And That's All She Wrote

Atlantis landed this morning. At wheels stop, the end of the Space Shuttle Program. This is the first time I've seen this view of entry captured and it seems like a most fitting way to say good-bye. Space Shuttle Atlantis as last seen in flight by the International Space Station.

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say 8 Weeks?

After a huge hassle finding a pediatric orthopedist in Houston on our insurance, we got Zara looked at today. I blame non updated Aetna provider network web interface for all that trouble. What a mess. Anywho, Zara's leg fracture is very clean and, while no doc will say zero chance of problems, this is about as close as you can get. He's confident everything will heal without issue and this apparently is more common than I would have guessed as this was his second officially named "toddler fracture" today. After the brief checkout, Zara got a full leg cast in her fav, orange. Since she can't use crutches, she gets the full leg cast bent 90 degrees at the knee to try and keep her from walking on it. Although, doc says they usually figure out how to walk with it before it comes off. And, speaking of coming off, she only has to wear it three weeks, kiddos heal so much faster then us old farts.

All in all, she was a champ and just looked curious the whole time it was going on without complaining any. She doesn't seem to mind it and she is already used to not being mobile again has been pretty chill about the whole thing. Here is Zara getting her cast and then another after we got home and Momma was playing with Picasa.

Like Old Times, Kinda

This is just a short status post for everyone regarding Zara's leg. Yesterday morning she was in the shower and just slipped. Since my back was turned, I didn't actually see the fall, but when I looked she was just on her butt with her hands behind her (ergo, so head bump or anything) and serious injury hardly was expected. But she was clearly hurt and it took us a long time to figure out where (ankle) since she really was just upset/crying no matter where you touched her. So we called a nurse line and the pedi, both of which said wait and see if there is no improvement before coming in.

This morning since she still wouldn't even put weight on it, we decided to get it checked out and went to an urgent care place for an x-ray. Turns out she has not just a fracture, but a rather bad one which is spiral and complete through the tibia of her right leg. Everything is in alignment (very good) but we'll be making a trip to the pediatric orthopedist tomorrow for what will hopefully just be a cast and a little more ice cream. For now, Zara is handling it remarkably well and suddenly is okay cuddling in our laps and getting carried everywhere again.

Frankly, I am impressed with the urgent care. The doctor was very nice and competent and we got in, x-rayed, and out in under an hour. Forget the ER folks, if you have the unfortunate need for immediate medical care, short of gun shot wounds, just go to one of those.

Little Gene Simmons

The rest of our 4th was a feast of an afternoon with homemade wings, yellowfin tuna steaks and tropical salsa with green salad main, and a dessert of blueberry freezer cake. It was a nice afternoon with friends and Zara and Lucy have started to warm up to each other and even interacted in ways other than screaming fits when the other got something they wanted. Nice that they are getting older and "play" is actually a possibility.

The girls also got some homemade fruit pops. I think they liked them.

Happy Independence Day

Hope everyone is having a good 4th of July. This morning I took Zara and we strolled in the neighborhood bike parade. All the kids decorate their bikes and we parade through the neighborhood ending at the park for drinks and snacks. This afternoon, BBQ at a friends house to cap off a nice relaxing three day weekend. Next year, Z should be old enough to ride on her own for the parade, but this year she was still in the BOB. Although she didn't seem too put out by Mommy having to do all the work. Have a safe and happy 4th!

MigroG, MacroFun

I volunteered as a mentor for the NASA microgravity science flights. Really that means I spend some of my personal time translating NASA speak and documentation requirements into plain language for a team of college students doing an experiment onboard the "Weightless Wonder", a.k.a. the Vomit Comet. As a part of spending my time on it, I also get to fly with the team. AND IT WAS AWESOME!

Their experiment was to try and capture the energy of capillary flow. It didn't work so well, but I gave them a lot of ideas for tweaks to try for a second attempt if they apply again for the program. As for the flight, I opted to go without the meds since I needed to go to work that afternoon and couldn't deal with the gnarly side-effects. Since I went without meds, I anticipated and actually did vomit, but not until the 22nd and 29th parabolas and even then not too much since my stomach was already empty. I had a great time and it was amazing, we did 32 parabolas with 1 of those lunar and 1 martian. I am definitely volunteering again because getting to do something like this is well worth the time spent helping the teams.

As for the experience, I think I was most surprised about how much planning goes into moving around. You have to decide where you are going and what you are going to grab onto to get there. If not, you just end up floating away and grabbing at air. Of course that always happens right when they yell that gravity is coming back and you better get down now or get reintroduced to it the hard way. If I go again, hopefully I can concentrate on having more fun and less on trying not to upchuck, but all the same I still loved it.

K&K Attack

Last week, John's cousins Kirby and Kassie came to visit and get a vacation between spring semester and starting work for the summer. We had a great time and Zara really warmed up to them after a couple days. We packed in a lot of activities including a baseball game, NASA tour, beach, Schlitterbahn, and a trip to the outlet malls for some shopping. Everyone had a great time and it was good to get to hang out with them for awhile. We also got to see Brian and DeAnn with the kids down for a work trip from Colorado. All in all a great week with great people. Some pictures from the week below.

Mountain High, Oxygen Low

This week I had to go up to Denver for a few days work, always a nice place to be sent for a few days since we have so many friends in the area. I stayed with our good friends John and Jen and we went hiking Sunday evening after I arrived. I got a good set of pictures even though I was using my point and shoot and the album is below. There are a few pictures from a second hike organized by a coworker Tuesday after work also.

Otherwise, in my full schedule of the trip Monday night I had a long dinner with my cousin Anna at a place called Root Down which had some pretty awesome food. Beet gnocchi and sweet potato 'falafel' are definitely good alternates to the standards. It was also really nice to get to talk for a long time and catch up. We usually only see each other in the midst of 50 relatives at Thanksgiving and our time to gab is somewhat limited.

Fish Tales

I downloaded the couple pics the boys shot on the boat. Here is one of Shaun and one of his catch. The lineup is boat wide, not just our boys.

Adventures of Aunt and Uncle

My sister Mona and brother-in-law Shaun were visiting us here in Houston for a full 9 days last week and it was great to be able to have them here for an extended period. Long weekends just aren't long enough sometimes. This was a big visit, so big blog post. Our Memorial Day weekend got semi-derailed as I ended up working a bunch for the mission but we still had a good time at things like the Dynamo soccer game and outlet mall shopping. But with the mission, they were here for the crew return ceremony, so we went over so they could see that at Ellington.

Then John and Shaun headed out for a two day offshore fishing trip. While the boys were gone, Mona and I had an awesome girls day at the spa and lunch after. For the locals, we went to the Garden Spa at Memorial Herman on 59 South and they have much better pricing than typical spas and excellent service to boot. All of our treatments were great and I'd totally go again. On Saturday, we took Zara to the beach and it was her first time at an age and weather conditions that allowed her to actually play in the water. SHE LOVED IT! We know she likes the water but I have never seen her so dedicated to any activity for that long. I could just sit in the shallow water and she played with her buckets and splashed for hours. Definitely on the "must do again and often" list.



Then Saturday evening the boys returned from a pretty epic fishing trip where they combined to catch over 250lbs and Shaun caught the most on the boat. The pulled in king mackerel, bee liner, black fin tuna, snapper, and (my fav of the catch) yellow fin tuna. They had a great time and we have a monster freezer haul after a late night assembly line breaking the rough prepped fillets down to meal size steaks and fillets. Here are the boys with the haul and HALF the catch in the freezer as the other half made its way up to Seattle Sunday. We were sorry to see them go, but glad we all got to spend so much time together.