A New Year and New Destinations!

It's here! It's 2015! The year we arrive at Pluto! The year I finish my Master's Degree! The year Zoey turns 4 and Evan turns 7!! The year we are hoping to move into a bigger house!

I feel like I need to take a big deep breath. And a nap. (You know, to get ready for my next midnight shift coming up!) Anyone know of a good cleaning service? Cause we are going to need some help...........

As of today, we are six months from encounter. I can't believe it's this close.

Video cameras were present when we work up from our last hibernation back in December, and you can see yours truly in this video (New Horizons starts at the 1:35ish mark):

In other news, our family is doing great. Evan has finished his first half of Kindergarten and loves it. He has made many new friends and is one of the better behaved kids in his class (?!?!). Zoey is in her first year of preschool; her favorite job is when she gets to be the flag girl (or the weather girl, or calendar, heck she loves all the jobs).

I'm going to try to keep up with weekly recaps this year, with more frequency as we get closer to the Pluto Encounter. Should be fun!

So Happy New Year from our crazy family to yours!

A Year and a Lifetime of Memories

My dearest Grandma Helen,

We have missed you so much over this past year, it's hard to believe it's been that long. You have been in my life almost as long as I can remember. I think of you at the oddest times, when I see your initials randomly on someone's whiteboard, when I see a Canadian goose honking in the sky, when one of my children's books mentions a kookaburra and I tell the kids how you used to sing the song to us as children.

"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Merry merry king of the bush is he

Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh, Kookaburra

Gay your life must be."

Evan remarks that you must have sung to us a lot, which you did. He doesn't know you didn't have the greatest singing voice, but we loved it anyways.

I am thankful that Evan will remember you, if it's only a blur in his mind as the years go by. He does lament that now that you are gone, we don't know any handicapped people anymore.

Helen and baby Evan at one month, October 2008

I am thankful that you got to cradle Zoey for the first time, in only her first weeks of life.

Helen and baby Zoey at two weeks, June 2011

I am thankful for that last visit. Thankful that you were awake and able to talk to us, to tickle Zoey as she climbed on your bed, to tell us to never get old. You said you were tired, and I kissed you on the forehead as we walked out the door. Evan waved goodbye. I am thankful for that day.

Most of all I am thankful for you. Thankful that you took us into your life with open arms (and an open door). The time spent at your house when we were kids is something I will never forget. Dressing up in Jack's old t-shirts, sleeping together in that gigantic bed, watching movies and eating your butterscotch cookies.

I will remember you always, and forget you never. 

Your loving granddaughter, Sarah

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For pictures from Helen's memorial in August of 2013, click here. 

My kid can swim like Michael Phelps, wait what?

My kids need swimming lessons. And I kept forgetting to sign them up. Finally inquired, and Shoot! they start this week. So I sign up Evan one day ahead of time and then Zoey..........but they don't have the time I need so I have to sign up her for the one that starts in........

......wait for it..........

10 MINUTES!

Mad dash to finishing paying, get her in her bathing suit, in the car, to the gym, and in to the pool. And it's kinda controlled chaos there. Two instructors in the pool, about 8 kids all holding hands jumping in a circle in a pool that looks way too deep for Zoey and I wonder if I've made a mistake.

Eh, whatevs, I just deposit her on the steps and one of the instructors grabs here. This is how Michael Phelps started right? Did I mention that this is THE Michael Phelps school? Oh dear........

But she hangs in there, looks a little scared but not enough to get out of the pool. She seemed to make some friends, and all but one kid are bigger than her (and quite a lot of them can do stuff way above the class description).

I'm so proud of her! She did really well, and is excited to go back. There was one little boy that started crying when they got to the part about jumping into the pool (with help). A separate instructor took him off and calmed him down. I remembered what my first swimming lessons were like, screaming, pulling my moms hair, hysteria. Mostly because my cousin David told me when  he took his first lessons they threw him in the deep end of the pool. Thanks David! But once I realized how fun it was, I never looked back.

Evan starts his soon, and he's really excited. We'll see!

