Summer's Moving Along

Summer is moving along.  It's about to get busier too.

We had Team Edge practice tonight, and things are gearing up for the demo.  Maddie and the team are getting better with their weapons, this despite some last-minute changes with the music and even the size of the area they'll be performing in.  Some of these bits came with quite a bit of adjusting, and given that they've been practicing the last six months in one certain way to a certain music, this is a very big deal.  But they are taking it in stride, and in some ways they look even better.

I finished the last Summer Xtreme message today, and it looks great, and now we're done with the messages for "Tropical Freeze."  It's an interesting theme, mixing the tropics and snow and turning that into Biblical messages, skits, and videos.  Maddie and I have been doing a level or two of the Donkey Kong game, "Tropical Freeze" each night.  It's a co-op game, or at least a game where two players can advance through the screens at the same time.  It's quite a challenge, but we're having a fun time, and the creativity is just great.

We're wrapping up the entire season of "Monk," moving along with the final episodes of season eight this week.  It's been great to see certain ongoing stories come to a conclusion, and other stories revisit certain characters.  The finish line is in sight, and we've been doing more episodes each night than we usually plan on, with the battle cry being "One more!"  "One more?"  "One more!"

Maddie is seventeen, soon to be eighteen.  Hard to believe this is here already.  I guess every parent goes through that.  Maddie's excited bout the idea of having to do a background check in oder to volunteer at KidPak, which is just a funny thought.  There are other things upcoming too - she can actually vote in this year's election.  I think she's pretty clear on who she is going to vote for there.  She's looking forward to her birthday though, even though we haven't had time to plan anything super elaborate.  Ultimately, she just wants to be with friends, and that she'll get.

Mom and I have been enjoying each morning our time together on the front porch.  It's where I've been writing a lot, and reading too.  It's just nice sitting on the rocking chairs in the shade, right there at the cool of the day.  I'll get in some reading, and the two of us just sit there and listen to the birds chirping, and also watch that cat come up to the porch for some love.  He's sort of adopted us again.  

We read tonight, of course, more short stories from "The Empire Strikes Back."  And after that, we said our prayers.  It was a good day today.