Gotcha Day 2022

Has it been fourteen years?   Yes, the date says as much.  Today is the anniversary of the day we first met Maddie, fourteen years ago and halfway around the world.  We thought about celebrating tonight with some Chinese food, but we get home pretty late from taekwondo, and after taekwondo there's small groups for Maddie and tonight's small group went on for an hour and a half, so it was good we didn't get the Chinese food, as there wasn't time to actually eat it.  No, we decided to push that off until later, probably this weekend, as tomorrow night we have taekwondo again. 

It was a somewhat full evening, as you would guess.  Yes, Maddie had her teakwoodo practice tonight.  We were there with her, watching her with the first class, helping younger students and watching out for flying kicks from some of those larger younger students.  She's glad to help though, attentive and quick to help out and observe where necessary.  Afterwards, she has leadership, and lately we haven't been able to see that as much, because the students in leadership are in a different room with not much of an observation area.  That's okay though.  

As I said, afterwards, it was time for small group.  We get home just at 8:00 pretty much, and that's pretty much when small group starts, so as soon as we get in the door, she's heading upstairs to hop online with her computer and get with Camille and her friends.  Today's small group went on for quite some time, and that's never a bad thing, as the girls are really open with each other, sharing and praying with one another under Camille's and Lauren's guidance.  We're so grateful she has this opportunity, and Maddie is pretty happy to go to small group each Thursday night too.

It's National Bomb Pop Day, and to celebrate... we had a bomb pop.  Going grocery shopping recently, I picked these up because I knew the "holiday" was coming up.  Of course, there's another slightly larger holiday coming up soon where we all eat red, white and blue bomb pops.  So having a box in the freezer is good.  We like these though, and I'm not sure if they'll make it past the weekend!

We got around to watching the next episode of Ms. Marvel, which has been one of our favorite Marvel shows of late.  It's been done well, and so far we've been hooked on the story and the characters.  But afterwards, we went to an online channel where I keep a lot of old videos of Maddie when she was much, much younger, and together all of us cycled through them.  There's one video that is essentially a slide show of our trip to China and our first meeting with Maddie on June 15, 2008.  I put it on this blog so long ago, right here, and tonight we watched this video again.  The music from "Kung Fu Panda," at least the song "Panda Po," will always be associated with this season in our lives, a perfect soundtrack.  And after that, we watched another one of Maddie before we met, which can be found here, also posted on this blog quite some time ago.  But there were many other videos we just sat and watched of a young Maddie, jousting, firefighting, chasing around our pastor, fishing, assaulting someone with a war hammer, and so much more.  It was just a nice, sentimental evening looking back.  We'll celebrate with a nice Chinese dinner in a few days, but given our limited time this evening, this was a nice way to celebrate.

So today we were doing a lot of prep for the weekend - I'm speaking at KidPak again.  Maddie was moving along with the LEGO Star Wars story, Mom was fixing some meals for the Fourth of July and doing some gardening earlier, while Nana was doing what she does every single day.  It was just another day, but it was nice.

We closed things out by reading from our book, and then saying our prayers.  For fourteen years we've had a lot to be grateful for.  

Wednesday Photos

Youth tonight - the first one since Forward, and somewhat of a celebration night.  There was a service and a message from Pastor Hamilton, and after that, chicken dinners and ice cream from an ice cream truck.  Yep, I had a Choco Too, of course.  

Maddie was taking some pictures outside as the sky has been filled with thick and tumultuous rain clouds. There have been some marvelous sunsets of late.  And here's a picture of Camille she took tonight.

Maddie has been taking many pictures with her phone lately.  Camille says she has a very good eye for photography and we're inclined to agree!

It was a good day today.  A work day, even though things were a little slower paced than last week of course.  But we got a good bit done, and we're building up for a new series or two, including some surprises towards the end of the year.  It's going to be pretty awesome.

Maddie for her part is relaxing for a good bit of the day, hanging out at the house and talking with friends online or playing Animal Crossing with her new controller.  It was pretty hot outside, so there wasn't much work to be done outside in the scorching heat.  Nana gets pretty restless on days like this, as there's not much for her to do and she really needs something to do all the time.

