Plugged In Podcast

Episode 28 - Easter Energy

Matthew Luhn Episode 28

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 47:53

Send us Fan Mail

A “keep it long but professional” haircut somehow turns into a mullet accusation, a panic spiral in the barber chair, and the sudden realization that you might look exactly like your dad. From there, we crank up the Easter energy and lean into the kind of joyful chaos that makes community feel like home.

We kick things off with shoutouts from around the division, then drop straight into Egg Roulette: plastic eggs filled with either candy or ridiculous Holy Week themed challenges. You’ll hear famous rabbit speed rounds, a surprisingly detailed Easter Bunny conspiracy theory, a full resurrection recap told only through sound effects, and a hymn line delivered with way more Broadway than anyone expected.

Then we draft the perfect Easter basket in five rounds with one steal allowed. We debate classic Easter candy like Cadbury mini eggs, Reese’s shapes, Starburst jelly beans, peeps, Nerds clusters, and the underrated move of stuffing plastic eggs with money. Finally, we slow down to reflect on what Easter means to us: Good Friday worship across multiple corps, the visuals and music that make the resurrection story real, and the transformation that Holy Week continues to invite.

If you’re looking for Easter podcast content that mixes laughter, faith, Holy Week reflection, and real Salvation Army community life, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us what belongs in your ideal Easter basket.

Welcome Back And Holy Week

SPEAKER_05

Hello. Hey. Sounds like you're trying to Hello.

SPEAKER_04

Anyone's home. Welcome back, plugged in podcast. More energy than episode 27. Did you listen back to episode 27? I did. Yeah. We started slow.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It was a long delay between podcasts. It was.

SPEAKER_06

We were out of practice.

SPEAKER_03

We're coming out of hibernation. We're back at the little table.

SPEAKER_06

Coming out of hibernation.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I like that.

SPEAKER_06

Everyone's a little slow. All the bears are a little. Have you seen bears coming out of hibernation? They're very good.

SPEAKER_04

No, I haven't. I've never seen a bear in my life.

SPEAKER_06

So maybe you have you. It's ended up on my algorithms before. I'll send it to you both.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I would like to be educated now.

SPEAKER_06

That's kind of how episode 27 started.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, out of hibernation. Well, well, here we are with episode 28 of the Plugged In Podcast. We want to say welcome back to everyone listening today. Happy Easter.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, happy Easter.

SPEAKER_04

We're here on Holy Week. And um, we want to get this episode out before Easter. Uh, so we'll bring you some. That's gonna be a quick turnaround. I'll try my best.

SPEAKER_06

I'll try my best.

SPEAKER_03

I believe in you, Matt.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Even after Easter. Yeah, post-Easter. The concept is good. Post Easter. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

It's Easter every day when you are a believer. He lives. What a good thing.

SPEAKER_04

He's risen indeed. That was that was more energy. You know what? Yesterday I was in church and uh there was a person uh that I will not name. Oh, that's kind of you. That said, I walk into every single room looking angry. I look intimidating, and look like I'm angry with the world. Oh no. Angry with the world is so that was a great way to start my Sunday. Uh but then I was just Happy Palm Sunday.

SPEAKER_05

You know what? When I see you next Sunday, I'm gonna be like, he has risen! Happy Sunday. You should walk around with the confetti cannon.

The Haircut That Went Sideways

SPEAKER_04

Yes. Yes. Yeah, so I don't know. Maybe I'm, you know, looking pretty angry with the world.

SPEAKER_05

I do have I do have a rant. On that note, let's hear it.

SPEAKER_04

Channel your anger right now. So I don't know if you noticed. I got a haircut.

SPEAKER_06

Yes. I was gonna bring it up if you didn't.

SPEAKER_04

I got a haircut.

SPEAKER_06

Sorry. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thanks for that support. So man. You know what? I've had hundreds of terrible haircuts in my life. Okay. This is not one of them. It's fine. No, it's great. Yeah, I'm I'm okay with it. It's a it's a good haircut. It's not bad. It's not like shelfy. It's not like I I didn't walk away. It's layered nicely. I've walked out of places before and immediately put on a hat and been like embarrassed for my life. Like I can't go to the grocery store until I get home and redo this and like this is not that.

SPEAKER_05

Right.

