Friday, November 17, 2006
Sunday, November 12, 2006
And Another Thing...
I guess I wasn't busy enough... At rehearsal before this morning's early service, they announced they are gathering those who play a brass or string instrument to perform in the combined Thanksgiving service at Trinity on th 22nd, so I will be dusting off my cello and hauling it to practice this Wednesday night. Thankfully, the group will be from middle school on up, so I should be able to polish off enough rust to perform at the 8th grade level (knock on rosewood). In other news, as I was on the ramp leading into the sanctuary this morning, Daniel's Sunday School teacher came up to me and told me, "Daniel's really starting to talk to me a lot now. He's come out of his shell!" She was tickled pink with his newfound courage to open up in class, something that surprised even me. She was his teacher when he first moved here, so she's had the opportunity to watch him grow since the latter half of kindergarten. I'll have to ask his teacher at school if he's been more outgoing there as well. Of course he has his fall/winter music informance in just a week or two, so it'll be fun to see how he does with his class for that.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Carpe Turkem....
Turkey Day is just around the corner and with each passing day we seem to get busier and busier. Basketball is in full swing now for the boys and with that I've been drafted to help coach both the 2nd and 4th graders, the most difficult task being the 2nd graders as it's a constant raised voice for the full hour over the noise of all the kids talking at the same time. We spent the first week going over pretty much only the fundamentals including passing, dribbling, defense, and only minimal shooting. Daniel appears to have a knack for shooting, getting I'd bet at least 80 percent of his free throws. I think it's a fantastic opportunity thus far for Aaron to learn eye/hand coordination and understand that basketball isn't all about "shooting." It was kind of funny when we went the first couple of practices and some of the other coaches were asking about my experience to which I would reply, "1978 St. Hilaire boys' "B" Squad." Now that they're in basketball, though, they have to split time on Thursdays so they go to Kingdom Kids for the first hour after school and the second hour is Aaron's practice. Daniel thankfully only has practice once a week.
I think the most time-consuming activity at this point for me is all the singing. I've been attending Messiah rehearsals very regularly at Northland lately with Jerry and Marilyn joining in the last week. I spoke with Les Torgerson last Wednesday who is presently directing the area honor band in place of Linda Samuelson, my director from Trinity Choir who is presently on Sabbatical from her position as band director at Northland. Les is actually retired from his former position as band director at Northland. Linda's son, coincidentally, is in basketball with Aaron. We're down to about three weeks now until the performance, which will be in the Lincoln High auditorium. We start our combined choir rehearsals next Wednesday for the combined Thanksgiving service at Trinity, including Redeemer, Zion, and Trinity.
Today has been more leisurely than most days. I took the boys out for brunch at Dee's and then we drove out to Black River Lutheran to join in the celebration of Donald and Ruthie Mosbeck's 50th wedding anniversary. We watched a very nice computer slide show with many pictures of the Mosbeck clan, mostly Diane, Alan, and Marcie and all the grand and great grandkids. In the midst of watching the slide show, Melvin Meline came up to the area leading to the sanctuary and sat down so I had a nice chat with him. He complained his "recall isn't quite what it used to be," but with minimal prompting he was able to come up with the location of our old farm and mom's name, etc. After talking with him a while, I went back downstairs to the fellowhip hall and Diane Mosbeck Johnson introduced me to Alan (a little different than I had remembered him) and I had her introduce me to Melvin's wife Rayma. Rayma is now confined to a wheelchair and is living at Oakland Park while Melvin remains on his farm, though one of the Mosbeck clan now farms the land there. Rayma, although getting up there in years is still pretty alert and clearly recognized me, though it has been quite a long time since I last saw her on their farm. Donald and Ruthie were standing near the entrance of the fellowship hall and I walked up and asked if they were the guests of honor and Ruthie looks up at me with a big smile and wonders, "Who is this?" It was instant recognition when she heard my last name, though, and they were both very pleased to see me again. They mentioned visiting quite often with Phyllis these days and how they've enjoyed Bob's cooking (I gotta make my way over there sometime...). Sam Mosbeck from Daniei's grade and a few other Mosbeck kids we recognized were there as well. I think we stayed and visited about an hour before heading home. We're now inside on this cold autumn afternoon/evening watching some quality family entertainment on TV (will be the original Wizard of Oz tonight followed by Home Alone).
