Twelve Years Ago

Twelve years ago we saw her for the first time - twelve years already!  Today is "Gotcha Day," which of course is the anniversary of the day we first met Madison.  It was a day of firsts, and typically I share a photo here or copies of emails and things like that.  But this time, I thought I'd share instead a little something I wrote for the occasion.

First Dance

Gaze across the ballroom floor

and looking towards the open door,

the crowd was waiting anxiously.

Would we be joined by royalty?

The seconds ticked, and hearts beat fast,

when heralds stepped in there at last

announcing to the room her name,

when all would never be the same.

For those expecting were enthralled

to see the princess in that hall,

and right then in that moment there,

time frozen, hanging in the air,

a lifetime’s wait for destiny

looked upwards, out, and then towards me.

With courage filling up this heart

across that room, I made my start

to introduce myself, and then to chance

a small request, for that first dance.

While all around, the music played

a growing lovely serenade:

this melody of happy souls

began to sing for hearts made whole.

And while we danced, both face to face

I thanked God for this moment’s grace

My heart so grateful for each twirl,

this first dance with my baby girl.

Today was a normal day, far removed from the amazing atmosphere of twelve years ago.  It was a little humid with the typical late rain shower, an ongoing pattern this month.  It hasn't been terribly hot with the temperature this year, at least not yet.  We did celebrate some this evening, grabbing some Chinese food tonight and having a quiet meal together.  What Madison wanted tonight, of course, was to finish up "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", season two.  It was the last three episodes, and it was pretty epic, of course.  We'd seen it before, but Madison couldn't wait to see what happens next.  Now... on to season three.  We just have to get it first, but that's coming I'm sure.  Especially with that incredible cliffhanger.

We had taekwondo this afternoon, and Madison was glad to go to the earlier class, one reason being that there were more students in there, and of course more friends.  It was good to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Edge there, who were going through a pretty difficult season.  Bart lost his mother this weekend, and it's obviously been tough.  We'll see them again tomorrow for lunch, and maybe Madison will be along with us.

We had a KidPak meeting this afternoon, another Zoom meeting.  Unfortunately, again, we're meeting from home.  We're doing this due to the fact that someone at work has once again been tested for the virus.  But this time, the test result was positive.  The co-worker is okay, but of course the nature of this virus ... well, nobody really knows anything for certain about it, really.  There's a flood of information, and much of it is fluid and even worse contradicting itself.  Nobody can say much for certain, and many people today are using one virus statistic or another to justify a predetermined belief.  Stay indoors.  Wear a mask.  Go outside.  Don't wear a mask.  Don't worry about touching surfaces.  Children can't catch this.  Children can.  Children can't catch this.  Children can.  Asymptomatic people spread the virus.  Asymptomatic people don't spread the virus.  Each of these has been stated over the past months by people in a position of authority within the medical community, so it's not like it is coming from some conspiracy site or misguided politician.  It's all presented as fact, and that word lately has not been as factual as it should be.

It's somewhat like a lot of science in that regard.  One person will spout out facts, complete with graphs and statistics - and meanwhile another person will spout out their facts, complete with contradicting graphs and statistics.  The end result is that we have a lot of people certain of their opinion, all based on what information they're choosing to look at.  Meanwhile, the rest of us don't have much of a clue of what's going on overall.  And it isn't for lack of trying, which is to say we're not apathetic or lazy.  It's just that there is so much information out there, and so much of it cancels out the other information.  You just sort of throw your hands up, and hopefully - hopefully - collectively we're all starting to turn off the news.

Anyway, moving on, after watching the end of season two this evening, we had some time leftover, and you can see what we did above.  We returned to an old LEGO game, one based on the Avengers.  There was an extra thing you could download, an mini-level based on the end of season two, which we just got done watching.  Madison and I were playing different characters for a while, the ones we just watched, and now it all made sense to her who they were.  Playing this before, of course, she wasn't familiar with everyone.  One question though:  where's Mac and Lance?  Pretty much all the rest are there, including Agent Koenig, who we're all happy to see again, along with his lanyards.

We played a little later than we thought we would, moving on to a level with Captain America and playing that for a while.  We did have enough time to read before bed.  And of course we prayed for our friends, for Ba-Ba, and for Mr. and Mrs. Edge.  It's been a challenging time, but it is just a season.  A cynical person might say this is "election season," which is why this is all seems a bit more extreme.  We'll all look back on this time with more critical eyes, and hopefully be able to finally discern what is truly fact.  Until then, the one fact we believe in right now is that God is with us, just as He has been these past twelve years.  And in the end, we'll be okay.

Daylily

With all the rain lately, we've had our plants, flowers and vegetables growing as well.  This daylily in the back yard sits there towards the very back of the yard, and stands out in an area of green, something nice to see from the back deck.

As mentioned, the rain showers have continued, and look like they will continue.  That's keeping things interesting here!  We did squeeze in some dinner during one of the breaks in the rain - I got outside with Mommy's famous hamburger mix, and I got to grill some cheeseburgers on the deck, using my new grilling implements.  It was a Christmas gift, this box of stainless steel grilling tools, and it all looks so great!  And it works too, but the visuals are fun.  I am indeed the Grill Master!

Sort of.  Anyway, today Madison and I went over to the church to get the five inflatable costumes from our "Unleashed" series, because we're not done with those guys yet!  We have to test them out, of course, and make sure they still inflate and so on.  But it'll be fun to see the reunion there.  We'll probably film that next week, as this week there's been yet another event at the church that might close us down for a bit.  We'll see.

On the way home, we stopped for something that we haven't had in ages!  We had taquitos!  Obviously in this day and age, the roller grill items at a gas station have been a dubious choice for food, and in fact, the past month or so there have been no taquitos at all.  But this afternoon, there they were, rolling endlessly, enticing us with the warm memories of spicy chicken, and the temptation was too much.   Madison and I walked into the gas station, and cried out with all the emotion of someone that's been separated for four months now:  "Hey, taquitos!"  Running forth to the warm welcome of a familiar site, we embraced our destiny.  Madison loves taquitos.

