Hanging with the Sorority Sisters

Last weekend was the annual Halloween Donor's

Party at the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  

Things have been pretty quiet around here for  the

past few weeks and I confess an hour before we 

were supposed to leave, I was still in my jammies.

I was thinking maybe I could just stay home, but 

the Sorority Girls were coming down from Purdue

to meet us and I wanted to see them.

I got myself together and we all met up for a

nice meal and a stroll through the museum.

When our kids were young, we always had a 

membership here and visited often.  It is now

so funny to go when the kids are all grown up.

The best part of the evening was hanging out

with these beautiful young ladies.  They are 

all so sweet and nice and smart!  They are 

studying aeronautical engineering, actuarial 

science, business and education.

We toured all the exhibits including the Haunted

House and ended the visit as we always do with a

ride on the carousel.

This is my favorite horse and I always

try to ride her.  She is decorated with 

my European Folk Art colors.

Thanks Purdue Girls for a delightful evening!

Astronauts and Sorority Girls

We headed out bright and early today to 

drive through the beautiful farmland and

cross the state to visit...

Purdue University.

It was Mother's Day at the Sorority House.  

We got to mingle with Moms and daughters, we 

were treated to a lovely lunch and the best part

was being able to spend time with our Kate.

It was a perfect Spring Day and the campus 

was filled with people enjoying the beautiful

weather.  It was Spring Fest today, the 

Boilmaker was driving around campus.

Tonight there is a reunion of alumni who

have become astronauts.  Purdue has 23

graduates who have become astronauts.

This frathouse was welcoming back one of

their brothers to campus, Gene Cernan, 

the last man to walk on the moon.

Of course, another graduate was Neil Armstrong,

the first man to walk on the moon.

I am amazed at the amount of time the students

of today spend on their studies.  We are always 

hearing from our kids about the multiple all-night

study sessions that they have weekly, yes, weekly.

Did you know that Purdue is ranked number 8 in 

the list of the 16 colleges and universities where it

is the hardest to get an "A"?

I Was Frantic...

Another shooting occurred yesterday on an

American campus, it also happened to be the

campus where one of our kids attends school.

I was happily posting yesterday's blog about

soap and travel when I brought up my facebook

page and read a post about a shooting at Purdue.

This was at 12:36pm, I immediately started

calling, texting, messaging on fabebook and I

couldn't reach Kate.  I called Rob, I called my

sister, I put on the local news.  Both of the 

anchors on Channel 12 had kids at Purdue too

and they had already checked in.  We are so 

connected in today's world ~ where was my Kate?

Kate's major is in the School of Science so she

certainly could have a class in the EE building.

Tornado sirens are blasting, texts are flying

all over the place.  And nothing...

Finally, at 12:55 pm Kate messaged me on 

facebook.  She said she was in Potter, the 

building next to EE and in the library on

lockdown with the doors locked.  It had been 

a long 19 minutes.

When I finally spoke to Kate after she was 

released she said she had a 12 o'clock class

in Potter, so she had walked right past the 

EE building next door.  When they got the 

text from Purdue about a shooting the professor

locked the door, they had a guest speaker and

the class went on.  They were released at 1:30pm

and as they left the building they saw LOTS of 

police and homeland security and helicopters

overhead.  They didn't know if the buses were

running so they called a sorority sister to pick

them up ~ they were scared and shaken.

Once home the sorority said they were not 

supposed to leave the house though Purdue

resumed classes.  Finally, Purdue cancelled

all classes for the remainder of the day and the

next day.  

Later, I asked Kate if she had heard the sirens

or shots.  She said they hadn't heard anything 

while inside.  I asked why she didn't call us right

away.  She said the text was Shooting reported 

on campus, EE building, avoid area, shelter in 

place.  They didn't know a person was shot, it 

could have been that shots were heard.  When

they came out of the building, they were shocked

at all that was happening around them.

By later in the day, they were allowed to out.

Kate and her sorority sisters attended the vigil

last night.  

As we breathe a sigh of relief and are so thankful

that our child is safe, we also know there is a family

that is experiencing the worst day of their lives

and our heart goes out to them.

Now a note to Purdue and all other

schools:  Part of your readiness training

needs to be that you instruct all teachers

to have the students contact their families

immediately when something like this 

happens.  It was all over the news and

we had no word from our child.  Almost 

every student has a phone these days and

if they don't, someone would loan them theirs.

