Anna school update

Anna can apparently count to 10 in spanish. It just started flowing out of her mouth during bath time the other night as she was counting her bath crayons. WTH? I didn't know what she's saying but now it's perfectly clear. I don't speak spanish. She's already one-upped me.

We asked her teacher about it this morning and she confirmed to me how to count to 10 and Anna had been right. Apparently she also knows her colors and shapes in Spanish. SAY WHAT?!

She has been spending some time in the older classroom so they can evaluate whether she should jump a level at the start of next school year. As of right now, their big concern is they don't want her to lose her leadership qualities if she moves to an older classroom. Also her fine motor skills aren't quite advanced enough yet to keep up with the older ones (cutting with scissors, holding a pencil correctly ALL of the time (she does most of the time. And she's a Lefty)). They don't want her to become frustrated with those types of things if she can't keep up with the older classes.

All of this is fine with us. We will work on her fine motor skills more with her at home too. If she jumps a class room in the fall, she'll start kindergrarten a year early, be young in her class, and graduate at 17. Not all bad things: I started college at 17 and I LOVED being the youngest all the time. If she doesn't jump a class we are fine with that too because frankly who needs the rush. But her teachers are doing an amazing job really analyzing this and paying attention. We are so happy and lucky they are so involved, and so we're doing our best to work with them.

In other news, Anna got in trouble a few weeks ago when she interrupted the class prayers not once, but twice, by saying "POOPIE! POOPIE!". They had to start prayer over as a class 3 times, while they were waiting to start snack time! When the teacher told me this I swear I heard the voice in my head say, "Ha, oops...oh wait: straight face." What actually came out of my mouth was: "oh what the little class clown..." and "we will talk to her..." And we did. She hasn't done it since.

And I giggled as we walked out of the classroom. Not out of disrespect for this Luthern school (or God or Jesus), but because of the gall of toddlers.

She gets it from her dad.

The hard thing is now she's on to "I toot-tooted!" and thinks it's hilarious. "I toot-tooted on you! ...on the floor!...in the water!" And while that's fine with me, the voice of restraint in my head reminds me that her teachers at some point are going to notice her doing it at an otherwise inappropriate time and so I am trying to teach her it's OK to say at home but not so silly at school. Then the other day she said, in front of her teachers: "it's OK to say at home but not school!" Ugh, kids.

Commencing the initiation of the post-all-u-can-eat-cruise-wisdom-teeth-removal weightloss plan

Yanked all 4 of my wisdom teeth today, about 15 years after the first one chipped while eating a simple soft taco. They'd been weak for a long time, chipping away... and every dentist I'd seen said they're going to have to go. I've just been putting it off for the right time.

Mostly I will miss those teeth: they've been handy for chewing.

I figure the best time to implement is after the cruise where food is available 24 hours a day and I may have gained a few pounds. Don't feel like I did but now I may never know because the liquid diet has begun.

Actually it started with brownie flavored pudding. Yummmm.

I am actually feeling pretty good after the surgery. No pain yet and just a little groggy from the drugs. Hell I am coherent enough to go back to work except I don't think my co-workers would appreciate the uncontrollable bloody slobber. Some people are just sensitive ;)

In fact I've scheduled sick leave through Friday and I just might use it all no matter how I am feeling! There are lots of things to get done...

You'd think I'd sleep all day after the surgery. But no, instead there are too many cool things for me to do, like planning Anna's third birthday party, March 6. We never thought we'd have a formal birthday till Anna was older but apparently she understands those parties of her friends as they turn 3 and she is excited by them. Now who can deny her of a fun little time of her own? March 6 we'll have snacks, cake, and the Tumblebus at our house. The Tumblebus is this cool bus that's been tricked out with nothing but ball pits, monkey bars, and even little zip lines. It's like the Little Gym in a box. It comes to Anna's (and others') schools once a week so the kids can play. ANNA LOVES THE TUMBLEBUS (mommy, I can do a tuck and roll all by myself!). And it's pretty reasonable cost-wise to get them to do birthday parties. It can hold up to 15 kids so we're throwing out the net of invitations to our close friends with kids who Anna likes, and the kids in Anna's class. All of them. Even the ones that she and I both think are weird. Hopefully a small turnout of about 10 kids can make it. Anyway, you should see the cake I'm going for but OH NO YOU WILL HAVE TO BE SURPRISED AND WAIT FOR IT!

