Is it for me to take my systems engineering background and human factors degree and go apply it to a defence agency like the Air Force Research Labs in Dayton, OH? Those opportunities are there. I could probably transfer up there with my AWESOME company (thank goodness they care so much about every employee), but I don't know the answer. Should I uproot my family because there is a chance our president will decimate Human Space Flight for the US? My husband, son and I are happy in Houston, we like it here. We have grown roots here. We have so many friends that have become like family. The climate is great, save for a couple of hot months in summer.

It makes me sick to think that other world powers are pumping money into their human spaceflight programs, but our administration is going to work to get rid of ours. Oh, and if you actually think that commercial spaceflight is ready to do what NASA does, think again. They are no where near what NASA can do. What NASA does is completely amazing. No other country in the world could have been a part of doing science on the Space Station without us and our Space Shuttle. It is like shooting a Semi Truck in space. The only thing anyone else has been able to do is put the equivalent of a mini Cooper in space....

So he wants to privatize human space flight totally (by the way, I am all for the commercialization but not at the cost of NASA doing the business it does and does well) but wants government run health care, yeah, that makes total sense. I can totally see why he has gotten so much passed in the Democratic Congress, oh wait, no he hasn't!) What in the world is he thinking? I am going to go write my congressperson....

All Smiles

My mom sent me this photo last night. She went over to babysit my nieces and nephew. Here she is with the twins, Emma and Ella. Are they related or what?!

Blair LOVES the bathtub these days. Matter of fact, when Chris or I get in the shower, he hops in right after us and plays in the there until we fill the tub with water for him. Here is a photo of Chris squirting water on him with one of his bath toys, one of his favorite things!

Nice

Blair on his way to daycare this morning, mad that the sun was in his face, lol.

Blair on Mr. Charlie's Tractor with Daddy!

This weekend started off with good friends coming over for dinner. We had a great time talking and having a meal with our friends the Franco's and Angela and Tyler-Blair. We are hoping for many more fun evenings. Blair adored the Franco's new baby boy, Gabriel. He was jumping up and down wanting to hold baby Gabriel. He is a really pretty baby!

Saturday we were LAZY. We ran to the store for some cleaning supplies that I ran out of and just played with Blair all day. Fun fun. Sunday we got up and were invited to the park to play disc golf with the Ward's. I was all to excited to see Nikki, Travis and Aiden. Blair was a bit cranky, but we went nontheless. He was fairly good during our walk through 18. It was fun to watch Callaway (the Ward's dog) run after the disc's only to remember he should not retrieve them! So silly. He had a BLAST, you could tell. Blair was barely strapped in his car seat before falling asleep, too sweet. I took that opening to run into the grocery store to get a few things (thanks for the meal idea Nikki, the Chicken Tortilla Soup is WONDERFUL). After Blair got a couple hours of sleep we decided to run up to a friends house.

Chris has given bi-annual flight reviews to a dad to a former student of his when he was teaching flying. He has a Seneca airplane, it is a small multi-engine airplane, Charlie's is VERY NICE. He is a SUPER nice guy and invited us over to ride horses! We ended up getting to his house a bit late, about 430pm, so we got there and pet the horses since they had already riden. The horses names are JJ and Spud (she adopted Spud from the ASPCA and he was so nice and playful)! SO SWEET! Blair really warmed up to them after about 10 minutes. THEN, Blair got a TRACTOR RIDE!!! He LOVED it. Mr. Charlie let Chris take Blair around their field a few times with Blair on his lap and Blair couldn't pull his jaw up he was so in awe. Amazing how much little boys love heavy equipment.

After that we explored their backyard full of lemon, lime, pecan, kumquat trees! Blair was picking up giant lemons left and right.

It was a fun evening which felt like being at families house. Charlies wife Karen treated Blair (as did Charlie) like one of their own grandchildren, it was really full filling and just what we needed for a Sunday evening.