Hooked on a Feeling: David and Saul

Wow, these rainstorms have been something else.  Last year we had the heat dome, and it was just oppressive heat and no relief for weeks.  But this summer we've had perpetual waves of heavy clouds racing across the sky each night.  Tonight on the way to taekwondo, Maddie and I were watching this frontal portion of a storm ahead of us - we were beneath it just barely - but the front cloud was like a dark table, and over that table were pouring streams of dark clouds, like a curtain of dark tendrils falling down low, almost to the ground.  All of this was in motion, swirling as we crossed the lake and raced over to taekwondo.  There, the storm caught up with us, and with great noise too.  It's been like that each night, really, and the temperature plummeted to something like 72 degrees, and that's a wonderful natural air conditioner.  The darker skies were such that it was like nighttime early.  We lost a few more trees along the way, notably one on a road that blocked oncoming traffic - and the power was once again gone on Browns Bridge Road where that perilous red-light blinked and people got confused about what basic traffic rules are.  Beyond that, it wasn't as bad as some spring storms.

Taekwondo was short and sweet, which is to say Maddie was there to help with instruction, and then go to her leadership class.  The class was still talking about this weekend's experience in Arkansas, the competitions, awards, and a lot of behind-the-scenes drama with sickness, and the general atmosphere of Little Rock.  Apparently it's not a great destination.

We were working today on the booklets for next month, having a little more time to do that.  But there's also a new series that starts the second week of August, and I managed to finish a skit for that with the characters of "Inside Out."  I think it's kind of fun, actually.  The idea is that these five emotions are inside David's head, from the Bible.  And so we'll tell some of these David stories, but from the emotions' standpoint.  Hopefully that makes sense!  Anyway, here's skit number one:

KidPak Adventures:  Hooked on a Feeling
Inside Out:  David and Saul

 

CUE TRACK:  1 INSIDE OUT UPBEAT THEME MUSIC

 

CUE SLIDE:  “INSIDE OUT BACKDROP”

 

NARRATOR:  “Hello!  Inside each of our minds are some little things we call… emotions.  These emotions guide us, protect us, and are very careful to take care of all our needs.  Right now, we’re inside someone’s mind from the Bible.  His name is David, and things seem to be going just fine here deep inside a cave, in the desert wilderness of…”

 

CUE SLIDE:  “INSIDE A CAVE IN THE DESERT WILDERNESS OF…”

 

CUE TRACK:  2 PANIC!

 

FEAR runs out on stage, screaming, runs to console and screams some more.

ANGER and DISGUST follow, looking confused, and tired.  JOY follows them, full of positive energy.

JOY:  “Okay, calm down everyone.  Weeping may endure for the night, but here I am!”

DISGUST:  “What’s going on?”

FEAR:  “Spear!”

 

ANGER:  “Fear?”

 

FEAR:  “No! Spear?”

ANGER:  “Here?”

 

DISGUST:  “Fear Spear Here?  What are you talking about, Fear?”

FEAR holds up purple memory sphere.

 

CUE SLIDE:  “ANGRY SAUL”

 

FEAR:  “The king is coming after David!  Remember how he threw that spear at David?  A spear!  He wanted to kill David!”

JOY:  “Fear, David is safe.  We’re hiding inside a cave, in the wilderness.  King Saul and his men aren’t going to get him.  Now listen to this memory.”

 

JOY holds up memory sphere and they all gather around it and listen in closely.

CUE TRACK:  3 PLEASANT HARP MUSIC

 

CUE SLIDE:  “DAVID PLAYING LYRE”

 

SADNESS enters and wanders to STAGE LEFT

 

JOY:  “There now.  Isn’t that nice?  Remember the worship music David plays.  Listening to worship music always calms everyone down.  Now what’s the big plan for today, Fear?”

 

CUE SLIDE:  “INSIDE OUT BACKDROP”

CUE TRACK:  4 INSIDE OUT BACKGROUND MUSIC

FEAR:  “Not get killed.”

 

JOY:  “Okay, not a bad plan.  How about you, Disgust?”

 

DISGUST:  “Keep away from any soldiers that pick their noses.”

 

ANGER:  “Which ones are those?”

