Sondre continues to be very busy and is getting settled in. Football has really been consuming much of his time, but we have found some time to have some fun and to also go shopping for some new clothes and shoes before school starts.
Above is a picture of the "stash" that he purchased at the Alberville Outlet Mall on Friday night. Outlet malls have all of the great stores but are much cheaper than normal. These stores are stocked with merchandise that is extra inventory from their regular stores. The retailers can sell the product at a reduced price and not have to really mark them down in their regular stores, so it is a good deal all around. The other benefit of shopping in Minnesota is that we do not pay tax on items that are deemed necessary...like clothing and food...which makes his purchases even a better deal. We were pleased with his choices and how he chose to go to the Albertville Outlet Mall vs. the Mall of America, since it was more fiscally responsible to his budget than the Mall of America would have been.
Yesterday was a "Moms" meeting with all of the Minnetonka Football coaches. The purpose of the meeting was to have the Moms meet the coaches and to also gain a better understanding of what the expectations are of "our" sons as members of the Minnetonka Football team. I was very impressed with all of the coaches, especially the head coach Dave Nelson. The lessons I took away from the session was that they care about the boys as young men first (including their phyical safety playing a rough sport) and winning second. He also shared with us that the equipment that the school provides for the boys to wear in games is the "best that money can buy". In fact, he said, they wear the same brand of helmuts and shoulder pads that the Minnesota Vikings (professional team) and Minnesota Gophers (University of Minnesota college team) wear. Also, they focus on technical capability, so they boys are smart about how the tackle...etc...That was very reassuring. They also shared examples of some of the teams plays and how important it is to study the play book before and after practice. That part seemed really complicated to me but they boys seem to get it.
There were at least 100 Moms there and they happened to draw my name to win a prize. When I went up to get my prize, Coach Nelson shared with the entire room that Sondre (or 'Dre as they call him...pronounced "DRAY") was from Norway and a wonderful kid who was working very hard to learn the game. All of the Moms were smiling and excited to have the cultural diveristy on the team. It was cool...I felt proud for you. It sounds like this Thursday evening is the official kick-off to the season and there is some type of ceremony.
At the bottom of the blog is a link to a video clip from a news story that recently ran on the local TV station about Coach Nelson's regarding his ecent bout with cancer...he is a really amazing man. Take a look
One other interesting bit of information is that one of the coaches may be a descendent of the "Lerol" family. From what I understand somewhere along the line some of the Lerhol's stopped spelling the name with the "H" in it. Sondre will have to do some more investigating on this one.
Yesterday Sondre got up early and offered to help Scott with the yard work. He also cleaned his room (with out being told: I can count on one hand the number of times our own children did that :).....then we went to visit Deb, Vernon, Buelah and Frank for awhile too. (For those of you reading this and don't know who they are...those are relatives of the Lerhol's who live in the Twin Cities). Right after that we went to a good old fashion "corn roast" hosted by one of my co-workers and then to a picnic at Upper Lake Harriet with friends. Busy, busy day
This is Murphy, a Bernese Mountain dog, who was at the picnic with us. He is a really pretty and nice dog.
Scott also snapped a picture of this frog on one of our hosta's. I think it is really pretty.
. Today we learned that King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway are coming to Minnesota in October to re-dedicate the "Enger" tower in Duluth Minnesota (my Moms home town) that was a posthumous gift to the city from Norway native Bert Enger, who immigrated to Duluth and made his living selling furniture. Its opening in 1939 was attended by Crown Prince Olav and Princess Martha. They also plan to return to Minneapolis and visit with Norwegian exchange students attending school in Minnesota. How exciting is that? We will make sure Sondre gets to go...even if he has to skip school :)
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S2073120.shtml (About Coach Nelson)
Hope all is well in Norway...we are all doing very well here in Minnesota.
Thank you for interesting information! Sondre cleaning his room without being told so, is nice to read about - may it last forever..
ReplyDeleteLerol without h I think Beulah`s father started. Ask her, it is a special explanation why Lerol was more practical to use in his new country.
Shopping seems to have been successful for Sondre, he likes that kind of sport too,hm. Write more later - take care!