Mommy did some yard work today, but this week will be on and off with the rain.  We'll try to squeeze in some more trips to get mulch, amongst other things.  We were gathering pictures for Nana and Ye-Ye's 50th anniversary.  We found plenty of old ones that we've been scanning today, like this one here:

This was Pikes Peak, obviously.  I've been to the top of that mountain about five or six times.  This was one of the first times though.  You can see Nana, Ye-Ye, and that's Aunt Shain and myself.  In the middle is Ye-Ye's mother.  Ye-Ye's father is taking the photo.  Lots of memories in some of these photos.

Tonight's viewing was episode 19 of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", followed by "Avengers:  Age of Ultron."  The two go together chronologically, and watching this season leading up to things, it's pretty cool how it all worked together.  It can be taken on its own, or you can do it like we did, watching the entire season, and then the movie right in the midst of things.  That's how we did season one with "Dark World" and "Winter Soldier" thrown in there, and it's been great to relive things chronologically.  The thing is, we're doing it at a much more rapid pace.  Back in the day, we were going week-to-week.  Now, with this binge-watching, we're seeing an entire season in a little over two weeks!

"Age of Ultron" was a better movie than I remember it being.  Not that it was bad to begin with, but there were things that didn't make sense and a general feeling that the first "Avengers" movie was so much better.  But this movie was enjoyable, and a lot does happen in it.  And seeing how it all fits together is a lot of fun.

Tonight we read again from "Truckers," and we're still stuck at the Store with the nomes.  But they've got to devise an escape plan, and that's all up to Masklin.  The girls are enjoying this story, and perhaps we'll go on to "Diggers" right after this - I don't know.  We'll leave it up to them.  There are options for the next book, but just like with season two of our current binge-watching, we're rapidly going through this book, and having some laughs along the way.

Knights of the Round

Hear ye!  Hear Ye!  This very day, let it be known that Lady Madison and Sir Dad had both endeavored on a dangerous quest, as shown clearly above.  It was a quest for THE HOLY GRAIL!  Indeed, our brave knights traveled by foot - and occasionally by horseback - across familiar and dangerous territories inhabited by enemies of the king.  One by one those enemies were vanquished, including this devious rascal here:

Time and again, he entered the scene, leaning on his weapon, and taunting us with his vile laugh!  Verily, this laugh merely inspired us to rain down an onslaught of punishment with each of his visits.  Lo, he paid dearly, as did all these odious rogues!  For in the end, we found victory and glory, along with Merlin and the Holy Grail!

Strangely enough, all those knights you see in the picture above were not around to actually help us in battle.  Perhaps they were off fighting their own battle.  Yes, that's what we'll go with.  Anyway, we just finished up this ancient Capcom game called "Knights of the Round," doing so because, well, I insisted.  But Madison did have a good time with it.

We did some Mario Party after that, where I was Monty Mole again.  Let me just say this:  don't mess with Monty Mole.  I am undefeated as that mole, and I can't explain why or how.  Mario Party is a game that involves a little bit of skill, but a whole lot of sheer luck.  There are some random things that happen that have huge consequences, and literally you can be in first place after ten rounds of hard work, and suddenly find yourself in last place simply because you rolled a four on the die.  But not with Monty Mole today.  No sir!

Today we did a whole lot of lawn work outside, mowing the grass and putting down about twenty bags of mulch on the new steps at the side of the house.  Things are coming along somewhat.  While outside, the Kona truck came by again, so we got ourselves a few frozen treats.  We heard the music coming down the street, and had to get ourselves something there.

The haze is still there outside from the sandstorm, but the frequent rains today helped wash a lot of that away.  We had two significant rain showers today, the second being the stronger and more lasting one.    It cooled things off nicely, although by that time we were done with the lawn work.  The heat and sun were enough to drive us indoors for a shower and a bath.  In fact, all three of us had separate showers and baths today, although not all at the same time.

Madison was doing some piano today, keeping up with that, although it's harder when it is not as guided.  She is working more on a new song that she's learning - okay, it's an old song, but it's Victor's Piano Solo from "The Corpse Bride."

She's been working on this on and off over the years, only doing the part for one hand.  But this summer, she's started on the other hand, and it's slow going, but it's coming together gradually.  She says she's making small progress on it.  Today the focus was on that left hand, getting that figured out a little more smoothly.

It's Sunday, and as always, there's church in the morning.  We had our third KidPak service for the series, "Unleashed," and it was so great seeing all the inflatables again.  This was such a funny idea, having everyone in inflatable costumes and having them compete.  There was a pretty big handicap for the Raptors and the Sharks, when you look at the design of these costumes.  And yet, look who the top two contenders were at the end of Summer Xtreme 2019.  These two haven't really won as much with the games online this series, and again, look at the costumes.  Still, it's been fun to watch the competitions, and it's been great seeing the pastors from all campuses deliver these messages.  It was another good service this morning - we gathered in the living room to "go to church" together, and have some laughs as well.

Tonight we did have another episode of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," but first we saw another production from "Sight and Sound," a play they based on the life of Moses.  It's called "Moses," which seems to be fairly descriptive, but in their defense, most of their plays have a title based on a person in the Bible.  We have a few more of these to watch, including "Samson" and "Noah," but they've been all good so far.
 

The technical achievements on stage are amazing.  Tonight's presentation of the burning bush was just amazing, and the Passover scene was also incredible.  It was another great production from them, and of course we're looking forward to seeing the next few.  We got these back in April, after seeing the production of "Jesus" online.  We thought this would be a great way to use the stimulus check.

Tonight we finished up with prayer.  It was a fairly full day, despite not really going anywhere.  We might go get some more mulch tomorrow, or perhaps some ice cream!  We went to bed a little later, but fell asleep quickly.  The sun and heat outside wore us out somewhat, so we were ready for a good night's rest!

Forward Notes

We were doing a bit of work in the back yard today, and that involved mulch.  I made about two trips to Dawsonville to get twenty bags of the stuff, and I suspect that we'll be out of mulch in a day or two.  Meanwhile, Madison was attending the last sessions of the Forward Conference...