A boy and his cars

Evan has recently gotten back into his car collection. Which is good, considering he has what feels like thousands. He's pretty specific about them; he wants them to have symbols (meaning he can clearly see if it's a Nissan, Toyota, VW, etc.) He could care less about the matchbox cars that just look like they go fast.

He loves Beetles, Prius', Smart Cars, and above all the Nissan Juke. And he studies every car that we drive by. This is how we know:

      - That someone that works at McDonalds drives a yellow Beetle Bug and they work the morning shift
      - That someone that works at the bank drives a white Nissan Juke, and Evan keeps asking if we can go inside and meet them so they will show us their car
     - That the reverend at the church preschool he attends drives a Blue Prius

At preschool they collected empty boxes, taped them together, and painted them. Some kids made rocket ships, buildings, princess towers, etc.

Evan made a Nissan, complete with hatchback.

What's Goin' On............

Things and stuff, lots of things and stuff.

First, in the gigantic world of SPACE.

The New Horizons spacecraft continues its march (drift, flight, rocket-launched trajectory, etc) towards Pluto. We have about a year and a half to go until our closest approach on July 4th, 2015 and everyone is getting pretty excited. So excited that they created a great video comparing our mission to the ongoing Olympic games; you can see me in it at the 2:09 mark when they mention Olympic hockey (obviously). (note: I don't think this aired on TV, though someone thinks they saw it. But, well, it should have.)

Over this past summer, we had our one and only full encounter rehearsal that spanned 14 days. There were some great people there recording our whole team and then they took the time to create two really great podcasts. Please check these out; there are a little longer but give a great explanation of what we are doing and why. You should see me a bunch of times but not talking (saving myself for next year).

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20131223.php (there are both small and large versions of the video depending on how fast your speed is).

And then here's a great article about why we are going and the things we expect to learn once we get there. Just because some people decided to declare it not a planet anymore doesn't mean there aren't loads of things to learn. Click here.

In the STEREO world we continue to circle to the backside of the Sun (both spacecraft will be blocked from Earth by the Sun for a few months each next summer before we see them again and they start to circle back to Earth). This past Christmas STEREO produced a rare Christmas Conjunction of Venus, Earth and Jupiter, which led me to discover that there is a great paper discussing the fact that the "Star of Bethlehem" may very well have been a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, bright and shining to those who saw it and a rare event indeed. You can read the paper here.

Finally, for stuff outside of my work world but no less exciting, for Apollo's 8 45th anniversary where the famous 'Earthrise' picture was taken, a new video was put together. They combined the pictures with new data taken from a satellite currently orbiting the moon to create a montage of what exactly the astronauts were seeing along with their audio. It's pretty cool.

Uh, well that was really long. So in other news Evan lost his first tooth, Zoey is out of diapers, and the downstairs bathroom is ALMOST DONE. Phew.

Soccer Starts and Zoey gets a Lollipop

So, Evan is playing soccer. Like the tons of Bucior's before him, and also his Aunt Becca (who had a short career of games before she tried to kick the ball at the same time as another boy, fell down, and never returned).

As you can imagine a group of 4 and 5 years act, well that's how it is. He is on a team with two of his best girl friends from preschool, and there is lots of hugging and giggling and general mayhem. I take lots of pictures and the story they tell is, well, very varied.

Some of the pictures make it look like they are ACTUALLY playing.

 Though the truth is, they spent most of the time being goofballs. Observe.

And then we have Zoey, trying to stay busy with lollipops and her size 1 soccer ball. Usually she gives up and asks Grandma to take her to the playground.

All in all, Evan mostly likes it. And we like anything that gets the kids running around and in general tiring themselves out. Hooray for that.

Look who's almost 30!

Holy moly, my youngest sister is almost 30. Turns 29 today. The three of us, we are no longer young, not that it stops us from acting like ding-a-lings when we are around each other. It just now sometimes involves alcohol not KoolAid.

So, to my baby sister Jessie:

You started as this, a weird looking head at the bottom of the picture.

...a sweet baby girl at Easter time...

...a fish...

...then you grew up, letting us take photos like this...

