Pumpkin Update

I'm writing about how Pumpkin is doing since my posting stirred up so much emotion from my family and friends. My sister in law called me today about it. I am very glad to say that she seems almost completely normal and healthy as of today. When she walks she leans a little to the right but it is nothing out of the ordinary, she is like what she looked like before the fall. Tonight I was able to let her run about in the ball and Glenn and I hand held her for sometime and she was full of energy moving all around with nothing stopping her. I am truly amazed, mother nature must have wanted this little critter to be with us for the time being. We are grateful for her health, by the end of the week I will work with the children on handling and holding her again.
I know Akorren has learned a lesson from this experience. We processed some last night before he went to bed. I asked him what he learned from this and he said: "Well... you can't drop a hamster!" "When/ if I get to take her out again I am going to sit down". I told him that if she ends up being alright, like she is looking that he has been given a second chance to care and love her. And right now I am glad that we were all able to take something away from this, just a little gift from life and living. Blessings. Pumpkin getting her mouth on things, trying to keep her still for a photo.

A Postponement

Today Glenn came home and mentioned before I got ready to walk out the door for a church meeting that he heard the shuttle launch was going to be delayed. My heart skipped a beat as I though of the Antonelli family and what that means for them. So I made sure to make contact with Janeen. The word from Lee J. Archambault, Colonel, USAF STS-119 Commander is:

Dear Family and Friends of STS-119,
On Tuesday, February 3, NASA held its Agency Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for the STS-119 mission. The FRR determined that we will not launch on February 12, due to continued investigation of a flow control valve that malfunctioned on STS-126 last November.

NASA has been diligently investigating this issue since the STS-126 mission and hopes to complete its on-going testing and analysis within a week. Assuming a positive outcome to the investigation by February 10, NASA managers will reconvene on February 12 to set a new launch date, which will be no earlier than February 19, 2009.

Unfortunately, we understand this delay impacts travel plans for many of you. At this time, however, we cannot recommend how to rework your travel schedule as the launch date will not be set until NASA managers reconvene on February 12. We will update you with details on the launch date as we receive them.

So guess that just means we will be leaving later and make plans to be in Fl for the new launch date. The plan with driving is to give ourselves 4 days before launch to be there and then to be back in TX 2 to 3 days after. We are thinking positive thoughts for fight.

A Trip for the Family

We have not said much about this to family and friends yet, but we will be getting to go to FL this month to see the space shuttle launch. It is a pretty big deal even for the NASA crowd, as the number of missions comes to and end it makes each event more important and special. Even if you work at NASA it does not mean that you get to see a shuttle launch or land. So we are rather excited. The neat part is for whom we are going. Akorren's best budddys' dad is going to be the pilot, Dominc A. (Tony) Antonelli on the STS-119 Mission. We are excited to get to see the shuttle and know someone on it, but more importantly we want to support and be good friends for our kids friends. We plan to have the two son's with us for some of the pre-flight events. It will be a neat vacation week for the family in Coco Beach, FL. Glenn has been to Kennedy Space Center for many work related trips so it will be nice to have his family with him to see some of things that he does as well. We are so grateful to my pal Janeen and are looking forward to this adventure with her family as we enjoy the upcoming launch. Right now is a time to figure out when we are needed for support, when to leave, where to stay and what other things we have to get done before we head out on the 7th of Feb. for the Feb. 12th launch date.

Hamster Troubles

So I arrive home after one night away from my family for our BAUUC Women's retreat. A group of 26 women from church spent the night locked in and had a fun night of fellowship, food and activities. It was a great get away for a mommy of 3. Glenn comes to the door and actually helps me bring my things in, I took all of my scrapbooking stuff to get a page or two done.
He tells me that around 4 PM he let Akorren take the new little hamster we have 'Pumpkin' out of the cage to be hand held by the kids, then while Akorren was walking into the study he drops her out his hands and she falls with a bump on the plastic floor mat we have under the computer area, she shakes for bit and then Akorren holds her for a while in his hands as she is still and calm, then she seems to come out of the haze and is put back in her cage to rest. Glenn said she was moving when she was put in her cage and 'looked alright'. I take a deep mommy breath, bite my tongue, and ready my mind for how I am to respond to Akorren when I walk through the door. I put my things inside, get the rest and settle back in putting stuff away and start to prepare dinner. Akorren starts talking to me about the hamster and gets teary-eyed about what happened. I react with understanding and some displeasure for him not following the rules we have of not walking around with her when she is being held.
I go over with him to take a look at her and when I see her awake I am glad, then she begins to move. Her left side looking twisted and awkward. Like her right side is trying to go one way and her left another and she sways like a drunk. Her head weaves side to side and I say to him, "...she looks alive right now from the fall but I do not know if she is normal/healthy." His eyes fill with more tears. My heart drops. I continue to talk to him about what happens when a baby is dropped and what goes on in the inside of the body. We talk about how accidents happen and that no matter what we love him and that he is a good kid. I also make it clear that we will not be sure until about a week or so if she will be alright. Akorren is now in daddy's arms sobbing, Glenn looks a little teary too. Glenn acknowledges and says sorry to Akorren for not sitting with him when he said the hamster could be taken out. (I am grateful for that as I was a miffed about the parent responsibility issue on this).
When Zhivanna returns Akorren goes up to her and explains what happened to the hamster and asks her not to be upset with him, she of course is more worried about Pumpkin and does not cry (surprisingly). Later in the evening Akorren ends up in my arms crying again about the event. We just take in the moment. After the kids go to bed and Glenn takes the dogs out for a walk I take sometime and clean out Pumpkin's cage. She is moving about but stumbles and falls over to the side from time to time, she used objects in her cage to lean on to steady herself, but she is able to eat and drink, she seems remarkably strong. I wonder if for her it is like a stroke, or minor brain damage where one part of the brain can no longer communicate to the other side, or did the fall break something inside her ears so that her equilibrium is off. I wonder at the science of it. Then my mind comes to the animal and dignity of life questions that arise as I ponder. Is this animal suffering, if so is it just, to put her out of misery? If she is not suffering and has the strength to live then can she live as she appears to be, just disabled? Glenn returns and we discuss some of our thoughts, he questions whether keeping her alive in a disabled situation is fair to both her and the children. I bring up the point that maybe this is the lesson we are to learn, is to care for animal who is disabled; the children will have to explain to their friends every time the other kids see her what happened and how they care for her and that she is the way she is because of an accident, that's how it is in life. Right now she looks good but we will not know more until later in the week. The last things that flow through my mind like in all mourning of a loss is the thought of "how in a matter of minutes one small event could change and effect so many lives". In my childhood I have deal with the death and life of many a hamster and know just what Akorren felt in dropping her. So in the end I hope we are meant to learn something from this to make us all better people. Pumpkin we love you! Pumpkin in her food dish eating when we got her 1/23/09 & running on the wheel.