SPEAKER_04

But it's not what I wanted. So what did you want? Well, so it's funny that what came out of this, the conversation started. So I want to keep my hair long. And then the instructions followed. So I don't feel like I'm a I'm generally a person that struggles with like confrontation. Right. I'm not the best at it, but I like I don't necessarily like sink until I get in that barber chair. They strap on that the little bib, whatever it is, like the towel around your neck.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So here's how we started the conversation. Like, I'd like to keep my hair long, but I need it a little bit more professional long. I need it like cleaned up. Okay. So like immediately she went to the back of my hair and like fluffed it forward. And the first thing she was just like, well, right now you really got this mullet going on. And immediately, like, I kind of like like all my arm hairs like stood in the confidence. We started like prickling, and I was like, Well, well, I wasn't really going. No, I didn't know it was going to be a little bit more. Wasn't the goal. Yeah. I wasn't going for a mullet. And she's like, Yeah, yeah, well, you've you've obviously trimmed it on the sides, you got long in the back, like you've you've been doing this mullet for a while. And I was like, okay, calm down.

SPEAKER_02

Joe dirt, baby.

SPEAKER_04

Let's let's slow down. So so I, you know, I had walked in with a plan, and I was just like, okay, I need to tell her that I need some flow, I need some layers, like, you know, this is what I need the uh split ends. I learned what those are. So I had those color me impressed. Yeah. So I was just like, that I had this plan walking in. And then immediately I'm like offset by the mullet comment. Yeah. And then she goes, Okay, well, if you want to keep it long, I'm gonna cut everything the same length.

SPEAKER_05

And I was like, that's that sounds wrong.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah like I that's not what I want. No, and uh so essentially we went back and forth several times and I I panicked. I panicked. And what it came down to was she asked this question, like, do you want it clean around the ears? And I was thinking about, I was like, Well, I mean, when it's long, I do like style it so it's clean around the ears, and she's like, Okay, yeah, done. Done. It was gone. Wow.

SPEAKER_06

It was gone. She was not giving you any room for it wasn't the friendliest experience.

SPEAKER_04

So I I mean, but I mean, once it was once it was gone. I mean, it was over.

SPEAKER_06

Once it's gone, it's gone. It was over.

SPEAKER_03

It's gone. So yikes.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Man, I gotta, I gotta show you where my barber is because he's pretty, pretty legit.

SPEAKER_04

Well, see, I I was I was just praying for a good experience. I was praying for like not a sort of flashing to this woman. Well, not well, I don't know. I have no plan. Never getting a hair. There's no more plans. He's never cutting his hair. No more plans. Like, there's no more plans. But uh yeah, so we're here, that happened. And now I I look right into the camera. The first thing we pressed record and I was like, oh my gosh, I look like my dad. Like I see the facial hair and kind of push back, and sure. I was just like, hello dad.

SPEAKER_06

It's been it's um been a long time that after taking your headphones off after recording, you do the I know. But do you even have to do that anymore? No.

SPEAKER_04

I've caught myself though, like uh ghosts. I had a moment with um Mercedes from Quincy was sitting in the cornet row in Mass Brass. Yeah, and I had been used to like I had been used to like pushing my hair out of my face or like just kind of shaking it, and like that was just something that I had to do. Yeah. Um, and we had a rehearsal and I went to do it, and nothing was there. And Mercedes and I made eye contact, she chuckled. I was like, You saw you caught me. Yeah, you caught me, that happened.

SPEAKER_06

Well, the only I learned about your haircut when Jesse from Worcester posted a picture from Naz Brass. He's like Naz Brass Monday, and I was just like, Oh, Matt got a haircut, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It's gone. Yeah, it was a little shocking.

SPEAKER_06

But uh those are traumatizing events, I will say.

SPEAKER_03

And then after a haircut, it takes like a good week for it to get like an optimal, I don't know, to look good, yeah in my opinion.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I just this is a weird thing with me. I I don't know why, but like some for whatever reason, like long hair has like been a my part of my identity for a while. Not many people in this job would just have known me with the shorter hair for the last 10 years or so. But yeah, anyways, yeah, I grew back out and like this sounds weird, but felt more like myself. Like that was like that was just it was the difference, it was an edge, it would made me unique from other people, like and so uh now I'm my dad. So hey dad, thanks for listening. And uh I'm here, I've arrived, age 37.

