53

Today's my birthday, and I kept busy today, certainly.  For one thing, I finished up the Harvest Hustle challenge on the iFit program this morning, completing a nice jog through Salem, Massachusetts.  Which is oddly enough a place I never really want to ever go.  The iFit programs are great because you tour these places and learn a bit of them, all while an instructor weaves in fitness tips about posture and endurance.  So yeah, I'm jogging now, and it's not too fast and not too far yet, but I'm still trying to do it.  I want to get better, so I'm going to keep expanding my territory so to speak.  Anyway, just in time, I finished the last part of the Harvest Hustle challenge and got my little virtual badge.  

Now I have three badges - two for this Harvest Hustle (walking and running), and then one with Big Foot. Not too bad for month's work - plus I finished the Egypt series.  Next up is the Everest Base Camp Trek, which started out pretty cool.  It'll be fun starting that ascent.

This morning, Mom made breakfast with Mandalorian waffles and Pumpkin King coffee.  Definitely an appropriate breakfast for this day.  Loved it!

So the other thing we got done today is related to Christmas - yes, we put up the first Christmas tree today!  I got the Star Wars Christmas tree up and completely lit and decorated with the tree skirt at the bottom, and it looks fantastic.  While doing that, Mom and I were listening to all kinds of vinyl Christmas records, including some new finds over the past year.  One gem that I really enjoyed was a Christmas album by the Judds.  Great stuff.  And the tree looks fantastic.  Proud of the way it came out.  One down, three to go!

Maddie had a fun day at school - she's created a ceramic ghost for fun, and there were some laughs at some students wearing funny costumes to school.  She had some creepy spider crafts this week too.

And there was time for some holiday gaming too!

But tonight was the big night, and Maddie was okay with sacrificing trick-or-treating tonight.  And I was too - the revival service was tonight, and that was going on at the same time.  We were wondering how many would show up given the attractive nature of free candy.  And wouldn't you know it?  The place was absolutely packed to overflow.  Huge crowds tonight.

To compensate for the lack of candy, Mom and I made a trip earlier today - we were out at Cracker Barrel and at Five Below, creating a bag that was filled with some of her favorite candies, and those candies you typically get on Halloween night.  We even got a few other things too - Maddie saw the bag and was happy to see the candy, and on top of that a Funko Pop Loki, and on top of that a squishmallow version of Zero, the dog from "Nightmare Before Christmas."  

We shut the lights off at the house, and didn't see the chaos of our neighborhood tonight, instead heading over to church for another remarkable revival service.

It was a big, big night.  So many people there.  God is good.  The service was amazing.  We were praying with Maddie tonight, talking about the broken curse of Galatians 3:13.  But the worship was just so much fun, with so many youth and kids there, jumping up and down singing and having a huge party.  It was wonderful, and a great way to celebrate my birthday.  There were a lot of people meeting me to wish me a happy birthday, and that was nice.

I got a few gifts too - a Thanksgiving t-shirt, a new book from Mom, and a few other items too, including a Jaws cooking apron and a Scooby Doo t-shirt too.  It was a really nice day.  God is good.  I'm still here.
 

Spider Birthday Greetings

Boy we've got a spider problem here, don't we?  Look what we found in our yard this morning!  This massive web was left with a special "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" message - just in time for tomorrow's spooky night.  Ye-Ye and Nana no doubt set all this up, and didn't say a word about it, leaving it as a complete surprise.  It was hilarious because we didn't spot it until pulling out the car out of the driveway and ... wait, what's that?  It's like Charlotte's Web, but creepier!

We another long day today - the revival service was tonight, but Mom was unable to go, and Maddie had her taekwondo.  I was stuffing bags for kid visitors though - we have a team from KidPak from all over, each working to make the kids have a little something extra for their visit.  Tomorrow we'll have to go into overdrive in that area, stuffing bags with candy and other items too.  But tonight when we got home, we watched the service online from our living room, streaming it live as it occurred.  Currently, it's supposed to go on until Wednesday night, and so yes, that includes a service on Halloween night, which of course is a direct challenge there.  But we plan on going to that one, that is if Mom feels okay.