By the end of it all, she had taken one hundred pages of notes!  Of course, each page was a small note card, and she was writing exceptionally large on it.  But she was using very nice penmanship, and by the end of the note taking, she had assembled all the pages and made herself a small booklet.  From what we understand, all her notes are also on social media too, shared there as well.  

She enjoyed the interaction of Forward, and it really set up things for next year when everyone will be together again in person.  The Saints did not win this year, and were somewhat robbed in fact.  But she still had a good time, and will certainly be in attendance next year.

We had Chick-Fil-A for lunch today.  One of the trips over to Dawsonville to get mulch resulted in a visit to Chick-Fil-A, where they still don't have the dining area open.  It's all drive-thru, and amazingly, the line for cars stretches around the building, sometimes twice.  Literally the other day, I drove around the building while in line two times - there was an outside lane, and then an inner one, and somehow the cars on the inside crossed paths with the outside lane to escape with some food.  It was all rather intricate, once again reaffirming the current statements about the people who run Chick-Fil-A, and how they should run all government functions as well.

Anyway, the mulch made it to the back yard, where we have a nice day lily growing, and you can see a whole lot of tomatoes in our future.  The tomato plants are growing super tall, like some sort of mutant tomato plant.  They're big.

Speaking of big, there was a whopper of a storm that came through today.  We don't usually have our power blink like that, but it did today, and several times.  We talked to a few others online, and their power did go out.  It was a big and windy storm.  Nana and Ye-Ye said several trees fell down on the road nearby where they live.  Thank goodness it wasn't anything in their yard - we don't need any more of that!

The sand is still in the air, and you could really see it in the mountains as we drove back and forth this afternoon.  Fortunately that rain came, and hopefully washed a lot away.  You just felt like your fingers were grimy or something, although that could all be psychological.  There was no question there was a beige or brown tint to everything.  The Sarahan Dust will be with us another day or two, causing trouble for those with allergies.  That's Madison.  She was sneezing a few times today, but I don't think it's because of the sand.  

We said our prayers tonight, and we read from "Truckers" as well.  Also, we binged a few more episodes of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."  It was a good day today, and we did a few things today.  The big event was Forward, of course.  It wasn't exactly the Forward we've always known, but it's been a good experience for Madison.  We're very proud of her, of course.

First Forward

Despite being entirely online, there's a lot of excitement for the Forward Conference this year, which will be very memorable just for that reason:  it's entirely online.  Madison is showing her Tribe spirit by wearing a custom-made "Saints" shirt.  That's the tribe she is representing here, and she's been online in the Forward chatrooms, along with friends, all of them cheering on the Saints.

Today's sessions were good, and Madison has been taking lots of notes throughout.  She has her laptop set up on the table, and her notepad there as well.  I rushed home to set it all up on the big television screen there, but she prefers her setup on the table there, a little study area made up for Forward 2020.

So we've gained some more ground this year.  And to explain, let me start out by saying that just when you thought this year couldn't be any more unusual, we've had a dust storm.  But it isn't any ordinary dust storm - this is from Africa.  Yes, a Saharan Dust Cloud has blown all the way over the Atlantic Ocean and swirled all the way up over to North America.

It's unreal.  The last time I've seen something like this was back in 2008, when we were in Beijing.  The weather was overcast and had a chalky sort of look, and there was the feeling like it was going to rain, but it never did.  The skies looked heavy with something, and we didn't see much of the sun then.  That was pollution, and Beijing was famous for it that summer, right about the time of the Olympics.

That's the way the skies look now, and for the rest of the weekend.  You can look to the mountains north of us, and there's this beige light that illuminates them.  The sunsets are supposed to be more colorful, although the frequent rain and cloud cover might make that a challenge to see.

 I spent a good bit of time today on our upcoming "Wildfire" series, which I'm hoping isn't prophetic in any way.  The way things have been lately, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if there were rampant wildfires in the West somewhere.  The running joke about the year 2020 is that the next month will feature asteroids, alien attacks, or some other dramatic plague.

In between sessions, Madison had time for piano, and time for a bath as well.  So she had a full day regardless of the fact that she didn't go anywhere.

Tonight there was time for an episode of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," and we had time to read from the current book we've been reading, "Truckers."  This is Madison's first Terry Pratchett novel, and in fact Mommy's as well.  They're both enjoying this Book of Nomes (without the "g") quite a bit.  It's not a Disc World book, but it is a good starter kit for the author, a good glimpse at the style of writing, which is witty and fun, and always sneaky with a point or two.

It was a good day in the end, a full day too.  We went to bed on time tonight, tired, but ready to tackle another summer weekend tomorrow!

Madison Kayaking

We were back to kayaking today, but this time it was with the family for a few hours on the Chestatee River.  This picture above sort of sums up the day, a relaxing ride along a river on a beautiful day with the family.  There were many moments of pure tranquility, as we were able to take the oar out of the water and float along, listening to the sounds of nature around us.

We met at Ye-Ye and Nana's house, and from there we drove up to the drop-off, all ready to go.  Here we are with our oars, just before getting the boats.  Up until now, the weather this week had been downpour after downpour.  In fact, last night there was yet another heavy rain that woke us all up.  This morning, the clouds looked heavy and dark in places, but for the next few hours - and in fact the rest of the day, the rain backed off so that we could enjoy ourselves on a memorable day.

This was Madison's first trip on a kayak.  Previously, she's been on a canoe down in Florida, and she really enjoyed those days.  But today was something new, and I was somewhat concerned given all the water that was going down that river this week.  The Chestatee River was quite full, and I have not been down this particular section before.  But in fact, the water was just high enough to make the ride quite pleasant.  Most of the rapids weren't really there, if there were many at all, because the water level was up much higher.  Only one place at the end had a little bit of anything, with the rest of the "rapids" just being very easy to coast over.

Ye-Ye and Nana arranged this some time ago, a big family outing for us all, and they even paid for everything.  It was a fantastic day together.  There were so many moments gliding down that river, places where we could just sit and talk, and during much of the journey we had the river to ourselves.

