Cinco de Mayo 2015

Taco Tuesday meets Cinco de Mayo - the best of both worlds!  This sort of rare occasion is certainly worth celebrating a little harder for, and as you can see in the photo above, we certainly gave it a good run!  Even Shadow is wearing a little sombrero there, getting into the spirit of things.  Tonight, of course, we had tacos for dinner, which is always something exciting for Madison.  We didn't, by the way, wear the sombreros while eating.  Strangely, you can't fit six people to a table while wearing ginormous sombreros.  I think that's why they have really big tables in Mexico, so that hombres can wear their sombreros at the table.

After dinner, it was time to celebrate with a little bit of Weird Science flare:  we launched a rocket.  No, seriously.  We launched a rocket.

Here's a screen shot of the rocket, shortly before it went skyward.  We launched one earlier than this as a test run, but the thing went up so high that eight pairs of eyes completely lost track of it, some 1200 feet high - and gone.  It either landed in Lake Lanier, or is somewhere currently in orbit.  I lean towards the orbit answer.

Undeterred, we got another rocket, this one designed to go only a mere 800 or so feet in the air.  This turned out to be a better decision, as the thing landed somewhere in the vicinity at least.  In fact, it landed in the middle of McEver Road.  Fortunately, not hitting any vehicles.  This was all done for a video for the upcoming Summer Xtreme series, which has a space series.  It was a fun little video shoot, made even more fun by doing something Daddy has never done before:  launching a rocket into the atmosphere.  These things go up way high!

So let's see, what else was there today?  Oh yeah, piano practice.  There are just two more practices until the recital, so today's focus was on pirates, on singing, on playing, and all sorts of in between.  It was actually a pretty fun practice, as Madison is doing well with her solo.  There's a pretty fast little number she has to learn though - it's one all the kids seem to be challenged by.  There is a slower accompanying part that nobody wanted a week ago, but all of the sudden, the kids who volunteered for that bit (reluctantly, I might add) are the ones sitting pretty.  Madison has a bit of practice to do to get this one done, but she'll nail it all.

We had free breakfast tacos this morning.  Or, at least it was a biscuit in the shape of a taco.  That was about it:  just a biscuit in the shape of a taco.  It's sort of like a Chaco Taco.  The thing looks like a taco, and there's your only connection to anything Mexican.  Not to say we didn't appreciate the gift - it was part of a promotion for Cinco de Mayo at Taco Bell.  A few of us from work headed over there this morning before getting started on the day.  Nice to start with a free breakfast, right?

This morning's story before school was a good one.  The Blob was offended by someone who was making fun of his size, so he planted himself up on top of one of those Mexican pyramids, taunting the tourists.  Nobody could get him down, the king of the mountain.  So it was up to Flower Girl from the Future, and the X-Men.  Though they tried different powers - Storm tried to blow him off with hurricane force winds, Cyclops tried to blast him off, and Rogue tried to push him off - nobody could do it.  Once the Blob gets in his mind that he's not moving… he's not moving.  But that's when Iceman and Flower Girl from the Future got an idea.  Iceman made a big slide of ice down the backside of the pyramid right behind the Blob.  And then Flower Girl from the Future tried a new power of hers:  making too much pollen.  Sure enough, it worked!  The Blob started sneezing over and over again - until he tripped backwards and found himself stepping on the slippery slope of steep ice.  Down, down, down he slid, until he plopped at the ground at the X-Men's feet.  The people of the town celebrated, and the Blob sat there miserably.  That is, until the X-men invited him to a big feast where there were free tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and of course countless taquitos.  The Blob ate at least 35 of those, and everyone wound up having a great Cinco de Mayo after all.

So it was that sort of day today.  Lots of fun - and now it's time for a siesta.  Until next time, here's the latest devotional entry!

“So I will certainly bless you. I will make the children born into your family as many as the stars in the sky. I will make them as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.” Genesis 22:17 NIrV

SILICON

Si 14

     One element we all love to see is silicon – people go crazy for it.  In fact, people all over the world spend their vacation time sometimes traveling long distances just to see a whole lot of silicon.  Now in case you’re confused, here’s the explanation:  beach sand is made up of silicon!  Yes, if you’re going to the beach, you’re going to run your feet along some silicon.  And it will be wonderful.  Who doesn’t love going to a sandy beach? 

     Of course, silicon has many other uses with buildings, electronics, and of course glass windows.  But there’s just something about visiting a nice sandy seashore.

     In the book of Genesis, Abraham must have liked going to the beach too.  At one point God made Abraham a promise about his future.  He told him, “I will make the children born into your family as many as the stars in the sky.  I will make them as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.”

     That’s a big promise – you cannot possibly ever count the amount of sand on the seashore.  But we serve a big God, and He followed through with what He said.  His word is always true, and His promises are always going to come to pass.  The best news of all is that the Bible is full of promises for all of us, full of good news we can count on. 
      Your lab assignment is to pick up your Bible and read some of that good news.  Check out those promises, and walk through those verses loaded with encouragement.  There are so many in there, it’s almost like grains of sand on the seashore.