Friday Follies!

It's a momentous occasion tomorrow, Maureen turns FORTY FREAKING NINE! That seems like a great reason to offer a Birthday Shout Out. What can I say, I've know her most of my life, only my 2 older brothers have I known longer. She's a pretty cool chick that's held up well for the years and she's still got what it takes to have some fun. Here's my "Montage to Maureen".

The early years, I was looking for a shot where she was as cute as a bug with a fist full of cards, but alas, it was not to be found. Here she is probably in 3rd grade.

This was one of the rare 4 generations shots; Ivy/Nanny, Maureen, Mom/Vonda and Grandma/Grace. The tales I could tell about the women of this family!

Nearly the same vintage, but now we have me, Grandpa/Lawrence, Chris and Maureen. Do we look thrilled for the moment or what? And I wonder why my kids won't pose at this age?

From last Thanksgiving. Maureen and her pies. She's come a long way hasn't she! I really like this shot, I hope she does too, well, at least enough to forgive the others.

From this summer, she and Tom each took turns in this Aerobatic plane. You go girl!

After that, well, honestly, the week was pretty good, it had some highs, it had some lows, the boys are due back tomorrow really early and that's cool.

Have a great weekend!

Pat

Thursday thoughts

Random thoughts with no rhyme or reason...

Maureen's turning 49 - Yikes! That's my little sister!

The boys have been gone most of the week and we've not really done much with the time, we're middleaged!

I am coordinating a trip to Mackinac for the scouts and I'm tired of answering the same question many times.

Brett Farve is considering becoming a Viking. Stay retired, the endorsements will be enough. Of course as forgetful he is(Am I retired?) , he'd be a great poster boy for the Alzhiemers foundation.

I have become a minor fan for the Detroit Tigers, this only occured when the "classic rock" stations started carrying the games and that's the station that my garage radio is set to. By the way, they are ahead of the Twins.

Here's a random shot from our Blues on the Rogue from several weeks ago. This little cutie was more entertaining than the band.

Missing the boys,
Pat

Life gets so confusing!

I know, "long time no post!" My fault, I was: a) busy, b) trying to do some planning, c) Holly and I are home alone and the house echos without the boys, d) all of the above. Yeah, it's D for sure!

Work is pretty mellow, well, not really, but it's slower than I have had it before and it's OK. Working on some cool stuff and dealing with some tough issues with customers. But on the whole, it's a good gig! I have to travel to Texas soon, another trip to Iowa is bound to be needed and I just don't know how I can avoid an east coast swing in the very near future.

At Spencer's urging, we tried to set up a family reunion of sorts for Labor Day. Right after we posed the question about a get together we got an invitation to a wedding. Nephew Matt has met a beautiful girl named Karissa and "She said YES!" Very cool, wedding is set for mid September. Additionally, Nephew Taylor is coming home on leave and I would love to see him. Could we make all that work with no extra vacation? Probably not, but gosh it would be a fun few days, that's for sure.

The boys are at NTS, Never The Same Camp. It's a youth camp in New York. Wow, are they a long way from home or what? I know Dave, Taylor's been away longer and farther, but he's pretty close to grown up. Ian called tonight and they're having fun. He sounded so grown up on the phone.

All in all, pretty quiet here.

Have a great day!

Pat