Hallelujah!!

We are now in the midst of a genuine Minnesota winter having sustained snowfall in excess of six inches and subzero temperatures for a while now. I didn't think I'd be comparing winters to Seattle this early, but it appears Seattle may have had it worse than us, at least for a while. Today was an aberration, though, as the temperatures climbed well into the 20s and 30s and we had a bit of slush out on the roads. I doubt it will last for long, though. The ice houses are back in force on the river just a quarter mile away. I don't know if I'll ever get used to seeing half and three-quarter-ton pickup trucks parked out on what used to be a river less than a month ago. Takes a bit of a mind shift.

I imagine some of you are wondering again why it's taken so long to get this site updated. I can tell you it's been a rather tremendously busy few weeks since I was last on here what with the recent visit of Mom and Dad and getting into the thick of winter basketball. I have been out at Challenger a couple of days a week for several weeks now helping coach both the second and fourth grade teams along with the Thursday after school Kingdom Kids program and combining those activities with all the rehearsing I've been doing for both Trinity Choir and for the upcoming performance of The Messiah, it doesn't leave much time for routine things like updating a blog. Speaking of The Messiah, it's now one week from tomorrow until the performance and I've only practiced twice with the community adult performers, the rest of the time practicing with the kids at Northland with the Northland Chamber Choir. I think I'm about as close to ready as I can get, though. We will have four days of practice this week to wrap up the loose ends and then Sunday, the boys will be spending the afternoon at their friend Mateo's place to celebrate his birthday as I sing at Lincoln High. After the performance, there's going to be a "cast party" of sorts for the performers with meat, crackers, cheese, etc. and after that is the annual Trinity Senior Choir Christmas party, this year being held at the home of Steve and his wife. Joe and Jodi said they would watch the boys so I can attend the party this time around. This will be my first attendance at that annual shindig.

The boys continue to make progress in basketball and last Wednesday they picked teams for Daniel and he was selected to be a "Wolverine." All teams are named after Big-10 teams, i.e. Gophers, Buckeyes, Badgers, Wolverines, etc. He has a grey (though he calls it "ash") colored t-shirt with "Wolverines" on the front and his name and the number 11 on the back in black letters/numbers. Aaron won't start playing his games until the first of the year. Right now they're still working on fundamentals, but getting in some scrimmage time as well. I prefer scrimmage time, as I don't have to know too much about the game other than being able to spot a double dribble or travel whereupon I can blow the whistle. I did pick up a couple of DVDs, though, put out by Magic Johnson that teach the fundamentals of basketball skills and basketball conditioning, which the coach of Aaron's group said he would show the kids and I plan to watch it several times to pick up the knowledge I lack of the game.

I already told some of you the story about choir practice last week, but I'll recap here for those who haven't heard. I was sitting down in the youth room with the choir keeping warm by the new gas fireplace down there and I moved over to a couch alongside the choir where Daniel was sitting. I plopped Daniel's legs across my lap and wrapped an arm around him as I sang along with the Hallelujah Chorus. Halfway through, Daniel started singing the "Hallelujahs" right along with me until the end of the song. Some of the choir saw/heard him and thought he was pretty cute with that. He really enjoys music, as was evidenced in his recent informance the end of November.

The boys got their report cards on Friday for the first trimester and both did pretty well in their studies. Perhaps equally or even more important is they both earned high marks in areas of social skills (the "plays well with others categories). One of Aaron's strengths was stated to be his willingness to work hard at achieving the goals set for him. Daniel is presently reading at approximately the end of third grade level, a whole year in front of where he is supposed to be for his age, so he continues to make leaps and bounds in that area. Aaron received a postcard in the mail the last week or so from the Principal and Assistant Principal of Challenger commending him on his work ethic as indicated by his teachers. That was an unusual surprise to see that in the mailbox and a most pleasant surprise at that. I've posted it here for interested parties to see.

I learned a little more trivia about the "who's who" in TRF this past week. On Friday, I went for my usual lunch engagement with Aaron at Challenger. As I sat eating at his table, Francis, one of the girls who played on Aaron's Orioles baseball team this summer and who plays the cello at Challenger just starting this year came and sat down across from me and engaged me in a Minnesota "sidebar" of sorts just chatting about the cello, asking me how long I've played, etc. As we were sitting there, she mentioned something about her mom and I asked what her mom's name was, as I had never seen her at the baseball games this past summer only having met her dad who told me they spent a lot of time out in Seattle and more specifically Whidbey Island in the past. Turns out her mom is the new (since this summer) CEO of Northwest Hospital credited with turning the hospital's financial situation around in a few short months bringing it back into the black again for the first time in years. She's an RN with an MBA and years of healthcare management experience. I had not put two and two together before as her last name is different from the rest of the family's, perhaps retaining her maiden name. In any event, it was interesting to finally make the connection there. Speaking of lunch, I suprised both boys on different days last week. I went to Wal-Mart one day and picked up one of those Icee drinks on the way out and brought it to Aaron at lunchtime so all the other kids were jealous. Then I figured I'd surprise Daniel with the same thing. It was a quite unexpected surprise for both of them, though I made sure they know it's not going to happen every week... It's nice to just shake things up every once in a while.

I think that's about all I can come up with for now in the way of updates. I have to get up bright and early for choir tomorrow morning, so I'm going to cut this short. I imagine my next update may not be until after Christmas with all the upcoming music events and if so, I wish you all a very merry Christmas.