Another post, wow!

I know, two posts in a single day. Hard to believe. But here's the deal, I have a story that I want to tell, and it happened after the first blog, so here I am again!

First up, here's another tree that Ian did in art class. Nice job Ian!


In the afternoon today Holly reminded us of a page a day calendar that was related to paper airplanes that we got from Molly and Rick. Holly thought it was time for some good clean family time and so we'd have a paper airplane race. Not on speed of folding, but on distance. We each chose our plane from the many days that we had available, it was just discovered so all the January planes were available. We snipped and we folded and we taped and we worked and within no time flat we were working on a starting line to "make the event fair". And so we threw, youngest to oldest. Spencer laid out a great flight and it's within reach for all, but not to be. Ian created a backward flying plane. Holly had a looper that did the loop de loop very well, but got no distance. My plane, a ring model, failed as well. Spencer won! It was awesome. But...


Well, we don't like to be out done, so we'd do it again, with our own planes, any design we chose. Basically, a no holds barred event. We all went to our own corners again and began to create. Spencer, tracking on what had won in the past, followed the instructions on the page he chose and flew well, almost as far as last time...Great, the window was open.

Ian, having been quiet for several minutes, stepped to the line with a "ninja star". It looked awesome. It was 8 sheets of paper folded together. He heaved it and had the counter not gotten in the way, would have handily smoked Spencer, but as it was, he just edged him out. As you can see, it was a piece of art!


Holly was up next and she followed another set of instructions and had a pretty cool looking missile, sorry all, but the photo didn't turn out. Anyway, it was very cool looking, but backward flying. She wasn't in the running this time. Tough break, especially for my Valentine. I stepped to the line. I had folded two different models, a missile style and a raptor style. Both very capable planes. But I knew all along, that my next toss would be with a wad. Yep, I took the missile plane and wadded it up and then threw it the length of the house. Ow! They called foul. We discussed the rules. Nothing was stated that it couldn't be a wad. I was the winner! Not by popular vote, but by distance for sure!

Later, at the store on a milk run. I scammed him again and he was amazed that I was that on top of my game to beat him twice in a day. Not sure if I can keep up the pace, but today was indeed a good day!

Here's the winning "paper airplane".


Have a great day!
Pat

Happy Valentines Day!

The first order of business is to say "Happy Valentines Days!" Here's an older shot of me with my favorite Valentine, Holly. You can tell it's old since my hair isn't very gray.



I spent the first half of the week up in Onekama Michigan. If you click on the link you can learn a bit about the little village. Anyway, myself and two others spent a few days up there helping a supplier set up a kanban system help cut down on the crazy order patterns. We stayed at Portage Point, a pretty cool, in a old school way, resort. The first night we got done before sunset and so we went to the channel that connects Portage Lake with Lake Michigan. We walked out on the ice on Lake Michigan, as shown in the first photo that's me and Bill about 400 yards out from shore. It was awesome!


Next we walked out the pier. Well, I only went as far as the handrails. After that it was too icy and common sense got the better part of me. It was a beautiful sunset though. The channel marker on the left was totally coated in ice. Very cool.


Here's another shot, this time it's with Hung and Bill.


Finally, here's a bit of art created by Ian in art class. The photo doesn't do it justice, we're considering having it framed, it way better than the old refrigerator art that he used to produce.


Well, that's it for now.

Have an awesome Valentine's Day and President's Day.
Pat

Catching Up

I know it's been awhile since I've updated you on all the stuff we're doing so here's a quick recap for Jan/Feb.

Let's see, first off, here's our own personable teen boy


And then we have the one that thinks Mom's the best, no matter what!


Spencer was one of the popcorn selling winners. Thanks to everyone that bought on line, that's how he won, everyone helped him earn a week of summer camp for free!


This weekend Spencer and I went to the Klondike derby. Here's our team at lunch, having of all things, HOT DOGS. Let me assure you that at 10 degrees with a below zero wind chill, Hot Dogs, are really cold by the time you get them to your table. As for the bananas, they were suitable for carving.


Here's the team and the sled. It was a great day, cold, but really fun.


The finale was a sled race, pulled by the boys. Here's the starting line.


And their off! I didn't get the shot at the finish line. We had a tangle at the start and the adults went and performed a bit of first aid. It wasn't a big deal, but added to the drama.


Here's Spencer showing the effects of wearing a stocking hat all day!


Finally, here are some shots from our Chaffee Cabin Camp Out. Those with a NASA mindset might remember Roger B. Chaffee as the pilot on the ill fated Apollo 1, where fire erupted and killed all three astronauts. Since Roger was from the Grand Rapids area, we have many things with his name. Here's the montage in the dining room.


Here's the upper bunk room. It holds about 20 Scouts. Downstairs the adult leaders slept a bit more peacefully than this room with snowball fights and peanut fights and all night Euchre.


At the lodge we taught Nuclear Science for a merit badge. As you can tell, the scouts were totally into this... NOT!


But we adults with a science bent sure were!


