Last Tuesday was the musical program at the elementary school; something about rockin’ through the ages or something like that, with the kids singing hits of the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and today. Missy and Natalie’s grade sang, but the versions of “Eye of the Tiger” and “Don’t Stop Belivin’” were what brought the house down. Saturday was the WCN Run for Hunger 5k, which the whole family went to participate in. There were so many people there that the start was delayed by almost 30 minutes. We were all walking it, but Missy got some bad side cramps and only made it halfway before she had to stop to sit down (she’s been coughing so much lately she was hurting in her ribs). Beth stayed behind with her and they just walked back. Alex and Natalie and I took around 55 minutes to walk it. Later on we took all the kids to see “Batman v Superman,” which was better than the reviews it’s received so far but not as good as “the Avengers.” Sunday we all went to Michigan after church for Easter dinner with the Pinksters, Marve, his (now fiancée) Beth and some of her family.

This weekend started off with such promise. The NCAA tournament of course started this week, featuring my Spartans as a #2 seed, although after being ranked #2 at the end of the regular season and then winning the B1G tournament, they deserved a #1 seed. The MSU crowd from packaging development at work reserved the back room of BW3 Friday afternoon and I left work early to join them in watching MSU lose to #15 seed Middle Tennessee, in what some are calling the biggest upset (or, at least the most unlikely) in NCAA tournament history. Crap, it ruined my appetite for basketball for the rest of the weekend. And, since I had picked MSU as the champion, my bracket is beyond busted already. Oh well, at least it helped me get some things done around the house this weekend. Saturday was also Missy’s robotics club competition. She was at the school for several hours Saturday getting ready, then all the families came to the gym to see them try to run the course. Missy’s team (the Radical Robo-Monkeys) finished in the middle of the pack, which was just fine, and she had a great time doing the club, which I am thrilled about. Sunday the kids had SOS playing bingo with the residents at Warsaw Meadows, and small group afterwards at the church.

Here’s my final four, in order from 4th to 1st place: Texas A&M, Xavier, Kansas, Michigan State.

It’s been an odd weekend. Alex’s birthday was Saturday, so Friday he had a bunch of his friends come over for a sleepover party. Beth and I weren’t keen on having Natalie in the house with 7 13-year-old boys so Beth took Missy and Natalie to a motel overnight. They did some shopping and hit to pool, while I stayed home with the boys and ordered Jimmy John’s and let them play their video games (I did some cleaning up, laundry, dishes, and stayed out of the way). There was a band concert of some sort too, so Luke and Timmy didn’t arrive until 11:00 or so, and I let them stay up for about another 2 hours until making them turn the lights out. They were up fairly early again in the morning playing games until 11:00 when we finally got rid of the last of them. Anyway, the girls hadn’t slept very well either, so everyone was pretty tired all day Saturday and still on Sunday morning, so everyone except me (I had to pick up Ed for church) skipped church. Later on in the day we took all the kids to see “Zootopia,” which is an absolute masterpiece. Best animated movie to come out in a while.
Earlier this week (Tuesday) was the make-up for the church league softball coaches meeting. Gotta get the sign-up sheet out. Look like there won't be many new changes for this year, which is fine with me. I just want to play.

More profound changes around here. Beth and I now have officially acquired a new daughter. Last Thursday we had a meeting with attorney Doug Lemon regarding transferring guardianship from the previous family to our own. He filled out the papers and set everything up for the court date the next day, with some cautions about what might happen…most notably her father could show up and challenge the petition. Our Friday morning court date came, and as we were waiting for our case to come up before the judge, the attorney came in through the back door and motioned for us. He told us that the dad was there, and he was going to fight it. But, he had counseled him that his options were in reality limited, and suggested we all meet. The dad was calm, and sober, and we talked for 15 minutes or so. We showed him pictures of the bedroom we’ve set up for her, and assured him that we only want to keep her safe and we don’t want to shut him out of her life. And, it turns out that I knew his father through Zimmer years ago. So after we talked, he dropped his objections and signed the papers. Then it was basically a done deal, and the judge signed the court order giving us guardianship. So she is going to live with us as our daughter, without limitations. There are probably going to be bumpy times ahead and a potentially long adjustment period but we now have 3 kids. And can you believe, the poor girl has never seen the original Star Wars movies. Or been to a Komets game. We’ve taken her to SOS already, while Beth and I shopped for a new mattress for her. After that Sam came over to play video games with Alex and we figured why not have him for dinner too, so Beth made the biggest pot of spaghetti I’ve ever seen, and after we’d all eaten, it didn’t look like there was any less in the pot.

The coaches meeting for softball was supposed to be this evening, but in keeping with the weird weather we've had all winter/spring, there was an evening ice storm and it had to be cancelled. But I didn't know that until I'd already shown up...