We still had time to read tonight, but it was a later night.  We read a bit after watching the latest episode of "Ms. Marvel," which the three of us are enjoying.  After that, it was time for prayers and bed, the end of a typical Sunday in the summer.

Rambutan

Have you ever heard of rambutan before?  I haven't.  It's a fruit, and this particular batch is from Guatemala, although I'm sure you can grow these in any tropical location.  Anyway, the top two there are the uneaten fruits, these hairy berries that sort of look like sea urchins.  The last thing you think when looking at these may be, "I wonder what it tastes like?"  Nevertheless, we all sat around today, sampling the rambutan.  You start by cutting an incision around the hemisphere of the outer shell, and you can see the end result of that with the shells in the bottom of the picture above.  What is not seen in these pictures is the fruit, which is a white fruit that reminds you of a grape in taste, and maybe in texture too.  The challenge with the inner layer of a rambutan is that there is also a pit, a large seed in the middle of the fruit.  This clings to this juicy fruit in such a way that you till have to get to it either with a knife, or you just pop the whole thing in your mouth and work away at it that way.  Either way, the fruit is a pretty big hassle to eat.  While its taste is good, it's just not that much effort to get at!

Anyway, here's the new series at KidPak coming up.  It's called "At the Movies," which of course is what the series at Free Chapel is called.  While they're looking at more grown-up movies, we're looking at animated movies from the past year or so, and drawing Biblical messages from them.  Today I was writing some more on one of those messages.  We have about three done, and I have one more to go.

Pop up showers are all over North Georgia, and we actually have been seeing a little bit of rain now.  It comes from all directions, whereas in the spring, the showers always come from the west.  Lately, these showers have come from the north.  Still, we have this strange shield around our area that dissipates rain showers before they arrive here, and frequently we miss out on the rain that everyone else is getting.  This is to our advantage during the rougher weather.  But lately, we've had to go out and water our plants more frequently, bummed that the rain showers couldn't do that for us.

We were grocery shopping today, picking up a few things for the Fourth of July weekend.  We grilled some burgers tonight, because I found some gluten-free buns for Mom to have a nice burger on the grill.  Mom was working on Alice's garden in the back, and it's looking very nice.  We'll share some pictures of that later on.  Nana is pretty repetitive, the same questions over and over again, the same actions, the same moodiness.  For years now, and it's wearing us all down, but we're doing our best.  

Maddie had taekwondo tonight, so that got a few of us out the door.  It gives Mom a break, and meanwhile, Nana is good watching the kids spar and train through the observation windows.  I'm there too, watching Maddie practice with her friends.  She loves taekwondo quite a bit, and has missed a lot this month, along with other students.  This is due to Summer Xtreme and Forward.  But she's back now, or at least as soon as the Fourth of July holiday is over with - no taekwondo tomorrow or Monday.

It's been a decent day.  We read tonight and we said our prayers too.  We're getting ready for the holiday weekend, it is shaping up to be nice.  Today we bought an American flag to put on the front porch.  We'll have it there just in time for the Fourth of July.

Pooped!

So today we were pooped.  This is my friend that Maddie has in my room with me each night.  He kept me company through all the heart difficulties last year.  Maddie makes sure he's in the room each evening, just as she has her entire menagerie of friends with her as well.  Of course, sometimes when my door opens, they'll all be sitting there, looking up at us as if to ask, "What took you so long?"  Or in this case, he's just there on the door knob, waiting for me to open the door so he can say, "Howdy!"

So yeah, today was a day of more relaxing.  We earned it.  Not to say we didn't do anything.  Mom was out there being a bee again, pollinating those pumpkin blossoms.  We've been harvesting some fruit from our garden too - the blueberry bushes are really producing a lot again, so that's pretty exciting.  Mom literally picked the blueberries off the bushes, and then went straight to the kitchen where she made blueberry pancakes for everyone, and talk about yummy!  

We've got tomatoes off the plant too, nice and red.  And the small chili peppers are starting to turn bright red.  We'll pick some of them off the plant and place them on the window sill in the kitchen, where Maddie can just grab one for a quick, spicy treat.  I have not had one of those yet, but I might soon.  The pepper plant is pretty prolific.  There's a tongue twister for you to try saying three times fast:  "Pretty prolific pepper plants."  I just tried... and failed.

