The girl was really getting the hang of the whole childhood thing. Oh, sure, the move to San Francisco had rocked her world for a while (as chronicled in 2015’s Inside Out). But she’d settled in just fine (eventually). She was excelling in school. She was tearing up the ice. She had a couple of fantastic friends, Grace and Bree. What more could a girl want?

Yep, all of Riley’s emotions would agree that their now 13-year-old girl was turning out just great. And those emotions—Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust—rarely agree on anything.

Then, wouldn’t you know it, puberty had to come in and wreck everything.

Wreck is the operational word here, at least as far as Riley’s emotions are concerned. One minute, the puberty alarm on Riley’s emotional control bank is blaring. The next, a team of blue construction workers storms headquarters, saws and crowbars in hand, and completely decimates the control room. The workers say that it’s all to make room for the others.

And then those others start showing up.

Anxiety arrives first, all teeth and eyes and frazzled hair. Envy shows up and fawns over the control board. Embarrassment, a big galloot of an emotion, tries to hide in his hoodie. And Ennui lounges on a couch—oh so over everything—and fiddles with her phone.

No problem, right? I mean, it’s not like this is Joy’s first rodeo with meddlesome emotions. They’re all part of the team! And as long as Joy’s in control, everything will be fine. Just fine.

But when Riley goes to an important three-day hockey camp and (at Joy’s urging) goofs off with her friends, the hockey coach makes it clear that unbridled joy in this setting is not fine. It’s not fine at all. If Riley wants to be a top hockey player—perhaps even one that makes the high school team as a freshman—she’ll need to work. She’ll need to focus. There’s a time and place for joy, but this camp ain’t it.

Anxiety gently nudges Joy aside and takes the controls. If Riley hopes to succeed in this unfamiliar world, the girl could use a little anxiety. She could use a little motivational stress. Riley’s a teenager now, after all. Time to put away those childish things and grow up. Grow into an entirely different person who can cope with all of life’s present stresses and future uncertainties.

“This is not Riley!” Joy protests.

“I know!” Anxiety tells her. “It’s a better Riley!”

But is it?

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We might look to Dr. Onda, the leader of the Kaiju Defense Force, who lost his wife and daughter to those giant monsters. Now, he’ll do whatever it takes to find the hidden Kaiju island and slaughter the beasts once and for all in order to prevent that tragedy from happening to another family.

We could also think about the actions of the kaiju Gigantron. The dragon-like monster did everything in her power to protect and reclaim the egg containing her child—an egg which had been stolen by the KDF as a step in locating Kaiju island.

And we could certainly talk about Professor Sato. He’s got the power to transform into Ultraman, a giant humanoid robotic figure who defends Tokyo from the occasional kaiju attacks. Unlike the KDF, he’d rather repel the endangered and misguided beasts than turn them into sashimi. And because of his superhero status, he chose to protect his wife and son from his dangerous profession by sending them away to Los Angeles.

But if there’s anyone who needs to learn a lesson about family, it’s Kenji “Ken” Sato, Professor Sato’s son. In the two decades since he was sent away, Ken grew up to have both a professional career in baseball as well as a hefty grudge against his father for abandoning them. And just as Ken was about to take the Dodgers to the championship game, his father, weary from years of battle, asked him to come back to Japan and take up the Ultraman mantle.

Well, Ken does begrudgingly go back. By day, he plays baseball for the Yomiuri Giants. By … well, whenever there’s a kaiju attack, he repels kaiju as Ultraman.

But remember that egg Gigantron hoped to get back, prompting her attack on the KDF? Well, just after Ken watches the KDF blow Gigantron out of the sky, the egg hatches, and the tiny kaiju imprints on Ken. And, just like his father, Ken can’t bear to see the KDF kill the creature—so he vanishes with it before the KDF can secure their asset.

And so Ken begins to discover just how difficult being a father can truly be.

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Joseph and Julianna Burdon know all about that. Kids need food. Clothes. Furniture, for cryin’ out loud. And when teen son, Daniel, starts thinking about college? Well, might as well lop off an arm and leg and try to sell them on the secondary limbs market.