Aunt Shain took all of these pictures - she had her phone with her, and she had that in a ziplock bag just in case.  The last journey, Nana had her phone with her, and unfortunately, it didn't survive the voyage.  This was because there were a few places where the boat capsized last time.  This time, however, that didn't happen.  But you never know, so into a ziplock bag the phone went just in case.  Madison and I both had their boats tip over, but at the oddest spot - we made the entire trip just fine without any difficulties, and then at the very end, we got caught up in the log jam of people getting out of their boats - we had caught up with a summer camp of 26 kids.  Right there at the end, Madison was trying not to pass by the place to disembark, and she turned sideways and caught the water in her boat and tipped over.  And I did too!  We both went past the spot where we were supposed to get out of the river, both clinging to our boats and oars, fighting the current and trying to get back.  That was really the only place where we had some challenges, because otherwise, the trip was a remarkable little cruise.

I got in the boat just ahead of Madison, just to make sure I could be down river in case something happened.  This was the first time I've been in the sort of kayak where you get inside the boat, rather than on top of it.  The control was so refreshing, although from what I understand, with heavier rapids it might be more of a challenge.  Anyway, next it was time for Madison to climb into the boat.

She was fearless, and not nervous at all.  She had her experience with a canoe, and obviously there are differences, but she was able to build on that, and glide right out there with confidence.  I stayed with her for a good bit early on, but as the journey downstream progressed, it was apparent that this wasn't really necessary.  She stayed at the front of the pack the entire trip, with Ye-Ye by her side, the two of them talking, learning how to use a kayak, and just enjoying the tranquility of the river.

And, of course the splashing.  With Madison and water, it is inevitable.  Though, to be fair, Ye-Ye started it.  His oar somehow accidentally splashed a pretty good distance over to Madison when she wasn't looking, and let's just say from that point on, it was on.

She has this one trick that got Nana, Ye-Ye, and myself with.  She slows down and looks like she's just resting a moment as you pull up behind her somewhat and then.... SPLASH!  Her oar launches a whole bunch of water at you, and she's suddenly rowing quickly forward to get away, laughing the entire time.

But the trip was more than just splashing each other of course.  It was getting into the great outdoors for a wonderful day, and enjoying the nature around us.  The turtles were everywhere.  Nana and Ye-Ye said they saw a lot more last time, and this time we had seen at least forty to fifty of them along the banks of the river.  It became a battle cry of sorts whenever anyone saw a turtle:  "Turtle!"  Aunt Shain was wanting to get a few pictures of the turtles, and by the end had several photos.

Only at the end of the trip did we encounter anything close to the rapids that I've been used to on that portion of the Chattahoochee.  The Chestatee River was so full though that this was just a place where the water went downhill a bit faster.  Madison found a place to the right of the river, and surged downward with ease.  Ye-Ye and I went down the middle, and got very wet as we hit a small bit of standing wave that hit us head one and dumped a few gallons in our laps!

Overall, it only took us a few hours to make the trip.  It was really just long enough for a an introduction to kayaking.  We all felt like we could just keep going, really.  It was just a perfect day, so peaceful and the temperature just right.  The water was obviously pretty cool, as most river water is.  But it was also refreshing.  It was certainly more brown and turbulent, as all the rain and quantity of water had stirred it up quite a bit.  But it was all very pleasant.

Madison loved it.  Just past the turtles here, you can see her way up ahead, coasting along without really using the paddles.  She's just taking it all in, enjoying the scenery and the experience of guiding her own boat along the waters.

All good things must come to an end though, and as you can see here, there's a hanging sign up above, a finish line of sorts that tells you to get ready to go ashore.  It was here that Madison and I had our little adventure, and funny enough, everyone else was so preoccupied with getting out of their boats that they didn't realize that Madison and I were downriver somewhat!

But we made it safely, as you can see here from a picture afterwards.  Madison and I are soaked at this point, but there's a place to get changed and we brought towels to dry off with.  You can see by our expressions that it was a lot of fun today.

Madison's first kayaking expedition was a huge success.  She did very well, and was a quick learner.  It was very easy to control the boat, and again, the waters were so full that it wasn't so much of a challenge today.  She's ready for something more challenging, though.  She said that towards the end, that she wants to try out some bigger rapids.  We might try this stretch again sometime when the water is not so full, and we might see how different it is.  But until then, this was the perfect starter for a first-time kayaking trip.  She had a great time.  We all did!

We went to Chick-Fil-A afterwards, and after that, went home to rest a bit.  But not for too long!  Today Madison had taekwondo once more, and she was soon getting ready in her uniform, and yes, we were out the door once more for an session at the studio.  Ms. Walker and Tucker created an obstacle course for the students, and then of course there was some working on form and those high kicks against the wall.  A lot of stretching involved with those, but Madison is working hard to get her kicks higher and higher.

The whole time, I was watching her, and watching the clock.  Forward 2020 started at 7pm tonight, and this would be Madison's first Forward.  It's all online this year, as opposed to the massive experience at the Gwinnett Arena.  All that is sorely missed, of course.  So this is somewhat like the river today, a starter kit of sorts.  It's a taste of what Forward is, without diving fully into it.  After tonight's session, Madison can't wait to go to Forward at the Arena.  For one thing, there's a Tribal competition, and she loves that sort of thing a lot  She's with a tribe called the Saints, and after tonight, they're in second place.  With Forward, there are games like with Summer Xtreme, and of course there are Tribes.  There's worship, and there are guest speakers for each session.  With the online app that Madison has on her phone, there's a chatroom and there are games too.  She's enjoying it a lot, and how great to see her listening to the guest speaker, taking notes.

As you can imagine, we were pretty worn out by the end of the day - and how nice to enjoy a free backyard online concert from Hot Club of Cowtown!  It was a bit windy, but it was super fun to see the band mostly back together.  We had this up on the big television screen in the living room, tapping toes and singing along.

Lots going on!  But tomorrow will be a good day too, with more Forward to come.  We said our prayers tonight, and yes there was an episode or two of our binge-watching to do.  But somewhere short of midnight, we were in bed, fairly exhausted from such a full and wonderful day.

