TCC Girls Night

WOO HOO!!! Every girl needs an all-girls' night once in awhile! Fortunately for me, I had 9 Middle and High School girls ready and willing to do just that last week Friday. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I decided taking them to a Disney Channel-inspired concert was the best way to kick it off. (check out: http://www.ishinelive.com/ to see what it was all about)

The night started off with a walk down the red carpet to the auditorium, complete with "star" interviews of many of the participants (those will be posted on the website, if you're curious). After we found our seats we just had to sit back and wait for the fun to begin! Here are the girls waiting patiently...or not so patiently :)

Front Row: Christine, Rachel, Ivy, Shelby BackRow: Issie, Amanda, Kaleigh, Kathryn, Jessica

It started off a little slow. I was getting worried the night would be a total flop- geared toward kids a little younger and less mature than mine. But by the end of the night most of the girls were standing up in the "mosh pit" singing and dancing along. This is a rather blurry picture of Robert Pierre, the true heartthrob of the evening. Poor Amanda tried to get a good picture but he was pretty animated and didn't stop moving!Robert Pierre is a Christian singer, he's pretty good and his CD is free at Family Christian Bookstores with the purchase of a Barnabas Bear (http://www.familychristian.com/shop/product.asp?prodID=57312) It was his idea to give his CD's away for this cause...pretty awesome for a 16-year-old boy.

After the concert we found ourselves waiting in line to have anything and everything possible signed by the performers. It was an hour and half wait!Amanda, Jessica, Issie and Kathryn waiting in line.

(Notice most of the pictures are of these four. I'll post more of the other girls when my film gets developed)

Luke Benward of "How to Eat Fried Worms" and "Minute Men" Givin' out free hugs!

I just like this picture.

Goofballs. Amanda, Issie and Kathryn.

In all honesty, I was a little worried about this evening. I love hanging out with these girls but it can be a little overwhelming at times- just me and 9 preteen and teenage girls! But I shouldn't have worried, we had a great time. They all get along so well, are respectful and just a downright good time to spend a night with!

We concluded the evening with a game of Apples to Apples (best group game ever because it's so informal, easy to explain and just plain fun!), Statues in the Park, and a chick flick. The next morning found us running to Dunkin Donuts getting breakfast for all the workers coming to church for the church workday. It was a blast, thanks girls...I couldn't ask for a better group of ladies to hang out with!

Plumbing- One of those things you take for granted. Till it's gone.

So last night as I walked in my back door after a full day of church activities I knocked our little message board off the wall and sighed (or maybe swore, jk). It had been a looong day, I was tired, I had a new book I wanted to start reading, and I needed to put another nail in the wall to keep that stupid thing up. I sniffed the air thinking it smelled a little musty, but we'd been gone all weekend so I figured it was just stale air. As I bent to pick up all the little chalk pieces and magnets from the floor I heard the unmistakable sound of water dripping in our basement - Fantastic. Expecting to find water dripping from the ceiling onto my washer, which is what happened last spring when our dishwasher sprung a leak, I traipsed down the stairs, turned the corner into the laundry room, and was hit with a blast of hot, moist air. The entire basement was steamy. There was condensation on the walls, the glass block windows were completely fogged, miriads of spider webs with little beads of condesation were hanging from the ceiling, and there was water spraying out of the pipe behind my utility sink.

To make a long story short, I couldn't find any valve that would turn off the water and had to call my neighbor who came over and tapped on the hot water heater (of course it's the HOT water) valve with a hammer for about five minutes before it would budge. It seems there is a crack in one of the fittings by the utility sink which was causing hot water to spray all over my laundry room. Thankfully nothing was too damaged as the water was actually spraying over the sink and water was running down the drain.

Now it's about 16 hours later, I need a shower, I'm missing work at Thornapple, and I NEED A SHOWER.

I'm gonna go try to get some work done from home and wait for this guy:

Because I'm sure this is what he looks like.

Fall, Beautiful Fall

Sammy says it's a bit warm and sunny for Halloween:"But at least I'm feeling festive in this bright orange scarf!"

5th Annual Leitch Halloween Party

The Heemstras attend as zombies!
(Which is an improvement over last year when we were "The Awkward New Neighbors")

Beth and Becky

Karen and I

Karen and her husband Jeriomy are the previous owners of our house!

The blood isn't as convincing when I'm smiling.



And now the latest Heemstra Household Blooper entitled:

"Krista Attempts to Burn Down the House"

It all started when Andy went to the store and purchased frozen drumsticks. I decided I should fry them with the light breading I once used for some yummy chinese-esk chicken strips, and set some vegetable oil to heat on the stove. Once the oil was nice and hot I dropped in two flour-coated drumsticks and the pan immediately erupted in smoke. "Odd" I thought to myself as I fished around in the oil with my tongs to try to pull out the chicken. However, the smoke was so thick I couldn't see the chicken and it continued to fry to a blackened crisp in the too-hot oil. Finally I was able to remove both pieces of chicken, turned down the heat on the burner and was about to grab the pan off the burner when there was a sonic boom as the pan and oil burst into flames.

At this point the fire alarm was going off, smoke was filling the house, and Samson had already run for cover in a corner in the basement. Thankfully, Andy stepped in, grabbed the pan and headed for the back door. Though Andy is a little more level headed than I am (I realized after the fact that had he not been there my first instinct upon seeing the flames would probably have been to head for the sink and use water- which is never a good idea when you're dealing with a grease/oil fire) he was still a little panicked and tripped on the last step as he headed for the door. The entire yard lit up orange as some of the oil spilled onto the cement, our back steps, our rug, and the wall in the breezeway.

Recovering from this second near-catastrophe Andy was able to deposit the inferno in the middle of the driveway away from anything that might catch on fire as well, and finally got a lid on it to douse the flames.

Needless to say the house reeked, my rug was ruined, Andy is missing about 6 inches of hair on his right arm, and we bought a fire extinguisher the next day:

Notice the new fire extinguisher Andy purchased.

Notice that he labeled it: "Dinner Suppression Device" Haha, Funny.

We'll address the fact that it is BOLTED TO MY CABINET IN THE MIDDLE OF MY KITCHEN another time.

It took Samson a couple hours to work his way out of his corner to lay at the bottom of the steps.

And another 12 to decide it was safe to stay upstairs indefinitely.
Poor Samson.

In closing, I wanted to share a couple pictures that Andy took while flying to Vancouver this week. He likes to document his flights with pretty scenery pictures and a whole lot of "cool things" his gauges in the cockpit show while he's flying. I find the scenery pictures the most interesting, I'm betting most other non-pilots will too: