Alright Already!!! I'm Back!

I’m wondering how much I actually remember enough to write down here as it’s been possibly a record length of time since I updated this blog. So much going on, it’s hard to keep it all straight. I’ll just start with the boys’ return to school.
Aaron and Daniel are enjoying their first month of school a great deal, it would appear. Aaron has progressed splendidly in his reading skills since last year. It’s hard to believe it’s him reading a book now. Daniel seems to love his new teacher and is bringing some homework home a few nights a week. It’s kind of strange having an empty house and not having to get Daniel ready and out to the bus at noon every day. We now get up about 7:00 a.m. (the fourth or fifth hit on each snooze bar) and Duchess and I escort the boys out to their bus stop which moved about 20 feet South of last year’s stop. We usually just have to stand there about five minutes before the bus pulls up and off they go.

We took a little break from the usual here in TRF on Labor Day and headed down to Kim and Doug Williams’ house in Bemidji, friends of my parents from the old days in TRF (and my former babysitter). Kim’s mom and dad, Jerry and Marilyn Wigness, picked us all up along with Doug’s mom, Fern, and we all drove down there for the holiday to have a picnic of sorts. We managed to go see Paul Bunyon and his ox, Babe, and I’ll post a pic of that here. We also after dinner of hotdogs, polishes, and hamburgers floated down the Mississippi river on a pontoon boat as the river flows by the backyard of Kim and Doug’s house. The boys got to see some neat wildlife including beaver dams, turtles, and fish. They had a great time out on the water for the first time in Minnesota.



Between Labor Day and September 19th, we spent most of our time getting the house ready for mom and dad’s arrival on the 19th. Dawn Williamson and her mom, Judy, and foster son, Josh, came over the weekend before and took over the house in basically “commando” style and got the entire main floor of the house in ship shape for our visitors. The entire porch got cleared off and there’s very little “clutter” on the floor to speak of thanks to their generous efforts.
I did have a bit of a mishap the week before Mom and Dad arrived. The preceding Wednesday, we were going to bike to choir practice at church and I had stopped my bike up in front of the house to wait for Aaron as he looked for his helmet inside. As I’m standing there straddling my bike, Aaron comes out and I decide to just get up on my bike seat and start pedaling. Unfortunately, Daniel’s rear tire was directly in front of my front tire and I had no direction to go but straight down on my left shoulder like a fallen tree, landing rather forcefully on the concrete sidewalk with no break in my fall. I could just roll over and lay there for a while, it was so painful. I took my helmet off and realized Daniel was crying because he thought it was all his fault he “hurt daddy.” After a couple minutes of laying on the ground and thinking about my $1,500 medical insurance deductible, though, I managed to climb back on my bike and we made it to choir practice on time. My shoulder, though, has ached all of this week, making it difficult to stretch and use the left arm. At least no bones were broken, so I haven’t ruined that track record yet.

Mom and Dad arrived on Monday and have been enjoying their stay in TRF thus far. Mom has provided some delicious home-cooked dinners already including biscuits and gravy, chicken, and my favorite tonight – rhubarb cake baked with rhubarb out of our own backyard. The boys and I biked over to Franklin Middle School pool last night and joined Mom and Dad there for the Prowler girls’ swim meet against Fosston, Minnesota. The varsity girls beat Fosston by about 20 pounds and the Prowler JV team beat the Fosston JV team by closer to 40 points. The pool looks quite different from when I used to race in it as a kid. The starting blocks are on the opposite end of the pool from where they were and the pool is now attached to another building. They have a nice new electronic score board too that shows nicely what every lane’s time was and the individual places. I noticed they had a few old records too on the record board that have yet to be beaten from the 1970s. We went out to Dairy Queen with Mom and Dad after the meet, riding all of our bikes there and then home afterwards.

Today was a productive day for the “Daddy Do” list as Dad came over and basically did everything I had planned including replacing the fallen drain spout from the house that ran from the top gutter to the lower gutter in back, replacing the storm window on the bathroom window upstairs, and sharpening the lawnmower blade that I had dulled months ago from running over a large rock. The lawn looks nice and plush like a green carpet now with the new blade surface. I finally figured out how to make the mower blow grass out the side too as it had been mulching all this time with a plate in place that covered the exit on the side. Dad just pulled out the plate/cover on the side and the problem was solved. We may be looking at fixing the bench out in front of the house tomorrow as the last project before Dad leaves town.

Tomorrow we’ll probably head out for a bike ride around town and also see the model railroad show at the armory. The boys have yet to see the inside of the armory so that should be an adventure for them.

