Just measured Aaron today and he in fact has grown this summer... He's officially surpassed the 5-foot mark at 5 feet 1/4-inch. That would make around a half inch he's grown since school let out this year.
Speaking of school, we just had the open house at Challenger yesterday, a good way to spend my birthday. We met with Mr. Schafer and Mr. Thorson and picked up all the paperwork for the new year. I found out Mr. Schafer has an environmental science area of sorts out in the marshes surrounding Challenger where Aaron will be spending a lot of time this school year learning about the native flora and fauna. I also discovered a familiar name on Aaron's class roster. TUrns out besides Emily, the hockey coach's daughter, there's also a girl named Hannah who is the daughter of one of the guys I attended elementary school at St. Hilaire. Aaron took the opportunity to go say hi to his old 3rd grade teacher, Ms. McGeary, and we met his new resource room teacher, Mrs. Duchser (pronounced "Duke-Shur"). Couldn't talk Aaron into signing up for orchestra, but looks like he may try flag football league this fall.
The days are getting short before it's time for the early mornings and school bus rides. We've got the school supplies and now we're down to clothes and shoes. Aaron's been begging me to go to Purdy Shoes in town to get him a pair of "those shoes with the 'M' on them" so he can be like all his buddies in school. Daniel's already got his light-up Lightning McQueen shoes that I've managed to keep him from wearing as of yet (not an easy task, mind you).
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Sunday, August 27, 2006
We Made It, But....
It was a great trip to Minneapolis regardless of the downsides. By downsides, I'm particularly referring to the Weasel's difficulties on the way down. We made it all the way down on I-494 until a mile or two before the hotel when traffic slowed to a standstill thanks to George "Dubya's" visit to Minneapolis. I had only burned three-quarters of a tank of gas getting down there and thought I was doing great, but with the gridlock, I burned off the rest of the gas and had to find a way off the freeway and get to a gas station. We filled up and figured we were almost there, but in the process of getting back on the freeway, the transmission started acting up and upon parking at an area hardware store found the transmission dipstick was bone dry. After filling with transmission fluid we were able to make it the rest of the way to the parking lot and the following day (Wednesday) had it towed to the transmission shop, which happened to be less than a mile from the hotel.
We met mom, Jennifer, Nick, and Jake at the Outback Steakhouse in the hotel for dinner the night we arrived and had a relaxing evening thereafter. Aaron was cute when we were on the freeway and I asked if he and Daniel were going to give their cousins a big hug and let them know how happy they were to see them. He responded in characteristic intellectual fashion by stating, "We haven't seen them in a while. I think we'll just act normal until we get to our suite."
We had a great time visiting the Mall of America and seeing the underground aquarium there with the sharks and stingrays and such and managed to get out of there without buying anything at the mall or riding any rides in what used to be called Camp Snoopy. The boys enjoyed seeing Lego-Land much the way it was the last time we were there in 2002, but with the addition of some life-sized Harry Potters made out of Legos. We then traveled to John and Beth Smeby's for dinner at their house. It was another relaxing evening as we dined in John's garage (actually a nice place to eat). He grilled a delicious dinner of marinated chicken and bratwurst and Beth served brownies with ice cream and chocolate syrup for dessert. The kids had a good time playing catch with a baseball in John's back yard and we left for the hotel around 8:00 or so.
We met up with Cousin Jeff and his wife, Katrina (you still crack me up, Katrina!), and took in the sights of the Minnesota State Fair. It was an overcast rainy day at the fair and we took shelter more than once in the various buildings at the State Fair. We saw the beautiful draft horses in the livestock buildings including Perchons, Morgans, and probably a few Belgians. Mom treated us to a horse show indoors where they had a demonstration of medieval warfare with jousting and swordfighting. They had squires that helped the knights with their swords and lances and we also returned later to see an equestrian jumping competition. We passed through the "Miracle of Birth" barn where they had nothing but sheep, pigs, goats, etc. giving birth and they displayed the births on these large flat panel screens hanging from the ceiling. The barn was attended by veterinarians from the University of Minnesota and we saw a number of animals that were just born that day or late the prior night including some ducklings, piglets, and a lamb.
Of course we had to go on a few fair rides when we were there (thanks Mom and Jen!) and the boys had a great time doing that. Jennifer and I alternated donating tickets to Jeff so he could go up on several of the rides with the boys instead of us, though I did ride a few of them with the boys including the Tilt-a-Whirl and Crazy Mouse. The latter ride was hilarious in terms of Aaron's expression while riding it, but Daniel unfortunately hit his head on the seat back at one point and as a result didn't care too much for that ride when all was over. At least we captured the look on Aaron's face in that ride...
We were caught in a classic Minnesota thunderstorm while at the fair toward the end of the day and we ended up parting ways with Aaron and I going with Jeff and the others going with Jennifer to meet up for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse for dinner close to Anoka. I think that was the best night of the three nights we were there, as we were able to see both of Jeff's brothers, Jeremy and Joe. We had a great dinner there (it was Joe's birthday) and the funniest thing happened as we were about to leave. One of the waitresses stopped at our table and pointed out the WSU lanyard I was wearing around my neck, stating she herself had grown up in Spokane and recognized WSU as "WAZZU" right away. She was also studying nursing, an interesting parallel. It was pretty funny that there I sat 1,200 miles away from Pullman and yet someone recognized my alma mater just from the initials on my lanyard.
