Dylan, Daniel, and Travis...

Trinity Youth at Armory Hill February 2007

A Record For Icicles?

This week has been rather eventful what with the snow and recent transportation problems. It's snowed about three out of the five days this week and I've shoveled and shoveled and shoveled some more. At least I'm making good friends with our neighborhood mail carriers (Kjell's replacement included). I started the week off good by shoveling the public sidewalk out front of the house all the way south to the next block over, as the corner house hadn't been shoveling theirs at all (Kjell had some choice words for that house and said he would just skip that one). He told me not to shovel it next time and just leave it be. Apparently the municipal code here in TRF allows the City to give one warning and if the sidewalk remains unshoveled in any 24-hour period following a "snow event," they are then allowed to hire someone to remove the snow and the homeowner is then given the bill for snow removal, so a good incentive to keep the sidewalks clear. As I started the week off good, though, by shoveling the neighbors' walks on both sides of me, Mike, my neighbor to the south of us fired up his old snowblower and headed out at 9 p.m. Wednesday night and cleared off my sidewalk, the mailman's path between our houses that runs across our front lawns, as well as the sidewalk up and down the street, so I guess I earned some good kharma there.

In the middle of all this beautiful winter weather, the Weasel started acting up with a broken heater core. I realized on Sunday that we had no heat and I smelled antifreeze, which kind of narrowed the problem down a little. By Wednesday, I got it in to the Ford dealer and it was hanging on by only a pulley. They told me it would be a good five hours of labor, because they have to pull the whole dash out to get to the part and even if they did that, it wouldn't guarantee I'd have a working vehicle a year from now, so I figured I'd get every last mile out of it without the repair and then dispose of it. Turns out "every last mile" really meant about 10 miles... Come Thursday, the boys had early dismissal because of the snow and Aaron begged me to come pick them up at school, so against my better judgment, I hopped in the Weasel and headed off to Challenger. I made it only to Trinity before it stalled and after another 30 or so turns of the key, I got it started again, but decided to turn around instead of continue on to Challenger and it's a good thing I did. I managed to go back about three blocks and was turning right on Knight right where Terri Cuppett's house sits and before I could complete the turn, I heard the heater core fall off and the car stopped in mid-turn. One of Aaron's buddies from youth group, Jeff, lives just a couple houses over by Subway, though, and as his siblings are home schooled, I was able to head over there and use their phone to call Joe for help. As the car was blocking the intersection, Jeff (12) and his little sister (about 9) came out and helped try to push it, but it was not going to budge, so I then realized one of Thief River's finest was parked over at the China Buffet and had just gotten into his car to leave. I ran over and got his attention and he was nice enough to give me a shove off to the side of the road with his police cruiser. Joe arrived soon after and gave me a lift home.

I called the police department and they told me if I didn't move the car from Knight, I would not only be ticketed, but they would tow and impound it because of calendar parking for the snow plows the following morning. I called the wrecking yard and the guy told me he "won't even go out in this weather," so I went with Falls Radiator and when I told them the wrecking yard wouldn't do it, they muttered, "cheapskate." In the end, I got the car towed for $40 to the wrecker and the wrecker said he will pay me $50 for the scrap metal, so I guess I came out $10 ahead there... Joe came over this morning and we headed off to clear out the Weasel and then I yanked the old battery from the Blazer and embarked on the beginning of my unexpected journey to "resurrect" the wounded but not forgotten SUV. Steve at the Ford dealership said he'd work with me to repair or replace the transmission on it so I wouldn't have to come up with the entire expense at one time and I figure it's the best route to go because I have replaced just about all the other major parts on it including the whole exhaust system, brakes, serpentine belt, air conditioning, etc. so it should give me a good 3 to 4 years without major problems once I fix the tranny. I'm just looking forward to having four operating doors, power windows and locks, and above all having a better view of the roadway from the higher seats. Hopefully then this summer I can get it in to the local community college auto body program to get some of the kinks worked out and perhaps a new paint job, as it's fairly inexpensive.