Duff-Nuts

Our creative team had another Zoom meeting tonight, and it was great just to hop on and talk to each other.  But the other thing we did was an actual skit, or at least the voice work for it.  I'm not entirely sure how that came out, so we'll try it again in a bit if the audio isn't quite as good.  But we did have an idea for a skit through all of this, one we'll be doing once more on Zoom.  Seriously, it was just plain good to meet up with everyone again.  It was fun!  The funny thing are the backdrops, including the one that Madison had chosen that has Camille in it, who also is the one at top right, and of course you can see Dady and Willy Wonka together.  And the creepy sun from Teletubbies, and oh, there's Inside Out.  Dawn at bottom left is actually outside at Disney Springs, where there was a thunderstorm approaching - she had to run for cover at Splitsville.

Here's something:  Duff-nuts!  Yes, thanks to Sam, the Commodore 64, these are forever known as Duff-nuts.  Yes, they're doughnuts.  But there was this voice program called Software Automatic Mouth that we had for the Commodore 64, and it was incapable of pronouncing doughnuts the correct way.  It pronounced them the way the word "tough" is pronounced, which is like "tuff."  So for over twenty years, if you wanted a quick snack, you could drop by Dunkin Duff-nuts.  True story.

But a complete aside.  The point is, we had doughnuts, and these were special doughnuts.  Firstly, these doughnuts were absolutely delicious!  Mommy made these from scratch, and added the chocolate afterwards, and vanilla on some of the others.  These doughnuts were just perfect, and in fact the more I type about them, the more I want to go get another...!

It has rained this week, and it's been torrential.  It's been humid and repetitive with the storms.  All week, we've had these immense waves of rain, with reds and purples on the radar.  And you'd think that would be it for the day, like, "Okay, we've had our big storm for the day."  And then within a few hours, it would happen again.  Rinse and repeat!

Tonight's binge-watching of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." continued with firstly, the big episode from season two where Skye gets her power, and other characters lose everything.  And after that, we crowded together in the guest room, gathering to watch the latest episode from season seven.  This one takes place in the seventies in New York, which is a time and place I remember well.  We'd take these tours there, going on the Circle Line Tours, up to the top of the Statue of Liberty, over to Radio City Music Hall (where I remember seeing the premiere of "Pete's Dragon"), up to the top of the World Trade Center, across the Brooklyn Bridge, under the Lincoln Tunnel, and to all those iconic places.  One of the most memorable destinations was Yankee Stadium, of course, to catch those games.  I remember seeing a game against the White Sox.  The Yankees won, of course.  Anyway, it was neat to see old school New York again, or at least that old school.  Previous episodes were from the 30's, which of course was way before my time.

This is an atlas I converted into a book for Forward coming up - it's just one very tiny example of the background preparation things that is going on right now, as the church is working hard to make a great online conference.  Last year's experience is sorely missed, as people from all over gathered under one roof at the Gwinnett Arena for an experience unlike any other.  But the church is doing its best to gather everyone together online for a unique experience there, and yes, Madison will be with them.  She's registered for Forward, and she'll be a part of the SAINTS tribe.  It'll be a different experience this year, but she and her friends are looking forward to it!

We said our prayers tonight, and we needed to get a good night's rest after reading a bit.  The reason for a good night's rest?  A nice little adventure in the morning!

Baseball is Back

We had taekwondo tonight, although there were just five students in the class.  Maybe six.  Class has two different times now, this due to the recent viral problems, and a lot of students go to the 3pm class.  Madison usually goes there, but I had to work today, and that meant things were a bit back to normal in regards to that particular schedule.  Madison got her first stripe today, which is crazy because it seems like things have just gotten started with the red belt, but the thing to consider is that these classes are a continuation of classes that started before Rank Camp, and therefore it's actually been a pretty sufficient amount of time.  The idea, by summer's end, is to be at Red Belt Decided.

As for class itself, there was a fun moment of confusion when Madison briefly forgot her current form, and started thinking of a previous one, and then completely "blanking out" a moment, much to the amusement of her instructor Miss Walker.  But Madison is doing well, and completely focused, at least here.

The rest of the day was a little more unfocused, but it's summer time now and that's okay.  She spent essentially the entire day talking with friends online.  There was some piano practice getting home from taekwondo, and after that a few episodes of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." as well, with us approaching the halfway point of season two.  But that's largely it for the day, a fairly unproductive day as a whole.

I was working on Forward material, and the next devotional as well, which is pretty much already done - the next KidPak series should be a decent mix of two previous series from the past.  And it might be our last entirely online series, meaning we may be doing both online and in person services in August.  Of course, that will look very interesting, given all the regulations and worries out there.  The current feel of the world is that none of us know what to believe from government and health officials, as one moment you don't need masks and then you do, and then you don't, and then you do. And the physical contact with surfaces was bad, and now it's okay, and then it's questionable, and now... not sure.  And then the asymptomatic carriers are lethal weapons, and now they're not so bad... it all goes back and forth.  The water is so muddied that we have no idea what to think.  In the book of Judges, everyone did what was right in their own eyes," and that's where we're at.  Sometimes you can go in and wear a mask, and no one else is.  Then you don't wear a mask, and everyone else is wearing a mask.  And official government and health sources will both tell you it is very necessary, and not that necessary if you're asymptomatic, all at the same time.  So it's up to you.

One bit of good news, and it is so needed:  baseball is back.  Spring training starts in July.  In summer.  So it's technically Summer Training, but we'll let that title slide, like a runner trying to get back home.  The end of July, I think, is when baseball starts up again, and we're all very excited about it.  I don't think we can go to games, exactly.  But listening to them on the radio again will be great, as will watching them on television.  It's our family's favorite sport.  I'm not sure how or if it will work, but it will be great to go to any game this year.  We'll see, of course.  It's not entirely up to us.  But we'd love to be taken out to the old ball game.

Thundering Through

Madison took this photo today of the rainbow outside.  We've had such huge rainstorms thundering through as of late, one after another, wave after wave of torrential downpours.  It's been quite impressive.  It seemed inevitable that there'd be a rainbow following one of them, and here it is.

