Entwined

So our friend Halston got married today, a wedding that's been coming for quite some time.  Here she is above, just after the ceremony, briefly talking to Madison, as well as all the other people that were there for the service.

The wedding was at the Atlanta Botanical Garden location here in Gainesville, which had some unusual twine sculptures by the entrance.  Given the chance, we took a few pictures, including this one above, and this one below of Mommy with Madison.

Yes, twine.  That seems to be a bit of a theme for our wedding, so it was funny to see all the twine again.  A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

As for the wedding itself, apparently Halston wanted it to rain.  So it did.  It was an outdoor wedding, and despite having umbrellas, everyone there was pretty soaked.  Here's a picture that Daddy took of the ceremony, one that shows the pouring rain and joy in the moment.

It was a nice evening out, and a beautiful wedding.  We didn't get to see too much of the gardens, but what we did see seemed nice, so much that we might have to make a return trip.  Here's the twine sculpture once again, a wider shot that shows much of this creation.

And below, one more picture of Mommy.  This is one of Daddy's favorite pictures of Mommy.  She and Madison looked great today, despite the rain.

Daddy took a lot of photos today, all for Halston's wedding.  We'll show her a lot of these wedding photos of the ceremony and guests later when she gets home from her honeymoon.  But we'll tuck a few away to keep back as a surprise after her one-year-anniversary.  By that point she'll no doubt have seen all the photos of her wedding from the professional photographer and other guests.  So these will come as a nice surprise, and a nice gift.  But in the meantime, we have some fantastic photos of our own family, including this last one of Madison that Daddy likes quite a bit.  It was a great afternoon.

Marie Taglioni

Madison has written her non-fiction article on the most famous ballerina, Marie Taglioni.  Until this week, Daddy had no idea who this person was, but thanks to Mommy and plenty of research, we now know who she was.  One of Madison's final projects of 3rd grade is making a magazine dedicated to any topic, so naturally Madison chose ballet.  Within this magazine goes her non-fiction article about some related topic, hence the two pages above dedicated to Marie Taglioni.

She uses one program at school, but here at the house, we used another one to create the pages above.  Madison, Mommy and Daddy spent a bit of time laying out the articles, the pictures, and the fun facts.  It came out rather well, setting up things for the magazine as we continue to make pages for it.  Madison is learning a bit about the computer here, a little more at least.  The basic functions of copy-and-paste, click-and-drag, and the all important command-z.  It was enjoyable for Madison, who was happy to spend time with this being creative versus the video game and movie thing.

We did quite a bit today, getting ready for the Spy Games series at Kidpak, and now suddenly everything has left fishing, now all about espionage, cloak and dagger.  It takes a lot of work to make these series, even if they are repeats.  And even though this series is a repeat, it's still something fairly new to Madison.  So we'll want to do our best, regardless.  So there's pressure, always pressure, to not go through the motions with things even when they are repeats.  The purpose for this repeat is to give us space to focus on Summer Xtreme, which is just a month away.  Lots to do there.  Can't wait until the middle of June when we have a bit of a break.  Until then, we'll keep busy.

Veronica the Tape Dispenser

Well, the painters are done and the house is looking swell.  It's covered with a nice cream colored paint all around, and they did an absolutely splendid job getting it done.  It took a little over a week, filling in cracks and fixing up old wood.  But now they're done and the house is looking just fine.

It was time for the allergy shot today, and it isn't going well for Daddy.  We may have to cut back a bit on the dosage, as the arm is sore and itchy.

Meanwhile, Madison is doing well at school, catching up with these infernal tests that drive everyone crazy.  She missed them last week, so she's making them up one at a time, with the math test being today.  I'm not sure how results will be, as she's sort of under unique circumstances taking them.  I mean, no prep or rest or whatever - just taken out of the class and down the hall to do a test.  The good news is that she does well with math, and hopefully will do well with science tomorrow.

We had a return to speech therapy after class today, something Madison enjoys no matter the therapist.  We're keeping her in this class here for a while, at least until the insurance money runs out.  We hand over a co-pay, but the insurance covers quite a bit, and it's worth it to keep Madison going, speaking more and more fluidly.

It is Pay-it-Forward Day, which is what we were preaching about last night at KidPak.  It was a tremendous coincidence (or was it?) that today happened to be Pay-it-Forward Day, and we were talking about doing that very thing yesterday.  Tonight, there was very little in the way of stuff to do at home - although Madison is working on a magazine, where she does the whole thing herself, all about a topic she's chosen.  Her topic:  ballet.  She was working on a few parts of that this afternoon, but soon after that, we were watching episodes of "Ultimate Spider-Man" and a bit from "Penguins of Madgascar" for our upcoming Spy series.

So we had finished Finn's story with "Before the Awakening," and now we're working on a completely different book, one with Rocket Raccoon and Groot in it.  It's written by the same guy who did the "Origami Yoda" series, and both Mommy and Madison simply love it.