Anyway, I was writing today some.  We were also battling squirrels.  They're a bit vulnerable when sneaking up the two flights of stairs to try and steal mealworms.  So Maddie gets a kick out of having a container of water and if they try to steal someone else's food, she startles them, watches as they quickly go down the stairs, and times her release of water just as they hit the ground below, trying to splash them from above.  

We did have some rain showers today, and that's always nice to cool things off.  We had LEGO Star Wars too, where Maddie is going through the nine Star Wars movies one by one.  it's been pretty funny.  We had taekwondo tonight, of course, because it's Monday.  Maddie was back with her fellow students, having just seen a few of them at Forward Conference too - it's been a busy month.

While Maddie was sparring and swinging about nunchucks, Nana and I were shopping at the grocery store, amongst other places.  It's been a new tradition to stop and get her a Jamocha milkshake.  Okay, I'll have one of those too.  Anyway, at the grocery store we were getting all kinds of new gluten-free options for Mom to try at home.  Of of these options was a thin mint replication of the classic Girl Scout Cookies, and they were gluten free.  Mom was really enjoying these tonight.

It's mid-summer, and we're moving forward with the gardening, of course.  The juro spiders are getting larger - slightly - and we're still hunting those.  You can't eradicate them completely, but they are invasive and are bullying other insects and arachnids around.  There are fewer hummingbirds around lately, and this has been noted online with a few groups that Mom is a part of.  We have a few, but it seems they're not as big in number as last year, at least not yet.

It was a calm day, and we'll go into another calm day tomorrow.  We read tonight, and laughed heartily at Constance Contraire's line about why it was in particular that Mr. Benedict chose locker number 37 of all the other lockers:  "Maybe it's because 1 through 36 were already taken?"  It's a fun read, and we're marching along through this one, a good bit into this second book.

We said our prayers tonight, and we got to bed to get some rest.  We're up a little later, but we can all sleep in a little tomorrow.  A little!

The Day after Forward Conference

This morning we were back at church, and I was thinking some of our young students that went to Forward might want a break, but as you can see above, they were really wanting to help out at KidPak and join the fun.  You can see Maddie and Skylar here helping out Camille with the classic Wisenheimer skit, placing a "mind-reading" hat on a young kid's head.  We did a simpler skit this morning for obvious reasons related to Forward, but it was still a very fun morning, with a great message too.

Maddie was fooling around on my computer afterwards, and I found these photos on my laptop when I got back to the office!

It was a fun morning.  And another busy day, which you'd think after the Forward Conference with so many long hours that we'd just go home and rest.  Which would make sense.  BUT, that girl in the first picture above, Skylar, had a birthday party today, so this afternoon Maddie was off to their place for a birthday party and a pool party.  The adults were there in the pool house, where I was, and since all of us were at Forward helping out, we were all talking about different parts of the conference.  But it was fun - Maddie was in the pool for a while, and then of course there were tacos and there was cake and the usual birthday fun.

We got home and yes, we were wiped out.  Today is 6-26, and we realized it was "Stitch Day" today.  In the movie "Lilo and Stitch," we learn that Stitch is experiment 626, which is why June 26 is now Stitch Day.  It seemed obvious that we needed to watch something with that tonight...

But afterwards, we did get to sleep earlier tonight.  The past few days have been exhausting, and thankfully we can all sleep in tomorrow.  Aloha!

Forward Conference 2022 - Last Day

This was a great moment.  After Forward, I brought Maddie and her friend "backstage" while everyone else was exiting, and it was there that she actually got to meet "Uncle Reggie," as she calls him so affectionately.  She loves to hear him speak and was really looking forward to tonight at Forward.  It did not disappoint!

Today was a huge, long, and wonderful day filled with ups and downs and craziness and fun and intense worship, free food truck food, Kona ice, Trib Wars and so much more.

Maddie was ready to go early, as were all the other students.  She's been wearing her cowboy hat for Rodeo all weekend long.  She looks great in it!

Rodeo didn't win, but it was close - her Tribe came in second place tonight, and that was still great.  The games were super fun for her to cheer along with.

It was a day to hang out with friends, and eat Kona ice and just sit around and talk while waiting in between sessions.  The food trucks were out there again, and Maddie got to eat some hibachi chicken from the truck, adding some hot sauce of course.  She and her friends gathered in the shade, hanging out there while waiting.