Joseph loves his family, and he does his best to provide for them. Why, he’s working on an account that just might move the family financial ledger in the right direction. More than that, he believes passionately in what he’s developing: a campaign to support the National Association of Firefighters. Joseph’s father had been a firefighter for decades. So for Joseph, this campaign is important on a host of levels. In a way, it’s about family.

And if that means ignoring his own family members for a few days—or weeks, or maybe months—well, that’s the price a dad must pay right?

No, wife Julianna says. She’s had it up to her eyeballs with Joseph’s job. It’s not like she doesn’t appreciate his work ethic. She knows that on some level, he’s doing it for her and the kids. But fatherhood’s about more than putting meat on the table: It’s about meeting your wife and kids at that table. It’s about going to soccer games and school plays. It’s about going fishing and taking long walks filled with conversation.

And it’s especially about engaging in a small family reunion with Joseph’s mom and dad on the family ranch. It’s especially about spending Easter weekend with each other—particularly when it might be the last Easter they ever have together.

Joseph’s dad, known as Poppa to the grandkids, sick. While no one talks about it much, Joseph and Julianna know he might not have much time left. To spend one last glorious Easter weekend together—boating, fishing, maybe playing a game or two of charades—that’s what’s important, Julianna believes. This is time the family won’t ever get back. The job can wait.

Yeah, yeah, Joseph says. But he’s on the home stretch with this all-important project. He’ll just work a few more hours Easter weekend. Just a few more phone calls. A few more finishing touches on his presentation, scheduled for … Saturday.

The same Saturday that Poppa was going to take the boat on the lake with everyone—maybe for the last time.

Joseph could use a little help with his priorities. Everyone else in the family sees that clearly. But how can they help him see it for himself?

Maybe a little book that Poppa wrote can help—one about a man who always had His priorities straight. Poppa called it Forty-Seven Days With Jesus, and Joseph loved hearing it when he was young. Maybe it’s time that Joseph passed the story onto his own kids. Maybe it’s time he internalized the story’s deeper messages himself.

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First, there’s Cricket, the thrill-seeking and wildly unpredictable son. Then, we’ve got the unique and whimsical daughter, Tilly. Up next is family patriarch Bill Green, a loving father but overwhelmed farmer. And finally, there’s Gramma. If you threaten her son or grandkids, she’ll come after you with a sword, mace or even her prosthetic leg in a pinch. But she also loves distributing kisses and hugs.

Bill and his kids moved to Big City to live with Gramma after they lost their farm. And the family has adjusted. They’ve made friends and even converted Gramma’s yard into a profitable vegetable garden.

But after working so hard to get their lives back together, they’re ready for a vacation. Cricket knows just the thing: a luxurious stay at Big Tech’s Space Hotel in, you guessed it, space.

There’s just a little matter of funding this spacecation. Though the Greens work hard, they don’t make enough to cover the $10 million a night stay.

Luckily, Cricket has the solution for that, too. In addition to creating the Space Hotel, Big Tech has also created a farm located on an asteroid. And the farmbots created to harvest the plants are malfunctioning.

So, Big Tech CEO Gwendolyn Zapp makes the Greens an offer: Go to the asteroid and harvest the produce for her and she’ll let them stay at the Space Hotel for free.

It’s not exactly the family road trip Bill had in mind for this vacation. But after a little convincing from Cricket, he finds himself saying a sentence he never thought he’d utter: “Let’s get to that asteroid and harvest those space crops so we can enjoy our space vacation at that Space Hotel!”

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Trudy Ederle knew even before her feet first hit the water that she wanted to swim. Unfortunately, taking that first dive wasn’t so easy.

Trudy had had the measles. And while she survived, it permanently damaged her hearing. Swimming—or really any prolonged exposure to water—could further irritate her ears and cause her to go completely deaf.

In addition, girls in 1914 weren’t traditionally taught to swim. In fact, when Trudy’s mother declared that Trudy and her sister, Meg, would learn to swim, their father laughed, thinking it was a joke.

Well, it wasn’t a joke. And Trudy did learn to swim—taught by her father himself, actually.

