Thursday Thought returns :)

Please forgive my absence...it's been an unbelievable three weeks in my world!

To recap we have had a rocket and shuttle launch here at the Cape, which both were amazing. The Delta GPS rocket launch was the best one I have seen to date! The morning sky was the most amazing backdrop for the contrails of the rocket as it went into orbit. I do wish I would have had my camera; however, I was out for my morning run and cameraless... The night launch of the shuttle Discovery was super cool even if we did go through three scrubs or so and a whole lot of lost sleep before it finally got off the ground around midnight last Friday night. It literally lit up the nightsky into daylight!

Just hanging out waiting w/others from the court.

MiB and me!

Engine Ignition

An amazing sight!

Lighting up the night sky

In other news, we also had the honor and privilege of hosting the most senior ranking enlisted guy in the USAF at our base and in our home for dinner. That was a pretty big undertaking from the beginning and I am soooo glad Lil'Blue was still here to assist me with that evening; it went off without a hitch!

Speaking of Lil'Blue we put her on the plane back to the midwest for college and she is now attending classes as a full fledge college girl. She si settling in and so far it seems to be going very smoothly for her. This big house seems even bigger now. We are trying to stay busy and not focus on being empty nesters, I'll get back with you on how that works out...

MiB has loved the waves created by the two tropical storms. In fact he absolutely loved the playdates with Bill and Danny as they provided "doubleoverheads"! He is enjoying ever free minute on the beach he can!

We have been attending several functions and doing some fun out and about things as well as we continue to explore and get to know our new church and community. In fact this past Sunday night we had church on the beach followed by a time of baptism. Pretty awesome to see people baptized in the ocean!
Right now we are in the beginning stages of an indepth look at our base, so stress is a bit high and I for one will be glad when 23 September rolls around and it will all hopefully be O V E R. For those of you who are my military friends, read that as we are having an ORI!

We are looking forward to a "family day" tomorrow along with the Labor Day holiday on Monday. Since it is a day off we are taking the SMART in for it's first year engine upgrade and oil change so we will get to explore northern O for part of the day. Then head back to our area and hopefully, for MiBs sake, go to a surfing festival. I mean, seriously, who knew they had those? However, the weather may or may not cooperate so we may or may not go.

So my long awaited thoughts for today!

• Take time to love
• Enjoy what you have...
• Never, ever think you know it all!
• His mercies are new EVERY morning
• Attempt to learn something NEW everyday.

Thursday Thoughts!

Wowsa, what a week it has been! Again, it has been a full and productive week. Tomorrow we will go to see the shuttle land, another first for us and we are pretty excited. Things are still going full speed and while it looked like they would slow down, I think it will be a bit longer, perhaps until we get LilBlue off to school. Not sure, it may get even worse after that, we will see.

Thoughts are:

• I like A/C!
• Manatees rock!
• The water is way awesome!
• Florida heat can be oppresive!
• Summer is going by too quickly!

I will hopefully have pictures of the landing tomorrow. Then I hope I will be able to upload them...maybe blogger is done being quirky, I have not had any trouble this week getting in and so I am hoping it is a glitch that has been fixed!

Night

Shuttle BLAST OFF!

Since we needed to pick up LilBlue at the airport we really did not think we would see the launch at all...however, we did make it back to CCAFS and watched the lift off just outside the gate. While it was an awesome thing to see, I am looking forward to the next one and being much closer!

NO GO...

Getting our directions from the DIrector giver!
MiB in front of the countdown clock when we arrived!
Me in the Apollo/Saturn V Center

Well, unfortunately the FL weather just did not cooperate this evening for the launch of the Shuttle. However, we did make it further then yesterday, we were so close, we almost made it, then it was scrubbed, maybe tomorrow, if not they will try again on Tuesday. If it is Tuesday we will be watching it from our home as we have a gathering at our home and it would be best not to change it.

We were at the Apollo/Saturn V Center for the launch today, it was an awesome spot to get to be in. Neat facility with lots to look at while we waited for the launch and it was a nice retreat from the heat. This is the best place to stay updated on the Shuttle launch if you are interested.

Shuttle Update

The launch for this evening has been scrubbed, right now they are aiming to try again tomorrow around 7:15ish. Weather is the issue, there were lightening strikes very near Endeavour in a nasty storm that moved throught yesterday afternoon so they are rechecking lots of things to make sure all is well with all systems.