I was out there too, but my little "all access" wristband got me in and out the doors as I continued to help out, serve food, meet with volunteers, and so on.  This section of the day was nice though, as I got to see Maddie and her friends a bit.  You can see Nia up there next to Maddie, and I got to see a lot of KidPak volunteers too, even getting them some food truck food too.  

Maddie's orange beads were individually put on there by Mom over the last two days or so - Mom put a lot of effort into that, and it looked really fantastic, and of course added to the whole team energy a lot.  We stopped by Daniel's booth a few times this weekend, including today, where we got some other items - Maddie got a new ball cap today, one with a little leather map of Georgia on it.  She got a sweatshirt, and I got a t-shirt too.

The service tonight was spectacular.  The crowds were energized and pumped up during Tribe Wars, where I was doing my announcer thing once more.  We had a crazy "Cage of Chaos" game, and the worship was outstanding once more.  I got to sit in for a good bit of that, and how incredible it is to see so many youths jumping up and down, excited during worship, hands raised and all singing loudly.  Of course, Uncle Reggie did share a message, and it was a story about a parachute that the Maddie was explaining to us later, about being a parachute for someone else.  The altars were once again packed, as was the stage, with students coming up for prayer or rededicating their lives.

There was a grand finale of course, and confetti everywhere.  Those cannons were so loud you couldn't even hear the music.  It was insane!  I'm sitting at bottom right, pretty much next to a cannon apparently.  How else can you explain the noise?  Maddie is down towards the front too, right in the midst of things.

It was a fantastic Forward Conference.  Of course, two years ago it was cancelled during the pandemic.  And then last year we had it at the Gainesville Campus.  But this year we were back in the arena "where it belonged," and it was just the perfect Forward Conference for Maddie to attend as her first one.  We had a few hiccups here or there, but the students really enjoyed this free event.  There was some confusion with texts, but eventually I got Maddie backstage, and when that happened, it just made Forward Conference a wonderful weekend for her:

Unbeknownst to her, I was working behind the scenes to get a quiet moment backstage for her to meet with Uncle Reggie.  I even got a Forward t-shirt and a pen for him to sign it with, which he was happy to to for Maddie.

He's a great guy.  He's actually the same guy on stage that he is in person, which you can't say for everyone.  He's warm, and he's filled with the love of God.  He's passionate about rescuing kids and changing their lives.  Maddie was so happy at this moment.  Camille was taking pictures of it, as was Pastor Lance, all of us so glad to see Maddie and her friend Lily so happy for this opportunity.

Afterwards, rather than ride the bus, the two girls rode home with me.  And despite this meeting above, we still got home a lot earlier than the buses and everyone else.  So that was good of course.  We have church in the morning, but everyone was so worn out we got to sleep a little earlier tonight (the latest session started at 5pm, so it was an earlier night).  

But wow.  We all have so much gratitude for what Forward Conference was.  Look at Maddie wear her t-shirt from the event, the one freshly signed by Uncle Reggie.  She'll wear that tomorrow to church, of course.  

This event was free to everyone who could attend.  In the end, that was difficult to manage because people were signing up for the event and not coming, so we were overbooking and risking a lot for obvious reasons, the whole time calling and calling people up to see if they were really coming or not, dealing with the waiting list and hoping things would work out.  There was great cost to the event, first with using the arena, and then with arranging all the guest musicians and speakers.  There were props, confetti cannons, and countless hours of work by staff and volunteers preparing for the event.  And so as I sat there during the last worship song, I was asking more of a rhetorical question - was it all worth it?  I saw thousands of kids energized by prayer and worship, hundreds at the altar in repentance, and I saw Maddie have a weekend that might be the highlight of her summer.  So the answer is obviously yes.  Yes, it was all very much worth the cost.

Forward - Day 2

We were back today, and of course I was there pretty early.  Maddie was on the bus again, heading down with her friends, getting ready for another really full day.  And it was such a huge day.  She loved it so much.  

We started out early to get on the buses to make the trip down there to Forward, and fortunately it's not a super long drive down there.  Maddie and Lily aren't huge fans of the bus ride down there and back, but there are a few friends that they ride with, and of course there is special seating just for their group down there as they arrive together.