Today was a lot of work with scheduling and play practice coordination and writing and creating graphics... and a trip to the funeral home.  The Georgia Department of Public Health actually needs a death certificate for itself, because apparently no one is alive there to do any work.  We've been waiting for months now for this certificate, and so we went to the funeral home today and called the Georgia Department of Public Health, which as a reminder, is pathetic.  It's the embodiment of bureaucracy and red tape and inefficiency.  We're supposed to wait another ten days for this one document that's been holding up everything because everything else is bound by bureaucracy and red tape too.  At least we got to see Binx the black cat while we were there at the funeral home.  He's the resident cat, and Mom was cheered up at the sight of him.

We got to bed on time tonight, and we're tearing through this book "A Hat Full of Stars," and enjoying that.  We said our prayers, and that was pretty much it for today.  It'll be a busy week though!

Into the Fire

 

This morning's skit explored the story of the three Hebrew boys and King Nebuchadnezzar, and the fiery furnace too.  Only, instead of a giant statue, the king's royal subjects were made to bow down to a ...

...yes, a giant tater tot.  It was a full morning here at KidPak with our continuation of our series.  It's been fun, and we're hitting these Bible stories with a lot of energy.  Josh has made some great videos and the whole atmosphere has been fun.  We even had time to refer to teh Veggie Tales song... "The bunny... the bunny... oh, I love the bunny..."

Of course, there's the revival going on.  We had another service planned tonight, so instead of going home, we instead went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse between the last morning service and that evening one.  It was packed there, and the wait was a little longer, but we had another really good meal.  They do steak very well there.  Maddie had chicken with a lot of hot sauce involved.  But she likes the atmosphere there, as do we.

We got back to the church early enough, and had ourselves a meeting with one of the cast members for the Christmas play, and that went pretty well.  And after that, church.  It was an amazing service, and I'm glad Maddie was there for another night of the revival.  The crowd cheered when it was announced that we'd be going on for another three nights at least, yes, right up until Wednesday night.  

The service was a beautiful moment, the songs of worship filling that sanctuary, which was so packed that we had many students actually seated on the stage and around the altar.  There was such a hunger there, and we were so honored to be there for it.

Look at this full moon and the fountains on the way out of the church there, walking to the car.  Maddie snapped this shot with her cell phone.  We got home, and it was late - and we were pretty tired, of course.  We read, and we prayed and we got a good night's rest afterwards.  It was an unforgettable day.

Pumpkin Carving!

Here's this year's line-up of pumpkins!  Josh came over and we all had some fun carving pumpkins tonight.  Mom had chili made up, and some spiced apple cider too, plus coffee and dip with hummus.  All the implements were there, and we got busy making fun faces or in my case, a bat.

The bat is for Camille's baby, Bonnie, somewhat of a running joke.  The pumpkin on the right is Mom's design.  She doesn't usually have time to carve pumpkins, but tonight we had an extra one and Mom did a great job doing this one - let the lion roar!

Josh picked up his pumpkins at Home Depot, and did two of them, one small white one and one with all kinds of lumps on it.  They were highly unusual, but they turned out great.

Maddie's design was simple, but I love it.  It's almost a complaining face, or perhaps one that's getting ready to eat all the other pumpkins.

Mom's pumpkin is so regal.  Or worried.  It depends on how you look at it!  Anyway, it was a pleasant night.  She made chili, and even some wassail - some cider with spices and fruit in it that was just delicious when warmed up.  We had Frog's Breath coffee, and some new pumpkin spice hummus that was actually amazingly good.  We got carving outside and the weather was really nice out there.  It was pleasant, as always, just sitting there talking and carving and creating as we enjoyed the weather and each other's company.

We set the pumpkins up on the fireplace, as is tradition, and we had them lined up and lit up very nicely.  It was a good set of pumpkins!  We sat and watched "Nightmare Before Christmas" while the candles in those pumpkins burned, and it that made things even better.  It was a good night after all.