Before I forget, perhaps the most momentous event in the past three weeks or so has been the arrival of a “new” car. It’s actually used, but new to us. Kim and Doug Williams had four vehicles and one of them, a 1989 Taurus station wagon, had been used by a daughter. They realized they really didn’t need four cars, so they gave the car to Dad and had him drive it up here from Bemidji on Monday whereupon he handed me the keys. It’s called “The Weasel” and apparently has quite the history. It used to be Fern Williams’ husband’s car (my neighbor across the street) years ago before it had been passed down through the Williams’ family. I got the title changed on it this week and I still have to get insurance before I’ll be able to drive it. The car runs really well, though, and apart from some Minnesota rust, is quite comfortable to ride in.

I think that’s about all that’s been going on up in our neck of the woods lately. Sorry to those people who’ve waited so long for an update. I haven’t been the best at keeping it updated with visiting family, return to school, cleaning house, etc. The leaves are falling rapidly now here in town and it would appear autumn will soon be upon us. The temperatures have already gotten down to the 40s. Here’s dreamin’ of a white Christmas… Best wishes to all who read this and have a happy weekend.

A Day In The Life Of Many Dogs...

Well, today was my first day this month I got any actual "free" time to remove myself from my desk and get out to explore the world outside, so I decided to hop on my bike and take a ride out to the Pennington County Humane Society to give Dawn Williamson a hand with the dogs out there. I think it's about two or three miles out there from my house. I managed to bump into Jerry and Marilyn Wigness along the way too. They were walking into town across the 1st Street Bridge (good timing). Anywho, Dawn and I went out to breakfast at Dee's, over to the city pound (didn't know where that was until today) to give some new kittens their shots, and hosed out the dog kennels. There must have been about 90% black dogs out there, so it was like a sea of black when Dawn opened the kennels to let them all out the back door, one row of dogs at a time, so we could clean. It can get a little noisy in there as it's a metal quonset hut-type shelter. All the dogs are so friendly, though, every one of them wanting to dance and play when they got out of their kennels. I just wish I had more time to spend out there during the day. I also got to hold the new kittens at the city pound located by the train tracks just north of downtown TRF so Dawn could get their digital pictures to advertise them for adoption. They were all pretty cute kittens. There was a nice rottweiler/black lab mix there too.

Anywho, if you haven't considered it before, you should try volunteering at your local animal shelter for an afternoon or more. It may be a little noisy and perhaps a little "dirty" work, but the animals sure do appreciate all the attention they get (they don't complain as much as us humans either). Check out this site to see what dogs I helped out with today. You can see I'm not lying about the number of black dogs too... http://www.pawstrf.org/availabledogs.htm :o)

Last Day of Summer Break...

It was a very pleasant final day of summer vacation for the boys and I. We ended the day by launching our parafoil kite in the park down the street. It rapidly caught the evening wind and soared to a height of 300 feet (the length of the cord) and we almost got dizzy looking up so high. It could have gone much higher had we had any more line. It looked quite splendid against the sunset with its multi-colored streamer tail hanging down. Aaron was pretty cute too, saying, "This is a quality Father/Son activity, right Dad?" (He can say the most grown up things sometimes...) They both got a couple of turns flying the kite (almost dragging Daniel across the field) and at one point, Daniel just sat indian-style on the lawn and held the kite string. A few people slowed down on the main drag to catch a glimpse of the kite overhead too. We then rode our bikes home and got the boys tucked in early for school.

Aaron was so excited for his first day of school, he couldn't fall asleep for over an hour after he went to bed. Andrew rattled our collective cage at 20 minutes to 6:00 and the boys got dressed in their new school clothes and had their backpacks on about an hour before we had to leave for the bus. Attached to the blog is their first day of school picture from in front of the house.

Apparently, the first day of school went off without a hitch as neither of them had anything "exciting" to relate. Daniel's backpack was about 5 pounds lighter, though, when he returned home without all of his school supplies. He had to have FIVE one-subject notebooks, which weighted it down a bit.

Now we have only one more day to go to the nice holiday weekend. Of course it won't be the same this year, with the Labor Day Telethon being overshadowed by the recent events down in Louisianna, Mississippi, Alabama, etc. in the hurricane aftermath. I even read a story today that "Fats Domino" is missing from his home in New Orleans (for those not familiar with him, he sang "Ain't That a Shame" and "Blueberry Hill"). I am very thankful to live in an area relatively free of natural disasters other than the occasional blizzard as I read and hear about so many tragic stories from down South.

On a brighter note, Aaron did mention he's excited to get his "Prowler" shirt as he says all third graders are supposed to get one at Challenger. He said sometime during the year, coaches from all different sports, i.e. Hockey, Football, Soccer, etc. come to visit the classrooms to talk about school sports. Aaron mentioned he wanted to play football "because in Hockey you can get hurt!"

Well... It's now time to get the boys in bed for school tomorrow, so I'll sign off for now. Take care, everyone...

