Next time you are driving and you hear that beep from your cell phone indicating you got a text message, consider this video.  Also, consider where the person you texting is.  If you know they are driving, then don’t text.   

Our strawberry plant has survived its first weekend in our garden.  (I think it needs about a dozen more plants to keep it company.)

Found a slide of my grandmother Bernice.  I caught a picture of Christopher looking at it.  I thought it made a nice effect.  What do you think?

At the cub scout den meeting today, Christopher learned about birds and made a bird feeder out of a pine cone, string, peanut butter, and some bird feed.  (And of course we brought some cupcakes.)

Cleaned the fish tank

Before:

After:

Also, bought 10 ghost shrimp, a plecostomus, and a small crab.

Went bike riding with Sonia and my mom

Had our family meeting to plan and discuss the week

I’m there at the soccer practice/game wondering if we should go to the Blue and Gold Banquet and participate in the father-son baking contest.  The leader of the event sent out an email saying that even if you had not signed up, then you could still come and participate.  I was looking at the rules and saw the category that I thought we could participate in.  Here are the different contests:

Prizes: To winners in a variety of categories. And, to all, a chance to share some delicious dessert with everyone else. The judging categories include: Best Scout-Themed; Most patriotic; Best sports-themed; Yummiest looking; Most unappetizing looking; Tallest; Flattest; Most original; Most colorful; Most elaborate; Judges favorite.

I saw the “Most unappetizing looking” and I thought back to the birthday parties that we used to go to.  Hemma used to make a cake in a bucket that looked like colorful soil with gummy worms.  It seemed like a simple thing.

After the soccer contest, I talked to Christopher about my idea, and he wanted to do the tallest cake instead.  We got this idea of having a pole in the middle, attached to the base to hold it up, and to cover it with cupcakes.  The rules seem to allow this:

Rule 2. The cake and all decorations visible must be completely edible. You may use non-edible items for support, but they cannot be visible. Remember, this is a cake contest and we will be eating them for desert at the banquet.

This would require a lot of cupcakes, Christopher and I got to baking:

I went to Home Depot to find the supporting structure:

There I met the absolutely best person to help me, Don Alford.  If you have a home improvement project, or any other project that Home Depot might be able to help you, then you want to go to the Home Depot on 249 between Louetta and Jones and ask for Don Alford.

He listened to the project:

Helped me find the boards to use for the base

Helped me find the wooden rods to use to support the cake:

But also suggested looking at the metal rods which we ultimately went with.  And helped me find all the screws, nuts, bolts and everything else.

He cut up the boards:

And attached the brackets on to the end:

Don was absolutely fantastic!!!   Because of him, I plan to do all of my future home improvement shopping at Home Depot.  Thanks Don!

Then back at home we made a lot of cup cakes:

Then we went to the bake contest and put together the stand.  Everything was going as planned:

But then the tower of cupcakes started to shrink.  It was slow at first, and it just looked like normal compression at first, but then we noticed that they were actually breaking off at the bottom:

I got the idea of using the extra plastic wrap we had to wrap around the pole and support the cupcakes.  Unfortunately, by the time we had finished getting it set up. the judging was over, and we did not get considered for the cake.  But I still insisted on building it, because I wanted to see what the finish product might look like:

It was pretty impressive.  It was the only cake you could see from outside:

We were very proud of our work:

When it came time to announce the awards, the leader, Scott Peterson, game special recognition to our tower.  He said that this kind of thing is what is going to get us to Mars.  We were very happy and thrilled that he started out with that.  We were a little sad that we did not get the tallest cake award, but we are very glad we did it!!

Sonia made a nice poster with pictures on it describing the making process.  It was great.

Can you guess what we did when we got home?

We ate cupcakes.  And we will probably be eating them all next week..

We also went to a friend’s house and guess what we brought them?  Cupcakes.

Now after having cleaned up the kitchen, we are all ready for bed.

Sonia, Stephen, and I got up at 6 AM this morning to get Stephen to the school to take a bus to the TMSCA contest at the Village school.  As soon as he left, we all went back to sleep, and got up again at 9:40 so that we could make it to Christopher’s soccer.

Today he played goalie and defense.

There was a really funny event that happened at today’s soccer game.  One person on our team was trying to make a goal.  There was a parent from the other team standing by the goal and directing the goalie for the other team.  I think he was standing a little bit in front of the goal, and our team member bounced the ball off of him and it landed into the goal.  Everyone from both teams was shocked, and we all started laughing.  It was a good thing it counted because it allowed for us to finish with a tied score.

Pretty much the rest of the day was spent making the cake for the Dad and Son cake baking contest.  That is going to get its own post.

Also, Stephen did well at his contest.  He scored 1st in the calculator contest and placed well in several of his other contests.  Here are the trophies and medals that he one from today’s event.

My mom forwarded me a message, (which had been forwarded, and forwarded, and forwarded), with a little story about a shipwreck survivor, an island, a hut, fire, and finally a rescue. 

When Your Hut’s On Fire

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.
Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, ‘God! How could you do this to me?’
Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! ‘How did you know I was here?’ asked the weary man of his rescuers. ‘We saw your smoke signal,’ they replied.
The Moral of This Story: It’s easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn’t lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering.
Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground.. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

P.S. You may want to consider passing this on, because you never know who feels as if their hut is on fire today..  

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What are some key take-a-ways?  Today’s failure might be the cause of tomorrow’s success. (How many stories are there about it working the other way around?  About today’s successes being the cause of tomorrow’s failures?)

There is a great circle to our experience.  Good leads to bad which then leads to good only to have the cycle repeat again.  It reminds me of a story my friend Brian Eckert once told me about “good luck; bad luck”. 

A man in the village found a wild horse.  All the villagers told him this was good luck to have found a new horse.  When his son went to tame the horse, the son got knocked off and broke his leg.  And everyone said this was bad luck.  (Notice though that the leg would not have been broken without the previous “good” luck of getting the wild horse.)  Then an army comes through conscripting all the able bodied 20 some things.  The son doesn’t get conscripted because of the broken leg.  Everyone says this is good luck.  (Which would not have happened without the previous “bad” luck of the broken leg.)  And the tale could go on and on, alternating between “good” luck and “bad” luck.  One leading to the other.

The point is that you really have no way of judging today’s experiences because the final repercussions of them are not fully understood.  Suggestion: If you feel down, then keep hope.  If you feel good, then be careful.