puck

Who knew pictures can actually remind you of things???

So here are some pictures we were sent from one of the other parents at the play. These are great and really reminded me of how well Taylor did...holy smokes...

If you saw the play, I'm sure you'll remember each of these scenes...she delivered them so well, it's hard to forget (I know, proud dad, what can I say).

silence

Who knew silence could be borderline impossible?

Have you guys heard the song "Sober" by Pink?

There is a line in that song that says:

"I don't want to be the girl that has to fill the silence,

The quiet scares me because it screams the truth."

It's amazing how much truth is running through my head during the silent periods. Maybe that's why I shy away from prayer, or God time when I'm in the dumps - cause that's when the hard truths come out the loudest. I often wondered why it was always hard to sit in silence…to just clear my head. I think it's hard to clear my head because that's the only time I give the 'smart' side a chance to speak up - and it yells every chance it gets to let me know what's up.

I guess one answer is to make sure there aren't quiet times…I'm really good at that. The better solution is to have more quiet times, to allow the truth to come out and empty out of my head. I guess that's really the only time I can be truly silent - when I've already faced all the truth running around up there and have allowed it to come out. Not a fun thing, but better in the end perhaps.

Anyway, not sure where that came from, just in the mood to type nonsense today I guess...

Of course there is also the Billy Joel song that may apply to me more…

"You may be right, I may be crazy."

And so it goes...

Web surfing...

Who knew I could have time to surf the web???

I found a few pictures I thought were worthy of keeping...since this is my repository, thought I'd throw them up here...

Rob sporting the look at an MTV awards show...talk about stylish...

This picture captures all my football favs - the Vikings, Michigan, and Tom Brady (or the Patriots)...crazy they are all in one picture...thought it was pretty cool...

Environmental what?

Who knew we could actually care about the earth - and be christians at the same time???

A few weeks ago, we had Carl Safina (president of the Blue Ocean Institute - and extremely well known) speak at our church for both services on Sunday. As Pastor Ken said, it was the first time we've ever had an atheist speak from the pulpit. Carl was great and actually received a standing ovation at the end of the 11am service. It was a great week and we truly were grateful he came to speak to us.

Carl and Ken met a few years ago and have developed a unique, and quite amazing friendship over the past few years. Here are the links to some of the articles and pictures from the event - as well as blog posts from Carl and Ken. They are worth the read and show we are making progress at bridging a divide that has been there for a long time. Vineyard and the Blue Ocean Institute have actually formed a collaborative (Friendship Collaborative) - which is also extremely amazing.

Good press about the church (especially the one I attend) is always great!

Article on Mi-Live.com - http://blog.mlive.com/judy_mcgovern/2009/03/file_it_under_only_in_ann_arbo.html

Pictures (from Kirk D.) - http://gallery.me.com/kirkhabitat#100382

Ken's Blog - http://kenwilsononline.com/

Carl's Blog - http://carlsafina.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/488/

Puck? Really?

Who knew Taylor was such a gifted actress?????  All I can say is holy smokes.

Ok, so I think we all know how cool our kid is - and how proud I am of her all the time - but watching the performance last night (actually saw both performances yesterday) had me completely beaming the entire night!  She was amazing.

To catch some of you up that may not know, Taylor was cast as Puck in the Shakespeare play "A Midsummer Nights Dream."  Puck is basically the lead role and she has been working VERY HARD over the past few months to get ready for this.  Yes, they are speaking in the hard to understand language of that time and all of the kids really did a fantastic job!  Here are few early shots from the play last night (and Taylor in her costume).  I'm hoping to be able to post a few video clips and more pictures from the rest of the weekend.

She had 2 shows on Friday, 2 today and one more on Sunday.  The play runs for 2 hours and is extremely entertaining to say the least.  The cast is around 40 people and range from second grade to high school.  They are all really good friends and it is fun to see the interactions on the stage.

Again, so proud of Taylor - she is truly amazing to say the least.  Just to be able to deliver the lines is enough for me - then add on all the actual 'acting' she did, and running on and off the stage, from one side to the other, and so on.  The truly amazing part last night was her ability to improv and roll with some of things that went wrong - her wings got caught on the steps at one point when she was running off stage and into the crowd - just stopped, stepped back, unhooked her wings, smiled and kept going.  The leaves in her hair came out during a stretch she was going to be on-stage for a while.  They hung on for a little while and she just sort of ignored them.  When she was storming off stage, they finally fell.  She just turned around, quickly grabbed them off the floor, and huffed - which was totally in perfect harmony with the scene - the crowd laughed.  There is also a part where she tries on one of the other actors glasses.  She had a little trouble putting them back on him - and made a funny comment and finally got them to stay.

Those little 'accidents' would probably have derailed me, but she just rolled with each of them and made it seem like it was just part of the scene and supposed to happen.  I don't know how she does it - but I can't wait to see the shows again today.

Oh yeah, she also got contacts for the play so the stage lights didn't glare off of her glasses - talk about dedication!  I'm not sure I'm ok with that though - makes her look way too old...

Here are some pictures - if you are coming to one of the shows and don't want to ruin the surprise of her costumes, don't look down...

Puck and Oberon (King of the fairies) along with all of his fairies

Puck commanding all the fairies to quiet down

Full wingspan