 

DISGUST: “ All of them.”

 

CAST:  “Ew!”

DISGUST:  “Right?”

JOY: “Great!  And that leaves Sadness.  Sadness?  Where are you?”

 

SADNESS:  “I’m here.  I didn’t think anyone wanted to see me today.”

 

JOY:  (clearly acting)  “Nonsense!  Everyone wants to see you today!”

 

SADNESS: “Are you sure?”

 

JOY:  “Sure we are.  Isn’t that right everyone?”

 

JOY nudges DISGUST

 

DISGUST:  “Uh…”

 

JOY:  “Anyway, Sadness, we were just talking about the plans for today.”

 

SADNESS:  “Well, I…”

CUE SLIDE:  “KING SAUL at MOUTH OF CAVE”

CUE TRACK:  5 TENSION

FEAR:  (racing to console) “Oh no, he’s here in the cave with us!”

SADNESS:  “I don’t think he sees David.  We’re too far back in the cave.”

ANGER:  “Good.  Time for some payback.  You’re going down like Goliath, Saul!  Now David can sneak up on him.  Just one little flying rock and …BOOM!  That’s Saul, folks!”

 

ANGER stretches fingers as if about to get to work.

 

CUE SLIDE:  “SAUL LOOKING UNCOMFORTABLE”

JOY:  (pushing ANGER aside)  “Wait a minute.  Look at that.  Why is Saul making that weird face?”

 

DISGUST:  (panic) “Wait!  I know that look.  It almost looks like he needs to…”

 

CUE SOUND EFFECT:   RUDE NOISE

 

CAST reacts with disgust.

CUE SLIDE:  “INSIDE OUT BACKDROP”

 

DISGUST:  (pounding console)  “Ew!  Ew!  Ew!  Ew!”

 

SADNESS:  “Oh.  I know what’s going on.  He really needs to go number…”

 

ANGER:  “TOO much information, Sadness!”

FEAR:  “Oh, that is so unsanitary!”

CUE SLIDE:  “BACK OF SAUL’S HEAD IN CAVE”

JOY:  “Hold on, what’s King Saul doing now?”

ANGER:  “I say David  attacks him now!  He’s a sitting duck!”

FEAR:  “Actually more like a squatting duck…”

 

DISGUST:  (hitting console button)  “Ew!  Ew!  Ew!”

ANGER:  “What is David waiting for?  Here’s the big chance!  We can end all our problems!  Many of the people who are following David want King Saul dead!”

 

ANGER pushes everyone away to have full access to the console.

 

SADNESS:  “Wait.”

 

CAST gasps and looks at SADNESS

 

SADNESS:  “Is that what God wants?”

CUE TRACK:  6 INSIDE OUT HEARTWARMING MUSIC

CAST relaxes a moment to think.

 

SADNESS:  “God anointed King Saul to be our leader, and maybe we should let God handle it.”

ANGER:  (gesturing to screen) “But King Saul really hurt us!”

SADNESS:  “If God forgives us for all the bad things we do, maybe we should forgive others too?”

CUE SLIDE:  “INSIDE OUT BACKDROP”

PAUSE

 

JOY:  “Thank you, Sadness.  I think you saved David from making the wrong choice.”

DISGUST:  “I didn’t want to get near King Saul anyway.  Gross.”

SADNESS:  “I’m just glad we didn’t make God sad.”

ANGER:  “Well, if we’re not hitting him with a stone, can David at least tear off a piece of King Saul’s robe while he’s not looking?”

CAST looks at one another.

JOY: “Sure.  Why not?”

 

ANGER:  “Later on, we’ll show King Saul a piece of the robe.  That will prove that we could’ve messed him up big time.”

 

SADNESS:  “But instead we showed him mercy, because that’s what God wants.  Isn’t that right?”

 

ANGER:  “Yes, Sadness.  You’re absolutely right.”

 

CUE TRACK:  1 INSIDE OUT UPBEAT THEME MUSIC

CAST gathers around SADNESS to give her a hug as NARRATOR speaks.  CAST exits at “to find out what happens next.”