We headed back to the hotel and Friday morning after breakfast Mom's friend, Janna, arrived at the hotel and brought a birthday cake for Mom. We visited a little in the morning and then Jennifer left with the boys for the airport while Mom went to stay with Janna for a few days before returning home to Seattle.
I was finally able to make a reliable wireless connection with my laptop in the hotel lobby Friday morning and planned our trip back to TRF and we pulled out around 12:30 or so. We drove up to visit GG and Grandma Judy (thanks, Jeff, for the heads up on the freeway exit!). Unfortunately, I ended up taking I-94 East instead of West or something like that and ended up on University Avenue where I found myself unexpectedly in the middle of the University of Minnesota Campus. We drove through Greek row and took in the scenery while I found my way back on the freeway in the opposite direction (thanks, Jen, for that MPLS map!) and eventually made it to Crystal Lake and GG and Grandma Judy's resting place. Aaron remembered a lot about GG and told Daniel all about him as as being a "great" grandpa as we visited the gravesite.
We then headed out of Minneapolis on I-94 West through St. Cloud, stopping briefly for lunch at Denny's just south of St. Cloud and I also took about a 20-minute breather to close my eyes and rest before driving the rest of the way. We reached the exit to head north through Detroit Lakes, but I hadn't noticed it previously and Aaron told me about it just as we were passing the sign, so we ended up going another 11 miles west before we could turn around and go back, adding another 22 miles to the trip total. I just put it on cruise, though, at 58 mph and took my time the rest of the way back. We stopped just outside Pelican Rapids for dinner at the Taste-T-Freez and made it home at about 10:30 Friday night, all in one piece. The next morning we went and picked up Duchess from the kennel outside St. Hilaire and she smelled April fresh after her bath and grooming while we were gone. We then picked up the rabbits and guineas from Sandy Drevlow's yesterday afternoon and now we're back to our usual routine looking forward to the start of school in about 9 days.
Now that we're back in TRF, I've managed to mow the lawns yesterday and just now I've been noticing the leaves are starting to turn their autum color and fall off. There's only about a couple dozen yellow leaves in my front yard, but as September approaches, we will likely be in a pile of leaves in no time. This summer seemed a lot longer than last summer. It's hard to believe the leaves are already turning color and we'll be looking at snow before long, though we could do without snow until at least December.
We have an open house for school on my birthday, August 30th, and the following week the boys will be in school again. Aaron has indicated an interest in playing basketball this year, so we will probably check into signing him up for that. Daniel can probably do that too if he's interested. I'm looking forward to building on last year's skating practice and the return of Prowler hockey season.
If you're reading this, Jeff and Katrina, or anyone else we visited with down there in Minneapolis, thanks for a great time! It was really fun seeing you guys again!
We met mom, Jennifer, Nick, and Jake at the Outback Steakhouse in the hotel for dinner the night we arrived and had a relaxing evening thereafter. Aaron was cute when we were on the freeway and I asked if he and Daniel were going to give their cousins a big hug and let them know how happy they were to see them. He responded in characteristic intellectual fashion by stating, "We haven't seen them in a while. I think we'll just act normal until we get to our suite."
We had a great time visiting the Mall of America and seeing the underground aquarium there with the sharks and stingrays and such and managed to get out of there without buying anything at the mall or riding any rides in what used to be called Camp Snoopy. The boys enjoyed seeing Lego-Land much the way it was the last time we were there in 2002, but with the addition of some life-sized Harry Potters made out of Legos. We then traveled to John and Beth Smeby's for dinner at their house. It was another relaxing evening as we dined in John's garage (actually a nice place to eat). He grilled a delicious dinner of marinated chicken and bratwurst and Beth served brownies with ice cream and chocolate syrup for dessert. The kids had a good time playing catch with a baseball in John's back yard and we left for the hotel around 8:00 or so.
We met up with Cousin Jeff and his wife, Katrina (you still crack me up, Katrina!), and took in the sights of the Minnesota State Fair. It was an overcast rainy day at the fair and we took shelter more than once in the various buildings at the State Fair. We saw the beautiful draft horses in the livestock buildings including Perchons, Morgans, and probably a few Belgians. Mom treated us to a horse show indoors where they had a demonstration of medieval warfare with jousting and swordfighting. They had squires that helped the knights with their swords and lances and we also returned later to see an equestrian jumping competition. We passed through the "Miracle of Birth" barn where they had nothing but sheep, pigs, goats, etc. giving birth and they displayed the births on these large flat panel screens hanging from the ceiling. The barn was attended by veterinarians from the University of Minnesota and we saw a number of animals that were just born that day or late the prior night including some ducklings, piglets, and a lamb.
Of course we had to go on a few fair rides when we were there (thanks Mom and Jen!) and the boys had a great time doing that. Jennifer and I alternated donating tickets to Jeff so he could go up on several of the rides with the boys instead of us, though I did ride a few of them with the boys including the Tilt-a-Whirl and Crazy Mouse. The latter ride was hilarious in terms of Aaron's expression while riding it, but Daniel unfortunately hit his head on the seat back at one point and as a result didn't care too much for that ride when all was over. At least we captured the look on Aaron's face in that ride...
