Spring Photo Akorren

This is his class. He must be growing since he is not in the front row in this picture. Normally they put the smaller students up front. He does have a few friends in his class from the previous years. His teacher Ms. Shaffer is great.

Here is Akorren's Spring Gilmore school picture. His hair is a bit long in this photo. We had it cut shortly after this was taken. He is cute, my growing little man.

Earth Hour 2009

THIS SATURDAY 28 MARCH AT 8.30PM YOU CAN VOTE EARTH BY SWITCHING OFF YOUR LIGHTS FOR ONE HOUR - EARTH HOUR.

My 7 AM Call

Okay so it's around 7:00 AM and the phone rings. I look at the caller ID and see that it is a US Government #. I figure it is Glenn checking in on how things were going this AM since he had to be at work by 6:00 AM for a Russian teleconference. I say "hello, hello.... "and am about to say hello one more time then hang up when I hear a familiar voice.

"Hi, sorry about the delay... this is Tony... I just thought I'd give you a call to say thanks for helping out with the boys for the launch." I stumble on my words, "What? oh, my, wow! ... I mean like you're up in the ISS, wow..oh, my! Glenn is going to get a kick out of this... he is at work. Thanks for calling, it means a lot." And we chat for a few minutes about the launch, kids, and excitement of life in space.

The kids are eating breakfast while I chat and I whisper to them that I am on the phone with Mr. Tony. And they look at me. When I hang up I ask them, "Where is Mr. Tony right now?" Akorren looks a me, "Mom he is in space, on the space station." Merlova's reply is more direct she just points up in the air, "He is up there mommy... in space!"
Now how cool is that? I will remember this call for a while. I know not many people can say they got a phone call from space. Yeah, COOL! (Thank you Janeen & Tony)

Fl Trip Day 11 Almost Home

So today we made it out of FL and all the way to LA. We got a phone call from our cousin Randy Roak yesterday saying that he would be in TX and wanted to stop by to see us since he was in town. We told him that we were on our way back to TX from FL. He said that since he was heading East on the 10 and we were heading West on the 10, that we should met somewhere in the middle and visit for a while.
We then decided that we would not push driving into TX tonight. The kids have been so good on the trip. So today at around 1:30 PM we took a detour in Louisiana and made our way out way to Fontainebleau State Park off of HWY 1089 in Mandeville, LA. It was a nice smaller state park right on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. The kids all wanted to play in the water and sand, so we did for about 1 and a half hour. It was nice break after all our driving.
After we dried off, dusted the sand off and loaded back up we drove to just on the other side of Baton Rouge and met up with Randy for a dinner break at a small cafe. The place had some real good shrimp, pork ribs, and fish. Then we said good bye to Randy (after checking out his rig) and drove for another 45 minutes and stopped for the night. We knew we would be home by the afternoon of the next day, so it was nice to sneak in another family visit on the trip. We were glad to be near home as we were really missing the dogs and sleeping in our own beds. It will be nice to be back in TX tomorrow.

The kids and Glenn in front of the old Sugar Mill in Fontainebleau State Park, Glenn & Merlova snuggle on the sandy beach area after swimming in Lake Pontchartrain, a tortoise is discovered by Akorren, my 3 sand bugs digging, a brief reunion with cousin Randy.

Fl Trip Day 10 Driving

So last night ended our official vacation with the launch of the shuttle. What a great way to end the trip. We spent the night at a Days Inn right in Coco Beach on the main HWY. It was a quick drive to get to from the launch site. We took our time and packed the car back up for the long drive and made sure the kids were filled with breakfast and snacks. We we doing well leaving the Orlando area but then Glenn missed our turn off to head North on the 75 so we diverted off track and had to take some smaller roads to get back on to the 75 North. Then just as we got back on track we ran into bad traffic on the FWY. It was like a dead stop for 1 hour so we got off and made a side track around Gainesville. There was a big trailer truck accident with a few cars in a pile up. So it made us add another 2 hours+ to our detour. By night fall when the kids were tired of the 8 hours + time in the car we made it to just off the 10 and 75 to stay for the night. We were all glad to be out of the car. We had done so well on our trip by not getting into bad traffic and problems I guess it was our day to get stuck. Tomorrow we could push it and drive all the way into to TX but with today we think we might take one more day and come in on the 18th. We will have to see.

Fl Trip Day 9 Launch Pictures

Yes over Spain and we can still see it clear with the plain eye. It's knowing something like that, that makes our world seem so small.

I love this shot because of Akorren's reaction to the sound he was the only one in our family that did that. The girls were just awe struck with the light and sound.

Up even higher, I am clicking as fast as I can with my little camera at same time just trying to feel and be in the moment of this event. Amazed.

It still continues to climb and it seems to go up so quickly, I try to imagine the donkey kick the G-force are described like. The kids are just stunned at the site, wow!

So right about here is when I am crying my eyes out. It is truly amazing, note how the cloud is bent, that is when the made a rotation.

Fl Trip Day 9 Launch!!

So before you know it, WOW! You hear the roar, then you feel it. The launch time was around 7:20 PM so there is still some light visible in sky but then their is this brightness, so bright that it is like the sun is now appearing out of the horizon. You want to look at it and see every moment. It's going up, my goodness yes, it's up they are launching Mr. Tony is flying. I am so inspired that I am crying, filled with joy and excitement... so happy for my friends to know what they have gone through and sacrificed to get here. This has been his life's work to get to this point, and now here it is. Zhivanna sees me crying and gets herself all teary eyed and shouts to the sky, "Mr. Tony we love you! Be safe we don't want anything to happen to you, Michael and Danny's dad!"
I turn to her and say he is fine, he is an astronaut, and he is up, up, up. I look over my shoulder to see our friends who are hollering and shouting, clapping like the rest of the guests. It is just amazing to see this huge rocket blast into space. They go higher and higher and you can still see them. They continue to climb, Glenn sees me with the tears and takes a moment to check in and ask if I am alright, and then he continues to video. The two solid rocket boosters now separate and we can see them these two lights in the sky floating away. And we can still see it. By now they are somewhere over Spain, wow! Incredible.

Mike & Garrett give us the commentary, a quick pick of the kids right before the launch, we have light and a blast of sound, more brightness like the sun, yes...lift off!