 

NARRATOR:  “And that’s what happened.  David spared King Saul’s life, and King Saul was grateful.  King Saul admitted how righteous David was, and turned around to go home.  But of course, that’s not the end of the story.  To find out what happens next, join us this time, next time for KidPak Adventures:  Hooked on a Feeling!”

 

__________

An interesting idea about the skits.  It actually got me kind of enthused about the series.  We'll see how it goes.  Anyway, today is the last day of July, and strangely some kids are already going to school.  Which is just not right.  Starting school in July?  That's preposterous.  Who does that kind of thing?  Is this some sort of torture?  

Ahem.  At least we're cool here.  Maddie starts up her classes in a few weeks, and she's looking forward to that.  We got home late, of course, but we still made time to read, and then say our prayers.  It was a fun day.

Youthmania 2

Tonight is that crazy night called "Youthmania," where we had a big wrestling exhibition for the youth.  It was at the Gwinnett campus, and it was really great.  Teens enjoyed a great praise and worship service, plus a pretty awesome message from Pastor Javon, who we'll talk about in a moment.  And then there was the big event, a wrestling night where each of the wrestlers represented different teams that will be appearing at Camp FCY in a few weeks.  Here's Maddie and Nate at the event.

It was pretty wild.  We mentioned Pastor Javon earlier because he and I were talking about a big wrestling theme night about twenty years ago, one where the Road Warriors, Sting, the Million Dollar Man, and a few more were there to do something similar.  It was at the North Campus, which at the time was our only campus, and it was a night with a message from Pastor Franklin and a similar format:  worship, message, and some wrestling, and some testimonies from the actual wrestlers.  I remember getting a t-shirt from Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man.  He actually signed it for me, and I've never worn it before... until tonight!  A few of us that were there at the event so many years ago sat around and talked about it.  It was a great time.  And it was a great time tonight too.

Mom was with me in the back row for a few of the matches, but for the most part, the two of us were upstairs in the KidPak area, watching a few more videos from our module, some things related to our new health plan that we're going through.  I'm lowering, lowering, lowering those carbs lately, getting to a place where we can eventually do some detox in the system.  It should be good.  Mom and I were sitting together in a classroom, nice and cozy, watching videos together while the kids were having a great time in the sanctuary downstairs.

There was pizza for the kids afterwards, and after that we headed home.  We got a lot of big rain tonight, and that's been good to offset the terrible heat of late.  We'll have more rain tomorrow too, so that'll be nice.

It was a good day today.  We read from our Discworld story tonight, and said our prayers afterwards.  It was a good day.  

Superman

Ah, the Man of Steel himself.  Superman.  Today, we took Maddie and Nate to see the latest Superman movie, which was actually pretty good.  That dog Krypto really stole the show, literally chewing up scenery.  Easily one of the most fun things in the movie.  This was Maddie's first Superman movie, and it was a fun one.  We're looking forward to the future DC projects within this universe, but we'll see how it goes.  

We all enjoyed the movie today, along with some popcorn too of course.  I wouldn't put it up there with the original though - Mom and I watched that one later on today, continuing the "Superman" fest:
 

I forgot just how good this one was.  Maddie wasn't really paying attention to this one tonight, but going to back to watch this one was such a treat.  It's the best of the Superman movies.  It's old and its special effects are dated, but it was 1978.  The strength of it is in the casting, and the soundtrack from John Williams too - it's just a well-made old-school movie, and we loved it.  I could go one and on about this movie, but it's safe to say there wouldn't be other superhero movies made if not for this one.  It set the standard, made a ton of money, and made Superman the icon that he really is.  He's of course, a great, great superhero.  Looking forward to other movies with him in the future!

Well, that was largely it for the day.  We got home and there were rainstorms galore, and there was a lot of heat early on.  A massive, massive earthquake hit the Pacific Ocean, something like 8.8 on the richer scale.  Ginormous.  It actually sparked a lot of concerns about tsunamis in Hawaii, but things weren't as bad there, and that was a huge blessing.  We'll never forget that 2006 tsunami.  Insane power.

We got to bed tonight after reading, and after prayers.  It was a super day!

