It’s been a LONG time since I did a Sunday Night Decompress…and it’s been a while since I darkened the door of a church.  And since I went to church this morning, I thought I might as well drop a little decompress on you!  Sometimes you don’t have ANYTHING to say, and sometimes you have STUFF to say…today is that day…

So without any further adieu, here goes!

• Have I mentioned lately that it’s FOOTBALL SEASON!!!???  Thank you Lord, and Hockey season is coming!
• I went to New Walk Church today – one of my favorites and several friends have been attending lately.  As always, great music, great speaking, and great to see so many old friends!
• After church Sid and I spent some time at Smokey Bones for lunch.  We had received some gift cards way back when, and finally got around to using them!  I *heart* good BBQ!
• We spent a few hours running SUPER SECRET errands…more on that MUCH later.
• It’s Sunday in Fall, so that means football and ANOTHER day of the Bucs sucking their way through a game…BUT my Dirty Birds (Falcons) pulled an upset in New Orleans! WOW!
• It’s Sunday and that ALSO means taping a nap with my lovely bride in the afternoon…  Ahhhhh life
• After we woke up it was time for our late night run: 3.1 miles at an 18 minute pace – not great, but better than a year ago.  (A year ago, I was a couch potato…so ANYTHING is better than last year, and NEXT year will be better than THIS year!)
• Got home and had a little dinner and Undercover Boss – INSPIRATIONAL!
• Heading to a really much needed sleep!

LOOKING AHEAD

• On Friday Mom and Jim come in for a few weeks in FLA (we’re spending 3 nights at Disney, which is AWESOME!)
• Saturday AM Mom, Sid, and myself will be running/walking in Mickey’s Halloween 5K and then in the late PM, Sid and I will be running in the Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon Relay!  Prayers are VERY welcome.
• Sunday night the whole family is attending Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in Magic Kingdom – very excited!!
• Sid starts working in Orlando on Wednesday – which will be great and nerve wracking all at once.  She’s commuting and starting a job custom made for her.  It’s truly a blessing.
• I hope to be blogging more…I have some topics to unpack, but it may be uncomfortable for me to write and for you to read.  We shall see…

Here’s the photo blog from Mickey’s 2nd tour around Florida with the Rick Scott Gubernatorial Campaign.

I’ve gotten a few emails about what’s been gong on in my world, and I do apologize that I have not been really consistent in posting…but I have been very busy.  In fact, even though I am unemployed, I have been the busiest I have ever been.

At the first part of July, I got a call from a company that wanted me to come shoot some video in Atlanta, so I was able to take Sid, drive up, and visit some family.  It was a very quick trip, but we did get some Taco Mac in!  The video shoot went awesome, and as soon as I can post the video, I will.

While we were in Atlanta, I got another call from a friend of mine who needed Sid and I to be a part of 2 van teams to travel across Florida with one of the gubernatorial candidates providing sound/lighting/staging for their many stops along the way.

Sid and I got to spend a lot of time together traveling across this beautiful state.  We met some amazing people, had some wild experiences.  And we even got to meet the Bellamy Brothers.  It was busy, crazy, and a total blast!

One night, we were in Orlando and got to attend the Aulani presentation for Disney Vacation Club.  I have never attended a Disney party – it was out of this world awesome!  There are lots of pictures, you can check them out here.

The week we got back, neither Sid, nor myself got much sleep.  She was doing some catch up work for a new client, and I was editing video and catching up with emails and web stuff.  For a while there, I thought that I was a vampire!

After all that, we slept for about a full day.  We were beat!  And then we got an email from an old friend who knew of  a company that was looking to hire 45 people for a new crew of people in Orlando to work at a major hotel in their A/V department.  So we jumped at the chance.  Emails were sent, calls were made, appointments were confirmed.

So along with all that, we’ve been working on the 13 for 13 Challenge; were running 13 miles for $13,000 to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  On October 2, Sid and I will be running a 1/2 marathon relay (at Disney, of course).  We’ve been training and trying to raise funds…and we can certainly use some help.

Last week, we went on the interviews and did pretty well, we should hear something first of next week, and took 2 days completely off and spent time at Walt Disney World.  A much needed and well deserved mini- vacation.

It was a whirlwind, and a lot of fun.  Rumor has it, Sid and I may be doing another Florida Bus tour and there is another rumor that we may be at the primary election party.

So now we’re trying to catch back up on life and the web.  This is not exhaustive, but it gets you caught back up quickly.  Sid will be posting some more detailed stories over at WDWParkhoppers.com (our newest site).

Thanks for reading, and I will be posting new pics tomorrow…it will show all his adventures in Georgia and Florida.

Are you a fan of all things Disney?  Do you spend hours daydreaming about a magical place where dreams really do come true?  if the answer is yes, then I would bet that you would be a fan of Ridley Pearson’s Kingdom Keepers III: Disney in Shadow.

In this third installment of the Kingdom Keepers Series, we are reunited with the Kingdom Keepers, a group of teenagers who are fighting the Overtakers, a group of malicious Disney characters, bent on taking over not only the Disney theme parks, but the whole world.

As we join the Kingdom Keepers, we discover that Wayne, the imagineer responsible for creating many of the Disney landmark attractions and creator of the Kingdom Keepers, is missing.   And not only does the team need to find Wayne, but there is something major happening over at EPCOT, and the team needs to figure out what the Overtakers are up to, and how to defeat them!

The most fascinating aspect of the Kingdom Keepers series, and Disney in Shadow is no exception, is that Ridley Pearson is given unlimited access to the Disney parks.  And that give this series facts and information that normal Disney fans cannot experience.  And he weaves those facts into each book so that the reader gets to experience Disney in a new and exciting way.

Even though Kingdom Keepers III: Disney in Shadow is categorized and a “young readers” book, I find them exciting and very enjoyable to read.  They are great books to take your mind off your daily routine AND they give you the sense of being on an incredible adventure throughout Disney World, after dark, and in the shadows!