Photo of the day, Saturday

Today was our full day of what Spencer has been calling our "Man Fest" weekend! It started like any other Saturday, Men's group following by breakfast and chores. Then we started to do some stuff.

Spencer had a Patrol event where they got together and played video games. A far cry from the events that we had when I was in Scouts, but they had fun. After we dropped off Spencer, Ian and I attacked Wabasis sledding hill. It was an awesome day for sledding, it was snowing lightly and the temperature was in the upper 20's. Ian and I raced and wrestled and generally had a great time. Climbing up the hill was a toughie, but it was great. Then we went to lunch at Ian's favorite, Subway, followed up with a long tour through Blockbuster until we settled on a movie. We watched "Be Kind, Rewind", with Jack Black. It was a lot better than either of us thought it would be. We picked up Spencer and then Spencer and I watched "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives". It's a favorite show of his and we managed to locate the episode with Rosie's Diner on it so that was cool. We even recognized a couple of people that were in there eating.

Also, we got a letter from the school today. It seems that Spencer has been selected as one of the 6th grade Citizens of the Month. I showed Ian the letter and he read it, then he grunted. It's teenage thing, but this grunt, well, I could tell that it was based in jealousy. He's starting to see Spencer get recognition for things that he could have, but didn't think it was relevant. Now, I think he's reconsidering. Anyway, hat's off to Spencer January 2009 North Rockford Middle School Citizen of the Month!

Here's a shot from a few years after we had moved into our house here in Rockford. It was actually taken Sunday, ‎April ‎22, ‎2001. It sure is different in the back yard now. Of course the boys are way different too! That's Ian on the left and Spencer on the right.

Have a great day!

Pat

Photo of the day, Friday

Happy Friday! Crazy run to the weekend, but we're here now.



My trip yesterday, in highlights:

• Right after I left home a semi jackknifed and clsosed my freeway.


• Met some cool folks in Chicago and we discussed the fact that some airplane needed to have oxygen loaded in. We wondered if the little masks had dropped down on the earlier flight, hilarious!


• Meetings went well with my customer.


• Trip back I saw a woman that was on the flight from Chicago, she went to Greensboro to get a cat. I thought that they could all be gotten at the shelter. I have been corrected, please don't bother now.


• The timing worked out that I could jump ahead a flight and I got home 2 hours early.


• Called my one brother, and through a tough/rotten connection I found out that Dave and Jack had dinner.

It's snowing again. Just a statement.

Holly left us.

Sure, I'm hard to live with, but she left us!

OK, it's a Womens' retreat and she's a leader and leading worship/singing, but she left us.

I"ll figure it out, but SPAM may be involved. Who knows.

Rockford made the Grand Rapids paper again, the stories are about Hush Puppy Shoes, the city and a commentary. Click the link to see what was said, otherwise trust me to assure you that it was all good, Rockford truly is a special place to raise a family.

Below is the photo of the day. If you know the people, shout out the names, the prize is a great as you would expect, bragging rights and you get mentioned in this wildly popular blog.

Someone has a birthday fast approaching. A current photo would be better than what I have, trust me. ;-)

Go in God's peace.
Pat

Photo of the day, Wednesday

Today was a prep day for travel tomorrow. I am headed to Salisbury NC for a customer visit. Holly and I had a good dinner date tonight, it's fun to spend time with a good friend.

Thanks for the good wishes for Spencer, you are an awesome support group and I thank you for that too.

Sorry, no photo, maybe while I travel back, who knows.

Have a great day!
Pat

Photo of the day, Tuesday

Tuesday is better, but now it's snowing again.

Holly scooped me on the news about Spencer in her blog, but I'm going to brag too.

Spencer has always been interested in geography. He studies maps for fun. He can list all 50 states, and their capitals. He can give you driving directions from our house to Aunt Maureen's and if pressed, can get pretty close to Uncle David's house. He knows Geography so it was not a surprise that he entered the Geography Bee. He was the top 6th grader, in fact. But only 1 student from the middle school would be allowed to try for the State Bee. The competition was between 6th, 7th and 8th graders.

