What Is Your Favorite Cookie to Mail Us?

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Trinity Christmas Program 2007

Can you see the ball?

Daniel and his buddy, Dorion from November...

Feliz Navidad...

Time to update the ol' blog again... It's been a bit too long for comfort, but a necessary hiatus with all we have going on around here (as usual). We are now officially on Christmas break from school until after the first of the year and I am of course still getting used to the idea of not needing to make three to four round trips to the boys' school per day dropping them off, picking them up, coaching basketball, or having the usual lunch date with one or the other. I'm also just starting to relish the idea of not carting Aaron's string bass back and forth for a little while. Speaking of his bass, Aaron had his first concert with it last Thursday at Challenger. He was one of about five or six basses. I've rarely seen that many basses in a high school orchestra much less at the elementary level. It's as though it's the instrument of choice this year. I'm crossing my fingers that Daniel doesn't follow in his footsteps with his own bass, as it's already a little bit of a squeeze with one half aize instrument in the van, though I'm sure I could find a way to squeeze in two if I had to, especially if Daniel had a quarter size. So far he's only mentioned the possibility of the viola, which would be a welcome change, as he could carry his own instrument without accidentally knocking down three or four kids on the way in to school... Aaron did exceptionally well in his first ever orchestra concert. I was rather impressed at the level of learning of the kids given the majority of them picked up their instruments for the first time only a couple months ago. Aaron has also started to hum or sing some of the songs I have sung recently in the renaissance music program I did a couple weeks ago and is developing a nice sense of pitch, probably from his bass lessons.

Basketball is of course the other main event in our lives these days and again it's been a nice learning experience for all involved. Aaron's ball handling skills are improving by the week and he's played about three games so far. His team, the Spurs, haven't had the best of luck with several shots managing to roll out or bounce off the rim in their games, but the team is really coming together with learning offense and defense plays and playing off each other's strengths. As Aaron is a big kid, he's learning how to set up on the post and take a drop step for baskets down low. When he sets up his shots, he's a great shooter too. This past Thursday we had a combined practice with the Raptors team and at the end, the coach had all the boys line up in one long line to shoot free throws. Whoever made a free throw with a one-time chance would then get an opportunity to shoot a free throw for $20, though that subsequent free throw had to be from half court... Aaron was about fourth in line and the first three kids, two of them usually pretty good shooters, missed their free throws. Aaron not only got his free throw, he nailed it with a swish through the net and raised more than a few eyebrows of the other kids around him. He was just beaming broadly ear to ear with pride in his accomplishment and as a result of that shot, moved on to the final round. The coach said, "If Aaron makes it, he gets the $20 and everyone else is out of luck (because I can't afford $240 for everybody if they make it). Aaron fell short, but nobody else made the half court shot either. Aaron said he had a lot of fun in practice that night and judging from his pink cheeks and hard breathing, he got some good exercise in. One of the fun games the head coach did for fun that night was another free throw bet game. He had one player shoot a free throw at a time and for each player, the other kids would line up on one side or the other of the basket depending on whether they thought the shooter would sink the shot or miss. Those who lost their bet had to run a lap down the gym and back. Aaron ended up running close to a dozen laps, I think, before it was all through. Then they had the coaches shoot a free throw each (of course I missed mine).

We have an upcoming basketball tournament in TRF this coming week that I have to work crowd control for over three days, but the boys will get a chance to watch some good varsity basketball action. On the subject of varsity athletics, we went to see the Prowler boys swim team go up against the Perham Yellowjackets last Tuesday, as our friends, Rick and Chris, had a son in 7th grade swimming for the JV team, then Brett Drevlow, and of course Tom Kays' son as a senior on the varsity team. They came into the dual meet with high expectations and nobody left disappointed. It was a victory for the Prowlers by a score of something around 97 to 65. The swimmers were ecstatic with the win, as they were completely winless in over four years of dual meets, so this was their first taste of victory. My old classmate, Jill Lusignan, is the new head coach of the boys team and by the looks of things, she's doing a great job this year. They had most of their home meets scrunched into a nine-day stretch of December and I was thankful we managed to make it to the one meet we won. The next one is in February so I'm hoping to make that one too to see how the team comes along.

In other news, I've had some more humorous moments with the boys lately developing new vocabulary skills. The most recent examples have been one time last week when Daniel was asking me a question about whether dogs were "nocturnal" or "diurnal" creatures. Before I could answer, Aaron started asking what those words meant. Daniel shook his head at Aaron and said, "You wouldn't understand. This is for Dad and I. We're men of science..." :) While funny, I think Daniel does have an affinity for the subject of science and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he followed that route in academics. His other most recent new vocabulary word is "oxymoron." He tried that one out on me this week to hilarious results.

We've been starting to get ready (yes, just "starting" now) for Christmas. We went to the movies last night (Alvin and the Chipmunks) while I thought of what we were going to do. We'll be joining the Wignesses again for the actual holiday, but other than that, I hadn't made any formal plans. Aaron was asking me to put the tree up several times last night and I kept telling him I'd put it up, but that I wasn't sure when. So the boys fell asleep downstairs in the living room last night and while they were sound asleep, I assembled the white prestrung Christmas tree in the corner of the living room. The boys woke up with Aaron looking pleasantly surprised that all of a sudden the lit Christmas tree was up with all the presents underneath. Then Aaron repaid me with a suprise of his own... I fell asleep shortly after that and when I woke up early this morning, the tree was covered in ornaments that Aaron had dragged out of the basement and placed on the tree, so we ended up surprising each other. Now I think we've got some Christmas cheer in the house. The boys are really looking forward to opening their gifts on Christmas Eve and so far have resisted the urge for the most part to shake anything and try to figure out what's inside. We did cheat a little, bit, though, in that Mary Jo's gift came in today's mail and I didn't realize it wasn't wrapped before I opened the box. I have to say, though, that the boys, especially Daniel, were quite enthused about the gifts. Daniel was gushing over the book of constellations that glows in the dark and was already making plans to go buy the supplies it listed in the book to make your very own constellations from scratch. He told me, "This book is SO awesome, Dad!" That should be the limit of early opening of gifts for us, though, as we now wait for Christmas Eve.

I think that just about covers the major highlights of our adventures for the month of December thus far. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! We will be thinking of you all this year as we celebrate here in the Minnesota tundra...

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Thanksgiving...

Wherever has the month of November gone?? It was just yesterday we had the start of school, choir, youth group, etc. and now we're staring down Christmas in only a month. It's true what they say about time really flying when you're having fun... The boys' basketball season is well underway and they have their first games coming up pretty soon. Aaron's first game with his team, the Spurs (5th and 6th graders combined) is on December 1st at Franklin Middle School and Daniel will probably follow soon after.

