Ice On The Pond

These geese got a bit confused when they came in for a landing on the pond and discovered it was frozen. All they could do was stand and look at each other!




Eventually they had enough and took off!

The Goats

We have been helping our neighbors with their goats recently. This one insisted on having his picture taken for the blog. They really are a lot of fun!

Christmas

Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas is a wonderful time of year. It makes it even better when you can celebrate with family. Cheri's parents had a chance to visit over Christmas. They work for Campus Crusade and live in Tennessee.




We used every last bit of snow to have snowball fights over the holidays!




As you can see, we did get some snow around Christmas. The weather forecast is for 1 or 2 more inches of snow tonight!

Snow Day

The snow started rolling in this morning. It was blowing pretty hard but it was sure beautiful. A good day to stay inside!




The wind was blowing so hard our one dog just closed her eyes.





More snow coming in...

Staff Christmas Party

We had a GREAT staff Christmas party this week. More food than you can imagine. This is a great event to get all the staff together and just eat and have fun.




Here is a picture of some of the gang at my table. These are three of the outstanding workers from our buildings and grounds department. Not only are they hard workers, they are a lot of fun!





Here are our undergraduate admissions counselors. They would love to talk with you about coming to OWU. Dr. Piper, our President, is in the lower left corner.

Here Comes The Ice

We got some fun ice today. It was a good day to even do a little sledding behind our house!



The ice is still coming...




I remember sitting here drinking iced tea this summer. Now we're shoving ice down each others boots!

Order of the Arrow Washita Lodge

Last night was the winter banquet for the Washita Lodge. There were a lot of awards given and a great dinner with arrowmen and their families! Above are the officers of the lodge.

We had a great dinner of steak, potatoes, rolls, salad, and wonderful desserts. Nobody went home hungry!



It was a great night for families to celebrate the achievements of their arrowmen!




Steve (on the right), presents an award for outstanding service to Brian!





Tom (on the right) is the lodge advisor and was the master of ceremonies for last night's event. He is presenting awards to outstanding arrowmen.

OWU December 2007 Graduation

Today was the December graduation for OWU. We had about 150 students graduate. Here is a picture of the stage and diplomas before graduation started.




Students and faculty are getting ready for graduation rehearsal here in Lyon Hall on the OWU campus.





In a few minutes this chapel will be packed with graduates and their families.






Soon this platform will be full of faculty!







After four years on undergraduate work or several years of graduate work, the students are waiting for one of these!








Here is one of our graduates who has already moved on to graduate work. Congrats, Eric!







Professor Cochran (on the far right) with an excited graduate.

Bartlesville 2007 Christmas Parade

Last night was the official 2007 Bartlesville Christmas Parade. Was it ever fun! The Bartlesville Police Department and their Explorer Post led the parade. There were about 66 different entries for this one. Hey, Dallas, I think that's you holding the police banner!



Here are members of Boy Scout Troop 2000. If you follow my blog, you'll know I think they are the best troop around! They marched with Cub Pack 150 last night.





Here's Cub Pack 150 getting ready to hand out candy to the crowd.





Here's one of the floats in the parade.






There were a bunch of nice floats with a lot of candy throwing last night!

Dr. Brian Turner Receives Award

Dr. Brian Turner was voted the "Best University Professor" in Bartlesville by the local newspaper. Dr. Turner is the one who had his class make boats and float them on the OWU pond to learn about buoyancy. He does a lot of fun things in his classes. He tied in the voting with Dr. Bob Bonner who wasn't able to get his award that day.

I had the pleasure of giving the award to Dr. Turner who is standing on the left.

Prelude to Christmas

For the past four years, OWU has presented "Prelude to Christmas" as a way of giving back to the Bartlesville community for all the community does to support OWU throughout the year.

This event has about one hour of Christmas music from the Bartlesville symphony and then everyone goes outside for hot chocolate and cookies. After everyone is enjoying the great snacks, the fireworks start.

If you look closely at the picture above, the man in the suit is our President, Dr. Everett Piper. He was welcoming everyone just before the music started.




This event is held in the OWU chapel and is well attended by the Bartlesville community.





The fireworks were great!!





It was a fun evening thinking of the things we should be thankful for as well as preparing our hearts for the Christmas season. This is a great event!!!

Putting Up the Christmas Tree

Our family tradition is to put up our Christmas tree and decorations the day after Thanksgiving. The picture above is how it all started. The entire gang is into the action.

Here are the two elves who helped put everything together.

Of course, we couldn't do it without a good fire going. Here is the master of the flame who took care of the fire all day.

...and finally the finished product. This is my favorite time of the year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from the gang!

A Beautiful Bartlesville Sunday Afternoon

Cheri had a fun afternoon riding in this beautiful November weather. It was 75 degrees today!



It was such a nice day even the horse was smiling!




Everyone got a chance to ride a little bit today!!!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

Here are two wonderful OWU students. They have big Thanksgiving plans! Maybe see snow for the first time right Jess?



It's almost time for the Prelude to Christmas event on campus. It's a night of wonderful music and activities. Our great buildings and ground crew have placed the lanterns all along the sidewalks on campus. It is beautiful at night.




OK...I just had to put this one in. It is science experiment time for Troop 2000. Pretty cool stuff...

Another Fun Night

There were a lot of different things happening around Bartlesville last night. The picture above is of the Symphony Ball. Bartlesville has a wonderful symphony!!! A few minutes after this picture was taken the room was full or people for this great event. It was a lot of fun!




On campus "The Real Deal" was taking place. This is a game show where everyone dresses up and plays games to win money and prizes. This one you really need to see. On stage is the student who won the prize for the best costume. It was called "Charlie Brown's Christmas". This is one campus event you don't want to miss.

Order of the Arrow National Service Day

Today was the national service day for the Order of the Arrow. Lodges from all over the nation participated in events to help make their community a better place and to give cheerful service to others.

The local Order of the Arrow Lodge is the Washita Lodge #288. Above are the arrowmen who participated in this event today. The Washita Lodge cleaned the inside of the building and raked leaves for the Concern Center in Bartlesville. The Concern Center is located on Penn Ave. and is really a remarkable place devoted to helping others. The center provides food and services for those who find themselves in rough spots financially.

In the picture above you can see Susan, who is the director of the Concern Center. Second from the left is Daniel who also works at the center. The rest of the people in the picture are from the Washita Lodge. On the far right is Tom who is the Lodge advisor.

To learn more about Order of the Arrow (which is associated with the Boy Scouts of America) you can visit http://www.main.oa-bsa.org/. To learn more about our local Washita Lodge you can visit http://www.cherokeebsa.org/oa/index.html.