So to get the Blazer fixed, I had to get a new battery for it and Joe drove me over to Wally World and we went in directly to the automotive area and there was no one in sight but an older lady in the car service area who pretty much ignored us. We stood there for an extended period after selecting a new battery and placing it on the counter and after a while Joe walked behind the counter, picked up Wal-Mart's phone and announced over the PA system that someone was needed in automotive. When nobody answered after another five minutes, he went back again and made another PA announcement, this time stating, "This is a customer in the automotive department. If anyone works here, we could use some assistance in the automotive department." It was pretty funny until the automotive manager came walking up and said it was "bad" that "we" did the PA announcement like that. Thankfully I knew the manager, though, as it was Leland Mott's little brother, Lonnie... :) A few other employees had come over at the same time and Joe managed to smooth it over, basically covering for Lonnie not being there so all was well that ended well.

In any event, we headed back home and I sunk the new battery into the Blazer and Joe helped me push it out of the garage. You know Joe and I are pretty big guys when just the two of us pushed it backwards out of the garage over the piled up snow. He was pushing by himself at first with not much movement, but then I came around front with him and in seconds it was out of the garage. It was like the football front line pushing a pair of tackling dummies out of the way. I'd guess we weigh in at a combined 665 pounds, a good match for the task at hand. I managed to start it up after it had been sitting for almost two years now and it still would only go forward in one gear, so I called the same tow truck (I'm going to put them on speed dial at this point with two tows in as many days) and had it towed to the dealer this afternoon. I'm hoping I can have it fixed by this time next week. Joe has been pretty nice with ferrying us around where we need to be. We'll probably just hoof it to church on Sunday, though, in our LPCs (Leather Personnel Carriers - shoes).

This afternoon was a good Kodak moment, I must say. Daniel promptly threw his backpack down on the front porch upon returning from school and headed outside to shovel snow from one pile to another and I headed over to the next door neighbor's to take a picture of the front of their house. I have never seen such a sight as that - their entire front entrance of the house was shielded by a string of icicles each measuring a good three feet minimum in length and I pulled one of them off that was actually one LONG one in excess of four feet that had melted together with three or four smaller ones and carried it over to Daniel and his buddy, Samuel. They held it between the two of them like a log so I could take a picture, then I put it upside down in our front yard with the pointed edges sticking up and it looked rather majestic that way. I'll post pictures of it hopefully this weekend. I would guess it weighs in at about 20 pounds and is a good four inches in diameter at its base.

So that should about do it for this week's update. We'll be learning the Drevlow's paper route for the Grand Forks Herald next week so we can cover for them starting a week from Sunday, so that will probably be the next update, i.e. how we manage to get up at 4 a.m. on a school day...

The Snow Has Finally Revealed Itself...

After one of the drier Minnesota winters on record (little snow), we have just been hit with some major snowfall this weekend. It's now going on about 6 hours of nonstop snow as I type this and I've shoveled the front walkway a good three times thus far. We went to Redeemer this afternoon for the combined choir performance of Trinity and Zion's choirs (not sure what happened to Redeemer's choir) and it was an adventure getting back and forth in this thick snow. As we were leaving, Christina, her son, Mateo, and the boys all piled into the Weasel and when they weren't looking, I bent over to grab a big handful of snow to nail the back window of the car with to surprise the boys. As I recoiled my arm to let loose the nicely rounded snowball, I heard Jerry Wigness from just behind me shout, "Don't throw it!!!" followed by laughter, as he rolled his window back up. With all the snow on the cars, I didn't have a clue he was parked right next to us. I had all but given up hope for a genuine snowy winter until now. I figure we have enough now to make it to spring without another snow storm. The timing of the snow is perfect too, as the Sunday school classes K-5 will be going on a sled outing we planned for Armory Hill tomorrow after church. We had planned it about three weeks ago really having no idea if there'd be any snow and half expecting a mediocre experience, but with this nice new base of snow it should be a blast. Aaron got a new inflatable "Snow Wedge" from his birthday that he's going to break in.