A Day in the Country

 

It is Harvest Time in the American Midwest and

Mr. Wonderful and I are both at home at our

American Homestead, Avalon.

We decided to get out on this beautiful day and

spend the day getting lost in the country.  Oh, this

photo is not our home, it is a photo I took as we

sped along a country lane ~ isn't it adorable?

 

 

As we passed through the downtown of a

nearby city we spied this sign.  We decided

we had better eat since we didn't know what

we'd find in the middle of nowhere.

 

 

I had the Cheeseburger Pie, it was tasty!

 

 

Then we were off!  Stopping at antique

shops along the way.

 

 

We had the whole day ahead of us. We

stopped to talk to the animals we found.

 

 

I was making kissy noises and telling

these horses they were so beautiful and

as we pulled up a bit further on the road

I saw there was a man standing just behind

the tree on the left.  I smiled and waved,

and then turned red...

 

 

Don't they look like they are kissing?

 

 

I love how this silo has been repurposed.

I'd like for that to be my reading nook.

 

 

The farmers were out harvesting their

crops.  I could watch those corn-pickers

all day.

 

 

There is the harvest.

 

 

We stopped at a farm where we used to take

our kids pumpkin picking many years ago.

 

 

Some more antiquing in a tiny town in the

middle of nowhere.  They had great pieces

here.  Where do they buy and how do they

stay in business in this sleepy town?

 

 

I love seeing the old courthouses

in the county seats.

 

 

And then it was on to Purdue University. 

If you look closely, you can see the Boilmaker

train going by.  It was a beautiful Fall day and

the campus was alive with activity, the band

was practicing and parading along 3rd Street,

people were strolling and skateboarding...

 

 

Here is the gorgeous Engineering Fountain,

it was designed by my friend Becky's Dad.

 

 

The clocktower ~ if you zoom in to the clockface

you will notice the 4 is IIII, not the typical Roman

numeral IV.  They thought that looked too much

like IU, their archrivals, and they couldn't have

that.  Our Kate tells us, at football games a cheer

will always go up saying, "IU sucks!" ~ no matter

who they are playing.  Often the players from

Michigan, Iowa or wherever will look up in the

stands, perplexed.  So they tell them, "yeah, it

doesn't matter who we're playing, IU still sucks."

Now as parents of an IU student as well, we have

to be fair.  Our IU "Hoosier" tells us, they don't

even respond to this, they just KNOW they are

better...

 

 

Then we spent the evening at a lecture

given by Madeleine Albright.  Our Kate

fit us into her busy schedule ~ between

classes, pumpkin carving and late night

studying.  Glad you could join us Kate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A House Divided



It's official!  Next Fall Kate will return to Purdue

as a Presidential Scholar and Brennan will start

at Indiana University as a Cox Research Scholar.

As parents we will show no favoritism, Mr Wonderful

will love going to games for both schools and I'll be

happy to attend all the lectures I can.  Both schools

are 1 1/2 hours away from our house so I think we

will see both of the kids throughout the year.

We are happy!



A Day at Purdue

Dreams of University?

Since Kate will be going to

Purdue in the Fall we decided to

 drive out today to check things out.

Purdue is a land grant university

in the American Midwest, in

west central Indiana.  About 2

hours from Indianapolis and

2 hours from Chicago.

The man who offered to give

the $150,000 to start the

university had 3 stipulations:

1. It had to be named for him.

2. All the buildings had to be red brick.

3.  They could never offer a music major.

No music?  I had to ask why...

It was due to his strict religious

convictions, it would not be acceptable.

But they have one of the biggest marching

bands in the US, so go figure.

In typical Murphy's Law fashion,

we took a one and a half hour

walking tour of the campus on

a whippingly cold and snowy day.

We saw many beautiful old buildings.

Though this may say Memorial Gym

this is actually a building of classrooms

where many of Kate's Actuarial

Science courses will take place.

We had a nice drive and

enjoyed many of the

beautiful old houses.

We are still amazed by the

amount of open land out

here in the middle of the country

and by how big the sky is.

I love the old advertising

in the little country towns.

Can you imagine wanting

to eat at the Sanitary Lunch?