Back To School....

The summer break is coming to a graceful end here in TRF. First day of class for the boys is coming up on Thursday, September 1. The only controversy surrounding the school year has been settled too: An elderly lady whose house sits directly in front of last year's bus stop was upset about its location, so the school district moved the sign approximately 20 feet South of last year's spot. We wondered for a while where it would be moved to, but thankfully it's still very close to home.

Aaron received a letter from his new third grade teacher last week, Mrs. McGeary, introducing herself and inviting him to complete a "word-find" puzzle with his new classmates' names in it for a special treat when he comes to class on Thursday. No letter for Daniel yet, though. Their open house at Challenger Elementary is going to be on my birthday, August 30th, so we will probably take the bus out there that day to meet and greet everyone for this year's school-term. We got the back-to-school supplies a couple weeks ago and their respective backpacks are fully stocked and have (amazingly) remained zipped ever since I told them not to touch anything before school starts. We still need to get a few more clothes items, though.

As for current events, I've been working on catching up around the house. Yesterday, I bought my Martha Stewart manual hedge clippers (Can't get away from that blasted woman at K-mart these days) and spent part of the afternoon trimming down the front hedge so I can clearly see the porch again, then caught up on mowing the front lawn. Every time I see Ken Murphy across the street on the riding lawnmower, I'm reminded I need to get on the stick. Now we just have to catch up on the backyard. Aaron helped me mow the front and was quite proud of himself. He's getting the hang of keeping it in a straight line without missing any strips of grass. Maybe in a couple three years he'll be doing it on his own for allowance... He already asked for $1.00 for helping.

Daniel lost his good bicycle helmet and his spare helmet he unfortunately ruined. It was kind of funny, actually. We had a thunderstorm again this past week and he had left the spare helmet outside in the rain. I brought it inside the porch to dry, but when we rode into town later the next day, it was still wet. He put it on his head and for the life of me, I couldnt' figure out why it always sat cockeyed on his head as we pedaled through town. It wasn't until we got home and he took the helmet off that I realized he had ripped all of the foam padding that serves as a spacer for a snug fit because they were wet and he didn't want his head to get wet... We ended up going to K-mart and got him a new helmet, so he's back in business.

We went out tonight for another bikeride, but I unfortunately changed out of shorts into pants right before we left and ended up locking us out of the house again... We saw Andrew delivering for Domino's, though, so we stood on the opposite side of the sidewalk, waiting for him to return to his base. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes later, there he was going the same direction as when we saw him last! He had taken a detour, so we missed him again. About an hour later, we met him at the Domino's store to get his key from him. It was at that time I noticed for the first time there's a beautiful playing field covered in lush green grass by the railroad tracks on 3rd next to the old school that was made into a church. We've been looking for a close park for some time now that we can take the football and a kite to and we finally found it! We're probably going to head back out there tomorrow afternoon and have some fun before school starts again. Should be fun. The grass is the perfect length too to go barefoot in. :o)

As for the injury report, Daniel has slowed down from several Band-Aids a week to one every two weeks or so now, but Aaron was coming down the stairs last night at home with a shoe only half on and ended up twisting his foot pretty bad. He's got a bruise on the inner ball of his left foot that looks like it could be a bone bruise. He's limping around a little bit, but still made it on our biking trip this evening, so he should be fine. No other major injuries this summer season, knock on wood.

Like I mentioned above, Andrew has gotten a job driving for Domino's and has been enjoying good tips so far on top of hourly pay and gas money. He also picked up an application to be a dealer at the Seven Clans Casino. His goal is to eventually quit the St. Hilaire Seed Company if he can as he's had his fill there. He's not sure when he's going to start school yet.

I've told most people already who read this blog, but Daniel lost his other front tooth a couple weeks ago, so now he's toothless for Christmas. We'll see how long it takes for the new chiclets to arrive.. I'm posting a pic of him after his mud pie for your enjoyment. He's quite proud of his new toothless look and surprisingly doesn't have a lot of trouble eating without those teeth either.

Other than choir starting up again at Trinity probably in September, there's not much else going on over here. Just small town living at a small town pace, enjoying the gradual passing of summer into fall. We did get ourselves a new guinea pig recently from the Humane Society in town here. Her name is "Snowball" and she's an albino guinea pig, almost entirely white with pink eyes. She fits in well with Funny Bunny in her cage. We bought her a medium purple igloo that she can go and hide in when she wants. She loves lettuce like you wouldn't believe. She's my/our first guinea pig and is fairly low maintenance. She also makes funny sounds too when she gets excited, unlike Funny Bunny.

The boys are looking forward to the leaves falling as we happen to have one of the largest Dutch elm trees in town right in front of our house. Should make for a nice pile of leaves to jump in. I'll be happy to get a long respite from lawnmowing too.

