...

 ...Hockey, KidPak, Closing Ceremonies, Gala...

Return to Hoppy Hollow

Maddie had Team Edge practice this morning, and that was good.  I was watching her training, but I also got a few things of work done too while I looked on.  I have a little office window there, plugging away at different assignments as I watch the team train.

Maddie went over to Nate's for the rest of the day, so I went home where Mom and I were putting a lot of things up from Christmas, believe it or not, and putting out some new decor for Easter and for St. Patrick's Day too.  One big thing for Easter:  Hoppy Hollow.  

 

 

Yes, that's right, it's the return of Hoppy Hollow Easter Village.  This Dollar Store Empire has been in the family for many years now, and even though it's ultimately not worth much more than it probably was back then (I think I paid $20 for the entire set), it's of great sentimental value to me now.  We got it for Ye-Ye as somewhat of a prank gift.  Imagine getting an entire village like that.  Anyway, Nana didn't like it that much and wanted to get rid of it.  So we wound up getting it back, and Mom and I are kind of attached to it!

As you might expect, we were watching some more Olympic events today, including the bobsled racing, both four-man and the two-woman sledding too.  We've pretty much seen all the events the last few weeks, entire sessions too.  I mean, we sat and watched bobsled for over an hour.  And yes, we were cheering when the Jamaican bobsled team showed up.  I was watching a little of all that while I was waling on the treadmill.  I'm still virtually walking around Dublin, Ireland, just in time for St. Patrick's Day.  

Maddie got home and we read, then said our prayers.  It was a good day, but I'm a little tired.  Time for some sleep!

Galentines

 

What a morning at Hebron again, this time wrapping up a completely epic week of ministry with a packed gymnasium full of kids all having a great service.  This little girl above wanted to pray for us all before we left, and it was a really sweet moment.

An odd thing on the way home:  I saw a UFO!  To be clear, that is defined as an unidentified flying object.  Meaning, that doesn't mean it's an alien spaceship.  Or... at least I don't think it is.  But somewhere crossing over I-85 on the way back home I saw something in the sky that looked like a drone of sorts.  It was longer, flat, and had three specific points on it, central and on the ends.  It looked like a glider, just making lazy turns in the sky, but the thing that caught my attention was that it was reflective like a mirror perhaps.  It would disappear in the sky, and then it would catch the sunlight and glimmer downward.  I actually pulled over to see if I could capture it on my cell phone camera, but sadly the footage is pretty embarrassing.  Now I know why most UFO footage is sub quality - because it's shot by people like me on their cell phones!

Anyway, I made the drive back and then picked up Maddie and Mom to head over to the chiropractor for a bit of an adjustment.  Always an enjoyable visit there, catching up and of course getting straightened up.  Afterwards we went over to Texas Roadhouse for a nice meal, eating steak at a restaurant for the first time this year.  Yummy!

We're still watching all these Olympic Games, and it's been just fantastic fun.  Check out this picture above of me from Hebron.  I've got the Captain America jacket, plus the Olympic hat and there's that big flag in the background.  'Merica! 

Tonight Maddie had taekwondo, but after that Maddie went over to Mrs. Hardin's place for a "Galentine's Day" event, just the girls celebrating together.  They hung out and made cookies, just a quick get-together that looked like a lot of fun.  Here's a few pictures Maddie took from tonight:

I love Maddie's cookies.

We got home, and we're reading "Night Watch" now, the next Discworld book.  It was late though, so we didn't read too much.  Still, it's a good start.  We said our prayers after that, and yep, it was time to get some sleep!

Warming Up

Back at Hebron Christian Academy this morning for another fun service with the kids - it takes me a little over an hour to get there, so that's been a lot of driving this week.  But the kids are having a great time with all the fun and games, and then after that the messages and music are just powerful.  It's almost like a Summer Xtreme, the anticipation, the explosion of fun, the moving services.  We're making quite the impact, I think.

Back at home, back at the church.  The crew is keeping up with the greenery, pruning trees and laying out mulch and pine straw.  It feels like spring out there, over seventy degrees.  Just to make us pay for the warmth, next week I hear it'll dive back down to the twenties.  But in the mean time, I'm enjoying this weather immensely.  Tonight I was with another large group of people enjoying the weather - we're on this outdoor track at the college, and even as it was getting dark, the temperature was just magical.  It's a neat little place, with a lot of people out there using the track for exercise. Of course, I entered my milage on the virtual path I'm taking through Dublin, virtually.  

While that was going on, Maddie was in taekwondo, back again and helping out with the kids, and then on to her own training with the leadership class.  She had a good day, going to get some coffee this morning with Emma and then off to chapel.

Today was a huge day for USA in the Olympics, just an amazing day.  Firstly, there was the long awaited women's ice hockey final.  We've been watching a good number of these games along the way.  I think one of the things that's been great this time around is that we have the option to watch the entire events, and that really gives a lot of context to things.  We've been watching the whole games, and we know the character, playing style and talent of each of these athletes on the team really well by this point, and we also know that Canada is a tough nation to beat on the ice, dominating this event since the beginning, although we've managed to squeeze in a few victories here or there.  We came in with an incredible record, only allowing one goal and just destroying all the competition, including Canada, who we beat 5-0.  But here at the Gold Medal Final, things got intense.  Canada scored early in the second period, and it stayed at 1-0 for a long, long, brutal time.  The second period ended and we had twenty minutes to score, and despite the onslaught of our offense, nothing was getting past their goalie.  It was getting desperate at the end, and you could sense the inevitable coming:  Canada was going to win again.  Even worse, they were going to win after we had done so well this time.  And we would have to wait another four years.  Time was not our friend, the clock winding down.  Only two minutes to go, and it would be all over... and then it happened.  What a shot!  Edwards slapped one from further back, right into the mix of defenders towards that goal, and Knight redirected that puck right past the goalie... and into the net.  Just like that, the score was tied.  The Canadian team and fans were stunned.  And as the clock wound down to the end the third period, it was now the moment for overtime, and sudden death:  the next goal ends the game.  This was an edge-of-your-seat contest, three-on-three with the goalies sitting there taking shot after shot.  And right when the Canadians were switching out players, right in that mix, Keller raced forward towards the goal, slid around a defender and shot this amazing score to seal the comeback.  USA won the gold!