And hell no, I'm not making it myself.

She also doesn't know the Tumblebus is coming. In fact we're not hyping about the party at all. It'll all mostly be a surprise for her so shhhhh...

That night we're going camping too. And Ommom is going out of town so we're taking O & M for the weekend, including camping, so it should be a really fun weekend for Anna!

I am proud of myself for getting the jump on this, huh? I usually wait till the last minute for these things. Thanks to the wisdome teeth, I am TOTALLY ON THIS. HA!!!

Now let's just hope some kids actually show up :)

Check out Anna's Disney 100m dash photos

Action Sports International

Click on the link above. Darling.

Nana's here!

Anna's so happy Nana's here! (My mom).

Nana loves her and adores on her so Anna ofcourse diggs that. But it's also fun to have my mom here because I love to share her with someone who obviously loves her so much! It's fun to watch Anna interact with her and show her how she is such a big girl.

I just hope she doesn't run all over Nana when mommy and daddy are on a boat to Mexico next week with my dad's side of the family. I hope Nana picks the right time to instill Time Outs, or can figure out the tricks to get her dressed in the morning or to get her into the bathtub. Or to get her to bed at night. Or for goodness sake, Nana, how to get that DVD player working in the truck! :)

Nana's here this week for some Anna training!

When I dropped Anna off at school this morning her teacher told me that she told Anna "I love you!" during naptime yesterday. Anna said "I love you too! And I love Nana! And KC!" And then of course only later after some prompting said "I love mommy and daddy." (Scum at the bottom of the list).

Anyway, I know Anna loves Nana and they will have fun next week. My main worry is safety. What if there's a fire?! What if Anna falls down the stairs, or Nana falls down the stairs and can't get to a phone? Or what if Anna chokes on her food (not likely, I know). What if there's a serious car accident? FIRST THINGS FIRST CALL 911!!! Then call Ommom :) I know I'll have access to my cell phone but still. Ugh.

I'm less worried about the stupid stuff like getting Anna to school or the bath without a fight. It's the serious stuff that worries me.

Anna is growing up to be such a great little girl. I enjoy spending time with her. I am going to miss her awfully. I know she'll miss me and Paul even though she will have fun with Nana. But next week will still be a tough week. At $2.45 per minute while on the cruise, my cell phone bill might spike next week. I'm OK with that.

We leave Friday night for the drive to New Orleans and the boat returns to New Orleans Saturday the 20th at 8am. So hopefully we'll be home before Anna's bedtime on Saturday night.

Dance Girls

Dear Ommom,

OK, you must ask M why when Anna woke up this morning, she puts one hand on her hip, hikes the hip into the air, tilts her head to the side, puts her opposite toe into a point, and smiles as if she is one little dance goddess? You know the pose I’m talking about... Dance girls!!

Look at these photos

I didn't really watch the game and I didn't even see the post-game stuff (but we DVR'd it and now I want to watch it!)...but I saw these this morning and melted. Too. Cute.

Seriously. What shots!

I love how in the top one Brees is looking at the confetti in his hand, as if to enjoy it with his son, with all the other craziness going on around them. And then ofcourse, picture #2 is now a forever classic.

This is a picture of a man on top of the world, who has it all. At the end of such a night, he gets to share it with his little family.

AWESOME.

Anxiety attack

OMG I cannot leave my baby for SEVEN nights next week while Paul and I
are both on a cruise. Crap crap crap. What the hell?!

Pretty awesome kid

Anna's second week of dance class went really well. I forgot the camera so I can't exactly show you how well but dang, she was fun to watch! She's such a big girl, balancing on one foot with the other high behind her. Making big arm movements. Prancing across the floor. Putting on her own shoes. Well, they were on the wrong foot but her teacher realized it during an across-the-floor-prance. They were her tap shoes.