We were caught in a classic Minnesota thunderstorm while at the fair toward the end of the day and we ended up parting ways with Aaron and I going with Jeff and the others going with Jennifer to meet up for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse for dinner close to Anoka. I think that was the best night of the three nights we were there, as we were able to see both of Jeff's brothers, Jeremy and Joe. We had a great dinner there (it was Joe's birthday) and the funniest thing happened as we were about to leave. One of the waitresses stopped at our table and pointed out the WSU lanyard I was wearing around my neck, stating she herself had grown up in Spokane and recognized WSU as "WAZZU" right away. She was also studying nursing, an interesting parallel. It was pretty funny that there I sat 1,200 miles away from Pullman and yet someone recognized my alma mater just from the initials on my lanyard.
We headed back to the hotel and Friday morning after breakfast Mom's friend, Janna, arrived at the hotel and brought a birthday cake for Mom. We visited a little in the morning and then Jennifer left with the boys for the airport while Mom went to stay with Janna for a few days before returning home to Seattle.
I was finally able to make a reliable wireless connection with my laptop in the hotel lobby Friday morning and planned our trip back to TRF and we pulled out around 12:30 or so. We drove up to visit GG and Grandma Judy (thanks, Jeff, for the heads up on the freeway exit!). Unfortunately, I ended up taking I-94 East instead of West or something like that and ended up on University Avenue where I found myself unexpectedly in the middle of the University of Minnesota Campus. We drove through Greek row and took in the scenery while I found my way back on the freeway in the opposite direction (thanks, Jen, for that MPLS map!) and eventually made it to Crystal Lake and GG and Grandma Judy's resting place. Aaron remembered a lot about GG and told Daniel all about him as as being a "great" grandpa as we visited the gravesite.
We then headed out of Minneapolis on I-94 West through St. Cloud, stopping briefly for lunch at Denny's just south of St. Cloud and I also took about a 20-minute breather to close my eyes and rest before driving the rest of the way. We reached the exit to head north through Detroit Lakes, but I hadn't noticed it previously and Aaron told me about it just as we were passing the sign, so we ended up going another 11 miles west before we could turn around and go back, adding another 22 miles to the trip total. I just put it on cruise, though, at 58 mph and took my time the rest of the way back. We stopped just outside Pelican Rapids for dinner at the Taste-T-Freez and made it home at about 10:30 Friday night, all in one piece. The next morning we went and picked up Duchess from the kennel outside St. Hilaire and she smelled April fresh after her bath and grooming while we were gone. We then picked up the rabbits and guineas from Sandy Drevlow's yesterday afternoon and now we're back to our usual routine looking forward to the start of school in about 9 days.
Now that we're back in TRF, I've managed to mow the lawns yesterday and just now I've been noticing the leaves are starting to turn their autum color and fall off. There's only about a couple dozen yellow leaves in my front yard, but as September approaches, we will likely be in a pile of leaves in no time. This summer seemed a lot longer than last summer. It's hard to believe the leaves are already turning color and we'll be looking at snow before long, though we could do without snow until at least December.
We have an open house for school on my birthday, August 30th, and the following week the boys will be in school again. Aaron has indicated an interest in playing basketball this year, so we will probably check into signing him up for that. Daniel can probably do that too if he's interested. I'm looking forward to building on last year's skating practice and the return of Prowler hockey season.
If you're reading this, Jeff and Katrina, or anyone else we visited with down there in Minneapolis, thanks for a great time! It was really fun seeing you guys again!
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Question Is.... Can We Make it to MPLS and Back?
It's been a week of preparation here for our upcoming brief journey to the Twin Cities. I of course waited until the last possible week to realize I had to do something with our menagerie of animal companions before we leave next week for the trip to Minneapolis. I managed to find a kennel about 7 miles out of St. Hilaire to drop Duchess off at (Thanks Dawn!) and they'll give Duchess a nice bath and nail trim while we're gone, so I'm looking forward to coming back to a fresh dog. Kind of reminds me of putting our old dog, Pepper, in the kennel over in Edmonds and coming back to a "skinnier" dog after her "shave and a haircut - two bits." We found a home as well temporarily for the bunnies and guinea pigs (with Sandy Drevlow). That leaves the love birds that Andrew left behind, but thankfully we've gotten rid of those noisy irritating creatures by finding a lady in town here that has a large number of birds already and was happy to take two more.
As summer continues its march to an inevitable conclusion, we've been the recipient of a couple good torrential downpours. We had a fantastic thunderstorm about three days ago with a great light show from the heavens. I took a ruler out to a Rubbermaid bin in the back yard and measured 3 inches of fresh rainfall from that night's storm. While great for the farmers, we now have a lawn that has largely been resurrected to its lush green carpet appearance, so it looks like I'll be mowing upon our return from the trip, the first time I'll have mowed since sometime in June. I haven't been looking forward to that, as we have a bit of a neighborhood yellow jacket problem. They've been swarming along our fence line the past few weeks in the back yard and seem to be everywhere. The traps I set out last week have about 3/4 to an inch of yellow jackets apiece (probably a good 300 to 400 in each), so that's at least a small dent in this year's population. Hopefully by late August most will have died off and I can mow the lawn in peace.
