Heart Path

I just wanted to show you this image!  That long, dark vertical line at the right that goes from top to bottom is a new pathway through my heart. This is something your heart does not have!  It was not created by doctors - they had nothing to do with it.  

God literally just created a new bypass within me from top to bottom.  The nurse said, “It’s as if God dug a new ditch all the way across your heart.”  This morning at cardio, the conversation was all about how I shouldn’t be here, alive, and how this new pathway played a factor in saving my life.  

In the hospital a few months ago, I was praying “God create in me a pure heart, one that is faithful to you.”  And it was just the sort of prayer you think up just before a heart procedure.  But Mom told me this morning - and it’s true - God literally was creating within me a new heart! 

This was something I wrote everyone after a recent visit with cardio therapy.  I've only got one visit left.  But this last visit, I spoke with a nurse that was super helpful, even giving me this image you see above.  She was also super helpful in giving me some info about the medication I've been taking, including the one that gets me really tired about 5-6pm each night.  

Today we were out shopping for some school supplies for Maddie, amongst other things.  We were amongst the masses scrounging for notebooks, pens, erasers, and so on.  This is the week that everyone races out to get all these last-minute supplies.  Maddie never got so much of a supply list, but we're getting things we think we'll need, and then we'll add on from there.  Usually, we're out shopping for this sort of stuff a lot earlier, but this year has certainly been a different one.

Anyway, we made a few stops, getting some paint and a trip to the bank.  But the big visit was getting some of the basics for Maddie so she can get set up for school.  We got a book bag that we think should be big enough to handle the increased workload, and so at the moment, we're about as prepared as we can be. We still have that one open house Wednesday morning, but that's about it.  I can't believe we're about to start all this soon!

This morning, Mom made blueberry pancakes again, using our blueberries from the garden.  They were so good!  We've got some tomatoes pulled from the garden, and some cucumbers too.  Mom mixes the cucumbers and mint from our herb garden in water, and I have a nice flavored water each day.

We've been having to deal with a lot of those spiders from last year - you know the ones I'm talking about?  They'r not orb spiders, but instead those invasive Japanese spiders that are roughly as big.  They make these amazing and strong webs, but the thing is... they're everywhere.  All over the back porch.  They're small right now, but they'll get super big as they grow, and those webs will too, and we just can't have that many all over.  We're not trying to get a "haunted house" vibe here!   Another pesky insect were the ants that found a way into the house.  Mom was busy with the wood calk and sealing up some entrances.  These ants are amazing how they find a random crumb all the way across the kitchen or dining area, and suddenly, the ants swarm in like crazy.  Not anymore though, as Mom was busy battling nature today.

We watched the "Mysterious Benedict Society" tonight, along with "The Bad Batch."  Plus some Olympics too, of course.  It was a day that was more quiet, but we'll get busy again soon enough.  We said our prayers, and we read too.  We'll have a big day tomorrow!

Thunderstruck IV

We had another Summer Xtreme Nights tonight, this time in Cumming at our campus there.  I was over there to help with the skit, and just join up with the others helping out.  You can see Camille came over with us, as we did a little skit on stage that got the kids laughing pretty good.  It was nice, and just another one of the events we're doing at KidPak at all the campuses.  Next week, I'll be over at Braselton with Maddie, so I'll have been with three of the campuses.  But all seven campuses are doing this, and it's going well.  

Today was a day to get things wrapped up for our Oz series though, at least in regards to the preparations and writing.  We were finishing up the script, along with some surprises as well for Calvin, who will be with us one last Sunday.  We got the graphics, the script and music all figured out, and that's just about a wrap for the series.  One fun thing is the souvenir we're getting from the series, a set piece from the stage - a windmill that will always remind us of this summer.  It's a big windmill, and you'll see it soon enough, probably in our back yard.  

Maddie has just one more week to go until high school starts.  We're heading back there for open house soon enough, and of course we were there for the opening a few weeks ago.  Her first day is this Thursday, and we're gearing up for the big event.

