Team Saturdazzle: The One where I Mispronounced Meme Twice.

Another Saturday, another Saturdazzle .  Todays Saturdazzle could also be called The one with the 14 year old video.  After I statrted this blog in 2009, I started in short order a few more blogs most notably Crazy Uncle Dave's Sport-O-Rama and Dave Out Loud. Dave Out Loud was my attempt at a vlog.  A few years ago I combined all 3 blogs into this one. 

As I often do in the early months of the new year I've been cleaning up this blog.  Spending time looking at old posts, and revamping the look of it.  While I was doing that I came across this video talking about my the previous week at our home school.

I was participating in a meme called weekly wrap up where you share post about your week and link your post up to a site.  These things still happen and I hope one day to see if I can make Team Saturdazzle a weekly link up.  

A few years after this post I discovered that I had been mispronouncing meme.  In it's correct pronunciation it's pronounced like it thymes with theme.  However, I was pronouncing it me me.  So when I learned of my mistake, I just corrected my pronunciation and moved on.  

What I didn't realized was that there was evidence of my earlier failure to communicate.  I invite you to watch what I am calling exhibit A.  Where I mispronounce meme not once but twice.

Now if you were wondering what I was thinking when I pronounced meme me me, it is this: Most of the memes I knew at that time were blogging memes and it seemed like the purpose of the blogging meme was to get the attention of other bloggers.  It was to me as if you were shouting Me! Me! Look at me,  That's why I pronounced it me me.  

Memories of Kite Fest 1999

Amy and I were married in April of 1998 and her two brothers gave us a wedding gift of a weekend  in Madison Wisconsin, where they both lived and still live.  We went up in early February and discovered there was a kite flying festival taking place.  I have pictures similar to the picture below in a photobook some where. If you click on the caption below the picture, it will give you more infor about the event this year.  While that festival no longer exists.  There is a kite flying event on the same lake today as part of a new winter festival in Madison.  

Kite Fest 1999 Madison Wisconsin
I do not own this picture, click on the caption for the full story.

Team Saturdazzle At The Movies

Powered by Box Office Mojo

Top 10 Films  January 2025 

and by default

 top 10 Films of 2005 as of 1/31/2005

10. Baby Girl Up 2 from December

9. Wolf Man

8. One of Then Days

7. Den of Thieves: Pantera

6. A Complete Unknown Up 1 from December

5. Wicked Down 3 From December

4. Nosferatu Up 2 from December

3. Moana 2 Down 2 from December

2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3: Up 1 from December

1. Mufasa: The Lion King Up 3 from December

Team Saturdazzle: The One with Bits and Pieces.

Today's Team Saturdazzle is just a quick compilation of stories, clips and jokes.

Like many days when I was a kid it starts with Sesamee Strret and it ends with a snack,

One of the things I liked about Sesamee Street from an early age was the guest appearances.  One of the ealriest I remember probably since I like puns so much is when the cast of Bonanza came on the show.  They were on a lot of season 2 and did segments where they counted or recited the alphabet or demonstrated math problems like the video below.  

 

In the episode I remember they do a play on the Ernie and Bert banana in my ear sketch (original sketch below) except instead of saying banana in my ear they actually say Bonanza in my ear. Epic!

Sesamee Street has continued with their guest appearances.  I just discovered this gem with Billy Joel and Marlee Matlin (CODA, West Wing, Children of a Lesser God) . I'm a big Billy Joel fan and also love writing new lyrics to old songs and Joel does this by tweaking one of his standards and adapting it to Oscar The Grouch.  

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Yesterday I had one of my days where I was out of the house at 6:30 and not back for good until after midnight. I was home for about 90 minutes in the afternoon.  My wife and daughter were preparing for  an impromptu game night, where they had invited several people a day or less before the party was slated to begin.  A few people did manage to come, but when I was home the only people they had heard from were unable to attend.  This gave me an idea for a wry observation which I shared on my personal FB page:

A lot of times when people can't make it to an event youv'e asked them to attend, they will respond something like that sounds great, but I'm busy that day. Just once can't they say that sounds like an awful time, but I'm not doing anything see ya at 7?

