End of an Era

I realize it has been forever since I have posted... I have excuses, but they are too many to list here.

Ultimately, I'm writing this as my final post to this blog. It's a happy goodbye - and not a goodbye for long. It's simply another way that I am moving on to my future of "we" instead of "me." With the wedding less than three weeks away and my lead flight shortly thereafter, I don't expect to be blogging much (surprise!), so now seems as good a time as any to bid my "Reed" adieu.

However - like I said, it's not goodbye for long. While it's currently our wedding website, it will be transitioned into our (my) blog! So keep an eye out on www.becomingthewatsons.com to see how me grows into we and how we stay busy!

Oh to Slack ...

Okay, I'm fired. I really haven't been good about updating, but what can I say? I just lack the motivation. A lot has been going on since June...

Mike and I went to Maine to see his hometown and the rest of the beautiful state. It was a blast - I met his family, saw Acadia National Park, Rangeley State Park, and just about everything in between (or so it seemed).

In addition, we went to Colorado for a long weekend in September ... and forgot to bring the camera charger. So alas, no pictures from that trip, but we wandered all over Estes Park, had dinner with the family, and crashed Grandma's house while they were out of town. :) Thanks Grandma!

Follow that up with another trip in October - this time to Tampa Bay. Mike's college roommate Aaron's parents have a condo in Sarasota and they generously invited us out to visit for Columbus Day. We visited Busch Gardens, rode the BEST roller coaster I have ever been on - hands down.

From there, it's been work, work, and work! I've been made the increment lead for the next six months, which means I live, breath, and eat work (if work could be nutritious), but it's a great chance for me to really get involved at the broadest level. I'm excited for the chance, but nervous - I'm not sure I'm really ready for it.

Mike made it all worth it, though. As an early Halloween gift of sorts, he made me a very, very happy girl when he took me to the park, gifted me the stars, and dropped on a knee for me...

Back in the Game

I got tired of being lazy after I hurt myself last fall. Since I couldn't run for a few months (including the marathon) :( I got into a bad habit of doing nothing. And not just nothing for someone who was up to running 16 miles... I mean nothing to the extent that I only moved off my couch to eat, sleep, and work.

Okay... and play softball. And bowling. So I guess I wasn't that lazy, but it felt like it. Either way - I'm done with the lazy. This week I've been good. Really good! I've been better about not missing a workout than I was even when in training for the marathon. Part of it is that I'm back to my baby runs of a mile or two (and can I just say, that only running a mile is AWESOME!) so it doesn't take long, but a bigger part is that I just feel better.

I've been starting off slower, combining my running with swimming (which I still suck fantastically at-just for the record), lifting weights to build the strength to prevent injury, and well, I feel awesome not being lazy. It's super. Add that to the softball, bowling, and now golf (yup - I've taken up golf. Golf! Don't worry - I suck at that too, but I'm okay with it.) and it makes for a busy, active, and all around happier week for Erin! Yay!

So all that to say, hooray for getting off the couch. It's awesome. Except the persistent elbow pain that I have. I think bowling gave me tennis elbow. Lame. Needless to say, I'm just pretending it doesn't exist and playing through it. After all, it's only an elbow!

Gardening 101

I've been working on my master garden plan for a really, really long time. But up until a few weeks ago it wasn't anything more than several weedy starter beds with one shrub and a new orange tree. It all started with removing the unfortunately huge cottonwood tree from one side of the yard...

Before

Thanks to Mike and his super-de-duper generous birthday present of a truck-load of plants for the garden it finally is starting to take shape!

After

Now ... please ignore the unfortunately large dead grass patches. Along with the tree went the large root that stretched almost across the yard... and most of the grass went with that. I'm trying to get my master plan drawing converted to digital (not so easy without a scanner), but I'll try to walk you through it with the creative use of chairs. :)


The red(ish) chairs in the middle are where I plan to have a small pergola with a wood swing. It will sit on a blue-slate paver-pad with a matching walkway that will cover some of the dead ground that is in the front. The beige chair is eventually going to be a (very) small water feature. I'm still debating between a waterfall-pond combo (again - very small) or just a small pot-fountain water feature of some sort. That part is still in work.

