Weekly Preview and Review

Park Day turned into "WATER Park Day" because it was supposed to be 90+ degrees - hot! Perfect for the water park we've been trying to get to all summer. This is their last weekend for the summer. Nice time at the park with friends!

Suzy started soccer practice this week and James and David continued with their practices. Games begin next week.

We've had two weeks off karate, since our belt promotion.

The highlight of my week was meeting one of my favorite actors, Richard Armitage. I haven't typed out the story anywhere, so I will put it here for now. Who is he? Well, he had a small role as a bad guy in Captain America, so that's the likeliest place you've seen him, if you aren't a BBC watcher. He's a British actor, so he has been in relatively few American productions. My favorites are the BBC Robin Hood (in which he plays Guy of Gisborne) and the BBC North & South. He will be the dwarf king, Thorin Oakenshield, in the Hobbit movies, the first of which will be coming out this December.

Mr. Armitage has been in Southeast Michigan filming a tornado movie called Black Sky since late July, but I haven't had a free day that I knew the filming location in advance. My friend Tarla happened to drive by the set on Thursday and texted me to tell me where it was. Emily and I quickly made plans with my friend Darlene and our friends Skylar and Haley and hopped in the van. Tarla had other plans so she couldn't join us.

The filming was only about 40 minutes from my house, near the Palace of Auburn Hills. The set was located in an empty field behind a strip mall. We wandered into the area thinking it was best just to start asking for what we wanted - to meet Mr. Armitage. We asked a couple different employees and they directed us to where they knew we could stand and be out of the way. Soon, an assistant who seemed to know what was going on came by; we asked if Richard was anywhere we could see him. She told us to hang tight and he'd be coming out soon. But NO PICTURES were allowed since he "is in costume".

So, we stood behind this strip mall in a little clump in the shade waiting. We were near an open door and inside we could see a buffet set up and employees eating. But we didn't wait long! Maybe 15 minutes later, Mr. Armitage came out of the open door. Darlene shrieked aloud and I think she startled him a bit, but he regrouped and came over to us, escorted by the helpful assistant. He shook each of our hands and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Rich." We had brought things for him to sign, so he did that very kindly and then he was off to film his scenes. By the way, his "costume" was a blue dress shirt and dress pants (I think brown"?). He plays an American high school teacher in this film. He was tall, very handsome, and pleasant, although clearly in a hurry. He spoke in his British accent, which I was happy about.

From there we decided to head up the hill to a building that seemed like it would have a good view of the filming since from where we were, the view to the set was blocked by some partitions. Once we were up there, we gazed across the open field to where the filming was going on. Large platforms were hoisted up to provide some shade (making it look overcast in the filming) and rain machines were squirting water on everything. The scene was being filmed in a large culvert, so there wasn't much we could see. The teens ran down into the valley between where we were and where the filming was and they had a better view. Emily took some pictures I think.

Since we weren't allowed pictures with "Rich" (lol), I never got my camera out. The filming will continue, so maybe we'll get another chance!? OK, fine, I am a fangirl!

9/2 Sunday - church?
Monday - Labor Day
Tuesday - Work 5, Soccer GAME (D), Soccer Practice (J,S), First Day of Lessons
Wednesday - Work 5
Thursday - Work 5, karate, Soccer (J,S)
Friday - Work 5, Co-op, Soccer (D)
Saturday - Soccer GAME (S,J), Soccer Practice (D)

Bob has to work on Saturday 9/1 and on Labor Day this weekend, so for us, it's not a holiday weekend really.

Ice cream sundaes will celebrate our first day of lessons on Tuesday. David also has his first soccer game of the season that day.

My baby boy is a senior this year!!!! Oh my goodness....