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This morning, Amy and I were judging another speech tournament.  This time it was at held at Lucy's old high school.  When you walk in the hallowed halls of a high school there are pictures of accomplished student athletes and plaques with the names of students who received accolades, awards, accomplishments, and some words that don't start with A like scholarships. None of those halls in any of those schools contain my picture.  I wasn't that kind of athlete, and I was not that kind of student.  However the apple must have fallen far from the tree because my daughter class of 2024 is pictured at least twice and her name is engraved on a plaque as a recipient of a scholarship for mastery in Language Arts.  

Ending the day with a snack

My college friend Angela Rumbold's birthday was earlier this week.  We had many fine times over the years.  When she first moved from Illinois to Georgia, I had occasion to visit her there and she introduced me to boiled peanuts.  It was love at first soggy bite.  years later when I lived in South Carolina for 2 years the boiled peanut became my go to snack as there was a street vendor outside our local Walmart.  I generally did not go more than a fortnight without grabbing me a bag.  

When I ventured back to Illinois in '97 to forsake all others and marry my best friend, I also  ending up forsaking regular visits with my favorite boiled legume.  This +25 year absence of a boiled peanut routine ended about 2 years ago when I discovered inside A BP in Frankfort, Illinois where my sister in law  lives, a boiled peanut station.  So now 4 or 5 times a year on visits to her family I get the fruits of Jimmy Carter's first job (Boiled Peanut deliverer).

Tonight was one of those nights.  My Niece Gracie was in a production of Finding Nemo Jr.  Which is not it turns out a quest to find Nemo's progeny but a children's adaptation of the musical Finding Nemo.  I was glad to attend, but everyone in my family knew there was a boiled peanut quid pro quo in my attendance.  

By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferwoodardmaderazo/3563681031/, CC BY 2.0, Link

Well that's all the Team Saturdazzle I have for you today.  We learned some math, heard some jokes, watched some videos, I shared some stories and  even had a snack.  It's not exactly 3 points and a poem, but it will have to do.  

Team Saturdazzle: The One With Downtown Chicago

Third Saturday of the year. Third Team Saturdazzle post. For Christmas this year I gave Amy tickets to a Bulls game. We used them this weekend and drove to the city to watch The Bulls lose a close one to the Charlotte Hornets. Amy likes either playing sports or watching them live. I like those as well as watching sports on TV. , listening to sports on the radio and reading the accounts of a game in a newspaper or online.  But being with Amy makes everything even losing to the Hornets better.

Horace Grant 87-94 Bulls (1st 3 championships)
Randy Brown 95-00 Bulls (Last 3 championships)

A case in point is after I gave Amy the tickets she decided that staying overnight in Chicago would be better than driving back to our home in the suburbs. This is why I sit here at a Chicago hotel chronicling our adventure so far early on a Saturday morning.

One thing Amy and I like about staying in a hotel is television. In the 26-plus years we’ve been married many of those years have been spent without a TV. A few more years have been spent owning a TV. You can only watch DVDs or video cassettes.  So on those  occasions when we have stayed in hotel rooms we have enjoyed watching broadcast television. Yesterday after the game we watched a couple episodes of Seinfeld followed by an episode of Friends.  After that we turned on TUBI and watched a part of an episode of What's Happening and part of an episode of The Floor,  We watched the former because one of the Bull's bench players, Jalen Smith gives off a big Roger vibe from the show.

The latter is because we have been catching up on the 2nd season of the Fox game show sporadically over the past few months.  

This morning I went downstairs for some breakfast and I encountered a young man with a Hornets hoody and a Bulls Cap.  It's the kind of thing I would do with Cubs and Sox gear so he let me take a pic of him. The breakfast was good.  I don't see grits as an offering very much in the Chicago area but was glass to partake.

Bulls Cap Hornets Hoodie

Breakfast these days takes grits and hard-boiled determination.

Checkout at the hotel wasn't until noon.  So we lingered and then on the way home we stopped by a restaurant I'd seen on Friday that appealed to several parts of my nature.  

1. It's a classic Chicago Hotdog spot.

2. The name of the place, LuLu's is also one of our nicknames for our youngest daughter.

3. Three Words: Home Made Chili

4. Art work reminiscent of the Little Lulu comics without giving any of the credit. 

5.  When I went  in I decided I would see if they could put Chili on my Polish.  Not only could they but the Chili Cheese Polish, which I thought I had invented seconds before, was their special of the day.

