Jeff & Angie

Jeff and Angie have settled down in Maryland outside of Washington DC and Baltimore. They recently celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary (wow!) on December 20th and have 4 kids; Austin (15), Lauren (13), Olivia (7) and Abigail (4). Jeff is in outside medical sales for Inverness Medical Innovations dealing primarily with cardiologists and Angie is CEO of the Patten household.

For fun, Jeff volunteers as a Chief GM for the Hagerstown Youth Hockey Association. Austin is on a U-16 "A" travel team as a goalie. Lauren is into fashion and text messaging as most 13 year olds are. Olivia plays ice hockey as well and Abigail loves to hike the Appalachian Trail with her dad.

Jeff looks forward to seeing everyone in 2008.

Cheryl, Arthur & the tribe!

Cheryl says hello to everyone! She now lives in California. She made her way around the U.S. since graduation, joining the Army followed by attending the University of Florida for her civil engineering degree. She married a great guy named Arthur and has a huge family. Besides those pictured here, they adopted a daughter together, have a 2 year old granddaughter, and Arthur has an 18-year old son.

Cheryl opened a computer business and her husband is a producer and has a music studio. They sub-contract for IBM, going into hotels and businesses to install new hardware. In her spare time, she home schools all of her kids! Spare time? I doubt there is much, but she is having a great time taking care of the family, and seems to be doing a terrific job at it!

Fireside Winery

Many of you have already been to the location of our 20-year reunion, but for the few of you that have not, here are a few photos of Fireside Winery. It is just outside of Marengo on the way to Williamsburg. The reunion is on July 5, 2008 and starts at 6:00pm.

Unruhs

Merry Christmas from the Unruhs!

10 Year Reunion

Our 10-year reunion was held at the Amana Golf Course in Middle Amana. We started with a small golf outing at noon consisting of 28 people, followed by a cookout on the deck which overlooks the Middle Pond and the 18th green. The golf course is an 18-hole championship course that has been rated the number one public course in Iowa.

For those not golfing, we arrived at the Clubhouse at 5pm. We had refreshments and a cash bar. The cookout started at 6pm. The reunion was open to entire families. Attached are the only two photos I have been able to come across from the event. If you have more, please send them in!

Lori & Grant

Lori & Grant are enjoying married life in Burnsville, Minnesota. Lori is a R/3 Claims Specialist at Tetra Pak Gable Top Systems in Minneapolis and Grant is in outside sales. Regardless of where they move, the Iowa spirit stays with them as you can see from this photo where there are attending an Iowa Hawkeyes Football game. Their daughter Natalie loves the Hawkeyes, too!

Lil' Loffer

Here are a few photos from Michelle's wedding. They include walking down the isle with her father Robert, the men's quartet (which includes Tom M.), a photo of classmates outside the church, and Mindy & Maurine at the reception. Michelle has big news these days, but I'm a little hesitant to say on the blog! =) Give her a jingle!

Chad & Megan

Chad and his wife Megan are living in Monroe, Connecticut. They have been there for three years. Monroe is approximately 90 miles north of New York City. They had their first child on June 26^th, a baby girl named Reese Alexandra. Chad is a partner with Deloitte & Touche and works in their National Office in Wilton, CT. Megan is an account executive with UPS in Connecticut.

Classmates visiting Oregon

This fall my husband and I had Iowa visitors in Oregon! Marjie brought three of her children, Lucas, Jacob, Katie and my niece, Haley.

We toured the Columbia River Gorge, Bonneville Dam and fish hatchery, the Oregon coast, Portland Rose Garden, Seattle Space Needle & Pike's Place Market, visited waterfalls, zoos & aquariums, and went rainbow trout fishing (catching 11 that we later had for dinner!). The first photo was taken at the Portland Zoo. Harris (Maurine's son) is in the blue vest.

Way to go, Rhonda!

Congratulations to Rhonda and her husband for their new baby girl, Megan Emma. Megan joins a brother, Owen. Rhonda works for Fire & Casualty in Cedar Rapids.

Solve the mystery...

Is this our classmate, David, in this KCRG video? It sure looks like it. If so, way to go David! That is impressive. Graduating law school is a major achievement!

Benefit for Christine Kimm Rodman - Friday, Oct 26

Please attend the upcoming benefit for Christine Kimm Rodman. Christine was our classmate in gradeschool and you can see her right in the center of the 4th grade photo on this blog (in the navy and white sweater). She is the daughter of Larry Kimm and Sara Harrison and granddaughter of Martha Kimm.

This benefit will be held on Friday, October 26th from 4-7pm at the Mt. Vernon Fire Station. Proceeds will go toward covering medical costs for Christine, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

If you would like to donate, monetary donations can be sent to:

City Hall
c/o Christine Rodman fund
213 First St. W
Mt. Vernon, IA 52314

This was also posted in the Advertiser. For more information call Diane Kimm, 319-642-3778.

David Unruh

Check out David and his family! David is married to Kimberly and they have two very cute children, Nathaniel and Noelle. They live in Colorado Springs and David is in the Air Force. He plans to retire in two years! If we could all be so lucky... He just may win the "First to Retire in our Class" award. =)

You may remember his parents, Cecily, who taught Home Economics and Don, the Choir teacher. Here they are at 14,110 feet, the summit of Pike's Peak, with David's son Nathaniel.

Jacoby Women - Next Generation

After graduation, Heidi Jacoby made her home in Texas and continues to reside in Grapevine. She works in accounting for one of the largest law firms in the nation. Heidi has been working in accounting for the last 10 years. Her daughter, Tyreesh, is now in high school. Here is Tyreesh's Drill Team photo. I bet she has the boys after her! Runs in the family...

