Who is this cow?

The days we were at Purdue for Jon's appointment and awards ceremony coincided with Purdue Family Weekend. Tents speckled the campus and were filled with displays, contests, games, animals, food and other things, all meant to embrace the imagination of children.

The first thing Justy spotted was this cow (don't know her name) on the Ag campus. He was eager to kneel beside her and start milking. The farmboy/student next to him showed him how and it took seconds for Just to get a steady stream going.
Ben was fascinated with the games. Here he is seen aiming and tossing something (can't remember what as there were so many game pieces) and he and Justin collected quite a number of small prizes.



The weather was wet and rainy. Even so, we hit most of the tents. Dang! We did miss one very important event: The Cricket Spitting Contest. Oh, well. Maybe next year.

Love you all,
Grandma for both of us

Still catching up on Purdue weekend events

On the way home from West Lafayette we stopped by Cincinnati (had to drop off Ben and Justy) and visited with "the girls." Anna is seen here with one of her favorite companions, her "starter" dog Hydro. She still dreams of having a German Shepherd.
Move over, Matt Seagle. Make room for Saya the computer nerd and all-round cutey pie. Aly took me on the tour of the supermarket as she whizzed through the aisles in her pink wheel chair.She is building muscle power by pushing the wheel and going places she never dreamed of before.

Cincinnati was the glorious end to a glorious weekend.

Love you all, Grandma for both of us

Joe turns professional

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On the same day we celebrated Jon's appointment to pilot training, we reveled in the glory of Joe's most recent honor and accomplishment.

Joe passed his EIT Engineering in Training exam, an all day test in Lexington. It’s the first step in becoming a Professional Engineer PE. In a few years he’ll be able to take another test to become fully certified as a PE. It’s quite an accomplishment to pass on your first attempt as it is quite common to take the test multiple times before passing. He’s on his way to becoming a licensed engineer.

Congratulations! Joseph

Love your all! Grandma for both of us

Why is Jonny looking so serious? This was serious business. He was receiving his appointment to Pilot's School at the Purdue AFROTC Awards of Excellence Ceremony. He's worked very hard to get this appointment and we are proud of him. Now in the next picture......



....he is smiling and so is everyone else in his family. Below he smiles and poses with his buddies and their awards. His day of celebration ended with a party at Puccini's Pizza Parlor with friends and family. Next day would start at 4:00 a.m. and new excitement would begin as he left for the airport to fly to Texas for a prolonged physical examination. After one more semester at Purdue, Jon will be "taking off" for parts unknown to start flight school.





Congratulations, Jonny!

Love you all! Grandma for Grandpa and me

THIS IS NOT TRUE!

In an email dated April 1 (April Fools Day, if you didn't notice) Cousin Jenn said:
So, I want to know why Uncle David is not covered in mud in this picture. I think he cheated :)


Uncle Dave's response was to show the jury rigged shower he used.

I look clean in the picture because I took a shower.
Here is a picture of the shower to prove it

Any other comments? Send them to Grandma's Gazette.

Love you all,Grandma for both of us

Hear any oinking?

Here's David, happy as a pig in the mud! and no wonder. He just won this trophy and medal, but I want him to tell it as he did in an email:

"...We went to Fort Ord near Monterrey to do their annual ‘Mud Run’.
I was on a team with 4 other Hitachi guys. We ran 6 miles which included passage through a number of mud traps.
It was cold and raining the night before and I knew it would be very cold at Fort Ord, being next to the ocean. But at least the web site said ‘showers would be provided’.
At one of the traps you had to run across a thin bar with a lake of mud underneath it. At the end was a downhill of mud that ended at a big wall. You were supposed to climb over the wall, but there were a lot of Ladies in the race. Many could not make it over the wall. So you had find a spot to squeak through or push one of the stuck ladies over. (I found a spot to get through but the guy next to me had to do a push. I heard the lady say ‘Thank You!’ – I am not kidding.) On the other side of the wall was a mud pit which you fell into. Then you ran through knee-high muddy water. Once you got out of the water, a Drill Instructor yelled at you ‘Drop and give me 10!’ At which point you had to do 10 push ups before you could continue on the race.
The last mud pit had a low-hanging canopy over it. You had to crawl through the mud under the canopy. Once you got out there was a fire truck on the side. Its water was connected to a set of over-head sprayers you had to run through. It turns out that these were the ‘showers’ they promised. But somebody forgot to turn the heater on!
But here is the big news: WE TOOK FIRST PLACE IN THE CORPORATE DIVISION! We beat out five other teams. ... I won a medal and our team won a huge trophy."

CONGRATULATIONS TO UNCLE DAVE AND HIS FOUR TEAMMATES FROM HITACHI!