My Dog the Thief

I was a guest speaker this morning at the college and that went very nicely, but as a treat, they took me out to lunch afterwards.  I've been hankering scallops for about two months now, and yeah, that's what I got today at Red Lobster.

Anyway, it was another one of those go-go-go sort of days.  Moving from one thing to the next, going, going, going.  I haven't had am moment to stop in four or five days straight, but tonight I got one.  Until then, Maddie had taekwondo tonight, and we did some grocery shopping while she was kicking people.  This is her last taekwondo until next week when she gets back from Florida.  There will be testing later on, but she's not up for any advancement, so at least there's not any stress involved there.  We're having a hard time finding things at the grocery store, and the price  of gas is climbing, climbing, climbing.  It was already over a dollar higher before the war in Eastern Europe, but now it's going to escalate beyond that.  It's getting tough.  Of course, it could be worse.  We could be in Ukraine.

Tonight we got home and Maddie was doing the last bit of her homework, and soon after that it was time for reading from Kingdom Keepers, and then bed.  I sat down to relax in front of the television and chose a really dated movie, but I love these old random Disney movies.  

Have you seen "My Dog the Thief" yet?  You probably don't need to.  But some of my favorite actors from that sort of era movie, including Joe Flynn and Charles Lane.  Charles Lane is one of those guys you see in all sorts of those movies, playing the same uptight character.  Anyway, it was harmless.  I don't recommend it to everyone, of course.  Sometimes it's good fun to watch an old predictable Disney movie from the 60's, and this fit the bill.

Anyway, it was a busy day.  Just a lot of work and moving around.  But we're getting things done and moving on...

Braselton Neon Night

Tonight Maddie and I went down to the Braselton Campus to join FCY there for what was called a "Neon Night."  It was called that because...

...well, there was neon coloring.  And it was at night.  Seriously, there were black lights set up and everyone was encouraged to wear something that would glow.  The lobby area had streamers and balloons and so forth, and it was just cool extra decorating to the evening.

Maddie met some friends there that she hasn't seen in a while, and they hit it off right away.  We were here tonight because the Gainesville FCY is now on Wednesday nights, and Braselton was having one more event on Sunday night before they themselves move to Wednesday night.  So given that we didn't have anything on the schedule, why not head down there to check it out?

It was actually pretty fun.  It was really wonderful seeing our extended family at another campus.  Of course Maddie had a great time, hanging out with friends and playing all kinds of games, like the classic "Cup Game."

She lost right away on the first round there, but so did half the audience, so no worries there.  The Cup Game is that easy go-to game that we do a lot to see who is the champion of reflexes and good positioning.  Sometimes how far away you are from the cup matters just as much as how quick your reflexes are!

And there was this new game, "Princess, Knight, Rider" that we did here too.  You can see Maddie is the princess in the picture above, carried aloft by the prince.  The host of the evening calls out one of the titles above, and everyone in the audience with their teammate has to get into that position.  The slowest ones to that position are eliminated, one by one until there's a winner.  This game is super silly and a lot of fun too.

It was a really fun night, and it is a good drive down there so we didn't stay until the very last minute as we often do with the Gainesville events, but we did stay a while.  There was worship, and after that a short message, and after that there was Zaxby's for everyone too.

I just like this picture of some of the streamers.  It looks like an art instillation on the third floor of the High Museum.  

Anyway, that was our night.  Our day of course started with KidPak, where we had one of the funniest skits we've done in some time.  I had written something that was eight pages long, which was a few pages longer than usual.  Everyone nailed their parts and the audience was so into it.  Maddie had the classic line in there that got laughs...

 

MADDIE:  “Okay, gentlemen!  Is this a comedy club or a crime scene?  I heard these old jokes in school.”

 

WATSON:  “What school?”

MADDIE:  “Elementary, my dear Watson!”

