Photo of the day, Saturday, November 1, 2008

Happy first day of November.

Also, I have it on good authority that today is my Niece Kelsey's birthday. Kelsey is an awesome young woman that I have had the pleasure of watching grow up in the snap shots of visits, 2 to 4 times a year. I don't have a recent photo of her, but let's all wish her a Happy Day!

We did our chores today and managed to get quite a bit of our weekly, monthly and semi-annual chores done today. It was an impressive use of our time. Of course now that that's out of the way, I'll be done for the year. Just kidding Holly.

Tonight we had training for the Children's Ministry that I work in at church. We don't call it Sunday School, it's The Fort. I'm not a Sunday school teacher, I'm a small group leader. I have talked about this before, probably when I was still doing the email gig, but I really think that this is what it's supposed to be, a group of people learning and studying together. I think so to such an extent that I am a member of a small group on Tuesday nights, another on Thursday mornings, another on Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings I lead one with youngsters. It is all as it should be and I love it. Without this method of balance my life would still be all about me. While it would be interesting, it's not really a life unless you share the road with others.

Here's one of Ian. He was watching a show with Holly and managed to look up for a second for me. He's been in his PJ's all day, kind of funny, but then I recall days when I did that as a teen.

Have a great day!

Pat

Photo of the day, Friday, 10/31/08

Happy Halloween! I have a secret to admit to. While I really don't care to "dress up" for this holiday, I love seeing the kids in their costumes. I get a bonus time with trick or treating because at work the day care that's owned by the same owner as our company comes over and does a trick or treat parade.

This year the people that run the day care were dressed as three of the Teletubbies If you don't know the Teletubbies, that link will enlighten you. I would use that link with caution.

Anyway, the kiddies looked great and then the factory folk took the stage. We had a pretty tame time, some years it's pretty racy, with really only half of the costumes kind of edgy. I know, but it's still a success. I toyed with the idea of publishing the winners photo, but I didn't ask and some of them work for me so it's best to pass on that. The winners were a mimic of a Robert Palmer video called; "Addicted to Love". They nailed it and won.

Anyways, here's me doing my best lazy Indiana Jones.

Have a great day!

Pat

Photo of the day, Thursday, 10/30/08

I spent a lot of time driving between our customer and the factory today. It sounds pretty unproductive, but I can get a lot done with a cell phone. I have a headset, so I can usually keep my mind on the road well enough.

It was really cold this morning, in the 20's. I did notice that the prediction was for warm weather in the afternoon and sure enough, it was warm. Since the prediction was for warm weather the motorcycles were out pretty good. It made sense this afternoon, but this morning, it was too cold. You can tell I've had my bike for a few years, I have no desire to drive year round any more.

Holly works part time at a photographer. The photographer goes to our old church and was involved in creating a photo directory. Very cool, I have trouble with names and that really helps get me on track. Anyway, when Holly got to work today, this photo was on her desk. It's a family shot that they used way back when. My hair was less white back then, but the large M formed on my forehead was still pretty prominent. The photographer was Doug Krampe of Aspen Photography. Holly helped on the website too. ( I sure hope I got the credits right on this one)

Have a great day!

Pat

Photo of the day, Wednesday, 10/29/08 part duex

I just realized that I Named yesterday day's note wrong, so now I am disinclined to write.

The flight to Moline and back was really awesome. It was a perfect day for flying in a small plane. Lake Michigan looked calm, but if we really studied it, we could see whitecaps.

The business portion of the trip was as dull as anticipated, but the food was memorable. I'm sorry, but we're in Iowa, the bread basket of the United States and the served canned corn. Canned Corn? It just didn't seem right some how.

Yesterday's mystery headstander...It was me. Holly said the Viking sweatshirt gave me away.

Anyway, here's another from the past. It's Holly when we first got her the big diamond ring for our engagement. Just kidding, it's a special effect shot of my Grandma Ames, aka Grace. I never did figure out what Grandpa was trying to do.


Have a great day!
Pat

Photo of the day, Wednesday, 10/28/08

Work is still work, really busy and really crazy. Tomorrow we are flying down to Muscatine for the annual Supplier Day with one of our large customers. 4 of us are going. I like it when 4 of us go, we get to charter a plane and save some time.

Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) was pretty good tonight. The teaching leader was trying to get us to envision the size of the Exodus, when the Israelites were fleeing from Egypt. The group was 600,000 men. With wives and children they estimate the group at around 2 to 3 million people. Lessons in perspective:
2 million people walking 2 abreast is a line about 40 miles long
Imagine the amount of food each day to keep them going
Imagine the amount of water that's needed
Imagine the amount of waste that the last few people had to go around that were at the end of that 40 mile long line of people.

Here's someone willing to stand on their head to learn more about this. Anyone know who it is?

Have a great day!
Pat

Photo of the day, Monday, October 27, 2008

Today was a bit a of a stress test. The boss was back from his travels. The customer is hot after getting stuff that we are hot after not giving them. It was a tense session that's for sure. Just when I was certain that it couldn't get any worse, we finished up and I headed to another project in the same building. Much calmer, much lower tooling dollar spend.

Tonight at scouts the boys had their Scoutmaster conference and Board of Review. They both passed and we are pleased to announce that they are now 1st class scouts. The next rank is Star Scout. Looks pretty easy to me.

Here's a shot of us after we got home. I used the timer feature and we're pleased with the result. To fit in I had to scrunch down and Ian loved it that he's nearly as tall as me.

Have a great day!

Pat

Photo of the day, Sunday, 10/26/08

Sunday night, we are winding down from a pretty busy day, but not so busy that I wasn't able to sneak in a nap. I love my Sunday naps.

Today at church we had Baptisms. That's always a pretty cool deal. Having been a Christian for only a few years I have limited visibility as to all the ways to baptise. Holly, the boys and I were all baptized at Bridgeway in a hot tub. Later they did a few, in nice weather, in the Rogue River also once at the North Rockford Swimming pool. At Frontline it's a metal horse trough, kinda basic, but it seems to work well, and once, on a hot Sunday, at Myers Lake, we just carved out some space and dunked em. That was pretty cool.

Today was different. 2nd service there were 7 that had signed up to get baptized. After the 7 the band went back up and were going to play a couple more songs and we'd be on our way home. But the worship leader stopped the pastor from sitting down, saying that "God had put on his heart that there were some more that needed to be baptized. I thought, "Yeah, right. It's 40 degrees and rainy, if you didn't bring your gear, no way was someone going to get dunked."

Boy, was I wrong. Church lasted another half hour as people started coming out of the crowd to publicly proclaim their faith in Jesus Christ. I was floored. There were no towels. They just emptied their pockets and climbed into the horse trough. They just kept coming, kids, teens, young people, older people. God moved them all to action. I was amazed. What a phenomenal day.

I was looking for a photo from one of our baptisms, but I couldn't locate one. As I was searching I came across these. I have always loved this series. They are old, but they are fun.





Have a great day!
Pat