We've managed to stay fairly busy this month even in the absence of all the basketball practices and such. The boys still have Kingdom kids every other Thurday and that's always a good way to spend a couple of hours after school. Both boys had their parent-teacher conferences recently and it was a very positive report for them with Daniel further outpacing his peers in his reading at next year's level a year early and Aaron has made up major ground in his standardized test results that frankly was astonishing from only a year ago. Mr. Schafer had surgery on his shoulder just a few short weeks ago and is already out of his sling. Aaron had an art unit where they made figures out of modeling clay and one kid from Trinity in Aaron's class made a rather artistic rendering of a guy with his arm in a sling and it was called, "Schafer in a sling..." I didn't realize it until just recently, but Aaron's class actually has both fourth and fifth graders in it at the same time. I new Mr. Schafer was a "multi-age" teacher, but I didn't exactly know they were in the same room; I thought he rotated from one classroom to another, so that's kind of nice for Aaron to socialize with the kids a year ahead of him and see a broader range of material.

Before I forget, Daniel was rather witty again tonight with a rather intelligent comeback, proving that cartoons do sometimes have some educational material in them. The boys were playing in the Redeemer youth room and Aaron told me Daniel's thumb was "bleeding." I went in and checked on him to find him crying his eyes out with his thumb wrapped in a paper towel. Of course I expected there was some kind of hemorrhage I was going to be dealing with, but I had him pull the paper towel away and found he had somehow pinched his thumb in the door and had some minor divots taken out of the skin on either side of the thumb's knuckle, but no blood to speak of. I of course used the standard humor to relieve the pain and agony of the moment, suggesting I may have to "amputate" his thumb. He asked, "What's amputate, Dad?" I responded, "It's just removing your finger is all. You don't need it anymore now, do you??" Daniel then answered with a serious look on his face, "I DO need it Dad! I need an OPPOSABLE thumb!" I was speechless for a moment as I digested his most appropriate vocabulary usage at the ripe old age of 7 (almost 8) and asked him where he learned such an advanced concept and he told me "Timmy Turner" who is the star character on the Fairly Oddparents cartoon. Have no fear, though... He's not getting it all from TV. I was cleaning up some papers he had brought home from school last week and there was one page that had black and white pictures or drawings of ancient fossils on it and he was being asked to name the various periods in prehistoric times, i.e. mesozoic, cretacious, etc. I don't recall learning any of that until late middle school if not early high school, so it would appear they are cramming a lot more information in their noggins at much earlier ages than they used to.

Man, It's Cold!!!

This is my kitchen window this weekend. Note the thermometer reading in the lower right-hand corner (yes, that's a minus sign in front of the number).

Mixed Emotions...

I imagine many of you have heard the joke about the "definition of mixed emotions," i.e. watching your brand new Mercedes rolling off a cliff with your mother-in-law behind the wheel (actually I kind of like my mother-in-law). Well, today was one of those kinds of moments. Aaron had his basketball game this afternoon and they were short of coaches, so the head coach drafted me to coach the "blue" team, which happened to be playing against Aaron's team. Here I've been reffing games Aaron wasn't playing in, not being able to watch him at all and the first week in several that I was able to watch him, I ended up coaching his opposition. So... Here I was hoping Aaron would win, but also hoping the team I coached would win. In the end, Aaron's team lost, but only by 4 points, far better than most of their previous contests. The final score was 24 to 20. I was just happy to see Aaron make some real improvements, this time getting a nice clean steal and making a 12-footer. He was all smiles as his coaches cheered him on.

Daniel did great this week too, though the Wolverines played to a 16-16 tie. They have one more game, I believe, and then a pizza party right after the game. Us coaches are going to chip in some money to get some trophies and/or medals for awards. I'm really looking forward to the next season when I'll hopefully know some more about the fundamentals of the game.