The Tribe Wars began this morning to much fanfare, and I was doing my announcing bit for that.  Maddie was snapping a few photos along the way, this one below of a game each Tribe representative had to pick from a box that could have points that would advance the Tribe... or perhaps result in an ice bath!

After that, the worship was super solid with special guests, and of course the messages were so good, one session after the other ending with the final one for Friday with Pastor Franklin.

I was doing a few different roles here, breaking down boxes, serving food, writing the verbiage and scripting flows for the Tribe Wars, delivering pizza to the volunteers, and even performing the job of "sitter," basically filling a spot behind pastor at one point, just to make sure there was someone there for camera shots and so on.  But the new role for me was that of announcer.

Yeah, this one came up out of nowhere.  I was the announcer for the Tribe Wars, spelling out the rules, counting up points, and just adding commentary here or there for all the different games as they took place.  I was pretty nervous about the whole bit, as it was a good bit of unscripted stuff in front of thousands, but on the whole, it all worked out well in the end throughout the day.  You can imagine how sore my throat is currently...

Maddie enjoyed the day much, much better than yesterday.  She was still seated towards the front, but not in an area where she would be crushed by a mob of excited fans.  She was so into the Tribe Wars, and of course all the other parts of service.  She and her friend Lilly talked and talked about it all the way home in the car afterwards.  She and the others went to Discover Mills during the break in between, eating food and doing a bit of shopping where she got a Fennic Shand pop doll.  She was back at the conference a little later, right there amidst the crowd waiting to get in, and piling into the arena for the start of the hype sessions, games, and music.

It was another great time.  There are a ton of pictures of it from the staff, not to mention the photos taken by Maddie along the way, along with all the other cell phone pics taken by attendees.  

This might be the only picture of me though!  I'm working with Pastor Jacob and Pastor Jake - and our friend Daniel - as we write out the flow for the game segments before each session.  That's my laptop there, and that's the room we basically hung out in the entire time.  Behind me is a door that goes straight to the arena.  Meanwhile, Maddie is outside hanging with her friends.  The Splash Tribe took their name seriously with quite a bit of water out there to cool everyone off, but there were mist tents and shady spots to have a seat in.

We're all so tired now at the end of the second day, but today was great.  The girls got in and found their seats for each session without any problem, and sat further back and just had an awesome day today.

Anyway, it was another great night - and another late night.  Maddie and Lily were full of stories of the day's adventure on the way home.  We said goodnight to one another upon getting home, and knowing we all had to get up early once more, it was off to sleep.  Or in Maddie's case, off to her room where Lily and she would spend an hour or two talking before eventually getting to sleep!

Forward Conference 2022

So Forward is here, and this is the first one at the Gwinnett Arena that Maddie has attended.  She's gotten her Rodeo Tribe costume all ready, complete with the orange coloring that the Rodeo tribe is assigned.  She took her phone along and took quite a few pictures along the way of course, just like every other attendee no doubt did.  Here's a picture of her and her friend Lily, who was with her the entire conference:

There was a lot of college students out there, hyping up the Tribes, with lots of chanting, songs and cheering.  Super fun energy!

There was some last-minute alterations with that, as the announcement about Free Chapel's assigned tribe was decided at the last-minute.  But Maddie made it work out, and here she is, super excited about this conference.  

She got on the bus this afternoon, riding down with friends and sitting in the area she was asked.  And that was the very front row.  As in, she is seated pretty much directly below the giant lit cube you see in the picture above.  Front row.  This may seem like it has benefits, but Maddie's not necessarily a front row type of person.  Still, she had a great time for day one, at least leading up to the mini-concert at the end.  There was so much energy here, and so many students all assembled here under one large roof.  It's fantastic to see the corporate worship, the cheering and the excitement about church here at the arena.  Everyone is so happy to be back at the arena after a few years absence.  It's an overwhelming sight seeing so many together to worship, so many together here back together again.

The introduction to Forward was a service with worship, a message and a mini-concert at the end.  Maddie did not enjoy the concert at the end, as there was a rush of people up there where she was, and it was pretty claustrophobic.  But the rest of the day was nice, and here she is finally at her first Forward at the Gwinnett Arena.  