I even sort of taught myself to put her hair up into the required bun. She fit right in with the best of them. And follows directions really well.

She's really a cool kid. She's going to the potty now from beginning to end (AND #1 and #2) without wanting us to come in and help. She's tossed the potty adapter seat sized for her little butt in favor or sitting (with balance) on the big potty seat herself. The sheer logistics of getting her undies/pants down, climbing up the step stool and balancing on the seat all by herself made me worry she'd find it all too troublesome, but no. She's a big girl. She's regularly in undies now everywhere we go and she's even stayed dry a few days this week during her nap.

She wants to do EVERYTHING by herself and I have to remember to stop myself and let her. Paul's better about that than me. She's such a big girl and says these things that make you say, "my gosh, she's not even 3!" She's developing into such a cool kid.

Her teacher called last night and said she talked to the director of her pre-school and they are recommending she start to be transitioned to the next older class. I have mixed feelings about this but it's the third time it's happened and so I have come to realize it's always been the right decision. More challenges and more fun. They're going to start sending her over to the other class to see if she can hang with that age socially (they're 3's going on 4), and since some are her friends from a previous class, I think she'll do fine. I have just hated it, though, when this happens and she leaves her current friends behind even though it's never seemed to have an impact on her as far as I can tell. Plus I like her current teachers so much. Lately more than other times she has her favorite buddies so I wonder what she'll think of all this. Guess we'll see how it all shakes out. I'm optimistic even though change kinda sucks.

It's the phrase of the week.

I Love This

Found this as a comment on NASA Watch. And even though I think about it more sensitively, this is good:

You guys need to get out of the Constellation echo chamber and listen to reality. No one is abdicating America's lead in space, and no one has taken the Moon off the table as a destination. In fact, if anything we'll be leaving Earth orbit sooner than the 2028 date that Constellation would have handed us.

We're going to save the few bits of Constellation that actually made sense. You'll see that Orion on top of an Atlas V, but it will be called the Boeing/Bigelow capsule, will seat seven, and (since it's on top of a far superior launch vehicle) will have a toilet instead of buggy springs for seats. Alongside of the Boeing solution you'll also see at least three other vehicles with different characteristics and strengths, reflecting the vitality of free enterprise as opposed to the central planning approach you so cherish.

We're going to get that heavy launch vehicle, we're going to get it sooner than 2028, it's going to cost less, and it's not going to blow a hole in the ozone layer every time it blasts off. You'll probably see Buzz Aldrin have a fair amount of input in its design; the guy is true American patriot with a good dose of common sense.

As for game changers, if you don't try to make them exist, they never will. The attitudes you guys show would have never made the cut back in the Apollo days.

Constellation is dead; get used to it because Congress will not bring it back. If you won't help us shape the future of manned spaceflight, then leave. We've got work to do.

What's new?

Almost a week has gone by since the announcement of the cancellation of the Constellation program. For the last two days I have been here at the Human Research Program Investigators' Workshop, which is full of happy people. Well, nobody's outright happy about the cancellation exactly. In fact there has been lots of akwardness as they talk through the slides of their research that have been centered around sending astronauts to the moon. But the thing is about this group is that for the most part they say, "when we DO eventually go back..." The thing is that they do research on how astronauts can safely live in space, given that there are so many changes that occur to the body in space. Because we still don't have answers for many problems. They will always have a job as long as they have human access to space, like the ISS. Oh, they could also be happy because in the same White House budget, the Human Research Program got an increase of 42% for research in 2011. This after having been yanked of important funding for the past 5 years as science was kicked to the curb in favor of engineering the new vision to go to the moon. As a result, the science on ISS has suffered compared to what it could really be. What Nobel laureate would apply to do top rated science if there's no funding really? Well with the new budget announcement, there will now be money to attract great scientists to ISS for great research.


So for the past 2 days I've been in a friendly cocoon (even though there's nobody celebrating the loss of Constellation).


Then again even if there are people happy about the cancellation who in their right mind would admit it? You'd be flamed.


