Hockey

Annika went to her first hockey game the on Friday night - the Grand Rapids Griffins at Van Andel Arena. We got free tickets through a school reading program, and she got the full experience:

• She finished her popcorn before the game started
• The visiting team, the Hamilton Bulldogs, got their first penalty in 7 seconds, their second in other 10, and we scored right away - sound the foghorn!
• We scored again just after three minutes were up
• Amid a ton of penalties on both teams, Hamilton took the lead 3-2 before the first period was done
• They had a ridiculous game featuring kids and leaf blowers at the first intermission
• We got a second popcorn at the first intermission, and she would have finished it in no time if she didn't deliberately save it for the end of the second period
• During the third period she was featured on the big video screen
  
• With three minutes to go Hamilton got a penalty and we scored to tie it, much to Annika's delight - she gets into these things quite emotionally
• No one scored in overtime, so it went to a shootout
• Hamilton scored one of the flukiest shootout goals I've ever seen, on a puck that was blocked high into the air and then bounced screwy off the ice behind the goalie and went in
• We scored to tie the shootout on a controversial goal that might have been kicked in (if we missed the game was over)
• On the last pair of shootout attempts, they missed, we scored, and the celebration began
• The opposing coach stormed onto the ice, yelled at the referee, and even picked up a puck like he was going to throw it. The opposing goalie berated the ref from the bench.
• After a long and aborted wait for an elevator, we found a bathroom that we could both go in, since Annika had consumed a lot of water during the game.
• She fell asleep in the van on the way home

Whew! It was fun...

The Latest Pictures

The other day Jake was taking a nap. Then Lisa goes upstairs and finds the door to his room open, like this:

How is this so? Well, the culprit didn't flee the scene of the crime:


Abby spent some time baking with Lisa, wearing her apron from Grandma:


I took a picture of myself with Jake, during his "helmet-off hour":

My classes are done, finals are this coming week, while Lisa and the girls have two weeks to go. We'll see many of you soon!

3-Year-Old Alarm Clock

Everyone but Abby was sleeping this morning when she walked into our room and began talking about something. I don't know what it was, though, since I immediately noticed that it was 7:45, and clearly no alarm had gone off like it should have at 6:45. So: pee-clothes-frozen lunch-granola bar-coat-kisses, and I was gone. No showering or shaving, no real combing of the hair, no brushing of the teeth. Also, we had our first real snow of the year, so our street was an ice rink, and the drive to Big Rapids wasn't great, but it wasn't a disaster, either. Regardless, I was almost 20 minutes late for my first class.

On the way up, I tried to call the math department office so they could let my students know before they could employ some sort of made-up "10-minute rule" and left. However, I only got about 2 seconds of call time before my cell phone died. After thinking through the quickest way to redial, I managed to power it up one more time, and tried to say "It'sMikeDekkerI'mgoingtobelatehelp!" before it died again. It was like some movie where I was in danger and had a small window of time to alert the authorities. Apparently, they heard enough in the office or managed to figure it out, because someone spoke with my students. They didn't mind, and thought my Christmas All-Stars were cool.

In the end, the sky turned blue, all was well, and we had a nice evening with friends up in Cedar Springs with pizza, beer, ice cream, foosball, cards, and general chaos: 8 adults (ages 32,32,32,31,31,31,31,31), 10 kids (ages 6,6,5,5,3,3,2,2,1,8mo), and one yellow lab.

Piano Prodigy?

A Mish-Mash

OK, it's been forever. I wanted to do justice to the blog and put up good pictures of stuff, but there's been too much going on to spend the time on it. So, anyway, here's a rundown of stuff from the past four weeks:

I pretty much missed Halloween since I had to work late, but the girls had a great time, even though it was a little damp. They went as crayons, wearing felt costumes that Lisa did a great job making for them. She even made one for Jake, although he only wore it briefly.

Abby and Annika both started dance lessons at a new dance studio, located in the old Seymour Christian School. I spent parts of 8 school years working there, so returning was quite nostalgic.

Annika also started piano lessons with a woman from our church. She's enjoying them and doing pretty well.

We raked lots of leaves. One Monday morning there were 16 city of Grand Rapids yard waste bags in front of our house. We're doing pretty well getting settled, too.

The girls and I, over the course of 6 sessions or so, watched all of Star Wars. They're probably too young for it, really (Abby, at least), but they still enjoyed it. I'm sort of proud that they know names like Obi-Wan Kenobi. They can't ever seem to remember C-3PO, though.

We continue to watch Dancing with the Stars (see a previous post on my blog - link at right), and while some justice was served last week when Jane Seymour got the boot, somehow Marie Osmond continues to survive. It matters to us.

Jake is officially helmet-headed now, to deal with his somewhat misshapen head. We're a couple weeks into what will be at least a 3-month process, and we've pretty much gotten used to it - he has too. You can't kiss those baby cheeks as well anymore, but Jake is still Jake.

Who knows how much I forgot just now, but we'll call that good.

Penny Update!

Go read my previous post first, which is also from today, if you haven't yet.

While I was sitting at the computer today, Annika came and informed me that I had a "fecal dissection opportunity" (not her words). I went and found the two flat-headed screwdrivers that I had conveniently stored in a bathroom drawer in preparation for a month's worth of these opportunities and went to work. Lo and behold, with a little poking and prodding I discovered . . .

A nickel! Either someone was still learning her coins when the swallowing incident occurred, or Lisa and I have stumbled upon the source of our retirement funds: Annika, who apparently can ingest money and quintuple its value in a mere 9 days! That's the same as having a retirement account with an interest rate (yes, I did the calculation) of at least 6,527%. I'm going to the bank and then feeding her $100 bills tonight. She can probably get them down with some ketchup.

The Blog Return

We're moved! It's almost been 3 weeks, and we're settling in pretty well to the new house. Much of it is still a mess, but we're getting there. It's amazing how little we think about the old house. Our digital camera is officially broken, so we still don't have good pictures to post. I guess you'll have to come see it.

We're enjoying the house for all the reasons we moved - much less time in the car, as we're closer to pretty much everything except Ferris and the place we picked blueberries. I'm adjusting to the longer drive, and started carpooling with some people last week. It's working out OK.

We also ended up with a bigger house than we had before, which wasn't the intention of the move but worked out nicely. It's been a good thing, too, since we have room to pile stuff that we haven't unpacked yet. We moved an embarrassing amount of possessions. The neighborhood is nice, too, with lots of kids and the playground behind our house. I do feel more pressure to keep the lawn (not just a yard, but a real lawn!) looking nice, though. Overall, we're doing well, adjusting to all the little differences (like different appliances, city water, city garbage, no cable TV (for now), new windows, the quirks of an older house, etc).

In non-house related news, Annika swallowed a penny at school last week. We've had the pleasure of checking to see if it "came out" for a week now. On Monday she had an x-ray taken to confirm the penny was still in there, and it was very obvious that it was. After a zillion phone calls in a few days after a lot of confusion and miscommunication, we were expecting to get a call to bring her in for a "scope-down-the-throat" procedure to pull it out of her stomach. Instead, we scheduled the procedure . . . for November 20. Apparently the docs don't mind her passing the coin by herself or letting a penny sit in her stomach for a month. Weird.

It's been a crazy few weeks. A viral thing went through all three kids recently, too. OK, until next time...