Summer Break

With her martial arts camp coming up next week, Madison needed to get some new athletic shoes.  Cue shopping trip!  Mommy and Madison went on a shopping trip, also getting all kinds of groceries as well.  We were a bit overdue in that department.  But the girls had a lot of fun shopping for clothing today, with Madison perhaps overdoing it from time to time by putting up quite a few things in the grocery carts.

They were doing a bit of party prep, getting to the party stores today to pick up flower leis, and lots of flamingos.  More on those in a few days, I'm sure.  We'll be seeing lots of flamingos in a few days.

We had more rain and storms today, and it's been too much.  One place where Daddy used to work for quite a few years - that area is completely flooded currently, underwater.  The Chattahoochee River is over its banks, and therefore Lake Lanier is considerably above pool.  It's three and a half feet above pool.  Back in the early spring, it was projected we'd have a dry spell that would drop those levels.  Not quite.  The bases of the tree trunks nearby the bridge by us are all below the water line, and there's been an advisory for boaters and swimmers to not go into the lake yet.

It's the end of May today, and we dropped by Chick-Fil-A tonight in order to take advantage of our calendar card there.  Madison is in love with the hot sauce at Chick-Fil-A.  She's more about the Buffalo sauce versus the Asian hot sauces.  Obviously, this is ironic.  It was nice to sit together and go out to eat, the quiet before the storm of Summer Xtreme.

Madison was doing piano practice today, "A Million Dreams," and doing a bit of reading as well.  We've got ourselves back on the library's new reading program for the summer, and it's a bit different than it used to be the last few years.  They measure things not based on completed books, but rather time spent reading, and other activities.  Madison is already working on that currently, working on getting points.

We didn't really have time for a movie tonight, but we did do a bit of Disney Infinity, this time playing around in Metroville with the Incredibles.  Afterwards, it was time for bed, but of course we did our reading from the devotional, and from "The Miserable Mill."  Following this, prayers and bedtime, the end of a busy day.  Daddy was working hard at Summer Xtreme, and Mommy and Madison were working hard prepping for parties and camps.  Summer break may be here, but that doesn't mean we're all slowing down.

Returning to Wednesday Night KidPak

Madison was back for a KidPak service on Wednesday night, something she hasn't done in a while.  The reason for this has always been because of the early wake-up time she has during the school year.  But with school out, she was able to - and was looking forward to - go to KidPak tonight.  She's been really looking forward to Wednesday night, going back again, asking repeatedly throughout the week.  Of course you can go to church, Madison!  She sat with her friends and enjoyed the service tonight, as Lauren spoke to the kids about faith, and about Violet from the Incredibles - about not being seen.

It was a long day of meetings and work towards Summer Xtreme.  Madison is working on piano, but beyond that not too much today.  She's reading, but this is her first week out of school, and Daddy is completely okay with her taking some time out to not do too much.  It's okay, right?

We did our reading tonight from the devotional - Daddy has written quite a few entries all about the movie "The Incredibles."  Even Syndrome gets a few entries, which is fun.  We're on book four of "A Series of Unfortunate Events," a book called "The Miserable Mill."  We only read one chapter tonight, as it was pretty late.  The books aren't exactly like the television series, but closer to those episodes than the actual movie that came out earlier.  Madison and Mommy aren't interested in seeing the movie, as they like everything about this television show.

We finished a script for the third day of Summer Xtreme's skits, and we did some filming too.  Daddy was in his Soundwave costume from a few years ago, a ridiculous sub-villain with sonic powers.  The video we shot today was bizarre, but everyone was laughing at it, so mission accomplished?  Soundwave will be back in Summer Xtreme, not only here but also a secret cameo a little later on.

Anyway, it's a busy day in some respects, at least for Daddy.  It was a day of rest for Madison.  And a day for us to get our waterbed too - almost forgot that.  We're going to have to assemble it, but that's exciting, a chance to return to our actual bedroom!  As for tonight, it's back to the guest room.  We said our prayers and did our usual zerberts and blaming the resulting noise on each other.  "Phew," Madison said, "Daddy that was awful!"

Then, "You smelt it, you dealt it."

Then, "He who blamed it, flamed it."

Then, "Whoever said the rhyme did the crime."

And so on.  We do this bedtime ritual every night, and it never gets old!

Crystal Skull

We completed our Indiana Jones marathon tonight, and Madison absolutely loved it.  She is talking about Indiana Jones more again, and actually wants the soundtracks on her music player.  That's easy enough.  She enjoyed tonight's movie, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."  Daddy did too - this is the movie we saw just before going off to China to meet Madison for the first time.  Some folks don't like this one, but it's a fun movie, and it's just great to see our heroes back again on the big screen.  It was really great seeing Marion Ravenwood again, or now Marion Jones now.

Work today was busy, a theme you'll see written here time and again leading up to Summer Xtreme.  Meanwhile, subtropical storm Alberto churns northward, and the rainfall is immense.  This was a very damaging storm, despite the fact that it didn't have the wind strength of others, or the impact along the shoreline that you imagine when imagining such a big storm slam into the coast.  This one has left us so much water - too much water.  The flooding is rampant, from Asheville to Helen to Gatlinburg to areas all over the Southeast.  The waterfalls are amazing, and the areas along the rivers are threatening.

