Attack of the Yellow Garden Spiders

We had a great night tonight, and came up with a pretty game for Sunday too - we'll start there, just because I went ahead and put this graphic up there above.  I pieced together a few things off the internet to make it, and it'll go with this game we plan on doing where kids will do a relay race - they'll use those grabbing claws to pick up lime green balloons (with those alien faces on them). The person who collects the most in a certain amount of time will be our winner.  I think it should be fun!

Tonight we had "The Toy Story of Terror" playing, and afterwards we were talking about it in class, drawing lessons from it about overcoming fear, and of course knowing that God is with us at all times.  It was a great night, because we were talking about those things that sort of creep us all out, like these big spiders that we've had a lot of this year so far:

This big girl lives on our property beside the house.  But she has two other friends - or sisters - that are about the same size, and both of them live right on our front porch.  They're these massive gooey looking things, and they're horrifying!  They're of course good for the immediate area, reducing pest bugs, and possibly traveling salespeople.  But yikes!  This year seems to be a big year for these - there are three of them right there around our house, and I suppose there are plenty more in the surrounding wooded area.  That makes travel through these woods very perilous!  They're not inclined to attack - at least that's what I'm being told - but it's probably a good idea to stay a respectable distance from one!

Anyway, it was great to see the movie on our Toy Story stage - it just added to the whole experience.  It was probably the coolest way to see "Toy Story of Terror" in all the world.  Imagine seeing it on this great big stage that's themed to "Toy Story" anyway.  The kids loved it.

Madison was with us tonight, and she was in the office for a good bit too, dealing with a burden of homework that was a little heavy.  She was very stressed, in fact the most stressed we've seen her.  It's tough, because Mommy isn't here - although we're talking to her on the computer a lot.  It'll be okay - we sent a letter to her teacher, who responded back that it's okay and this isn't supposed to be a big deal for a grade or anything like that.  Madison will be fine.  But it was a little tense there for a bit, as she was pretty upset.  She's upset, of course, because she wants to do her best in school, and she carries that heavy weight on her own from time to time.  She has a drive to do her best, and that's admirable.  But it's okay to pull back and rest too.  Rest we did tonight, after reading a bit and praying.  It was easy to sleep tonight.

I think the roster of the Atlanta Braves probably had a more stressful night than we did.  Tough news, but as we Georgia fans like to say, over and over again, there's always next year.

We say that a lot.  It should be on our state flag.