Flashbacks from The Princess Bride

Our brother floor put on a play for us one night in college. It was called Scenes from The Princess Bride, and while my college friends rolled around on the floor in hysterical laughter, I was left befuddled.

You see, I had never seen The Princess Bride.

Half the girls on my floor could recite the entire movie line by line, while I just couldn’t figure out what exactly was supposed to be SO funny about a six-fingered man. And, I wanted to know, exactly who was Inigo Montoya, and why was I constantly being accused of killing his father?

Eventually I had the chance to rent The Princess Bride. Pretty fast, I figured out all the fuss was justified. I became an instant fan.

Over the years, I’ve watched The Princess Bride numerous times and even added it to our DVD library a couple years ago. I will still watch it every couple of months.

And this past Sunday, I found myself suffering funny flashbacks from The Princess Bride in the middle of our morning service.

We had a guest speaker this past Sunday (you can read more about him at Joy’s website - http://karagraphy.com/2007/06/14/where-the-rubber-meets-the-road-theology/ ).

Dr. Burggraff was actually speaking at Morning Star for our missions’ conference this past Wednesday – Friday + Sunday. We hadn’t been able to make it to midweek services, but Heidi had told me how good the messages were.

So, there I was on Sunday morning expecting to hear a great Sunday School lesson and a great morning service. The good doctor did not disappoint. Both were excellent.

There was only one problem.

I found myself thinking that Dr. B looked and sounded much like Wallace Shawn from The Princess Bride. I found myself asking the Lord if He could see fit to put the word “inconceivable” into the good doctor’s message.

No such luck.

But, my, oh, my – the similarities kept me straining to keep a straight face as I imagined Dr. B drifting off to talk about land wars in Asia.

Okay, okay…I did eventually pay attention, but it sure was distracting.

On to the rest of Sunday’s activities, after morning service, we headed up to my nephew Johnathan’s (no, really, that’s how it’s spelled) open house. He graduated from high school this year. It was so hard to believe! He’s tall and sturdy and actually looks like a man. It’s hard to believe he was only seven when Brett and I started dating!

Brett’s dad passed out birthday and anniversary cards to all the Soderstroms present. He likes to do it all at one time in the summer. I think it is just more convenient for him now that Jean is gone. Either way, it is a sweet gesture. As always, he was extremely generous with gifts of money for his kids, kids-in-laws, and grandchildren.

We also got the chance to see the rest of the Soderstrom clan. My niece is so grown up now that I barely recognized her! When did she get to be 13? I thought one of my nephews had brought a date, until I looked closer and saw it was her! Amazing!

We spent most of the afternoon up there and were pretty tuckered out when we got home. Still, I had it in me to finish my Season 3 of Reba DVD I got from Netflix before stumbling off to bed to face a new week.

It was a great weekend. But, I’m sort of glad to have a little break.

And I’d still like a couple more naps.