While I don't subscribe to the no ketchup on hot dog 

theory, I do appreciate the wry wit of this poster.

For the last 3 years our Saturdays were too busy in the winter to get away for the weekend.  Almost every weekend, we were judging a speech tournament which took a huge portion of our Saturdays.  Even yesterday we drove by a high school on our way home blissfully unaware that the Larkin Speech Team was participating in a tournament there.  

Last 5 Sporting Events

1/17/2025 Charlotte Hornets Defeat Chicago Bulls 125-123 @ The United Center Chicago Illinois

11/16/2024 Class 7A Football Quarterfinal IHSA Batavia 17 Downers Grove North 7 @Batavia High Scool Batavia IL

11/2/2024 Dad's Day Weekend Minnesota 25 Illinois 17 Memorial Stadium Champaign IL 

10/26 Mt Carmel 34 Loyola Academy 20 Mt. Carmel High School, Chicago IL

10/19 100th anniversary game of Dedication of Memorial Stadium Illinois 21 Michigan 7 Memorial Stadium Champaign IL 

 

Facing The Unknown - Weekly Writers Workshop

 

This weeks prompts for Weekly Writers Workshop hosted by the inimitable (I should know, I try to imitit him all the time, and I am not able) John Holton on his blog, The Sound of One Hand Typing, are:  write a post on the word medications,  write a post in exactly 12 sentences, write about what would induce you to give up life as you know it and face the unknown, tell us the story of your personal experience with rejection, write about a bad habit you'd like to eliminate from your life, and write about a time you had to let go of someone you cared for.  I'm sure you have deciphered by the enormity of the first sentence, and the title of this post which prompts I have chosen.  

There have been at least 5 times in my adult life that I have given up life as I knew it and faced the unknown: moving across the state at the age of 22 to attend university,  moving across the world to serve 2 years as a Southern Baptist missionary in Far East Russia in 1992 a few months after the country had  opened it's doors to Western missionaries, moving across the U.S. to attend seminary, moving across the country again back to my native Illinois to court the woman who would become my wife, and finally moving against the grain by staying at home for 6 years and homeschooling my children. In each of these cases I gave up life as I knew it and faced the unknown; in the first 4 I also had to let people go that I cared for (the 6th prompt).  

What motivated me those 5 times varied by degree but they all had to do with a path I have tried to follow since becoming a follower of Jesus more than 40 years ago and that path has been putting the needs of others before my own.  I am not perfect, so I haven't  been perfectly motivated and I sure haven't perfectly followed this path but the path has certainly led many times to leaving life as I then knew it. 

My first three travels were all based on what I thought would be the life of a missionary.  When I left South Carolina where I had attended seminary for a year to pursue marriage with Amy, I had already become uncertain of a career as a missionary, but one of the myriad reasons I had fallen in love with her was because I had seen in our 7 years of friendship that she was also on the path to putting others needs before her own.  So I envisioned that we would attempt to meet those needs together, which we have for 26 years and continue to do so however imperfectly. 

The needs of my wife and children motivated me as a home educator, they also prepared me for my current job as a substitute teacher. With all our children out of high school, there may come a day when Amy and I, as a couple give up life as we know it and face the unknown. I am certain  that the same motivations that directed in the past would lead us into any new unknown. 

I know would like to lead you back to the known, which is a variety pack of other submissions that can be found in the comments section of  this weeks edition of the Weekly Writer's Workshop. 

Wordless Wednesday: Father and Daughter Unknowingly Bring Copies of the Same Book to a Campus Visit

 

For more Wordless Wednesday head back to Comedy Plus

A New Years Resolution or A Tolkien Gesture

 Today is J..R.R. Tolkien's birthday.  I have long been an admirer of his work.  It started when I went on a field trip in school to a puppet version of The Hobbit.  On the occasion of my first trip to Mackinaw Island, my parents purchased me a set of his Lord Of The Rings Trilogy.  It was never actually intended to be a trilogy, it was published in 3 parts due to it's bulk and in case it proved to be a failure.