She did great on stage, as did all of the other actors.  Rather than separate everyone with the kids doing their own separate roles, I had them more integrated in with the older actors in two different segments.  It all worked out beautifully, advanced our mystery and got the bottom line across, adding a bit of humor too.  One interesting thing has been the whodunnit aspect of this ongoing skit series.  Not even the actors have known whodunnit, at least not until today.  We dropped a major clue in the skit, and in between services we explained to the desperate actors where they could look in the script to figure out the culprit.  Maddie saw the clues and deduced that it was in fact Camille's character, which of course the rest of the audience will discover soon enough.

The morning service was just perfect.  This afternoon we were home for a short window - Mom made meatball subs and pizza for Maddie.  We did make a quick trip to the grocery store, but given that Braselton was a bit further down the road, we gave ourselves enough time to make it there.  

We got home and I had a movie on, "The Pirates: Band of Misfits," which is really a fun movie.  I think Maddie's recent studies of Darwin got me thinking of this movie again, but there were some other scenes that got me wanting to see this one again.  Anyway, soon enough Maddie was getting ready for bed - we read from our book once more, and said our prayers for peace in this world.  We're living on the edge again with Russia, particularly with some commentary from their government leaders today.

Maddie Who

We were back for another viewing of "Seussical Jr." today, which of course features Maddie as a Scientist Who.  We'll call her Maddie Who.  Anyway, it was again really well done, proving that last night's production was no fluke.  The students did a fantastic job with the play, and it really was a pleasure to see again.  This time around, I sat further back in the audience so I could get some pictures, many of which I'll share below for posterity.  Obviously, a lot of these will have Maddie in them, but there are others that show other parts of the production, just something nice to look back on.

It was a good day, although a crazy busy day for me.  I was working the ONE Marriage Conference for a good bit this morning, and then got back home to get Maddie to drop her off at the play, and then come back once again to actually attend the play.  I was glad to get to see it again though, and certainly glad to have these images, as they'll be a great reminder.  She and the others are doing this production one more time for an elementary school, I think, and that'll be it for the year for her and some of the other cast members with this production.  It's been fun though - she really, really enjoyed this one.

Afterwards, we were out to get some bubble tea, Maddie's latest obsession.  There was a choice between that and ice cream, and it may be from this point on that she goes with bubble tea just as much as ice cream, because she really likes it.  The place was super busy too, but we waited in line and got our drinks for the car ride home.

The rest of the day was resting, pretty much.  We were studying our lines, and we also watched a movie too.  On top of that, of course there was dinner too - Mom was working on gluten free meatballs, so we had a gluten free spaghetti meal, complete with gluten-free meatballs too.

We read tonight, and we said our prayers too.  The recent supply chain issues have caused the next Kingdom Keepers book to be delayed until August, and that's a bummer.  But it could be worse.  We'll be still reading these last two books for the next month and a half or so.  And after that, we may pick up another book series - but of course we'll read that new one when it comes out.  Anyway, I was up late studying for this next skit tomorrow morning.  It's going to be another great - but full - day!

Seussical Jr.

Tonight we raced home to catch Maddie in a production of "Suessical Jr."  It was something we last saw back in March of 2019, so the story was somewhat familiar for all of us.  But this time Maddie was up there on stage, and as you can see in the picture above, it was pretty fantastic to see.

The theater at the school is nice, and there were a good number of parents, family and friends there to see the play tonight.  Although many of my co-workers couldn't make it this time, as there is the ONE Marriage Conference going on at the church.  I was there for a short window before racing home to pick up Mom and Nana and take them to the theater.

Maddie had the best time with this play.  We loved it too - the students all did a remarkable job.  There was a lot of movement, many songs and lots of staging and choreography involved.  The costumes were great, and on top of that there were some very talented performers on stage too.

Maddie was great, having an awesome time, and completely in her element.  Afterwards, she hung out with friends in the lobby, laughing and carrying on - I took Mom and Nana home and came back with her afterwards.  The school is just five minutes away from the house, so we could do that sort of thing.

It was a good day today, and we'll be back again to see the play tomorrow.  We read a little bit, and then we said our prayers.  The world is in danger again, all thanks to Russia.  We're hoping things will deescalate soon.