Take care, everyone... :o)

VBS Is Over!!!

It was an eventful week of vacation bible school, as illustrated in the nice pictures below of our activities. They boys had a great time and made some new friends, some older, but most about the same age. Andrew had fun too doing the recreational activities outside on the lawn next to Trinity. We had our last day actually on Thursday night and capped it off with a big pizza party from Danny's Pizza. We're all looking forward to next year's activities and hopefully more music then.

We did our back-to-school shopping at K-mart yesterday, getting new backpacks for both the boys and some clothes and school supplies. It wasn't as expensive as last year either, as we have lower sales tax and for some things no sales tax as compared to Washington State. The boys return to 1st and 3rd grades respectively as of September 1, two days after my birthday. It'll be different having a quiet house for half the day once again. I've just gotten used to a noisy one over the summer.

Aaron and Danny in front of Trinity Lutheran. 

Future Hall of Fame foosball players, Dusty and Daniel... 

Madison 

Karlee Jorgenson, Avery Azure, and Madison 

Aaron making his welcome mat.  

Danny making his welcome mat... 

Karlee Jorgenson and Madison. 

Brock Drevlow (looks like the "Problem Child" boy, huh?) and Phillip Onkka (11?) with Avery Azure on the far right.  

My group is the second row, just behind Joe Drevlow there. Only Daniel, Aaron, Karlee, and Madison are shown. 

(L to R) Karlee Jorgenson, Unknown, Madison, David Szeto, Unknown, Brett Drevlow, Unknown 

Plato Octavius...Grandson of one of the senior choir members. 

Aaron's Welcome Mat 

VBS Day Two

We just completed our second day of Vacation Bible School at Trinity. I was drafted to be leader of the "Lion Tamers" group of kids ranging in age from about 1st to 5th grades. Aaron and Daniel are in my group (Aaron cheated). It started a day earlier than I had anticipated (Sunday), but it's been taking off well ever since. We go from learning station to learning station watching a video, doing crafts, singing, outdoor games on the grass next to the church, bible study, and then closing. The kids have all been enjoying themselves there and I'm getting to know some more names of people at Trinity, most significantly the Onkka family (Phillip, son of David Onkka, is in my group) and the Joppru's who are apparently cousins with the Joppru family that has the butcher shop in town. Kristi Joppru is one of the leaders. Mrs. Joppru previously had Charlie, our old terrier mutt on the farm.

We had goulash for dinner tonight at the church before VBS and apparently the older ladies in the kitchen personally designated the leftovers to "The Hustads" per Kristi Grochow so now we have a half gallon of it in the fridge for lunches... We seem to have more than one guardian angel at Trinity, it would appear.

Dusty was over here on Saturday night and now we have a good week of freedom. He and his family are heading to Duluth this weekend for a few days too. Kevin just left after his week-long visit. I'll try to check back in towards the end of the week and let you all know how bible school wrapped up.

Take care everyone.

Summer Vacation Is Ticking By...

Hard to believe there's just over a month left until classes begin again at Challenger Elementary. The summer has gone by much faster than expected, but we've managed to cram a lot of fun into the summer break so far. Next Monday brings Vacation Bible School at Trinity and both Andrew and I have been roped in to helping by Kristi Grochow. Andrew's helping with games/snacks and I'll be assisting with corralling the kids and moving them from one "station" to another. It runs Monday through Friday next week in the evenings after dinner in the fellowship hall so it will keep the evenings occupied for a few days. I think Andrew's a little hesitant, but he acknowledges kids seem to gravitate toward him, so he should do fine.

A quote from Aaron this week:

"What's wrong with you people?!!"

Daniel's two cents (about his toy laptop):

"It frozed up, Daddy!"

We have started a new tradition here in the evenings otherwise. As of last night, the boys and I have begun taking a walk around the neighborhood. If I can just get Daniel to keep his shoes in one place so he's not stuck wearing his cowboy boots... Aaron looks forward to it and I think Daniel will too once his tootsies are comfortable. We headed North on Duluth about 4 blocks and then West towards Arnold and actually found what appears to be a Christmas tree farm down there last night. We'll have to mix it up with some bike riding to keep it interesting, I figure. A fair amount of the playing the boys do with their buddies is stationary, i.e. throwing a ball around, sitting in the sandbox, etc., so I thought I'd add a kinetic element to things and add in a daily walk. Should do us all some good.

Andrew is making up a scrumptious dinner for us tonight consisting of a 14-egg scramble with tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, and cheese topping and hashbrowns. We're having at least a couple vegetarian meals a week thanks to him and they have been pretty delicious, the last one being a fried rice dish with scrambled eggs (He's not vegan, so he can have eggs, cheese, and milk).

Four bad lookin' hombres... :o)