Looking down at the sidewalk, I spotted this leaf and snapped a picture of it, with fresh water droplets on the surface.  It was a humid and wet day!

Tonight, Ye-Ye and Nana came over for dinner, and it was wonderful.  Mommy prepared potato salad, corn on the cob, macaroni salad, and her delicious coleslaw.  I got to use my new cooking on the grill implements, which came in this fancy metal box, all of it stainless steel.  I was just grilling some hot dogs, but it was still great to be grilling outdoors.  I was able to do that in between storms, and it was just nice grilling out there.  Dinner was great!

Madison and I were off shopping today, first at Wax-Mart, where we haven't been since maybe February?  It's funny how that's been even off lately - we've really just been to grocery stores, and to the hardware stores from time to time.  Anyway, we were there to pick up a photo that was scanned of a great-grandparent, and also pick up some groceries and items for dinner.  After that, we stopped by the church, and then a quick trip to the gas station to fill up a portable tank.

Madison was playing some piano today, and of course enjoying the company of the grandparents.  We watched a few more episodes of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." tonight, which she's enjoying a lot.  Always at the end, there's this moment where she wants to just go ahead and watch the next one, and then the debate as to what is too late in the evening, and what is not.  She said she wishes she can just watch them all back-to-back, as she's really liking the show.  She likes Mockingbird now, although Daisy is still a favorite.  Or, rather, Skye.  She's not officially Daisy yet... or Quake.

We did some reading, and we prayed for a friend of Madison's who is in the hospital tonight with a ruptured appendix.  He's going to be fine, but that sort of thing is super painful, as Ye-Ye can attest.  Mommy had hers taken out around the time she had surgeries for the cancer.  No need worrying about that as well.

Anyway, we were reading and praying tonight, and doing hide-and-seek, and throwing pillows and plush animals at each other.  It's a quiet time right now, but things will pick up soon enough.

Father's Day Mini-Golf

The great thing about this morning's church service online is that I was there.  Yes, earlier this week I was in the audience for Pastor Franklin's service - the staff was invited, and despite the smaller crowd, it was still like a church service of old.  I've been to so many of these in the past, and it's funny how we take things for granted.  But here we all were together at church, and hopefully by July, those numbers will get bigger, and we'll go on to greater things again.

Afterwards, we had so early fun today - some mini-golf for Father's Day.  Late this morning, we met at the mini-golf course with Nana and Ye-Ye, spending time together for a fun morning on the course.  Daddy had a great game this morning with three holes-in-one.  Aunt Shain and Hannah showed up as well, and that made the morning even better.

It was a nice morning, and we were glad to get to do some things outside before the storms started rolling in.  We had some big storms today, a couple waves of storms and huge amounts of rain.  It was just so humid today, and we were glad most of this course was in the shade.  We sat on the porch together, enjoying ice cream as we usually do.  That was nice.

Afterwards, we stopped by the grocery store, and we also went to the church, because Mommy needed some tape to work on the official Forward Tribes trophy.

Yes, it's supposed to look like that.  There's a colorful duct tape look about the Tribes marketing this year, sort of "thrown together."  Forward is coming up this week, and yep, it's either this trophy or the other one Mommy has made this weekend.

We had a good day together today, a decent Father's Day, complete with a crazy binge of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." tonight.  Afterwards, we read and prayed together, and went to bed early.  It was a nice day today, although I had some sun sickness that's been bothering me lately.

Exploding Whales

Roughly the same time I was born, a whale died.  And while this sort of thing happens all the time, this particular whale is one that will be remembered for quite some time.  Unfortunately, the reason for this has nothing to do with how it lived its life.  That will remain enshrouded in mystery, largely.  We assume the whale had a decent life, doing whale things until the moment it died, and that's when it became the stuff of legend.  Its body washed ashore near Florence, Oregon, and sat there on the sand, posing a significant question to residents and visitors:  what to do with a dead whale?  This question grew more pressing as the smell had gotten more invasive, and so it was decided to call the Oregon State Highway Division, because (quoting Dave Barry here), "highways and whales are very similar in the sense of being large objects."  I'm not entirely sure who was in charge at the time, but the rest of us are very grateful.  The Oregon State Highway Division did what any red-blooded American would do:  devise a brilliant plan to blow it up.  If you've never looked up the story or watched the video, it's one I highly recommend.  It will immediately cheer you up.  You'll be right there, socially distant from this whale's corpse, watching as professionals place a "half ton" of dynamite right next to the whale.  The prevalent thinking here was that the whale would go from being one large piece to thousands and thousands of smaller pieces that seagulls and crabs would presumably haul off.  Another theory is that people just wanted to watch a whale explode.

Regardless, what follows is movie magic.  Nearly fifty years later, I'm surprised no movie has been made about this, actually.  The crowd of celebrating bystanders is pushed back to what was thought a safe distance, just far enough away that they can watch for themselves an exploding whale.  It was an atmosphere not unlike Times Square at New Year's Eve, where a countdown took place and the cheering crowd waited with anticipation for the detonation and complete disintegration of a 45-foot, 8 ton whale.

If you know the story, you know what happens next.  And this transcript of the words spoken by the reporter on the scene, Paul Linnman, says it best:

Our cameras stopped rolling immediately after the blast. The humor of the entire situation suddenly gave way to a run for survival as huge chunks of whale blubber fell everywhere. Pieces of meat passed high over our heads, while others were falling at our feet. The dunes were rapidly evacuated as spectators escaped both the falling debris and the overwhelming smell.

A parked car over a quarter of a mile from the blast site was the target of one large chunk, the passenger compartment literally smashed. Fortunately, no human was hit as badly as the car. However, everyone on the scene was covered with small particles of dead whale.

As for the success of the effort… Well, the seagulls who were supposed to clean things up were no where in sight, either scared away by the explosion or kept away by the smell. That didn’t really matter. The remaining chunks were of such a size that no respectable seagull would attempt to tackle anyway. As darkness began to set in, the highway crews were back on the beach burying the remains, including a large piece of the carcass which never left the blast site.