So anyway - that's the back yard these days... It's all still in work and I'll have about twice as many plants in this bed by the time I'm done, but it's finally starting to take shape! Here's a slideshow of more pictures of the current flower bed.

And for his sake - Mike's the best. He even walked around the garden store when he didn't want to. How super, huh? ;)

Doggie Regret...

For all you parents out there, I'm sure there were moments where you said deep down, "What was I thinking?" Tonight was my night. Pad came in with pink on her paws... I thought she'd scratched one of the other girls, maybe herself. I wasn't sure. She's dumb like that sometimes.

So as the responsible parent that I think that I am (but clearly am not as this story will go to show), I inspect them all for cuts and scrapes, find no apparently bleeders, clean her up a bit and let her go along on her merry way.

Tra la la, tra la laaa... Along her way she went. Straight to the large white rattling toy in the back yard. How sweet. She's so happy... I wish Lillie would play with things like ... wait. Rattling toy? Babe, when did we get Pad a rattling toy??

PAAAD!!! DROP IT!

Awww... crap. That rattling toy was definitely a 500 count bottle of ibuprofen with the lid off. Little red pills were scattered everywhere. Pad ran one way, Calli (Mike's dog) ran another, and Lillie looked at me like, "what Mom? We always eat stuff like that!" I thought I'd caught them right as the lid came off, so we kept them on close watch.

Watch, watch, watch, watch... Watch Pad walk ... wait ... why is she walking straight towards ... oh! That was a wall.

Awwwwwwww... double crap! So I called my emergency-pet-guru, Moose (thanks, Moose!), to get directions to the pet hospital, packed everyone in the car (after catching Cal puking her guts out around the corner), and off to the hospital we went.

So here we are, $1400 poorer and wiser with one puppy given a clean bill of health and two puppies in the hospital getting fluids and observation for the night.

Stupid dogs. Seriously? What was I thinking?

***Update***
So the cost ended up more in the $1200 range, even after an extra half day stay and more IV fluids at the regular vet, and while yes - I've looked into pet insurance several times, it's not nearly as cost effective or beneficial as people health insurance. The premiums are higher and the returns not nearly as great. But I'm looking again...

Ahhhh... Vacation

This weekend, I took a much desired post-flight vacation to Texas wine country. It was all I could hope for... Relaxing, rejuvenating, and fun! Mike did a great job planning a weekend with winery visits, tasty food, and a cute little B&B that had homemade bread and deer at your doorstep.

But I must say, the best parts of the weekend had nothing to do with the house, the dinners, the wine, or the town. It was the stars and the hiking this afternoon. It's been months since I've seen more than the absolute brightest stars in the sky (the Big Dipper is a luxury to spot in Houston) and this weekend you could see the Milky Way standing out like a highway across the dark. It was phenomenal! The night sky is what started me in the job I do and it was so invigorating to see it again.

The hiking was also a welcome blast from the past. I haven't been hiking since before I left Colorado to move down here full time... All told, hiking Enchanted Rock wouldn't rank as one of the most incredible hikes of all time, but it definitely reminded me about all I miss from CO. I'll be going back soon. For sure.

So all told - good times had by all. It was a lot of fun to get to spend time with Mike, hang out, and relax again. I can't wait until next time ...

And I'm going to be working on posting more frequently. I've been busy with work and trying to get my backyard into a less than mud-hole condition after removing the giant cottonwood tree. I'll probably start reverting to "Garden Blog"-esque posts, but I'll try to stick around better from now on...

In Moscow...

Pictures to follow soon, but for now - sleepies...

Morning Quicky (not that kind!)

Okay, I'm about to run out the door for my last minute errands before my flight, but I figured I owed this thing a post. I just found my camera cable last night while I was packing so it gives me that much more incentive! :)

But since I'm short on time, here's the last couple of months in pictures:

Napa Valley, CA - I like pretending I'm rich for a day!

San Francisco, CA - Sun, Warmth, and the Stupid. What more could I want?

Pumpkin Carving for Halloween - Mine is the scary house, Mike's is the spider.

Happy Halloween - Scariest thing Mike or I could think of...

Hurricane Ike 2008

I know I haven't been as diligent about posting my status throughout this whole ordeal, but here is the quicky catch-up:

Last Thursday morning it was announced that I was in the mandatory evacuation zone. So I spent a few hours, packed up the house, boarded the windows and headed out by ~11:30 in the morning. I headed for Dallas where there were several pet-friendly (for evacuees) hotels that still had rooms available... It took about 8 hours to get there, but we made it in one piece and hunkered down there until Monday morning.