It of course was not a failure, being one of the best selling and most loved books of all time.  I on the other hand have failed many times in my attempts to read or even listen to the entirety of Fellowship of The Rings, the first installment of the work.  This is a cause of some embarrassment for me, and also a point of friction between myself and my son, who had read all 3 installments while he was still a tween. 

I am actually a much bigger fan of his fellow Inkling C.S. Lewis and generally read all 7 books of Chronicles of Narnia every year.  I have decided in honor of Tolkien's birthday that I will attempt yet again to read this magnificent tome.  Two years ago I was successful at my attempt to finish Moby Dick, this year I hope to finish LOTR. I will start  to read it this Winter and attempt to complete it by the end of Spring.  If I still haven't finished it by the beginning of Summer, I will complete the rest by listening to an audio version.  I will give myself to September 2nd, which is the day Tolkien died.  This years it falls on my eldest daughter's 25th birthday, and  thus a easy to remember due date.  If all goes well I will repeat the process in 2025 and 2026 for the final 2 installments.  I will update my progress here with my installments of Last 5 Next Ten. 

Taking A Mental Health Day

 I went to Greece last month and it was an amazing trip.  It was a time to celebrate 25 years of marriage to my best friend,  I had an idea of posting about each day exactly a month later on my blog and then posting it on on mine and my wife's FB page.  Now, to be perfectly blunt, very few people consistently read my blog and none of my FB friends are putting any pressure on me at all to post everyday.  Yet I put pressure on myself to do it.  So when I didn't post yesterday and got one day behind on this self imposed deadline and decided I would do two days today, and as of 9:30 p.m. had not done either I began to freak out.  Why? I really want to post about every day, but who cares whether it's exactly a month behind?  Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves for no real reasons?

I think everybody goes off kilter sometimes.  Not exactly like me, but I don't always go off kilter for the same reasons.  But it is important that when I do go off kilter, I bring myself back.  When this happens, I ask God for help.  I ask my family for help and I make changes.  Sometimes it just means letting myself off the hook for something.  Sometimes it means not believing lies.  Sometimes it means changing my plans.

So, as far as my memories of the trip go, I hope to recount each day  on the blog and then on Facebook.  But I do that because I love writing and I loved the trip and for no other reason.  It's not going to have to be each day 1 month later like some self imposed a to z challenge. And If I never finish it, so what?  It was a good trip and Amy and I both know it.

There are enough pressure on us as a society, that we need to stop putting additional burdens on ourselves and our friends and family.

I'll be back tomorrow, or so, to tell you about losing my phone on the Island of Sifnos on June 11th and the other more interesting things that happened that day.  I kicked myself a lot for losing my phone, but that was not an important thing that happened that day. I kicked myself a lot for not posting yesterday, but that was not an important part of yesterday.  Today, I worked for 8 hours at the movie theatre and when I got home there was a tornado waning after dinner.  After our family got back from the basement, my time was better spent decompressing with the family than holing myself up with the computer just to meet some imaginary time requirements.  I just sometimes have to remind that to my foot when it wants to kick myself.  

OTTG 1ML Day 5

 Our Trip To Greece

One Month Later

Day #5

6/10/23

Our first full day in Sifnos.  We heard about Sifnos through a Greek travel agent Amy found on line.  I had bought Amy a guide book for the Greek Islands at Christmas time and Sifnos was not even mentioned.  This travel agent told us it's the island where the Greeks like to travel to on their holidays.  We found it instantly captivating.

Our hotel was on the bus route and also just a short walk from the port of Kamares.  Our hosts were amazing.  

We had breakfast on our patio every morning.

Where we would often see one of the 3 tortoises on the property.

We took a bus from our town of Kamares to Apollinia.  We then hiked back to Kamares from Apollinia.  These trail markers were invaluable.  

Here is footage of our hike

and a few pictures ...

Our Trip To Greece, One Month Later: Day 2

 Day 2: June 7th 2023

June 7th the 2nd day of our Greece trip began for me on a plane in the middle of a flight from Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Athens, Greece.  There is a 8 hour time change between Chicago and Greece and a 7 hour time change between Toronto and Greece and you fly through all the time zones in between as you make your way to Athens.  So, I am not exactly sure where I was when the 7th became the 8th but it happened sometime on the 9 1/2 hour flight.  So when we left Toronto on June 6th at 6:10 p.m, It was already 1:10 am on June 7th in Greece.  When we landed in Greece it was nearing 11:00 in the morning there while just 3 a.m in Chicago where we had been the day before.