Almost forgot... This week was also momentous for one significant thing: I voted for the first time ever as a Minnesotan in the midterm elections. I'm still learning the political landscape of Minnesota, i.e. not the Democratic Party here, but "Democrat-Farmer-Labor" Party. We voted in a new mayor of TRF, Steve "Beaver" Nordhagen who had radio ads the past few weeks with the theme music of Leave it to Beaver in the background. I voted for a councilman who used to be a custodian at Washington Elementary. I didn't really know much about the council candidates there not being much of them, but Mr. Folger said he was a good guy, so.... The polls were at Zion and I brought the boys with me. They have something really neat here in Minnesota where the children are allowed to vote in their own mini-election of sorts. I went one direction and they went the other at Zion and each got a certificate that they had voted, so it was a nice learning experience for them about democracy and elections.
I think that's most of the highlights of things going on around here the past two weeks or so. I don't think I'll be on here much until after Thanksgiving, so I wanted to get at least this update done before then.
I think the most time-consuming activity at this point for me is all the singing. I've been attending Messiah rehearsals very regularly at Northland lately with Jerry and Marilyn joining in the last week. I spoke with Les Torgerson last Wednesday who is presently directing the area honor band in place of Linda Samuelson, my director from Trinity Choir who is presently on Sabbatical from her position as band director at Northland. Les is actually retired from his former position as band director at Northland. Linda's son, coincidentally, is in basketball with Aaron. We're down to about three weeks now until the performance, which will be in the Lincoln High auditorium. We start our combined choir rehearsals next Wednesday for the combined Thanksgiving service at Trinity, including Redeemer, Zion, and Trinity.
Today has been more leisurely than most days. I took the boys out for brunch at Dee's and then we drove out to Black River Lutheran to join in the celebration of Donald and Ruthie Mosbeck's 50th wedding anniversary. We watched a very nice computer slide show with many pictures of the Mosbeck clan, mostly Diane, Alan, and Marcie and all the grand and great grandkids. In the midst of watching the slide show, Melvin Meline came up to the area leading to the sanctuary and sat down so I had a nice chat with him. He complained his "recall isn't quite what it used to be," but with minimal prompting he was able to come up with the location of our old farm and mom's name, etc. After talking with him a while, I went back downstairs to the fellowhip hall and Diane Mosbeck Johnson introduced me to Alan (a little different than I had remembered him) and I had her introduce me to Melvin's wife Rayma. Rayma is now confined to a wheelchair and is living at Oakland Park while Melvin remains on his farm, though one of the Mosbeck clan now farms the land there. Rayma, although getting up there in years is still pretty alert and clearly recognized me, though it has been quite a long time since I last saw her on their farm. Donald and Ruthie were standing near the entrance of the fellowship hall and I walked up and asked if they were the guests of honor and Ruthie looks up at me with a big smile and wonders, "Who is this?" It was instant recognition when she heard my last name, though, and they were both very pleased to see me again. They mentioned visiting quite often with Phyllis these days and how they've enjoyed Bob's cooking (I gotta make my way over there sometime...). Sam Mosbeck from Daniei's grade and a few other Mosbeck kids we recognized were there as well. I think we stayed and visited about an hour before heading home. We're now inside on this cold autumn afternoon/evening watching some quality family entertainment on TV (will be the original Wizard of Oz tonight followed by Home Alone).
Almost forgot... This week was also momentous for one significant thing: I voted for the first time ever as a Minnesotan in the midterm elections. I'm still learning the political landscape of Minnesota, i.e. not the Democratic Party here, but "Democrat-Farmer-Labor" Party. We voted in a new mayor of TRF, Steve "Beaver" Nordhagen who had radio ads the past few weeks with the theme music of Leave it to Beaver in the background. I voted for a councilman who used to be a custodian at Washington Elementary. I didn't really know much about the council candidates there not being much of them, but Mr. Folger said he was a good guy, so.... The polls were at Zion and I brought the boys with me. They have something really neat here in Minnesota where the children are allowed to vote in their own mini-election of sorts. I went one direction and they went the other at Zion and each got a certificate that they had voted, so it was a nice learning experience for them about democracy and elections.
I think that's most of the highlights of things going on around here the past two weeks or so. I don't think I'll be on here much until after Thanksgiving, so I wanted to get at least this update done before then.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
So Much Fun... Is It Christmas Yet?