Their favorite character right now is Veronica the Tape Dispenser, which pretty much should set the tone of the whole thing for you.  Right now, the threesome are on a planet with a big strip mall, complete with raccoon-eating toilets.  There is no explanation for this at present, but it's only three chapters in.  The humor of the book has Mommy and Madison laughing quite a bit, so this should be a fun read, although possibly a quicker one.

The other read that Daddy is starting involves a girl named Sarafina at the Biltmore House.  It's a little dark to read just before bedtime for Madison, so we may wait on that.  But Daddy's enjoying reading the book.  When his arm isn't itching like crazy...

Sabine Chore Chart

Back to school.  Healthy all year round, and yet at the finish line, we've had to take a week off.  Of course the Milestones testing will have to be made up.  We were back to ballet too, where everyone else was apparently sick as well.  Strep throat is going around, but this has been something else altogether.  It's baffling.  It's also miserable.

On the bright side of things, I'm not sure if I've mentioned we have our Sodapalooza cups.  Oh yes, it's like Christmas season around here, where we're always dropping by to get free drinks.  The Race Trac is right next to where Daddy works, so I'm not sure if they've properly calculated the cost of making this available to our family!  Madison has a pink cap on her cup, and Daddy has a purple one, mainly because of Ƭ̵̬̊.  Or maybe it was because of Barney.  Anyway, no one else was getting purple.  So here we are, getting all kinds of vitamin waters and gatorades because of sickness.  But we'll get the slushies too.  That much is guaranteed.  It's a wonderful time of year!

Did you see this chore chart?  We're working on creating something so that Madison will stay busy and responsible over the summer.  The big areas to work on are keeping her room tidy, and of course a massive goal for the summer is learning to swim.  That's a big deal.  Beyond that, of course, the summer is full.  Just about every week there's a camp or event, from Summer Xtreme to Art Camp to Ballet camp to hopefully a vacation visiting Nana and Ba-Ba.  We'll see them in July, most likely.  Hopefully everyone will be well by then, and yep, we'll still be using our Sodapalooza cups!

Oliver Paul will save us all!

We got a special visitor today, one born less than two weeks ago.  Our good friends Joey and Jordan welcomed into their family a boy they named Oliver Paul Stone.  Yes, he's an Oliver Stone.  Also, he's an Oliver Paul.  This name had such a ring to it that a mysterious chant rose up from within the office:  "Oliver Paul will save us all!"  It just might be a prophecy.

The great news about today was that Madison's fever broke.  She was sweating last night, which apparently is a good sign.  I actually know that's a good sign, having experienced the phenomenon myself.  The coughing is still there somewhat, but by this time tomorrow, we'll be back on course, and back at school too.  She's got some catching up to do.  That's what she was doing today, continuing her studies of famous liberal heroes from the past.  Of course, they're all decent human beings too.  But we will laugh uproariously the day the school has Madison study any politician with a (R) after their name. Besides Abraham Lincoln, of course.

She did a lot of work today, and has even been communicating with her teacher online, filling her in on what she's been doing, and asking what else she can do to prepare to come back to school tomorrow.  This kept her busy throughout the day, although there was also a bit of piano practice in there too.

The painters are working on our back deck now, and the house is looking just splendid on the outside.  Furthermore, the temperature at dusk is so wonderful, and the stars are bright and shining in the clear sky.  It's a special time of year, the kind that brings a sense of peace to one's heart simply by walking about on the front lawn or through wooded forests.  It won't be long before lightning bugs sparkle and the smell of rain wafts down.  Daddy looked up and saw a gentle breeze moving through the tops of the trees, ever so slight, a sweet reminder of the beauty of God's glorious creation.  It's time to start doing more things outside!

SPY GAMES DISPLAY CASE

Temporary location of pics for Mom!

I found the files for the labels, the ID cards, and the metal backdrop….

Doctor Visit

We returned to the doctor's office this morning, a little later and for a lot longer.  But with the same results:  no flu, no strep, a good blood count, and no sign of pneumonia.   So what's up with the fever and the coughing?  The doctor doesn't quite know exactly, because there are no apparent clues to why Madison has had a fever now going on seven days.  The good news is that the fever is down somewhat from before.  The coughing is more though, although as we type this tonight, she's quietly sleeping in bed.  Tonight without medication, her fever seemed to be going down a bit, although a little feverish.  Perhaps this is the very tail end of this thing, or at least that is our hope.

We missed school again today, although she has been doing some work at home.  She's creating her own magazine about ballet, and has an opinion piece already written about it.  Add to that now a poem that she has written, and some jokes she's found, jokes she'll be telling us over and over again.  Because that's what nine-year-olds do...!

We sat together today, reading, playing games, and watching movies.  Madison is seen above using the doctor's wi-fi to watch "Jump In" for the third or fourth time.  But later on, we were watching an older movie she hasn't seen before:  "The Borrowers."  it was good, and might serve as a bridge to some Miyazaki movies later on, when we start again with "The Secret Life of Arietty."  But for now, she enjoyed the movie - and the popcorn.  She was coughing a bit during the movie, but I think that was during the more exciting scenes.  Tonight, she's relaxing in bed, sleeping more soundly than we've heard in about a week's time, without coughing so much.