Daddy got home to pick up Madison and take her to church tonight, but we had a bit to eat beforehand, and as always, it was good.  Mommy is such a great cook, and she's a healthy one as well.  Daddy doesn't do well with the food of this area - some coworkers wanted to get some classic country food and bring it back, and let's just say country kitchens aren't made for folks who don't have a gall bladder.

We've had some interesting insects in the house lately.  Two years ago, we battled ants, and won that war after several campaigns involving spray and so forth.  This week though, we've spotted five - yes, five - palmetto bugs.  These are huge dinosaur insects that seem to have superior intelligence to other insects.  Not that it matters so much for these five, as our superior intellect has captured them and flushed them down the toilet.  But we've spotted five in this house suddenly, and it might be the rain, or it might be something else.  Whatever it is, it's disturbing, because these things are big and they scurry out and you're taken aback by their size initially.  Updates will follow on this late breaking story:  is it a sign of things to come, or just a temporary skirmish?  Hopefully we got the last of them, or at least hopefully they learned a lesson not to try entering this house...

Madison was playing piano today, and playing a game called "Roboblox" on her handheld device.  It lets her talk with her friends from ballet, a few of which are coming to her birthday party this week.  She's decided to do flamingos for her painting this weekend, and it's an odd choice given all the other opportunities.  She could do ballet shoes, or a sunset, or palm trees at a beach.  But she's chosen flamingos, and that's okay with us.  It should be a lot of fun, something quite different!

Han Solo

We took a break from writing and working this morning to head over - through the rain - straight to the movies!  Another Star Wars movie came out today, this one called "Han Solo."  It was about our favorite Star Wars character, and probably the greatest character in the history of movies.  There were a lot of questions and doubts about this movie from many pundits and fans leading up to the movie, but the end result was a big thumbs up from the whole family: all three of us really enjoyed it.  Mommy and Madison really liked it a lot!  We won't put any spoilers in here, but there were a few twists and an incredibly unexpected cameo.  And in the end, it seems as if there will be another one of these movies upcoming, as there were a few unanswered questions raised at the end.  But we enjoyed the day out at the movies,  as did many others.  The theater was crowded, and we were glad to get there early so we can get those good seats we like so much.  And also, get that popcorn we like so much!

The rest of the day was spent in the house, indoors and out of the rain.  And wow, that rain really came down.  It's going to be like this tomorrow as well, but there is a lot of flooding in the eastern part of our country.  It will be more so by tomorrow, as Subtropical storm Alberto meanders up the heart of the Southeast.  It's a big storm, and it's moving slow - and that's trouble for people who don't like to get a lot of rain.  The ground is saturated, and the Chattahoochee is full, and in fact raging in places.  Lake Lanier is looks full too - it's great to have enough water, for those of us who remember our droughts.  But we're definitely approaching "too much water" for sure.  In fact, the bridge work between Hall and Forsyth can't continued until the lake goes down some more.  That isn't going to happen any time soon...

Madison did some piano practice today, finally starting to hit the keys on a new song, "A Million Dreams."  Also, Daddy finished the first Summer Xtreme skit today, a fairly big accomplishment given all the other Summer Xtreme planning taking place.  It's getting a bit stressful, to be honest.  We have five hundred and something kids for the first camp, and that involves travel plans and food and figuring out a way to fit everyone in certain places... it's a challenging few weeks, this time before SX18.  But the week after is always a great time to sort of collapse and chill!  Madison is looking forward to the heroes again - it'll be fun.

Tonight, we did "The Last Crusade," continuing our Indiana Jones marathon.  It is Madison's favorite of the movies so far.  Daddy saw this one in Athens in 1989, all by himself at that theater at the mall.  It was a big deal, the third Indiana Jones movie, and I couldn't wait to see it.  I remember seeing a morning show, and really enjoying it.  Madison did too.  She's been on the couch, riveted by each of these movies, completely focused on the screen.  She laughs, and she squirms at the bugs, and she loves the action sequences.  She can't wait until tomorrow though, so she can see Marion Ravenwood again.

We did take a break to play some "Battlefront II" again, back on Hoth, our favorite planet to have battles.  But it was all indoors today, games and movies and work - and reading at the end.  We finished "The Wide Window," as well as another entry in our Incredibles-themed devotional.  Summer is here - you can tell because we're all staying up later, and sleeping later too!  We'll sleep in late tomorrow a bit, but after that, it's off to get some work done.

Here Comes Alberto

As we get closer to Summer Xtreme, the time available to type and so forth becomes pretty limited here, but suffice to say, it was a busy day for us, as it will be the next few weeks.  This is Memorial Day weekend, and there's not much time for stopping if we work in the children's ministry here - we're putting things together for Summer Xtreme, and of course there's the weekly services to account for as well, times five.  We'll have a few new campuses soon enough, and we'll add to that eventually.  But for now, KidPak's services are good enough to keep us very occupied.  This  morning we had another INCREDIBLE HEROES service, this one dedicated to the character of Violet.  We talked about living in a bubble, versus living with God as our shield.  It was a great service, actually!