We've been watching the Olympics when we get home, and there's so much to see.  The gymnastics program has been great to see, with a lot of talent and medals distributed throughout.  But the other events have been fun to watch too.  As always, a lot of inspirational stories from Tokyo.  

We read tonight, and we prayed.  I'm pretty worn out, but we're doing great.  Nana is struggling, and we're doing our best.  We're stuck in the house this year as if the quarantine is still going on, and from the sounds of things with the news, the quarantine might actually come back.  But some day we'll go places, and we'll keep dreaming.  Speaking of dreaming... goodnight.

Taekwondo Gold

I didn't go to the Gwinnett Summer Xtreme Nights event, opting to take a night off and get some rest.  I'm surprisingly worn out, but that's largely because of this drug I'm taking called metoprolol.  One interesting fact about this medication is that I may never be able to actually pronounce it.  Also, another  fact:  it makes me super tired.  Fatigue sets in, and by early evening, I'm wishing I could take a nap somewhere.  Eventually, the idea is to ween me off of some of this stuff.  Presently though, it's still nine pills a day.  I've lost about sixteen pounds since April, this another side effect of all the cardio therapy I've been doing lately.  I've only got one class left next week, and I actually might be getting sentimental about that.

Maddie had taekwondo tonight, and I was happy to come along for that one, although I was working towards Cumming's Summer Xtreme tomorrow night, doing a bit of writing while I was watching Maddie do some flying kicks and board breaking.  She's going to be testing soon, her first test with the black belt.  It's a series of tests that lead up to her second degree black belt, and that's a while from now.  But she's still steadily marching forward towards that one too.  Again, it's not about the destination anymore, and more about the journey itself, the training and the enjoyment of coming to taekwondo each day.

We watched a few of the Olympic taekwondo events, including the gold medal match where a girl from Florida took home the gold for USA.  It's been interesting to watch them compete.  Of course, all this week we've been watching every other event too, including the swimming and Maddie's was interesting in watching the synchronized diving competitions.  Nana and I sat down to watch some rugby, and we were all watching many of the other events, from the skateboarding, the cycling, and we even watched a water polo match.  It's just been our go-to television the last few days, although we did watch that "Monsters at Work" show that premiered as well.  

I'm writing the last skit for our Oz series, and it's a bit sentimental for me as well.  This has been a good one, a sweet series with good solid messages.  The costumes and characters have been wonderful, and this Sunday is another moment to say goodbye, as it is our friend Calvin's last day with us before going off to college up in Washington DC.  

Tonight we read from our Kingdom Keepers adventure, and we prayed as well.  It's been a good day, but we'll get some real rest maybe next Thursday or so...! 

Thunderstruck III

Tonight was the last night of the Gainesville edition of Summer Xtreme Nights, also called "Thunderstruck."  We had a great night, and a great time afterwards with the classic "water day" event outside.  There we had all these waterslides and squirt gun fights and so on.  The event inside was big, with games, great worship sets, an uplifting message, the Storm Cats videos, and of course the skit too.

Maddie was here for this one too, helping out, and getting caught up in the chaos outside with the squirt guns and water buckets.  If you ever went outside tonight at the church, you were getting soaked!

One interesting moment tonight was a mistake from the sound booth that resulted in something unexpected:

Just a random story, but tonight the sound team in the MAIN SANCTUARY apparently had no idea they had the volume turned up so incredibly loud upstairs on the 360, our sound effect device.  So, at one point, the Narrator let everyone in the audience know that suddenly there was a loud noise on stage.  Obviously, the set-up was for the sound of thunder, although I had scripted a fart sound as the joke, because the kids all know Nerdo has bad gas and that sort of thing happens a lot with him.  The Narrator gets mad at Nerdo, and then they go on to the “real” sound effect, thunder.  Just a quick little fart on stage, ha-ha. 

