Meeting New People....

For some people, making friends is easy. I have never found this to be true. It has always been work for me. I think way back when, my confidence was shattered and my trust was forever scarred so it takes me a while to warm up to others. There are times when I surprise myself..... this weekend we met up with Caitlin at the Cheesecake Factory in Brandon, like last year. Adam also was there and this year so where his parents. It has been a couple of years that Adam and Caitlin have been going together....but the parents have never met! It was funny to talk to my daughter and express my nervousness and apprehension, only to find that Adam's mother though excited to meet us was feeling the same way....well, what can one say....then they must be okay! It was a pleasure to meet them and lunch was enjoyable. Adam's parents are delightful.

We did do a little shopping and then went to leave...it took 3 yes THREE hours to get out of the parking lot. Caitlin and Adam went back in to the mall, but the stubborn husband felt it necessary to wait it out!!!! Not a choice I approved of or would do again! We did make it home safe and sound.

Today is Valentine's day and one of the highlights was to see Father Stan dressed up as Cupid. I can't remember the fund raiser he was promoting, but it sure made for an exciting end to the service!!! Manuel and I had brunch at First Watch and had the Banana, Pecan French toast with cinnamon sugar syrup, very yummy. He found a blue hydrangea for me at BJ's!!!

ENDEAVOUR

Somethings in life are spectacular and then become ordinary and eventually passe and then pretty much ignored. I have always enjoyed flight into space. If I didn't get so motion sick...I think being an astronaut would be a phenomenal occupation. The space shuttle program is getting, like all of us, old. But just because it is old doesn't mean that it doesn't have a purpose...it's just being retired. It is suppose to be replaced with more technologically advanced and sleeker models...hmmmmm sounds like people! However, with the current administration....especially one who tauts education most notably for engineers and science...the space program is taking a backseat spot amid all the bailout gaffes!

The space shuttle was something that I don't think the majority of us realized would be a possibility...after all, my mom believed the moon was made of green cheese or something like that! Men landed on the moon! From rockets with space capsules to shuttles that looked like airplanes but used booster rockets to propel them into space. Then a space station was built, and telescopes launched that send back spectacular pictures of the world beyond planet Earth!

There have been disasters....Challenger and Columbia one on the way up, one on the way down...devastatingly sad! But today, I got to see the Endeavour rise from the swamp land and become a shining star in the sky. It will most likely be the last night-time shuttle launches and there are a total of four more launches until....there won't be anymore...sad! It took a journey of 48 hours the first attempt was scrubbed in the last minutes because of a low ceiling of cloud cover a trip home and then deciding if we would undertake the risk again...we did...a total of 16 hours and two round trips, chilly 41 degree temperatures, for only seconds of a spectacular sight of seeing Endeavour take off from launch pad 39A with the $400 million piece of the space station named....tranquility! It will give the space station a window view of the Galaxy!

This launch was much different from the return to space with Discovery and hotter than heck day but a fantastically awesome daytime launch. Callie has gone will me on these journeys...what memories she will have even if she rather blows them off at this youthful time in her life....she fails to realize that she was a first had witness to history in the making! One of many in her young life. Now...it's the memories and the pictures!!!! God Speed Endeavour's Crew!