In other trip preparation news, we went to Wally World this past week and got an oil change and a fresh pair of sneakers (tires) on the Weasel. The right front tire had had a slow leak for some time, but seeing as we have to make it 300+ miles and back next week, I figured we should go ahead and replace the tire altogether along with the other front end tire for balance. All told (with the oil change) it came to $129.99, so not a bad deal at all. I think the ride in the Weasel is a little quieter now too on the new tires. So my next blog update will likely be about what we did on our mini-vacation to Minneapolis.
As summer continues its march to an inevitable conclusion, we've been the recipient of a couple good torrential downpours. We had a fantastic thunderstorm about three days ago with a great light show from the heavens. I took a ruler out to a Rubbermaid bin in the back yard and measured 3 inches of fresh rainfall from that night's storm. While great for the farmers, we now have a lawn that has largely been resurrected to its lush green carpet appearance, so it looks like I'll be mowing upon our return from the trip, the first time I'll have mowed since sometime in June. I haven't been looking forward to that, as we have a bit of a neighborhood yellow jacket problem. They've been swarming along our fence line the past few weeks in the back yard and seem to be everywhere. The traps I set out last week have about 3/4 to an inch of yellow jackets apiece (probably a good 300 to 400 in each), so that's at least a small dent in this year's population. Hopefully by late August most will have died off and I can mow the lawn in peace.
In other trip preparation news, we went to Wally World this past week and got an oil change and a fresh pair of sneakers (tires) on the Weasel. The right front tire had had a slow leak for some time, but seeing as we have to make it 300+ miles and back next week, I figured we should go ahead and replace the tire altogether along with the other front end tire for balance. All told (with the oil change) it came to $129.99, so not a bad deal at all. I think the ride in the Weasel is a little quieter now too on the new tires. So my next blog update will likely be about what we did on our mini-vacation to Minneapolis.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Summer Can't Be Almost Over... It Can't!!!
It's too hard to believe we're in the final weeks of summer. We've had such a blast this summer with sports and playing outside in the hot Minnesota sun that it's hard to imagine a new fall season around the corner and the start of a new year at school. We've been so busy I just realized I didn't look at my last blog entry just now so you'll have to forgive me if I duplicate any previous news in this post.
We finished up vacation Bible school at Trinity last week and it was a very successful week. All the kids had a great time and were well worn out by the time we got home each night. Pastor Mark took some pictures so hopefully I can get a few to post here in the not too distant future.
As soon as vacation Bible school was over, we realized they were having Sports Camp at the Evangelical Free Church at the old Washington Elementary, so the boys caught the last 3 of the 4 days of that activity there and were part of a group of somewhere between 130 and 150 kids there every night and several parents and grandparents were there including my old teacher from Franklin, Walter Reddinger, and his wife. At tonight's finale, they had borrowed the City of TRF's dunk tank and the pastor was dunked along with several of the youth leaders. Afterwards, in memory of all those times Dad used to drive us home to the farm while we sat in the back seat with our fingers crossed saying to ourselves, "TURN LEFT NOW," I took the boys and their buddies, Drew, Zach, and Kade to DQ for a Blizzard treat. While they were at their activity tonight I snuck out to the grocery store and picked up some school supplies to get started on the Back-To-School shopping. Before I know it, I'll be back to my regular Friday lunch appointments with Aaron at Challenger (Yeah, Danny gets embarrassed when Dad comes to eat with him, but I'll probably surprise him a few times too this year).
I think that's all for the organized summer activities for now, so I'll have to be creative in filling the remainder of our summer break, though we're looking forward to our upcoming trip to the Cities not too long from now, which reminds me, I gotta get the Weasel in for an oil change and once over before we hit the road...
We finished up vacation Bible school at Trinity last week and it was a very successful week. All the kids had a great time and were well worn out by the time we got home each night. Pastor Mark took some pictures so hopefully I can get a few to post here in the not too distant future.
As soon as vacation Bible school was over, we realized they were having Sports Camp at the Evangelical Free Church at the old Washington Elementary, so the boys caught the last 3 of the 4 days of that activity there and were part of a group of somewhere between 130 and 150 kids there every night and several parents and grandparents were there including my old teacher from Franklin, Walter Reddinger, and his wife. At tonight's finale, they had borrowed the City of TRF's dunk tank and the pastor was dunked along with several of the youth leaders. Afterwards, in memory of all those times Dad used to drive us home to the farm while we sat in the back seat with our fingers crossed saying to ourselves, "TURN LEFT NOW," I took the boys and their buddies, Drew, Zach, and Kade to DQ for a Blizzard treat. While they were at their activity tonight I snuck out to the grocery store and picked up some school supplies to get started on the Back-To-School shopping. Before I know it, I'll be back to my regular Friday lunch appointments with Aaron at Challenger (Yeah, Danny gets embarrassed when Dad comes to eat with him, but I'll probably surprise him a few times too this year).
I think that's all for the organized summer activities for now, so I'll have to be creative in filling the remainder of our summer break, though we're looking forward to our upcoming trip to the Cities not too long from now, which reminds me, I gotta get the Weasel in for an oil change and once over before we hit the road...