Today was a great day for Aaron for another reason. He took his Minnesota achievement tests for math and reading this week and usually he has someone help with reading the test questions to him and there is something like 50 odd questions to answer and by the time the resource person arrived, Aaron had already gone through some 40-plus questions and was almost finished. He scored substantially higher than previously too, so the resource teacher was extremly impressed, at least enough to stop me on my way to basketball practice to recount his performance. A great day all around for Aaron, both athletically and academically. We finished the day with a trip to Wally World where we picked out PJs/PJ bottoms for the boys to wear tomorrow for pajama day at school. It was only 1 degree today, though, so I don't exactly envy them wearing PJ pants out there. I think I'll drive them to school rather than have them stand out at the bus stop. At least the good news on the horizon is daylight saviings will be coming along earlier than previously, on March 11, so we will be able to fit more recreation time into the weekdays.

4 feet 9 versus 6 feet 5? No problem!

Today was a good day as the choir started it off with performances of "Down To The River To Pray" and the new pastor continues to become acclimated to the congregation and our way of doing things. The present challenge is getting the congregation to move up to the front pews in the second service so those watching the TV broadcast don't have the impression that there's only the pastor and a row of acolytes attending the service. To that end, the choir filled up the back couple pews for a change. We were all saying there's several people, though, who have gone to Trinity for over 30 years who have always sat in the same pew, same spot, every single service, every single year and aren't likely to budge, which the new pastor agreed with stating, "Lutheran's are stubborn that way..." The pastor also cracked a joke in the service, "You hear about the Norwegian who loved his wife so much he almost told her?"

After services, we picked up the boys' friend, Austin, and we all headed out to Challenger for two hours of open gym. As for the title of this blog entry, we got a game of 3 on 3 going, which quickly turned to 4 on 4, than 5 on 5. I was on Aaron's and Daniel's team and the father of two of the kids on the other side was on their team so it was fairly evenly matched, though I was a good 5 inches taller than their dad. In any event, there was a boy on Aaron's team who stands probably around 4 feet 10 who guarded me like crazy. He boxed out on every shot and really did effectively prevent me from going for several rebounds. I called it "tenacious D..." He wasn't intimidated for a second by my height advantage and really was fun to play against. Aaron made several baskets and we ended up ahead, but eventually forgot the overall score. Daniel dribbled the ball a lot, but didn't really shoot much, so he just got some more basketball fundamentals practice in for his next game. I ended up running into the brother of a former classmate of mine, Craig's brother Kent Kainz. It was a fun afternoon of basketball followed by a relaxing evening of work. The snow started coming down again tonight and the wind was bitter cold today, so winter is far from over. I'll have to shovel the front walkway for the first time since probably before Christmas thanks to our new cold front. The boys only have basketball for a couple more weeks, though, so I won't be braving the cold for too much longer. Speaking of basketball, make sure you scroll down on this page to see the boys' team pictures...

The Mighty Wolverines!!

Aaron's Backcourt Basketball Team

Everyone's Healthy Again!

After a week of Daniel's bout with the flu and the rest of us staving off the mighty bug, we have managed to have a nice healthy week thus far. Daniel returned to his basketball team last night and played a good game with the Wolverines against the Hawkeyes. I was the only referee, as they were somewhat short-handed in the coach department so it was a real learning experience for me. At Daniel's team level, we don't get too technical for the most part, just stopping them when we see something wrong and not changing possession unless they go out of bounds. I finally did have to blow the whistle, though, when one of the boys kept climbing all over whoever had the ball, committing flagrant fouls. I put the victim of the foul up at the free throw line and some of the kids said, "We aren't doing fouls" to which I responded, "Um...Yes we are this time" (given how repetitious the infractions had been). The kid made his one free throw and the game went on with no further problem. There was one boy that really cracked me (and I'm sure the parents) up, as every single time the other team made a basket, he would grab the rebound and start racing down the court with the ball without having his team take the ball out, so EVERY SINGLE TIME, I had to blow the whistle hard and shout his name to bring the ball back so it could be properly inbounded. Second grade is a great level to coach, I've found, as the kids haven't quite reached the level of both thinking they know more than the coach/ref and/or knowing they know more than the coach/ref. Daniel's opponent had Kaylynn Grochow as one of the players, so that was pretty cool. He's now played against her and Sam Mosbeck. Aaron got in on the action himself, designating himself as the official timekeeper for the game, so that was pretty fun having them both involved in the same game. Aaron has his next game this afternoon at 4:00, so I gotta get his uniform shirt ready...