...and this...

I love you for all of these things. But mostly I love you for pictures like this:

...Evan's very first elephant ride...

...and Zoey's precious sleeping face at one day old, having slumbered on your lap all night...

I am so proud of everything that you do, but over the last few months I love you most for who you were for our dear Helen, for staying overnight with her at the hospital, for being her confidant, her friend, for helping her to feel safe and loved. I am beyond thankful that she was able to be at your wedding, clearly she was so happy to be there. 

Happy Birthday Jessie.

It's the Little Things

Ah the joy of having two kids in one bedroom. Their beds are set up caddy-corner to each other; when we moved Zoey from the crib to the toddler bed she didn't like being on one side of the room by herself. Every once in a while they attempt to sleep together but Zoey usually ends up getting in her own bed before they fall asleep.

But last night, as I sat on the chair in the hallway waiting for them to fall asleep (cause if I don't they run around like crazy people and I hear sentences such as "Zoey, jump? Hahahaha"), I watched Zoey climb over her headboard, over an almost asleep Evan, and cover herself up in his bed.

And they slept there together all night.

When they woke up this morning they were tickling each other; here is their "Pits Up!" picture:

Shortly after this picture, Zoey peed on the potty for the first time. The look of surprise on her face was hilarious. And then Evan proceeded to dress himself. Correctly I might add.

What has happened to my children?

Oh yea, they are growing up. Sigh.

:)

What's Happening in the Space World....

We just finished our two-week 24/7 Pluto Rehearsal on the New Horizons mission. We are gearing up for our arrival in July of 2015 which seems so far away yet so close too. At the end of the rehearsal Alan Stern had a great presentation on how New Horizons happened in the first place and where we are going. You can watch it on YouTube here.

Or here:

During the rehearsal, we turned New Horizons to take a long-range picture of Pluto and Charon. Though teeny-tiny, you can clearly see the distinction. I mean, this is from 550 million miles away! You can read more here.

Want to see what you look like from space? Both the Cassini and MESSENGER missions took some time to look back at Earth and take our picture. Somehow I missed this piece of info until AFTER it happened so I don't have a geeky picture of me waving HI, but you can see the side by side picture below. I can just make out the Great Wall of China. Right? Haha, right.

Losses.....and Gains

I had meant to write this post a few days ago, and even in that time some more things have changed. My beloved Grandma Helen passed on June 27th in hospice; her obituary is here. She was an amazing woman and I want to write a special post for her with lots of information about her life, so it will take a bit longer.

I am reminded sometimes of the circle of life; we are so saddened to hear of someone's passing and then sometimes in the next breath the miracle of birth explodes onto the scene. My starkest memory of this happened on the day after Christmas six years ago.

I had just received a phone call that Helen's younger (and only) brother has passed. He was a great big guy with a booming voice that made us girls laugh at every turn. We loved when he would pretend to pick us up by our ears (which really was us clinging to his forearms in desperation). He clearly loved his lot in life as the younger brother to a house full of sisters; the friendly teasing was always abundant when he visited.

Less than a half an hour later I got a call from a good friend that their daughter had been born, at home and healthy. The excitement in his voice was so healing (and I was also thrilled that I warranted a phone call! This was pre-facebook era of course).

Welcome to the world Holly

And so it has been these past weeks; Helen has gone and new babies have come (Rick and Emily, Ryan and Kayla) and the promise of those almost here (Rachael and Jeremy, I can't wait!).

*****

I received news yesterday of the passing of a colleague that I worked with for many years at Goddard Space Flight Center. Louis was an amazing man; I never saw him fail to light up a room.

For Louis,

For the times we laughed,

For the times you told us wonderful stories about your dog Tiffy,

For never letting us look at fanny packs the same again,

For bizarre and interesting stories about growing up in the south, where the fried chicken sat on the counter top all day in the summer for snacking and no one ever got sick,

For being the life of the party at my wedding, how could I have forgotten that you caught the garter,

For being my friend,

For being a friend to so many others,

For all this and more,

Thank you. You will never be forgotten.

Louis' Obituary