On Sunday I got several reports from friends about the status of my house (no damage but there were branches down), but nobody had any real details and they all figured the power was out at my house even though they couldn't really tell based on what they could see.

On Monday we decided to head back to check on things and start whatever clean-up we could - especially refrigerator clean-up after the power outages. When I got home, the power was still not on, but lo-and-behold, not 5 minutes after we walked in the front door there were cheers from the neighbors and our power was back! Along with power came internet and TV, so needless to say - I was extremely lucky on that front... especially since half of my street still doesn't have power today.

Comparatively, the damage was minimal. I was missing 2 boards from the back of my fence and one was loose. The holes are currently covered by plywood so the mutts can run around... My trees took some pretty major hits, though. To say "a few branches were down" was the understatement of the century... My backyard was filled with branches and after clean-up, I have a new 3-foot fence surrounding my front yard!


The large cottonwood lost ~60% of its canopy which ended up taking out the ash tree that was beneath it in the process. The other trees lost a few high branches and my neighbor lost half of a large tree that was between our houses. All of the major tree falls went away from the houses, though it looks like I did take a hit on my roof... There is some cracked decking on one small patch of my roof which will need to be replaced and I want to get the tree damage looked at by experts to ensure that my trees are still healthy and don't need removed, but otherwise I came out really well off - thank goodness!

Best Compliment EVER!

So for the record, guys - if you want to make a girls' day, it's simple. The compliment is not "Have you lost weight?" It's not "Did you get your haircut?" (though that one wins bonus points)... I got this compliment for (in my memory) the first time ever and I'm stoked:

"Have you been working out?"

AWESOME! A girl flat out cannot read anything negative into that one and it means that either I've a) lost some weight and it's noticable, b) I've been working out and you can see the results or c) I've been working on my posture and it's paying off... Or maybe some crazy girl can find something wrong with it - though I don't see how.

But either way I took it to mean "you're looking pretty good!" Whether that's what was meant or not, I'm taking it dang it!

One Baby Step Closer...

One thing that got lost in the super-lame Edouard was the fact that I have now officially started my training as an ADCO - our front room flight control position. This means that I am on the final stretch to becoming fully certified and able to fly the vehicle on a day-to-day basis all by myself. I feel kinda childish saying "all by myself" but it's a big deal!

Needless to say, as I mentioned in the previous post, JSC was shutdown at noon on Monday, so that meant my first sim was cut a few hours short, but all told it went okay. There weren't too many failures that we needed to work for our system (which was nice for a first sim) and most of the comments were helpful and not too harsh. :)

I'm excited, though... I probably won't be done by Christmas (whew ... one more holiday on my own), but I'm pretty much counting on kissing my next round of holidays goodbye. :)

Much Needed Break ... ?

Well, thanks to Tropical Storm Edouard, all employees at Johnson Space Center (well, nearly all of them... MCC is still operating) are now on forced vacation time until Tuesday at 5pm at a minimum. Now that I've pretty much finished my hurricane preparation (meaning all of my loose patio and outdoors items have been carefully stored in my garage), I'm not sure what to do with myself!


Though, it is gorgeous outside right now. Maybe I'll take advantage of some of the sun and enjoy a little bit of leisure swimming this afternoon before the storm gets much closer. Until then, happy day off folks!

Sidebar - why do people insist on spelling names in every way but normal? What's wrong with Edward? Why is Piper now Pyper or Pypre or some craziness? It seems like parents these days want an original name for their kid so they just re-spell another name to make it "different"... I just don't get it. But then again, I'm not a parent so who am I to talk...

Training Tracker

If there is one thing that all training plans, magazines, websites and "gurus" agree on it's this: Keep a training log!

So in my efforts to become a better (or at least more consistent) runner, I've started my own fitness blog - Motivated? Maybe... I've already put up a couple of posts, but I'm hoping that this will help me track my training, keep me accountable, and help me better understand what contributes to my good and bad days when running. Right now it doesn't have a whole lot, but as I start training for the Houston Marathon around September (no, I'm not signed up yet. I'm on the waiting list, but I'm going to train just the same - just in case I get a spot!) I'm hoping it will help keep me on track and get more out of my day-to-day workouts.