Cracking Chiropractors, Cracker Barrel

 

We were back at the chiropractor this morning, and as you can see, even plush sea turtles from Sea World need the occasional adjustment.  We have some video footage for aspiring chiropractors so they too can learn a textbook hands-on system adjustment for plush sea turtles:

It was a nice visit, always is.  The three of us got our adjustments after a fairly stressful and strenuous two weeks or so, really more than that.  Lots of stuff going on, so it was a good morning to get reset.

After that, we were off to a grocery store nearby in Cumming, this one focusing on a lot of organic food.  We've been here before, but now we'll be focusing more on visits to Sprouts as we're dramatically changing a lot of our eating habits.  Maddie is probably staying right where she is as far as her diet goes, but Mom and I are really cutting things out quite heavily.

Still, it was nice walking around in there, and yes, we picked up quite a bit in our grocery carts.  Tonight I was at the other grocery store to get some other items - that's when the sudden rain poured down and wow, I got drenched!  But it was fun, and given that the temperature was so incredibly hot today I wasn't terribly upset.  

One other visit in Cumming was to Cracker Barrel, where we sat to enjoy a nice meal together!

Mom and I got some things that were pretty friendly to our new diet, and in fact, it's some items we typically get, grilled chicken and rainbow trout and vegetables too.  It's more about the ambience and atmosphere here, a nice comfortable place to sit and eat.  And afterwards, look around to shop too.  

Not much time when we got home!  We picked up Nate, and today we were off to taekwondo, where Maddie and Nate met with a few of the others that just came back from the Globals competition, where we had some big winners.  Maddie and the others were training and moving forward towards that next testing, but there was some time for storytelling too.  It was a big exciting weekend in Arkansas for her friends, and perhaps Maddie will be there next time.  Who knows?

Tonight we watched a new movie, "The Unbreakable Boy," which was actually really good.  Pastor was talking about this one recently, so Mom suggested we check it out.  We were all very glad to have sat down for this inspirational movie!  There were parts that really had you emotionally cheering, and there were some hearty laughs along the way.  Add to this tiny review that it's based on a true story, and that just makes it even more heartwarming.  We loved it.

After that, it was time for bed and the routine there.  We read from our latest book, and after that said our prayers.  Time to get a good night's rest!

Rewind End

Fun morning!  You never know what's going to happen at KidPak.  We spent so much time working on the booklet for next month, and so much time on a game and regular service material that the skit sort of had to work itself out last night with another song.  I was this pink dinosaur, our mascot for the series, and we were dancing around to a song about the Ten Commandments.  It was only two minutes long, but it was fun!  Maddie took a bunch of other pictures too, a good bit of them on social media and some here below:

It was a good morning at church.  We went straight home after this, and had a quick meal:  pizza.  Mom and I got some new cauliflower pizza with spinach topping.  Never in my life could I have imagined eating something like that, but there it is.  I actually enjoyed it.  I draw the line at pizza with broccoli on it though!

 

Speaking of which, tonight's movie was "Inside Out 2," which we were watching for "research" again.  These are such good movies - we'll have fun doing some things with those again at the KidPak stage.  We'll see how it goes.   

Maddie and I were starting a new game to get 100% on, and that's "LEGO Batman 2."  This is maybe my favorite LEGO game, just because it was the first time we saw such a massive world to explore.  And introducing the flying characters later on really kept it big - having to travel it all on foot made the distances seem pretty epic.  Anyway, we played a few levels, and just love hearing those character voices and the Danny Elfman music is just the best.  I love it.

We did a few other small things today - I was walking on the treadmill, and lately I've been doing the entire Monty Python series while walking on the treadmill.  I'm a little over halfway through by this point.  I think next I'll go through the VHS tapes I have of "Fawlty Towers" or the 1967 season of "The Avengers."  Great stuff to walk along to.

Maddie was doing some drawing, and we took a little nap at one point.  Mom made a fantastic salad, and some delicious dessert.  We're shifting some sugar out of things, moving to alternatives there.  It's a process, but we're getting used to it.

We closed out the day reading from the Discworld.  There's been another passing, and DEATH had a fairly humorous exchange with the victim that had Maddie and Mom laughing.  We'll continue reading as the mystery unfolds.  I remember this book a bit more so than others, as I liked it a good bit.  It'll be fun hearing how Maddie enjoys it moving forward.