The temperature outside while everyone is waiting was supposed to be a lot hotter, and for the end of June, that's somewhat expected.  But the forecast was making things out to be much hotter than it actually turned out being, and that's a blessing for all the kids standing out there waiting for the doors to open.

Maddie's got "lunch money, so to speak, and there are trips to food trucks outside waiting, or there is a scheduled trip to Sugarloaf Mills tomorrow to visit and shop, and stay somewhere cool where there's food and a place to sit.  

Maddie took this picture of one of her lunches, but she'll be doing a lot of other shopping too.  Our friend Daniel has a booth inside the arena where he's selling his t-shirts and hats and hoodies.  Maddie's going to drop by there to pick up a few items, as am I.  Hopefully we can get other students to drop by as well!

Her friend Lily has been with her the whole time, and Lily is spending the night with us throughout the conference, as that will make it easier for her to attend.  Tomorrow's an early morning to catch the bus, so we'll keep it brief here.  But it was a great day - and it's time for a little sleep.  A little sleep...

Sunday Morning in Sleepy Hollow

Today I was down at the Gwinnett Arena at 5:55 am.  Yeah, I got there a little too early.  I didn't think I'd get there so quickly!  But get there I did, and it was the start of a pretty full day of Forward prep down there.  I was helping serve food to the volunteers, but I was also suddenly thrown into this extra job of writing for a few of the games for Forward, and having written some things, there was suddenly another decision that completely surprised me:  I'm going to be lending my voice to a few portions as a "rules of the game" guy and a "points guy."  Yikes!  In the old days, I would relish this opportunity, but lately I've shied away from speaking in front of thousands of people...

Anyway, we had a full day there.  Maddie is all ready with her cowboy accessories - we went on a trip to Goodwill tonight to get some costuming material for her "Rodeo" tribe costuming.  While we were there, I spotted a framed engraving that was colored in, a beautiful picture that used to hang at our church decades ago, one called "Sunday Morning at Sleepy Hollow."

We own this now.  I immediately bought it for $9.09.  It's large, a few feet tall by a three or four feet wide, and it's matted and framed.  It's pretty big, and it's just a great picture.  Of course, that's the old church there, and those people there are probably relatives of mine.  My ancestors went to that church, some being deacons there.  Anyway, it was just amazing to round the corner and see this engraving there facing me.  I didn't hesitate, picking it up right away.  Soon it will be hanging in the piano room, I believe.  We just have to get some hooks strong enough to hold it up!

Earlier, we watched "Raya and the Last Dragon" today, part of the message writing that I've got to get done.  I'm almost done with that message, and then I'll have two messages of four done for July's series.  We'll see how that goes, although Forward is going to be a big pause on that.  But tonight's big television moment was watching the last episode of "Obi Wan Kenobi," which was just amazing.  I mean, we literally just saw Obi Wan battle Darth Vader, the two original actors and James Earl Jones doing Darth Vader's voice.  How incredible was that?  This was an amazing television event.  We'll probably watch it again very soon.

We have another big day tomorrow, so we got some rest early tonight.  We did our reading, and then we said our prayers.  It's going to be a big weekend!

Spatula Assault!

 

This is a picture from the Father's Day props we had for photo ops with dads, although of course you don't see a single dad in this picture.  In fact, it seems to be a crime scene photo, as Maddie looks like she's assaulting Camille with a spatula as Elizabeth there looks on in the back, merely laughing.  I believe they took a more reserved sort of posed shot a little later on, but this one is kind of funny.

Speaking of Father's Day, we have quite a root beer surplus.  The church had free root beers for dads on Father's Day, and yes I took advantage of that.  So did Maddie, despite the fact that she is clearly not a dad.  There were a lot of extra cans of the stuff, and we'll be having that as a beverage option for employees and guests down at the Forward Conference.  But we had some more root beer today.  Maddie loves root beer!

So today Maddie found out that the military clothing she's been collecting for the last few weeks for Forward is not going to be used, as she's not actually part of the "Force" tribe at all, which is what she was initially told.  This last-minute change was a big devastating for her, as she even had all the costuming laid out for each day of Forward.  SO, tired as I am and as early as I have to get up tomorrow... we made the trip at 9pm tonight to go out and see where we can find some Western wear.  Wal-Mart was open, but surprisingly, we couldn't find anything.  Maybe tomorrow we can find something when we get back from the arena.