We haven't seen something that thrilling since Shaun White's thrilling gold medal run at the half-pipe.  Really amazing stuff.  And on top of all that, we did really well at the figure skating rink too - all at the same time.  We're watching that entire competition tomorrow, because it's late.

Tonight we finished "The Fifth Elephant," and everything's all wrapped up there with another solid story from the Discworld.  We're moving right along to the next book in the Watch series, one called "Night Watch," which I read some time ago, pretty much when it first was published.  Wow, I remember stopping by a bookstore on the Georgia-Florida line and always looking for these Discworld novels to pick up.  We'd look around this book store for a while, just checking things out on our way home.  I forgot how much we used to do that, just staying there for almost an hour looking at books.  

Anyway, we said our prayers after all was done tonight.  One more day at Hebron tomorrow, so it's time to get some rest.

Exploremores

Our Girl Scout Cookies arrived, and of course we got the usual order of Thin Mints and Samoas, but this time we also got this new cookie called Exploremores, which were advertised as a sort of Rocky Road flavor.  In the interest of science, Mom and I carefully opened this new box of cookies... and our review is somewhat mixed.  Honestly, I can't really see it as a Rocky Road flavor so much as just a chocolate cookie.  And it's not a terribly exciting cookie at that.  We both sort of feel the same way here on this one.  It's okay, and sure, we tore through that box fairly quickly - over the course of two days, I think.  And yes, the other two boxes of cookies we got are pretty awesome.  Open up one of the bags of Thin Mints, and it'll be eaten very quickly.  

We started out the day at Hebron this morning again, down in Dacula where we had a great service with the kids.  The weather is warmer outside, and just wonderful - although winter is coming back to say hello at the start of next weekend.  Maddie was at college this morning, and she wasn't looking forward to this day so much - still, she did a fantastic job with her Marcom presentation.  She was showing her different advertisements, and the others were really impressed by the fact that she was using her own awesome photos.  

Tonight we were watching more Olympics for a little bit - particularly some skiing.  Won't be long before these Games are all wrapped up, but Mom and I have been fairly addicted to them.  We'll probably be hooked on the Paralympics too, whenever those start.  

Given that Mardi Gras was just yesterday, we popped in one of our new annual favorites, "The Princess and the Frog."  Gotta love that one.  We have the soundtrack on vinyl, so I was playing that earlier, and Mom wanted to watch the movie now.  So we did!

We read some before bedtime, and then said our prayers.  Good day today!

Lunar New Year

Happy New Year!  It's the Year of the Horse, the Lunar New Year celebration kicking off today, and we did our usual outing for some Chinese food tonight, spending some time talking with the employees there and wishing them a happy new year.  

Maddie and Nate had a table to themselves for a nice little date night, and I got some take-out and brought it home for Mom, so the two of us could eat together.  I plugged in a CD of some Chinese music I bought in Nanning, and Mom had some decorations out too!

 

Later on that night, we watched "Kung Fu Panda," the last movie we saw before heading out to China to get Maddie.  That was nice.  We saw some Olympics too, but tonight was all about celebrating Chinese New Year.  

This morning, we were at Hebron Christian Academy again - KidPak is doing a week of services there for Spiritual Emphasis Week.  It was lots of fun for the kids there!  Afterwards, we continued the tradition of going to Waffle House afterwards together as a team!

And here's my favorite part of that tradition:  Elvis' "American Trilogy." For more than thirty years, every time I stop at a Waffle House, I use the jukebox to play that song at least once.  Today... three times!  Here you can see Pastor Lance and I singing along with the King of Rock and Roll!

Here's my first post card I got for walking today, the virtual path to Dublin.  While Maddie and Nate were eating at Wang's, I was at the Gainesville College track getting in some walking.  

It was a good day today - also Mardi Gras, believe it or not.  We'll honor that tomorrow with a viewing of "The Princess and the Frog."  But today was all about the Lunar New Year, and speaking of lunar activity, we read some more from "The Fifth Elephant," which of course features some villainous werewolves... but don't worry.  Sam Vimes knows how to deal with those.  We read tonight, and then it was time for prayers... and a good night's rest!

Easter Production

Okay, calm down.  There's no huge epic Easter production this year.  Nevertheless, Maddie and her fellow students were tasked to come up with a few different marketing ideas should there actually be an Easter production.  These are actually all ideas she came up with, and as a bonus, she actually took all of these photos.  That gave her a huge edge with these different ideas - here's just a few of them, and they all look great!

She's having a good time with her courses, learning a good bit and making some great projects.  Meanwhile, the rest of us have been working at KidPak towards this weekend, and also with a meeting at the church we've been working towards the week at Hebron.  Here's something else:

Valentine's season is over with, and so it's time to put on the green.  I started a new themed walk, one around the streets of Dublin!  It's a virtual walk, and here's the race bib for it that I can print out and have around for the next month or so as I walk around in Ireland.  Fun!

We were watching some curling and ice hockey tonight, and we've been checking out the figure skating too.  And we're so close to finishing "The Fifth Elephant" now - the story is starting to wrap up, although there's still a villain lurking about.  We said our prayers afterwards, and it was time to get some sleep!