Other extracurricular activities continue to go well with the boys progressing nicely in Wednesday night youth group (Daniel just got out of the "Start Zone" and qualified to wear the uniform T-shirt last week). I'm about to have the first dress rehearsal December 2 for the madrigal dinner group I'm singing with this Christmas season. I'm wearing period garb from the renaissance (I kind of look like a renaissance Hoss Cartwright...). I've been doing okay learning the bass, but find my time is short with all the running back and forth from one practice to another. Thankfully we still have a couple days a week where we don't really have any engagements, though that will change quickly with the start of hockey season at The Ralph. It's a young Prowler hockey team this year, so should be an interesting season of growth.

We've been enjoying our "new" vehicle lately since picking it up a couple weeks or so ago. It's really spacious with lots of room in the back for sports equipment and extra friends. The boys love the automatic sliding door on the passenger side and the automatic engine starter so it's toasty warm in winter. They've already helped personalize it with Prowler decals.

We'll be spending Turkey Day with friends of ours from church (a lot in one house, actually) and will hopefully find some time to play some flag football at Franklin after we eat (burn off a few calories, ya know). I really heard a nice thing after school today that set the tone for this Thanksgiving. I went to pick the boys up and as usual I went to Daniel's classroom first. Apparently one of the activities in class today was for students to say in class what things they are thankful for. Daniel's friend, Samuel, said he was thankful for his life. Other students said they were thankful for their pets, friends, etc. Daniel's teacher approached me on the way out of school today and informed me that Daniel's answer was, "I'm thankful for my Dad..." That response was a warm reminder of what Thanksgiving is all about, being thankful for the people around us rather than the "things" we have. May all who read this enjoy a safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

A Spontaneous Road Trip

You may want to find a favorite easy chair and kick back with your feet back, because I've really been catching up on my blog updates tonight... Scroll down all the way, as there's tons of pictures to see and other updates on our exploits at Halloween, football, etc. in addition to this post. You may need to click on a link at the bottom to see what might not be on this web page, as I'm not sure how many posts/pictures can fit on one page... I apologize for the screwy chronology of things on here, as I didn't post pictures at all in the order they were taken other than Halloween and of course this post will reference events that took place below this post, so it reads somewhat like a reverse chronology of sorts.

On with the story... So we got home late Friday night/early Saturday morning, something like 1:30 or so from the football game. We stopped in every town on the way back from Grand Forks to take pictures in front of any "significant" landmark the boys could lay eyes on. We fell asleep pretty late that morning and woke up about 11:00 or so on Saturday morning. On our drive back to TRF, though, we were all talking about our old neighbors, Dave and Cheri Widerski, and their kids that used to play with the boys and their friend, Dorion. I halfheartedly suggested we could maybe visit them down where they now live in Alexandria, Minnesota, some 180 miles or so south of us. I didn't know exactly how far away it was, though, and Dorion seemed to think it was "right next to" the Twin Cities, which more or less ruled that out as an option in the near future for me.

After waking up as noted above, though, I pulled up the map program for Alexandria and determined it was indeed "only" the 180 miles or so and so not having anything else real productive to do, I asked all three boys if they felt like paying their old friends a visit in Alexandria, which of course they all unanimously approved rather excitedly and a phone call to the Widerskis and about an hour and a half later, we found ourselves making a quick lunch of it at McDonald's before we were on our way south on Highway 59 out of town towards Alexandria.

As we drove south, Dorion video taped a good part of the "Road Trip 2007" and of course we had to stop at just about every landmark in sight on the way down. The boys saw live buffalo alongside the highway, some alpacas, and we drove through the White Earth Indian Reservation at one point, I think. It was a great lesson in geography and the boys were bouncing off the walls the whole way down with their new spur of the moment "adventure" otherwise known as the traditional "road trip." The drive should have taken us only 3.5 hours or so, but we didn't pull into Alexandria until just shy of about 6:00 Saturday night, at least two hours later than it should have taken thanks to all the stops for photo opportunities.

Once we reached the Widerskis, it was as though time had stood still. Only the youngest Widerski, Johnny, really seemed to have changed physically with a growth spurt. All the other boys, Drew, Tyler, and Zach, appeared much the same as when they left well over a year ago. They ordered Godfather's pizza for us all and I visited with Pastor Dave and his wife for a good three hours while the boys headed off with their friends to catch up on lost time away from each other. Of course it would have been nice to "plan" the trip more in advance to spend more time down there, but given my schedule and their schedule down there and such, it was good we at least had that little time we did. Plus, the spontaneity of it all added a particularly exciting element to the adventure, especially surprising the Widerski boys with our visit.

The other "exciting" part of the trip was we happened to head out of town on the first day of the deer hunting season... So of course you have every deer hunter and their cousin in Minnesota loaded up on Budweiser with rifles they probably haven't shot more than once in the previous year heading out to their deer "stands" and "blinds" to take pot shots at the deer population. Add to that the interesting drive back in the dark and the knuckles can be a little white on the steering wheel if you get my drift. We didn't hear or otherwise witness any stray bullets, though, and didn't strike any deer ourselves, though just as I crossed the Pennington County line on the way back to Thief River last night, I quickly came upon a deer that a large truck had obviously encountered earlier (or what was left of the animal) in the middle of my lane. Thanks to the brights, I again had enough time to react, so I pulled around it and called the sheriff's office to suggest they remove it somehow from the road given the danger it would still pose in the dark to oncoming motorists, particularly those in smaller import cars, i.e. Hondas, etc. Another good use for a cell phone...

We got home last night about 2:30 a.m., but thanks to daylight saving time ending, we got an extra hour of sleep to recover before heading off to Sunday School at Trinity this morning where the boys earned their second consecutive "perfect attendance" award (helps when Dad teaches, huh?).

So now that our exciting Thursday through Sunday is over, we have the opening of basketball season to look forward to tomorrow after school lets out with a clinic for neophyte coaches like myself to figure out what we're doing before the season really gets underway. The varsity high school coach will be running the clinic to let us know the fundamental skills he'd like us to work with the younger kids on so they will hopefully have that foundation when they reach high school should they choose to continue playing. So we'll now have that on our plates for an activity a couple days a week with Aaron's games taking place at Franklin on Saturdays. I'm looking forward to getting some more exercise in these upcoming winter months. It just today started snowing in Thief River, so it won't be long before we go into hibernation around here...

So there you all have it.... Again, read on for the rest of our activities these past couple weeks and take a look at some of the pictures. Hopefully I haven't written too much at one time here...

Go South Young Men...


A Place Grandpa Might Recognize...


Replica of Kensington Runestone in Alexandria, MN...


Pelican Rapids Veterans Memorial...


The Widerski Boys, Dorion, Daniel, and Aaron...


Daniel Meets Pelicans...


On the Way Back Friday Night...


Another Trinity Lutheran!!


A Random Tourist Photo..


Remember This Place, Jennifer??


Warren, Minnesota...


Look Familiar to Anyone?


The Boys and Dorion at Ogema, Minnesota...