Glenn's Space Station Light

Ran across this on You Tube and it shows Mike Fink, NASA Astronaut talking about the International Space Station Tour. This is recent footage from the mission Expediton 18 after STS-126 left. This is neat because Glenn made the light that they are using to film the video with. Now it is in HD in part because Glenn made a light that made it possible to film the footage with. Cool, eh? I think so I am so proud of my smart husband. I am sure you can to a search and find more ISS stuff if you want to see more.

Are You Sleeping?

So Merlova still takes naps and I am still so glad that she sleeps for a period of time in the day. It gives me a break. But some days she is a bit of pill to get down. Today was one of those days. I put her to bed after she was acting fussy, fighting with her sister, not listening to directions or behaving very nice at all. She was showing all the typical tired signs of being sleepy, but today she had to do what ever she could to make sure she did not fall asleep. It took me a good 20 min of positive mommy coaxing then after that I went in to police/jailer mode of "you will not be permitted to leave your bed" threats or mommy will get you. Needless to say I heard lots of interesting noises upstairs while I was down doing household stuff. I was not going to check her until 35 min. went by, they did and finally it was all quite. So I went up to take a look and this is what I saw. Now before I put her down to nap her bed was neat and she was tossing and turning at the head of the bed where her pillow was. When I first walked in she was under the covers and you could not see her, I made sure to uncover her when I took this photo. To funny! She can drive me nuts sometimes but I totally love her. Hey Merlova, are you sleeping?

Yes, I'm Behind...What's your excuse?

I knew that when I started this blogging thing that at some point I would fall behind in keeping up with it so I guess it should not be so surprising. Part of me is not happy with this fact since, this has also been a way to parallel and make me keep up with the children's scrapbooks, so since it is a reflection of my real life I am needless to say... behind on my scrapbooks as well. Here are some of my excuses since I have fallen far behind: (listed from the most recent)

1. Zhivanna has been sick with the flu bug since last week. And a sick kid has a way of throwing a wrench into all of life. No working for me or ability to work-out since you can't take a child with a fever to the YMCA. So I have been being a good mommy-nurse but not good for much else.
2. Glenn & I had to throw an 'Alice in Wonderland' Tea Party B-day for Zhivanna on the 17th of January. So we got distracted with making her a costume, getting tea sets together, and working out the theme details and fun. So I got into a sewing mode, not writing mode for a while. (I will do back posts so you can see how cute it came out).
   
3. I had to write out all my tax bills, they are all due at the end of January. This is just usually a depressing thing to do so I always put it off to the last minute; that means last minute in getting the last of needed funds to pay them $$$ and then to organize and send out the checks. I prefer to write them out while drinking a nice glass of red.
4. Oh, yes and the Holiday season. Well I procrastinated on the Santa stuff for Christmas this year. Got it done in 3 days though. I had the family letters and photos ready to send out but that took away the other time I had to blog. Also with Christmas there was the church play, school events, a casual get together with friends and trying to make some home made gifts, so blogging just fell off that list of to do's.
5. Having 3 kids, substitute teaching 2 to 3 days a week, managing the house, working out 3 to 5 days a week, being the BOD secretary for the church and being me got in the way that month and I had to leave something out. I also think I was in the dumps for bit as well, so now that I am feeling better about me, I have to catch up on things.
   

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I can now back-blog and not feel so guilty. I have been able to do some more catching up with my scrapbooks at this time and am only about 5 months behind all 3 kids albums, yay! Merlova and mommy at Gilmore school for lunch with Akorren.