Various things...

Lisa, Jake and I attended the 150th anniversary celebration of the CRC at Van Andel Arena (with overflow at Devos Place) today. I'm guessing that it might be the largest CRC gathering ever. We had communion with 12,000 people. The service featured little foil-sealed cups of grape juice, a full orchestra conducted by John Varineau, a huge choir, video cameras on cranes, and a sleeping 11-week old, who can claim he attended the 150th service when he goes to the 200th anniversary service someday. Speaking of, Lisa did well in getting this picture...

Other things:

Annika has a fluffy stuffed dog that she named Mimi. Mimi is also a WebKinz, which is an online version of the stuffed animal that you can play with, buy things for, etc. The online version of Mimi has three status bars, for happiness, health, and hunger. The other day Annika was playing online while Abby was watching, and we called down to the basement from upstairs with a question for the girls. Abby ran to the bottom of the stairs, and with all the earnestness and concern in the world blurted out "Mimi is sick on the 'puter!!!" It was hilarious to hear, and sure enough, Mimi's health was down to 76 out of 100, and she had to visit Dr. Quack to get healed.

Annika and Abby were hitting balls in the yard the other day, when I decided to try and get them taking turns hitting and running the bases. Annika hit first, got a double, and then Abby hit off the tee, so Annika ran from second after Abby's hit, and so on, like a real game. Abby doesn't quite get it all yet, and the next time she was up she ran straight from home to second base, and this was very upsetting to Annika. While I tried to calm Annika down before her turn, Abby continued to run, from second to third, across the diamond to first, and then back to third, which didn't help Annika at all. We gave up on Abby. However, on Annika's next hit, a blast to center field, Annika went around second at full steam and plowed straight into Abby, who was running full tilt in her randomly chosen direction. Basically, Abby got creamed, but both girls went down and were upset. It was pretty much slow-motion to me right before the collision. Abby was crying, and then Annika started too, and when I asked her if she was hurt anywhere, Annika moaned "No, I'm just sad for Abby." We went inside and had some green Kool-Aid.

Finally, and I almost dare not point it out, but the Yankees are 9.5 games out of 1st place, and 5.5 games behind the Tigers for the wildcard spot in the AL. Could we have the playoffs without the Yankees? Dare the baseball gods tease me with the possibility? Of course, we have 100 games to play and the Yankees have currently won six straight and made up some ground on the Red Sox, but let's keep our fingers crossed, OK?