After getting the Plush Entourage to bed, it was time for some shut-eye.  It's been a good day.
 

 

Driving

We started out our day with a bit of driving, and Maddie is doing really well with that.  She was driving through the parking lot of Free Chapel very well, getting the hang of those right and left turns, making them sharper without inconveniencing the passengers (me).  She's getting smoother with starts and stops, and just overall starting to get the hang of things.  Won't be long before we head out into actual traffic, but we'll see how it goes.

Time for a few photos in front of the church before moving on!

Afterwards, she went over and pretty much spent the day at Nate's house, having fun over there for the day.  Meanwhile, I'm working, working, working on this new series.  

Yeah, that kind of day.  Here's an AI interpretation of Disgust just to show how ready to move on from this booklet I am!  But we did get it done and that's good news.  We'll have that one printed soon enough, and all is well there.

Can you believe we still have several squirrels left here?  We've removed 117 squirrels by this point.  117 squirrels in three years now.  And there's still three more.  Insane.  The weather's been hot out there, and we don't mind everyone going to the water in the bird bath.  It's the squirrel acrobatics that sort of get you miffed, with aerial strikes against the dangling bird feeders, knocking them down, and knocking seeds everywhere.  

Here are some lifeforms I am not disgusted with:  sea monkeys.  Yes, our pet sea monkeys are still thriving on Mars.  Years ago, we dropped those eggs with hope into this Martian landscape, and at the time I had no idea there would be a thriving ecosystem in our tank.  Little baby sea monkeys are flitting all about, and it's just a wonderful sight.

Tonight we finished up "House of David," which - spoiler alert - has David in it.  He fights again Goliath, adn we all know how that turns out.  There are some deviations and additions, but overall the story is generally true, and pretty enjoyable.  

We read a little tonight afterwards, and of course said our prayers.  We set our alarms for church tomorrow - got another big day!

Finishing Up the Book

Our work is finishing up with our newest booklet, and I thought I'd share this fun little imagery courtesy of AI.  Like I said, we're not really focusing on this at all with the booklet so much, but it's still a bit of fun.  Along those lines, we'll be finishing up both of these movies (for research!), and probably I'll be revisiting that game too.  I need to get those figurines up here.  Hopefully I can get a little inspiration for the series that way.

Check out this other idea we might use.  The figures in this are generated using the same style as the animation used to create Riley and other humans in the movie.  It's a fascinating tool!

Maddie had another quiet day.  She slept in quite a bit, and stayed home as Mom and I were at work for a short while.  Mom and I had a teleconference with our health expert, and we're still moving forward on our diet and supplements and nutrition.  We're moving towards a particular diet, although Mom is pretty much already there.  I'm sort of easing into it.  But soon, we'll be in some serious detox.

Still no taekwondo tonight, but we did continue with "House of David," and speaking of fascinating, it's an interesting choice to have Orpah in this story.  Orpah, of course, is the one from the story of Ruth, and Ruth is David's great-grandmother.  That being said, Orpah is extremely old in this story, and also fairly unlikely to be actually alive.  I mean, if she's alive, then you'd think that Ruth would be alive too, right?  Anyway, this version of the story we're watching on television has us feeling a little bit of sympathy for the giants, and I won't spoil it. But at the same time, you can understand where they're coming from, at least in regards to joining the Philistines to fight.  That is, as far as this television series goes.  And of course, that just makes things all the more tragic for the giant when the final episode of season one rolls along.  And I don't want to feel sorry for the giant, actually.  But other than that, we're enjoying the show.

There's a lot of news lately.  But that seems to be the thing the last year.  One thing is the passing of a pro-wrestler from my generation, the legendary Hulk Hogan.  I can tell you that I was one of those kids watching Hulk Hogan and others in the ring back when pro-wrestling was like an exciting comic book, with all these colorful characters and huge backstories and dramas.  Hulk Hogan did a speech this year at a political rally, and it was still electrifying.  That generation of wrestlers were so much fun - I loved those old video games too.  Though I'd often pick Macho Man or even Earthquake, every one knew Hulk Hogan was the best character to pick.  Just for old time's sake, I rewatched that scene with Thunderlips vs. Rocky Balboa from "Rocky III," and maybe over the next week might watch a few more.  Feeling sentimental about that era.  