A Minnesota Alpaca Farm...


The Boys in Pelican Rapids...


Midnight Sugar Beet Caper...


The End of 2007 Prowler Football...

We attended two of the semi-final Prowler football games for the Section championship at the Old Prowler Field with the Prowlers running all over East Grand Forks 46-8 and another fun game against Park Rapids Panthers. After the win against Park Rapids a week before last Friday, we clinched the final Section championship berth against Perham, a team the Prowlers played earlier in the season and beat. I picked the boys and their friend, Dorion, up from school on Friday and we drove over to Grand Forks that evening to attend the championship game, which was played at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. Alerus Center is an indoor events facility that has a football field where the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux play. I think it was our first ever indoor football game and our first "away" game we've attended together. The Prowler side of the bleachers was packed pretty solid with Prowler blue and gold and spirit was really high.

The game was a lot of back and forth, but it didn't take long for Perham High School to score a couple of touchdowns and by half-time, the Perham Yellowjackets were up by a score of 17-6 and they tacked on another touchdown in the second half to make it 24 to 6. The Prowlers had a handful of good plays that resulted in one more touchdown and a successful two-point conversion, which brought them to a final score of 24-14. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on the Prowler's side and they shot themselves in the foot with some foolish penalties including a pair of defense encroachments and worst of all, a roughing the kicker penalty in the last 3:00 minutes of the game that resulted in an automatic first down for Perham whereas otherwise we could have gotten the ball back and a chance at narrowing the gap to at least 24-21. The game was still a great experience for us all, though, and I didn't regret attending one bit.

As we drove home, we were faced with the daunting prospect of the annual deer "obstacle" course with it being the day before opening of deer hunting season. We drove back on Highway 1/59 through Warren, Alvarado, Oslo, etc. in pitch black with the brights on most of the way and we saw no fewer than about 8 deer on the way back, most of them in the ditches. As we were driving back, though, I glanced off to the left and saw this huge long stack of something that from the highway and to an untrained eye looked a lot like a pile of gravel or large rocks. It triggered a memory, though, and I wondered to myself, "Could that be a pile of harvested sugar beets??" They had just a half dozen or so flood lights in the open field area where these giant stacks were the length of a football field and I figured, "Why not?" and pulled into one of the areas and confirmed they were indeed sugar beets, something neither the boys nor their friend Dorion had ever seen in books or anywhere else. Dorion climbed to the top of the pile while we shot some video and he took one of the sugar beets home with us. I think I have a picture of them there somewhere I'll post on here.

About halfway back to Thief River, I was driving along with my eyes peeled for deer when Dorion suddenly shouted "DEER!!!" from the passenger seat next to me and sure enough there was a very young deer, just a little over the size of a fawn that had walked up onto the shoulder of the highway and as I had my brights on, I was able to slam on the brakes in time to watch it turn around and go back from whence it came. It was the smartest deer I've seen, as most will just stand there in the highway or run all the way across. Thanks for the early deer warning system known as Dorion, we made it home safe and sound that night.

With the loss to Perham High Friday night, that was the end of the Prowler season who ended up as runner-up to the new champion Perham team. They finished, though, with about a 9-2 season, so a very successful season despite not making it to the State playoffs. We're looking forward to next year's season for sure given how fun the games were to attend this year. I think we made it to about half or maybe even a little more than half of their games this season, so we're getting pretty interested in the local sports scene.

Lutefisk Anyone???

This past Thursday was the annual lutefisk dinner at Trinity. We headed to church early at 4:30 and helped serve until about 6:30. The platters were overflowing with steaming piles of quivering odoriferous fish that defies olfactory description and could only be consumed (and enjoyed) by a dysgeusic person (one with "abnormal" sense of taste). I helped Jerry and Marilyn load the fish fillets the night before in the fridge at Trinity and each weighed 50 pounds. The fillets were the biggest I've ever seen. As per my usual trepidation, I ended up sticking with the Swedish meatballs myself... The boys were a great help again this year with Aaron particularly enjoying being the pie server. I had to leave early that evening, though, and head to Northland Community College to practice with the small madrigal dinner group to sing in just over a month for Christmas.

Now that we've gotten halfway through our practices for the madrigal dinner, the director asked me if I'd be willing to play the string bass for our performance in December. She had purchased about a $1,800 bass instrument that is really nice looking and even better sounding. I played it for the first time Thursday night accompanying the group and it was a real treat to play at least a half quality instrument. I've been practicing on Aaron's instrument at home and it's no comparison. Speaking of bass playing, Aaron himself continues to do rather well with his lessons and the teacher has been pleased with his progress. It's still a lot of fun to learn right alongside Aaron as he learns. Now the director at the college has asked me if I'd be willing to go a step further and learn the instrument well enough to join the "swing" band there at the college, playing "big band" songs of that era including Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, etc. with songs such as Little Brown Jug, Jumpin' at the Woodside, etc. so I'm excited to give that a shot.

We attended the Franklin Middle School orchestra concert that was held last week at Lincoln, watching Brett, Brayden, and Brianna Drevlow perform for Mr. Druce, the teacher. They had a really fun sounding song they performed named something like Attack of the Rosin Zombies where a handful of the musician students would scream in the middle of the piece like something out of a B movie. Aaron got to see what an orchestra concert was like, though, which was the most important thing so he knows what to expect as he progresses in his own learning of the bass. The next music event for the boys should be their fall "informances" the end of November where they get to show off what they've learned on keyboard and singing to name just a couple.

Halloween 2007

Halloween has come and gone rather quickly. Last Saturday before Halloween, we had the annual Halloween party at Trinity where all the kids dressed up in costumes and we headed out to Oakland Park, Valley Home, and Thief River Care Center to visit the nursing home residents and sing some songs. They struggled a little on the first visit, so I volunteered to play the piano at the last two of three stops on our journey, though I only tapped out the melody on the keys. We came back to the church around 5:00 and had a pizza party followed by musical chairs, coloring, and other games.

Halloween itself was fun, as we set up a TV tray out front of our house with a chair that Aaron manned and he handed out candy to the kids that came by. This year was fun, as more people we recognized came by including one of my own Sunday school students. Then came the Drevlow bus... Joe and Jodi borrowed my sewing machine this year, as Jodi's mom's machine is on its last legs and Jodi sewed ALL of their costumes. They all went as pirates this year. Joe wore a long black wig that made him look like an 80's hair band lead singer and the kids were all decked out in swashbuckling finery all the way down to baby Bryn. We trick-or-treated around our block and then hopped in the car and drove over to the Alice Drive area near Franklin and did most of the trick-or-treating there before heading out to Don and Shirley's house. Then we headed out to the house of the hospital's CEO, Chris, and apparently we were the only ones to show up, as she handed us their entire bag of candy... See below for the visuals on this year's Halloween's festivities...

Trinity Youth Visit Area Nursing Homes for Halloween...


