pam and i just finished watching the modern version of the manchurian candidate. it was a top notch movie. very suspenseful, good plot, etc. it has been so long since i’ve seen the original that i’m not even really sure that i did see the original one. therefore, i’m going to have to go back and watch it or re-watch it depending on the circumstances.
sometimes ministry is just too funny
my wife, pam, loves working with the 9th & 10th grade girls within our student ministry. she leads one of our sunday school classes for the age group and does an amazing job with them. some time in the past her group started sharing nicknames and other things that they had been called in their past. when pam was in eighth grade some of her classmates decided it would be great to call her “pampon” – combining her name (pam) with the feminine hygiene product (tampon). it was a real middle school thing to do.
in a moment of openness pam told this nickname to her girls. of course, being 9th and 10th grade girls several of them started calling her “pampon”. it is a great inside joke. only the girls in her group know it and they only use it in a “family” manner that is full of love.
today pam went to the grocery story and as she was walking out to her car she heard “pampon” shouted out by one of her girls that saw her across the parking lot. all the other people walking across the parking lot got a good laugh out of the name. “pampon” is a great thing to have to answer to.
pinewood derby 2005
today was the pack 205’s annual pinewood derby. if you’re not familiar with a pinewood derby just imagine 100 kids and their dads taking a piece of pine and converting it into a gravity led speed demon. it’s an emotion ridden day. kids enter with high hopes and then slowly but surely all but 20 get those high hopes unmercifully crushed. it’s a great family day.
i know this from experience. the first year i did a pinewood derby with one of my children was horrible. our car raced four times and it never once crossed the finish line. it was horrible.
slowly but surely we have improved. this year noah wanted to get the “judges’ favorite” award and as i discussed earlier he wanted an ice cream sandwich car. so we built it. it looks very much like a real ice cream sandwich. we spent most of our time working on the design and very little working on axles. the axles really are the thing that determines how fast you car goes. you have to sand them down and then polish them if you really want your car to go. i did a little of this but not near as much as last year. last year i spent a week polishing the axles. this year it was only a day. i was pleasantly surprised when noah’s car racked up 2 second places. that was the good news. the bad news was that he then earned 2 fourth places. still not too bad.
the best part was that noah’s car was hands down everyone’s favorite. there was no doubt about him winning the “judges’ favorite” award. it happened just like he wanted it too. you can go here to see noah with his medal for “judges’ favorite.”