Yesterday I gave my first presentation on ISS science as the Associate Program Scientist for ISS. Following me was supposed to be a speaker for the Constellation program. But she did not come. She had to go to headquarters over this recent mess. I had to modify my charts to remove talk of Ares and Constellation. Btw in the end it went really well. I have no fear of public speaking but I was nervous giving the presentation Julie usually gives! But it turns out that a group of teachers is the best audience to get your feet wet. They are so excited about being at NASA and just love it all.


Anyway, I have started to realize more and more the friends I have who have been working for the Constellation program, both civil servants and contractors. Right now they are unsure of their fate and while the contractors may get fired, civil servants can't and so they face the potential of having to work at a new position they may hate.


Like me after I came back from maternity leave and all of my co-workers jumped ship from ISS to Constellation. And my work was restructured in a way that left me bored and unmotivated until I got lucky with getting this current position last year. So I feel like I'm just a year ahead of them.

Holy Crap, Cancellation of Constellation!

The White House announced its budget and plans for NASA today:
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/420990main_FY_201_%20Budget_Overview_1_Feb_2010.pdf

Today, aerospace engineers are mad.

Specifically the ones with stars in their eyes who really wanted to build vehicles associated with going back to the moon and sustaining humans on the moon and even Mars. The ones who have all dreamed themselves of stepping foot on the moon, who have watched all the science fiction space movies and TV shows and who think that "going boldly beyond" is the most important thing to advance humankind. The ones who cite multiple Christopher Columbus quotes and references when they try to pinpoint why it's so important to go to the moon and Mars. The ones that wanted to tell their grandkids they helped to build that.

Forgive how I am writing today, I am trying to listen to the NASA budget press conference while I write...you know, so I can get smart on all of this.

Anyway, today they're mad. Twitter is a-flutter with pissed-off aerospace engineers who fear for the loss of their jobs because yes, there's a big fat line in the budget that says, "Cancellation of the Constellation program." And most of those pissed off aerospace engineers work for the Constellation program.

I am pissed that they are so selfish that they can't even see the big picture. But I am trying to see that much of their fear is based on the potential loss of their jobs, which is an incredible fear I can't relate to. I can't even imagine the dread that comes with worrying over how to support my family with such destructive news.

Or maybe I'm just biased because hell, I work for the International Space Station, which as a result of this budget, has been given direction to extend its life to 2020 (at least), and a little bit of money came along with that. So good news for me and my little team who have been seriously understaffed for the last year I've been here trying to keep up with all the research that's being done on ISS. Seriously, there's good stuff going on up there but we haven't even had the money to adequately tell the public about it. Maybe now we'll be able to. I was told, even before this budget came out, that change is in the air for my office. I expect that this next year and 2011 will get even wilder than it has been.

Get this straight, I'm NOT OPPOSED to going to the moon and Mars. Who would actually be opposed to going? I am opposed to the way that for the last 6 years our Constellation program has made such minimal progress for so much money, and is already behind. Even if Constellation continued and got all the money it needed, China is still on track to "beat us" back to the moon. Incidentally, China is also talking to ISS to become invested partners.

Beating another nation may have been a good reason to go to the moon in 1969, especially when there were no other major space programs to support (right now we're juggling ISS, space shuttle, and Constellation). I suck at stats, honestly, but we have gads more workforce here at NASA than there ever was during Apollo. So we need more money. Things are more challenging on so many levels now than they were during Apollo. We have THREE programs to try to muddle through.

The Bush administration was trying to leave a mark by giving us direction to go to the moon 6 years ago. The plan as I understand it involved de-orbiting ISS in 2015 and that, combined with retirement of the space shuttle, would be the biggest source of funding for Constellation. How much new money was actually given to support Constellation? I don't know. I suspect a very minimal amount. Basically we all know we were given direction with no new money, which poses issues. You can't sustain a program like Constellation without major new money. And what were the Constellation goals, anyway? Anyone know? I know they're baselined somewhere. I just don't know them formally. Shame on me. I have talked with a few aerospace engineers who were tasked to design a lunar habitat. When one asked where the darned windows should go, he couldn't get a straight answer. He wondered: should they look at the horizon? At Earth? At the lunar geography? What do we do once we get there?

