My New Pet Raptor

So this happened.  I got a new raptor!  This was given to me specifically, a dinosaur of my own, and a gift from another church.  They were getting rid of a lot of their props and materials, and I just so happened to be there to exchange some costumes.  We borrowed their Buzz Lightyear costume and they borrowed the Mal and Uma costumes that Mom made.  Anyway, I was there for the exchange, and wouldn't you know it?  They were trying to get rid of this dinosaur.  And the young lady there actually gave this raptor to me!
 

Something like this costs thousands of dollars.  It's a puppet on the inside, something animated that gives the younger kids a scare.  Actually, it was frightening to the rest of the KidPak staff as it tromped into the office!

I asked Madison to give it a name, and she said, "Jerome."  So, meet Jerome the raptor.  He's rather big, and he's heavy too.  Without the proper padding, you can get some bruising just by wearing him.

Check out this video of Madison doing a improv routine with her kamas.  She did great!  This was for leadership class tonight.  Of course, we had the regular class too - it was a longer night.  Nana and I were there to watch Madison practice and spar.  She's doing great!

This morning's treadmill walk was a great one, a trip to Yellowstone, to Boiling River to be exact.  It's a nice little trail where there's a hot spring that goes into a river nearby.  It was a relaxing walk, and you could almost at one point smell the sulfur.  No joke, I was so into this that at one point I thought I smelled that characteristic smell you only get at Yellowstone.  I'm liking these Yellowstone walks a lot.

Mom and Nana did some grocery shopping today, but tonight we didn't really watch anything on television.  Everyone was tired from the day.

Madison has been studying, and a bit busy with homework.  I'm busy doing a lot of work for this weekend too, preparing for Saturday now.  We're having a conference upstairs, and some of us just found out at the last minute.  And now even more last-minute is the amount of kids we're watching over for the entire day. So we're in emergency planning mode as to what to do with a large quantity of kids for quite a bit of time. We'll get it right.

We read tonight from Matthew, and from "Scoundrels" too, of course.  I've had to keep checking this book out at the library, going to the website to renew it.  It's a longer book.  But we're into it!

We said our prayers, and not long after that, all of us were asleep.  Super tired tonight!