ANYWAY, so as Narrator, I said, “Then there was a loud sound!”  And at that point, there was easily the loudest fart sound ever in the heard throughout the history of the world.  I don’t think I’m going out on much of a limb by saying that.  Our main sanctuary team upstairs had things turned up ALL THE WAY for that one fart sound, and it was a really long one that you could easily hear outside, and probably down in Tifton.  I asked, and yes, people heard it downstairs for sure.  It was explosive.  It measured somewhere over 100db, according to one person in the sound booth.  It took all of us a few moments to recover, mainly from laughing.  Actors on stage went down as if there was shrapnel firing off all around.  I was backstage with Lance, and I was supposed to talk next, and I was having a hard time finding my voice.  I can’t fully explain how loud this was, as this fart rattled my soul.

I don’t think there’s really a point to this.  Other than, there are just these small moments that make life so much better, and that was one of them. 

Anyway, despite any missteps along the way, it really was a great three days.  Tonight the event started at Gwinnett, and will go on until Friday.  Also Friday is the Cumming event.  Next week is Braselton, Spartanburg and Orange County.  I'll be going to two of those to help out a little.  But this one was a success.  We had a few minor bumps, but overall it was a great success.  Kids had a splendid time, and we came away thinking this wasn't so bad after all - in regards to the numbers.  We were a bit worried last week.  But it's all okay, and the kids really did have a fantastic time.

We got home later, and boy, I'm wiped out.  I had just enough energy to read a bit to Maddie, and then we said our prayers... and then I was off to sleep.

Thunderstruck II

"Thunderstruck" continued tonight, and it's all been going very well.  We planned for a movie night on that big screen you see behind us up there, and it just so happened that the forecast outside was rainy too.  The service portion of our day went really well, and then the skit, which you can see above.  Afterwards, the kids watched "Luca" on the big screen, probably the biggest screening of a movie that many have seen in over a year.  

Maddie had a very helpful day, cutting things out - we're talking hundreds of papers she had cut out today for the parents and families that were picking up their kids.  She was also super helpful everywhere else during service and beforehand, shepherding kids and so on.  It's been a busy day, and a full one.  We're still writing the skit for tomorrow night, and still making other preparations, so things have been pretty crazy this week.  To add to that, there's another "Thunderstruck" event at the Cumming Campus this Friday, another one at Gwinnett starting tomorrow, and I'll also be at the one in Braselton next week.  Looking forward to some rest!

We still made time to read, and to pray of course.  Tomorrow is our last day of the event in Gainesville, but it's been going well and all the kids have had a great time!

Thunderstruck

 

Summer Xtreme Nights started tonight, the first of several nights we're doing this at all seven of our campuses.  The theme is "Thunderstruck," and here's just one of the message descriptions I came up with a week or two ago:

     What’s it mean to be Thunderstruck?  Imagine walking along, and suddenly being knocked to the ground with a blast of blazing light!  Now picture hearing a voice that changes everything, including your very identity!  Whoa!  That’s what it’s like to be thunderstruck - completely surprised, shocked, astounded, rocked, and absolutely blown away! 

     If you look to Acts, chapter 9, you’ll see that a guy named Paul was completely thunderstruck.  Sometimes that’s the only word that can describe an encounter with the powerful love of God.  And you know something?  God is totally ready to step into your life and bring you to a whole new level of awesome!

We had something like 961 kids registered to come, so that's what we had to plan for with the food.  Ultimately, it was closer to a little over 600 kids that came I think, although it could have been higher than that by the end.  But we did have a great turnout, and it's going to be bigger as the week goes on.  We basically just did a KidPak service upstairs, and that decision was made at the last minute because of the quantity of kids.  We simply don't have room for 900 kids downstairs!  So we raced to make adjustments and suddenly we have this epic service upstairs with the huge screens, floating clouds, and super loud volume.   It was neat doing the skits upstairs, bringing the cast up there.  Mom made these t-shirts with the logos of the different tries on them.

