Boiler Up!

For Christmas my parents gave Mr. Ranch and I each a package of Purdue themed pasta.  I didn't realize until the other day that it included dressing to make it into pasta salad!  Luckily it would have stayed "good" well into the 2020's... Ha!  It says right on it that it is "salad"...shows how observant I am.  It was tasty and fun to eat little trains...thanks again, Mom and Dad!

Short visits

A long time ago I lived in a Cooperative House at Purdue University.  We had some things in common with the Greek system, but a lot of things that were different.  One of the the things we had in common was the tradition of "Big Sis" and "Little Sis" so that new members had a mentor.  One year my "Lil Sis" and I had little in common and another girl had the same situation with her "Big Sis".  So, we kind of adopted each other.  She was a bridesmaid in our wedding, I was the unofficial dress fluffer at hers.  We spent several years not communicating well, as we moved across the country (me), had kids (her, then me), and generally were busy, busy, busy.  Thanks to the magic of Facebook (and older kids) we are better at keeping in touch these days and try to meet up once a year or so.  If I go to the midwest, I try to plan a night or two at their house and if they come out this way we meet somewhere.  This year they spent a few days with cousins in Colorado Springs, but due to our crazy busy lives we weren't sure we could meet up...until they called early one Saturday morning and said they were in the neighborhood.  Yay! We had a few minutes of coffee and chatting before they hit the road for their continued road trip and we headed out for a hiking trip (stay tuned for that story!)

 Big and Little Sis in the early 1990's

 Little Sis (far left) and me (in the wedding dress, duh) at my wedding, 1995

 The Girl driving the Gator at Little Sis's house, 2012

 An attempt to get all the kids in one picture, 2012
And below, Mr. Ranch, Little Sis, Big Sis (me), Mr. Little Sis and all the kids...all in one picture...amazing that we all held still long enough!