The flight was a night flight and the plane was crowded and after an hour or two of sitting I would be in a lot of pain.  The pain would be relieved when I got up to go to the bathroom or stretch my legs, but since the plane was dark for the majority of the flight, I was in the window seat and had to get Amy and someone else to move every time I got up.

In the morning I opened up the blind to my window and was treated  to some fantastic views, here are some  pictures I took of them:

When I saw this view, I knew we were on the right trip.  Amy love mountains and the sea and in the U.S. midwest we don't get a lot of either of them.  

 

As we were getting closer and closer to Athens I saw more boats and ferries knowing that in a few days we would be travelling on one. 

We landed, got our passports stamped, grabbed our luggage and made our way towards the Athens Metro.  In a bit of trip symmetry, we got to the Chicago airport by commuter train and left the Athens airport by the same mode of transportation.  In Chicago we only were on the train for 1 stop.  In Greece, we were on a very crowded train for over an hour.  We were exhausted, but also invigorated as we talked with some folks from the Netherlands who had also just got into the country.  The main  differences between us was that their flight was only about 2 hours and they didn't have to exchange money as the Euro is the currency in both countries.  

We had been told by our cell phone carrier before we left that we would be able to use our phones in Greece without having to buy a sim card to use there.  This was not the case, and as a result once we got to our stop we could not use the phone's g.p.s to get us to the hotel.  A lovely man at a bar we passed recognized the name of our hotel and told us exactly how to get there.  There would be MANY such occasions in days to come where the warm Greek people would happily help us find our destinations.

As we made our way to our hotel trudging all our bags we began to realize that especially in Athens everyone moves with reckless abandon.  The cars, the busses, the motorcyclists, the bicyclists, even the pedestrians.  There are crossing lights but people kind of go where and when they want to.  We got to the hotel, got all our stuff in our room and then we took a short walk around our hotel.

Amy here...we were so sleepy, but wanted to fight the jet lag and quickly adjust our bodies to Greek time. We discovered the rooftop restaurant of our hotel was situated across from the below stunning view of the Acropolis (hill) and Parthenon (remnants of a temple on top of said hill.)  We were agog and awed and enjoyed some delicious food (mushroom risotto and some type of fish) before falling into a deep sleep which would last around 12 hours. 

The View from our Hotel's rooftop restaurant.

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Our Trip to Greece: Day by Day 1 month later

 Exactly 1 month ago my wife and I embarked on a trip to Greece to celebrate 25 years of being married.  Starting today we’d like to turn back the clock and give you day by day details of our trip a month after they occurred.

Day 1

6/1/23 Elgin Illinois

We wake up in our house and the big day we’ve been planning for for years is finally upon us.. We do a final check to make sure we have not forgotten anything and pack our luggage into our car. If you don’t count walking, escalators, elevators or the people movers at the airport we are going on 4  different modes of transportation today. First, we drive to our local bus station and I drop off Amy and our luggage. I then drive home, do a final final check for forgotten items and walk the 1/2 mile back to the bus station.  We board the bus and our trip begins in earnest with us shepherding our 1 each checked bag, carry on item and personal item on the way to the penultimate stop of the O’Hare bound Chicago Blue line train. 

We know this stop very well as when you take it towards Chicago it connects to the red line train, which has taken us to tens of White Sox games and several Cubs games over the years we have called the Northwest suburbs our home. I have since been there this past 4th of July to attend a White Sox game with my daughter. When we got to the station we were thinking back to the day before Mother’s Day a few weeks prior when while on our way to watch the White Sox take on former home town favorite Jose Aubrey and the Houston Astros we saw a man having a drug overdose and had to call 911 to get him assistance. No such drama ensued this time as we hopped on the Ohare bound train and got out at the airport.  

We had built a little what my Dad always called margin into our schedule so we had plenty of time for me to exchange a small amount of dollars to euros before turning in our luggage. This was by far the worst exchange rate I received.  It is always a good idea to have some of the local currency at all times of your stay as you can’t always use credit or debit cards.  It’s just best to only use airport exchanges when absolutely necessary. It’s ta captive audience thing, the equivalent of buying snacks at a movie theatre.  I work at a movie theatre, so I know of what I speak.