The kids loved it. Though we were a little late getting them to the auditorium (feeding that many kids quickly was a challenge!), the service itself was great, from worship to the skits and games to the videos on those large screens, and finally the message.  

Afterwards, the kids went outside where there were all kinds of rides and inflatables.  It was a pretty full night!  The weather was threatening, just like at every Summer Xtreme, but it never rained on us, and everything turned out so much better than we could have imagined. It's a lot of hard work, and it's tiring, but it was a fantastic night.  Tomorrow, we'll do it again.

Maddie had taekwondo tonight, so Mom and Nana went over with her for that.  It turns out that Maddie will be testing soon, although it's not for a new belt.  They just have tests periodically, all part of their advancement as they move to a second degree belt, or a third degree and so on.  But Maddie is definitely advancing to a second degree.  She's just enjoying the journey though, not moving forward at any frantic pace. 

I was tired, but we still made time to read - and then time for prayer.  It was a great night.  Sometimes you fret over things (how many is too many?), and then here we are after all is said and done, and it really wasn't that bad at all.  In fact, it was pretty awesome for the kids.

Sour Driver's License

We had KidPak this morning and it was an interesting morning to say the least.  We were doing our "At the Movies" messages upstairs with the grown-ups, so we did the same thing downstairs, but our choice of movie was "Oz the Great and Powerful."  The first service turned out really well.  Again, it's amazing that I wrote this message over a year ago during the quarantine, and I wrote it with a movie message in mind.  Meaning, it's the type of message that we play movie clips during the sermon to help illustrate points.  And it just so happens that this message fit right now with the "At the Movies" theme the entire church was going in, and at just the right time.  I always had this message in mind for the fourth one, and here it is at just the right time.  The first service was really well, and I did get a lot of people coming up to me afterwards saying how strong of a message it was.

Unfortunately, during the second service, a child threw up right there in the front row, right there in the middle, and that was pretty much it for the service.  I led a short prayer and got everyone out of there.  But I got to use the phrase, "Everyone please exit through the vomitorium."  It was actually a pretty good punchline, even if I was one of the only people who knew what the word actually meant.

A few years ago, the word "vomitorium" became a popular churchy word for some reason.  It's basically the little exit hallways that lead out of an auditorium or an arena or amphitheater.  It's a word the Romans used, and I just looked this up, it has nothing to do with vomit.  That's a popular misconception.  No, the Romans didn't use this location to throw up.  They used these little hallways to just exit the arenas.  No one got sick there.  It just sounds like it!

Anyway, for a time, all the church staff people all over at these larger churches were using this term, and I remember hearing it frequently, and thinking, "There is no way I can say or hear that word without thinking of someone throwing up."  Yet it persisted, and it was so funny listening to people say the word "vomitorium" with a straight face.  It's either an incredible dead-pan joke, or yes, they're really using this word and not expecting people to think of vomit.  How can anyone use this word with a straight face?  Eventually, I used the word a time or two, but only for a snicker or two.  Anyway, this morning, it just fit perfectly.

MOVING ON!  We got home, and yeah, I was resting.  No one got sick.  And watching some of the Olympics too, of course.  Mom had lunch for us, and soon enough, we were back at the church again with FCY.  I'm super busy right now, because tomorrow is the start of something big, what we're calling "Summer Xtreme Nights."  I dropped Maddie off at FCY, and went downstairs to work on scripts and everything else I could for our KidPak event this week (while having a window on the computer open to watch the men's cycling road race in Japan!).  

They're still in the series "Sour" upstairs with the youth, and it's going well.  This one has been more impactful than any others, and Maddie has really been enjoying it.  There was a photo op that Maddie posed for, one with her on a big driver's license.  Kind of good timing on that one.  She's going to need a pretty large wallet for this one though:

We got home later, and we were wiped out.  But we had time to read, and time to pray.  And then... it was time for bed!

