Odd week. In spurts, anyway. On Wednesday, Beth called me at work, I was busy so I sent it to voice mail and then I immediately got a 'please call me right away' text. Turns out she had been in an accident in the parking lot at Aldi. From what she was saying on the phone, the front end of the van was all smashed up and caved in, so I told her to get a police report and I would be there as soon as I could. When I got there, the police had already been and left, and it looked like some of the sheet molding compound on the front bumper was pushed in and the bumper was dislodged from the frame. Still perfectly drivable. She was all upset, but I got to working on it at home I was able to push the bumper back out again and get it pushed back into place. Can't even tell there was an accident. So anyway, no need for us to file an insurance claim, there's nothing to fix. The other vehicle (a pickup) had a scratch in the paint the size of a quarter, and it seemed that the other person wasn't going to worry about it. 

Beth and I went to the Komets game in FW on Friday with the Presslers and Parkers. Beth also picked up Missy so she spent Easter weekend with us. It was a good game and we had a good time, but the Komets blew a lead 3 times and wound up losing 4-3 in overtime. I don't think we've seen the Komets win a game in like 3 years.

Which brings us to this. Beth got a text on Saturday morning...from Natalie. She apparently has to move out of the house where she's been living for the past several months with friends, and has nowhere to go. She offered to pay rent if she could move back in with us, although I don't see how that is possible. So anyway, I guess we're not monsters because on Monday I am going to get a truck and move her back in to the house. And her little dog, too. For now. We're hoping for the best.

This has been Alex's spring break week, and we haven't really done anything for his spring break any more than we did for Missy's. But I really think he was happy to just have a down week and some rest time. He did get together with friends for a day, and we all went out to Fort Wayne to do a bit of shopping and get the picture Missy painted for him for Christmas framed. Otherwise, we all stayed home a lot.

I did have to call the police to unlock the truck at work. I was headed home and could not get the keypad to work, and the keys were locked inside. I tried a million times with the keypad and nothing worked, so I called a wrecker service who told me "you know that the police will do that for you for free, right?" which I did not. So I called to police and a nice officer came by and had the truck open within a few moments. Surprisingly easy to break into, it seems. Later I think I figured out that it wasn't that the keypad wasn't working, it was that I had a brain fart and couldn't remember the code I'd punched in a million times including that morning. 

Thursday my group from work did a volunteer work day, where we all gathered together at the Winona Lake trails to do a clean-up. We walked all along a good portion of the trails (main trails, not bike paths) picking up trash, and someone from the parks dept drove back and forth with a gator collecting the full bags and hauling them away. I thought that the trails were all basically pretty clean, but we did collect a lot of little stuff. The worst place was where the park borders an apartment building so trash from their dumpster blows into the park. There was another big trash cluster near one of the park parking lots where raccoons pull stuff out of the trash bins. A good half day's work.

Today we sent Alex back to school. He had an evening flight from Indy to SeaTac (direct this time) so just after lunch we started heading south. We stopped over a BSU to pick up Missy, got some fro-yo at BerryWinkle and did some shopping at Wal-Mart for a few things she needed, then hit the road again for the Indy airport. As always, when we leave in plenty of time, there is no heavy traffic and little delay getting through security. So, Alex had some time to kill. But the flight was uneventful and he's back at school for the finals push. 

On the way back from BSU after dropping off Alex and Missy, my stomach started feeling upset on the way home, building up to full on nausea, so I had Beth drive, but by the time we got near FW I had to suddenly grab the trash bag we have in the van and threw up into it several times. I felt mostly better after that, but not great. That is now the second time that has happened in the last few weeks, where I suddenly get nauseous to the point of throwing up just out of the blue. I don't know what that is.

And here is my annual NCAA tournament final four prediction, in order: UNC, KY, Iowa State, Kansas. After winning the pool last year, I'm a shoo-in to repeat...NO! Ha ha! My bracket was busted mere hours after I filled it out when 3 Kentucky lost to 14 Oakland. That was a great game, though.