At this time of the morning foot traffic at “The World’s Busiest Airport” was fairly light, so we eased right through baggage to Security.  We had talked about paying the extra hundred dollars for a third piece of checked baggage but the previous night had discovered that that bag was light enough and small enough to be considered  as carry on baggage. So we ended checking only 2 bags. What we forgot to assess was whether the items in that bag were compliment to airline regulations.  The shampoo bottles were biggger than allowed so I had to go back to the front and check that bag as well. Something always seems to go askew when you travel, and since we had been planning to pay to transport that piece until the day before the trip it seemed like the small hiccup it was.

I just looked at the time, I have to go the aforementioned movie theatre and inflict 8 dollar popcorn on people. I’m going to have Amy take you to Toronto and beyond, but make sure she mentions the maple leaf cookies.

This is Amy… we landed in Toronto and bought maple leaf cookies because Dave loves them. We hung out for a couple of hours and then boarded the next airplane and flew to Athens. The flight was 9.5 hours and while being a bit squished, we were thrilled to be full-filling a years long dream of visiting Greece. We saved up for 6 years and now it was coming true! 

June Stats

 June was a big month for me.  My wife and I went on a trip to Greece.  We left the Chicago area on June 6th and did  not return until June 21st.  It certainly was a trip of a lifetime and an amazing wat to celebrate 25 years of marriage to my best friend.  

It was not a big month in regards to blog output.  I put out 2 posts prior to our trip and exactly 2 more after we got home.  Last June I posted 19 times before posting only 16 times for the rest of the year.  I finished 2022 with 102 posts on the strength of my April A to Z posts.  If I only achieve 16 posts again in the 2nd part of 2023, I will finish with 2 posts  less than 100 for the year.  When May ended I was on track for 178 posts, with only 4 last month my projection is down to 164 by New Years Eve 2023. The problem is,  if I match my  16 posts  from the 2nd half of 2022 this year I won't get near 164 and not even break 100 by years end.  

No need for doom and or gloom.  I am a man with a plan.  Starting on July 6th, I plan to chronicle my trip to Greece with a daily recap a month late.  I did the same thing years ago when our family went to Washington D.C. If I am successful, I'll finish July right around 100 posts and be back in a posting groove.  

By brunobarbato, CC BY 3.0, Linkity: Prodromos 

Island: Paros

Country: Greece

I was in this city on a hike, but don't remember seeing this.  More coming soon.  

Spiritual Thursday: Delivering the message of delivery.

It is time once again for Spiritual Thursday and I am hosting today.  Today I have some ruminations on the church.  But before I ruminate away, I have some questions you might want to reflect on and answer.  Of course these are just ideas and you are free to write about anything you  like.  

First, is there a physical place that has deep spiritual meaning to you?  Secondly, are there people  who have invested in, walked alongside, or that you have walked along side of in your journey?  How have they encouraged you on the way? Has your spiritual journey given your life purpose?  Does your journey have a way?  In other words, what has been your path on that journey?   In my mind the answers to those questions help constitute what church is to so many of us. 

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I am going to Greece in less than a week and I am super excited!!! We will be spending time in Athens and Corinth, but mostly be on the islands of Sifnos and Paros.  The island of Sifnos boasts 360 churches, the most if any island in the Cyclades.  Including this one which we hope to travel to.  

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_of_Epta_Martyres_,Kastro_on_Sifnos,_153398.jpg#/media/File:Church_of_Epta_Martyres_,Kastro_on_Sifnos,_153398.jpg

While preparing for our trip we have found many churches that we can visit as tourists but have had more difficulty finding churches we can attend as practitioners.  This is what gave me my idea for today's post.

Oftentimes when we think of a church, we think of a structure.  Just in the same way when we think of the post office, we think of a building or perhaps a mail box.  Perhaps we might think of a person when we think of the church, perhaps a  priest, pastor or parishioner. Thinking of the post office, we might picture  our mail deliverer.  Sometimes when we think about the church, we might focus on the negative, the scandals, the abuse, the hypocrisy.  Again, at the post office, we might think about lost mail or someone going, well, postal.