We got home, and there is still plenty to do, including writing and creating graphics and so forth.  Madison is now in summer mode, and we're looking up things to do with her spare time, although we already have a few plans here and there (outside of all the camps).  For one, there's new piano music, and for another there's a lot of cleaning up to do.  She was on that a little today, but there is also leisure time - she was on this new app called "Roboblox," which is something her ballet friends are also on.  She sees them from time to time online, which is a draw, of course.  She's also still doing Minecraft.  But she also spent some time reading today, the latest book being one from "The Dork Diaries," which she picked up from the library our last visit.  She reads those during the day time, and at night, of course we all read "A Series of Unfortunate Events" together.  Tonight we were nearly finished with "The Wide Window," which is of course heading towards an unfortunate event.  That's book three of thirteen.  So yeah, we'll be at this for a while.

Tonight we also continued with our Indiana Jones marathon, watching "The Temple of Doom."  Daddy remembers seeing this the first time, driving a good distance to see this one.  Remember how this was the movie that caused everyone to consider creating the new PG-13 rating system?  Now it seems that most movies have that rating.  But this one is a little darker. Still, Madison enjoyed it, despite it's darker elements.  She likes Willie Scott, although Marion is still the favorite leading lady in these movies.  We'll meet Elsa tomorrow, but let's all keep her role a secret and not spoil it for Madison.

Our first tropical storm is here, or at least a subtropical storm one.  The designation 'subtropical' has something to do with water temperature, I think.  It's still ranks higher than a tropical depression, but not quite a hurricane.  Although it steals the name from the list, our first in the alphabet.  And although there doesn't seem to be the awful winds of your usual tropical storm, there is going to be a lot of water.  Already there is flooding in certain areas north of here, which does not bode well.  The ground is saturated.

The rain falls tonight, no doubt putting a damper on many Memorial Day plans.  But wasn't this a day to honor our fallen soldiers anyway?  Perhaps that's a good spin on things.  We're remembering, and talking about military service with Madison today, just as we do each year.  The Battle of Attu was in the news this weekend, a 75-year anniversary taking place.  It's an obscure island that's always been fascinating, as it is so extreme in its location.  It's a part of Alaska, and 2900 soldiers died there (Japanese and Americans).  Technically, more people died there than at Pearl Harbor.  Yet nobody really remembers this battle in Alaska, which is again fascinating as to why.

Anyway, tomorrow is actually Memorial Day.  And yes, it will rain.  We'll honor our fallen soldiers to, remembering what they did, and enjoying the freedom they helped purchase with their sacrifice.

That's a Wrap

Here's Madison, our resident photographer for the SX18 "Heroes" movies:

She had her camera with her today as we went to the Gwinnett Campus to do the last significant day of filming for this series.  All the characters were there, and we needed some extras again, so Daddy took Madison once more - she'll be in another part of the movie as a fleeing civilian.  But when not fleeing, Madison was taking documentary shots of the whole affair, and having a great time with the grown-ups and fellow kids who showed up.  We were there quite some time today, quite a way to celebrate the first day of Summer Break.

But Madison wanted to do this because she enjoys this sort of thing.  You can see her above, straightening out the villain's cape.  Or straightening out Mary Shannon's hair:

She loves spending time with all these people - all good people, even the villains!

Of course, not everyone was a villain.  But you can see her striking up a conversation with just about anyone, all while filming went on in the background:

Quiet on the set please!  Down further below, you can see some of the photos that Madison took.  It was a pretty full day!  We left for Gwinnett late in the morning, after a massive skillet breakfast that Mommy had prepared.  Madison and Daddy love these skillet breakfasts!  

It took most of the day, so it's pretty much our one thing to talk about today.  Of course we read from "The Wide Window," and Daddy downloaded some music for Madison to play this summer.  She really wants the sheet music for "A Million Dreams," so Daddy printed that out.  Also, he printed a board game that Mommy found, a massive paper craft project that you'll see here later - it's a printable version of a game where you try to escape the Haunted Mansion.  It looks incredible, and hopefully it'll come out well.  We'll see!

We read from our devotional and said our prayers tonight.  But another thing we did was start our Indiana Jones marathon.  Madison has not seen these movies yet, as some of the material in them is a little scary or gross.  But she knows all about these characters, and couldn't wait to see the movies. So tonight was the first one, "Raiders of the Lost Ark."  We watched this with popcorn, and Daddy's kicking himself for not putting on his fedora.  This is such a great movie, and Madison really loved it.   That theme song is stuck in our heads, as it will be for the next few days.  It might be stuck in your head right now.  The next three nights, we'll watch all four of the movies, and maybe even more.

Anyway, here below are some pictures Madison and Daddy took of today's filming session at Gwinnett's Free Chapel location.  They turned out well, just as I'm sure the movie itself will be.  Can't wait to see it!  Until then, here are a few teaser pics!