Shame on me, maybe I'm the only loser who doesn't know what our lunar plans were in the first place. So my own opinion on my own blog is an ignorant one I suppose. But I've always wondered, for the last 6 years: how is going to the moon going to help our world? Is it going to be useful in stopping wide-spread health pandemics somehow? Is it going to tell us more about our climate change so we can do something to take care of our planet? How exactly will it benefit mankind? Not saying it won't, I just don't know these things.

I guess it would do a few things:
1) Excite students to get involved in Math/Science/Engineering as potential future aerospace engineers and astronauts. There's always something sexy about going to the moon and Mars that would excite our students, right?
2) It would give us a haven, in some visions, of a place to go when we destroy our own planet.
3) I guess we could look at the soil once there. Remember, I am poorly educated about the goodness of going to the moon and Mars so I accept that I'm an idiot.

I don't know what we're missing out on by canceling Constellation. But I do know that the alternatives, based on today's budget release, includes:

1) Increased use of ISS. (YESSSS, let's get our ROI, people! Plus give it a chance to develop new technologies). FOCUS, PEOPLE! USE WHAT WE HAVE! HATE WASTE? SURE YOU DO!
2) Climate change research is boosted (but do you really care? That's our grandkids' problem!)
3) Green aviation
4) Commercialization of spaceflight for LEO and heavy-lift (that's potentially a good thing, it gives us in the long run lots of choices of companies to send our astronauts and supplies to space)
5)Increased focus on education, particularly STEM.

When I heard the announcement of Constellation a few years ago, I was not happy. I couldn't understand why everyone else around me (save for a few people who actually GET IT), was happy. I told myself they're happy because it's a direction forward. Since they were all happy, I should be happy. This is a good thing for NASA, yay! What's wrong with me that I'm not happy? Why am I the only one who thinks ISS was getting the short end of the stick? (Though I do remember a conversation with two particular people, I should say, who agreed with me 100%. I really still respect those two people).

This is all easy to say because I have job security, I guess, since I work for ISS. But if you're a real supporter of Human Space Flight, you'll realize that using the International Space Station (ISS) to its full potential could potentially yield results that could save lives. Seriously, how many of you knew that cures for salmonella are in progress because of ISS research? That's just one example but our office has had such a challenge trying to get the word out. Hopefully in the next year or so we'll be able to do a better job.

If you're a real supporter of human space flight, you'd see the potential in this budget, even beyond the ISS part.

My final thoughts on this:

1) The psychics were right, I will not be going into space. The second one who told me this was this past November. He actually said he was "being told" that the reason was because there'd be no hiring. He said I have all the credentials, but there's just not the need (and he didn't seem the type to me to have forehand knowledge of such things, nor read up in the papers to make an educated guess). Yes, we will have ISS but we have plenty of current astronauts in the corps in line for ISS already and there won't be a need for new ones for awhile I am certain. Think about it: now the thing that sucks for most current high school and college grads who want to be astronauts is: space won't need you for a long time. And there is much liklihood that the future of astronaut selection will change entirely as we know it.

2) A little over a year ago today, I had my interview with this office and tried to sabbotage my chances of getting hired here in the ISS Program Science office. I had a major concern that I'd be going to a "dead horse" that was ISS. Why go to a dying program? I wrestled with taking such a career risk versus staying in Engineering and doing Constellation work like all the other engineers.

Holy s***, someone was looking out for me.

3) Congress still has to approve this budget anyway since it's just the White House proposal. Expect this to be drawn out and painful.

This all being said, I am pretty sure there will be major changes in our own office. Especially since the ISS National Lab initiative will take off. This has lots of implications for us and how we are structured that can go different ways. So no one is exempt from this change. We're all going to feel it. And I'm just going to try to roll with it...

Anna's first dance class

Can you tell which one is Anna?

HA!!! That's our girl.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Paul and I had Anna’s first parent-teacher conference yesterday. Looks like she’s on track to become an evil genius.