Feel free to hop on over - it's not very exciting... For the most part it's my planned workout, how I did, and eventually I'll probably start tracking my eating habits a little better to see what food when makes for a happy run... But, for now, if you feel like haggling me because I didn't do my scheduled run or better yet - you see a workout that you think you'd like to tag along for... Bug me, poke me, volunteer to be my "just in case pick-up" ... but whatever you do, please don't call me slow. I already know I am. :)

Neighbors Do the Darnedest Things...

I kid you not... I couldn't believe it myself... But this happened. I still don't quite know what to say or do.

When I was looking at buying my house, I ran into the previous homeowners on multiple occasions and they were very nice people. To say I had a pleasant buying experience would be an understatement... The wife asked me over before the closing to run through the house, show me the tricky items (did you know that a GFCI switch in the bathroom could turn off the garage outlets? Who knew!), decide which curtains would stay or go, whether I wanted them to leave hooks in place or have them removed... It was craziness, I tell you. Not that I minded - it would've taken me quite a while to find the little hidden door that turns on my fireplace and never would have known that by flipping my light switches off and on I could end up with motion sensor lights instead of normal on/off floods.

Anyway - I digress. Throughout this introduction process, the previous homeowners were also very kind in introducing me to the neighbors and making sure I had everyone's information, contact info, and general descriptions so I could "feel right at home right away." Every time I saw them, they regaled me with "the neighbors here are so nice" ... "this really has an 'old neighborhood type of feel" ... and "I hope you like to get to know your neighbors!"

I walked into it expecting, sure... We'll wave when we see each other outside, stop and chat when I'm walking the dogs and they're mowing the lawn, and maybe have a neighborhood barbecue or two to just keep tabs.

Boy was I wrong... These neighbors hang out in their driveways on Sundays, stop by every time they see you outside just to see what's going on, offer up power tools/hand tools/frosty beverages/company anytime they see me (or more often Andrew, my resident lawn-boy) working outside, and take pride in making sure you feel right at home stopping by unannounced or asking for help when it is needed.

But this one took the cake: I will admit, my lawn got a little out of hand when Andrew went home for vacation. He was gone for a little under two weeks and we got a lot of rain. I almost mowed the grass, but then I thought ... nah ... he'll be home in two days. Little did I realize that this decision would take a normal afternoon task and turn it into a four day long recovery process to try and get the grass back within the confines of the surrounding concrete.

On Monday while Andrew was struggling with the lawn edger (yes, for those from CO - edger, not trimmer/weed whacker/what have you - this sucker is a lawnmower turn sideways and used to hack the horizontally growing weed-grass that they call lawns down here into submission), one of my neighbors came by and said he had a larger, likely more powerful, gas powered edger that he would be happy to lend us. We gratefully thanked him and he said he'd bring it by if he could get it back up and running. We continued to work until dusk fell and decided sharp blades and dark didn't mix and called it a night. The neighbor hadn't come back so I just assumed he hadn't been able to get it running and we'd gone in before he could come by and let us know.

Yesterday I came home to prep for the next round of lawn attacking... I gathered up my materials and was about to head outside to cut down a dead bush when Andrew walked in and said, "when was Kevin [friendly neighbor with the gas powered edger] here?"

Here? I'm sorry, I just walked in and he definitely hasn't been here... Whatever are you talking about?

"You mean you didn't notice? Dude - go look outside again."

No joke - my neighbor had come by, apparently while I was at work, and edged my ENTIRE FRONT YARD for me! Most would look at that and say, "but Erin ... how much can that be?" I live on a corner lot... And after spending over an hour going along and cleaning up the trimmings from his generous edging job - that is a LOT of edge to go around. He did my entry walkway, my driveway, both sides of the sidewalk along the front and side of the house, and along the street as well! I have no idea how long it must've taken, but I owe that man some cookies or something.

Seriously... these neighbors make owning a house easy. :)

PSA

If you happen to hear about a crazy girl who drowns in Lake Houston after trying to swim 300 yards in the Ironbabe Triathlon next month, don't you worry your pretty little heads... It's just me!