We read from our great fishing devotional, and then started off on the final reading of this "Before the Awakening" book, reading about Finn's beginnings with the First Order.  Madison is really getting into this book, and it was a longer one too.  We'll have to find another one to do next, although we have plenty, Daddy wants to pick a good one.  We might go to the library for one or two.  Ah yes, the library:  it won't be long until Madison signs up for the summer reading program again.  Summer is sneaking up on us, and all those weeks will be full before you know it.

But for now, let's just focus on getting well again.  No more fever please!

Fish and Tomatoes

Madison again has been too feverish to go to KidPak.  While this was upsetting, the consolation is that we did record the service this morning, and Madison will get to see it soon enough when we get it online - or she could just watch it on Daddy's computer at the office.

It was the big finish to our Fish Tales series, where we found out who won the big fishing tournament.  It's been a wonderful series, and all of the sudden, it's over.  These one-month series come and go so quickly, giving us just a teasing taste of a theme - and then they're gone.  We're glad that we got to go fishing once or twice during the series though.  And looking back, how amazing was it that Madison caught that fish?

The series ended so well, and with one of Daddy's favorite messages that he's ever been given.  These messages don't get written by Daddy - they're already there, just waiting to be discovered.

     Catching fish is great - but eating fish is even better.  Can you imagine a better cook than Jesus himself?  It says in our Bible that Jesus prepared for Peter and the other disciples a meal one morning.  What a great breakfast that must have been.  Picture that in your mind:  Jesus, the Son of God, cooking up breakfast and sharing an early morning meal with his disciples.  What a wonderful occasion that must have been!  Can you imagine that?

     But now imagine also, if you will, two chapters earlier in the Bible.  It was there that Jesus paid the ultimate price for not only these disciples of his, but of all mankind.  It was a terrifying moment in world history.  It was brutal.  It was awful.  Jesus, the Son of God, endured punishment far greater than any man should ever endure.  He did this even though he was innocent.  He did this even though he was the Son of God.  He did it all anyway, because of his love for us.

     Yet here we are, just two chapters later, enjoying breakfast.  He’s alive!  Jesus, the Son of God, had conquered death and the grave.  Yet here he is by the lakeside, still the servant, cooking up a wonderful breakfast for some of his closest friends.  After his resurrection, he could have gone first, as many of us certainly would have, to those who had crucified him.  He could have gone to Pilate, to Herod, the Pharisees and to the Romans and he could have said (in Aramaic) “In your face!  Nanny-nanny-boo-boo!”  But not Jesus.  In a small, quiet breakfast on the shore of a lake, Jesus showed us the example of how to live by serving others.

There was more filming to be done today, and Daddy came home to check on Madison afterwards.  She's doing better, although that pesky fever is lingering.  We'll return to the doctor's office tomorrow, and yes, it's another day without school.  But at least her fever is not as severe as the 104.  It's somewhere between 101-102 when not medicated.  But believe me, we keep her on children's medication on schedule based on whatever the box tells us to do.  And it works precisely as it is written.  In four hours, you'd better be ready to give another dose!  It's like clockwork with Madison.  Exactly four hours later, that fever starts spiking upwards again.  Amazing!

Tonight, we finished Poe's story "Before the Awakening," which sets up the beginning of "The Force Awakens" rather well.  Madison and Mommy sat as Daddy read to them the thrilling yarn!  We also read from the "Fish Tales" devotional, another few entries to go this week until the series completely wraps up.  Next month is "Spy Games," so we'll be all about spies soon enough.

But today's unique thing were fried green tomatoes.  You may recall we visited the Whistle Stop Cafe a few weeks ago, the famous location of the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes."  Shortly after that, Mommy found some green tomatoes that were packaged specifically for creating fried green tomatoes.  All that was left was for her to find some way of frying them without using anything with gluten inside.  She was rather successful, and tonight we had our first batch of friend green tomatoes.  Nana came over to check on Madison, and had herself some as well.  She said you couldn't even tell they were gluten-free.  So that's a win there.  Mommy and Daddy think they need a little bit of garlic or spice or something - we'll be tinkering with that formula in a bit.

But Mommy brought over the actual movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes" as well, since Daddy has never seen it.  We didn't watch it with Madison, but after she went to bed, Mommy and Daddy watched the movie.  Everything down at the Whistle Stop Cafe looks just like it does in the movie, and we might be driving back by there soon enough.

We'll see what Madison's temperature is tomorrow, but for the time being, there's lots of coughing and a bit of a fever.  It seems doubtful that we're going to school, and instead the doctor's.  That said, it's time for a rest, all of us.  It's been a full weekend.