It's hard to believe both how quick the weather has taken a turn for the whiter and colder and how quickly our fall schedule is filling up. We managed to take some time out, though, for a number of Halloween festivities. Aaron had his first party last week at school, so got to wear his costume earlier than Daniel. He went as a Star Wars clone this year, Daniel as a red ninja. This year was unusual with all the holiday activities, as they were able to wear their costumes at least four different times. On Sunday, we had a Halloween party of sorts at Trinity. We piled on the bus and in cars and drove over to Valley Home and Oakland Park (see picture) to visit the nursing home residents. It was kind of humerous at the first stop... As we get there, almost no one is in sight, so the nurse on duty gets on the PA system and says, "The kids of Trinity are here in their costumes and they will be singing you some songs..." Little did we the adults know we would be singing... Oh well. We managed to scrape together the words to a handful of songs nobody could forget, i.e. Jesus Loves Me This I Know, Go Tell It On The Mountain, This Little Light of Mine, etc. We didn't do too shabby given we had absolutely no warning or practice.
After the nursing home visits, we went back to Trinity and chowed down on some pizza and played musical chairs until it was time to go home. It was about a three-hour event and all the kids appeared to enjoy the pizza and games.
Yesterday was the official Halloween party at Challenger Elementary and last night we went out Trick-Or-Treating, but chose a different neighborhood this year. I drove the boys over to the old stomping grounds, i.e. Kneale Ave. S., Maple, etc. The Drevlows weren't homw so we ventured out on our own. We stopped out at Grochows, including Don and Shirley and they had these big Zip-Loc bags chock full of goodies for the boys. We managed to get to bed at a decent hour too (well, the boys at least).
As for my schedule, I've been getting busier in the area of music these days... As of last Thursday, I started practicing for Handel's Messiah over at Northland Community College with some other members of the community, i.e. Jerry, Marilyn, Tom Kays, etc. We will be singing together with a professional choir out of Grand Forks, the Master Works Chorale, along with the Grand Forks Symphony and will sing about 7 selected pieces of The Messiah including the Halleluja Chorus. I practiced last Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m., but that kind of is a stretch with keeping the boys occupied and all, so I elected to attend a daytime rehearsal today instead at Northland with the Northland Chamber Choir. I was somewhat out of place, what with 95 percent college-aged kids and just one other adult from the community. I sang bass this time with one other student behind a row of just three tenors from the college. Cathy Hagen was the accompanist, so it was nice to have a familiar sound to key off of in rehearsal. The daytime rehearsals are M-W-F 12 to 12:50 or 1:00, so it's a nice break in the day to go have some vocal fun. Today kind of brought me back to the days of Melloaires at Edmonds High and freshman concert choir with Mr. Morken. It's kind of invigorating to be back in the thick of music performance.
As for what's on the horizon, we are looking forward to hockey season and tomorrow night is the lutefisk dinner at Trinity. I believe on the 22nd is the combined Thanksgiving service with the congregations of Trinity, Redeemer, Black River, and Zion all worshiping together and this year it's going to be held at.....TRINITY!! It'll be nice to see the sanctuary and chapel packed once again for a change. The combined choirs will also be performing that night, so should be fun. The boys start their basketball season next Monday (I was off a week) and are continuing with Kingdom Kids after school every other Thursday. Other than that, I think that about covers it. Now to get the furniture moved in before Mom and Dad arrive for Thanksgiving...
Did I mention it's white over here??? It snowed twice this week already and the temperatures are down in the 20s again. I think the trampoline has run its course at this point. No more lawnmowing either... Well, off to choir practice now. Take care all!
After the nursing home visits, we went back to Trinity and chowed down on some pizza and played musical chairs until it was time to go home. It was about a three-hour event and all the kids appeared to enjoy the pizza and games.
Yesterday was the official Halloween party at Challenger Elementary and last night we went out Trick-Or-Treating, but chose a different neighborhood this year. I drove the boys over to the old stomping grounds, i.e. Kneale Ave. S., Maple, etc. The Drevlows weren't homw so we ventured out on our own. We stopped out at Grochows, including Don and Shirley and they had these big Zip-Loc bags chock full of goodies for the boys. We managed to get to bed at a decent hour too (well, the boys at least).
As for my schedule, I've been getting busier in the area of music these days... As of last Thursday, I started practicing for Handel's Messiah over at Northland Community College with some other members of the community, i.e. Jerry, Marilyn, Tom Kays, etc. We will be singing together with a professional choir out of Grand Forks, the Master Works Chorale, along with the Grand Forks Symphony and will sing about 7 selected pieces of The Messiah including the Halleluja Chorus. I practiced last Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m., but that kind of is a stretch with keeping the boys occupied and all, so I elected to attend a daytime rehearsal today instead at Northland with the Northland Chamber Choir. I was somewhat out of place, what with 95 percent college-aged kids and just one other adult from the community. I sang bass this time with one other student behind a row of just three tenors from the college. Cathy Hagen was the accompanist, so it was nice to have a familiar sound to key off of in rehearsal. The daytime rehearsals are M-W-F 12 to 12:50 or 1:00, so it's a nice break in the day to go have some vocal fun. Today kind of brought me back to the days of Melloaires at Edmonds High and freshman concert choir with Mr. Morken. It's kind of invigorating to be back in the thick of music performance.