I've been a little more busy than usual lately in terms of my work. The local hospital has given me a number of jobs to type and after only two days were offering me a full-time job (at home) doing all of their transcription work, though with my present schedule with basketball, choir, etc., I didn't take them up on that offer. I think I'll just do long-term overflow/backlog work for the hospital now that I've got a foot in the door.

I neglected to mention on here recently, but Spike, Aaron's guinea pig from Ben Franklin, died this past week, so we're down to Rodney, the other guinea, and the two rabbits who continue to do well. We may get another guinea, but not from the pet store, given how short-lived Spike was.

That's about all the news thus far this week...

Cake May Appear Larger In Person Than in Photo...

Dylan, Fran, Aaron, Patty, Brett, and Blake

The Birthday Gang (Part of it, at least...)

A Very Successful Birthday Party Indeed...

Aaron's 10th birthday party came and went without a hitch and judging by the smiles on the faces of the 24 kids that joined Aaron and Daniel (26 total kids), I'd say they would all agree it was a great day of fun at the water park. The kids devoured two cheese pizzas, a pepperoni pizza, a sausage pizza (all of them larges), seven pitchers of pop, and half a sheet cake that normally serves 35 to 45. Aaron received half a car load of gifts from his guests in addition to half a dozen gift cards and money, so now he's probably thinking of where to spend all the gift card money. He received two basketballs, a football, hundreds of baseball cards, action figures, and a radio-controlled F-16 fighter plane to name just a few. He appeared to be having the time of his life in the pictures I took. I'm posting a picture of "most" of the gang he invited, though you will note the guest of honor is not there, as he had disappered at just about the same time I had gathered all the kids together I could find and given how antsy they were to get back to swimming, I had to take the picture when I had the chance. At least he'll have the picture for future memory and I got a number of other pictures with him in them as well as some video. We got there at 2 pm and were supposed to be there until 4:30 at the latest, but due to one boy's mother not being called to pick him up until late, we didn't get out of there until 7:00, so it was a rather long day for us. Aaron's friend, Jeff, from the Wednesday night youth group spent the night with Aaron for a slumber party that night.

We enjoyed a day of lounging around on Monday given the holiday and no school for the boys. It was 0.1 degree outside that day and Aaron, bless his little soul, decided that was perfect weather for a football scrimmage on the front snow-covered lawn, so he picked up the phone and called Samuel (Daniel's best friend), Austin (a 9-year-old about four houses down), and Blake (an 11-year-old fifth grader in Mr. Schafer's class about four blocks north on Arnold Ave.) to come play. Of course they managed to get me to throw a sweatshirt on and head out with them for the game and it didn't take long before we all had cheeks redder than Rudolph's nose. Our fingers would go numb within seconds of removing them from our gloves to throw the football. I found 40-gram Thinsulate gloves satisfactory for throwing a junior football, but the 100-gram gloves are far too thick for handling the ball. The younger kids couldn't grip the ball at all with gloves, so they were constantly taking them off and putting them back on immediately afterward so they could catch the ball. It was a little more entertaining than our summer and fall games to say the least.

The past couple days have been a little more low key, as Daniel came down with a high fever Tuesday morning and I kept him home from school. The doctor said he tested positive for "influenza type A," which was sort of a moot point, as you can't really do anything for it anyway. That brings me to my soap box for today: The way pharmaceutical companies draw on the subjective emotions of parents with sick children. I was at Hugo's that morning to pick up medicine and was about to pick up some cough/cold medicine in a bottle for Daniel when I thought back on the research they've published in the last year that it's of no more benefit to a child than sugar water, so I put it back on the rack electing to keep $5.77 from the drug companies and got him some Children's Advil instead to deal with the most important problem (the fever). It's funny how years of habit and the heavy marketing with the pretty packaging on children's over-the-counter medication can sway a parent's buying decisions, particularly when your child is miserable and you would do anything to make them feel better, but on this particular day, science would trump impulse. It's gotten even more difficult for parents to resist the new ploys of drug companies as they keep coming up with more and more "convenient" and "pleasant" medication delivery methods such as "Meltaway" Tylenol that dissolves in the mouth, Benadryl and cold medicines that are impregnated in thin strips much the same as those Listerine breath strips (what's wrong with chewables????), etc. I think that's about enough proselytizing for now, though...