Today was a busy day - we started early with Team Edge practice.  I'm doing the jogging in the mornings, although I think I have to take a break or do a recovery walk or something tomorrow - the joints aren't quite happy with me at the moment.  But I am doing better and that's good.  Maddie's Team Edge went well too - they're inching closer to their performance, and they're getting very good and in synch.  I was squeezing in some grocery shopping, picking up a few things here and there.  

After that, about four hours of play practice for Christmas, which is moving along.  The revival has really challenged that practice schedule, but everyone who came today did well, and we're moving right along.

We made time for reading tonight, and then prayers - but we were pretty zonked, all of us.  Plus, we have to get up early for church tomorrow.  It's going to be a great day.

Edgefest 2023

 

Tonight was Edgefest, a great tradition at Edge Martial arts where Bart and Christine throw a big celebration where kids can come in costumes and visit different decorated cars for a night of trunk-or-treating.  As you can see from my pumpkin above, there was a pirate theme this year.  Arrrr!  Maddie was there in her pirate garb, as were many others - including a lot of the black belts who were all there to help make the night a big success.  

And it was a big success!  It was super fun for the kids.  We had committed to helping this night, so we missed out on one night of the revival, but get this:  Perry Stone actually signed those new Bibles I picked up earlier this week.  Pretty cool, huh?  Anyway, back to piracy:

Maddie spent a lot of her time at this station, putting on temporary tattoos.  The funny thing was that they weren't entirely sure how to put on temporary tattoos at first, but they figured it out.  Kids that were visiting were given little treasure maps which led to different points and different challenges, like walking the plank or sword fighting or breaking boards of course.  And there was plenty of candy along the way.

I was taking a lot of group shots at the beginning and end, but my big job was taking pictures of kids and families together having a good time.  And they had a great time.  The weather was perfect outside, and in fact a little warm to start out with.  But zero chance of rain.

I love this - they had the Edge bus dressed up as a pirate ship, complete with a mast, cannons, and a skeleton at the wheel.

Yes, I was dressed as a pirate too!  We were having fun throughout the night, laughing at costumes and just enjoying the time together.  One kid was dressed as Rex Kwondo, handing out cards advertising for his six-week program.  There were the usual oversized inflatable costumes, and of course plenty of pirates.

Oh, and this pumpkin.  I always try to carve a pumpkin to match the theme.  Or, at least I have been lately.  Anyway, I was sitting there this afternoon while watching "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy" while carving this out.  I had great success with the linoleum cutters, but my initial drawing was a little rushed.  Still, it came out okay, especially after painting the black flag around it.  Looks pretty good with a candle in it, and as it wasn't cut all the way through, it should hopefully last until Halloween.

Anyway, it was a fun night for Maddie.  On a completely unrelated note, I did my first big run this morning, jogging for a solid 25 minutes or so in a Jackson Hole Marathon.  It's a slower paced jog, but it's a start.  Hopefully I can build up the speed and length of time even, and we'll see how that goes as time goes on.  The important thing, of course, is the blood pressure, which was down quite a bit today.  Good to see.

Tonight we watched that latest episode of "Loki," and it was quite a cliffhanger.  We read for a bit, and then we said our prayers.  We've got another busy day tomorrow - it's quite the season!

Be Afraid

We came up with this game for Sunday that involved making foam boards with portions of the memory verse on them, and the challenge was for audience members to get them in order.  The memory verse is:  “The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid. What can mere human beings do to me?” Psalm 118:6 NIRV

That being said, Josh had it all divided up, and then was laughing about this one portion that a kid gets to hold up.  It says, "BE AFRAID."  We got such a kick out of it that we sent this picture randomly to Maddie during the day, and of course she was slightly confused.  Yes, we explained it later on...

Anyway, another day, another revival service.  Which of course is wonderful.  It is a time of refreshing and renewal and just amazing to see so many people here hungry for God.  Maddie skipped out on taekwondo tonight to get seats pretty early, as she wanted to hear what Perry Stone had to say.  You should see her notebook where she takes message notes.  Perry Stone is famously very speedy with his scripture drops, listing off references and places where this and that happen, and poor Maddie - and anyone else trying to keep up - are sitting there writing notes for reference number two, while just almost missing three and still trying to help the person next to her remember the first reference.  She's doing well though - her notebook is crammed with notes and sermon points, and its' awesome to see her up there with friends during the service.  I was hanging back again with the youth leaders and Josh as well, while Mom was getting some rest at home, watching online this time.  One neat thing is that Pastor Lance is getting Perry Stone to sign our new Bibles tonight, so that'll be cool.