The other news involves all kinds of political troubles for previous administrations.  It's stuff we've all heard time and again, but it seems to be coming out in a big way lately, so we'll have to keep an eye on that.  It could add some texture to the news cycle the next few weeks.  Hate to see so much negativity, but things to need to change, so perhaps there'll be some housecleaning too.

Tonight we read some more from Ankh-Morpork and the City Watch.  And then after that, we said our prayers.  Time for some sleep.

Christmas Eve in July

So no taekwondo tonight, as a few of the team members are off to Little Rock, Arkansas to compete in a major competition.  Best of luck to them!  Maddie is keeping in touch with the group on the phone.  Her days are simple lately, with lots of Minecraft and bracelet making.  Mom had her do some cleaning today too.  

It's Christmas in July, or at least Christmas Eve in July - and there's been a lot of that going on with advertising and so forth.  I took advantage of both holidays by ordering my yearly ornaments from the White House Historical Association.  They're not doing a new Presidential one this year for Ronald Reagan, but rather using the ornament to honor the Presidential china.  Next year, I suppose, will be Ronald Reagan's year, which make sense in a way, because we're running low on Presidents.  I'm sure back in 1981 when all this started, they were talking to themselves about how far from then it would be until we'd "catch up" with whoever is currently the President.  Let's see:  at the current pace, if we don't honor White House china anymore, we should go Reagan in 2026, Bush in 2027, Clinton in 2028, Bush in 2029, Obama in 2030, Trump in 2031, Biden in 2032, and then perhaps another Trump in 2033, and if whoever is next is a two-term President, we could be caught up there and then! 

I have no idea why I just typed all that.  Except to say, I didn't order the White House china ornament, but rather backtracked and got eight previous ornaments with seven Presidents.  Yes, I'm almost to the place where I'm caught up.  I went back to 1990, to Martin Van Buren's ornament.  I've got them all on the Patriotic Summer Tree right now, which is starting to look crowded!

Along those lines, we were talking today and I got some ideas for Christmas movies for Mom this year, new Hallmark ones to add to the collection, some recommended "must-see" movies.  We also did a new Christmas song for the AI generator, something we've decided to do again this year - yes, we're doing another competition for AI-generated Christmas songs. We write in the lyrics and try to get some more Christmas classics.  Already I have a few made for December, including one this week based on "Jingle All the Way," and another completely epic song sung by Forte from "Beauty and the Beast Enchanted Christmas."

 

Moving on from Christmas:  Tonight we watched a few episodes of "House of David," as we march quickly through this eight-part story.  It's not precisely Biblical, but it's close and it's enjoyable enough.  The giants are certainly intimidating.  Stuck in a cave, they sort of remind me of that other movie with the really big giants, "Big Friendly Giant."  We've got about four more episodes to go, but Saul is off his rocker and David is pushing the envelope a little with his rights as a human being.  But God's favor is on him, of course, and that part of the story is right on.  

Meanwhile, we're reading in 1 Samuel, and we're also working on our newest series.  Got a lot more done today in that regard.  We're telling the story of David, adding a few "Inside Out" characters for flavor.  Check out this version of "Joy" that AI created:

Pretty fun!  It was a good day today, although not huge on fun activities and so-forth.  We would have been at the Inn at Christmas Place today, but instead we're getting a lot of work done on this booklet.  It'll be good.  We closed out the day reading from our story from the Discworld, and saying our prayers.  

And to all, a good night! 

 

Angry Saul

It was Cowboy Night at FCY, and Maddie got a cowboy hat for Nate so the two could mosey on over to the main sanctuary for a hoedown there, followed by some boot-scootin' fun in the recreation area.  Maddie wasn't doing any line dancing tonight, but she was eating some chicken as she watched the other students heel-toe, dosey doe.  Fun night!