The balloon, with only static electricity charging it, caused the small foil in the jar to move and demonstrate polarized effects. It's so cool when you can see science!


This is an electron detector, a cloud chamber. It worked, but was hard to see.


Well, that's if for now.

Have a great day/week/month!
Pat

Maybe I have grown up

This is one of life's little ironies

Holly and I are going to a Scout event called building character. Mitt Romney's the key note speaker and we are sitting at a reserved table with lawyers from the largest law firm in town. And, get this, the law firm is paying to have us join them. In my youth I would have never believed this.

I have come a long way.

Here's the info on the event; Building Character Celebration.



Have a good one!
Pat

Mission Trip to Haiti

Ian and I have been selected to go on a mission trip to Haiti. The cost is estimated to be $1,300 per person. If you are able and interested, Ian and I would like to send you some information on how you could help us with funding. If not, please pray for us and the rest of the team, it's going to be pretty interesting to say the least. We're going to help an orphanage that's associated with Haiti Foundation Against Poverty ( clickHFAP for their website)

Please reply to this post or email me if you're interested in giving us a hand, I'll reply privately with more information.

Thanks for considering, Ian and Pat

Now, I have a story that I want to share with you all.

2 years ago our church decided to get more active in international missions.

6 months ago or so it was announced that Haiti would be the area of the world and HFAP would be the ministry that we'd be helping. Many pictures were shown and there was a chance to support a child. Since we were in second service, there weren't any left, but we signed up to help anyway. A special child was showcased that needed a heart surgery. Her name is Kelencia and she's in the picture below. The light color of her hair indicates malnutrition.


They also raised awareness in the youth group at our church and a few things came out of that. For one thing, Ian came home with an application to join the mission team. Secondly, the youth group raised money to get a passport, visa and plane ride to the states so that she could have the surgery. The surgery would be covered by the doctors, but we needed to get her here.

Ian signed up and I pretty much forgot about it. 3 weeks ago we got a call from the Missions Team Leader letting us know that Ian had been selected to be on the team to Haiti. Primary goal would be to paint and decorate the small orphanage that HFAP maintains.

We were a bit nervous about Ian going on his own, but we started the passport process. While that's going I was idly wondering what to do with the last 6 days of vacation that I had to use before the end of March. Since Holly started working again, vacation is trickier to use. The mission trip would be 8 days, 6 during the week. I had 6 days left. Hmmm...

I asked Ian if he would mind if I went to Haiti with him. He was open to the idea. I talked with the Missions Team Leader, she was very open to the idea; "We were hoping that you'd go!" were her exact words.

So on the 10th of January I filled out the application and was immediately accepted and assigned to the same team as Ian. I was looking forward to this experience with him as any parent would. What a great opportunity to help and watch him grow, of course I knew that I'd be affected as well, but to be there with Ian would be phenomenal!

That Sunday they announced that the youth group had raised the funds and that Kelencia would be coming as soon as the visa was obtained. By spring for sure. All was great.

The following Tuesday, as you all are aware, tragedy struck.

Wednesday the youth group was informed that there was a 99% chance that Kelencia had died in the earthquake. They were rocked to the core of their faith. My son, said, that there's a 1% chance of her surviving, he's going to hold on to that 1%.

48 hours later we read this post on Face Book:

KELENCIA IS ALIVE! She has been found! Praise the Lord! She is weak and dehydrated.

And here is a recent shot of the little girl. Notice that thanks to the additional vitamins, her hair is turning black again.



What will we be doing when we go? We don't know at this time, all we're sure of is our determination to help!

Have an awesome day!
Pat

Happy Mid January!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the past month.

Nephew Nick

Holly and Judy

Xander on the sledding hill

No can pull off the Eskimo hat like Tom

Dave just looks cold

Dave and Tom, yes, we all went down the hill

Xander being launched by Chris and assisted by Ian

Xander, Ian and Nick opening presents. The shirt reads; "If you can read this pull be back into the boat."

Chris with a funny sign, that may be a bit true

Allison and Chris opening stuff and looking good at it!

Spencer, Judy and Dave hard at that present thing

Tom trying to pull off the hillbilly old guy look

Ian just looking good!

Chris showing he's still got it

Spencer about to raspberry Uncle Dave

Spencer reading Aunt Reen and Uncle Toms comic books

Nick racing while Ian and Xander roll around fighting for control of the other steering wheel

Uncle Tom's birthday cake, it was a momentous occasion!

Aunt Maureen looking good and blowing a "kiss" to Uncle Tom.

Probably one of the best shot's of Tom I've ever taken, he is alive and well at 50!

Spencer chillaxing at a hotel in Illinois


Pictured here are the scouts that had the highest on line sales. Yep, front and center is our own
Spencer.

Here are all the popcorn winners and can you find Spencer, it's way easier than the old days when they were doing the Elementary School Christmas program.

Thanks for the support from everyone, on line and regular sales, summer camp is paid for for Spencer this year.

Have a great day!
Pat