Jacob David

Our apologies if this is the first you hear of this: Jacob David Dekker was born at 8:39am on Friday the 23rd. He came in at 6 lbs, 9 0z (Annika and Abby were 6-10 and 6-4, respectively) and 19 inches long. We reached the hospital around 5:30am that morning and he popped out in no time (yay!). Everyone's doing really well, and we wanted to get some pictures out for those that aren't near Grand Rapids. We look forward to talking to you if we haven't yet, and Jacob looks forward to meeting all of you too!

That's a yawn!

Change of Season

It's transition time, from...

Winter to spring (hallelujah): in the past few days the snow is melting away, unveiling daffodils, daylilies, and other perennials that are poking through the turf. I spent some time today cleaning up dead plants from last year, while new stuff comes up from underneath. The birds are back too: I have recently seen my first robin, red-wing blackbird, grackle, super-blue bluebird, and killdeer of the year. Also, the neighbors started their maple-sap boiling operation, so the neighborhood smells like roasted marshmallows.

Eastern Standard Time to Eastern Daylight Time: it's amazing how that little change can make the whole day feel different. The girls have gone to bed late each night so far.

Pre-Spring Break to Post-Spring Break (at least for me): now I'm thinking about the back half of the semester, which will involve more exams, a math competition, conferences, a baby, planning for the summer, selling the house (maybe?), tee-ball, etc.

The worst sports time of the year to the second best (behind October's baseball playoffs and football): no single sporting event appeals simultaneously to both my mathematical and sports interests like the NCAA Tournament does - 64 teams, each with a seed, in a single-elimination tournament, and all the history of 15-seeds beating 2-seeds, no 16-seed ever beating a 1-seed. I love filling out brackets for the ESPN competition (which I'll never win), and this year I put together a couple probabilistic methods using random number generators for determing possible outcomes of the tournament, which I'll use to fill out 4 of my 5 ESPN entries (for the 5th one I'll use my gut). I can explain it at length if you're interested.

Kindergarten Visit

Sorry about the lack of a haircut picture. Lisa says it's not as dramatic as you might think, and it's been growing back a bit already.

Mostly, we've been dealing with snow, schools, and illness here. We got positively piled upon by snow the last week or so, and that led to possibly the worst drive up to Ferris that I've ever had, getting the minivan stuck in our driveway, and thankfulness for a paved driveway and a snowblower. Just today Annika got over a wicked ear infection that perforated her eardrum and woke her up into weeping and screaming the past few nights. It was quite unpleasant, but today she's substantially better. Meanwhile, I'm on spring break.

Annika's kindergarten class is having a "Mystery Reader" each day this month, and the first one on Monday was me! As the mystery reader, even Annika didn't know I was coming. I read "Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon," got to participate in the "Tooty Ta" song and then watched them play the "Thumbs-up" game, where nearly everyone in the class puts their head down and a thumb up, while a select few go around and push a thumb down, and then those with thumbs down try to guess who did theirs. Abby got to hang out in kindergarten too, and more-or-less participated in the game - see below, she's in the crowd. She loved it, but also showed that she's only two and not ready for kindergarten yet.

That's the deal here. Less than four weeks until the due date.

Haircuts and Mike's Important Sports Opinions

Yesterday I got what is possibly the shortest haircut I've had in my life. The barber (in Big Rapids) cut it, but after I wanted it shorter and he thinned it out it was remarkable. I didn't really realize it until I got home. It's not quite a "Greg haircut" but it's short enough that I can't even part it. Plus, my cowlick is pretty obvious in front. Fortunately, Lisa said she liked it.

Other than that, we're mired in the worst sports time of the year - post Superbowl, pre March Madness. The NBA, the NHL, and college basketball are all in full swing, but in the NBA and NHL way too many teams make the playoffs, so I don't have any desire to watch anything until the postseason, and college basketball is all about the gigantic tournament - playing a slew of games just to see who gets into the tournament isn't terribly interesting either. Calvin-Hope basketball is always worth paying attention to, I suppose. Spring training is starting up, too, but the regular baseball season is what's more interesting. I didn't watch the Daytona 500, but I do wish that I'd seen the end. Anyway, here's looking forward to "Selection Sunday" and the chaos of a 65-team single elimination basketball tournament.

Cold Weather Update

Consider this a P.S. from my last entry:

Even though Annika has finally recovered, there's been no school Monday and Tuesday due to the cold. The past two days, around 7am, my thermometer (with the remote sensor on the north side of our house) has read -20 and -22. I don't know if the sensor is affected by wind, so there's part of me that doubts those temps a little bit, but I do know that I've never seen a temp that low on the thermometer before.

With all the illness and school and church cancellations, the girls haven't so much as been outside the house since last Wednesday. I'm supposed to take them and two cats to the vet this morning, though.

The Blizzard of 2007

Well, that's the heading I saw on the news this morning. We got lotsa snow the past few days, and the thermometer read -5 when we got up this morning. There were reports of at least half a dozen pileups on the highway involving 20 cars or more. Overall, the timing was pretty decent for us - a Saturday and Sunday, so work schedules weren't ruined and I didn't have to decide whether or not to take "the drive" up to Ferris. It does come on the heels of a week-long illness for Annika, who has finally gone back to normal today. She should be ready for school tomorrow. Lisa was home Thursday and I stayed home of Friday, so the girls haven't even gone outside since Wednesday. Neither has our minivan. We couldn't go sledding, but I am hoping for a good sledding opportunity before winter's over, since Annika is starting to enjoy it more this year.

Abby said "Holy cow" the other day, out of nowhere, and having indoctrinated her with Finding Nemo, has been saying "DoyaDoYaDOYA?" too. It's funny. Oh, and she likes to sort her food - see below. She does it with Froot Loops too.

Eames

I coveted last Saturday night. Lisa and I went to the Christian Learning Center auction at Calvin Christian Middle School, an event that I used to open up the school for back when it was at Seymour and I was a janitor there. We got a couple of kid-sized wooden lounge chairs, and I snagged a $25 Lowe's card for $20, but, to my mild disappointment, we didn't take home the most prized item of the night - a Herman Miller Eames Lounge and Ottoman.

Grandpa Ribbens used to have just such a chair, and I recall quite fondly sitting in it at their house on Lake Michigan. I remember that all the air in the cushion would woosh out when you sat on the ottoman. Then, Saturday night, among all the other items on stage, there sat a sparkling new Eames Chair. I looked it up on the evening's program and first mistook a different chair - item #21 - for the Eames. The supposed retail value of item #21 was $800. I mildly entertained myself with thoughts of bidding on it. However, when #21 came up, they rolled out a nice office chair, not the Eames. Going back to the list, I found the Eames, #73, with a retail value of ... $3995. It would have been incredibly irresponsible of me to bid on it, but Lisa said I could go for it. I set a limit around $700-$800 for myself, but when bidding started, the auctioneer went down to $500 to get the first bid, and in 15 seconds the bid jumped to $1000, so I never had a chance. A few minutes later, a half-nerdy guy and his wife in their 40s quietly stood there looking wealthy, made it suspenseful, and got my prize for $2300. Oh well. Maybe someday (or not).