So since our plans for the day have changed we are getting some household chores accomplished and planning to do Saturday services this evening.

Until we know more...

Dinner

Insalata Caprese

Thanks to a new Sam's membership, we bought some pretty decent mozzarella cheese, then a BIG thanks to CG for the homegrown GA tomatoes that provided our dinner tonight. It was sweet memories of Italy. We also had some baked sweet onions that were yummy as well. I love summer and home grown tomatoes. Can't wait to try the seedless watermelon in the next couple of days that was left on the porch with all the other garden goodies.

Looks like we will head to the movies tonight, if we can stay awake. It's been a long, busy week and I am glad for the weekend to be upon us so we can just sit back and relax for a bit.

Right now the shuttle launch is only a 40% go due to weather, so we shall see, we are supposed to leave around 4:00 p.m. to head up to the viewing area.

Thursday Thoughts

It's time again to get some thoughts...

• I am going to be glad for Friday...
• LilBlue drives up to NE tomorrow
• Looking forward to the shuttle launch!
• Being around Airmen can be exciting and exhausting.
• Standards are important and if you don't think so, ask MiB

Tomorrow will be a welcome day, I am ready for the weekend! I have spent this week with our newest Airmen to the base and while it has been fun, it has been a long week and I will be ready for the break of the weekend.

With the scheduled launch of Endeavour, we will be at the KSC and I am pretty stoked about that :) This is closer then the usual viewing area so how cool is that? I will hopefully have pictures to post when we return. I have been told traffic will be crazy up and down the A1A and it will take hours to get home but I think it will be worth it.

Scrubbed...

The shuttle launch was scrubbed...who knew it would be scrubbed not once but TWICE. Anywho, the latest and greatest is that the new launch date will be on 11 July. I will keep you posted and if you are planning to be here we will have all three guests rooms open as LilBlue will be back in MO going through orientation for school this fall, getting her classes, going to the VCYF and visiting the Bud in NE.

In other news I will be going to my first rocket launch tomorrow afternoon. I understand I will be close enough to "feel it in my chest" which sounds pretty exciting and scary all in one, I will let you know about that afterwards and post some pictures as well. We will be viewing the launch from on top of the MOC. I wish I could tell you what that stood for but then I would have to kill you so I can't :) Actually, I do not even know what it stands for but I am planning to find out tomorrow, then I will fill you in; but I do know I am not allowed to have any food or drink while I in this facility so it must be one of those sanitized environments!

I think we are going to enjoy the pool this afternoon and then we have a 101 class at the church we have been going to this evening so we can learn all about it and see if we still want to sign on. The last couple churches we have gone to have had these classes and while I understand it, it is such a change from the old days of going to a new church for awhile, checking out the Sunday School classes to see if you like it enough to walk the aisle to "move your letter". I think I am what some would consider old school :)

Cape Canaveral Tour

Today I got to tour the Cape...it was pretty cool, okay, it was a lot cool. I have pictures but cannot upload them because I was in top secret areas...okay, not really, well, maybe I was, I don't know!

Anyway, the tour was outstanding and Mr D. was a great guide! Here are a few photos from the many we took!

Yeah, well, this here base I am at is the base that "the Jeannie" was at and her master often was at the Cape.

Many things here are NASA even though the range is run by the USAF, we have a great relationship with those space types at NASA and it all works well. Afterall, we are space types as well, we just don't launch the manned spacecraft, but you can thank the USAF everytime you use your GPS cause that is one of the things we do keep your satellites in place to make that thing work!

Our tour guide, was a wealth of info, I especially enjoyed learning about the partnership with the primates and how intelligent they were and how much they furthered our endeavors in the space arena. That was really amazing!

I really think lighthouses are awesome and until today I never knew that the USAF owns a lighthouse. Pretty nifty, I am hoping to be able to go in it before we leave...it is under renovation but hopefully it will be open before our time is up here.

It is off to bed for me...we have a launch in the morning (you may have heard about it, it's that big one called the Space Shuttle :) It will be o dark thirty before I know it and since we are actually going to the Cape for the launch I want to be ready, have I mentioned that the perks with this job the MiB has here are pretty fantabulous!!!!! Well they are :)