Bowling Fun

We started out the morning in a great way - with blueberry pancakes!  Mom took a good amount of those blueberries that our blueberry bushes have been producing lately, and put them in the pancake mix to create a wonderful morning treat.  Breakfast was nice this morning.

It was a busy day today, at least in the afternoon.  We were off to Team Edge for practice, and that's about an hour-and-a-half.  Maddie was training again, and having a good time too.  It's hard work, but it's also fun work too sometimes, and there's lots of laughter and just having a good time with the team.  

Afterwards, we were off to Buford to a birthday party at a bowling alley.  This was a lot of fun!  Even I was out there bowling with the grown-ups (I even got a few strikes!).  Maddie was having a wonderful time and told her friend, "I wouldn't miss this for the world!"  It was Lily's birthday, and she and the others did a couple games of bowling, and then the girls were off to the arcade area spending their credits, or making photos in the photo booth, or winning plush animal prizes.  Lily got a little stuffed pig, and Maddie got a duckling.  These will go nicely with the turtles they got the other night!

We got home after that, and of course the Olympics are on like they will be for the next few weeks.  The softball game was pretty awesome to watch.  It's just amazing to watch our pitcher in action.  We had a great day today, closing it out with "The Bad Batch" and "The Mysterious Benedict Society."  Maddie is still reading that book at night, and of course we're on the next Kingdom Keepers book as well.  It's a longer one, so we'll be doing that one for a while.  No doubt, we'll go on to part six once this one is over with.  

We said our prayers, and got to bed earlier tonight.  Church is tomorrow, and another day in the merry old land of Oz!

Tokyo 2020

The Tokyo Olympic Ceremonies started tonight, and despite the fact that this is being held in 2021, it's still being called "Tokyo 2020," I think because it was supposed to be held last year and not this.  Also, they might have already printed all these t-shirts that would go to waste, right?

The ceremony was unique, one highlight being that globe you see hovering over the stadium.  It's a massive amount of drones lighting up to appear like the earth, and yes, it rotated.  That had to be stunning to see.  There were performances, and of course the lighting of the torch.  It was a good ceremony, although it was disheartening to see it performed in an empty stadium.  I feel like the world owes Japan a big one here.  I'm guessing many of these games won't have people in the stands, and that will feel so weird.  Nevertheless, we are big fans, and we'll be watching as many different sports as we can.  Already I was watching some soccer today, but there are so many different sports to watch over the next few weeks. We're usually just watching baseball or ice hockey, but when the Olympics come around, we're watching water polo, handball, kayaking, pole vaulting, softball, and so many other sports.  One sport we'll be watching is taekwondo, although we could see a lot of that tonight at practice.  Maddie was there with the others for leadership and then black belt classes.  

Once we got home, there was a taco party of sorts.  Mom had all kinds of toppings and fajitas or tortillas or tacos lined up, along with our little taco trucks.  It was a good day today, although another busy one with work towards this weekend's service as well as next week's "Thunderstruck." 

We read a little tonight, and then said our prayers, off to sleep after staying up to watch the start of the Olympics.

Monsters Bowloffathon

We were back to Bowling tonight, although not really technically yet.  Maddie will actually be bowling this Saturday when she heads over to Stars and Strikes in Buford for a birthday party.  But tonight, we were at the bowling alley they built somewhere inside Monsters Inc.  It was a great episode, as all of these have been - it's a lot of nostalgia at play, of course.  But we're enjoying it, and there are some genuinely funny moments too.  Tonight's episode brought back memories of an old video game from 2001 or so, one called "Bowling for Screams."  It was fun, and it made me want to go back to a bowling alley again.

Maddie was back at taekwondo, much better after her injury a few days ago, clearly ready to go.  She was helping a really large class as an assistant instructor, and then it was time for her leadership class, where she was practicing with her sword a good bit.  I'm super busy prepping for this event called "Thunderstruck," one that Maddie will be helping out with.  We've got hundreds and hundreds of kids signing up for this thing - right now the numbers are around 900 registered, so we'll just have to wait and see how many actually show up.  Meanwhile, there's a lot of work to be done with filming, editing, graphics, writing, hand-outs, ordering, costumes, props, and so on.  It's almost like Summer Xtreme again.  It's kind of "Summer Xtreme Lite."  