Yes, the Ferocious Ninja is Sucking on a Lollipop...


Trick-or-Treating at the Grochow's...


Saturday, October 13, 2007

Go Prowlers!!! 6-1 With One Game To Go!!


Long Day at the Office...


Prowler Homecoming With Jonathan


A Blast From The Past...


Chillin' With the Peeps...


Back to School 2007


It's Gettin' Chilly Around Here...

We are well into the fall season here with temperatures frequently dipping into the low 40s and high 30s on a regular basis. A good 90 percent and more of the leaves have fallen from the trees with some very nice yellows, reds, and browns. I finally took an hour this past week to rake up the leaves on the front lawn and get them to the curb (TRF comes around with these yellow utility trucks that suck the leaves up very neatly for us). We actually had snow this past week, though I didn't see any of it, knock on wood...

Fall activities snuck up on me so fast that before I knew it, over a month went by before I realized I hadn't updated this blog yet. It's hard to remember what came first or when, but suffice it to say we've all had a few irons in the fire at the same and various different times since school started. Of course I have choir practice again, though I've added the task of full-time Sunday school teaching whereas last year I only substituted. Aaron started playing the string bass this fall and the boys both are involved in the weekly youth group at the Free Church down the street. Add to those activities my recent endeavor or rehearsing for a "madrigal" singing group, which is set to perform at the community college for a "Madrigal Dinner" at Christmas with four or five other musical groups. I practice with that group one day a week, though I now get a few weeks off this month before heading back for a half dozen more practices.

Just when I started wondering about sports schedules, Aaron brought home his sign up sheet for the TRF Backcourt Club basketball registration, so both boys have been signed up for that and I'll likely be roped into coaching again for the 3rd and 5th graders this season. I'm looking forward to another fun season for the boys as they continue to learn new skills. Speaking of sports, we've taken in our share of Prowler high school football games out at the community college's field and watched Brett Drevlow play his last game at the old Franklin practice field. We're really looking forward to another great hockey season and regular Tuesday/Thursday nights out to the Ralph Englestad Arena to watch the games.

In other news, Trinity will be holding its annual Lutefisk Dinner come November, I think, so we'll be involved in running and cleaning up after that this year I figure. That will be a busy week what with basketball practice, madrigal rehearsal, and everything else that week. I've also had a busy week this past week with school lunch. It was some kind of special "voting for school lunch" week and the way my schedule was, I ended up having lunch there an unprecedented four out of the five days last week. Out of all the lunches, I'd have to say it was a tie between the chef salad and the meatloaf, with the meatloaf edging out the win in my book.

I've been trying to watch out for my own well being lately with all the stuff bombarding me from all different directions so the other day I picked up my first acoustic guitar ever from Kezar's and I've already managed to learn to play four different cords, though I have a long way to go. I'd love to be able to play along with the old folk hymnal we used to have in Luther League years back, as nobody really plays guitar for music at Trinity. Aaron has been more interested in his guitar too now that I have one of my own. At the least it is a fun way to blow off some steam after a long day of work and other stress without having to drag my cello out of its case, rosin a bow, and spend an inordinate amount of time just in preparation. I can just pick the guitar up off the stand and start strumming some chords. I'm also looking forward to just sitting out front of the house on the park bench come spring and summer next year and playing whatever comes to mind. I can see now why brother Bill likes the instrument so much.

I've finally gotten on the stick and started to send the boys' school pictures out to everybody this week and next so hopefully I'll have that done soon. If you don't get a picture and you want one, please send me an e-mail or give me a call and I'd be happy to send you whatever I can. I didn't get too many pictures, but I do have plenty of wallet pictures, I think. They turned out pretty good this fall.

Sugar beet harvest is in full swing over here and I'm now looking forward to Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the first real snow storm of the early winter. With this being officially our fourth Minnesota winter, I think we now know the drill pretty well and the boys are as excited as I am to experience some fun in the snow, though we could do without the colder temperatures.

Hopefully I've shared enough news to update everyone on our latest goings on around here. Like I said, when I let too much time go by, I end up forgetting most of what happends, but hopefully I covered most of the major bases here. Take care everyone...

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Fluorescent is Back in Vogue...


A Great Day of Fishing


End of a Great Summer...

August is drawing to a close and I find myself facing my 40th birthday (tomorrow), though I find that to be far less interesting than all the fun we've had this past summer with sports, a trip to the lake, more sports, lots of time of the boys playing with their friends, barbecue after barbecue, and a visit by mom and dad. The boys caught several fish with Dad when he was here and the resulting fish fry that evening was delicious...

Now that the leaves have started falling on the front lawn, I am beginning to prepare myself mentally for the oncoming fall and winter. I'm crossing my fingers for a long fall and a short mild winter. We had our share of severe late August weather on Sunday night. We ended up with three tornadoes that touched down between here and Grand Forks, one of which was just 18 miles north of us. There were 80-mph winds near Crookston, about an hour west of here. We just had a ton of lightning and thunder in our immediate area of Thief River.

For my birthday, I elected to buy myself one gift I've sort of held back on for some time due to the stuff I've gotten the boys and finally got myself a "grownup" game for the desktop computer that although the boys can play is really more exclusively "mine." The game is Microsoft's Flight Simulator X, which allows you to put yourself in the cockpit of some 30 different aircraft including a tricycle ultralight out of Friday Harbor, a Kenmore Air float plane out of the Seattle area, a Lear Jet out of the Thief River Falls Regional Airport, and a 747-400 jumbo jet (the Thief River runway is a tad short, though, for that one...). It has airports all the way from Vietnam to SeaTac with incredible graphics all the way down to a rain soaked flight tarmac in a thunderstorm. It even downloads "realtime" weather for your local area every 15 minutes so you can fly literally in the weather you see out the window. If I sound excited, it's probaby because it's my first genuine professional flight simulator game I've ever owned since the earliest versions of the program back in the 1980s and the difference between then and now is nothing short of breathtaking. I guess I'm also happy to have something I don't have to fight the kids to play (at least for now). And for $30, it's more than worth the splurge. Now if I can just find enough time to actually play it with all the work on my plate and everything else we have going on as school begins.

The Challenger open house is tonight, so we'll be heading out there to say howdy to the teachers we already know and love from Aaron's past years, Mr. Schafer and Mrs. McGeary. Aaron already scoured the house for the books he didn't return to Mr. Schafer last year and I'll be bringing back one of Daniel's books that eluded me for the better part of last Winter. Although the summer has been fun, I am looking forward to the boys learning some new stuff in school and continuing the regular lunch engagements with Aaron on Fridays, though I'm going to try to get more days in with Daniel this year, as he's growing so fast and he always has so much to say when I see him at school during the day.

