we are fairly strong on nicknames and like to have a whole family of monikers to choose from for those of us that are near and dear to our hearts.

Rooty Jr.

ruthie's family always called her "rutie" with a nice spanish accent thrown in. well, one night we were out with friends very late at "ihop" and were being very silly. while looking through the menu we came across a menu item called "rooty jr." and could not stop laughing. the inspiration...

so the name was born and continues to this day!

gush, gushin, the gush, etc..., plus buford

this one is a bit simpler story. while a pledge in a fraternity at the university of texas , my pledge brother was quizzed about the names of his pledge brothers one night while being hazed. he got all the names correct and then came to my name. now guten is not a difficult name to remember, but he was totally perplexed and spurted out the name "gushin", which has stuck since. gush is a shorter version of the name.

the buford is a name that david somehow came up for me and has sort of stuck.

for our three boys...

elden

this is josh, or yoshi if you prefer and he is the oldest at 24. he is living in our new house in college station, texas at the moment with david.

midlin

the middle son, david, who is studying physics at a & m university and is 20 currently.

youngin

this one's for jon, the youngest, at 16. he lives at home with us and misses his 2 older brothers very much.