As for what's on the horizon, we are looking forward to hockey season and tomorrow night is the lutefisk dinner at Trinity. I believe on the 22nd is the combined Thanksgiving service with the congregations of Trinity, Redeemer, Black River, and Zion all worshiping together and this year it's going to be held at.....TRINITY!! It'll be nice to see the sanctuary and chapel packed once again for a change. The combined choirs will also be performing that night, so should be fun. The boys start their basketball season next Monday (I was off a week) and are continuing with Kingdom Kids after school every other Thursday. Other than that, I think that about covers it. Now to get the furniture moved in before Mom and Dad arrive for Thanksgiving...
Did I mention it's white over here??? It snowed twice this week already and the temperatures are down in the 20s again. I think the trampoline has run its course at this point. No more lawnmowing either... Well, off to choir practice now. Take care all!
Monday, October 16, 2006
Barren Trees, Autmn Leaves, and Cold Nights...
The leaf piles have rapidly grown around town and as of last Tuesday, the City of TRF trucks have been coming through and vacuuming up the piles along the side of the streets. both the big Dutch elm out front and our backyard tree are completely barren of leaves and we've had a dusting of snow here and there, though today was a wet day of drizzling rain. Aaron had his last day of football practice tonight (until dark) and his last game will be played on Saturday (actually two games that day for his team, the Panthers). Basketball will begin for the boys the first week of November, so the gym will be a nice change from the cold and wet football fields.
Last Tuesday we attended the "Running With Reading" program at Challenger, a monthly family activity at the school where they have a sporting activity the first half of the time period followed by time spent in the school library reading books, playing chess, etc. It was a very cold and windy night, though, on the first night of the program, so only about a dozen of us showed up (parents included). They plan on having the event once a month and next month's activity may be floor hockey, so that should be fun.
Yesterday was entertaining, as the boys both sang a song for the congregation at church. The church was almost as full as it gets at Christmas and Thanksgiving, so that was nice to see for a change. I sat near the front this time with Joe and Jodi and their many kids. It was a nice break from singing myself. Speaking of that, the pastor and his wife will be out of town this week, so I don't have any choir practice this week, though with the boys out of school all week, I get a week of fun with them at home instead. In terms of fall activities to look forward to, the annual Trinity Lutefisk Dinner will be held in just a few short weeks in November. They had sign up sheets for serving and donation of Cool Whip, pies, and 70 pounds of butter. I looked at the sheet for the butter and thought to myself, "Is 70 pounds adequate to cover the horrendous tastebud overload known as lutefisk??!" The thought also crossed my mind, "Has Jeff introduced Katrina to this Norwegian culinary delight?" Okay, that's enough lutefisk dissing for now... I think I'll quit while I'm behind.
The boys both had their parent-teacher conferences today and they went well. Both are doing good, particularly in their reading. Anybody looking for gift ideas in the future, feel free to consider either sending chapter books for them or a gift card to Barnes & Noble or Amazon so they can pick out their own (Aaron's already got the whole set of Narnia books and is just starting in on Lemony Snicket).
Last Tuesday we attended the "Running With Reading" program at Challenger, a monthly family activity at the school where they have a sporting activity the first half of the time period followed by time spent in the school library reading books, playing chess, etc. It was a very cold and windy night, though, on the first night of the program, so only about a dozen of us showed up (parents included). They plan on having the event once a month and next month's activity may be floor hockey, so that should be fun.
Yesterday was entertaining, as the boys both sang a song for the congregation at church. The church was almost as full as it gets at Christmas and Thanksgiving, so that was nice to see for a change. I sat near the front this time with Joe and Jodi and their many kids. It was a nice break from singing myself. Speaking of that, the pastor and his wife will be out of town this week, so I don't have any choir practice this week, though with the boys out of school all week, I get a week of fun with them at home instead. In terms of fall activities to look forward to, the annual Trinity Lutefisk Dinner will be held in just a few short weeks in November. They had sign up sheets for serving and donation of Cool Whip, pies, and 70 pounds of butter. I looked at the sheet for the butter and thought to myself, "Is 70 pounds adequate to cover the horrendous tastebud overload known as lutefisk??!" The thought also crossed my mind, "Has Jeff introduced Katrina to this Norwegian culinary delight?" Okay, that's enough lutefisk dissing for now... I think I'll quit while I'm behind.