 

Pro:

-She’s above average in her cognitive and verbal skills. Though she’s know her ABC song for awhile, she only knows like a few letters and a few numbers but apparently that’s a step ahead. She knows her colors and shapes and stuff too.

 

Con:

-Teacher says she tries to keep Anna challenged with new things because she gets punchy or something when she’s bored. I’m not so sure about that, myself. I’ve never seen her get in trouble or punchy because she’s bored. But I guess if she’s bored and school and has other kids to potentially go over to and torment, I could see the draw.

 

Pro:

She’s a natural leader and helper.

 

Con:

That means she’s Miss Bossy Boots and also a little aggressive when her friends invade her personal space. Also she likes to go over and take away toys. Frankly I think there more pros to that, but we will just have to teach her to use her powers for good and not evil.

 

Pro:

She is learning what remorse and sympathy is, as well as what other people’s feelings are about.

 

Con:

Now she’ll be prone to guilt trips ;) and also prone to giving her own guilt trips.

 

Pro:

Her teacher thinks she may be able to write her name by the end of this school year. Not in any real perfect way but in an Anna-perfect way.

 

Con:

World domination is only possible with clear handwriting.

 

 

Her teacher says that it’s obvious that Paul and I spend a lot of time talking to her and including her and stuff. She said lots of parents are too busy to actually talk to their kids. I can see the business but I can’t see how any parent could treat their kid any less than a human being. I hate the old sayings that kids should be “seen and not heard” and all that old school crap. Granted no, Anna doesn’t get the same levels of interaction with me as if she’s a full-grown adult but how can any parent not treat their kid with the right level of respect and expect to get respect in return? Those parents don’t get respect from their kids. They get fear. I HATE that. With a PASSION. It sucks.

 

So probably what this means is Anna’s going to grow up to be a spoiled brat by her parents. Oh well. At least she can’t blame us when she’s explaining the reasoning of an evil genius to her future shrink.

 

About the Potty

I guess it’s safe to say Anna’s over the rough stuff of potty training. We’ve been sending her to school in her Big Girl Undies since before Disney, and the only accidents were when on the playground back then and they couldn’t get to the potty in time. Last week there were no accidents, and this past weekend she’s even started “doing #2” on the potty. She’s gone in airports, airplanes, hotels, Disney bathrooms, restaurant bathrooms, and this weekend, on the road in gas station bathrooms. I think that between Paul and Anna I may ultimately know the locations of every bathroom in the Clear Lake area and airports. So she is getting it down.

A few weeks ago we donated all her diapers to her school and we’ve slowed down on the pull-ups use too. She does still get a pull-up for naps and an overnight diaper for night time. I can’t even fathom when we might be able to stop those… In the meantime she’s also gotten fine with sitting on a big potty without the little seat attachment and without me holding her, where at first she was afraid she’d fall in and I had to hold her and reassure her. She has even gone so far this weekend to proudly tell each Paul and me: “Look! I don’t need you!” Well ha, that’s the first time we’ve heard that but she’s pretty correct in a number of ways.

We’re on our way to many more of “I don’t need you!” Funny how I anticipate that same phrase can mean lots of different things (good and bad) in the upcoming phases of her little life.

I admit at this point that diapers were much more convenient during travel!!! There’s nothing like pulling over 2-3 times on a 3 hour drive so she can go to the potty. No doubt these toddlers need to pee at all the wrong times. Like standing in line to check in at the airport. Or to see Mickey Mouse. Or when there’s a lonnnnngggg line in the Women’s room. Telling her, “Looks like you’ll have to pee pee in your pull up” elicits: “nnnnnoooooo!!!!!” and ensuing whining. So I tell myself this is another phase of toddlerhood that I should expect and celebrate, and to (as usual) roll with it. Slow down, remember you have a child now.

We are super excited and proud of her for getting this potty training thing down. I guess she’s behind and ahead of peers her age but for this day and age I think she’s pretty average. Smack in the middle. We haven’t pressured her to learn to go, because we knew enough that this is a touchy subject for lots of kids. Just kind of eased her into it over the course of the last several months.