Aaron is only about three and a half 500-shot days from achieving his goal of 10,000 basketball shots to earn his 10,000 Shot Club t-shirt, thanks largely to his Nana's help when she was here this month. He has shot well over half of the 10,000 total in August alone and will hopefully have it all done by the early part of next week. It has taken a lot of discipline and confidence in himself to get this far and I have no doubt he'll make it. He has really done well in improving his shots too, especially when he takes his time to set up each shot. He hasn't said anything yet about participating in fall flag football, but we'll do it if that's what he wants to do. Daniel still has another year before football opens to him so he has some time to think about it himself, but other than that, it looks like the boys will play basketball again this year.

It's about time to head out for the open house at school, so I'll sign off at this point. I at least wanted to get two blog posts done for the month so people that read this don't think we've fallen off the flat edge of Minnesota... Happy Labor Day to any and everyone reading this.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Aaron, Daniel, and actor Ned Beatty...


The 2007 Baseball Season Has Ended...

After a slow start to the Park & Rec baseball season here in TRF (lots of rained out games and practices), the season ended with a bang, so to speak. This week was the final week otherwise known as "tournament week." Daniel's Reds team went down quickly in the tournament, dropping two games to the Cubs. They didn't go down without a fight in the second game this week, though. It was a real homerun derby of sorts with each team scoring high. There were two very funny plays in that game to say the least. I was sitting next to Sam Mosbeck's dad as we watched the game and Sam came up to bat and got on first base. Then the next play, Sam took off first to steal second. They had overthrown second, but were throwing it back, so Sam went into his slide, but unfortunately just a smidge too early. He disappeared in a cloud of dust on the baseline and when the dust cleared, there was Sam sitting on his butt with his feet stretched in front of him about 10 inches short of second base. The really funny part is had he had his wits about him before the Cubs second baseman, he could have just gotten up and touched second with his hand, but as he stayed where he was, the second baseman put two and two together and tapped Sam on the helmet with the baseball tagging him out. His dad and I were really laughing at that one... :) Then when Sam was out playing third base on defense, he appeared to be somewhat bored standing in his position and at one point, he stretched his arms out to his sides like he was just working the kinks out. He's a lefty and it just so happened as he was stretching his right arm with the fielding glove out to his right side on the third base line, the Cubs batter hit a line drive to left and the ball landed smack dab in his glove. Sam just kind of looked over at his glove with the ball in it as if the ball belonged there the whole time and it didn't even phase him until about 15 to 20 seconds later when he went into a little dance laughing and shouting at how he caught the ball. Daniel did well in both of his games, hitting at least a .300 average and scoring a few runs in the process. I think he was happy to have the tournament week end early for his team, though, so he could play more with his best bud from school.

Aaron's Twins team had a rocky tournament week, as all the teams in their age group had a tough time coming up with enough players to field a team. Apparently some parents decided to take a vacation right at the end of the season, so the Twins forfeited at least one game and Yankees forfeited around three games for lack of players. In fact, the Twins were supposed to face the Yankees this afternoon at 4:00 and had to beat the Yankees in order to get in the championship game tonight at 7:00. The Yankees again came up short of players, though, so the Twins were in the championship game by default. We had dinner at the church for Vacation Bible School tonight and while Daniel stayed with his buddy for the rest of VBS, I drove Aaron out to the college to play the championship game, which was supposed to last until about 8:30.

While the Twins had enough players to avoid forfeiting again, they were still three players short of the Dodgers team who had 10 kids to the Twins' 7. They had wide open holes in the field with Aaron playing center field and nobody in left or right field and then just the basemen, catcher, and pitcher and shortstop. Aaron got at least four balls hit way out to center field where he was, so he was busy hustling after the ball a fair part of the game and did a good job. He was walked with one of his at bats and managed to score a run in the latter half of the game. His team has really been supportive and cheered him on every time he came up to bat. He was smiling from ear to ear the whole time, so obviously was having the time of his life. Toward the end of the game, the lights came on, as they played well past 9:00 p.m. and Aaron looked up at all the bright lights on the field and mentioned something about "being in the big leagues" now with the lights and everything. In the last inning, I filled in as announcer over the PA system at the ball park, announcing the new Twins pitcher when he took the mound and at one point I announced the score, which was 18 to 12 Dodgers going into the last inning. Right after I said, "The score is 18 to 12 Dodgers," I snuck in under my breath "Go Twins!" and about a half dozen Dodgers parents looked over at me from the bleachers and smiled or laughed. Then in the last inning, the Twins had a player on second that tried stealing home and was thrown out by a razor's edge and that was the game. When they announced the Dodgers had won the game, I grabbed the PA microphone one last time and announced, "Twins win the pennant!!" :) I was actually hoping I'd have a chance to announce Aaron when he came up to bat in the last inning, but he didn't get a chance to bat thanks to the throw out at home plate. Oh well... It was a great season topped off by an exciting final game. Now we'll have our Monday mornings free and all the afternoons free until school starts again a month from now. I'm sure we'll find something else constructive to fill in the time like Aaron's 10,000 basketball shots he has to catch up on.

We also had a fun time last Thursday evening when we had a nearby celebrity pay Thief River a visit. Ned Beatty of stage and screen (father of Rudy in the movie of the same name and star of the movie "Deliverance") was here playing the guitar and singing gospel music in the park across from Danny's Pizza just down the street from us. Since one of Aaron's games was forfeit that night, we drove over and took in the show. He of course looked different in person than on the big screen. He had a full white beard and none of the makeup of Hollywood. He was every bit as genial as he appears in his movies, though. I introduced hte boys to him, as they had seen him in the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, Rudy, and a couple other movies, one of which in just the previous week so his face was fresh in their memories. He shook both their hands and talked to us for some time about a movie he did with Rupert Grint, the boy to plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. He called Rupert one of his good friends. After the show was over in the park and most of the crowd had gone, we raced home and grabbed our copies of the Superman and Thunderpants DVDs and drove back to the park and had him autograph them for the boys. I got him on video with the camera with Daniel helping him open a DVD box he had trouble opening. He asked Daniel at one point if he had the "secret code" for opening DVD cases. I'm posting a picture of Ned with the boys here even though most of you already have the picture already via e-mail. I'll also be posting a picture of the Twins after their final game tonight at Northland.

That's all for now as we start to look ahead to another year of fun with back to school shopping and more fun school activities. Speaking of school, I was tapped this year to teach Daniel's Sunday School class at Trinity (last year's class was so huge they decided to split in half this year with me teaching one half and a couple of high school girls teaching the other half). So rather than the occasional substitute session, I'll have to make sure I'm there every Sunday or else... I'll have to also be on the ball with choir, as I won't be able to practice anymore betwen services. We've just got VBS for now, though, which ends tomorrow night with a pizza and ice cream party. Mom and Dad will be out here to visit on the 11th, so we're looking forward to their visit.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Another Fun Week at the Fair...