SX Heroes

Okay, we have a few more pictures today than usual.  And none of them are of Madison, who sadly spent the day at home, still recovering from this 104 virus.  This does have something to do with her though, as the movie we were shooting today will be shown at Summer Xtreme in a very short time.  Above you can see the Mayor of this particular movie, addressing "random citizens."

And here is one of our villains.  His name is Praxis, which was a joke name that sort of stuck.  It has that outer space menace to it, while at the same time being a funny in-joke for teachers.

So yeah, we were doing a lot of filming today.  Many of us got toasted in the sun, in fact.  We had this courtyard area all to ourselves this whole day, pretty much until around early evening - and even then, we were free to film pretty much anywhere we wanted to.

Here's one of our heroes.  He represents the fourth graders, I think.  We haven't gotten a name for him yet, but he's clearly inspired by DC Comics' Cyborg character.  Ironically, a major production studio was shooting a theatrical motion picture about a block away from here.  The end result was the police department blocking off a few roads on the other side of the square.  This may have resulted in even less traffic for us to deal with - no interruptions, and a perfect day for filming.

Here's another one of our villainous characters, grabbing hold of the governor.  Look at that make-up job!  Josh spent a while working on the gauntlets and 'armor' for the various characters as well, pretty much all week at the warehouse sculpting and painting these bits of foam.  They turned out well!

Oh, and here's the green screen as well.  We brought it along for those added effects that we'll insert later on.  These characters have powers, so you can assume there'll be a bit of that in our final product.

The rogue's gallery turned out well, although they looked amazingly hot in those costumes.  The temperature was pretty warm outside, and I'm sure there was a huge desire to scratch and itch or wipe a forehead. But these characters held steady all day long.  And as you can imagine, it took a bit of time to get all that make-up on in the first place.

There's the master there.  Josh is off on his own, marking off shots that were taken while preparing for new ones.  We had the sound team with us, and all kinds of direction going on behind the camera, all preparing for a big day with the superheroes.

Speaking of which, here they are.  Some of our regular volunteers are here, along with some new faces that will add some excitement to Summer Xtreme.  Each of these characters represents a certain grade, and has a superpower, such as (from right to left) super strength and flight, super speed, ice powers, fire powers, an ability to shrink like Ant-Man, and the of course there's a character with Cyborg features.  We shot a fun bit here where they run towards each other, sort of like the Civil War movie that's forthcoming.

One other hero joins the mix, a character based on the Dark Knight.  He's sort of the rebel of the group, the guy with the attitude.  This sort of counters the boy scout character, just like Wolverine counters Cyclops, or Batman counters Superman.  That sort of thing.  Here he is below with our super powered girl character.

She should be pretty cool.  We had a few sequences with her where she takes off into the air, into flight.  We used that green screen again, and as you can see below, everyone got into the act helping out.

Plus, there was all sorts of choreography involved with some of the battle scenes.  Paul here below is seen battling Pastor Lance, who happens to be heavily in disguise as one of the villains (who we named General Zarg).  Yes, there are a lot of references to existing characters in this thing.

Anyway, it was a huge day for filming.  We were there from 9:00 am to around 9:30 pm or so.  And there's more filming to be done tomorrow as well.  

There were some pretty funny moments when there had to be bathroom breaks - imagine those three blue-skinned aliens walking into a restaurant to use the restroom.  But the flow of filming was so smooth, the weather favorable, and the amount of interruptions not even worth mentioning.  It was ideal, in other words, and a great start to filming for our new Summer Xtreme series.

"Frozen" on Ice

For the first time in forever, we returned to see "Disney on Ice" once more, this time at the Gwinnett Arena for their "Frozen" production.  You can just imagine the sea of Elsas in the audience, all there to see their Queen Elsa skate around and sing the songs all of us know by heart.

All of the girls in the audience were singing "Let it Go," as well as all the other songs, and pretty much quoting all the dialogue along with the characters skating around.

The set pieces were nice, and whoever it was that was skating as Sven was pretty amazing.  I mean, look at the size of that reindeer, and yet it was able to skate around just as all the other characters were.

The skaters were talented too, impressing the crowd with leaps, with twirls, and in some cases, with flips as well.  Mommy and Daddy's favorite moment came with the character Marshmallow, who was a couple stories tall:

He had dry ice coming out of his mouth, and was absolutely huge!  "Don't come back!" he yelled, and it was perfect.  Our seats were pretty good, but I could imagine those on the very front row were pretty impressed with the size of this thing.  The seats we had were row E, pretty centered, so they were actually pretty fantastic for viewing the performance.  Madison sat on the aisle, and had an unobstructed view, mainly because the girl in the seat in front of her was so young as well.

Anyway, it was a nice night out.  We were at the Gwinnett Arena, which is so much better than driving down to Phillips in Atlanta, paying for parking and driving so much further.  Essentially, it's the same performance - just a lot closer and more convenient!

