And today's guest blogger is ...

Thank you thank you ladies and gents, thanks to large quantity of requests I, Katie, am the guest blogger. Ok, not really, it’s more just my Uncle Ron and I are lazy and asked each other to do a guest blog so we wouldn’t have to. I was thinking, my Uncle Ron shared some memorable moments from my young life, and it just wouldn’t be fair if people didn’t get to hear some of MY stories about him…so here it goes.

I was convinced when I was younger that Uncle Ron was a bounty hunter or something. He used to watch my sister and I like we were gazelles and he was the hungry lion. And then when he saw us at our weak point, he’d pounce, he’d come in for the kill. The dreaded hug and kiss. My sister and I hated it, I don’t really know why, but we did. Then even when we thought we were safe because my Aunt Debbie, Scott and Chris would come we were sadly mistaken. He’d send his two henchmen out to hug us and kiss us for him….these were probably my first memories of my dear old uncle, and they will probably be the ones that I remember when I’m wearing diapers with a walker and hearing aids and they feed me lime Jell-O in my moo-moo.

Before I continue on, there is something I should admit to you. I have a problem, well it has actually progressed past problem into addiction. I’m an addict of Vanilla Coke. It all started one glorious day in good ol’ Bethalto. What the heck, I was just thrilled to be hanging out in my Uncle’s sweet mustang. I didn’t know I was about to be introduced to my future unbreakable habit. He went in with a giant mug of his own, and I was a little confused, up here in Wisconsin, you don’t see that, but then again, if we had vanilla coke many things would be different. I’m convinced that if Vanilla Coke was here, no one woulda cried at Brett Favre’s retirement, I know I didn’t, the Fonz woulda been bronzed a long time ago, and everyone else would finally see that the Brewers really DO suck, Prince Fielder or not. But I guess that’s a little off topic. Over that Thanksgiving trip down there I drank triple my weight in Vanilla Coke, which lead me to get pretty sick. But did I stop drinking it, at the request of my mother, I don’t think so, I continued to guzzle that amazing beverage until the moment we left. And just as any good enabler would, Uncle Ron brought me up a gallon of the vanilla they use!! But just like any dealer, the goods come with a price, I exchange him cases of Tahitian Treat for my Vanilla, at an undisclosed location of course.

Now is one of my favorite memories, Uncle Ron rented a house thing on Madeline Island, ok maybe that’s not the name, I don’t really remember, but you had to drive all the way up north and then put your car on ferry and come across Lake Superior, once again, I don’t know if that was really Lake Superior. Once we got there it was like this little adorable island. I honestly can not tell you what we did there besides one thing. Scott and I watched Scrubs the entire day, I remember people coming in and out from doing stuff but we watched Scrubs for an entire day. I’m crossing my fingers, waiting for the next time we all get together like that. Plus they had these wicked hand driers at a restaurant that like move your skin out of the way and you can see all your bones…it’s even more fun if you put your face down there…not that I tried or anything.



Our family is spread out, pretty much from the Mississippi River Eastward, which doesn’t always make staying in touch easy, but when I was in high school and I was going through what every high schooler goes through, he was one of the people I could tell EVERYTHING to. Seriously my inbox was fuller than anyone else’s I knew, he even has his own folder! When it comes down to it, I don’t have a gazillion memories of him physically being there for me, but the ones I do are really important because I know how often I get to see him, so I make the most of it. For some people this is hard to understand, and unless you are part of a family like mine, I don’t really think you could. It’s this awesome vibe knowing that at any given moment if you needed something or just needed to talk there is a handful of people scattered across the country who would love to hear from you and who would do anything to help you out.

So in an effort to avoid getting all mushy on you, I’ll tell you one more thing. Uncle Ron and I are in a challenge. He is trying to throw the baseball in the lake and he has challenged me to bowl a 200. Little does he know when I was younger my mom started a similar challenge to learn how to whistle. You know that loud obnoxious whistle with your fingers, well, guess what, I won $20 that summer. And I’m not about to start losing.

Ciao all of Uncle Ron’s faithful readers, I’m sure you’ll be hearing from me again,

Kate