The boys both had their parent-teacher conferences today and they went well. Both are doing good, particularly in their reading. Anybody looking for gift ideas in the future, feel free to consider either sending chapter books for them or a gift card to Barnes & Noble or Amazon so they can pick out their own (Aaron's already got the whole set of Narnia books and is just starting in on Lemony Snicket).
Friday, October 06, 2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Autumn Leaves Are Falling...
It's been a very pleasant start to the fall season here in Thief River. After just a handful of leaves coming down in the past two weeks, this week it's really taken off. The Dutch elm in front of the house here has dumped about 8 lawn bags full of leaves on the front lawn and the streets are covered in yellow, orange, and red leaves. It's nice to look at, but of course then I got the challenge of the back yard... If I don't stay on top of the leaves, the doggy calling cards get covered up and then we get a surprise later. :o( Today I picked three rakes at Wally World and outfitted the boys with them after school so we were all out front raking this afternoon and got some pictures of the boys in the leaf pile. The temperatures have been dipping at night into the mid-30s and low 40s as well lately and it probably will be a cold Halloween like last year. Hopefully the snow takes its time showing up, though it would be nice to have a white Christmas again.
The boys have been busy this fall with their school activities. They have their usual Awana youth program on Wednesday nights, but have also added Kingdom Kids, an after school program at school where they have an outdoor recess for almost an hour followed by activities inside. I was volunteered for that activity more or less as one of the leaders so that keeps me busy as well, though it's not every week, but every other week. Aaron is having fun in his flag football program with Braeden Drevlow and has finally found a position he likes (and the coach likes too). He is presently playing center, so he just has to snap the ball and do some blocking. He got a lot of playing time last Saturday morning and actually made a great "tackle" (taking the ball carrier's flag off). It was kind of funny... His teammates had actually blocked in the ball carrier and Aaron was right behind him so the other boys just yelled, "Aaron, grab his flag!!" and Aaron just reached forward and ripped it off. He was beaming from ear to ear after that play! At first, it seemed as though it was going to be an unorganized program with only one adult coach and one or two varsity football players coaching, but as of this past Monday, they've put it in high gear with brand new color-coordinated practice vests and balls with five different teams of boys including red, orange, yellow, green, and blue and they had more varsity players helping out, so nobody was standing around not knowing what to do. The varsity players are really good with Aaron too, patting him on the back, throwing an arm around his shoulder, etc. to offer encouragement to him, so that's been really great for his confidence.
I've continued having lunch with Aaron, today having my personal favorite: Nachos with taco meat, salad, and strawberry milk. One of the boys in Aaron's class walked up to him in the tray line and asked, "Does your dad ALWAYS eat lunch with you??" Come to think of it, I think I'm the ONLY dad that eats lunch there, so perhaps his classmates are envious. I try to just make it on Friday's, though, so it's still a special thing, not too "routine." I went today because they have no school tomorrow. I can safely say it's the best $2.85 lunch in town, though. :o)
The boys continue to do well without their old friends here in the neighborhood keeping themselves busy on the trampoline after school with the remaining kids around here and now with raking the leaves up and other fall outdoor activities. We may go to a Northland College football game this weekend time allowing, but Aaron's got another game that day. Speaking of sports... Aaron just dropped a half dozen flyers from school on my lap to look over and one of them is for the "Backcourt Club," the basketball program at Challenger. Practices are on Mondays and Thursdays, so it looks like he's going to be even busier... He wants to do it, though, so he will be practicing from 4 to 5 on Mondays and then 6:30 to 8:00 for football. I have to "volunteer" too to help out at practices, so there's another activity to tack onto my calendar. Looks like the skate lesson program is also new this year with a new director and format, so we need to go to that planning meeting next week and hopefully get them into that this fall/winter. They have a skate exchange program too, so if they've outgrown their skates, they can hopefully trade them in for a larger size. I think for now, though, we're going to head out and get a take-n-bake pizza and retire to our couch of perpetual indulgence for a relaxing non-school night evening.
