Half An Hour With Sue: June 2008

A new guest bed

Since half of my children are married now, I figured it was time to replace one set of bunk beds with a queen bed from L.L. Bean. (There is still a chance that Drew and I will move our old bed to the guest room and we will use the new bed, but not until after Kate and Kenny visit in July.) The L.L. Bean platform bed is called a Rangeley bed, does not require a boxspring, and has a solid ash constructed frame with hardwood slats. I had ordered it a couple of weeks before Bobbe and Justin were to visit in May, thinking I would have it in plenty of time for them to use it; it arrived at noon the day they left. Sorry Bobbe and Justin to make you sleep on the mattress on the floor.

Fisher & Paykel dryer and washer

Top view of dryer.

Side view of lint bin.

Once again I have had to replace my washer and dryer. What a tiresome business that is. I have tried expensive commercial front loaders, thinking that they will last longer and also save water. Well, my first one had to be sent back to the factory with a defect from day one. It was never right. And, blah, blah, blah about the durableness of washers and dryers for a family who does five loads of laundry a day.

So at Lowes, I found a new brand (to me) called Fisher & Paykel. They have very few moving parts (no belts and pulleys which we usually wear out in about a year and then limp along doing small loads for another year with) and claim to have the pros of both front loaders and top loaders. The dryer is a top loader which rotates one way for a while and then stops and rotates the other way. The lint trap empties itself into a bin and only has to be emptied about every 15 loads. I have included a photo of the lint, which drops into the bin looking like deer poopy. Weird, huh?

Catching up since the end of April

On Earth Day William and Valerie were visiting the library; the employees were handing out free trees to the patrons. The kids hurried home to ask if they could have a tree. Where would we plant it, on the roof? Maybe the park superintendent (they are close friends of his) would let them plant one at his park? Yes, he would, so they headed up to the library again and chose a tulip tree which was just a stick with 1/2 cm leaves at the tip. The next morning they planted the tree next to the creek at Dietrich Park. Above you can see them posing while showing the tree to Audrey and Addison. While the weather was hot and dry the kids would go down with a cup and water the tree with creek water. It is growing as you can see in a photo taken at the end of May when the tree was about 6 weeks old.

Last fall I purchased an annual pass to Conner Prairie, a living museum in Fishers, Indiana. The Conner family settled that area near the White River in 1800. The family house is still on the property and has been refurbished. We try to visit once a month but with our busy schedule, that doesn't always happen. We were able to visit recently; we sat and watched the town blacksmith, Mr. Curtis, make nails and froe blades for over an hour. In the past we have hurried over the whole farm trying to see everything each time we visit but this last time we decided to take it slowly and just concentrate on one person's occupation. Mr. Curtis had just returned from lunch when we arrived so he needed to heat up his froe metal. While he waited, he made some nails for the kids and talked about his neighbors and history. He was very interesting.

As we were leaving Conner Prairie we passed The Golden Eagle Inn's kitchen garden. These onions were growing. The heads get so heavy they fall to the ground and plant another onion, thus they are called wandering onions.

My daughter-in-love Amber (Andy's wife) has been having health issues for a couple of years; heart troubles and large headaches. Between having a weird, uneasily diagnosable problem and moving three states away and having a baby, Amber's doctors didn't find out her problem until late April. She was diagnosed with Chiari Malfunction; in short her skull is too small for her brain, thus there was pressure on her brain. On Wednesday, April 30 she had surgery to remove part of her skull to make room for her brain. I came over the evening before to spend the night so that Andy could transport Amber to the hospital early in the morning without waking the kids. Amber came through the surgery great and she seems to be doing much better as time passes. She is getting out with the kids and meeting people in her apartment complex. She says Jonah has a new friend who is a girl. This picture is Jonah eating breakfast with Lucy looking on in boredom from her high chair. Little lightweight Lucy is beginning to pull herself up to furniture and is crawling.

Father Drew bringing bride Bobbe down the aisle during the
rehearsal, with Carrie and Joey looking on.

The big event of the year was Bobbe's wedding to Justin Matthew Mann. All the Middletown Coopers (except the twins) filled two cars on Friday, May 2 to travel to Athens, Georgia for the wedding of the year. Joey and Carrie took William and Valerie in their Ford Edge and Drew and I had Michael and Hannah in our Honda Accord. The 650-mile trip took eleven hours but we arrived at the church in plenty of time before the rehearsal. We met Justin's family in person for the first time. They had purchased a trike for Matthew and he was riding it around the fellowship hall when we arrived. The wedding was simple and beautiful. Bobbe and Justin planned a wonderful event and party. Now Matthew says they are all married.

Bobbe graduated the next weekend from the University of Georgia with a degree in Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics. She had worked five years for that degree. We are very proud of her accomplishments. She has taken a three-year teaching job in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the University of Minnesota. She and Justin moved there during the last weeks of May, staying with us for a week while the movers trucked their goods to St. Paul. Andy hasn't sold his house in St. Paul so the Manns will rent from him for a while, either until they decide to move or Andy's house sells. This helps both families. Justin has landed a job in Minnesota with an environmental group to satisfy his intern requirement to finish his Masters in Management of Non-profits at UGA this summer. He is going door-to-door and working 1-10 p.m. During the mornings he is searching for a higher paying job, maybe with the Democratic party.

Some of the May events we have been involved in were Valerie's graduation from fifth grade celebration, Hannah playing JV softball for Shenandoah, Drew's 47th birthday, Drew and Valerie starting girls' softball, and Sue's 47th birthday.

At Michael's graduation open house on June 1 we celebrated his high school graduation. He organized a party at the Naz church's fireplace room with cake and punch and a video presentation of photos from his past. He showed newspapers with photos he had taken. Friends signed a "guestbook" poster board card.

I have been trying for the last couple of years to go back to college. I was able to transfer 57 credits from Eastern Illinois University and Illinois Wesleyan University (where I went before being married) to Indiana University East in Richmond, Indiana (one hour away from Middletown). I thought I would take a couple classes there last year but when the bill came for $1,000 I dropped them. That is expensive! And then to top that off, IU East stopped offering associate degrees so I would have to take lots of classes far away to finish any degree.

This spring my friend Karyn, who works for Ivy Tech, showed me that they have an associate degree in Library Tech. I would only need about 12 hours to finish that degree if I could transfer my credits from IU East. No, I can't coz Ivy just passed a ruling that no credits over 10 years old can be transferred, especially transferred classes. Sooo, I took the placement tests (got 99% on math, reading, typing and writing, duh) and signed up for a summer term, one hour required class called Information Studies and Research. It is offered online so I don't have to travel anywhere and can do the work when I should be in bed. I am learning how to research topics on the web. How hard can that be? So far I am doing great.

As a side note, I did ask for Eastern and Wesleyan to send my transcripts to Ivy and maybe I can talk to the guy who is in charge of making exceptions. I met him the other day at my Danielson Learning Center advisory board meeting in New Castle so maybe my clout in extracurricular positions will help me. I'll let you know.