T gets a surprise award

Tonight we attended the WVU alumni award dinner. Basically there are a lot of alumni and some alumni, professors, and students get awards. Tonight was a little extra special because Tristan was receiving an award- but he didn't know it until he got there. I was surprise that he didn't piece it together before we got there- he's usually too smart and attentive to detail for me to ever pull on over on him, but this time I managed to surprise him. His professor Dr. Anderson nominated him for the Kevin Kinsley Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student in Division of Forestry. It's an award for the grad student who not only is a good student, but goes above and beyond to help out where he can with other grad students and extra projects. That is definitely Tristan this year.

The ironic thing was that because Tristan has been helping with so many extra projects, the forestry yearbook let him pick the yearbook dedication and he and Ann Anderson wrote a dedication to Dr. Anderson. So, Dr. Anderson was also surprised with an award. neato.

T's surprise award

G's B-day

I love celebration and tradition. That is one reason why my birthday officially begins on April 1st and continues until I'm done celebrating it (somewhere around the third week in April). Unofficially, my birthday begins with the first inklings of spring and may or may not involve a compound Easter celebration. This year, spring, Easter, and April all came at once and melded into a fabulous few weeks of food, cards, gifts, warm wishes, and pastel colored eggs. You've already seen pictures from our BBQ celebration. Here are some pictures from our impromptu gift-opening ceremony- be warned, this was in the midst of a homework session so I don't look so fancy.

04 Apr- b-day 2009

The official b-day will pass quietly, but I'm hoping to squeeze in a trip to the Pittsburgh zoo sometime this month...

April Party

Yesterday T and I hosted a party for friends from church and school.

Last week was so beautiful in terms of weather, but when Monday of this week rolled around- rain, and lots of it. Then Tuesday- snow. Wednesday- snow! Thursday was cold and drizzly and Friday was supposed to be more of the same. But, during our BBQ, we had perfect weather! Pretty amazing.

We had "corn-holer"- one of the most popular WV games, it's like bean-bag toss, Frisbee, and bocce ball.

Food- enchiladas, ham, pizza, crispy hot dogs (I'm out of practice w/ grilling), chicken shish-ka-bobs, pasta side dishes, and CHOCOLATE CAKE! ;)

When it got dark, we came inside and played Guitar Hero and Singstar.

It was a good time.

(Bring on Spring, Bring on Easter!, Yay for April)

April

To see photos, check out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/naturalistg/April?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ7VzKG4maHL5AE&feat=directlink