She’s still a little OCD. She was inspecting a pair of her undies last week and was a little freaked out by the seams on the sides. You know, the one that holds the undies together! I had to show her that mine had seams too and it helped…but then she had a tougher time overcoming the fact that her favorite Yo Gabba Gabba characters’ heads and legs were chopped off at that seam. Oh well, baby steps. She got over it after a little discussion of how undies are made…sigh…How many other kids might just put them on without even thinking of it?!

I think she gets it from me.

Here it comes: Dec- Jan 19

The individual posts below are the abbreviated regurgitations of all the stuff we've been doing over the Christmas holidays, through our trip to Disney World. I've learned the wonders of posting all my photos to Flickr and then simply hitting a button that says "Blog This" and BAM, it posts to my blog! It's saved me time, but if you want to see all the MANY MORE pictures we've taken over the last several weeks, just go straight to my Flickr page by clicking on scrolling photos on the top right hand side of my blog.

Christmas was at my mom's house and was busy and fun. We actually took our yearly little family photos at Portrain Innovations before we left Austin like we did last year but I don't have the CD handy to post those right now. Remember I posted last year's photos, complete with out-takes. This year, she's a year older and amazingly, no funny out-takes. Anna-Marie hammed it up for every darned pose the photographer asked for. Sure made it easy this year but you have to admit, the out-takes can be hilarious. Anyway, I'll try to post those soon. Here's a fun little piece of trivia: Paul and I are wearing the same sweaters in both years' photos. And yes, we are aware of that. And it was partially on purpose.

We've been so much on the go over the past few months, now that we're home and things have slowed down, Anna always asks, "where are we going today?" when she wakes in the morning or after a nap. So it's not just me...

Disney was really great fun. She rode her first roller coaster, and since we love them ourselves, we were super proud of her. In fact she wanted to ride a second time. All the lines at Disney were so short we really didn't have but a 5-10 minute wait, and in some cases, no wait. Yes, it was darned cold. The highs that week were int he low 40's and lows in the 20's but we bundled up and toughed it out! We pretty much rode all of the Disney rides you'd go out there to ride, except for Everest, which always had too long of a wait for our opinion so that one we'll catch next year. And I have to add: "Soaring" was cool but heck I'm not quite sure that it deserves as much hype. I mean, eh.

Of all of the Disney characters, Anna hated Mickey the most and had to work up to even get in a picture with us after a few attempts. Her fave was Minnie and Chip and Dale (those chipmunks). She doesn't know who Chip and Dale really are on TV but she was obviously confusing them with Alvin and the Chipmunk movie she'd just seen. Regardless, everytime those bundles of fur came around, we had to derail our paths so she could snuggle into their soft coats for some love and cuddles. That was really too.danged.cute. She also hated Donald Duck. And I can't blame her. That's one potty-mouthed duck. And he's mean. Don't know how he got a girlfriend.

Anyway, the princess thing was REALLY played up here. So much so that towards the end of the trip, Anna donned her new "princess" nightgown my mom bought her and asked each Paul and I to pose with her separately for a photo. She was acting like the princesses who had posed with her earlier! She thinks she's a princess and now she must wear the nightgown every night. I think we must balance this out with the appropriate amount of space stuff. So it's forthcoming.

This was our second year for the Disney Half Marathon. It was cold. It was sleeting. It was crowded. My registration was lost so I bought one from Carrie on Craig's list. Turns out Carrie was a walker and registered her time such that it put is in the very LAST wave of runners to start. We could literally look behind us and see the lag vehicles. As a result, our run route was always crowded with walkers and we had a tough time just getting around them to maintain a decent pace. We also did alot of running on the sides of the roads since the walkers took up the entire width of most of the roads. The end result of it all was an end time of 2 hrs 47 minutes, which isn't bad, about a 12min 45 sec pace per mile, which is a little slower than what my training was. BUT we could have done even better if we'd have started with the runners that we would have otherwise started with if my registration had gone through. Ah well, it was still our best time ever, beating our previous time by 5 minutes overall. Next year will be even better.