Tiger Spirit - Next Generation

Iowa Valley Homecoming is here already and we have a yard full of Tigers!

Marjie's kids aren't the only 1988 offspring in this photo. Can you locate others? (Hint: Snook & Healey)

Christine & Maurine

There is something about this photo that makes it one of my all-time favorites. Christine and Maurine pose in a photo booth. This was taken in the '80s.

August 2007

While back in Marengo this past August, I ran into several classmates, including Lori, Erika, Michelle, Mary Huber, Tony & Tara Christianson.

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the Middle Amana Ballpark and a few friends made it to the event. Here's a photo with Erika, followed by my two college roommates, Dawn & Roxanne, and me, Lori and Michelle.

Roger

Roger is doing well and has moved back to Marengo. Here are a few photos, including his three girls - Kassie (oldest), Sierra and Christina. Roger has been busy working on completing his engineering degree. Welcome back to Iowa County and Congratulations, Roger!

Reunion Awards

A classmate sent in this list of humorous reunion award titles today. Very creative!

Popular Award Titles:

1. The Honeymoon Award - for the Most Recently Married
2. The Class Sweethearts Award - for the Longest Marriage to Another Classmate
3. The Marathon Award - for the Longest Marriage to a Non-Classmate
4. The Lassie-Come-Home Award - to the Classmate Who Traveled the Farthest to the Reunion
5. The Agoraphobia Award - for the Person Still Living Closest to the High School
6. The Breeder's Cup Award - for the Most Children
7. The Breeder's Cup, The Next Generation Award - for the Most Grandchildren
8. The Elizabeth Taylor Award - for the Most Number of Marriages
9. The Dick Clark Award - to the Male Classmate Who Looks the Most Like They Did in High School
10. The Ms. Dick Clark Award - to the Female Classmate Who Looks the Most Like They Did in High School

Reunion Ideas Flowing In

Since sending a "Save the Date" email notice to the few classmates that I had valid email addresses for this week, new ideas are already pouring in to help make our 20th reunion a fantastic event!

Here are some of your classmate's ideas:

1) Invite ALL classmates who may have been a part of our class at one time or another to the 20th reunion.

2) Consider live music. If there are no classmates with a band, Fireside Winery has musical groups that play there often. Be sure the music doesn't overpower classmate conversations. It should be background vs. the main event.

3) Produce a fun questionnaire for attendees to answer, for example:

- Who shot J.R. (Jenny Ryan)?
- Who had the nickname "Gert"?
- Which teacher pulled Donnie Huber's hair when he acted up?
- Where did the nickname "Wally" come from?
- Which classmate has the ability to auctioneer?
- Which classmate has the most body piercings &/or tatoos today?
- Who now competes in championship tractor pulls with his rig, known as Ambush?

4) Can you guess who submitted this one?

"Can ya'all tone down the heat and humidity? If so, I just might come back for this reunion. It sounds fun! You know, Iowa heat is way worse than Texas heat!"

No worries, Miss Texas, we have Michelle (Loffer) Schactlie on the job. She is in charge of eliminating heat, humidity, flies and mosquitos for the event.

5) To help notify classmates that we inadvertently may not reach, place a "Save the Date" announcement in the Pioneer Republican.

These are all great suggestions! Keep them coming!

Save the Date - July 5, 2008

SAVE THE DATE!!!!

Hi there,

Just a quick note to let you know that we've booked the Fireside Winery for our 20th Class Reunion on Saturday, July 5th!!

This winery is run by the Wyant Family and is located on P Avenue between Highway 6 and the I-80 Williamsburg exit, which is approximately 8 minutes or 6 miles outside of Marengo.

We will have use of the Gathering Room, the Outside Patio and Fire Ring area. I'm fairly sure that we'll have an outdoor tent as well. The winery is discussing the purchase of a tent between now and then.

Food & Drink:

To cut down on costs per person, this could be made into a potluck event. The winery has a large grill that we can use for burgers, brats, chicken, etc. Local classmates could bring a dish of their choice. While food will be finalized as we get closer to the event, make your preference known (potluck vs. catering) by taking the poll on the right column of this blog.

Beer/Wine:

Depending on how many people RSVP, a pony keg or full keg will be on the outdoor patio. Fireside wine is available on the facility. Bottles of wine can be purchased for $10-$15 a bottle (serves 4 glasses). A glass of wine can be purchased at $5 each. Depending on what the per person costs come out to, we may toss in a wine ticket, or let everyone pay their own.

Address List:

Our goal is to make sure each classmate receives notice of the event! If you have addresses of classmates, please email me their contact information and I'll update the master list for mailings. Once we have the final mailing list, "Save the Date" postcards will be mailed out. The list is currently 10% updated. We have a ways to go. For privacy purposes, the address file will not be posted on this blog.

Questions:

1) Do you play in a band and wish to perform?
2) What ideas do you have for games or drawings?
3) Would you like to donate prizes?
4) Do you have a projector that we could use to display photos?
5) What unique talent would you like to perform?
6) What other ideas do you have to make this a fun and memorable event?

The 4th of July Parade:

To make the whole weekend fun, there is talk about building a Class of 1988 float for the 4th of July parade! A classmate would provide the tractor and wagon for the class to decorate. Kids and spouses welcome aboard, too. Help us come up with creative ideas for our float.


Special thanks to Lori (Thorn) Bearbower and David Unruh for contributing venue ideas and recommending the Fireside Winery!

Welcome Classmates

Iowa Valley Class of 1988,

Welcome to our blog, where you can find information about our upcoming 20th reunion and participate in the creation and development of the event!

On this blog, ideas will be shared and discussed amongst various class members. Feel free to join in the conversation at any time!

Kind regards,
Connie