Sue Visits Dallas in May

On my way to visit Kate and her kids in England in May, I planned my flight route to include a stop in Dallas, Texas where my mom, sister and two brothers live. American Airlines, my preferred airline, now flies a new non-stop flight from Dallas to Heathrow Airport. By deliberately planning a 9-hour layover in Dallas, I scheduled my flight from Indianapolis to Dallas (instead of Chicago) and I spent the day with my mom, her husband, my three siblings, and their kids. I arrived around 10 a.m. CDT at DFW Airport and found my mom, Jackie, and my sister, Ginger, waiting for me. They had arranged for me to accompany them to a luncheon with one of my mother's charitable organizations. The birthday party theme went along with the installation of new officers; each one received a gift. My mom was installed as the treasurer.

Here is my mom holding a birthday balloon.

After the luncheon, we drove to my youngest brother Petr's house to visit his wife, Bonnie. My mom and sister are pictured.
We also drove by the new Cowboys football stadium and the Rangers baseball stadium.

My brother is an architect and his wife is an artist.
Here is some of their artwork.

Before my trip to Dallas, I had been to Shipshewana in norther Indiana on a bus trip. I saw this sign at one of the booths and thought my mother (for Mother's Day) needed it for her "bee room." As a kid I grew up in a beekeeping home. My parents had a beehive in our backyard in town and also seven or eight hives at a garden plot they owned ten miles out of town. My mother has collected many bee items over the years but she needed this 12"x12" aluminum sign, I thought. Didn't she? Well, I never reckoned on the fact that I would have to put it in my carry-on bag because I never see my luggage when I get to Dallas (one of the perks of a long layover—not having to lug around a big suitcase). So, I had a little trouble getting through security in Indianapolis but mostly they laughed at me. My mom loved the sign and hung it in her kitchen right away. Will it ever get to the bee room?

In the late afternoon, my family all gathered at my mom's house; we had a light dinner of sandwiches and homemade peach cobbler and we visited.

My older brother, Bock, took me to his family's house for a tour before dropping me at the airport for my continued trip to England. By 9:15 p.m. I was on a plane flying to London.
It is so much better to spend a long layover away from the airport with family.

Watch for a later post for the details about Bock's wife's gnome (on the front porch in this picture), which made a trip with me across the pond. Kind of like the Travelocity gnome.

Catching up!

Sorry, I've been gone from blogging for too long. Kate and her kids (Logan 2.5 and Lily 1.5) were here all summer and I had better things to do than blog—play with grandkids, babysit grandkids and read to grandkids. They left to go back to England on Wednesday and arrived home safely on Thursday afternoon. So, I will start back with March and try to catch up on some of the pictures and stories from the spring and summer.

Hannah played softball on her high school varsity team during April and May. In this photo which was published in the Richmond newspaper, Hannah is trying to steal from second base. She mostly played in the outfield for defense and was a base runner for the pitcher or catcher.




This is Lucy sitting with Uncle William.
In March we finally headed over to West Lafayette, where Andy and Amber live, to visit their new apartment. They had moved across town last October and we had never seen their new place. They live within walking distance of their work and the kids' daycare.



Jonah showed us the bean and onion plants he had grown out on his patio.
He was surprised his seeds had germinated.



Jonah actually had some beans later in the summer. He also liked to catch fireflies in the evening. He would catch them at our house and put them in a jar to take home for the car ride.

Lucy and Grandma Sue sitting together.



Lucy modeling her Easter dress.

Cute Grandkids




Logan and his Uncle Kevin.

Wanna ride the train?
Logan is the engineer, Lily is the caboose lady.
Audrey and Addison are the passengers.

Sue's friend Nancy's grandkids (Milo, Levi and Ian Jones)
hosted Logan and Lily last week up in Warsaw.

The cousins and their parents on Father's Day: Joey and Audrey,
Carrie and Addison, Amber and Jonah, and Andy and Lucy.
Logan and Lily were napping.

Lily, Logan, Lucy and Jonah. The twins had to go visit
their Papaw for Father's Day so they missed this photo.

Logan and Lily Visit
Great Grandma Cooper
in Illinois



Logan, Lily and Kate posing with Great Grandma Cooper
at her house in Charleston on Thursday, June 11.
They traveled all the way from England to visit for
the summer so they made a special trip to Illinois.

Great Grandma Cooper enjoys taking the kids to
"What's Cooking" for lunch. In the
back are Uncle William and Grandpa Drew.

The great grandkids visited Great Grandpa Cooper
in the nursing home and posed for a picture.
He was waiting for his lunch to be served.

William and Grandma Cooper. She is introducing the
family to the nursing home staff and residents.

Drew and his mom saying goodbyes and getting DQ money,
a long-standing tradition with June.

Pretty Nature Shots

Pretty Peacock

Lily and Logan at Dinosaur Park

Bobbe Gets Published

Our oldest daughter, Bobbe, recently had her first article published. During 2000 and 2001, Bobbe's freshman year in college, she wrote the article to be published; finally in April of 2009 it has been printed in Mathematics Magazine. The article isn't available online but the table of contents entry is listed below.