It might be concluded that should a whale ever wash ashore in Lane County again, those in charge will not only remember what to do, they’ll certainly remember what not to do.

Occasionally I go back to this video, and I believe many others do, and we all do it just to laugh.  I just love that dynamite was the obvious answer to a problem.  And of course, not only was that wrong, but there's the imagery of people running from their lives as chunks of dead whale assaulted them from the heavens.

This all happened on November 12, 1970, and in honor of that great moment in history, the good people of Oregon made a great decision here to name that stretch of beach "Exploding Whale Memorial Park."

We just read that on the news, and of course we were thrilled to hear it.  It would seem as if this would be an obvious travel destination, should we be in the area.  We'll be sure to check in with the folks there as November of this year gets closer - it's the fiftieth anniversary of such a hallowed event.   No doubt we'll all be watching the video again.

Today was a calm day.  We watched "Artemis Fowl" this evening, and while it was a decent movie, it was quite a bit different from the first book.  Perhaps they were injecting a lot of other books into this movie, I don't know.  But we did like the book a bit better.

We did some grocery shopping today, heading out without masks on or anything.  I know that's crazy talk.  We had a lot to get, and it was great to all be doing it together.  Madison and I have been well-trained with groceries these past few months, so we zoomed about the store like worker bees, gathering up exactly what was needed and returning to the queen bee at the cart.  We managed to fill that cart bigger than ever before, mainly because it's been a long time.  We were approaching crisis mode at the house:  no more tea bags.  Yes, that's when you know it's bad!

Having finished our book, tonight we had to pick a new book, and because of the recent Gnome Town that was constructed just outside our house, I decided to read "Truckers," by Terry Pratchett.  That's the first book of the "Bromeliad Trilogy," although we'll have to wait and see with the girls if they like the first book before going on to the others.  These books feature "nomes," with are somewhat like "gnomes," except that there's no "g" in there.  Regardless of spelling, these smaller characters are living side-by-side with humanity, and I've read this story before but the girls have not heard it yet.  I loved it, as I do most of what Terry Pratchett wrote.  We'll see what the girls think, but this is the first thing they've probably ever read, outside of "Where's My Cow?"

It was a quiet day today, one much-needed after all the work with Summer Xtreme.  The response to that event has been very good.  We saw some folks having a party in their backyard, inviting neighbors over to watch SX20 on a big screen.  We had a viewing party the first night ourselves, but the second two nights were so close on editing time and release that we just had time to get home and collapse!  But overall, it was good.  It's obviously nothing like a Summer Xtreme in person.  That was greatly missed this year.  We were at the church, and Madison took a picture of the empty auditorium, and we were picturing all the noise and commotion and hundreds of children jumping and screaming.  Memories flood our hearts as we see that room that has been so dark these past three months.  For a while, it was like a time capsule, the chairs each had the printed guide on them for the very next message.  Parenting Matters were stacked up and ready to go.  Scripts for the actors were there too, ready for the next skit.  From what I understand, we may be back in August at KidPak, and that will be something to behold.  I can't even picture it now.

Here's a link to the entry I wrote on the last Sunday we had at KidPak.  You can see I had no idea that this was the last Sunday we'd be together at KidPak for months.  Who could have ever thought that?  It was unheard of, and insane.  We only missed church because of inclement weather, and there was that one time the power went out.  And that was for one weekend.  But this?  Three months?

Anyway, at least things are moving forward.  KidPak is August - perhaps - but the services with adults and families upstairs in our main sanctuary will be in July.  That will be a good.

Gnome Town

Today Mommy and Madison were working outside, first of all on a trophy for the online Forward Conference next week.  There was a lot of garden work to do as well, and while doing that, the two of them created Gnome Town outside, and I kind of like it!  It was a nice surprise coming home to!

It was a late day again, one final day of Summer Xtreme.  Here's Josh and myself, looking judgmental at someone, although I can't remember why.  

We were here in the office, editing music and video and so forth, and discussing the future of KidPak with Pastor Lance when he arrived.  We might be open in August, but we'll see.  It's all rather fluid, but at that time, we might actually begin our KidPak services in the auditorium again.  But we still need to keep our online presence available too - that's a big challenge doing two large things simultaneously.  That's the discussion, and the path before us.  But in the meantime, I got home just in time for all of us to finish up Summer Xtreme together.

Day three was fantastic, the concluding chapter of three days worth of games, messages, animations, and of course the skit with Madison and company.  It all looked great on television, and turned out really well.  We were super happy with the end product though.  The entire program looked great.  There were so many things we could have done if we had more time, and then there were delays due to additional mandatory quarantines at the last minute.  But in the end, we pulled it off, and it all turned out well!

Because we're in the midst of our "Unleashed" series, tonight we watched "Captain Marvel," which I think is a great movie.  We got to see Agent Coulson again, who Nick Fury considers one of the Avengers - a great part of the last episode we saw on "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."  Madison and I were just watching that tonight, watching Ronan the Accuser come in, and seeing the story unfold - no longer fighting with one arm tied behind your back, and becoming... unleashed!

We finished "Artemis Fowl" this evening, and we liked the book quite a bit.  We're geared up for the movie now, but all three of us enjoyed the book.  We sat together reading again, a tradition that goes back for us so long, reading in bed.  It's nice though.  We read, we pray, and then we tuck everyone in for a good night's rest.

Shopping 'Til You Drop

Madison was picked up early by Nana and Ye-Ye and the cousins, and soon after they were all heading south to do some clothes shopping, and to have a good time together picking up new items to wear around proudly, like these new Converse sneakers Madison picked up today.  She's super proud of them.  Madison was talking about "shopping 'til you drop" today, but she was laughing as she said she actually dropped pretty early on.  It was a long, but fun day.

It was also a busy day today.  We're still editing our footage for our Summer Xtreme, and of course, the second day of Summer Xtreme went online tonight.

