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Mike Young turns another year older today!

Yeah, I know, your wondering, how does he manage to look so young?  Cuz he's a Young, that's the simple answer, and tonight, that's good enough!

Here we have Matt and Jamie, a cute couple.  Nice to have a beautiful friend to rely on.

 Here's Mike and his crew, I only know half of the group, but that half, well, it's a great half, so the other guys must be cool too!

How could you not trust a Dad with a Spam hat and shirt?

Don't trust Spam?  Well, at least you know he's true in the Viking gear!

Mike, the miles are many, the times been too long, but from my glimpses you seem to have it all!

Have an awesome Birthday!
Uncle Pat

Back from the brink

What a smashing weekend!

I was able to see the Iowa State at Iowa Football game, live and in person, actually at Kinnick stadium.  Not a big deal to most people, but I truly love college football, they have energy that pro sports can only dream about.  Here's how it played out for me this weekend...

I work with a guy that has become a great friend and he got us great seats at the game, and in to a great tailgate.  We met some good folks at the tailgate and we seemed to be pretty well received, it was weird, going on to their turf, it's been a long time since I was able to be objective about Iowa Football Fans.  Anyway, they had a great location, the tailgate was about 2 blocks from the stadium and the food was really good and really plentiful.  I'm going to skip over the game, it was painful and that's enough said.

The people that I met this weekend were truly wonderful, caring people that wanted their team to win, but were kind and respectful when we talked.  When they found out that we were from Michigan, they first wondered why we chose to come to this game, but that was easy to explain, and they also wanted to know our allegiance after "The Game", well, that was easy, I really have no allegiance in the Big Ten, so pulling for Iowa this year seems easy.

Here's what the stadium looked like from the North end.  I know what you're thinking, "The corner seats are the worst! "  I am here to tell you that you are wrong, there are no bad seats at the game, because, You're at the game!










College football is so much fun because it's so open, just like as I remember thinking about my own future, "All things are possible and we're going to win!" 

After the game we went back and gathered our respective kids and went out.  While we walked around Sammy tried to educate us, well you can see the result.   The gang was going to be fun, but that was on their terms.  They were hungry, can't you tell?!

It was a great trip!  Thanks Sammy and Ellen for everything!  Best to your kiddos too!












Have a great day!
Pat

Go Cyclones!

This Saturday is the Iowa State vs Iowa football game.  Holly and I are heading that way to hopefully attend the game.  The boys are tagging along to play video games in Iowa.  The Cyclones are not favored going into this, but then again, we usually aren't.  We're connecting with a friend that started out as a business acquaintance and has become a good friend.  Anyway, we're off to the game, and hopefully we'll find some reasonable tickets outside the stadium.  You see, I forgot to get with the Alumni Association and am stuck with looking for "On site alternatives".  We'll see.

I am not a crazy fan, but I do like the Cyclones.  That said, we'll you have to like their look to wear the gear.  The top is the logo that they've had for several years.  I think it combines the Cardnal and the Cyclone very well.  The one on the bottom is the new one, pretty much leaving Cy out of the logo. I like the simplicity of the new one, but feel sorry for Cy, losing his job.  (Can you say; "pursing other interests."?

Today we also have a Birthday Shout Out for my sister Molly.  She's a pretty cool chick, that's the youngest but wise beyond her years.  I don't have a lot of photos of Molly but let's see what I can come up with.  With Molly, while I have limited photos, I really wanted to make sure that everyone could see what I see, a beautiful wife, mother, sister and friend. 

Molly and Rick, the early years, outside good old 1400.

In this we have Rick, Reed and Molly, I'm pretty sure Christmas in Kasson.

This is my most recent shot of Molly and by far my favorite.  She came to Illinois to honor her sisters milestone birthday.








Molly, you are awesome, I hope that you have a most amazing year!

Have a good day,
Pat

First day of School

And all around the neighborhood you could hear the the Mom's expressing themselves on this most momentous of days, some tears were shed by the Mom's sending off the Kindergartners, mostly though was the cheer of glee at each bus stop. 

Here's how the boys looked this morning:

Ian 1st day of 11th Grade

Ian was thinking about imposing his; "No Paparazzi" mandate.  I looked at him and said, "Dude, it's like this, I have 11 of these photos from K through 10.  All from this front porch.  Are you sure that you really want to mess with your Mom on this?"  He saw where that would go and ta da!  Here he is.

Spencer 1st day of 8th Grade

 Spencer was an easier sell, but wanted to impose his own poses.  While I did take other shots, this is the stock, Michigan Young 1st Day of School Pose. 

At the bus stop

A friend at the end of the street took this one as they waited for the bus.  To me it looks like a study in perspective. 












At dinner we were regaled with the antics of these two's first day.  Sounds like they have some good teachers and we're once again blessed to be in this school system.

Have a great day!
Pat

Thoughts on a day in the life of Pat

It was a day alright, very cool from start to finish, it went like this;

Awake at 5AM, I knew that we were trying something new at work and so I was worried.  I told them to call me if there were any problems.  No calls.  I tried to sleep.  Couldn't

Up at 5:30.  It's the weekend?  No matter.  In my mind I figured out the timing on when to call and knew I was too early for any problems.  I fed the dog instead.

6AM, still to early to call.  I know, I'll work on that contract that needs to get out next week.  Nothing major, just massive cutting and pasting, at first that is.  Soon enough I had 2 sections that needed extensive rework.  I knew what I was trying to say, would I be able to write it?

