Memorial Day Weekend

We had a very relaxing Memorial Day Weekend, our traditional start to the summer, with long afternoons and evenings with Randy and Lorraine on Sunday and Brad and Lisa on Monday. On both occasions it was simply a chance to sit with friends, relax and enjoy the long weekend. A few shots are shown below, I was happy with the first, it shows a rare capture where I'm both the photographer and in the shot itself.

Tomato Cage Skewers Anja's Leg

Short post to show you a pretty gruesome picture of Anja’s leg. Last Thursday she ran into our side garden, which has fairly deep shrubs and evidently a few old rusty tomato cages (for those not sure what a tomato cage is, see picture below with some peas). No idea how but Anja got tangled up in the cage and it literally skewered her. It entered her leg just below the knee and exited about two inches below. Luckily it was mostly a flesh wound and missed her knee. About 6 inches threaded through and Lynne was called upon to pull it out before taking her over to urgent care for a clean up and some antibiotics. She is doing just fine now again. 

Isabel off to Summer Camp

A quick update before I head off to bed. I have lots of photos from the weekend but I wanted to get these couple of cute photos posted of Isabel and Frida this morning as they headed off to their very first ever day of Summer Camp, Straight Arrow Day Camp. Isabel was beside herself she was that excited all weekend. Summer Camp is such a tradition in the US, so many kids do lots of various exciting camps throughout the summer and having watched Anja go off and do these for the last two years she couldn’t believe her turn had finally arrived. Of course she was exhausted this evening.

Happy Birthday Eilish

Tonight I tip my hat to a wonderful Lady, Eilish Owens, my sister, on the occasion of her birthday, Happy Birthday Sis, thinking of you here in West Lafayette, boy I wish I was there to share a tipple with you in person but I'm sure it won't stop you enjoying yourself. 

Wishing you a great day tomorrow, we’re all thinking of you. As I scrolled through my photos, I couldn’t lock in on one that I wished to show, so I thought I’d share them all. Hope you have a great night tomorrow, looking forward to hearing the stories.

Granny Owens's Last Day

Today is my Mum’s last day with us here in West Lafayette; she travels home to Ireland tomorrow morning. Whilst she is understandably a little sad to be leaving us all, she is excited to be getting home again after a month away. She is anxious to see Dad who has been in hospital in Ireland while she was here and of course she is very close to my sister Eilish and she will be looking forward to seeing her on Saturday evening too.

It was absolutely wonderful to have Mum here these last few weeks. It was great to have her great company and help throughout the month but specifically while Lynne was travelling; it made all our lives easier. The kids will truly miss her, she spoils them so much and of course since Connor is getting older, he too will now start to have lasting memories of Granny Owens’s visits. Thanks for everything Mum, travel safely home.

Congratulations Håkan and Eva-Lotta

Congratulations to Håkan and Eva-Lotta, our good friends in Sweden. On Friday May 18^th, they added to their family with another beautiful baby girl. We don’t have a name yet but Håkan did send pictures and assurances that all are doing really well. Eva-Lotta looks very well in the pictures and of course our very cute Tindra, with her spectacular blue eyes, looks like she is an extremely proud big sister. Best wishes to you all once again, we’re very excited for you.

MBA....Going Back to University

I cannot believe I’m writing this but it’s true, I’m going back to University to work on a third degree, at least this time it’s not science but business. Since January I have been working on an application to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Specifically to their Executive MBA Program and this week I heard that I was successful. 

I'm pretty pleased about getting in and was not fully sure I would. They have 270 places each year (90 in Chicago, 90 in London and 90 in Singapore) and they only admit about 20% of the applicant pool. It’s rated the #1 Executive MBA in the USA and #5 worldwide so I'm also a little nervous about mingling with a bunch of high fliers. It's also going to be tough from a logistics perspective; will be maintaining my full-time job, fully active household and class will be all day Friday and Saturday in Chicago every other week for 21 months. I start in about a month.

The fun stuff is now over; all I have to do now is the hard part. I’m also starting my thanks in this initial post on this subject. Many many people will help me over the coming months and for your help I’m very very grateful to each and every one of you. The picture below is of the Gleacher Center where I'll take all my classes, it's at the heart of downtown Chicago, just off Michigan Ave, you can see The Tribune Building just to the right.

New Apple Tree

My Mum and myself had an early start in the garden this morning. Earlier in the week we resolved to remove two fruitless gooseberries bushes and an aging pine tree, to be fair, we gave those bushes over 5 years to bear fruit without much success. Lynne and I had planned to plant an apple tree in this spot for some time, indeed we have been promising to do so for well over a year but Mum bought a couple of grape vines this week and that was the catalyst I needed.

It was forecasted for 85F today so we needed an early start. We had the tree cut down, the stump dug out, the trellis bought and installed (with Randy’s help), the tree, a Honeycrisp Apple, and vines in and the mulch all down by noon. We were pretty tired but I think it looks great. I did not need an additional workout today.

Dinner with Lorraine and Randy

We spent a very enjoyable evening last night over at Randy and Lorraine’s house. We had an excellent dinner, ice cream for the kids of course and a little while on the back patio getting some “fresh air” with Granny Owens. Thanks Guys. I just love that last photo with Connor peeping out to say hello :)

Happy Birthday Lynne

Today is Lynne’s birthday, Happy Birthday, I Love You. Since she is in England this week and in Canada next week, it will be a little time before we see her again to wish her these sentiments in person. We did do a small celebration before she left though, or shall I say that she blew out a candle and the kids tucked into her cake. We got her a small trimming garden power tool which she really liked. Hope you enjoy the day with your parents, have a nice meal.

I love this first picture of Lynne, she’s outside which she loves, she looks good in it and since she is carrying some wet socks that she had to pick up after our daughters, it pretty much typifies what she does for us.

Glorious Month of May

Summertime has truly arrived in West Lafayette. We are now in the glorious month of May, my absolute favorite. Clear blue skies, low 50’s at night so that it’s nice and cool in the morning and then sunny days in the mid 70s with a warm fresh breeze on your face. Most importantly, no humidity, that’s June-August. I love May and so do all the kids. There has been lots of play in the back garden and today they even had a picnic on the front lawn.