Madison was still on medication tonight, and by the end of the performance, you could see that it was wearing off.  Her face was flush, and that temperature once again started rising.  Surprisingly, her fever keeps coming back, this after the doctor's visit now two days ago.  We quickly got her something for her fever, and something for her cough, but it's clear we may have to return to the doctor's soon if this doesn't straighten out.  Currently, she's sleeping upstairs, the coughing starting up from time to time.  She had a great night, but we just feel bad for her right now.

Obviously, she had the day off of school.  She was actually crying this morning when she learned she wasn't going in to school.  She had a 102 fever when she woke up, and was still coughing.  She got dressed for school, but we had to break it to her that she just wasn't well enough yet. She was so frustrated, so sick, and so tired too - last night she was up coughing from time to time.  We gave her something to help with the coughing, but there's only so much you can do.  We had her sleep on her side as much as she could, but when you're sleeping, it's inevitable that you'll turn to your back from time to time, and that's when the coughing starts up once more.

Again, she had a great time tonight.  And we were blessed to have a window of good health, and some serious favor with the rain that didn't come until we got into our car.  But we've already cancelled some plans for tomorrow.  Our little girl needs some rest.

Sick Day

Madison still has a fever, and coughing too.  We took the day off, although she was insistent that Daddy go to the school and pick up her pink writing notebook.  The reason for this? So she could continue her school work.  She has an opinion piece due on Tuesday, and her rough draft is inside that notebook.  So Daddy went and met with the teacher, and together, Madison and Daddy revised the opinion piece that Madison wrote up about ballet.

With Spy Games coming up, we watched a new movie about disguises, Dana Carvey's "Master of Disguise" movie, which is mostly for kids.  Madison enjoyed the part that we thought she would:  the Turtle Club.  We saw this movie a while ago, and all the kids were imitating the main character, Pistachio, calling out, "Turtle, turtle, turtle!"  It's certainly odd, but she enjoyed the movie nonetheless.  And Daddy is probably going to use a clip from this movie during the series coming up.

We had a sudden rain today, one that caught our painters off guard.  They've been working all week, ladders hoisted up to the top of our house, working carefully for days now.  It's nearly been a week, and about three of them have been steadily improving the house all around. Nice guys!

But the rain caught us all off guard.  We had the windows open, so it was a race to get those closed, all while some were 'sealed' with paint a bit.  So up went the ladders in the pouring rain, and Daddy was out there too.  We all got soaked!

The only bit of remaining news is a change of location for Nana and Ba-Ba.  They have finally settled on the new place where they will live.  Ba-Ba has been a little bit bored with their current location, so they've been searching beach properties, and they found something they like at Daytona Shores.  I think that's the name of the area.  It's south of Daytona Beach, I believe.  We'll find out soon enough, of course.  It appears as if this last trip to Satellite Beach may be one of our final trips, as from this point on you'll be reading the words "Daytona Shores"a bit more often.

It's not too far from Daytona Beach of course, and while we're certainly no big fans of all the crowds you see around there at spring break and so forth, there is a boardwalk there.  And that's the sort of thing Daddy and Mommy really remember from the beach growing up, with salt water taffy and rides and fun.  We might have to do our Boardwalk series again at KidPak, maybe a whole summer of beach themes.  Regardless, it seems as if we've wrapped up our stay at Satellite Beach - four times is the charm.  We'll move up the coast somewhat and be checking out Daytona next…

"The 104 Virus"

Madison went to the doctor's office this morning, having been sick enough to not go into school.  She doesn't have the flu or strep throat.  What she does have is something the doctors have nick-named "the 104 virus."  This is because the parents come in, each one saying their child has had a fever of 104.  The prescription is to deal with the symptoms, and let it run its course, with no antibiotics involved of course.

So today being a day off, Madison decided to do some homework, and some playtime with the Gamecube.  We had that hooked up still, and Madison was doing Mario Golf and games like that.  Ah, to be out of school again!  Isn't it great?

Not really.  Madison would honestly rather be at school than home sick.  She likes going to school, and furthermore, missing out on testing really bothers her.  It's the Milestones test, and this is the math part of the testing, which she excels at.  She's bummed she has to stay home.

Speaking of home, Daddy saw something pretty interesting at the park today as we were filming for this weekend.  We were filming a bit by the lake, some more "Fish Tales" videos, when this guy not far from us just started releasing pigeons.  It turns out these were homing pigeons, and they were about to go for a 55-mile flight back to their home.  This was just a bit of exercise, as they were getting ready for their big competition this weekend, a race that I believe covered about 300 miles.  Pretty interesting stuff.  We had no idea there was such a thing as homing pigeon races, but sure enough, we did the research and of course saw a lot of it for ourselves.

Tonight was a great service at church, one called "A River Runs Through Us."  It was about that spring of life that flows out of each of us, and how to keep it going.  It was a good night.  Madison probably won't be going to school tomorrow - tonight she's still coughing, and still on medication to keep the fever down.  It's a bummer, but it does put a focus on the fact that she's gone pretty much the entire school year without getting significantly sick.  Hopefully this "104 Virus" will pass quickly.

