Teen Party

Tonight's Ian's birthday party. For entertainment he invited a few of his gang over. In the photo below we have Spencer, Austin, Shaun, Ian, Owen and Cory.

It's really loud and I'm already tired. How late can I go? It can't be much later, that's for sure. They're good guys, but really loud and talk pretty goofy. I was out of touch with their coded language as soon as they went to kindergarten.

Most of the day Holly and I were in some Small Group Leader training. I like learning new stuff so it was a good day.

Have a great day!

Pat

Happy Friday!

Hey everyone, how you doing! It's been a great week with a really wet and rainy ending.

The boys and I are hoping some of you would be interested in buying popcorn to benefit the Boy Scouts. Please send me an email for details.

Here's a series of photos from my nephew Mike of his really cute daughter Lexi. Since Mike didn't give me the context of these photos, I'm going to make some stuff up.

Here we have Lexi getting ready for her first pumpkin carving.


Believe it or not, Lexi is an aspiring ballerina.


Lexi is also familiar with the Petticoat Junction style of cuteness. I'm thinking Lexi Joe here!

As you can tell, she's a little angel and a cute one to boot!

For some reason, this photo make me consider the political aspirations that people sometimes have. Pretty sure I can vote for Lexi and improve our lot in politics.

As sand flows through an hour glass, do are the days of our lives...

Are you sure this is just a flower?

My Great Uncle Pat is Awesome!

So long, and have a great fall!

I haven't met this awesome looking kid in person yet, but I really like her looks. Best of luck to her and her parents. I sure am glad I had boys, cuz with a cutie like this at home, I'd have had to invest more in locks.

Have a great day!

Pat

Thursday's are tough

Have you ever come to the conclusion that a certain day of the week is a certain way? Most people think Monday's are usually pretty tough. For me, Thursdays are a bear. By the time I get to Thursday I have spent the previous 3 days up early, out late... By the time I get to Thursday I'm usually pretty tired and yet I get up extra early for a men's group. Last night I reset the alarm time, like always, but I forgot to press the "On" button. Luckily I awoke with 20 minutes to spare before I needed to be out the door. I hit it on the run and was running late the whole day. Tomorrow will be better!

On to more positive things; I have a Birthday Shout Out going tonight for my Sister-In-Law Allison. She is a peach of a lady. She's always treated us warmly and even allows her beautiful children to hang out with my two hooligan boys. She's married to Chris, the tallest in the family, but not the cutest. It's interesting to note that both Allison and Chris don't use actual photo's of themselves on Facebook, that social network thing that's all the rage. Allison has chosen a Lego Pirate Lady to be her Avatar. Chris' is some sort of cartoon creation that looks like it's from the early 60's. kind of a "Father Knows Best" look.

Anyway, here's the photo montage to my favorite sister-in-law in St. Paul, Allison!

Here you can see that they have a couple of boys that use the fridge for art and Allison proudly displays it.


Allison is a pretty good photographer, in fact she's way better than I am. Here she is caught with the camera to her eye, always a good way to tell a serious shutterbug.



A loving Mom with her youngest, Xander.


Never afraid to try new things, here she goes on a Segway. You go Girl!


Allison, you are awesome, make sure that Chris takes good care of you for your Birthday! Happy Birthday from the Michigan Young's!

Have a great day!
Pat

Are you still having fun? I am!

Hello and how are you? It's pretty great here today. The weather was awesome, and I had a meeting over on the lake shore and so I was able to enjoy some of the views, well, at least on the drive back. I drove over in the dark and rain.

Can you believe the sickness we have going on here? Many of the small schools are closing due to illness. Funny thing is, I was studying American History with Ian tonight, he's got an exam tomorrow. I don't really like history, and in 1925 we were hit with a flu bug that affected 25% of America. Wow, déjà vu all over again.

Finally, we have an Anniversary Shout Out for Tom and Reen. Tomorrow they hit the magical number __ years of being married. I left that intentionally blank, I mean, look at this couple in the following pictures, can you believe that it's more than 10 years? (You two owe me!!)

Tom and Reen visiting us in Michigan

Some Thanksgiving weekend, note the bare tree, we always cut the tree, but rarely see the tree trimmed. That's ok, just a marker on the time frame.

This came from a scrap book that Holly made.

Hey there Reen and Tom, our hope and prayer for you is that you have an awesome year, cuz you two are awesome!

Have a great day!

Pat

Extra, Extra Read All About It!!!

Ian turns 15, parents still sane. It's a miracle!

I am exhausted from my day of travel yesterday and all that I did today, but I am here to make sure to give my biggest, baddest Birthday Shout Out to Ian! Happy Birthday Buddy! You are turning out to be a really neat guy that's a lot of fun to hang out with. Your Mom and I pray that you have an awesome year as you continue to grow and mature into the person that God had in mind all the time!

Now of course, there must be photos!

Ian's a great cousin, of course Nick thinks he talks too much.

World traveler, Canada's in the back ground, eh?!

A sympathetic brother

A follower of Christ!

Good looking, from the Young side of course!


A bit of a dare devil, from Holly's side!

A cake eater!

And my pal!

Happy Birthday Ian, you are loved!

Dad (aka Pat, and have a great day too!)

Happy Sunday

Well, I finally warmed up from our camping trip and even better, I slept like a rock.

Interesting thing, I have used my new bite splint 2 nights and it seems to quiet my snoring enough that Spencer even noticed that I was quieter last night. The neighbors are all probably wondering why I didn't solve this problem earlier. I'm sure I kept them awake during the warm summer evenings when all the windows were open. I think that this will truly help.

Holly sang today, I love seeing her on the stage singing away. It's awesome!

Cindy sent one last shot from her trip to visit Robert. Here we have Robert, Cindy and cousin Lynne in front of the Freemont Troll, under a bridge in Seattle. Pretty cool.

Off to visit a customer tomorrow, will be a long day, with lots of driving. Best of all, I have someone going with me to share the driving, it's going to be great to catch up on the stuff in my briefcase.

Have a great day,

Pat