SPEAKER_06

Put it side by side at this point in the uh you know that'd be great.

SPEAKER_04

That'd be good. There it is. Although he had he had that real like early 1990s, like Chicago mustache, like real beef it up, real Chicago mustache. I can't even do that if I wanted to. Like, no, it's not possible. It's cool. Anyways, after that uh 10-minute introduction about haircuts, welcome to episode 28 of the Plugged In Podcast. Uh my name is Matt. I'm the music director here in Massachusetts. You guys, Lorita, we need a better intro if we get away.

SPEAKER_06

Can I just steal Nate's intro from last time? We listened back and I was like, oh, he did a good job. Copy paste. Copy-paste. Uh my name is Lorita, and um my husband, Nate, and I are the divisional youth and candidate secretaries here in Massachusetts. And we plan we plan and execute and come along core um and helping with their youth programming and and um helping individuals uh step into their calling. It's the candidate side. I don't know how to explain it. Oh, you got it, you got it. Step into their calling and journey to the CFO team.

SPEAKER_04

Lorita, that was better than last episode when you said, I don't know what I do anymore.

SPEAKER_06

So hibernation.

SPEAKER_04

It was hibernation.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, that was good.

Listener Shoutouts And Greenfield Praise

SPEAKER_03

And then they Yeah, everything she said. Um we uh facilitate, I think we said we facilitate impactful opportunities for youth and young adults here in the Masters Institution. Great. He's the youth secretary, something like that. Jack, done. Boom.

SPEAKER_04

Uh we did want to shout out some of our listeners from last episode. We got some nice mentions, even though we were back after a long time. Maybe that's our sweet spot. Oh, yeah, because we need seven months, eight months in between. Yeah, we'll release this Easter one and like no like. Maybe 2027. Okay.

SPEAKER_06

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, we've got some nice mentions, so we just wanted to shout those people out. Um, I know you said um Captain Bree from Cambridge. Yes.

SPEAKER_06

Sent a really nice note.

SPEAKER_04

Said uh she was appreciative of the episode we heard from Major Pat Henry. Uh Jennifer Alvarado.

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Jennifer, if you're listening, this is the first time I've ever said your last name out loud. So I apologize if that's not the right pronunciation.

SPEAKER_06

Maybe we'll correct it in the next episode if it's wrong.

SPEAKER_04

But I think it's correct. No, she wrote a really nice email to us and uh I went to her office and and just thanked her. She works at DHQ up on the third floor, and she said, you know what? Like when when I do some stuff and I'm proud of it, like, you know, when people tell me that that we that I did a good job, it was a good thing. So she's like, I just wanted to reach out. Yeah, so appreciative of that. We heard from uh Jason DeLong and Mercedes and Adam from Quincy. Uh Chris Molinaro chimed in. Chris has got to be our up with our parents, one of the top listeners. One of the top podcasts. And then you said you got a note from Jorge.

SPEAKER_06

I did. Jorge texted me, he was listening, and he he was my shout-out last episode, and he was like, I wasn't expecting that. Thank you so much. He said, It's my joy to serve, and said that's good evident, but love to know. Yep.

SPEAKER_04

Uh, this is not on our list, but I had um I have one shout-out. Okay. We didn't have uh shout-outs on our list today, unless it's hidden from my run-up show.

SPEAKER_06

No, I did not hide it from you this week.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. I just want to shout out. So yesterday I was in uh Greenfield. Uh they had uh their Western Mass Regional Praise Meeting. So the cores come together once a month and they have this meeting, and yesterday was uh walking through the Easter story. Awesome. Um so first shout out goes to uh Captain Paul Leslie and Captain Emily, and they put together a great service that Greenfield hosted. That's awesome. Um, but he had like uh, I don't know, 16 or 17 piece band that took up every square inch of their stage. Oh yeah, I can see it. He arranged some of the music for the service, uh, was just a really creative, like ongoing thing. But so I wanted to shout them out, but I wanted to, in particular, Rachel Huarbe was sitting principal cornet of that band. So she's someone who's been a part of the YAM program. She's come to Music Conservatory, um, been watching her play cornet for a long time, and so to see her sit at the front of that band during like a meaningful Easter service, just wanted to shout her out because she did she did a great job and it was just it was great to see her.