Hall Covnty Covrthovse

Daddy got inside the old courthouse today, this one in Gainesville.  The new courthouse of course is bigger and more capable of dealing with security and numbers of people.  So this old one was left alone, still intact and absolutely fascinating.  It's fallen into a bit of disrepair, but Officer Monica up there in the picture says it will be renovated eventually so that people can see this magnificent old room for what it is. We were out scouting a place to film for our Summer Xtreme video, and we found a courtyard that was perfect, right nearby this courthouse.

One question though:  what's up with the wording on the outside of the courthouse?  It reads "HALL COVNTY COVRTHOVSE" in large inscribed letters at the top.  Why change the letter "u" to the letter "v" like that?

Here's the answer I just found online:  In the original Latin alphabet, the character "v" sufficed for both the consonant "v" and the vowel "u". The replacement of the character "u" with "v" can be seen on neoclassical architecture in the United States, derived from the American Renaissance movement (1876-1917), reflecting the Ancient Roman influence on the architectural style. 

So there you go.  This building was constructed about twenty years after 1917, and Hall County is usually that far behind, so it all makes sense.

We had piano after school today, and during that class, Madison wasn't looking quite herself.  In fact, she was starting to look flush, and coughing a little.  Even worse, on the way home, she was voluntarily taking a nap.  We went to the thermometer right away once we got home, and that's when we confirmed it:  she was running a fever.  It was a bad one too, at 104.  We quickly got some medication in her, had her drinking water, and got a rag for her to put on her forehead.  She was on the couch, just trying to rest really.  And fortunately, the temperature did go down quickly.  Within twenty minutes, it dropped to around 100 or so.  We'll keep the medication going, and the water.  But tomorrow, she's not going to school.  She has big tests tomorrow, the Math Milestones tests, but she'll have to try again on Thursday or so.

She got two new Vinylmation wrestlers to cheer her up this afternoon.  They watched over her as she slept on the couch.

We watched a few episodes of "Ultimate Spider-Man," while on the couch, and Madison was quite adamant about making sure we kept the tradition of Taco Tuesday intact.  So we had tacos for dinner today as well.  Before bed, we read some more of Poe's adventure from "Before the Awakening," and before long, she was off to sleep.

Daddy and Mommy had another "Date Night," watching "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." once again.  Things are getting intense on the show, as it approaches its big climax.  We'll see in the coming weeks what happens there, but there was quite a twist in tonight's episode.

Tonight, Madison is sleeping okay, and that's good.  We'll keep an eye on her as well.  In all things, it could be a lot worse, and we're grateful that she's not feeling so sick as she was initially this afternoon.

High Diving Hare

This afternoon, Madison got her first taste of the Looney Tunes characters.  This is a reward for the testing today - she's in the midst of a few weeks of testing at school, which has a lot of wear and tear on the soul.  To counter that, we offer counter programming straight from Bugs Bunny.

Yes, she's never really sat down to watch Bugs Bunny or any of the other characters, and we've had this DVD collection for quite some time.  So as a part of her education, we watched several of the episodes.  They were a big hit with her, and quite frankly Mommy and Daddy.  I mean, some of them had all three of us laughing out loud.  This was the favorite that had us cracking up:

It's called "High Diving Hare," and the concept was so ridiculously simple.  And yet it worked, and we were laughing again and again at this one.  Daddy and Mommy used to love Bugs Bunny.  Even at a young age, Daddy knew based on who directed the thing if it were one of the good episodes or not.  This DVD collection is largely just the good ones.  There was no way to watch them all, but it's pretty clear we're going to be watching more of them as time goes on.

Tonight was ballet for Madison, who is still practicing for her spring recital coming up.  The great news is that this time, the ballet recital and the piano recital are on different weekends.  That means no conflict in time, or racing across town.

Daddy went to the doctor this morning for his annual physical, mostly because his prescription had run out.  He had some high blood pressure and high cholesterol, so that's going to be one of the challenges of the year:  getting that back to normal levels.

We also went to the chiropractor this morning, following that little adventure.  Mommy's foot has been bothering her lately, so we got one of those electrical devices that sticks to your feet and sort of puts a surge of electricity throughout.  If you have the levels too high, your toes involuntarily bend.  Or, in Daddy's case, your foot starts cramping up.  Yes, there's a balance there.  But it does seem to help afterwards.

They're painting the house.  It's been a couple of days, but the team is working hard to replace wood, fill in holes, and then finally get the whole house and back deck painted.  This team is so meticulous - we have nothing but good things to say about them.  We'll sit in the living room and look up - and there on a ladder, way up high, we'll see one of the guys slowly filling in and smoothing out the best he can every crack and hole.  It won't be long now before the house looks pretty swell, with a new layer of paint on it.

Tonight before bed, it was back to the Fish Tales Devotional, and then to start a new series about the Star Wars character Poe Dameron.  She's definitely into that!