Maddie and I have been addicted to this Camp Cretaceous series, and will keep on watching that each night, probably.  But we're also reading on with Kingdom Keepers, book five.  Maddie is super into it.  We were talking about all the times the main character Finn has been attacked thus far, and Maddie was ready to list it all, remembering things that I didn't, and I'm the one who was reading it out loud!

We said our prayers tonight, and it's going to be a busy season here.  Time to get some rest!

National Hot Dog Day

Today is National Hot Dog Day, and of course there's only one real way to celebrate that.  But beyond the obvious, we had a fun game tonight for Camille's online small group.  Maddie and the others played a game of concentration, using matching cards like this one above that I made using graphics I found of hot dogs online.  The small groups are fun with the games because frequently there aren't any great ideas until we look up whatever random holiday it is, and then we go from there.  National Hot Dog Day was a day that was indeed worth celebrating!

Small groups was good, of course, and still going strong over a year later.  Maddie is going to one of the houses of the other girls in her small group this Friday for a little party, and that should be nice.  It's just great to meet up with other girls with similar backgrounds and beliefs, and just have a good time together.

I was at my cardio this morning, this to counteract any damage done by hot dogs.  My blood pressure remains low, although I imagine the stress of the following week will add an extra dimension of fun to it.  But I only have a few more classes of this left, just about two weeks and I'm done, and ready for the next thing.  My heart rate is so much better now that it takes a lot more significant effort to get the heart rate going.  

We were doing a lot of work for the "Legends of Oz" series, writing this movie message, getting clips, and finding imagery.  It's going to be a solid morning at KidPak for "At the Movies," and then there's "Thunderstruck," which I'm also still writing, and then there's one more week in Oz... and then "The Lost World."  I'm finishing with that proofing of those two Jurassic books, and they'll actually be printed for the first time.  Back in 2019, we had an issue with our stage and couldn't do the series back then.  Then in 2020, there was the pandemic, and we got stopped at that series at the last moment.  Here we are, years later, and we're finally doing it.  It's going to be great!

Maddie and I have been hooked on the Cretaceous Camp episodes now, as things have gone wrong.  Go figure. That's the way it works with these controlled dinosaur environments.  That's how it always starts.  Then later there's running and um, screaming.  This show has taken quite a turn though, because despite the CGI Barbie look, there are characters that actually get eaten by dinosaurs.  Not only that, the dinosaurs kind of play with their food first!  Anyway, it's been fun to watch, just because it looks like within a month, despite not going anywhere the last year, we're finally going to Isla Nublar!

Tonight we read from our book again, the next chapter of "Kingdom Keepers V."  I forgot how many of these sequences there were, how many action scenes within the park or on their property.  It's been good up until now, and a nice moment each night reading together.  Maddie always wants a little more read, and tonight I was glad to have the energy to do that!  

We said our prayers afterwards, and soon after that, we were all asleep.  It was a good day.  A busy one, but a good one.

Heading to Camp

Tonight we were watching this series that we haven't caught up on, doing so to get into the dinosaur theme of things.  We're doing a "Lost World" series next month, so the idea was to look for jokes and ideas and just get into the general theme of things.  It's part of the "research" process, and always a good bit of fun to watch these things as we gear up for a new series.  The show is pretty good though, and suddenly we have that theme song in our head again. 

We didn't really get to any camps this summer, so this one might have to do, right?  Speaking of camp, it was a work day today, going to the office to do some writing.  Such a busy week upcoming, so we thought it best to do a "movie message" to go with the ongoing series at the church as a whole.  It only makes sense to do as our movie "Oz the Great and Powerful."  I wrote a pretty decent script and outline for that one, this with the thought that we'll be able to write the scripts for the upcoming camp event we have Monday through Wednesday.  

