Eighteen Years Now

Eighteen years ago now, and it's hard to believe, but yes eighteen years ago now that we first saw Maddie's face.  It was that picture, one I just have to look at again.  

Halfway around the world, and we were about to fly over there to meet her for the first time, and that time would come in about two months or so, on such an epic journey.  

Team Edge was a bit early this morning, but Maddie was up and driving over there.  I managed to get my walking in, heading over to the college as Maddie was training on individual and group performances.  I came back to do some reading at the counter as I watched her and the team training, and today we were done a little more quickly than usual:  practice wasn't as long today.

It's Ye-Ye's birthday today, so we spoke with him for a good bit - we got him a few gifts and wished him well as we moved along our day here.  Mom and I were out and getting a few things together, with a stop at the church our first destination, first to deliver a prayer shawl from Israel we have in our collection so it could be used in an illustration at the church tonight.  We also were finishing up the set for "Boot Camp," and it's looking pretty good.

Next, time for some grocery shopping, picking up a bunch of snacks for our big trip.  That was fun - we picked up some pretty neat snacks.  After that, off to Kohl's for some free stuff for Maddie:  Mom used some credits for a top for Maddie for this trip.  

We got home and got ready for the Kentucky Derby!  Glad we didn't miss that, as we almost forgot.  Our yearly tradition continued with Maddie picking Incredibolt to win, Mom picking Commandment, and me picking Further Ado.  It turns out that none of these horses got into the top four, but Maddie's choice was first amongst our picks, with Mom's just behind, and then my choice a bit further down.  The weather up there was perfect, and it was a really exciting race with Golden Tempo crossing the finish line first.  

Mom made those bison/pork hot dogs tonight, and our feature of the night was Braves game, which might have been my favorite of the year so far, with a squirrel on the field, a foul ball into the announcer booth,  and Mauricio Dubón's amazing catch against the back wall that he actually did a face plant on and left his eye make up on the wall.  

What a catch, and what a face plant!  We've got some amazing players on this team.  There were some super homers, and just a lot of great plays tonight.  Go Braves!

We read tonight, and it might be one of my favorite parts of a Discworld book, at least as far as humor goes.  I just think it's hysterical that Commander Vimes goes into a berserker rage in combat while reciting the lines from a kids book, "Where's My Cow?"  It was so funny that I was having a hard time reading it out loud.  Maddie was enjoying it too, and then we all said our prayers - time for some sleep!