The boys have been busy this fall with their school activities. They have their usual Awana youth program on Wednesday nights, but have also added Kingdom Kids, an after school program at school where they have an outdoor recess for almost an hour followed by activities inside. I was volunteered for that activity more or less as one of the leaders so that keeps me busy as well, though it's not every week, but every other week. Aaron is having fun in his flag football program with Braeden Drevlow and has finally found a position he likes (and the coach likes too). He is presently playing center, so he just has to snap the ball and do some blocking. He got a lot of playing time last Saturday morning and actually made a great "tackle" (taking the ball carrier's flag off). It was kind of funny... His teammates had actually blocked in the ball carrier and Aaron was right behind him so the other boys just yelled, "Aaron, grab his flag!!" and Aaron just reached forward and ripped it off. He was beaming from ear to ear after that play! At first, it seemed as though it was going to be an unorganized program with only one adult coach and one or two varsity football players coaching, but as of this past Monday, they've put it in high gear with brand new color-coordinated practice vests and balls with five different teams of boys including red, orange, yellow, green, and blue and they had more varsity players helping out, so nobody was standing around not knowing what to do. The varsity players are really good with Aaron too, patting him on the back, throwing an arm around his shoulder, etc. to offer encouragement to him, so that's been really great for his confidence.
I've continued having lunch with Aaron, today having my personal favorite: Nachos with taco meat, salad, and strawberry milk. One of the boys in Aaron's class walked up to him in the tray line and asked, "Does your dad ALWAYS eat lunch with you??" Come to think of it, I think I'm the ONLY dad that eats lunch there, so perhaps his classmates are envious. I try to just make it on Friday's, though, so it's still a special thing, not too "routine." I went today because they have no school tomorrow. I can safely say it's the best $2.85 lunch in town, though. :o)
The boys continue to do well without their old friends here in the neighborhood keeping themselves busy on the trampoline after school with the remaining kids around here and now with raking the leaves up and other fall outdoor activities. We may go to a Northland College football game this weekend time allowing, but Aaron's got another game that day. Speaking of sports... Aaron just dropped a half dozen flyers from school on my lap to look over and one of them is for the "Backcourt Club," the basketball program at Challenger. Practices are on Mondays and Thursdays, so it looks like he's going to be even busier... He wants to do it, though, so he will be practicing from 4 to 5 on Mondays and then 6:30 to 8:00 for football. I have to "volunteer" too to help out at practices, so there's another activity to tack onto my calendar. Looks like the skate lesson program is also new this year with a new director and format, so we need to go to that planning meeting next week and hopefully get them into that this fall/winter. They have a skate exchange program too, so if they've outgrown their skates, they can hopefully trade them in for a larger size. I think for now, though, we're going to head out and get a take-n-bake pizza and retire to our couch of perpetual indulgence for a relaxing non-school night evening.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Back In The Swing Of Things...
Well... The boys have been back in school for a couple weeks now and all is well thus far. Aaron is learning cursive writing and some new outdoor games thanks for Mr. Shafer. I had e-mailed Mr. Shafer about Aaron's homework and Mr. Shafer told me about Friday's game, "Predator v. Prey that Aaron apparently had a great time playing out on the prairie. So when Aaron came home that night, I asked him to "tell me all about Predator v. Prey" and he got this confused look on his face mixed with a grin trying to figure out "How did Dad know about that?" Daniel hasn't talked much about school, but has apparently been enjoying it nonetheless. He has made new friends this year including a boy named Samuel who moved from Fargo this school year. Although the Widerski boys moved away, the boys haven't seemed to miss a beat in terms of finding things to do around here with the other neighborhood kids. I restarted the weekly lunch tradition yesterday with Aaron having "the usual" chef salad. It was particularly delicious that time as they had homemade applesauce, the best I've had since Grandma Judy's in Crystal and for $2.90, it's a good deal. Aaron has a whole new set of teachers in addition to Mr. Shafer and since Ms. Knuttila retired, Aaron has Mr. Wiggs for music and Daniel has Mrs. Johnson and later in the year Mr. Wiggs. There's one less Drevlow they have to attend school with, as Brett moved on to Franklin this year. Speaking of Brett, he is the only string bass player in the orchestra, so he apparently has his pick of all four bass instruments. Therefore, he has one he keeps at home and one at school so Joe doesn't have to cart on around everywhere, which is nice. I can't remember who it was that told me, but I figured out why Joe has done so many things like piano, knitting, string bass, etc. It's because he has his kids teach him everything they learn at school. Kind of a novel concept for an Ivy League grad, but a great idea for lifelong learning.