The Pennington County Fair has come and gone again and even though we didn't enter the animals this year, we still had a great time with the rides, food, and exhibits. The boys got their cartoon caricatures drawn together this year and they looked as funny as ever. The caricature artist took Daniel's front Chiclet teeth and exaggerated the gap in them to captured Aaron's famous smile very nicely. I'll have to take a picture of the final result and post it on here, as it's far too big to scan.

Trinity put up a food booth this year thanks to Jeff Liden who cooks at the local American Legion in town. They sold barbecue sandwiches with chips, pop, ice cream, and 1919 Rootbeer floats. We were repeat customers all three nights we went to the fair. I think the booth made over $1,000 a day, so it was a good fundraiser for the church.

The music was great this year, as we watched the Trinity Trio, which now is more like the "Trinity Strings," as the pastor's wife, Julia, is now playing her lute or mandolin and singing with the group. I couldn't talk them into playing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," though... We had quite a contingent of Trinity folks there for moral support.

I got the boys unlimited ride passes this year and they made good use of them this time around, though for the most part stayed off the "scary" rides. Aaron did go on the Himalaya ride, which in my day was called the Matterhorn and I think had white knuckles the whole time. He may have gone a second time, but refused to go any further, as he thought he had to hold on too hard to stay in the seat. The Goldsberry's grandchildren were here from Florida a couple of nights there at the fair, so the boys also got to ride with them and other friends. The Drevlows had several exhibits this year in the old arena with Brett making a life-size sculpture out of nothing but baseball cards and the other kids submitting drawing/artwork.

Guy Drevlow won several contests with his and his wife's horses and had some fun apparently with the kids who walked through the livestock barn. He attached a small handheld radio to the underside of one of the horse's manes and then stood around the corner with another radio and waited for a young child to approach the horse and then would whisper to the boy or girl as though the horse were talking to them. One of the boys went running to his mother saying, "The horse wants to come home with me, Mom!!" One of the families from Trinity made up almost half of one of the livestock barn displays with several goats, pigs, and sheep (the Kilen family).

The fair wound down with fireworks on Saturday night (see pictures). I tried the new "fireworks" feature on the camera and the few posted here really turned out nice.

The boys' baseball season will soon come to a close with tournament week approaching. Aaron's Twins team split their last two games Thursday night (we were there at the ballpark until 9 p.m.) with the Yankees and Dodgers respectively winning the latter and they're now #1 ranked going into the playoffs. Daniel's Reds team narrowly lost their last game against the Cubs. This next week is the end of the season party called the "Summer Hummer" in the Oakland Park at the edge of town with a picnic, carnival games, and dunk tank with lots of prizes for the kids and awards. That should be a fun couple of hours of fun this week. We've enjoyed very nice weather this past week or two with lots of sun, less rain, and some pleasant late afternoon breezes to keep cool at the ballpark. It was 81 degrees yesterday and it felt great. Finally got the lawns mowed, as I know it's gonna rain again tonight or tomorrow and then I'd really be hurting with grass up to my knees. Speaking of things growing like weeds, I harvested my back yard rhubarb plants for the second time this season and donated it to Daniel's friend's mom again who this time delivered us the most delicious dessert made from the rhubarb, kind of a "rhubarb mirangue" (sp?) pie with graham cracker crust and mirangue topping. It was the first new variation of rhubarb recipe I've had since the 1970s. My neighbor still can't figure out how our rhubarb grows like crazy in the shade of a large tree in the back yard. They have rhurbarb in their yard with more than enough sun yet it remains anemic in growth. I gotta get motivated next spring and clear out the back pea patch and plant some veggies, as I think I have some rich soil back there.

Aaron continues to diligently move toward his goal of 10,000 basketball shots by the time school starts up again in a month or so and I've gotten some good exercise shooting baskets with both the boys. The other night the boys had their friend Blake stay over and we all played HORSE the four of us and wouldn't you know it... Daniel won!

That's about all we've been up to since the last post. Hopefully everyone else out there is having a great mid summer. Feel free to send us pictures of your own adventures (Jeff and Katrina???).

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Summer Marches On...



Hard to imagine how far we've gotten through summer already. We are well into another season of Park and Rec baseball and it won't be long until it's time to head back to school. We've been busy as usual with everything from baseball as above to movies, lots of visits from Aaron's friends (Daniel's best friend has been out of town for a couple weeks), and activities around town. Last week we all went over to Jim and Olive's house to set up their grandchildren's video game console on their old tv set (so old it doesn't have RCA plugs of its own). Their grandkids are up here visiting from Miami for most of July. We set up the console, but didn't spend much time playing on it, as we were invited to swim at the Franklin pool. It was a very fun learning experience for the boys. They have forgotten most of the lessons they learned at the Y, but they were pretty quick studies when I brought them both in the shallow end for some "lessons from Dad." Aaron was rather cautious about the whole affair given his past experience in Lake Sammamish and to start out, I was holding him most of the time as he got in and out of the pool, but by the end of the evening, he not only got in and out of the pool by himself, but also agreed to walk away from the edge of the pool with water up to his chest about 15 feet out from the edge to give me a hug. He was so proud of his accomplishment and couldn't get enough of it. He even started his own "exercise walking," realizing the resistance of walking through the water was indeed physical exercise. Daniel was rather cute, as he clung to me like Velcro when I brought him into the pool. I just about pried his fingertips off my back to get him back on the deck, but he too got rather comfortable by the end of the night and walked back and forth holding onto the pool edge and then walked out to me a couple of times leaving the edge about 5 feet behind.


We played there at the pool with Jim and Olive's grandkids and a friend of Aaron's until 9:45 last Friday night and it brought back memories of all those hundreds of late evening practices we had for AAU back in the day. Speaking of memories, the showers had the exact same showerheads on them they did in about 1977. They took the record board down, though, in the pool area so not much remains of that era now. I'm excited for the boys to learn to swim, though, as they have a webbed rope that hangs into the deep end from the ceiling and they can climb that if they want for exercise. Aaron is also doing well with his "10,000 Shot Club" for school basketball. He has the summer to shoot 10,000 baskets and we continue to plod toward that target (I won't jinx it here, though, by saying how many he's got so far). We usually head to the back garage and shoot for a half hour to an hour and between 150 to 250 baskets, though the other night he set a record by shooting 312. He really is a good shooter, hitting six in a row with nothing but net. It takes a lot of discipline, as it requires extended attention and concentration, but if he can reach the goal, he'll really benefit once basketball season starts up again.


On the home front, we did end up losing both of our guinea pigs in the span of about two weeks since my last writing here. Rodney passed of what clearly appeared to be a respiratory ailment despite my best efforts to save him and then "Lucky" wasn't so lucky... Lucky was a lot tougher, though, and gave whatever the infection was a run for its money. We just haven't had much luck with the guinea pigs and although we did replace Rodney with a new guinea, I don't think we'll be doing any more after that one. I think Aaron wants to get a rabbit that stays small when its full grown to keep the newest guinea pig company.