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Thursday, July 27, 2006
End of Baseball Party
We had the party tonight at Greenwood Park to mark the near end of the 2006 Parks & Rec Baseball season. It was combined with the tennis program and there was probably about 75 to 100 kids there with the coaches and parents and there were several games there like a carnival with a dunk tank (Aaron dunked his coaches three times, every time hitting the target on his third and final throw), a ring toss where Aaron won a two-liter bottle of Dr. Pepper, and a sack race. Aaron won a few prizes as did Daniel and they served hotdogs, chips, lemonade, and ice cream bars for the kids. It was pretty hot out even in the evening, so after the prizes were handed out, some of the kids and I gathered around the huge plastic tub they had used for a bobbing game and started splashing around with the water, eventually soaking Daniel in the process and what started with just water toys being thrown at each other along with an occasional water balloon turned into boys scooping out water in gallon ice cream buckets and drenching everyone around the tub. We finished off the day with a trip to the grocery store to pick up a couple copies of the local newspaper where Aaron's picture is in the county fair insert for his guinea pig win. Now I'm getting their uniforms washed before I hit the sack so they're ready for the last regular season games tomorrow.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Just When It Couldn't Get Any Worse...
Last Monday, the day after returning to find Funny Bunny had to be put to sleep, we were playing with the new guinea pig for Daniel and our recently crowned grand champion guinea, Snowball, and noticed Snowball seemed to be moving very little and was not as animated as she had been previously. She wasn't eating much either, which made me think to myself that we were in for another loss thanks to the heat at the fair. About noon on Monday, Daniel commented that Snowball's eyes were changing color and the boys asked if I was going to take it to the vet and when I looked down on the living room floor, she was gasping for air and moments from death, so I explained to the boys she wasn't going to make it and a few minutes after noon, she was gone. I called Dawn at the Humane Society and brought her out there to be cremated and Dawn assured the boys her ashes would be spread on the garden out there at the Humane Society and that was all she wrote. It was thankfully not as tragic for the boys as Funny Bunny's loss and that evening, we stopped at Ben Franklin after Aaron's baseball game and picked up a new guinea pig that Aaron named "Spike" with mostly brown and black coloring. So having gone to the fair with two pets, we essentially came home with four pets. The bright side of all the recent loss is the boys have taken a much greater interest in the pets and have assumed much of the responsibility for caring for the new pets. Aaron takes the guineas out just about daily to play with together and ensures they are fed and watered.
This past week has been a busier week than most with bsaeball. On Thursday, Daniel had his T-ball game and in the afternoon when I arrived for Aaron's game, I found out it was a doubleheader with the first game against the Reds and the second against the Brewers. Aaron's team made great improvements over the prior game and came close, but unfortunately it wasn't enough, dropping both games by only one point. I believe he has two more games before the end of the season and tournament week. Next Wednesday is an end of season party the Parks & Rec Department is throwing for the baseball and soccer kids at Oakland Park so we'll probably go to that to celebrate the end of a lot of practices and games this summer and start looking forward to returning to school.
On Friday, I ended up volunteering again to drive the church bus back up to Baudette to pick up the kids from Lake of the Woods Bible Camp and the boys and I enjoyed a nice sunny drive. I taught them the phenomena of getting a train to blow its horn by honking the bus horn. Daniel was tickled pink at the result. We got two trains to do it on the way up to Baudette.
As for other TRF news, Pamida is to close its doors this week and I'm wondering how long it will be for K-Mart. We went to K-Mart and I picked up a "Zip-N-Hit," a rather simple contraption that helps kids learn how to swing a bat faster and with more accuracy. It "pitches" a baseball down a straight line of rope at up to 65 mph and the line acts as a guide for the bat in swinging. Aaron loved it today and was contantly asking me to come out and "pitch" to him, though he gets as much enjoyment out of pitching than he does hitting. Speaking of pitching, he's actually very accurate at pitching the old-fashioned way (without the Zip-N-Hit). I'm already thinking ahead to the winter and realizing this new contraption will make a good winter recreational tool as well, as it doesn't matter if there's snow on the ground when you use it and it can keep Aaron and Daniel warmed up for next year's baseball season. Aaron just asked tonight, "Can I be in baseball EVERY year??" Crazy Days has become Crazy DAY this year with only one day of activity. I may bring the boys out to get facepainted and/or check out the prices.
I saw my old friend from elementary school, Leland Mott, and his mom, Carol, at Wal-Mart last night. They were getting ready for a pretty sizable feast with a beef brisket about two feet long. The only thing I thought was missing was flowers for Carol's table, which they laughed about, but when they went off to the register, I enlisted the boy's help. We grabbed two bouquets of carnations and ran over to a checkstand a couple down from theirs and raced to get through it before they could so they'd get the flowers before leaving. They ended up finishing first, though, so we had to race out of the store and managed to catch them in the parking lot. The impromptu contribution to their feast was well received and the boys had some fun in the process (running in the store authorized by dad).
It's now 3 a.m. and I think about time to hit the sack. The thunderstorm that was to be this evening/tonight failed to materialize, so I guess we'll have to go a few more days wtihout rainfall. I've only mowed my front lawn twice the entire summer, so I guess it's not a bad thing, though the farmers probably disagree. For their sake, I hope the remainder of the summer is a little more wet.
This past week has been a busier week than most with bsaeball. On Thursday, Daniel had his T-ball game and in the afternoon when I arrived for Aaron's game, I found out it was a doubleheader with the first game against the Reds and the second against the Brewers. Aaron's team made great improvements over the prior game and came close, but unfortunately it wasn't enough, dropping both games by only one point. I believe he has two more games before the end of the season and tournament week. Next Wednesday is an end of season party the Parks & Rec Department is throwing for the baseball and soccer kids at Oakland Park so we'll probably go to that to celebrate the end of a lot of practices and games this summer and start looking forward to returning to school.