SPEAKER_06

I saw pictures of her also sitting first chair cornet at the Greenfield um annual luncheon or annual dinner, yeah, supporting the core. So it was just very cool to see all tie over and cross over and yeah, very awesome.

SPEAKER_04

Very good. All right, you wanna who's taking the next segment?

SPEAKER_06

Nate. It's not me. Nate's gonna take our next game because this is a product of his brain, his creativity, whatever we're gonna call it.

SPEAKER_03

Something like that. Always a scary place. Go ahead. Yeah, you never know. But um, we have a basket of plastic eggs in front of us. This is called egg roulette. Okay. And so what's gonna happen is you are we're each gonna have the opportunity to select three eggs. And inside those eggs are either a prompt of something um outlandish or ridiculous that we have to do, Easter themed. Yeah, or there's a piece of candy for you enjoy to enjoy. Oh. So you pick an egg and see what happens. Okay. All right, so who wants to go first? Larita does.

SPEAKER_04

Because I because we know I am at games, so you go ahead and go first. So I can watch what happens.

SPEAKER_06

And what's the rule is you have to just pick it up because some of them have candy and you there's a weight difference.

SPEAKER_03

You're not gonna shake and determine. You're just gonna take and grab and see what happens. Grab and go.

SPEAKER_06

Definitely not a candy here. Oh, what do you got? I'm actually terrified.

unknown

Oh god.

SPEAKER_05

What is it?

SPEAKER_06

In 20 seconds, list as many famous bunnies and rabbits as you can. Nice.

SPEAKER_04

Timer? Wait, wait, wait. You gotta watch? I can get yes. Famous bunnies, you're getting time to think right now. Famous bunnies and rabbits.

SPEAKER_06

But you realize when the when this happens, my brain goes nothing.

unknown

Alright.

SPEAKER_04

You got an eight?

SPEAKER_03

I got you. Alright, ready? You could have just counted at this point. Go.

SPEAKER_06

Okay, Bugs Bunny, the Trix Bunny, uh, Bad Bunny. Um Jessica Rabbit. Jessica Rabbit. Um, Roger Rabbit.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_06

Um the chocolate milk bunny. Come on, come on, okay. Um five seconds. Easter bunny. Okay. Come on. Pre-vegan.

SPEAKER_05

Uh the bunny from camp uh in the nature lobby. The bunny from camp.

SPEAKER_03

That bunny is dead, first of all.

SPEAKER_05

No, one of them lived.

SPEAKER_03

One of them. It's dead.

SPEAKER_05

Nate, it's Easter. Chill. Why'd you have to do that? He is risen.

SPEAKER_03

No, he's dead. He's dead. Oh, he's dead. And second of all, he's alive.

SPEAKER_06

But he was alive. He was alive at one point, and so that counts.

SPEAKER_03

He was.

SPEAKER_06

Seven. I think it was eight. Eight.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_06

I'm rather impressed with myself. All right.

SPEAKER_04

Good job. I have a really obscure one if you want to add it to your list. Yeah. You ever watched the movie Twister? Yes. The Tornadoes? Yeah. The Storm Chasers. This is the original, not the remake. Yes, we watched both recently. One of the Storm Changers, Storm Chasers. Yeah. I think his name is Rabbit. I think you are right. He's like, Rabbit is good. Rabbit is wise.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry. No, you're right. So I'll be right back. So give me nine. I'll take nine.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. Good job.

SPEAKER_06

All right.

SPEAKER_03

Alright, I guess it's my turn. Yeah. Alright, let's see. Even though you designed the game.

SPEAKER_06

I know, right?

SPEAKER_03

You know? Insider information. Let's see. Come up with a convincing conspiracy theory for why the Easter bunny hides eggs. Oh man.

SPEAKER_06

Well, if there's anyone that this would work well with, it's you.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Okay. So conspiracy theory. Obviously, eggs don't come from rabbits, right? Eggs come from chickens. Chickens. From chickens. Down on the farm. I'm learning. You're learning. Yeah. This is science class. So eggs come from chickens. Okay. And I think it's part of a I think I think chickens are working with rabbits or the Easter gummy for a massive data collection scheme. Have you ever, okay, have you ever Okay, I'm I'm with you for now.