To the unitiated a Geography Bee is broken into 2 phases, the finals, where the constestants are eliminated until only 2 remain. Then the Championship round, best score out of three questions wins. Spencer won. It was awesome. I got goosebumps sitting there watching Spencer, and the other kids, answer questions that I sure couldn't have answered. The best line of the night was unrelated to geography though, it came when Spencer was asked if the moderator was his teacher. Spencer's response, "Why yes, that fine looking man is my Geography Teacher." If extra credit were available, he would have gotten the points at that time.

Here's his Championship pose.

Have a great day!

Pat

Photo of the day, Monday

Monday, argh! Today we did the thing that so many companies are doing, we reorganized. A few we had to layoff, others had job changes. I was affected as well. But all is OK, I still have a job, we still have some work and with the changes, I will be able to hopefully focus more on the large projects that we have going right now. I am blessed and I know it. The worst thing is that I knew well in advance and had it simmering in my mind for quite awhile. It's behind us, and we are now moving forward.

The following shot was taken by Holly the other night. She was working on her Worship Music set for the women's retreat that is this upcoming weekend. And I, in a frenzy brought on by being at a concert, Holly singing, wanted to call out my appreciation. But I didn't have a lighter or my cell phone and so I flipped open my laptop and cried out for "Freebird", that classic song by Lynyrd Skynyrd. It got a laugh, but not the song. Maybe next time.

Have a great day!

Pat

Photo of the day, Sunday

Today we have a Birthday Shout Out to my Nephew, Taylor. He's currently somewhere on the otherside of the world helping keep the peace in an undisclosed location in Iraq. Dave, please send along our Birthday wishes for a safe deployment. Here are a few photos that I have of Taylor.



This is from Christmas when he was a senior in high school.




He and David made a visit to Rockford and he schooled Ian on some skate board tricks. This series was taken using the burst mode on my camera. Pretty cool jump.










In Rockford the Corner Bar is a favorite family restaurant that is know for Chili Dogs. During this visit Taylor decided to attempt to get his name listed in the Hot Dog Hall of Fame. All is takes is eating 12 chili dogs in 4 hours. Taylor got to 10 - 1/2. The following shot was as fuzzy as I think Taylor felt after the attempt. By the way, the record is 43 chili dogs in 4 hours, just imagine walking around the store and purchasing the makings for 43 chili dogs, it's a lot of food. The current owner of the record is a woman, it took three tries, three weeks in a row to get this to happen. Amazing what some folks will do for that 15 minutes of fame. Anyway, here's Taylor's shot at the wall, I think this was hot dog #7, he's still smiling.




The following is submitted by John Sipley, my cousin on my Dad's side. We reconnected last summer at my Mom's funeral. While I haven't met his family, it's great that we are reconnecting in this way. Isn't the Internet wonderful?


John says:
My wife and I, Rebecca (most everyone calls her Becky except me) moved our family to Des Moines IA Feb 28 1998 for a church. Best thing we ever did. At present I am a consultant contracting through my own business for Titan Corporation at their tire plant. I provide networking and PC support. Becky works for Wells Fargo as an Implementation Specialist. For example, You have a business selling widgets and you want to sell them using credit cards in multiple locations, she would make sure you got the correct credit card machines setup the way you need delivered to where they need to be. Caleb, our oldest is presently attending ORU in Tulsa working on a degree in Hebrew and Greek. Ian Is attending LeTourneau University in Longview TX working on an engineering degree and our daughter Brianna (Bree) is a senior at Iowa Christian Academy. She hops to attend LeTourneau next fall.
That is a quick rundown on our family.
John Sipley


It's funny isn't it, the new subscribers seem to get with the program of sending a picture in and I will post it. Hmm.

Have a great day!
Pat