We had more snuggle time than usual as he convalesced at home in bed, on the couch, and on the beanbag and he seems to be on the mend after taking a lengthy nap this afternoon. He did have to miss his third basketball game today and the Wolverines had to do without me as one of their coaches, but that was the first practice or game he's missed all season. Hopefully he's able to return to school tomorrow or at least can watch Aaron's game in the afternoon. We had a rather cold snap around here since late last week with daily temps a good 5 to 15 degrees below zero and today was about 22 above, so it would be nice if that trend holds for a while so we can enjoy the outdoors a little bit more. Now to start thinking about plans for Daniel's birthday party... One of the parents at Aaron's party said I was going to have a hard time topping this year's when his next one rolls around.

A New Record?

Aaron had his first basketball game yesterday at Challenger, team 4 against team 2. The first half went really well with Aaron's team hanging in just two points behind team 2. At the half, it was 14-12, but in the second half team 2 really took off and left team 4 in their dust. I was really impressed, though, with the improvement of all the players who have started to put the fundamentals together and play like real teams. Aaron in particular had a great game handling the ball a lot more than he ever had in scrimmages. He dribbled well all the way down the court keeping the ball in good control, passed to his teammates, caught passes using his height advantage over the other kids, and even managed to steal a few balls. He was very nervous going into the game not having gotten much playing time or the ball passed to him when he was practicing, so it was especially nice to see him grinning from the time the game started to the final buzzer last night. He appeared to be having the time of his life on the court, win or lose.

We went to the Prowler hockey game last night against the Crookston Pirates to round out our evening and threw some pucks out on the ice for the girls' hockey fundraiser. They had several friends at the hockey game and I quickly found myself sitting alone in the upper seating next to our goal and when I turned around, I saw Daniel playing an improvised game of "floor" hockey with a buddy on the floor next to the wall of the arena using a black pop bottle cap and plastic spoon as a hockey stick. We ended up leaving after the second period, as the Prowlers appeared to have the game well in hand with a score of 5-1 and it was getting late. We enjoyed the somewhat rare treat of the pep band there too, as they recruited some alumni band members to create a fuller sound. What really cracked me up was sitting right behind them listening to them play an old Husky favorite, "Louie Louie."

As for the title of this blog post, one of the other parents/coaches last night mentioned I seemed to be rather busy at Challenger lately, this week having been there "almost" every night. I hadn't given it any thought up until then, but when I did think back, I actually have been there every single night this week. Monday was Aaron's basketball practice, Tuesday was Running & Reading in the gym and library/media center, Wednesday was Daniel's first basketball game, Thursday was Aaron's game, and today I'll have my usual lunch appointment with Aaron to round out a full week. I was surprised to realize I will have gone to school as many days as the boys have this week. I imagine I probably came close to or even matched the record previously, but this was the first time I really noticed how often I've been out there. I guess that explains the gas needle in the car going down faster than I thought was normal recently.

In other news, we woke up to an outside temperature of 19.4 BELOW zero. It's so cold this morning that my solid wood front door has frost around the lower INSIDE edges and the INSIDE of the double pane kitchen windows are frozen. I'm enjoying my insulated morning here inside thinking it will take a tiny bit more motivation to get myself out onto the tundra again to have lunch with Aaron at Challenger. For that matter, I may need to warm the car up for a while this time. The transmission took about 3 seconds to engage yesterday evening and today is even colder. At least we haven't had any more snowfall or recent rain so we have just the cold to endure.

Now that it's Friday, we've received the majority of the RSVPs we're probably goin g to get for Aaron's birthday party tomorrow afternoon. I think we've easily exceeded the 15 we needed for the water park passes, so there should be no shortage of kids to help celebrate Aaron's 10th. He's getting pretty excited for his big day, which reminds me... I gotta try to get a pirate cake put together in time for the party... Wish me luck.

