Thomas Ninke Senior Center

The Thomas Ninke Senior Center is officially open. We were very fortunate to have good weather and several wonderful friends and family members present. Family members in attendance included: dad's brother Don and his wife Vivian; dad's cousins Carol and Margaret; dad's mother-in-law Margaret Klinkerman; Jim, his wife Shelly, and their two girls Katy and Kristy; Judi and her daughter Madison; and myself and Tammy. Jennifer and her husband Jeremy were not able to attend, since they are expecting their first baby in about 2 weeks and are not able to travel at this time.

The apartment complex has 16 2-bedroom units, and 64 1-bedroom units. The four-plex buildings have a good amount of yard in between them, and the landscaping is complete. The apartment complex is about 80% full, and they expect it to reach capacity by the end of the month.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony:



{Jim, Judi, Tom & Grandma K.}

Grounds:


One of the Units at the Senior Center:

For more information on the Senior Center check out the articles on the web:

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/793/story/293942.html

http://recenter.tamu.edu/mnews/newsSearch.asp?MODE=MNEWS&CID=42824

http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=86915561

Huntsman Promotion Announcement

Tom Ninke has been promoted to the position of Environmental Team Lead of the EHS Center of Excellence (COE), reporting to Ed Gunderson, Manager Americas COE. Tom served as a Senior Staff Environmental Engineer within the COE group for two years, where he effectively executed projects to resolve environmental compliance matters, provide consistency across manufacturing locations, and improve environmental performance at the Americas sites. Tom has 12 years of diverse EHS experience, having held various roles with Huntsman, MEMC Pasadena, ENSR International, and Millennium Petrochemicals.

Way to go, Thomas! ;o)

Barnum & Bailey Circus

Last weekend Tom and I went with Judi, Madison, Shelly, Jim and Kristy to the circus. Not sure if this was Kristy's first time to the circus but it was Madison's and my first 'real' circus. We had a great time. I can't decide if I had more fun watching the performers or Kristy and Madison. They both were super excited!! While we were walking in Judi asked Madison what we were going to see at the circus. Madison replied "Clowns, elephants, clowns, tigers". I loved how she said elephants. Way to cute!

I think the elephants were my favorite but the tigers were pretty darn cool too.

I definitely did not like this performance. Way to high and they were doing it right in front of us. Just watching the poles go back and forth made me dizzy.

Judi called later that evening after Madison had gone to sleep. Madison asked if she could go again to the circus. Guess she must of liked the clowns, elephants and tigers. Lol.

Of course, I have to add a few pictures of the nieces!

Thanks Judi for inviting us!!!
--Tammy

Traveling Made Simple

Sometimes things just go your way. The lines in at Intercontinental Airport were short, the seat next me was not occupied, I slept well on the plane and the hotel had a room ready when I arrived. I couldn’t hope for anything more except the trip home will be just as easy.

I am back in Petersfield this week. Then home again on Saturday.
--Tammy

Jason Blaine is HERE!

Margie, Blaine and Jason are doing great. Jason was born on July 18,2008 at 5:17 pm. He weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs 14 ounces and is 21 inches long.


Here are a few pictures of the cutest addition to the family:








Congratulations to Margie and Blaine!!!!!

Photography Class

My photography online class started on Thursday. Super excited about it. It means I will be taking more photos... which you know I take lots all ready. The class is designed to cover the basics of photography. Hopefully will learn how to use my camera to get better photographs and not just use the automatic settings.

For my first week of class, I was suppose to get out the camera and practice. I called my sister to see if Carter was available. ;o) He is such a happy baby and loves to smile so it was not to hard to get good photos. The only issue I had was he wiggles A LOT which means blurry hands etc.

Here are a few of my favorites. (Few might not be the appropriate word... lol)

Carter can sit up all by himself now (such a big boy!)-

He has a thing with his feet. If he notices his feet they automatically go into his mouth. Feet go into his mouth even with shoes on. LOL.


Carter is 8 months old now... can you believe it?

--Tammy

Olso, Norway {Again}

The weather was gorgeous while in Oslo this past week. (Highs of 70 to 75 degrees) Beat the Texas heat lately. This is my first trip to Oslo in the summer season. The pictures speak for themselves...

Tuesday night I went with Arnt Erik to an Henie-Onstad Art Museum and had dinner. The Museum restaurant was next to the water. Beautiful views. Unfortunately I didn't take an pictures. More about Sonja Henie-Onstad http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96apr/henie.html

Baard and his wife took me on a harbor tour the last day I was in Oslo. The tour was a 50 min. boat tour and it was an interesting view of the harbor and the city, the ancient fortress of Akershus, and islands in the inner part of the Oslofjord.

{Light House}

{Fortress}

UK, Petersfield - Keys, Milk & more.

Did you know:
1) The petro (gas) prices in the UK are around $12 USD a gallon. I just thought our prices were horrible. They also have seen huge price increases in food.

2) They still use keys that look like this:

3)They have milk delivered for coffee/tea and it package in reusable glass jars:

{milk bottles on the back step to the office}

I really do not find many huge difference between England and the US. There are the "wrong" side of the road driving and the "funny" terms they use for certain things but while in the stores I recognized many of the brands I buy at home. I even got accustom to going to the "wrong" side of the car to be a passenger and looking to the proper side of the road while crossing intersections.

-Tammy

Travel to Petersfield UK (Again)

Howdy, all.
I made it to the UK without too much trouble. The gentleman sitting next to me on the plane was an extremely chatty fellow. It was nice for a while but then when I wanted to sleep or watch a movie… not so good. Tom bought me noise canceling headphones a while back and those definitely helped with the situation. LOL. I think I may have slept only 2 hrs.
The drive from the London-Gatwick airport to Petersfield is about an hour. The driver was super nice and has a shitzu named Lucky. If Jim is taking me to the airport this next Saturday then he is going to bring Lucky with him. He took me the country route but I forgot to get my camera out of the boot (trunk) before we left the airport. I enjoyed learning about some of the small townships long the way.

Jim dropped me off at the hotel around 9:30 am and the lovely wonderful hotel clerk informed me that I couldn’t check in early. She mentioned once a room was available she would find me in the hotel restaurant. Check out time here is noon and check in time is 2:00 pm. Guess who didn’t come get me… I finally ventured back around 1:45 pm after a cup of coffee and lunch to see if they had a room available. Of course by that point they did. All she said is she was having a busy morning. Mean while I was about to pass out from no sleep. Lovely.

I came to the room unpacked, took a shower and then took an awesome 3 hr nap. Mucho better.
The Premier Inn isn’t really the “Premier” hotel. It is nice enough and the room is fairly big for a European room. No internet, no telephone in the room. It is the most convenient of the hotels in Petersfield and the hotel restaurant is very good. There isn’t air conditioning except for the fan and open window.
View out my window:

Car Park (Parking Lot) with the standard cars here:

The air conditioner:

Good Birthday

I had a good birthday week. The week started off with celebrating with Mom & Dad in Victoria. I received a bunch of cards that had me laughing & dinner with Tom, Mel, John and Carter. Tom bought me some really pretty flowers too. Thanks to you guys for all the birthday wishes!!

Pictures from birthday dinner:

{Tom & Birthday Girl}

{John & Mel}

{Cutie, Carter Joseph}