On Friday, I ended up volunteering again to drive the church bus back up to Baudette to pick up the kids from Lake of the Woods Bible Camp and the boys and I enjoyed a nice sunny drive. I taught them the phenomena of getting a train to blow its horn by honking the bus horn. Daniel was tickled pink at the result. We got two trains to do it on the way up to Baudette.
As for other TRF news, Pamida is to close its doors this week and I'm wondering how long it will be for K-Mart. We went to K-Mart and I picked up a "Zip-N-Hit," a rather simple contraption that helps kids learn how to swing a bat faster and with more accuracy. It "pitches" a baseball down a straight line of rope at up to 65 mph and the line acts as a guide for the bat in swinging. Aaron loved it today and was contantly asking me to come out and "pitch" to him, though he gets as much enjoyment out of pitching than he does hitting. Speaking of pitching, he's actually very accurate at pitching the old-fashioned way (without the Zip-N-Hit). I'm already thinking ahead to the winter and realizing this new contraption will make a good winter recreational tool as well, as it doesn't matter if there's snow on the ground when you use it and it can keep Aaron and Daniel warmed up for next year's baseball season. Aaron just asked tonight, "Can I be in baseball EVERY year??" Crazy Days has become Crazy DAY this year with only one day of activity. I may bring the boys out to get facepainted and/or check out the prices.
I saw my old friend from elementary school, Leland Mott, and his mom, Carol, at Wal-Mart last night. They were getting ready for a pretty sizable feast with a beef brisket about two feet long. The only thing I thought was missing was flowers for Carol's table, which they laughed about, but when they went off to the register, I enlisted the boy's help. We grabbed two bouquets of carnations and ran over to a checkstand a couple down from theirs and raced to get through it before they could so they'd get the flowers before leaving. They ended up finishing first, though, so we had to race out of the store and managed to catch them in the parking lot. The impromptu contribution to their feast was well received and the boys had some fun in the process (running in the store authorized by dad).
It's now 3 a.m. and I think about time to hit the sack. The thunderstorm that was to be this evening/tonight failed to materialize, so I guess we'll have to go a few more days wtihout rainfall. I've only mowed my front lawn twice the entire summer, so I guess it's not a bad thing, though the farmers probably disagree. For their sake, I hope the remainder of the summer is a little more wet.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Talk About Horrible Irony... :o(
We got back a little bit ago from our day-long venture driving the Trinity bus to Lake of the Woods to drop off four girls at bible camp. We were supposed to pick up Funny Bunny, Snowball, and Daniel's new guinea pig, Rodney (named after the character in Dr. Dolittle). When we arrived at the bunny barn (cavy), however, Sandy Drevlow pulled me aside and informed me that likely due to the heat these past few days, Funny Bunny scratched herself low on her tummy and it was a matter of hours before the wound became infested and despite attempts to flush it out, she felt it best to have her put to sleep. It all happened in less than 24 hours, so it was quite a blow to Aaron. I mentioned "irony" above, as my last blog headline was "Hurray for Funny Bunny." Sandy, though, managed to set aside a couple of other bunnies and we ended up getting both of them, one for Aaron and one for Daniel. I believe Aaron's is a two-toned brown and white Dutch breed, which he named Sidney, and the other is a grey lop (mini?) named by Daniel "Funny Bunny, Jr." Both bunnies are around 8 weeks old, so still very young and should bond well to the boys.
We did have a good ride up to Lake of the Woods, our first trip that close to the Minnesota/Canadian border, and I volunteered to do the pickup trip this coming Friday. It's nice to get out on the open road for a few hours and see the sites. I FINALLY know more Minnesota geography!! For the longest time I've wanted to know exactly where the tiny outlying towns were around here and we drove through Greenbush, Middle River, Strathcona, Badger, Roseau, and Warroad. I had no idea they were all on one straight shot north of here. We never turned until the last road to get to the camp, so it was pretty easy figuring out where we were going. The church bus was pretty nice to drive too, as it's a newer model E-350 Super Duty van with seats for 14 people and a luggage area in the back. Very comfy ride.
Now that we have our new bunnies home and in their new quarters with the guineas underneath, we can all it a day and get ready for another busy week of baseball in the hot summer sun.
We did have a good ride up to Lake of the Woods, our first trip that close to the Minnesota/Canadian border, and I volunteered to do the pickup trip this coming Friday. It's nice to get out on the open road for a few hours and see the sites. I FINALLY know more Minnesota geography!! For the longest time I've wanted to know exactly where the tiny outlying towns were around here and we drove through Greenbush, Middle River, Strathcona, Badger, Roseau, and Warroad. I had no idea they were all on one straight shot north of here. We never turned until the last road to get to the camp, so it was pretty easy figuring out where we were going. The church bus was pretty nice to drive too, as it's a newer model E-350 Super Duty van with seats for 14 people and a luggage area in the back. Very comfy ride.
Now that we have our new bunnies home and in their new quarters with the guineas underneath, we can all it a day and get ready for another busy week of baseball in the hot summer sun.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Hurray for Funny Bunny!!!