7:30, the re-writes were done and it looked pretty good, from our perspective, the supplier that sent the original will be wondering what happened to 4 pages of the original 16 page document.

Made the call and everything was working great with the changes.  Whew, that's a load off my mind, it was a fairly big gamble, but I knew the odds were in my favor the way that I played it.

Time to get Holly and the boys up and moving.

Breakfast was every man for themselves.  I offered to cook but no one was interested.  I had a fried egg sandwich with provolone cheese on an everything bagel. It was wonderful!

Once everyone was up, washed, dressed and fed, not necessarily in that order, we headed to the Battle Creek for Brad's funeral.

Got there and started hanging out with some of the old gang from our old church.

How old do you need to be when you start saying, "Hey, let's not wait for another funeral, let's get together and have a ...(fill in you own option, for us today it ranged from hot dogs to hamburgers to dinner to pizza.)?

Nice to see the old gang, bad circumstances, but still nice to see everyone.

Funeral was not what I suspected, but are they ever really?  It caused Holly and I to talk about what we'd want and wouldn't want.

After the service we had a true Methodist Church Lady luncheon.  It was wonderful.  Holly thinks this is a dying art, like blacksmith work.  She may be right.  Good stuff with good salads and sandwiches.  yum, cookies!

Great time visiting afterward but we needed to get going, so a long set of good byes that eventually lead to the door.  I'm not complaining, but 2 teens in the house were ready to go long before we were.

Next stop, Frontline church for "Rock'in from the Roof."  They gave away over a ton of free clothes.  Very cool.  The crowd was estimated at 1000+ that waited about 1/2 hour to get to the clothes.  This shot is from our local Fox station's visit.  By the time we got there the crowds were thinning out and the clothes pile was significantly smaller.

For me the cool thing was running into my peep's as Holly calls them.  They are the kids that I hang out with in the Children's ministry area.  Lots of high fives and what not.  I always feel better when I see these kids that I'm supposed to help.  Ya gotta love it!

Dinner at the Score, a local place that's got a sport bar feel to it.  Too bad the service was so bad.

Have a great day!
Pat

Home is where my heart is

I have been on the road again for work.  I buzzed out to visit a customer.  I had 7 or so hours of meetings with various members of that customer.  In all, a success.


Thanks to all for the kinds thoughts, it means a lot to know that I have a great network of people that care for me.

While driving home Holly called and she let me know that she and Spencer were headed to a baseball game with our favorite Class A team, the Whitecaps. 

Since I was making good time I called home and invited Ian to get the lawn mowed and then I'd take him out to dinner.  I heard a not so happy voice say; "Sure."

When I got home he was almost done and in a better mood.

We opted to leave Rockford and headed to the Score, a local sports bar about 10 minutes out of town. 

When we got there we headed to the new, out back location that's really cool.  It's kind of a beach party feel with plastic table and chair, tiki torches and it's all on sand, complete with 3 sand volleyball courts. 

We were seated near the band and well away from the volleyball games, just as well, while I think I'm still in great shape, the shadow that I cast at sundown reveals a pudgier me.

The band was pretty good, drum set, 5 string acoustic bass and an acoustic guitar.  They played some tunes that Ian knew and so that led us into a good night of conversation.  We both enjoyed each others company.

For the photo tonight I have a soybean field.  Why a soybean field you ask?  Because my traveling companion this trip was a nice guy from southern China.  He looked at all the corn and soybeans as we drove along on interstate 80 in Illinois and he remarked, "I guess I understand the corn, but why so much soy beans?  You don't use that much soy sauce and I know that Tofu is not popular here."

That's my favorite quote for the week, by the way, I know that it's used as part of the crop rotation plan to put nutrients back into the soil and that it's really rich in protein, which is used in feeds.

Have a great day!
Pat

Working through things

Many of you know that I use this as a communication tool mostly.  Occasionally I'll use it as my low cost method of acknowledging milestones in peoples lives( I don't like to buy cards), and rarely, I use it work through some stuff that I need to mull through.  Today's post is a thoughtful post, if it's too deep, sorry, just close it, I'll understand and I'll be back again with something lighter.

Last night we learned that a friends roller coaster ride with lung cancer has come to an end. 

These are the random thoughts that I've pushed aside today:

• Why Brad, why not me?  I smoked for 30+years.
• How can the doctors not know how sick he was until a week ago? 
• Am I feeling OK or is it just allergies?
• Are we getting close to winning against this disease?   Will we ever?
• How many friends/loved ones have I lost to cancer?  
• Why would I want to count that!
• I remember watching MaryAnn, my favorite mother-in-law, battle cancer, she did it with dignity and determination.  In a way, by those behaviors, she was the one that led me to Jesus.
• I watched what it did to my own Mom, it was brutal.
• Thank goodness he'd "found the Lord", because now he's in heaven.
• Can I make the funeral?  When will it be?
• I can't believe the tributes on facebook for his wife, Jen to read.
• I hurt for Jen and his daughters, they will miss him.

In the end, while I am deeply sad that he has been taken from us, I am glad to have known him, had fun working and playing with him and generally feel that meeting such people is always a plus.

Jen and Brad

I struggled looking for a picture, but alas, I don't have one of Brad other than the one that I snagged off a post on facebook.  Thanks Randy!



 

Here's to Brad!  A good man cut down too early.
Pat