As it turns out, running in the sleet and cold is part of showing to yourself what you're made of. In fact, the longer I ran the less cold I was. Even as the temperature dropped to 35 degrees by the end. 10 minutes after the finish, the chills came on and lasted the rest of the morning. Two things that helped: start time was about the same start time CENTRAL time zone as when I'd normally run with my 4am run group. And I had also run in 30-something-degree weather with my morning run group in the past. So it wasn't all soooo bad.

Notes to myself to remember for last year:
1) Leave no later than 4am for the start.
2) All roads to Epcot are closed off from our resort so pretend we're everyone else and go out to I-4 and just start from the beginning of the directions posted in the race instructions.
3) You can do this on 4 hours of sleep or less but it'd be great if Epcot would choose its Extra Magic hours the night AFTER our run.

Crap, now I forgot the other stuff I wanted to remind myself of at the time.

Anyway, another great time at Disney. A year ZOOMS by. We're registered to run again next year (and THIS TIME I HAVE PRINTED my confirmations and they're SOLID). Not sure how many more years we'll do this...probably just till Anna starts school. I was talking to a fellow mom at a birthday party this past weekend. They'd just returned from Disney. She said they weren't going to make it an annual thing because it seems like it would be "less magical" for the kids. They're probably going to space it out every 4 years or so. I can see that and appreciate her point. There are lots of reasons against making a Disney trip a regular yearly family trip. But for us, it's about more than just going for the magic of Disney. We aren't even huge Disney geeks and I've only seen a handful of Disney movies. Maybe. We don't even watch the Disney Channel at home. For us it's about a family event full of experiences. We all do the family runs as part of the reason we go out there, and as part of that, we earn a sense of achievement and pile a bunch of fun on top of it. Anna's still making little neural connections that allow her to build experiences and I do know she remembers these trips. Still these days when we eat squeeze cheese on crackers she says she remembers "this from Colorado!" (this summer's trip). And everytime she says she "remembers this" Paul and I get excited. Making memories is one of the best parts about being a parent.

That said, I do realize you don't have to go all out as far as Disney World every danged year to make those memories. But for us right now, it's fun (and yes, stressful too) and we'll do it until we think Time's Up. In fact, I took a moment while I was there to be proud of the fact that Paul and I have done well enough in our careers to be able to afford this kind of a family vacation in the first place. We've come a long way and we think this trip is fun. So that's what it is for us right now. That and making our best time on the next year's half marathon!

Teaching starts up again for me next week. And so does my little 4am running group. I figure if I'm going to make even better time next week I should stay on board. They just did the Houston Half marathon this past weekend but I haven't met with them yet to hear how they did.

In the week before the Disney trip, I was in Orlando attending an AIAA conference (the family came out to meet me there for the start of the Disney trip). Long story short, I am heading the committee on organizing next year's 25th Symposium on Gravity-Related Phenomena in Space Exploration, which is part of the AIAA conference. Again in Orlando, again the week before our Disney trip. This AIAA conference is a yearly conference our office attends and it's always in Orlando so it looks like this will be part of our January's for a few more years at least. Anyway, the conference was amazing. I learned so much and met so many ISS science investigators and commercial space developers. I got to stay at a really fantastic resort with a view out my window of Disney World fireworks every night. Not to mention some good food, including the crazy yummy crab cake sandwich...Now I have to crave it for another year. Planning the symposium is something brand new for me but it's all part of my desire to dabble in it a bit and my boss's fantastic intuition when it comes to career development.

So things here at work are AMAZINGLY COOL as usual. This past year has been a blur and in mid Feb, I'll have been at this job for a YEAR already. And I'm STILL a new kid. I've published some papers, attended conferences, traveled overseas, met nobel prize awardees, reviewed proposals, and done lots of outreach. My boss is the best mentor ever. The only thing missing from this job is a trip to space. Not sure that will ever happen, but for now, this will do ;)

WHAT A GREAT YEAR 2009 WAS! HERE'S TO 2010!!!