We started the new choir season at Trinity with a new director and we've sung at one service already, last Sunday. We've done pretty well so far and last Wednesday was a very pleasant surprise. After "retiring" so to speak last year, Ormond unexpectedly returned to the fold and sang with us last Wednesday night. We had so many guys that we overflowed two guys in a second row behind the first, Terry and I. We practiced Simple Gifts again and several new ones I haven't heard of before, but we seemed to pick up on them all rather quickly. Mike was finally back from a long summer of work, so it was nice to have a full tenor section again. I had learned one song last year as a bass and a couple weeks ago, I had to sing it as a tenor and was pretty well lost. It was nice to fall back in my comfort zone as it were and sing bass again last week. We're still working on getting the youth room in order down in the basement level trying to mount a television and DVD so the kids can watch a football or Twins game or have a movie night before long. It's a one day at a time project, though.
Aaron has started his 4th/5th grade flag football season with two practices now. He had his second practice today at the old Prowler Field where "Uncle Bill" used to play. They've kept the field in pretty good shape over the years with a nice lush grass surface and yard lines carved out with a short length mower instead of the white paint. Today's practice was a bit wet, though, as we experienced a bit of a Minnesota downpour halfway through. Daniel hid under my shirt for a few minutes, but nobody seemed to mind the rain much. It was a good two-hour practice and Aaron had a great time. It's a great activity for his fitness level as the coach had them warm up well before practice and run some 40-yard sprints back and forth. Between that and running drills with him during the week, it's a pretty nice fitness program. I think his first game will be a week from today. We had lunch at McDonald's today and after bumping into Aaron's 2nd grade teacher and finishing up our meal, in walks Mr. Lehrer, so we had a nice chat with him before heading home.
After getting home this afternoon. I watched part of the Washington Huskies v. Fresno State Bulldogs game and believe it or not caught some of the bullriding coverage from the Ellensburg Rodeo of all things. Pretty neat to be sitting on the couch here in Minnesota watching shows out of Washington. I heard the Cougars did well this weekend too at Qwest field beating Baylor 17-15. A nice weekend of Washington sports. Now we're watching a homemade DVD from Dad (thanks!) before bedtime.
Before signing off, I had to pass on the funniest thing I saw since the last blog update. You've all probably heard of the funny ironies entitled something like "Only in America..." In particular, the one about how we will order a Big Mac, super-size fries, and a DIET Coke. Well, I finally saw a prime example of that irony last week on a trip to Wal-Mart. There I am in the checkout line with the boys and as I stand there while my items are being scanned, I just casually glanced at the stuff on the conveyor belt behind me. The first item I saw was two dozen assorted glazed and jelly donuts. I look further down to see two gallon pails of ice cream and some other majorly fattening item I can't recall at the moment, and next to that....Yep...you guessed it...two South Beach Diet entrees. Pretty funny.
I think that's a lengthy enough blog update for now. Hopefully nobody's fallen asleep yet... :o)
We started the new choir season at Trinity with a new director and we've sung at one service already, last Sunday. We've done pretty well so far and last Wednesday was a very pleasant surprise. After "retiring" so to speak last year, Ormond unexpectedly returned to the fold and sang with us last Wednesday night. We had so many guys that we overflowed two guys in a second row behind the first, Terry and I. We practiced Simple Gifts again and several new ones I haven't heard of before, but we seemed to pick up on them all rather quickly. Mike was finally back from a long summer of work, so it was nice to have a full tenor section again. I had learned one song last year as a bass and a couple weeks ago, I had to sing it as a tenor and was pretty well lost. It was nice to fall back in my comfort zone as it were and sing bass again last week. We're still working on getting the youth room in order down in the basement level trying to mount a television and DVD so the kids can watch a football or Twins game or have a movie night before long. It's a one day at a time project, though.
Aaron has started his 4th/5th grade flag football season with two practices now. He had his second practice today at the old Prowler Field where "Uncle Bill" used to play. They've kept the field in pretty good shape over the years with a nice lush grass surface and yard lines carved out with a short length mower instead of the white paint. Today's practice was a bit wet, though, as we experienced a bit of a Minnesota downpour halfway through. Daniel hid under my shirt for a few minutes, but nobody seemed to mind the rain much. It was a good two-hour practice and Aaron had a great time. It's a great activity for his fitness level as the coach had them warm up well before practice and run some 40-yard sprints back and forth. Between that and running drills with him during the week, it's a pretty nice fitness program. I think his first game will be a week from today. We had lunch at McDonald's today and after bumping into Aaron's 2nd grade teacher and finishing up our meal, in walks Mr. Lehrer, so we had a nice chat with him before heading home.
After getting home this afternoon. I watched part of the Washington Huskies v. Fresno State Bulldogs game and believe it or not caught some of the bullriding coverage from the Ellensburg Rodeo of all things. Pretty neat to be sitting on the couch here in Minnesota watching shows out of Washington. I heard the Cougars did well this weekend too at Qwest field beating Baylor 17-15. A nice weekend of Washington sports. Now we're watching a homemade DVD from Dad (thanks!) before bedtime.