But Trudy’s journey didn’t end there. As it turned out, she was fast—faster even than some men. She was invited to compete in the 1924 Paris Olympics on the first-ever female swim team for the United States. (An effort that ended in disaster after their coach refused to let them train during the three-week voyage across the Atlantic for fear they’d be taken advantage of by the men onboard.)

Once again, Trudy was told that she shouldn’t swim anymore—that women shouldn’t swim.

But Trudy had already declared her intentions: She would swim.

And so, she set out to do what no woman (and very few men) had ever done before—what everyone told her women not only shouldn’t but couldn’t do.

She decided to swim the English Channel.

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Colt Seavers used to fall for a living.

Sure, it wasn’t all falling. Sometimes he’d just dangle off a helicopter. Or throw himself against a rock. Or maybe light himself on fire.

All in a day’s work for a Hollywood stuntman.

Not that Colt complained about all the falls and jumps and flames. As the go-to body double for the Tom Ryder, one of the top action stars on the planet, work was fun. The pay was decent. And more often than not, he worked side-by-side with his camera-operating girlfriend, Jody Moreno.

But all that was before Colt had an uncomfortable reunion with gravity: A fall went wrong, and the accident broke his back, his spirit and his relationship. And while he physically recovered, Colt abandoned his career and Jody both. He works as a valet now: The closest he gets to stunt work is parallel parking.

Or it was—until Gail called.

That’d be Executive Producer Gail. Hollywood Mogul Gail. Tom Ryder’s Favorite Film Exec Gail. Seems that Tom’s working on another huge movie in Australia—something called Metalstorm. Gail wants Colt to get back in the game and be the film’s primary stuntman.

Oh, and did Gail mention that Jody—Colt’s still-beloved ex-girlfriend—is the film’s director? And that she asked for Colt specifically?

That’s all Colt needs to hear. He hops on the first flight to Australia, arrives on set and discovers that Jody … said no such thing. In fact, she’d be quite happy if Colt took the first flight home.

Executive producers have never been known for their honesty.

But soon, Gail tells Colt why she really flew him all the way to Australia: Tom is missing. He hasn’t been seen for days. Gail knows that Tom and Colt have a long history: If anyone can find the movie star, sober him up and get him back on set, it’s Colt.

But finding Tom won’t be so easy.

For years, Colt used to fall for a living. But this time he’s working without a harness—and he just might be falling into more than he can handle.

The post The Fall Guy appeared first on Plugged In.

You’ve got Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal, Rowlf and, of course, Kermit the Frog. They, alongside plenty of others, are famous names in households all across the world.

But every story has its beginning. And Kermit is ready to share it: the story of how the Muppets—approximately—got started.

You see, Kermit wasn’t always the green movie star you know him as today. At one point, he was content simply to play his banjo in his Floridian swamp. But when he hears about an offer of fame in Hollywood that’d give him the opportunity to make millions of people happy, well, he’s as tickled pink as any green frog could be.

Along the way, he meets many others looking to find fame in Hollywood, too, including plenty of the aforementioned names so familiar with us all.

But he also meets a dastardly villain, too: Doc Hopper, a Col. Sanders-like man who’d like Kermit to be the spokesman for his fried frog legs restaurant chain. And let’s just say that he’s got the deep fryers already sizzling in the event that Kermit declines the offer.

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No one is more excited than Hinata, a Karasuno player who’s been dying to have a real match against his friend Kenma, who plays for Nekoma. And though the reserved Kenma won’t admit it to anyone else, he’s excited to play, too.

The match is set to be a good one—even other teams at nationals are pausing to watch this fierce rivalry between two skilled teams. In fact, they’re calling it the “Dumpster Battle,” because the teams’ respective mascots, a crow and a cat, are animals that frequently pick food out of the trash.

People gather because they know it’ll be a close match. Karasuno’s offensive power is evenly matched by Nekoma’s defense—making every point a war of attrition. But someone must eventually come out on top.

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One last chance.

That’s all Michael Light wants: one last chance to stand in the winner’s circle. One last chance for all the pain to lead to something special. One last chance to erase the title of “the greatest adventure racer to never win a world championship.”