The Pennington County Fair is back again this week and thanks to work, I missed the first few days of it. Daniel is walking there tonight with his buddy and Aaron and I will be meeting up with them later on. The new Harry Potter movie is out this week too, so we're juggling our different priorities as of course they want to do everything all at once. They aren't entering their animals this year, though, given the nightmare last year turned into with the loss of Funny Bunny and Snowball. I think we'll just visit the new building with the rabbits and see what Sandy's up to.


We've also gotten our share of sun having traveled to the lake to spend the day at a family friend's cabin and did some fishing (didn't catch anything) and worked on our suntans. Other than that and the above, I've done some song leading at Trinity a couple times so far this summer and I'm supposed to lead again with Carol this coming Sunday and the boys have had about a half dozen baseball games apiece. Half the season has unfortunately been rained out, which is just the opposite of last summer with the drought we had. We've had no less than a dozen thunderstorms this summer and more on the horizon. It was funny yesterday, though. The boys had three games at the college yesterday and I was really feeling guilty as I had to finish some work and couldn't watch their first two games. I dropped them off at the ballpark and came back to finish the work and about an hour later, I got up to walk into the kitchen and looking out the back door I saw water cascading over the window in the door and sure enough we were in the middle of another downpour. There was no thunder, so I didn't have a clue until I saw the downpour upon getting up. Of course it clicked right away in my head, "Uh oh! The boys are probably standing around on a muddy ball field!" I hopped in the Blazer and ran out there as quick as I could to find them wet, but nonetheless all smiles. Aaron advised me that it started raining actually in the very first inning and they called the game off in the fourth (saved by the bell, as they were losing against the Yankees). So I didn't have to feel too guilty after all, as they didn't finish their first two games and didn't play the third game at all. I've done pretty good so far, though, not missing a single game since the season started, though the weather has probably helped on at least one other occasion. The season runs through July and then I think tournament week is the beginning of August followed by the "Summer Hummer" end of the season event, which was at the city park last year just before school starts.


I know there's a lot more I don't even remember at the moment, but I wanted to get what I could on here while I have the moment before I go and get even more busy. Did I mention how nice central air conditioning can be? I have a feeling I'm starting to ramble, so I better sign off for now and head to the fair with Aaron. Until next time... :)

Friday, June 15, 2007

Spring Informance for Daniel...


When It Rains....Well...You Know...

We've had one soggy week, I'm afraid. The boys started their first week of baseball practices out at the college this week, but as of Wednesday, they were rained out and just today (Thursday), they canceled all three of their games (two of Daniel's, one of Aaron's). I've been so busy lately that the lawn in front hasn't been mowed in three weeks and whenever I get the gumption to go out and do it, it rains, which leads to a vicious cycle, as it takes only a light drizzle to set the grass growing like a giant flat Chia pet.

Speaking of Chia pets, we've got another sick guinea on our hands, which one being Rodney, our longest lived pet along with the rabbits we got last year at the fair. Rodney has been quite dehydrated the past few days and we brought it over to Sandy Drevlow yesterday who showed us it was having some respiratory problems going on with some wheezing, so after watching it pretty much lay listlessly in the cage, I figured we should at least try to feed it more aggressively, so we hopped in the car tonight and headed out to Wal-Mart to get some fresh carrots and celery to run through the juicer, then mixed that with ground up food pellets and loaded up a couple syringes full. Rodney obviously wasn't pleased with the concept, but with sunken eyes and difficult breathing, he really needed hydration. I think we got at least one of the syringes of food where it needed to be with the rest down the chin, so hopefully it will help him rebound a little, but I'm afraid he might not make it through the night. With this one, though, I think we at least have a fighting chance, as we know in advance that it's not feeling well, though it takes so little time for a cavie like that to go downhill and if you're not really paying attention you can miss the important signs. It's kind of educational for me, as I'm finding myself drawing on my experience in animal physiology lab at Washington State. We're hoping for the best, as we haven't had the best luck with the really small pets (though the bunnies are still going strong...

The fair is coming up in Pennington County again next month and Aaron is already making sure we don't enter the pets again (as that was when the guineas started dying). He's been a great help with Rodney as we try to nurse him back to health as best we can.

Other than baseball and an ailing guinea, not much else is going on besides work for me. I'm scheduled to lead the congregation in the hymns and liturgy again this Sunday, this time with Marilyn accompanying, and starting next week will be spending a lot more time hopefully out at the ball park with the boys. We might even get a chance to get some fishing in...

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Thank you to our fallen soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen this Memorial Day.


A Time for Remembrance...

As this month has come and gone so quickly, I find Memorial Day is almost already arrived again. We've been quite busy with end of school activities, the school carnival, music informances, end of Sunday School, starting summer activities, etc. As I drive out to Challenger several days a week lately, though, I find myself glancing off to the side as I pass Greenwood Cemetery here in town and just noticed today the many wooden crosses placed in honor of local fallen veterans for Memorial Day ceremonies next week. It got me to thinking of all the many people I've known over the years that have left this earth, many before their time, and others who lived long and rich lives and for whom it would never have been a comfortable time to say goodbye. I thought of how people visit their friends' and loved ones' gravesites to remember them on this holiday, but obviously I can't do that for everyone, so I thought I would acknowledge them here in at least some small way.

There are so many people who have touched my life in one way or another, large or small, long or short, but these are the people I miss, that I wish I could have met in person while they were here, or could have stayed here a bit longer in the journey we call "life" so I could have gotten to know them (not necessarily in order of importance): Grandma Judy and Grandpa Paul, Great Grandpa Oscar and Grandma Mary, Great Grandpa Ole and Grandma Odel, Grandpa Ed, Great Uncle Ed, Helen and Doug, Marjorie, Aunt Sue, Ray Mosbeck, Adrienne Sanai, Sarah Villien (CAP), Sandy Heidinger, Ms. Czerkownak, Mrs. Poole, Mr. Fugleberg, Mr. Solsten, Mrs. Desrochier, Mr. McLeod, Mr. Hess, Rayton "Bubs" Dargon, David Cota, Stuart Thompson, Leland Mott, Sr., Kristi Dyrdal, Warren Peterson, Mary from Ida Culver, Iris Nicola, Annie Van Winkle, Lisa from Stevens, Mr. Krause, Dr. Davidson, Jim and Perry (30 years ago this December), and Axel and Louise Stark. Thank you to all the above who have played a role in shaping who I have been, am, and will be in the future. You are all dearly missed, particularly those who died without the opportunity to live your lives to the fullest.

"Requiem eternam dona eis, Domine. Et lux perpetua luceat eis." (Grant unto them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.)

Thank you also to the many veterans who have died for our freedom in previous wars and and the men and women who continue to give the ultimate gift in sacrifice to our country in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Spring Planting Is Finished....


Aaron's Good Buddy, Brock...


In Front of Chief Sitting Bull - UND Arena


Back From a Day at the Circus...


