It's hard to believe, but only three weeks ago, I was wondering if Winter would ever end, but here we are and the streets are almost entirely free of snow and ice, the sidewalks as well in front of the house, and people have come out of their hibernation to begin walking the streets again. I even see grass in both the front and back of the house and the back alley is all mud and water. The boys decided to take the opportunity to pull their bikes off the porch yesterday and start biking with the Widerski boys yesterday afternoon, which they also did today after church. I was finally able to prove my statement to the boys last summer that "once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget." It's nice to finally have another fitness option for the kids other than just "go play in the snow."
A lot of time has passed since my last blog update and I'm sure I'll miss most of it trying to update everyone. The boys have just over a month to a month and a half left of school and they'll be in 4th/2nd grades respectively. I have made it a regular Friday lunch date with Aaron at Challenger where I get an update on all the goings on at school. More often than not we're sitting at a table with Braeden Drevlow from Aaron's grade and a couple other of his friends. I like Fridays there because it's chef salad day... Last week it was tomato soup, breaded fish in the shape of fish, and the chef salad. I always end up leaving their stuffed even with the dinky portions and the little carton of chocolate milk. I manage to bump into at least one former teacher of mine about every time to go, so that's a bright spot in the week too.
Trinity will be getting a new "intentional" interim minister by June it looks like and the choir will be extending into that time period so the new pastor has a nice welcome from Trinity. In other church news, the youth have been serving Lent dinner every Wednesday night and raised over $1,200 last week alone to apply towards the national youth gathering in San Antonio in June. The church put in nice new gas fireplaces in the library upstairs and the "fireside" room downstairs for the youth area. They look pretty nice, though now with it warming up, we won't get to enjoy them much until next fall and winter. They're also replacing upwards of 70-plus windows in the Sunday school area with new vinyl and welded steel windows so the the building will be much more heat efficient in both summer and winter. I think that's the last major improvement project since they've already fixed the bell tower, the organ, and relaid carpeting in the fellowship hall and painted.
Now that the Prowler hockey season is over, the Prowlers went to Challenger and Aaron got an autographed felt cloth with all their signatures on it. I'm going to find one of those two-inch thick frames to display it in in his room as it's not very often the Prowlers make it to State. Aaron's still kicking around different sports ideas. Last month it was soccer, soccer, soccer, and this month it's, "How about baseball?" He really wants to take in a Twins game this year.
Tonight we had dinner at the old Calvary Lutheran Church in St. Hilaire, a church so small the sanctuary is little bigger than the main floor of my house. They put on a benefit dinner with ham, mashed potatoes, and all the fixin's as they're raising funds for a new furnace. I saw a few people from Trinity there. It's yet another thing underlying the difference between the big cities and here. There's at least three different benefit dinners in any given week here, so rather than giving money to a fastfood restaurant, we're getting home-cooked meals and doing good for the community. Last week they had a dinner to benefit a young mother of about 22 who had an aneurysm after giving birth to her daughter at Northwest Hospital and had to be flown to the Cities for emergency surgery. Her dinner was at the VFW and there were pictures all over the paper for it and posted on flyers in almost every store in town. In a big city, she would have been but a footnote in the paper if she even made it in there, so it's comforting to know how tightknit our community is, how they will rally around anyone and everyone in need and nobody is "just a number." Reminds me of college days in Pullman... It's nice to be a small part of that.
Daniel will be celebrating his birthday this Thursday (7) and I'm still figuring out whether to celebrate it on Friday at the waterpark or if we should wait a week or so as a lot of his friends including the Drevlow boys may not be able to make it. Funny thing is he's not all that concerned about it other than having fun at the waterpark. He hasn't asked about any presents more than once and it's almost shaping up to be a day like any other day in his mind. What's nice with his birthday approaching is he still looks like the same LITTLE Daniel I've always cherished and hasn't outgrown his little boy nature yet. Most importantly, I can still throw him over my shoulder for a ride up to bed without throwing my back out... :) I'm sure with another year under his belt next year, though, he'll have done a lot of catch up growing behind Aaron and be quite the handful to keep up with.
That's about all I have to write for now as I gotta get the boys in bed for school bright and early in the a.m. I'm crossing my fingers for continued warmer temperatures this week so I can finally see my yard and get moving on spring "dog doo duty" in the back yard. Sorry for the delay in blog updates...
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