We were doing a lot of writing for this upcoming series today.  In fact, it's the reason we're not on vacation this week:  a new booklet that has to be created.  The big meeting last year challenged us with making a series about David that also has something to do with the concepts of "Inside Out" and identity.  Or something like that.  I thought it might be fun for skits to return to our "Inside Out" characters, but they're inside David's head during big moments, like the battle with Goliath, or the fury at Nabal, the dancing for joy at the return of the Ark of the Covenant, and so on.  Might be fun.  As for the inside of the book, we just have it flavored with the themes of "Inside Out," at least in regards to graphics and so forth.  

We don't have much in there at all with the characters, but from time to time I thought it might be fun to insert a cameo.  Here's "Angry Saul," basically one of my favorite characters, Anger, wearing a crown.  AI did a marvelous job with this, and I'm looking forward to at least one of each of the other four characters.  I'm not really diving into the ones from the second movie, as these emotions are just fine.  But Anger looks great here, doesn't he?

Speaking of Saul, we saw a good bit of him tonight as we continued with another episode of "House of David," which is really emphasizing the angry insane Saul portion of the story.  He's a suffering king, of course suffering because of what he's done in the past.  I've been reading 1 Samuel lately on top of this, so it's certainly a deep dive into these massive stories in the Bible.

We had time to read tonight, which we did - we read from the Discworld, and after that we said our prayers.  And after that, the Plush Entourage made its way down the hall, and got tucked in for a good night's rest.  Time for Dream Productions to step in and do their thing!

How to Train Your Dragon 2025

It was a work day for me, and Mom was a lot of help as always, the two of us getting this booklet together for our next series.  We got about ten pages done, with thirty to go.  The hardest part is the start of this thing, but it is coming along.  Mom and I are doing all kinds of supplements on our new journey here - it'll start with detox, with involves various diets and of course these capsules.  It's a lot, but hopefully at the end of all of this Mom will be feeling somewhat better.  It's certainly a season of healthier choices, for the most part.  That doesn't mean you can't "spoil" the system from time to time, hence the ice cream on Sunday.  Otherwise, it's almost like fasting - I was really craving certain very random things, and of course you can't eat them.  Strange craving: Honeycomb cereal.  Yeah.  Another cereal that I shouldn't eat but can't wait to get three boxes of:  Monster Crunch cereal.  The new boxes look amazing, with Jim Henson designing the Monster Cereal.  We've seen pictures, but we'll be picking up those boxes soon enough.  It's still July, so no hurry!

We took a break today from work, and went to see an early movie.  Tuesdays at Regal Theater - if you're members - gets you half-price.  We even got a really good deal on this new decorated metal popcorn bucket, themed to "How to Train Your Dragon."  It was just five dollars with the popcorn!  So yes, we saw "How to Train Your Dragon," the live action version, and we picked up Nate before we dropped by. 

It was actually very good!  These translations from animation to live-action can go one way or another, but this was a fantastic retelling of the story.  The four of us enjoyed it, and there were still a good number of people in the theater to see this one, despite the fact that it has been out a few weeks, and there's a lot of competition.  We've suddenly got a few movies we're wanting to see in theaters, so Tuesday's might be our thing from this point on!

We got home and got some more work done of course.  And we ate dinner as well, closing out the day with a new series for us on the television:  "House of David."  We started this one earlier, but we're restarting it, and it's perfectly timed because the booklet we're writing now is all about David.  We'll be watching this the next seven nights or so, as this first episode was done very well.  I love Samuel's character.  Coincidentally, that's where I landed on reading this Perry Stone Commentary Bible:  1 Samuel.  I'll be starting that tomorrow, having just finished Judges.  Yikes, the book of Judges ends in an absolute mess, doesn't it?  But here comes Samuel and David.

Tonight was wrapped up with some reading from "Men at Arms," and prayer.  It's a much quieter day, and a quieter week.  We were going to be on vacation this week, but cancel the hotel reservations because of all the work that has to be done.  It's a bittersweet thing, but we'll do a trip in October and that will be nice.

Lesson Number One

I was sitting there watching all the bo staffs in taekwondo tonight, and couldn't help but think of that song "Lesson Number One" from "Mulan 2."  

They had a good night tonight, of course.  There's a big competition at the end of the week in Arkansas.  Maddie is not going to that one, obviously, but there won't be class on Thursday and Friday, making this the only class of the week.  Still, things are moving along quickly - she only has two testings to go until she gets her third degree black belt.  At Christmas.  Ho, ho, ho!