Yes, We're Still Here...

I'm afraid we've been kept so occupied that this blog has fallen by the wayside again lately. So much has gone on since my last update, I can't possibly remember it all, so I'll probably just touch on the highlights that stick out more than others in my cluttered mind.

Since Easter, we had a good two more weeks and then some of chilly weather with snow on the ground. It was close to May by the time all the snow had melted and a long overdue spring appeared. The birds showed up on time, but mother nature failed to follow suit so we were quite happy once everything else fell into place with the sun and all. The school year appears to have been on fast forward ever since basketball season ended with it quickly approaching the last day of school with less than a month left. We had a great weekend last week, though, with the Shrine Circus in Grand Forks at the UND hockey arena. Joe and Jodi drove both their vans over so we got a ride with Joe and spent the afternoon with their kids at the circus. Jodi's dad is a Shriner, so we got all free tickets, though we of course had to spend plenty on concessions and extras on the circus floor during intermission. We stopped and took a look at the 80 acres on the way back to Thief River.

This past week has been spent preparing for the summer months by signing the boys up for another season of Park & Rec baseball and Safety Camp for Daniel at Franklin Middle School. I also finally had an afternoon of free time this past week so I picked up some nice plants at Wally World and Aaron helped me plant geraniums and smaller mini viola plants in the old whiskey barrel planters out front of the house and in the planters out back. The barrels look nice for the first time since we got here and the Prowler cross country team and neighborhood folks now have something pleasing to look at when they run/walk by. The birds have also been busy doing their part to beautify the house. I now have matching robin's nests in the front and back of the house. There's one wedged between the rain gutter and eve on the front porch and another one the boys discovered this morning that's perched right on top of the back flood lights just outside the back door. It's nestled right between the two lights just above the motion sensor. I took it down just to see if there was an egg in it, but there was none so I put it back up there. I figure it's a good idea to leave the birds alone, as they'll do a good job controlling the insects, i.e. mosquitos.

We're just about through with choir for the year at church. We sang with the combined choirs tonight at Redeemer and then will sing at Zion tomorrow morning followed by Trinity and that's pretty much it for the summer until September or so. We also had the Sunday School appreciation dinner last Sunday and tomorrow is the last day of Sunday School with awards for perfect attendance. Preliminary indications are that both boys will receive a perfect attendance award this year (a major improvement over last year).

As we are entering the summer months, we are now experiencing some good rain this weekend and may even have some thunderstorms. It has helped a great deal with grass germination, as I'm trying to repair some of the grass adjacent to our front side walk. Minnesota dirt seems like Miracle-Gro all by itself with only a night or two of rain required before you have a lush green carpet of turf to run your bare toes through. I've already mowed the back lawn once and I suspect the mower will be getting a lot more use this year than last. Now if we can just keep the insect pests away (including the yellowjackets).

We had the school carnival at Challenger today with a silent auction, dunk tank, and games. Both boys managed to dunk the principal at least once and it was fun because it was overcast and the tank was filled with cold tap water to begin with so the principal really had a cold afternoon out there in the wind of the back parking lot. The boys played a lot of games and Aaron (I?) won a Twins baseball donated and autographed by Nick Punto and Joe Nathan that's in a nice little display cube. Aaron's quite proud of his new acquisition to say the least. We also went to see Spiderman 3 last night at the Galaxy Twin in town. You know a movie is better than most when the crowd actually extends into the parking lot around here. Of course folks around here often will go to the opening of an envelope, but it was so popular there at the theater last night it reminded me of the old days in the late 70s when mom and dad would take us out to the movies and there was hardly an open seat in the house. We picked up both Kasey and Dusty Grochow to go with us and several of the boys friends were there too. It was kind of funny in the middle of the movie, though. We were four rows back and in the row just in front of us with her dad was this little blonde girl, somewhere like kindergarten or first grade age, and she turned around in the middle of one of the low moments in the movie and asks Daniel to sit next to her and then when Daniel didn't know how to respond, she started asking me over and over again if Daniel could sit with her and I kept telling her, "Watch the movie..." and her Dad was obviously a little embarrassed, but what was funny was I thought the girl knew Daniel from school, but apparently he didn't know her at all when I asked him later. Pretty cute.

We just got back from Redeemer and I can smell the aroma of the meatballs in beef stroganoff sauce wafting over from the Crock-Pot in the kitchen, so I think I'm going to sign off here. I'll try to keep this site updated as much as possible as we enter the season of summer activities, but I may just post pictures without text from time to time.

Congratulations to Jen, Don, Nick, and Jake on the birth of Cody Jack this past week!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Nice April Fool's Joke, God...

Well, I woke up this April Fool's and looked out the window to see...yep...you guessed it...a bunch of huge snowflakes falling outside our windows. After a rather prolonged late dump of snow, we had all but melted our way out of it these past couple of weeks to the point we actually had a couple of days of rain this week and no ice left at all not to mention what appeared to be some greener blades of grass than usual for this time of year. Now the whole town is covered in a blanket of about 3 inches of wet snow. Turns out it's a good thing I got the 4X4 fixed after all... We just got home after an afternoon of an Easter egg scavenger hunt and egg coloring activity at Trinity with the K-5 kids. It was our first Easter activity there at church and the boys had a great time. I'll post some pictures on here in the near future, so bear with me.

In other events since my last post, Daniel had his 8th birthday at the water park with a good dozen or so of his friends from school. Of course he invited all boys and the same "token" girl he had invited last year, Samantha. Samantha's mom cracked up when she realized her daughter had again been chosen to represent the fairer half of Daniel's class. I think he had either a little too much fun or a little too much cake or both, though, as he ended up sick Friday night, but he's bounced back to his usual chipper self, so all's well that ends well.

The boys did well on the two days they delivered the Grand Forks paper for Joe and his kids. They each were given $20 for their efforts, so it was a good payday for them.

It's hard to believe yet another school year is just about in the books already and baseball season is just around the corner. Aaron will be "drafted" for his team this time around in the 10 and 11-year-old group and it will be "player pitched," so I know he's really hoping to get a chance to pitch. Thankfully he's already got cleats and I picked up a pair of them for Daniel so all they need is new jerseys/t-shirts, pants, and baseball socks to round out their equipment. We bought the last two aluminum "Street Rocket" street hockey sticks from Legends Sporting Goods just over a week ago and the boys have been practicing their skills pretty frequently lately. Aaron has gotten quite good at "dribbling" the street puck, which is a bright orange ball about the size of a billiard ball. We just need something for a net and we'd really be in business. It should be more fun now that we have snow again for a day or two. Speaking of which, it's not 7 hours later and the snow continues to fall outside...

I'm trying to write more here, but I'm about to fall asleep on the couch, so I think I'd better sign off for now lest I leave a trail of zzzzzzz's across the screen. Hope everyone has a great week!

Sunday, March 04, 2007