My swimming practice is getting better, my running is getting along, and I think I'll be able to survive the bike without too much effort. Overall, I'm pretty excited!

On other fronts... Work is going well, life is getting along, and I think I'll be able to survive this house thing after all. But besides that, there isn't much to blog about.

Oh wait! My bowling league. I decided that I'd like to strut my awesomely bad bowling in front of 30+ co-workers and friends once a week at the local bowling alley. I'm in the top 5 as far as women's averages/high game scores are concerned, but ... yeah. There are 7 women in the league. :) It's been a welcome diversion while softball has been postponed, but softball starts this week. WOOHOO!

First Shift!

Hooray! With the successful launch this afternoon at 4:00, I am officially on duty for my first flight. I start work in a few hours at 1:00am and I'll be working nights for the next week and a half. I'm excited!


For detailed information, keep your eyes posted to www.spaceflightnow.com. They seem to have the most accurate information as the flight continues...

*Hugs*

To be honest, I don't want to talk about my last post. I'm still hurting, but I'll be okay. I just want to say a quick thanks to all of my blog readers who have expressed your concern, love and friendship for me since it was posted. Deep down I knew that I was surrounded by people who care, but your e-mails and messages have meant a lot... And also prompted my removal of anonymous comments. ;-)

In other news - I was inspired by Lisa's post about her garden so I decided to take pictures of my florishing tomato plant. Instead - I got pictures of BUGS! These HUGE (okay, not huge, like quarter of an inch big = HUGE) ant-like beasties have infested my tomato plant!! I have real pictures from my own camera, but after some internet sleuthing I found this specimen online:

Coreid Nymphs - Leptoglossus

My pictures are trapped in the abyss that is my camera, but LOOK! Most of mine are the medium sized dark orange ones, but I discovered one monstrous grey one this afternoon. HUGE! I think my heart stopped a little the first time I saw them. Seriously. Not only are they the creepiest looking things I've seen since I moved into my house, but they are on my TOMATO PLANT!!!

I am unbelievably excited about the fact that I now have 7 (yes - SEVEN!) tomato babies growing on the plant and I've already enjoyed the fruits of the first fantastic ... well ... fruit of the year! It was as tasty as I'd imagined and I would be sad as could be if I couldn't enjoy the rest of them...

The only other house news I have (with, yes, pictures! Okay... old pictures. It's not nice enough to take with my stuff yet.) is that I've finished painting the guest bedroom and I'm slowly making progress on my master.

Lillie and Pad(ua) (the new girl) are getting along and Pad will be officially mine in a couple of weeks (I hope)! I'm getting the impression that the adoption agency forgot about her, so I might just take her to the vet and claim her as mine... Just kidding. I'm calling them on Saturday if I haven't heard anything. Here are her adoption pictures... She's so squirrely I have no idea how they got them. I think she was drugged, but it's safe to say none of mine have come out like this!

When?

When is it time to just say, "when."? To step out of the ring and realize you're only doing more damage than it's worth? What defines that line?

Is it when you hurt worse than you've ever hurt before? Some say that's how you know you've finally made progress...

Is it when someone else asks why you thought about fighting in the first place? Are you being courageous at that point - or just plain stupid?

What do you listen to? Your heart saying make it stop? Your mind saying you owe it to yourself to try? Or do you listen to your conscience saying you know this will never work...

I've been told that to crash and burn is the only way to learn to fly... But I'm bruised, scarred, bloody, and I'm losing hope that someone is going to be there to pick me up the next time around.

I got sucker punched this time... I'm trying to tell myself it was a one time deal. I'm trying to convince myself that they slipped when trying to pat me on the back. I'm trying... But man - I'm failing miserably.

--- Update ---
I lied. I know when. When is now.

--- Update #2 ---
The big reveal? You're looking at it.

Certified!

Super sweet. I can now (almost) officially work the 1J mission at the end of May! Woohoo!

KU vs. Memphis!

I'm terrible at March Madness. TERRIBLE. I'm usually lucky to get into the 90s on points, but this season - MONEY! With tonight's games - I rocked this year!

Not only did I lock up a win for the running war between me and Andrew (2-2 for the last four years baby!), but I guaranteed a win in our March Madness pool ($100 for first place), AND I won dinner! Sweet...

The Winning Bracket