We got home late, and we're definitely tired.  But we spent some time reading, and we prayed of course.  We're ready for a good night's rest! 

Be Batman

Maddie sent this picture to me earlier with this note:  

Made the mask for this kid :)

The teacher had asked me and my friend to make a mask for two kids so I  did the Batman one and my friend did a pumpkin one since those were what the kids wanted, but it felt nice since they looked happy once they got it.

It turned out great!  As a reminder, "Always be yourself.  Unless you can be Batman.  Then always be Batman."

Tonight the revival service continued, and sure enough it was announced that it will go on another two nights, pause for Saturday night, and then there'll be three services on Sunday with Perry Stone, two in the morning and one in the evening.  The funny part was that Perry Stone didn't know that he was speaking in the two morning services...

It was another great night though.  There were things for the youth to do out on the lawn, along with ice cream and food, and there were rows of seats saved for them too.  But it was crazy crowded.  We're there a little early because we can get in the doors as staff, and so I'm seated there with Mom and we're holding a seat for Josh and that's when the doors open.  People quickly pour into the auditorium, claiming seats wherever they can, and very quickly that whole place fills up.  There were many in overflow tonight.  You could tell things were going to be crazy again - there were lines of people outside again, just waiting for the doors to open.  Wow.

The service was fantastic again, and the worship was wonderful.  Just hearing so many voices in unison was like an answer to prayer, listening to such passionate praise.

We got home, and read for a bit getting along further with the Nac Mac Feegle, and then we said our prayers... it was a great day today!

Revival Continues

So the revival is continuing, and the news of course is that it is going until at least tomorrow night, although the hunch is that things are going on even after that.  One reason for this thought is the amount of people here - the sanctuary is filled to capacity with extra chairs in there, and a lot of people sitting in overflow.  Thousands of people are watching online, and suddenly there's a bit of national attention here.  Mom and I were seated in our usual area, and we left Maddie home tonight so she could get some studying in.  It was a fantastic message, and one we all needed to hear, and wow the worship was so loud and amazing.  How incredible the hunger here.

So I've been eying these Perry Stone Bibles for a few years now, and this was the perfect opportunity to pick them up.  It was a little pricy, but I got the Old and New Testament books, and they're pretty big.  I'm very excited about digging into these, once I finish this one book I'm currently going through.  

There is talk of other revivals and comparisons and so on, and it might be premature for that, or maybe it isn't.  I don't know.  I just know this is the third service, and an unexpected and unplanned one at that, and it was massive.  People were lined up again outside, waiting to get in with an expectancy.  There was a rush to get in and get seats, and there was one of the most involved worship sets I've heard since Forward and the arena down there.  It's loud and it's all for Him.  It's beautiful music too, a mix of new and old songs and hymns of worship.  

And how great to see our old friend Perry Stone up there.  These ministries have been around for so long, and there's a nostalgia thing at work for me, a sort of homecoming.  But indeed this is a revival, as our spirits have been refreshed and restored.  Mom and I work downstairs and we labor for the children's ministry and rarely get to sit in on services upstairs.  Yet here we are, soaking in our third service, with more to come.

Maddie had a good day today, and she was fine when we got home - no scary raccoons outside.  The last time she was left alone this long there were noises outside on the back deck - bigger noises.  What was it? It was scary.  Maddie called us up and wanted us to come home soon, so we raced there, and inspected the back area.  Sure enough, something was there.  But it was likely a raccoon.  We had one around at the time, and they like to climb up things.  

Maddie spent her night studying otherwise, and she was watching "Rebels" too.  We got home late, so there was just enough time for reading from "A Hat Full of Sky," and then prayers.  It was a good day though.  We've got more birds outside visiting the feeders as the weather turns more chilly, and inside, the sea monkeys are doing well!  Yeah, that's still going and we're amazed at how healthy and happy they are. It's been a good day.