I would say that the church and the post office are really about one thing, the same thing, and that thing is delivery.

There are 2 meanings of the word deliver and they work in concert with each other.  First, you deliver a message, second you deliver something from one place to another.  In the post office context, the message that gets delivered is separate than the place it was delivered from and where it's going. So if I send a letter from where I live in Illinois to where my sister lives in Virginia,   the route that the message is taking does not change the meaning of the message.

But the church is also delivering a message and being delivered at the same moment.  I will give an Old Testament and New Testament example, but there are countless  examples that don't derive from the scriptures.  In the Old Testament the Hebrews are literally being delivered from bondage in Egypt and being delivered to the promised land. One example from the New Testament is I Peter 2:9,

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

In this example, the message that is being delivered is that people are being delivered from darkness into light.

I guess what I'm saying is that when I think of the church, I think of the message being delivered and the journey from where you've been to where you are now, to where you are headed.  The two types of delivery message and journey are intertwined together.  

For me my spiritual journey is centered around Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has delivered me from slavery and is leading me to the promised land and is preparing a place for me there.  It is Jesus who has called me out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Before Jesus church was just a place and a practice.  Now the church is His body here on earth.  He is the message that we deliver and the Messiah who has is delivering us.  

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Don't Cross The Snakes

Amy was reading to me about our upcoming trip to Greece. We are doing some hiking and she was reading about the two poisinous snakes that are in Greece. It summed it up by saying "don't put your feet or hands in crevices without looking first". And all I could think of to say was ...

If you are not familiar with that scene in Ghostbusters you can see it by clicking here.

A Puppyism is Born

As I said in my last post, we had a recent addition in our family of a niece/cousin. So not surprisingly the kids had babies on their minds tonight as we were driving home from dinner/shopping. We were talking about how all our kids were born by C-section. Amy explained a little about why that was and puppy from the back asked when I was born I had an ear infection? As we all laughed, I remembered that we had studied both Julius and Augustus Caesar in our Mystery of History
curriculum last year.   So I asked the kids if they knew what the C in C-section stands for.   None of them did, so I said it stands for Caesar.  After a little while Puppy said so I must be part Roman.

I thought this quintessential Puppyism appropriate for my 700th post here at HSD.  I am sure there will be more posts and puppyisms to come.

Father Son Camp PICS Part III

Riflery

Father Son Camp Pictures Part II

Paint Ball

Father Son Camp Pictures Part I

Spider Droid and I had a great time at Father Son Camp.  I will be sharing a picture or two each day this week as I try to worm my way back into the blog-o-sphere. 

 

 

 

 

Archery

Randy Stonehill on Compassion

Our family went to Indiana over the weekend to visit our friends and see the baby they just adopted.  We coordinated the visit so we could see Randy Stonehill, my favorite Christian artist, in concert.  Here he is articulating whypeople should sponsor children with Compassion International.  I will post some of his songs later this week.

Our Summer So Far (In Fragments)

We have been up to a lot already this summer.  Today I thought I would express it in fragments.  Videos and photos of the first few weeks of the summer.

Fragment V1  - Spider Droid Shoots and Jumps

Fragment P1 -  Bunny and Dad Bike

Fragment V2 - Kite Flying Fun

Fragment P2 A Hike in the Woods

Fragments P3 & V3  - Puppies and Dolphins Unite

Fragment P4 - Volunteering at an Outdoor Food Pantry

Fragments P5 & V4 - More Fun at the Pool

That is all the photos and footage I have for now.  Hope your summers are fun also.  For More Friday Fragments stop over at Half Past Kissing Time.  

Take A Hike

Yesterday we went on a hike. Besides swimming and biking we are trying to take a hike once a week. Yesterday we went to Raceway Woods, which was a speedway in my town in the 50's and 60's and the remains of the racetrack now make a number of great trails.

I made Bunny Girl write a post about the hike. Her blog at homeschoolblogger wasn't coming up so I had her write at old blog. I decided to lead by example. and post about the hike as well.

This picture was posed. I actually had everybody turn around and hike back to me. It was either that, a picture of their backsides, or me running up to catch them.

The view from the top of a broken bridge