This year the girls were not interested in the airplanes at all and Ike completely freaked when a big bomber swooped overhead. But the day was beautiful and the kids enjoyed being out in the park.
I had one of those weeks feeling as though I was laying on the sidewalk and the world was trampling over me. There was not a specific, catastrophic event, but the build up of of small events that nearly threw me over the edge.
Lets just say Tuesday started with a flat bike tire on the way to Erin's school (not cool when you are pulling 70 pounds in a trailer) and ended with a wonderful husband shoeing me out the door for a RS meeting so I could have some adult time, only to watch Isaac get stung by a wasp and his little hand swell up like a golf ball. So I opted to stay home in case one of us had to take him to the ER (luckily it was localized).
So I went to bed feeling sorry for myself and woke up Wednesday ready to take on the world again.....and that lasted about an hour, which brings us to the kicked while down part of my week...
Half way to school Erin announced she forgot her bookbag. We were running late, but still had time so we ran home. I took my keys out of the bike trailer (where I always keep them when I ride), opened the house door and hastily shoved them in my pocket and jumped back on the bike. I dropped Erin off and headed right back home and as I approached LC Parkway and began to cross the four lanes of heavy morning traffic I thought “ohhh, someone lost their keys......crap those are mine!”. Realizing they had fallen out of my pocket, I dodged angry people later for work, picking up mangled pieces that moderately resembled my keys. The sicking part was I had lost both my Kia remote AND my Honda chipped transponder key (pricy!) along with my house and mail key. Honestly how many people can run over them in under five minutes? By the looks of it most of the city, I am pretty sure there was a bus or two in the lineup also).
Luckily I had left the garage door unlocked so I called Jared and told him I was going to swing by his work, see if the honda key worked and grab his set of keys so the local locksmith could get a good cut. My broken Kia key barely turned over (by the looks of it I think I could stick a coat hanger in my ignition an it would turn over) but it started. I had to stop at Hobby Lobby and I locked my doors and took in my one mangled headless key. Ike was screaming so I gave him the key to play with and within a second it was gone! I walked the isle, asked the old lady at the front almost in tears if anyone had seen a half shaved off, dented piece of metal that resembled a car key...and then asked if I could use the store phone to call my husband.
Luckily Jared was at his desk and came and hesitantly dropped of his set of keys for me. We finally made it to the lock smith, she took one look and said “that looks like a bad day” and $$ later I had a new house, mail, and Kia key. She even bent my Honda key back so it would work well enough for a while so I didn't have to shell out $150.00 for that key alone.
By noon I was ready to throw inn the towel and become a hermit. No driving, NO KEYS, no communication sounded like a great life. I walked into the house mentally drained and changed Ike before putting him down for a much needed nap. And there it was, the shiny mangled Kia key. Ike was wearing overalls and he had dropped in down the front and into his diaper in Hobby Lobby.
On the bright side the week only got better :)
Eliza started Trooper School last week and she is loving it! Its a preschool program through the local high school. They admit high school students who are looking to go into pediatrics and elementary ed. I think there are around 50 high school studenst that rotate in and out throughout the day and 20 preschool students. 
Today we got to experience something that few civilians get to tour on the floor. Jared told me last week they were having a MOD (Mission Operation Directorate) Family Day. About once every five years they have this day and open most of the facilities. The last time we went we got to go on the floor but today they had all the astronaut training modules open to walk through AND we actually got a tour pool side of the NBL (
One of my favorite tours was walking through the full size space station mock up. I get really claustrophobic, as even I had to duck through the capsules openings. Jared kindly reminded me that in space you can use all the area and not just the floor so it seems “bigger”. Floating or not it's tight quarters for six months.
I think one reason they opened up everything today was for company morel. Come the first week of October, 1/3 of the people in Jared's area are getting laid off. We were blessed to make it through this cut, but its sad to see people who have worked so hard say goodbye. It makes for an unsure year for everyone. It will be interesting what the next step will be in space flight.
Last night we took the family to the Kaminari Taiko Drum performance at Miller Outdoor Theater in downtown Houston. This is one of my favorite venues because they have so many different types of shows and its all FREE. 
As always we like a little adventure and Monday Houston was on the dirty side of Tropical Storm Hermine. It had been stormy all day but the radar looked semi clear so we thought we would port in between rain bands.
Our goal was to row over to the old League City Lighthouse. It's under lock and key, but you can row up to it from the lake. The homes were beautiful, its a part of League City you never see driving because it a gated community tucked away.
Bridge 270/518
On our way to the lighthouse it was getting dark but we were almost there so we pressed forward. By the time we took a few photos the sky was turning black with rumbling in the distance. We both paddled like mad and about half way back to where our car was the wind picked up, the waves began to whitecap and our boat felt a little heavier than it did six miles earlier.
We finally made it to a boardwalk, not know how far it was to the car. We climbed up the ladder, heaving our air kayak, which now really (weighed 80 pounds) up on the walk, watching the water pour out of it. Needless to say somewhere in the alligator's back yard we managed to put a 10-inch split in the bottom of the boat. But FYI it stayed afloat.
Taking shelter from the storm
So we starting walking down the streets of Nassau Bay, mutilated boat in tote, attempting to find our bearings in the pouring rain. Guess it must be a common occurrence because no one even looked twice. And that is how our day on the lake went. Sally Forth is currently in for repairs and well Kallie and I have photos of the lighthouse.