We headed back to the bunny barn in the afternoon and received a pleasant surprise. Funny Bunny was awarded First Place in her open class! Aaron will be receiving another ribbon on Sunday to go with his Grand Champion ribbon for Snowball. Sandy Drevlow suggested she might be able to find a trophy for Aaron... With his successes at the fair this year, he seems enthusiastic about possibly joining 4-H this next year. Only problme is there's no 4-H club right here in town anymore, so we will either need to create one from scratch with Sandy and whoever else we can dig up or he'll have to join a surrounding rural club, i.e. Smiley, etc. We'll have to check it out again when they have the 4-H carnival this fall. It was a long day again today complete with a trip to see Pirates of the Caribbean II at the Galaxy Twin. The boys are sleeping rather sound at this moment. I think I'll take the opportunity now to clean out the bunny/guinea pig cage so they have fresh digs to come home to on Sunday.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Grand Champion!!
It's another hot one today... We spent about four hours at the Pennington County Fair this morning/afternoon. Aaron was awarded Grand Champion in the open class guinnea pig division for "Snowball" and got his picture taken for the newspaper. Funny Bunny still has to be judged for the open class rabbit division, so we'll see what happens in a few hours there. We just came home for a break from the heat before heading back for the results of the rabbit judging. We took a few rides together on the Tilt-a-Whirl, which really got going pretty fast. That's my favorite ride (because it was free!). I think the boys are having a good time this week. We have to pick up the bunny and guinea pig on Sunday night, but they're getting round-the-clock feeding and watering in the meantime from Sandy Drevlow and the others at the bunny barn.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
A Scorcher of a Summer...
Wow... It's been a hot and dry summer so far. It was in the low 90s today and it's only rained good about once in the last month. We're expecting severe storms tomorrow night, but I'm not all that optimistic given our track record this month. The bright side of the heat wave is I don't have to mow the lawn hardly at all. I only mowed the back once in the last three weeks and it's been upwards of a month now since I mowed the front yard. Of course the grass is not the beautiful green it was this spring. I still enjoy it, though, as it doesn't feel all that muggy outside and the dryness with the short grass has combined for a relatively "mosquito-free" neighborhood. As for recreation in this sunny weather, we took the opportunity on the invitation of one of Aaron's buddy's from his church youth group to head down to the beach near the confluence of the Thief and Red Rivers. It's the exact same beach I remembered playing on and in the water as a kid a quarter century ago and I swear the buoys that outline the swimming area in the river are the exact same ones from the 1970s. I waded in the water while the boys went all the way in. The river was about the temperature of a bathtub last Friday and we probably spent an hour in there throwing a Nerf football around and stuff. They both enjoyed the novelty of swimming in a river for the first time and it was a much needed break from the status quo.
The boys' baseball season continues and Aaron's team has struggled a bit as they have faced a few teams that are developing at a faster pace than his team has. Couple that with 10 days off and they were a little rusty in Monday's game. Aaron managed to score a homerun, though, after a teammate brought him home with a base hit. He was grinning from ear to ear. He did get nailed in the hand from one of the coaches pitches, hitting his thumb, I think. Unfortunately they don't get to take a base when hit, so he took a break to shake off the sting in the dugout, then returned minutes later to get a base hit. I think he's learning to push through adversity and pain thanks to America's favorite pastime, which should serve him well in the future. Daniel is also doing well with his T-ball and had another game on Tuesday. Tomorrow they're both going on a bus from the Ralph Engelstad Arena to Fargo to watch the Fargo Red Hawks take on the Calgary Vipers in a semi-pro baseball game. They'll be gone until around 5:30, so Dad gets to sit in the dentist chair for a few hours while they're gone. They've been looking forward to the trip for some time.
We rode bike around town tonight and decided to take a detour over to the fairgrounds and see what's up at the Pennington County Fair. I bumped into the Drevlows including Sandy and it looks like tomorrow we'll be entering our bunny and guinea pig into the animal displays. Just gotta trim Funny Bunny's nails first... I also bumped into one of my former teachers from Franklin Middle School, Walter Redinger, whom i haven't seen in a quarter century or more. He looked just the way I remembered him and is every bit as nice as I recalled. He has four grandchildren now, one of which is Daniel's age. It was nice seeing him again. We ended up riding back at 10:00 tonight and we'll be heading back tomorrow night for the bunny thing and some more rides. They both really got a kick out of the rides they went on tonight, even more than last year.
When it was time to head to bed, Daniel asked me (as usual) to try to catch him as he ran up the stairs to bed and I caught him just before he reached the first stair landing and as he goes down for the tickle, he looks up at Aaron just ahead of him on the landing and screams up to him, "Save yourself!!!" What a zag nut...
Well, time to get some shuteye over here. Hope those reading this are having a little cooler week than we are this week. :o)
The boys' baseball season continues and Aaron's team has struggled a bit as they have faced a few teams that are developing at a faster pace than his team has. Couple that with 10 days off and they were a little rusty in Monday's game. Aaron managed to score a homerun, though, after a teammate brought him home with a base hit. He was grinning from ear to ear. He did get nailed in the hand from one of the coaches pitches, hitting his thumb, I think. Unfortunately they don't get to take a base when hit, so he took a break to shake off the sting in the dugout, then returned minutes later to get a base hit. I think he's learning to push through adversity and pain thanks to America's favorite pastime, which should serve him well in the future. Daniel is also doing well with his T-ball and had another game on Tuesday. Tomorrow they're both going on a bus from the Ralph Engelstad Arena to Fargo to watch the Fargo Red Hawks take on the Calgary Vipers in a semi-pro baseball game. They'll be gone until around 5:30, so Dad gets to sit in the dentist chair for a few hours while they're gone. They've been looking forward to the trip for some time.