Missy came back this week! Just for a half day. Beth drove down there Tuesday in the morning to pick her up for an ultrasound (not what you think). Beth took her to see the doctor while she was home for spring break because her knee has been hurting so bad lately. There was nothing that the doctor could figure out, but he referred her to a specialist for an ultrasound to see if they could see anything going on in there. But they couldn't get her in that week, so we got her in this week instead. Beth went and got her and took her to the appointment, then after the women's bible study which she attended, I took her back to BSU. Turns out, the most likely thing with her knee is a thing I forget what it is called, but it has something to do with restriction of blood vessels directly below the birthmark she has on her knee. 

Friday Beth and I went to see the new "Dune: Part 2" movie, which was spectacular. Saturday was a busy day. There was a kids' market going on in North Webster, wherein elementary age school kids create a business and make things to sell, and (might be home school co-op kind of stuff) a big market is set up for them to do it. All sorts of wares were on sale, from baked good to 3-D printed toys to art to jewelry to slime. A couple of the kids that go to our church were there, Evora selling bead jewelry (Beth got some nice earrings and a zipper pull) and Teyla selling bake mixes in a jar (Beth got some cookies). Beth and I took Mary Jane to it, then afterwards we stumbled upon an estate sale going on in town so we went to that. Beth got some glass and cookbooks there and MJ bought a coffee table. After that, we got lunch and a bit later I had to head to Chicago Midway to pick up Alex.

So yes, Alex is back! He is on spring break now. He flew in to Midway Saturday evening (only/cheapest flight, he had to go through Phoenix with a layover). I picked him up and we got home just before midnight. He'll be here for a week! Beth and I have already taken him out for his first drink since he turned 21 just a week ago. We thought Applebee's would be a good place to do that, so we got dinner and ordered a cocktail afterwards. I got an amaretto sour, Beth got an old fashioned, and Alex picked something off the menu that had one of those new flavors of Mountain Dew in it, specifically because of that. Beth's and mine were really good, but Alex's tasted kinda like cough syrup so he didn't finish it. 

This week was Missy's spring break week! Beth went to get her last Friday and brought her home for the week. We didn't have anything much planned since Alex wasn't here, but I think Missy just enjoyed having the time off to relax. She did do some shopping and such with Beth while I was at work but that's about it. 

Friday Beth and Missy and I went up to Nappanee to get dinner at Das Dutchmen Essenhaus with Marve and Beth. We had talked about going up to Michigan to visit while Missy was home for spring break, but it looked like it wasn't going to work out with everyone's schedules, but late in the game Marve contacted us and asked if we would still like to have dinner with them at somewhere halfway. So we did. We had a very nice dinner together, then everyone headed home. 

Sunday (today) was an event we've been waiting for for a long time. The long-awaited and much-anticipated re-release of the classic Henson movie "Labyrinth" to theaters! Missy had found out about it a long time ago, and it's one of her all-time favorites, and they were showing it for two nights only at select theaters. The closest one to us was the Eagles Theater in Wabash. They had showings on Wednesday and Sunday, and I when I got the tickets I forgot it was Missy's spring break so I got the Sunday ones. Which meant that we got her back to campus late, which wasn't that big a deal. We also had thought it was going to be super crowded so we got there early. Turns out, not so much. There were maybe a dozen or 15 people in the auditorium for the showing, tops. But we had good seats in the balcony, and we all enjoyed the show. We just headed back to BSU from the showing and got home late.

We got the van back from Ab & Tom's this week. A few weeks ago they had it for a couple days just to figure out what was wrong with it, so this week I brought it back to them so they could actually fix it after they got the parts in. So it is now fixed. The constant creaking and groaning from the front end is now gone, and the roar is gone (there was a loose heat shield), and the brakes don't screech, and they fixed a burned out headlamp. All came to $1638 and change, so I hope that was everything for a while.