Mathematics Magazine

Contents for April 2009

ARTICLES

Classifying ά -Almost Squares
by Bobbe Cooper
140-146
In the first semester of calculus, we solve lots of fence problems, maximizing area and minimizing the amount of fence. For variety, we solve problems with different costs of fence sides, lakes in the field, or corrals with extra fence dividers in the middle. The answers are usually not integers, unless the professor has carefully chosen the parameters! What happens if we insist that the answer should be an integer? Can we find a pattern for the solutions of these varied fence problems?

Views from in and around Charleston

Great Grandma's house



The tree out front of Great Grandma's house.



The front (north side) of the Jefferson Street house where Joey was born.
Notice there is no front door anymore—does that make it the back or side?



The same house—maybe the front?
A really dressed up, 2-year-old Andy stuck his arms in waste oil at this
house before attending a formal function. Aghhhh.



Barney the beagle dog lived with us at this house.
Also Timothy Macintosh the poodle who bit Andy's hands in play.



Johnson's Automotive, Inc. - just around the corner.

A view from out front of Rural King looking to the west—the high school on the right.
One can see all the way to campus - Old Main.



Westfield.

Audrey & Addison visit Great Grandma Cooper

Over Shenandoah's Spring Break Drew and I took Hannah and Valerie and Audrey and Addison to Charleston to see Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Cooper. We borrowed Joey's van and headed out one Wednesday morning. Great Grandma loved seeing the girls and especially got a kick out of their tricks of "Touchdown" and "Be Strong." The girls were all good travelers.




Addison in the car on the way to Illinois.

Valerie reading to Audrey on the way to see Great Grandma Cooper.

Valerie, Addison, Great Grandma Cooper, Audrey, and Hannah pose for a picture at home.



Hannah, Addison, Valerie, Audrey, and Drew visiting
Great Grandpa Cooper at the nursing home with Great Grandma Cooper.



Addison getting a kiss goodbye from Great Grandma Cooper.



Grandpa Drew serving ice cream to the girls.



Audrey tentatively eating her ice cream cone.

Addison digging in to her cone.

Happy Easter!

An archive photo from Easter 2008.

New Car

Miles per gallon on first tank — 38.9 just driving around town.

Hannah got her driver's license on Thursday last week in this little Toyota Yaris.
She even parallel parked after practicing once the night before
in this car, which she had only driven once.

Bat in The News

One night Drew came up and told me he saw a bat in the "shed," the back room behind Joey's studio where the kids keep their bikes and the bird seed. He took me down there to look for it a day or two later but we couldn't find it. We hoped it had gotten out somehow.

A couple of days later Joey came upstairs and said there was a bat in The News office. Drew and I followed Joey downstairs and, sure enough, there was a bat flying around in the office. We opened both doors and Drew stood at the back while Joey and I stood at the front with brooms. As the bat flew by us we swatted at it and tried to scare it out the door. It wouldn't go out for anything. Finally, after about ten minutes, Drew hit the bat squarely with his broom, it hit the floor, and ultimately it got caught in a softball pitching screen that was in the back of the office. We carried the net outside hoping the bat would untangle itself and fly away.

He spent the night out there and in the morning was still alive there. He would bite the net and hang on with his feet. We figured he hadn't eaten in a few days (figuring he was the same bat Drew saw in the shed) so he must have been hungry. Later that morning I took some pliers outside and untangled his wings and knocked him to the ground. He didn't ever move again and expired later that day. Sorry little bat, but you shouldn't mess with the Coopers.

Christmas Present is Installed!

As mentioned in a previous post, my children gave me a Lowe's gift card for Christmas to purchase a dishwasher. The following post shows Drew's progress and installation of the Bosch machine I picked out. I didn't know that dishes could be so clean out of a machine. There are no spots, bits of food or stains.

As of today, only one dish has been altered by the machine. I put an old dusty set of cups, saucers and bowls in the dishwasher one night when there was extra room. The next morning when I unloaded the machine, I thought the dust had stayed on one of the cups, but when I started drying it (it had a base that held water) I noticed that the inside had turned a dark brown and that had bled through to the outside. I guess as long as I serve coffee in the cup before the drinker sees the bottom, I will be ok. The cups aren't expensive or anything though they are pretty.

Drew making the sink table 4" taller to match normal sink heights now that our kids are taller.
Notice the huge puzzle Hannah was working on in the background.




Alien antennae - the new water pipes coming up from the basement.
Red for hot and blue for cold (duh).

The sink table back in place and all the plumbing hooked back up
with the extra drain connection for the dishwasher.

The dishwasher is installed! We are using the machine once a day for sure and some days we run it after lunch and then again before bed. I must thank my kids for a wonderful present that saves me lots of time each and every day. And my dishes are clean—even the ones high up on the shelves that I use to fill it when I want to run it and it isn't quite full.

View from the back. (Oops, this picture shows that the dishwasher isn't really hooked up.) We have added a paper towel holder to the back and we keep the trash below on the floor.



The new Manabloc in the basement.
This is Drew's part of the new dishwasher setup.
We (Drew) re-plumbed the entire kitchen and office restrooms and
ran the pipes through this contraption.



Our Bosch tankless hot water heater; it is just to the east of the Manabloc in the basement.



The new PVC drains that replaced the old 100 year old cast iron monster.