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!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
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...
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...
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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.
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.
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...
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...
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