Jump the Shark

Today we made a shark.  You'll see a picture tomorrow, but this beast was quite an enterprise to create.  It involved a lot of sculpting and sanding of styrofoam, and then a bit of foam applied with contact cement, lots of paint and lots of work.  We spent HOURS and HOURS on this one, essentially the entire day at the warehouse, until around three in the morning.  That's right:  three in the morning.  There were three of us working on these puppets, which were fun to create, but the wear-and-tear is there, and we're certainly glad we're moving on to something new soon.  We're glad to have tried it, but it is definitely time to take a rest!

Daddy and Madison woke up this morning and played some games together for a bit.  Daddy knew it was going to be a big day, so he and Madison made the best of our time together by hanging out, reading and playing games.  

Mommy and Madison were helpful for the service at KidPak too:  they were shopping for outfits and visiting Goodwill to see about props and costuming.  They had good fortune there, and didn't have any trouble getting what was needed.  So on to the grocery store then went next, shopping for food and items needed for our Labor Day holiday coming up.  The last few years, we've gone to the museum, but this year we'll spend some time with family at our house.  We can maybe use the pool, or just hang out here and eat lots of food.  The weather is supposed to be nice Monday, so we'll see about that.

The weather today was quite an adventure, certainly hot, hot, hot to begin with.  The humidity was such that you just knew there were storms coming, and come they did.  There we were in the warehouse, with the tin roof and large open doors - and the storms powered across the state, pounding us time after time.  We just kept working away, enjoying the cool breezes as the ground was drenched just a few feet away.  One of the guys wanted to hear the Georgia football game, which did not get rained out - although Clemson probably wished it did.  And so we worked late into the night. 

Meanwhile, Madison is already done with her classroom assignment online - the one that's due in two weeks.  She's been working ahead, and acing all the language and math problems she is presented with.  It is great to see her enthusiasm here - she's self-motivated to get it all done, and that is just fine with us.

So tomorrow the shark will present itself.  Daddy got home extremely late - or early depending on how you look at it.  But we've worked hard for the day, no question about it.  Hopefully it'll be a good one with this shark.

Which brings us to the title of this blog.  For those unfamiliar with the term, Jump the Shark is a phrase that signifies that one moment in an ongoing television series where things begin to go downhill in quality.  We've been at this in KidPak for ten years now, and of course we've had our highs and lows.  But as evidenced by our co-workers' passion, and the late nights, we are a long ways from jumping the shark at KidPak.  Especially with Madison right there in the mix now - what a blessing to see her in there, learning alongside the others.  For years, Mommy and Daddy gave our all to this ministry so that we could be a blessing to so many children, hundreds and hundreds of them, with creativity and lots of hard work.  And here we are now, with Madison there, and it is like things have come full circle.  If anything, we work harder now at making things the best they can be.  No jumping the shark here!