We read some tonight from Kingdom Keepers V, the next book in our series.  Maddie is enjoying this series quite a bit, so I'm guessing we'll keep going on it for quite some time here, probably the rest of the year.  Meanwhile, she's reading "The Mysterious Benedict Society" in her room, now hooked on this page-turner.

It was a lot of working today, and that reminds me quite a bit of the Summer Xtreme season.  We just never had as much time for setting up, so this week is going to be somewhat intense.  We said our prayers tonight, and tomorrow we'll get back to it.

The Hunt for Bigfoot

Today was a busy day for me, starting out with cardio therapy - only four more sessions left!  It went well, but it's getting more challenging to raise that heart rate to 130, as I was doing 4.2 mph at one point with an 11% grade for about forty-five minutes.  The heart rate was staying low, which means it's getting healthier and healthier, and that's great.  

I got home, and we had a big lunch together with the family, and after that... we were off to find Bigfoot again!

Of course, this was a trip to the Expedition Bigfoot museum in Gilmer County.  It's quite a drive, and the weather's been super rainy. But we made it up there and spent some time looking around, reading stories, watching videos, and taking pictures like these:

The pins mark sightings and placements of Bigfoot.  Notice the lack of Bigfoot sightings in Forsyth County.  Someone's going to have to head out there, sit in the woods, and do some research.  We might even set up a desk like this for making casts:

And then make movies like this one about possible sightings in the area:

We'll listen in carefully, being sure to listen for sticks banging against tree trunks and characteristic howling.

Mom looks cute here, doesn't she?  She was leading the tour of the family, having visited this place before back in July of 2019.  She took them back to read a few things, such as this interesting story from nearby Dahlonega:

In the end, it was an interesting stop, although a quicker one.  As you can see here, we were trying to get out the door, but there was something huge out there that was just super terrifying.

We got home, and we did so quickly - not because Bigfoot chased us out of there.  It was actually because Maddie had taekwondo tonight.  We were there for a bit, and then home again, eating yet another big meal tonight.  Mom had kabobs made, and they were really good.  I was grilling them outside for a bit, just before the huge rains came again.  We got inside, and all of us enjoyed a really fantastic meal together.  Then, it was time for Nacho Libre.  Seriously, we were watching that movie again tonight, mainly because Brandon had never seen it before.  That movie still cracks me up!

We finished reading "Kingdom Keepers IV" tonight, and we said our prayers too.  I'm so wiped out right now!  I was asleep fairly quickly, but Maddie has been staying up reading her latest book from the library, "The Mysterious Benedict Society."  She's really enjoying this one!

Ozma

This is the costume that Mom made for Maddie, who is playing the character of Ozma in our ongoing Oz series.  She made the headdress yesterday, and it actually spells out "OZ" on it, as does the one typically worn by Princess Ozma.

Maddie did well on stage this morning, although it was just one line.  It was a teaser for the coming weeks, as we'll be trying to find out more about what is going on with her, which of course I'll be trying to figure out as I finish writing this series.  

It's been super fun though, and each skit has had a sweetness to it, a tribute to the original material in many ways with a lot of the original dialogue used, and even the music too.  Both services went very well today, and the online service too - the one where Maddie wins against Gabriel with that scavenger hunt.  But here's something Josh and I did this morning up top in front of a whole lot of people.  

I was dressed as the Tin Man up there for an intro to our "At the Movies" series.  I had a terrible joke about helping Pastor with an illustrated sermon point as I held up the Tin Man's axe saying it was the "Axe of the Apostles."  Groan!  But it all went over well, although it is pretty nerve-wracking.  I don't long to be up there on stage in front of everyone, but I'll do it when asked!

After the first service, we went up to pose for pictures with the kids, and that was super fun.  A lot of the younger ones were coming up to see us, and the cast was just loving that!  