In the 2015 Adventure Racing World Championships—Michael’s last race, his supposed swan song—he and his team, literally, got stuck in the mud. His team didn’t even finish that year. A bitter end indeed for a man as competitive as Michael.

“I raced for 19 years,” he gripes to wife, Helen. “That’s what I’m remembered for?”

But three years later, Michael feels like he has one more adventure race in him. And this time, he’ll win. He knows it. He won’t accept anything else.

But he can’t do it alone.

Adventure racing is unlike any other competition. You race as a four-person team (one of whom must be a woman), crossing hundreds of miles of rugged terrain over a week or more.

Teams must hit a series of checkpoints during the race, but the path they take to those checkpoints is up to them: Taking a convenient road is one way. Taking a shortcut through the jungle might be another. Teams might well navigate canyons and cliff faces, cross rivers and chasms. They’ll run and bike and swim through the rain, the snow, the heat, the dark of night—hardly sleeping, barely resting.

“Suffering is a skill,” Michael says. And Michael can suffer with the best of them. But he needs a team that’s willing to suffer just as much.

He turns first to William “Chik” Chikerotis, a legendary racer whose age—and bum knee—is catching up with him. Skilled climber Olivia Baker is next: At first she declines, saying she’s given the sport up. But her father convinces her otherwise.

But Michael has no prayer of getting any sponsorship money without bringing social media star Leo along. Michael would rather break a foot than race with Leo again; he was on Michael’s miserable 2015 race, taking embarrassing pictures all the way. But Leo’s a good racer, too. And if suffering is a skill, Michael can suffer his company.

They train. The race begins—more than 400 miles and an estimated 10 days through the worst terrain the Dominican Republic has to offer: jungles, cliffs, unfordable rivers. And every checkpoint seems to be teeming with stray dogs, looking for a handout.

One dog takes a shine to Michael. Michael gives the pooch a meatball.

And then, just like that, the team is off and running again, heading to the next checkpoint.

But the dog—a dog with a bleeding back, broken teeth, too many hard nights to imagine, too many bad encounters to count—sneaks out of the checkpoint and follows, perhaps seeking, finally, love. Companionship.

One last chance.

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“Every adventure has perils and pitfalls,” Helen Smallbone tells her six children and husband, David, as they huddle on the faded carpet of their “modest” new rental home in Nashville, Tennessee.

Indeed.

Adventure is one word to describe what’s happened to the Smallbone family. And a bravely charitable word at that. Others might have looked at the family’s dire surroundings and desperate situation and chosen another, arguably more honest word: nightmare.

Not long before, Helen’s entrepreneurial husband, David, had been on top of the world. The CCM market was booming in early 1990s, and the Australian Christan concert promoter seemingly could do no wrong, promoting hugely popular bands such as Stryper, for instance.

Life was good for David and Helen and their six kiddos, as they enjoyed a lavish home with a pool table in the living room and a pool to swim in out back. And now, David has the opportunity of a lifetime: overseeing and promoting Amy Grant’s forthcoming concert tour down under. Sure, it will take a lot of money. More than a million dollars, actually, to pull it off. But that figure likely pales compared to the windfall David hopes to bring in.

Helen’s not so sure. “It’s just a lot of money,” she tells her husband. “I feel like we’re putting our lives on the line.”

She continues: “And it’s not just the finances. The kids miss you. I miss you.”

“It’s a two-week tour,” David says as he loads up the contract on the fax machine. Two weeks that, David hopes, will change everything for the Smallbones.

And so they do.

When a recession decimates concert attendance, David’s on the hook for a half-million-dollar shortfall.

“Helen, I’m sorry. No one anticipated this economy. We’re going to lose everything.”

David feels he has no choice but to uproot his family and move to the epicenter of the Christian music industry: Nashville.

Nothing—not one single thing—goes as planned. But in the end, the Smallbone family bands together to trust God, to love one another and to cling to hope that maybe, just maybe, there’s an adventure unfolding that’s bigger than they could have dreamed.

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