We rode bike around town tonight and decided to take a detour over to the fairgrounds and see what's up at the Pennington County Fair. I bumped into the Drevlows including Sandy and it looks like tomorrow we'll be entering our bunny and guinea pig into the animal displays. Just gotta trim Funny Bunny's nails first... I also bumped into one of my former teachers from Franklin Middle School, Walter Redinger, whom i haven't seen in a quarter century or more. He looked just the way I remembered him and is every bit as nice as I recalled. He has four grandchildren now, one of which is Daniel's age. It was nice seeing him again. We ended up riding back at 10:00 tonight and we'll be heading back tomorrow night for the bunny thing and some more rides. They both really got a kick out of the rides they went on tonight, even more than last year.
When it was time to head to bed, Daniel asked me (as usual) to try to catch him as he ran up the stairs to bed and I caught him just before he reached the first stair landing and as he goes down for the tickle, he looks up at Aaron just ahead of him on the landing and screams up to him, "Save yourself!!!" What a zag nut...
Well, time to get some shuteye over here. Hope those reading this are having a little cooler week than we are this week. :o)
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
What a Fantastic Fourth!!!!
This has to be one of the best Fourth of July holidays I've had in quite a long time. We started the festivities off by watching the space shuttle launch and it was kind of a funny coincidence that I witnessed the first ever launch of a space shuttle (Challenger) in 8th grade from of all places, Thief River Falls and here I was again witnessing the first ever "Fourth of July launch" right here in TRF again. Come to think of it, the boys also watched their first ever live shuttle launch also in TRF.
We got together with the Widerskis bringing out all the fixins for a nice cookout including hamburgers and pork loins with hickory chips and finished it off with fresh watermelon (from Texas), chocolate chip bars and fruit Jello. Before the cookout, I stopped by the Murphy's gazebo and Fern Williams was out there with Wanda Murphy, Mrs. Folger, and one other lady I didn't recognize and I said, "So here's where the lady's auxiliary is meeting..." :o) I wanted to check on Ken as he had his knee replacement done on the left side last week and has been out of the hospital just recently and apparently has already been walking the sidewalk on the new knee. I guess last night was pretty tough with the pain and all, but he's managing pretty well.
We set off a slew of fireworks out front of the Widerski house and in the middle of the show, Wanda Murphy walked over and presented half of a birthday cake to share with the kids. Speaking of kids, there were quite a few taking in the fireworks. There was Daniel and Aaron, Drew, Tyler, Johnnie, Austin, Kaylynn, and Kaylynn/Austin's sister, and two other neighbor kids I didn't get the names of. There were at least two elderly couples that rode by on old-fashioned one-speed bikes with those big whitewall tires and waved as they went by watching the display. It was small town Americana at its finest. And not a single siren could be heard all evening. Of course they don't have any bottle rockets, so probably no house fires.
It's now 10:30 and I just returned home, so we were gone a good four hours with all the festivities and I'm truly beat. What a day... Thank goodness we don't have baseball at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Then again, I do have to get up and go to the arena to sign the boys up for their semi-pro baseball field trip in Fargo or they'll miss out on that. Sounds like we weren't the only ones who had a nice holiday today given the e-mails I've gotten today. I'm glad everyone else had a great time too. Now back to the daily grind until Labor Day... :o)
We got together with the Widerskis bringing out all the fixins for a nice cookout including hamburgers and pork loins with hickory chips and finished it off with fresh watermelon (from Texas), chocolate chip bars and fruit Jello. Before the cookout, I stopped by the Murphy's gazebo and Fern Williams was out there with Wanda Murphy, Mrs. Folger, and one other lady I didn't recognize and I said, "So here's where the lady's auxiliary is meeting..." :o) I wanted to check on Ken as he had his knee replacement done on the left side last week and has been out of the hospital just recently and apparently has already been walking the sidewalk on the new knee. I guess last night was pretty tough with the pain and all, but he's managing pretty well.
We set off a slew of fireworks out front of the Widerski house and in the middle of the show, Wanda Murphy walked over and presented half of a birthday cake to share with the kids. Speaking of kids, there were quite a few taking in the fireworks. There was Daniel and Aaron, Drew, Tyler, Johnnie, Austin, Kaylynn, and Kaylynn/Austin's sister, and two other neighbor kids I didn't get the names of. There were at least two elderly couples that rode by on old-fashioned one-speed bikes with those big whitewall tires and waved as they went by watching the display. It was small town Americana at its finest. And not a single siren could be heard all evening. Of course they don't have any bottle rockets, so probably no house fires.
It's now 10:30 and I just returned home, so we were gone a good four hours with all the festivities and I'm truly beat. What a day... Thank goodness we don't have baseball at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Then again, I do have to get up and go to the arena to sign the boys up for their semi-pro baseball field trip in Fargo or they'll miss out on that. Sounds like we weren't the only ones who had a nice holiday today given the e-mails I've gotten today. I'm glad everyone else had a great time too. Now back to the daily grind until Labor Day... :o)
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