Tuesday night was the big end of the year banquet for Housing and Dining Services. At K-State it is quite a production, with video clips, a theme, and lots of awards and recognition. This years theme was like local TV news. The video clips were very funny and when people went up on stage they sat at a news desk instead of standing at a podium which was fun. This night is always fun, but typically bittersweet. This year many of the students that Laurie and I have known at K-State for a long time are graduating. Plus, our friend Sarah is also leaving K-State at the end of this year. I definitely did not make it through the evening without some tears. I was honored to be inducted as an honorary member of the residence hall honorary here at K-State in recognition of my service to the students of K-State and my advising of that organization. You can see more in the following pictures. It was definitely a fun time.

This is me with my closest work colleague Sarah. She will be leaving K-State at the end of this year. You can tell we are both trying hard not to cry.

Laurie and I with our dear friend, Sarah 

Laurie and I with Diane and Patrick. We all worked together in my previous job. 

This is me with Patrick I student I supervised and worked with at K-State. He is graduating this year :( 

This kind of looks like Diane with her parents at her wedding! But it is just us with her at the Leadership Banquet. 

This is the staff team I work with at K-State! 

This is me with the President of the organization I advise at K-State, Shea Olsen 

The following pictures show Audrey's latest fascination: Mommy's high heeled shoes! She thought of this all on her own the other morning and proceeded to clomp around the house in them.

A big girl in Mommy's shoes 

Aren't we proud! 

Well, we had quite the productive weekend. Friday night some friends came over and we played games and just hung out. We also found out that a friend of ours was in need of a place to stay for six weeks while she transitions from K-State to her graduate assistantship, so she will be staying with us. On Saturday Audrey woke us up bright and early, but we used the time to get things done. We raked leaves in our yard that had collected around our fence. Laurie trimmed back some of our bushes and I mowed and trimmed the yard. Audrey had a great time helping with all of these tasks, especially picking up leaves one at a time and putting them in the bags. That night we watched "In Her Shoes." It was definitely a movie worth watching. It was funny and interesting throughout.

On Sunday, as we were getting ready for church, Audrey was sitting in her booster chair eating her oatmeal and watching Paula Dean. Paula happened to be making a pie with a graham cracker crust. As a result, Audrey learned a new word from Miss Paula, "cracker." After that event, we went to church and as a family brought forward the bread and wine for communion. Audrey had a great time at the end of the service swaying to the music. In the afternoon, we again worked in the yard. Laurie put down new mulch in places where we had mulched last year and then mulched in new places. I prepared some dirt patches in and around our house for grass seed and then spread that. I also planted some gladiola bulbs, hopefully they take.

Last evening we ate dinner with our friends the Massey's who were in town from Oklahoma and some other K-Staters. After dinner we walked down to City Park and Audrey and her friend Garrett had a great time running around and playing in the park.

On the work front we are almost done with all of our hiring processes. Both of the committees that I was a part of completed our work on Friday. We successfully offered to a candidate to fill the position that I work closely with. We also finished our graduate student process. It is definitely a freeing feeling.

Last night as we were watching television, Miss Audrey decided that she wanted to serve Laurie and I on the plastic play plates she has. Initially, she was just giving us the plate and the play silverware. She then asked us if we wanted more. When Laurie said yes, she went to her play pot(the one Aunt Whit got her) and started "dishing" food out of the pot onto the plate. Then brought it over to us. We thought this was so cute and funny. It is proof that kids are paying way more attention than you think.

Oma joins the photo 

The Cook Family on Easter 

Feed the ducky 

Already and artist. 

The book purse 

What did Grammy and Papaw send? 

Okay, okay we get the hint!!!

Life here in Kansas has been more than hectic. At work I have been swamped with hiring committee responsibilities. Since my last post, I have traveled to Indianapolis to interview candidates for a job in our department, we have hired most of our new graduate students, and we have brought many candidates to campus for the our full time positions. In addition to that we are wrapping up the prospective student recruitment process for 2006-2007, so there have been various responsibilities with that. I am looking forward to having decisions made about these positions and wrapping up the year.

At home, things are good. I haven't seen home much in the last few weeks, but it is still there and Laurie and Audrey are doing well. We had a great Easter. Laurie's mom came to town on Friday afternoon and spent the weekend with us. On Saturday, I mowed our yard for the first time of the year(it was quite a bear to mow). On Sunday, the Easter bunny visited the Cook's in Kansas for the first time. He brought Audrey fun finger paints, watercolor paints, two cute puzzles. Plus, Audrey is very interested in dogs, so he knew to bring her "The Lady and the Tramp" DVD. We tried to steer clear of too much candy. At church on Sunday, Audrey participated in her first egg hunt. She had a great time and quickly caught on to what her task was. One of the cute little girls at church helped out and another shared her eggs with Audrey, but Audrey definitely got the hang of it and found a few eggs on her own.

After church on Sunday, many of the grad students and some of our friends here at K-State came to our house for a festive meal. We had 11 people over. We ate well. If you want a great grilled pork loin recipe let me know. We also played a couple rousing games of croquet.

We are still very involved at our church. Our church is going through some growing pains. Laurie and I have been participating in lots of discussions about how to move the church forward, while respecting the history. It looks like I might be stepping up to be the chair the committee that we currently sit on as well, because our current chair will be joining the church council.

We are looking forward to coming home to visit family and friends in May. We are hoping to head to St. Louis on the 12th. Then journeying down to Malden to help with all of the wedding preparations. I have to say that it is very startling to get your little sister's wedding invitation in the mail. I am very happy for her and Jon, but on some levels she will always be my little sisters. I am sure some of you can relate since you saw her grow up, too.

Well I think this gets us caught up. I hope to be better about this as we wind down the semester.