Singing, Singing, and More Singing...

This has been a busy week for the choir at Trinity. We had practice Wednesday night, sang at both services, and this afternoon, we were invited to sing on TV at the telethon at Lincoln High School for the fundraising effort of the Lincoln High Choir so they can go on tour of the Smithsonian and New York. We followed Dad's old group, the Sunrise Singers from Franklin Middle School. Andrew joined the performance too and seemed to enjoy a few minutes of local fame. Mariel Anderson, my realtor, was one of the two MC's of the event and Joe Kezar did the soundboard. It was neat seeing the new setup of the music department at Lincoln since I left in 1981. They have great soundproof practice rooms like I remember from Washington State University and a large band room. Come this Wednesday, the choir will be practicing at Redeemer Lutheran in preparation for the upcoming combined choir performance for Thanksgiving.

At the second service today, Aaron was presented with his "Third Grade Bible." He had made this nice cloth holder/cover for it with handles to carry it around. He brought it with him to Lincoln this afternoon, he was so proud of it. I'll post a pic or two of it this week.

The Trinity youth continue working on fundraising for their big trip to San Antonio next summer for the youth convention. I found out today each family has to pony up $600 out of their own pocket and another $1,200 per child has to be raised through fundraising. We are presently working on reinvigorating the youth program there, hopefully getting some kind of a youth room together downstairs with ping pong, perhaps the shuffleboard they used to have, and appropriate furniture so they have an area to call their own. I suggested a program like we had at Gloria Dei in Mountlake Terrace, i.e. Pioneer Clubs for K-6 so the boys are kept busy on Wednesday nights and don't have to turn to another church for that activity. Some ideas for the youth were a fundraising pancake breakfast and getting the older kids involved in the idea process so it's a little more collaborative. We don't have too many people on the council so far, Mary Forney, two other couples, and myself. Hopefully we can get Kristi Grochow on board too as she has good motivational skills.

As for school these days, Aaron brought home a note this Friday indicating instead of the third grade students exchanging Christmas gifts this year, they will be going to the water park at Seven Clans. Should be a great activity in the middle of winter to get into the nice warm indoor park. Daniel has invited me to his lunch this coming week as he caught wind I had visited Aaron a couple of times for his.

We had a nice little snow storm last night, but other than cold temperatures, nothing is left of the snow to make it look like winter around here. We are expecting a couple more days of snow showers this week, though. Deer hunting season started last weekend and it's in full swing as you can tell by all the fluorescent orange hunting gear whenever you go shopping at the supermarket or around town. I was thinking of popping up to the old 80 acres to see if they're honoring the signs Mom & Dad posted this summer. Scott Grochow has already been out several days with Casey and I think he's already gotten two deer. I'm just trying to avoid getting any with my car. I found out Minnesota was something like 6th on the top 10 states to have deer-vehicle collisions. Hopefully Harry Potter will be showing in town here so I don't have to brave the roads at night coming back from Grand Forks.