Welcome to the Jungle Book

We had a nice visit to the jungle this afternoon, finally getting around to seeing the latest Disney movie, "The Jungle Book."  We actually splurged a bit and went to see it in 3-D this time, as the movie seemed to be made for that sort of thing.  And it was, actually.  This movie is pretty amazing what they did.  How easily we accept that these live action creatures are all real, and at the same time have such great personalities.  It was a tall task to make this sort of thing all work out, and yet it really does.  The three of us enjoyed the movie quite a bit.  And as a bonus, we apparently had with us in the theater a good portion of the population of India with us.

This morning was fantastic.  We had our third weekend of "Fish Tales," where Hot Rod Casten (the most electrifying man in fish entertainment history) returned for a bit of swagger.

He's sort of a cross between Bill Dance, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Bravo.  And the kids love him, although when it comes time to cheer on who they think will win, it's going to be either the boys or the girls.  Hot Rod is a presence of his own, threatening to take away the fishing tournament winnings from everyone.

Along the way, the boys are sort of goofing along.  They need flies for fly fishing, and one pesky fly seems to keep landing on one and then the other and so on.  The end result is a 'swat-fest,' where the characters - hoisting their flyswatters - were chasing each other, new tournament guests, and even a few kids in the audience.

Pastor Lance talked about the miracle of the fish and the loaves, about how with Jesus, a little is a lot.  Madison is seated to the left in that picture above, although not seen.  She and the other kids really got that bottom line today, and that's what it's all about.  We really push that bottom line, and try to make a lasting memory.

It was a good day fishing, and a good day at the jungle later on.  We did some piano today, and did some reading too.  We finished up Rey's backstory tonight, as well as reading from the Fish Tales devotional.  And all three of us were off to sleep a little early tonight.  We've got testing this week, so it's good for Madison to get some rest.  It's good for all of us to get some rest, eh?

Ghoel

So we were just playing Disney Infinity, and noticed that there is actually a Wol Cabasshite in the game, one you can place anywhere.  This is an alien from Jabba's palace, and in fact the one they have included in the game is known as Ghoel.  Here is a picture of Ghoel, as seen in Episode VI.

It's not C-3PO, Bib Fortuna, Boba Fett, or even that Nikto.  No, it's the weird-looking thing hanging from the wall there, the one with the long ugly tongue.  And as a bonus feature in Disney Infinity, you can have this guy hanging around (literally) your interior.

This honestly looked like an alien that they didn't quite finish, or perhaps he was going to be something better but then got put aside, and then there was space on the wall that was empty so what the heck, let's hang that weird-looking thing over there, okay?  If you're watching the movie, you have to look quickly to see him, along with other aliens too.  For example, you know about the ginormous praying mantis head guy in Episode IV?  That one is called a Yam'rii (versus the name, "Hey, we've got this giant praying mantis head, maybe we should cram that in the cantina!").  While some alien species are more prominent in the Star Wars universe, others like the Yam'rii and the Wol Cabasshite are so amazingly obscure that only the purest of Star Wars geeks would recognize their names (like Willrow Hood).  And yet, here it is in the game.

And yet furthermore, these characters have enormous backstories, all of them.  Gheol above has a secret reason for being at Jabba's Palace.  And his species, the Wol Cabasshites, are superior intellects in many ways.  And one of them is even a jedi named Omo Bouri.

Okay, I'm all for inclusiveness, but seriously, can you imagine that thing above holding a lightsaber, or actually training (as the Star Wars history site is telling me) Saesee Tin?  Are you kidding me?

So yeah, according to some really creative writing, this guy above was trained by a slug.  I believe this may be one of the reasons they tossed a lot of the Star Wars stories out there, calling them "Legends" and starting over with the new "Canon."  Because it makes no sense whatsoever that a slug with a long tongue can be a jedi.  I mean, why not a mynock?

Okay, anyway, I digress.  Today was a day of setting up for service, a day for piano, and a rather dull day overall.  We did have time to play some games, as mentioned extensively above.  And we're going to have painters coming over soon to cover the house with lots o' paint.  Hopefully while on the roof, they won't run into any Wol Cabasshites...

Good Grief, Another Movie Bash!

Here's Madison with one of her church friends, Emma tonight at our KidPak Movie Bash.  It was yet another movie bash, where all the kids came to see the latest release.  Tonight we watched the "The Peanuts Movie," because it's amazing.  No really.  This is a great movie!  The kids got there for popcorn, drinks and a movie, and it was just a fun night to hang out together.  Madison loves coming to these things, and I've lost count of how many movie bashes she's actually been to.  I remember one of the earlier ones, "Wreck-it Ralph," where she wore a Vanellope Von Schweetz shirt.  Looking back, she's been to quite a few of these.  Mostly, she's pretty much seen all the movies before she goes - but it's just fun to hang out with all her friends from church, and of course eat popcorn.

The ladder people were back at the house today:

These are our painters, first filling in all the cracks and places that need attention.  From the inside of the house, it really is quite peculiar to see a person standing outside of a window, on the second floor.  But they are really paying attention to every detail, and by the time they are done with the house, it's going to look so good.