How Quick a Decade Flies By...

I've been busy preparing for the momentous occasion of Aaron's 10th birthday this week. I made the reservations at the water park last Friday and ever since have been thinking back on the past 10 years, thinking of the first time I wrapped him up like a burrito in his blanket at the hospital, the 1 to 3 a.m. feedings, midnight visits to Children's, thousands of diaper changes, gallons of apple juice, pushing his stroller at the zoo, bringing him to the neighborhood park, a snuggle on the couch after a long day at work, falling asleep on the floor next to his toddler bed with an arm draped over him so he'd go to sleep as he transitioned from the crib, and watching him grow like a weed (now 5 feet 1-1/2). It seems like yesterday I was videotaping him as he walked in to Chase Lake for his first day of kindergarten and now he's a mere year and a half from middle school and another five from his driving permit. Through all of his first decade of life, though, one thing stands out above all others, that being his broad smile and happy go lucky attitude. To know Aaron is certainly to love him, as he becomes fast friends with everyone he meets. It would be a vast understatement to just say I'm proud of him as a son. He brightens just about any room he walks into and that grin of his makes every day start and end on a pleasant note. It is virtually impossible to frown when he's within smiling distance. I'm really looking forward to what his second decade of life will bring.

Okay... Enough reminiscing for now... Time for an update on the rest of our activities in this new year of 2007. The boys are now in the thick of basketball season, Daniel having just played his second game already this afternoon. His team, the Wolverines, beat the Gophers and Daniel showed a lot of improvement in his basketball fundamentals and shooting skills. They both had their team pictures taken on Monday and today so they can focus on their games from now on. Aaron's first game is tomorrow, I believe. We have taken a break this year from Prowler hockey thanks to the busier schedule with basketball, youth groups, etc., but tomorrow night we're planning on catching a varsity hockey game at The Ralph, as they'll have the pep band, which is somewhat unusual for Lincoln. They have asked all alumni of the pep band to come play with them, so I'm hoping for a good turnout. The band really fires up the crowd and the Prowlers can use it this year. It's been a rebuilding year of sorts for the Prowlers after last year's trip to state.

We have enjoyed a much milder than usual winter over here lately with only one night of freezing rain, one night of snow, and warmer than normal temperatures for the past month, though we're expecting sub-zero lows over the next week. It seems to be a bumper crop of used snowmobiles this year, as there is really nowhere to ride them this year other than the ice. I've already had the adventure of doing a 540-degree spin on the ice in the station wagon, which I don't care to repeat anytime soon, so I'm looking forward already to the spring thaw.

We went to the Running and Reading program at Challenger last night where we played floor hockey the first half hour and read in the library/media center the second half hour. We had a good time, though that's the last time they'll have it this year. It was a nice change from last year and we're looking forward to the next season. It's fun to get back to basics and read some good books. I actually learned some history about the civil war and what life was like on the frontier way back when. The boys got a lot of books for Christmas, so they'll be well occupied for weeks to come. I was just noticing a little while ago how fast the boys have progressed in their reading as evidenced one evening as I was thumbing through the on-screen TV guide on the satellite TV. They had read through a half dozen of the show titles before I even got to them and had chosen which channel they wanted before I could think. Again, it seems like just yesterday it was three-word sentences, then realizing the day you're in the car talking to another adult and spelling out what you're saying, then realizing that they can now spell and now they're reading just about anything they look at. There I go with the reminiscing again...

We are about to enter a new chapter at Trinity with the installation of our new permanent pastor this coming Sunday. We're saying Be Strong In The Lord at both services with our new director, Vanessa, and we're looking forward to our next combined choir performance with Zion and Redeemer, apparently sometime around the end of February. Our first practice with Vanessa tonight went great and we had a lot of fun singing for her.

I think that just about covers all the latest and greatest from TRF. I probably would have written a lot more had I been able to sign in to this blog, but I upgraded the blog through Google and then forgot my new log in info until just this afternoon. Hopefully I can get back on the stick now, though, since I figured out how to get back in. Take care everyone...