So we all slept in mightily.  That includes the entire Summer Xtreme staff.  It was funny listening in on other people's plans, plans of normally diligent people:  Josh said he had plans to sleep and watch movies.  Yep, that sounds about right.  I've started writing on the new booklet somewhat, and started up on the treadmill again - it's amazing how you have to get yourself motivated again with the treadmill, where as when you're in a rhythm you just get on there and do it.  Now it seems like I'm starting all over again.  That's okay - I'm doing it anyway, and watching old DVDs while I march along, or jog along.  

Maddie's day was uneventful too.  Her summer has involved Minecraft, texting friends, watching YouTube videos, and eating.  We'll get into a rhythm soon with a new season of school at Free Chapel College.  That's coming very soon for her, next month, and it's exciting.  

Until then, time for some more rest.  Tonight we read from "Men at Arms" a bit, and we said our prayers after that.  Time for some sleep.

The Mexican Ice Cream Place

This afternoon we had our traditional trip to what we affectionately call "the Mexican ice cream place" for a post-Summer Xtreme visit.  Not everyone could make this trip, but a good number of us did make the journey after church, and it was pretty nice.

I got some of that legendary corn-flavored ice cream, plus some coconut flavored ice cream too.  Mom got caramel, and Maddie got mocha of course.  We all had some really good ice cream today, and it was a hot one out there too!  It was just nice to return to this tradition, to relax and enjoy each other's company after the huge week we just had.

Earlier we had KidPak of course, and that went well today.  You can imagine how tired everyone was, but nevertheless, we had this great service with a fun skit set to music that I came up with yesterday.  The whole service was fantastic and pretty chill - Maddie got some great pictures as always, which we'll share here below.

We got home after some grocery shopping, picking up a rotisserie chicken and some other food items.  Mom is getting things ready for our new diet, and some things aren't too bad at all.  We had a nice meal together, as Mom made another delicious salad that was just wonderful.  We've got this Vidalia onion dressing that is really, really good, and this salad is like dessert!

Anyway, restful day today.  Maddie and I tried this new card game called "Selfish:  The Star Wars Edition."  It was pretty fun, and once we read through the instructions, we go the hang of it.  Still a few questions about certain cards, but overall it was a nice quick game that I think we'll play again.  I know Nate and Maddie might like it.

Tonight we watched "A Million Miles Away," and it was really good.  I love NASA movies anyway, but this one was very heartfelt and inspiring.  We enjoyed it quite a lot, and now I'm wanting to watch other space program movies and shows... we'll see how that goes.

Tonight we did read "Theater of Cruelty," the four-page Discworld story, but we also started the next book in the City Watch series, "Men at Arms."  It was time for prayers and sleep after that.  It's been a long, long week!

Off Day

We finished LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean today, so that meant it was time for some dancing!  We used a code to get the dancing Jack Sparrow (VDJSPW), and I chose the guitar character Scrum.  The two of us got together on the steps of the tavern and had ourselves a mini concert for the various patrons there.

Maddie spent the day with Nate, plans for the pool cut short because of a pretty good rainstorm today.  It was a day of rest - all of us sleeping in pretty good this morning.  We're waking up naturally at 6:30 or so, but this morning it was right back to sleep again.

We did a new AI song for tomorrow's KidPak service, another one that features a visit from our big pink dinosaur.  No explanation as to why this dinosaur is pink, other than perhaps it is a mutation from recent INGEN experiments.  This would also explain why it seems rather attached to an 80's boom box.  It's a fun costume though, one the kids have been getting into lately.

It was a quiet day today.  Understandably.  We didn't get to watch anything tonight because we were waiting for Maddie, but we did get time to read - we finished our Discworld book, "Guards!  Guards!"  This was a good one, and we'll continue on tomorrow with another Discworld story.  If we're doing these in order, than the next one is a short story that I just found out about, a story called "Theater of Cruelty."  It's only four pages long!  But we do things "by the book" here, so we'll get that one first, and then move on to a new book called "Men at Arms," which introduces some new members of the City Watch.  That'll be fun.

We closed the day with prayer, of course, and after that... it was time for sleep!