Anyway, earlier we were watching "Encanto," and writing a message for KidPak's new series that's upcoming, the one called "At the Movies."  We're trying to go with the theme that the church is going with overall, where everyone goes to the movies to see illustrations and Bible messages found within various movies.  This year, KidPak is going to "Encanto," "Raya and the Last Dragon," "Sing 2," and one other movie that we're still looking at.  I was working a good bit on writing that "Encanto" message, and I think it will be a good one.  

Tonight we got to bed a little later, but we still read from our ongoing mystery, and we prayed too.  We got to sleep, because I have a super early morning tomorrow.  Forward is coming soon...

The Toad Abode

Today we set up the Toad Abode, or "Toad Inn" as it is officially labeled.  We did have a toad sighting,  which prompted cries of, "We have a toad!"  Which prompted a little road trip where we went out to go and get a home for our toad, or at least a small shelter.  I'm not entirely sure of the science or reasoning behind this, as I've been so selfish all my life to never actually consider why a toad needs a home when there are plenty of perfectly decent bits of shrubbery and so on all around.  But I was very excited to get this toad house.  I looked it up online first, shopping around for the ideal home.  It had to be a cross between form and function, and of course the real estate had to be just right.  Location, location, location.  We saw a few places, but when I saw this dream home, I knew it would be the ideal one for our toad.  I am naming him "Terry," after the late Terry Jones, who so brilliantly played Mr. Toad in a wonderful little movie.

Today was a day we were fairly busy.  Mom started it out by pollinating the pumpkin blossoms acting as a bee so we can hopefully see a few pumpkins growing soon enough.  We went to the dermatologist after that, and this was for Mom to take care of a few pesky spots that were pretty quick to deal with.  We did some grocery shopping today, and the prices are really going up, up, up on groceries lately.  Also, there are shortages of the most random things some times.  But we got a lot of what we needed, and we should be stocked up for a week or so.

Maddie had taekwondo tonight, and they're back to sparring and doing exercises with nunchucks, which are always super fun to watch.  She's very good with them, of course.  She's good with all the weapons now, having trained with all of them for years.

Tonight we finished up our "Boba Fett" series, revisiting that last episode again.  It was an excellent wrap-up and completely bonkers episode, the one with Boba Fett riding on a rancor.  This last episode was like someone reached into their toy box full of Star Wars toys and just went crazy.  We love it.

We read tonight, of course, and then after that we prayed.  It's about to get busy with Forward coming up, and it's about to be super awesome!

Holy Cow!

Today was a different sort of skit, one we did because I just wanted to I suppose.  But this skit did originally go with this message, one about the Tribe of Levi, peer pressure, and the Golden Calf.  In order to do this one, we had to bring out the cow costumes once more, so the Spy Kids were all dressed up and ready for battle!  Or, at least "cattle!"

This was a fun, super-light sort of skit, one we needed after doing a few weeks straight of Summer Xtreme, and one week of Forward coming up afterwards.  Pretty wiped out, but this morning's service was a solid one, filled with laughs and a great message about temptation and standing up for what's right, which you can see below when those cows stand up on their two legs and form a stampede!

It was Father's Day today, and Maddie blessed me with a few cards on the kitchen table, waiting for me when I got down there this morning for a quick breakfast.  For Ye-Ye, we went over to their house and finally gave him that bonsai tree we bought for him from Plant City a few weeks ago.  

We watched another few episodes of "Boba Fett" tonight, this after hanging around outside on the back deck.  The mosquitoes seem to be a little more annoying this year than last, so we may need to do something about that, but the weather was nicer today when the sun was not blazing overhead.  We looked up a few things about our pumpkins in the yard, because we haven't seen any fruit yet, and so tomorrow morning, Mom is going to go out there with a paint brush and act like a bee, pollinating those blossoms and helping the process along, hopefully earning us some fruit soon enough.  We'll see!

We continued our book tonight, and after that we said our prayers and got some sleep.  Nothing big tomorrow outside of a trip for Maddie with my mother for some fun birthday shopping.  It'll be a quiet day, and one we can sleep in a little with, so that's good.

Holy cow, it sure was a super nice Father's Day!