Vacations Like Whoa

It has been a crazy last couple of weeks of travel here at our house. Matt was in Lompoc for a good solid month, and I made it out to visit him between my work trips. The trips were a lot of fun and I got to do and see a lot of great things over the course of 2 weeks. Here's the highlight reel:

Trip 1: Fiscal Year End Celebration in Chicago!

I had never been to Chicago before and I liken trips with General Mills to trips with Mom & Dad: you stay cooler places and do better things because they are older and have more money than you do :) I feel so lucky to work for a company that rewards strong performance and treats its employees well. And GMI wins too, since their kindness just makes me want to work harder for them! So we arrived at our hotel Monday morning - Trump Towers! It was gorgeous - a view of the lake from our window and detailed rooms like no other. There was even a TV built in to our bathroom mirror! We had some time for work and some time for play while we were out here. This included a rooftop viewing of the Cubs game Monday night, a trip to the spa for an awesome mani/pedi on Tuesday, and some fun community service Wednesday before we had to head back home.

Gino's famous Pizza - very cool decor! We even wrote our names on the wall here!









Enjoying the game with my favorite work ladies!




Awesome views!

Launch Beard Time Lapse

While I was out in California growing my launch beard I thought it would be fun to take a picture of it every day so that I could make a time lapse video afterward.  This afternoon I took a little bit of time and played around with Windows Movie Maker and below is the result. There were only 15 days worth of pictures so I went through twice, the second time with fading transitions in between the pictures.  Poor Pamela is married to a huge nerd but it's okay, she makes a guest appearance on day 15 and she looks pretty happy to see me.

Launch Beard Update - Day 14

This will most likely be the last launch beard update since Pamela is coming out to visit tomorrow.  I am super excited to see her.  Even though it's only been a couple weeks it seems like way longer.  Possibly because I've only been home for a few days over the weekends for the past two months.  Either way, it's going to be awesome to see Pamela and spend some time with her.  But that means the beard will have to go.  It was fun while it lasted but I think I prefer not having a beard.  Plus I don't think it helped to give the rocket good luck anyway.  It wasn't anything we did but the launch is delayed again.  So apparently my launch beard wasn't sending the rocket good karma.

Curious Dog

Before I go to work each day, Jordan and I usually play some fetch in the back yard to wear her out a bit. And lately, she has been pretty curious whenever she sees a bird flying over or perching on our fence. It is really funny to watch - she will slow down her body and stare transfixed at the birds. But not in a mean way like she wants to attack them, sort of like she is daydreaming about them and trying to figure out how they get way up there in the sky. She'll just sort of stare at them, smiling, until I snap her back to reality.

On Thursday, I was working from home. When I do that, I typically draw open the shades in the office so Jordan can sit in there with me and look out the window while I work. So I'm typing away and all of the sudden, I hear a thud like a bird has crashed into the window. Matt had noticed some little fledgling sparrows in the front yard a few weeks back, who must be living in our tree and learning how to fly. When I looked over to the window, I was amazed to see one of the little guys holding on to the screen near the top of the window - freaking out about how he got there and what to do next. Jordan wasn't having any of this, so she barked at him and scared him away.

So imagine my surprise 2 hours later when I notice the dog standing by that same window - staring intensely but quietly at that tiny bird. And the little bird is just sitting on the window sill staring back in at Jordan. Like they couldn't figure each other out but were SO interested in what the other had to offer. I was only able to capture the last few seconds of what must have been a 2 minute staring match, but it was pretty cute. I wish I could tell what that weird little puppy was thinking.

Especially since just yesterday she smacked into the back window as she frantically tried to attack a mockingbird she caught chilling on her porch...

launch Beard Update - Day 7

woekI'm still working on my launch beard and I wanted to post an update.  Mostly because there is not much else new going on for me out in Lompoc.  So it's been a week since I stopped shaving and although I would have liked to have a more substantial beard, I do have a decent foundation going on.  In these latest pictures you can see a good amount of growth but I'm afraid some of it is lost in the quality of the webcam image and the fact that my hair is sort of blond and blends in with my skin.  Either way, I'll still be taking pictures and tracking my progress.  I only have one more week until Pamela comes out to visit (Hooray!), so we'll see how much more I can grow before then. 

Father's Day & Toy Story!

Today was Father's Day, so Jordan and I packed up and drove the 45 minutes to Peoria to go visit my parents. My dad is a pretty hard guy to shop for because:

1) He loves electronics and gadgets that I know nothing about
2) He is one of those guys that just goes out and buys whatever he wants or needs as he needs it. No waiting for special holidays. Guess that's where I get it from.



But apparently within the past few years, someone promised my dad new shoes and did not deliver on it. So every holiday he asks for sneakers, saying "someone owes me shoes!" And nobody ever gets them for him. So today when I arrived, I told him to hop in the car and we would go to the shoe store right away. It was a buy one get one half off sale, so he picked out 2 cool new pairs of Newbalance sneakers, one white and one black for a little variety. Then he waited patiently while I picked out some black slingback pumps and cute flats for myself. I guess that's what you have to put up with when you have 4 daughters! :)





Then, we all went to Red Robin for a late lunch which was tasty. I seriously can't get enough of their fries. The seasoning they put on those things should be a controlled substance it's so addictive! Then we headed over to see what I believe is the movie of the year - Toy Story 3. It was AWESOME! It is so weird to think that all of the kids who will be obsessed with this movie weren't even alive when the first 2 films came out. I loved the first two, and every other film that Disney/Pixar has made as well. I am a Disney junkie. This movie had just the right mix of fun, adventure, and comedy to keep everyone entertained. And, of course, I bawled like a baby at the touching parts.





Side note here: it is my theory that the lack of drama in my life makes me a hot mess when it comes to emotional situations on TV or in the movies. When I was a teenager, everything was drama, drama, drama with boys, friends, my family, everything. So I got in a good sob at least once a week. Today, though, I am married to an awesome man, I have great girlfriends in my life, and my family turned out to be pretty cool. And it helps that I don't have any more of those psycho teenage hormones. So zero tears. But my body apparently wants the tears. So it turns them on when we see animated characters in peril or a touching commercial with a baby and a father. Weird. But I'll take it versus having real things to cry about any day!





After the movie, Jordan and I headed back to our house to Skype with Matt for a couple hours before bed. Jordan revealed her Father's Day gift to Matt in a cute little Power Point she made for him (yep, I'm that lady who thinks it's cute to personify her dog and act like she's a child - but only when other people aren't looking). This gives us a chance to buy stuff we want without feeling guilty. Plus, Jordan gets birthday gifts so fair is fair. We pre-ordered a fun game that Matt has been excited about. So he won't get it until July but by then he should be home from travel and have more time to play with it. He is such a good little dog daddy to Jordan that he deserves it!





Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there (of puppies and humans)!

Launch Beard

It was brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago that the engineers here at Orbital like to grow beards when they are traveling for a launch campaign.  It's sort of like when athletes grow beards when their teams make it to the playoffs, especially in hockey.  I think it's mostly a superstitious thing and the beards are supposed to be good luck.  I'm not sure about all that, and Pamela prefers me without a beard so I've abstained from growing one.  But now that I'm staying out here until we launch and Pamela doesn't come to visit for two weeks, I thought I would try growing a launch beard.  I haven't tried growing facial hair for a while so this should be fun.  It's just the first day today so all I've got is some minor stubble but I'll post again next week with my progress.  Hopefully this will bring good luck to the rocket too.