Before signing off, I had to pass on the funniest thing I saw since the last blog update. You've all probably heard of the funny ironies entitled something like "Only in America..." In particular, the one about how we will order a Big Mac, super-size fries, and a DIET Coke. Well, I finally saw a prime example of that irony last week on a trip to Wal-Mart. There I am in the checkout line with the boys and as I stand there while my items are being scanned, I just casually glanced at the stuff on the conveyor belt behind me. The first item I saw was two dozen assorted glazed and jelly donuts. I look further down to see two gallon pails of ice cream and some other majorly fattening item I can't recall at the moment, and next to that....Yep...you guessed it...two South Beach Diet entrees. Pretty funny.
I think that's a lengthy enough blog update for now. Hopefully nobody's fallen asleep yet... :o)
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Buttons and Other Back-To-School Musings...
I never thought I'd be able to say this or for that matter this soon, but Daniel appears to have made a major breakthrough. After years of being vehemently opposed to buttons of any kind on anything he wears, we were at the store getting some back to school clothes Saturday evening and he spotted what he apparently felt was a pretty cool shirt. It was a button down shirt, though. Despite the length of time he has refused to have anything to do with buttons, the design of the shirt was apparently "cool" enough to override his aversion to buttons and he insisted I buy him the shirt. No, I wasn't dumb... I had him put it on in the store to prove he could tolerate the buttons and he wore the shirt again today, so perhaps he finally has more options in the clothing department. Maybe he can finally wear his Mariners jersey??
As for Aaron, he is all geared up to head back to school. I got him a mouthguard last night for flag football and as I was sitting here with the computer, I heard sounds like a quarterback and looked up to find Aaron practicing football stances in the living room, calling out plays (Blue 42! Blue 42! Hut, Hut, Hut!) and running through the dining room, mouthguard in place. He really cracked me up, but then what's new? :o)
We continue to be plagued with the late summer onslaught of yellow jackets. I have two bowls of Mountain Dew out on a table in the front lawn along with five traps of three different kinds. Just roughly estimating, it appears I've trapped upwards of 3 to 5,000 of the critters and they keep coming back for more.
I had a nice chat with the neighbors just the next house north of me last night, Jason and Lacey, not really having talked to them for most of the summer and found they have apparently bought the rental house there and plan to stay another 5 to 7 years to build equity before building a home outside of town here. Lacey is expecting and she was telling me how they have appreciated my yellow jacket traps, as they have noticed they have been largely leaving them alone over there ever since I put the traps out. We also tried to figure out unofficially what our property lines were, as they're hoping to build a privacy fence like mine so when their baby comes along they'll be able to safely play in the back yard. I guess I'll no longer be the odd man out on my block with the only fence.
It's half past midnight now and I gotta get all the school supplies sorted out here and put in the individual backpacks so everything's ready to go in the morning. The boys were so excited to get back to school it was hard to get them to go to bed.
As for Aaron, he is all geared up to head back to school. I got him a mouthguard last night for flag football and as I was sitting here with the computer, I heard sounds like a quarterback and looked up to find Aaron practicing football stances in the living room, calling out plays (Blue 42! Blue 42! Hut, Hut, Hut!) and running through the dining room, mouthguard in place. He really cracked me up, but then what's new? :o)
We continue to be plagued with the late summer onslaught of yellow jackets. I have two bowls of Mountain Dew out on a table in the front lawn along with five traps of three different kinds. Just roughly estimating, it appears I've trapped upwards of 3 to 5,000 of the critters and they keep coming back for more.
I had a nice chat with the neighbors just the next house north of me last night, Jason and Lacey, not really having talked to them for most of the summer and found they have apparently bought the rental house there and plan to stay another 5 to 7 years to build equity before building a home outside of town here. Lacey is expecting and she was telling me how they have appreciated my yellow jacket traps, as they have noticed they have been largely leaving them alone over there ever since I put the traps out. We also tried to figure out unofficially what our property lines were, as they're hoping to build a privacy fence like mine so when their baby comes along they'll be able to safely play in the back yard. I guess I'll no longer be the odd man out on my block with the only fence.
It's half past midnight now and I gotta get all the school supplies sorted out here and put in the individual backpacks so everything's ready to go in the morning. The boys were so excited to get back to school it was hard to get them to go to bed.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Another Milestone....
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).
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).
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
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