Mei-Mei was back online, giving common sense advice, spouting out numbers, and here in this scene above, telling everyone one of the first scriptures she ever memorized - John 3:16.  Of course, these Summer Xtreme events have all kinds of things going on.  The worship sets are amazing, filmed in the warehouse and on stage in OC.  The games are in fields in North Georgia and on Lake Lanier.  The messages are from control rooms at various campuses, and of course the animation is from outer space!  It's been great, of course.

Madison watched it a little later than the premiere time, because she was in taekwondo at 6pm.  She went to the later class because of the shopping trip.  It was funny that during the taekwondo, Daddy was watching it in a watching area, and one of the instructors, Mr. Tucker, came over to take a peek.  He was one of those preaching tonight on the screen, so he got to see himself as it premiered.... and then went back into the studio to continue with the teaching of taekwondo.

Madison had a good day today.  We watched SX20 online, and then ... it was time for the end of season one.  We watched the last episode of "Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D." season one, which of course featured Nick Fury, and that amazing weapon Phil Coulson uses in "The Avengers."  Now Madison is ready to watch season 2, which we might start this weekend - maybe.  We'll see.

We're also almost done with "Artemis Fowl," which is coming to a head here.  It's been a good book, one that has had the three of us hooked early on.  I've read a few other things by the author, but never got around to this one.  The movie of the same name has just been released, so we were interested in reading it to see what it's like - we've always heard it was good.  And it's been.  We should be done soon though!

Tonight we prayed again.  There is so much going on in our country right now, and it hasn't been this bad since... well, last election cycle.  But this time around, it's worse. There are statues toppling all over, and violence, burning buildings, and death.  Police officers are under attack, and people are losing their jobs all over.  It's a tough year, no doubt.  Memes about time travelers doing all they can to avoid this year are showing up, as are the ones that ask, 'What's next?  An alien invasion?"

There's a lot to pray about and pray for.  Hopefully this world will become a better place for Madison.  It may not look like it on the surface, but that's what we pray for.

Summer Xtreme 2020

Tonight was the night - it was the start of Summer Xtreme 2020.  We're calling it Summer Xtreme:  United.  This was a title we came up before all the recent national unrest, and it's funny how it's a fitting title now for all of us - a place we all should be.  Also, we chose the space theme before realizing that we'd have two American astronauts in space again.  So it was funny how everything fell into place there with the theme.

We spent a long time editing today, all this last minute work - pretty much like we're always doing at Summer Xtreme.  But this year, we started later due to all this recent virus nonsense.  And on top of that, we just lost a week last week because of a potential scare with an employee.  So we've been desperately busy the last few days, filming, filming, filming, and then editing, editing, editing.  One weekend, I did nine videos, and then the last two days I filmed fifteen videos in Suwanee, by Lake Lanier and at our Gainesville Campus.  Then it was time for editing.  And also the booklet graphics.  And the emails going out.  And the social media posts... it's been busy for me lately, so I fell behind on this blog a little.

But tonight everything went off without a hitch.  There's still so much to do for the next two days, but for tonight, we stopped to watch our programming.  We even had a viewing party of sorts, a few of us gathering at the KidPak auditorium to watch something on our KidPak screen.

It felt like old times in a way, although there was just a handful of us there.  The service was about forty-seven minutes or so, and this was due to the worship, the game, the Tribes in Space cartoon, and of course, the new skit series.  I snapped a few pictures of our Summer Xtreme on our KidPak screen.

Tonight was part one of a small series of skits that takes place in "Mission Control."  We filmed this over a week ago during a particularly long filming session.  But everyone had a great time filming it, and it showed.  This morning we were still editing the final pieces of it together, including music and sound effects.  Also, we added some of the backdrop for Nerdo here, who is in a space caspsule we call Spaceship McSpaceshipface.

Mission Control has a lot of characters of course, but the one I was most proud of tonight was the return of Mei-Mei to the KidPak cast.  Madison did well when we recorded these skits a week and a half ago, but today we finally got to see the finished product, all of it edited together.  And it was neat to see her with the rest of the cast.

You can see her here with Jovanna, the two of them cutting up and having fun.  There are a lot of characters in Mission Control, so the lines are spread out quite a bit.  Madison had a few good lines in there tonight, and of course has a few lines coming up in the coming days.

Ultimately, the story is more from Mission Control, as the characters are attempting to get Nerdo - who is in space - back home.  There's a bit of inspiration drawn from the movie, "The Reluctant Astronaut," with lines from "Rocket Man" and a few other space-themed episodes thrown in.  But there are plenty of lines that I wrote in there, plus a few hilarious improv moments too.

We were seated in the KidPak Auditorium, but our friends were all in different places, watching online like many of the kids at KidPak.  They had an ongoing group text, watching the entire evening together live.

Calvin is in many of these shots tonight, as he's the reporter covering a story taking place at Mission Control.  Camille is back with the KidPak cast, playing a somewhat ditsy daughter of the Director.  We had a full cast, and they were really enjoying watching the end product.

So was Pastor Lance.  He sat with Josh, Madison and myself as we watched it all together.  It is so weird to be in this auditorium, right at a time when there is usually so much commotion and energy from Summer Xtreme.  And yet there's just a few of us there watching together.

You can the worship sessions above.  There were two separate places along the service for that, and one was filmed in the old warehouse where we filmed a previous Summer Xtreme movie.  Chris did a great job editing these together.  And Isaac was editing a lot of the things for the younger kids too.  This year, I did quite a bit with him, making the younger kids event something special.

Here's Pastor Joe from our Buford campus.  We filmed this just yesterday down at Gwinnett's campus, and yes, he's got a "UNITED" shirt on there, one we made for this event.  As with our usual series, we have the campus pastors preaching each point, three per day.  Today's also included Camille.

She did a great job as well.  We of course picked the media control centers because they sort of had that Mission Control look about them.  The one in Gwinnett is pretty nice, so we were there for filming quite a bit the last few days.

All in all it was a good night.  Josh here has been editing quite a lot, and will be doing so tonight, and all throughout tomorrow as well.  That's probably why it's a good idea now to shut things down and get some rest.  It was good to have Summer Xtreme again, and it took a worldwide pandemic to get it back.  It's been good though!