You can see even Almira Gulch up there to the left, and Aunt Em to the right.  We were all up there having a great time, and then getting some movie concessions afterwards... free candy!

Oh, check this out.  It's a cartoon Maddie!  This is that app that makes you into a cartoon character.  Camille was using this on the cast members this morning, and Maddie's turned out pretty fun!

After church, we did some filming today, filming for Summer Xtreme Nights upcoming.  Maddie is dressed for the Cyclone Tribe, and she and her fellow teammates were posing and acting and doing a few things after church to help Josh with his video.  We'll see the end result in about two weeks!

We raced home for a short spell, got something to eat, and yes, we were back to church for youth after that, where Maddie had a great time at service tonight.  I was proofing "Lost World" stuff for the new series that's coming soon, and getting those booklets ready.  We got home, and watched a few things like the latest episode of "Bad Batch," but it was a long day, and we were pretty wiped out.  We did some reading tonight, said our prayers, and were off to sleep fairly quickly.

East Forsyth High School Grand Opening

We had a big day today, and it started out with our first visit to the East Forsyth High School, the newest high school in Georgia.  It's less than three miles from our place, and the new home of the Broncos.

Today's opening started with a ribbon cutting ceremony, and then there were tours and just a whole lot of exploration from there.  It was Maddie's first time walking through this school that we've watched slowly get built over the past few years, wondering if it would be done in time.  The answer is yes, although there are a few bits of furniture missing here or there.  Other than that, it's a huge and spectacular place, one Maddie was quite impressed with.  She went on ahead a few times and other times found us again and was showing us around from here or there.  She's excited and nervous, but there were a lot of positive feelings about it today.  Nana came along, as did Uncle George and Brandon, and Mom of course.  We were there for the cutting of the ribbon, and then the National Anthem, along the the flag raising for the day done by VFW volunteers.  I took a ton of pictures, as it really was a historic occasion.  Maddie is part of the first generation of students to start out in ninth grade and go through all four years at this school, and so it's a big deal.  And it really is a nice school.  We visited the theater, and then saw the culinary area, and the art rooms as well, finding the gymnasium, the cafeteria, the AV area, the science labs, the library, and all the classrooms and courtyards, and the tennis courts and so on.  It was vast, and just a huge place to explore.  For some reason, it hit me today that the colors of the school are designed to match the Denver Broncos colors, so we could in fact buy Denver Broncos merchandise, so long as it doesn't have "Denver" on it anywhere, and that would be good enough for spirit day.  Another realization today:  the high school stadium is called "Half-Mile Stadium," in reference to the Denver stadium.  Someone important involved in this project must be from Colorado!  Anyway, what you'll see below is a series of pictures from today's events and the following tour.  There are pictures of all of us, and even a picture of Maddie with her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Garret.  It was a nice morning at the school, a place we spent a lot longer at, looking around!

 

We got home after that, and everyone was hungry, so I grilled some hot dogs and burgers outside while Mom did the rest of the preparing inside.  We had a nice lunch there, one cooked on the deck with all the trimmings.  But we were thinking of doing something else immediately after this, and the idea came to go back to the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, so back we went, as you can see from the pictures below.  Much of it was closed off this time, probably due to the pandemic, so we couldn't hop on board nearly as many trains as we did last time.  But this time we did ride a "railway speeder," which are one of those mini-trains that goes along ahead of the trains on the tracks to inspect the tracks themselves.  We signed a waiver and got on board, but we weren't exactly rocketing down any tracks:  our max speed was about ten miles an hour.  It was still a unique experience.  Also unique was back on board Warren G. Harding's Presidential train again.  I have that ornament of the train at the house, so it was interesting being back on board once more.  The weather brought rain, but we were under cover for most of it, and it was still a fun trip.  You'll see pictures of that below!

It was a pretty full day today, it turns out.  We watched a murder mystery when we got home, but we were pretty ready for to turn in for the night:  Maddie and I have an early morning tomorrow!  We read, we prayed... and we slept!