Madison had a bit more testing today, though not as much as yesterday.  The testing continues next week, as do some other assignments - but this weekend she'll be homework free, at least as far as school is concerned.  Hopefully, she'll get some of her piano work done.  We'll be developing another weekly chore chart for her, this one with a bit of motivation attached to it, with some rewards that she's after, like the latest Poe Dameron comic book.

It was late, but Madison crawled into bed with us, just before we all went to sleep.  Tonight, we read more from Rey's adventures, and read from the Fish Tales devotional as well.  This series is going by rather quickly, Fish Tales.  Already, we're halfway through it.  But it's been fun.

Today we filmed by Flat Creek a bit, one last video for the series.  We did some fishing, but not with any hopes of actually catching anything, to be honest.  Flat Creek is kind of nasty!  But on film, the video short looks good, and we got the point across.

So tonight we went to bed, quite sleepy from a full day.  Tomorrow should be another full day as well, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.  Also, somewhere this weekend, we'll be visiting with Mowgli and "The Jungle Book."  Should be a great weekend!

Nutcracker Auditions

It's early April, so you know what that means?

It's time for Nutcracker auditions!  Yes, this may make absolutely no sense to you, but let me assure you that it makes complete sense to somebody somewhere.  How is it that a ballet company can do children auditions for a performance in December, but not know what time of day the recital rehearsal is in just a few weeks?  We have that problem every year.  We can't tell Mrs. Pam when we're able to do the piano recital, because they ballet company has no idea what time of day the kids will be practicing.  Last year, because the piano recital is the same day, we were literally racing across town after rehearsal, walking into the piano recital.

But I digress... today was a new experience for Madison, who hadn't really been to an audition before.  She was very nervous beforehand, almost to the point of tears... but she came out of the audition quite cheery and confident.  That wasn't so bad after all!  She enjoyed it, and it was good to see her try out for something new.

She had testing today, a trend for the next few weeks.  Lots of testing here.  I do not remember this much testing when I was younger.  Today's tests were related to reading and comprehension, so we had a good night's rest the night before.  She was rested this morning when we went to school, and she felt like everything went well today.  It was a blue day, which meant all the kids were wearing blue.  During the testing, all the kids wear the same colors for some reason.  Mommy said it is like a "solidarity thing," or it could be a more Common Core thing.

Anyway, it was a good day. Daddy got annoying allergy shot #16 today, and even stopped by a comic book shop to pick some comic books up for Madison.  He is bound and determined to pick up a monthly title for her, something to look forward to, just as he did some time ago.  There happens to be an X-Men comic that features pretty much the team (and villains) from 1992.  It's called, appropriately enough, "X-Men 92."  The first two issues we've read aren't bad, although from what I understand, I need to pick up issue #0.  Who does this?  I got issues #1 and #2, thinking, "Okay, I'm caught up."  And then I read inside that you need issue #0.  Folks, the number zero has NO VALUE.  You can't have a issue #0.  It makes NO SENSE!!!  Beyond that though, the comics are fun and have just enough edge to them to keep a sense of slight danger, while having a good time with so many different classic characters and cameos.  The glory years of the X-Men were the 90's, so it's neat to see them revisit that era in a fun way.

Meanwhile, the very reason for coming by the comic book shop was this:  to find out why C-3PO's arm is red in "The Force Awakens."  A big deal has been made about this, as if it is some world-shattering mystery for the last four months, keeping Star Wars fans up at night.  The build-up was there, letting everyone know that a comic book would come out yesterday, letting us all know why his arm was red.  It's a tragic little story, and it's all a little sad, actually.  And... it's okay.  I mean, it's not anything to scream and shout about after reading, like, "Yeah!  That was one killer comic book story!"  On the other hand (no pun intended), what do you expect from a comic centered around C-3PO?  And yet the build-up was there, so yeah, it was a little underwhelming.  So we have a copy of the comic.  The intention was to get it for Madison, although I might wait until Star Wars Day before going forward with that.  Besides, I suspect she's much more interested in the comic book centered around Poe.  She saw that one advertised in the X-Men book, and kind of wants it (Daddy picked that one up too - it's hiding inside the house somewhere!).

Painters are on big, tall ladders, surrounding our house, and perched in places that you would not expect.  They're taking their time, filling in all kinds of holes, and sitting on top of ladders way, way up along the side of the house.  It's not a job for someone scared of heights, that's for sure.  But they are very meticulous, that much is certain.

Tonight after dinner, it was "The Jungle Book,' the animated version.  We'll watch the live action version hopefully this weekend at the theater.  Phil Harris is so good in this movie, but so are all the other voice actors.  This is a great movie, and the soundtrack is just perfect.  When Daddy was young, he had a record of the soundtrack that was played quite a bit.

And so goes the day.  After reading a bit more about Rey, and reading from our devotional, it's time to head off to bed.  Big day tomorrow with another movie bash at KidPak, and lots of work with filming and so forth.  Lots to do, but it'll be fun!

Best Fishes

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