Merry Christmas!!

It's been an interesting couple of weeks over here to say the least... After weeks and weeks of practice, we finally finished our performance of The Messiah at Lincoln High last Sunday. Immediatey following that, I came down with a bad cold and spent a week getting reacquainted with Kleenex. I was pretty miserable, but managed to drag myself to each of the boys' three basketball practices last week at school, though I only coached one of them for Daniel on Wednesday. Just when I thought I couldn’t feel worse that day, I was leading Daniel’s Wolverines through a practice scrimmage and one of is female classmates ended up behind me just as I was trying to get away from an errant pass and next thing I know I’m doing a half cartwheel over the girl landing rather heavily on the gym floor. I think I got tangled up mostly on her foot, though, so I didn’t really do any damage to her, just my low back, so I’ve been having a great time trying to stand up straight every time I’ve bent over or had to sit on a straight chair. Advil is my best friend this week, I’m afraid. The week hasn’t been all bad, though, as I have been preparing for the Christmas festivities. The boys helped me get most of the out-of-town deliveries to the Post Office in time to arrive by the big day and we managed to get ourselves a nice artificial tree this year, a white Norwegian pine already strung with clear lights, which really looks better in our living room than a traditional live tree. We’ve been slow with the decorations, though. The boys hung candy canes all over it to get it started.

Daniel spent the night at a buddy’s house last night a couple of blocks away, so it was just Aaron and me and an evening of snuggling on the couch as we watched Christmas programs on TV. We didn’t do much of anything today (Saturday) other than hanging out around the house. I did meet my former gym teacher’s son today, Joe Folger, who mentioned Dad was his favorite teacher. He really liked the video Dad made of an old school performance back in the day. He came up from Texas for the holidays, so it was nice to meet him and his son, Brayden.

We’ve been testing out the telescope Aunt Mary Jo sent us and have yet to see the moon over here, though we’ll probably be outside the first night it reappears. I took it out on the street this afternoon here in front of the house and was able to read the license plate on a car some six blocks down the street. Depending on its configuration, it can magnify images to over 500 times their original size. I’m looking forward to seeing the craters on the moon for the first time and showing the boys what’s up there in space.

The boys are now on Christmas break from school for a good week and a half and they’ll be starting their official basketball season in terms of games once they return. Aaron’s practices will be on Mondays and games on Thursday and Daniel’s will be on Wednesdays. I’m one of two coaches for Daniel’s team, the Wolverines, and I’m one of many for Aaron’s team, which at this point is yet unnamed. If you want to see how they’re doing in school or just want to say hi directly, you can now e-mail them at their own e-mail address. If you need their address, feel free “add a comment” to this blog post and be sure to include your own e-mail address in your comment and I will e-mail you their current address. I figure that’s the best way to cut down on spam and ensure they only hear from people they know.

The boys already had their Christmas program about 10 days ago, so we only have the Christmas service to go to at Trinity tomorrow and Christmas Day. I think they may get a break from Sunday School tomorrow, which they really deserve, as they each were recognized this week for a fourth month in a row of perfect attendance. Speaking of church activities, they both participated in the “Candy Cane Lane” program this past Wednesday night at Trinity that was put on by the 6-12 youth for the kids in K-5. They learned the significance of the candy cane colors in Christianity and followed the program with a dinner of mac & cheese with hotdog slices and dessert of their own homemade white chocolate treats sprinkled with candy cane bits.

I’m looking forward to Christmas Eve and no longer having to say “no” several times a day when the boys ask, “Can we open a present???” We will be heading over to the Wignesses on Monday afternoon and spend most of the day over there, so the next couple of days will be pretty fun and entertaining for us. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really snowed up here in weeks, so we just have some ice on the roads and patches of snow here and there, nothing like what it was last year. Not that I’m complaining by any means, though.

May you all have a very merry and blessed Christmas this year and a great start to 2007!!

Great Job, Aaron!!

  

Daniel Hangin With The Home Team... (Look at his buddy's Prowler Hair!)

  

Hunter, Daniel, and Parker