SPEAKER_04

Go ahead. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

I'm gone. Have you ever like you said something like, oh, I love like I love chicken sandwiches, and then all of a sudden it's like on your phone, like Chick-fil-A.

SPEAKER_04

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You know, like that like they're listening. They're listening, right? I think the eggs kind of do the same thing. I think originally, you know, back in like the 17th century when they were using real eggs, it was like that was that was the way that um chickens would kind of harvest uh information from fingerprints and data points. But I think now that now that it's plastic, it's now that it's plastic, it's disposable and it's able to be used again, and the baskets are like data collection points. And I think that chickens are ultimately, ultimately working against us to try to plot our demise, and the rabbit is involved somehow. I'm not sure how to respond. That's very well thought out. But I mean it's kids. Kids are naive, right? Kids will trust anything, and as long as there's candy involved, so they're collecting a whole bunch of data from like what kind of snacks we like. So, what are some good hiding places to, you know, our our behavior and our lifestyle? This is why.

SPEAKER_06

I have no comment.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I also have nothing to do with it. Think about it.

SPEAKER_06

I think I think we need to.

SPEAKER_04

Alright, tell me about uh General Linda Bond. And I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_06

Let's just open this podcast up, too.

SPEAKER_04

Next. Next. Alright, Matthew, your turn. Gotta grab one of these eggs. Also. What? Why did you give me that look? Such a look. Like I made a mistake.

SPEAKER_03

What do you got, man?

SPEAKER_04

Oh. Explain the resurrection using only sound effects. Yes!

SPEAKER_03

There you go.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Well, just the whole the whole thing. I'm trying to think of when to start.

SPEAKER_03

You're gonna give us context, I guess.

SPEAKER_04

No, I'm I'm gonna start just Sunday morning.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, so um Wait, Sunday morning?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, the resurrection.

SPEAKER_06

Okay, the resurrection.

SPEAKER_05

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

And then um, I'm gonna call it right there.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. That was great. That was incredible. We know what happened, right?

SPEAKER_06

Yes, the the stone was rolled away. They ran to tell. Yeah. They saw.

SPEAKER_04

The angel was there to explain it.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, yeah, that's it. Okay. I got it. Man, I don't like to see that on camera.

SPEAKER_04

That's really good.

SPEAKER_06

I can't wait to see that on camera. I did. I did. I was with you the whole time. I knew exactly what was happening. I think I'm sweating. That was incredible.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Performance of uh life. Good job.

SPEAKER_06

My turn.

SPEAKER_04

You did a good oh. Oh, you got a candy.

SPEAKER_06

All right, Lorita gets a candy. I did not. Did you see? I'm purposely not making eye contact with the eggs. All right, next turn. Here we go. No, I'm not gonna get it on camera. That did not go well last time.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I got candy too. I just reached in. All right, I'm gonna, where's the basket?

SPEAKER_06

There's another candy in there.

SPEAKER_04

Because we all know I'm so good at names.

SPEAKER_05

I am getting light.

SPEAKER_04

Oh man. Say he is risen like a wrestler, news anchor, and someone who just stubbed their toe.

SPEAKER_05

Sweating so much.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. I don't even know where to start. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

He is risen. Happy Easter.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, that was I'm not gonna try to correct that one. Okay, and uh and in other news, he is risen. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

That's good.

SPEAKER_04

That was almost my podcast voice. That wasn't that far away. And uh Okay, someone who stubbed their toe?

SPEAKER_01

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Jesus is risen. All right. Wow.

SPEAKER_06

Well done. That was great. Well, you've got two really difficult ones.

SPEAKER_04

No more games for me. All right, everyone has one more. I say if we grab the candy, we gotta give it to him.

SPEAKER_06

Do you think I I don't have it, I know.

SPEAKER_04

You know the Lord didn't take that as a swear, right?

SPEAKER_06

That was yeah.

SPEAKER_04

He knew I was playing. We're pastors, we know. He knew I was playing the game. He knew my heart.

SPEAKER_06

Jesus has a sense of humor. Your eye your glasses are fogging.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, because I was laughing. I think I need to take a break for the next three three rounds.

SPEAKER_06

So you might need to.

unknown

Oh god.

SPEAKER_04

Wow. What is it?

SPEAKER_06

Chubby bunny a peep. And say, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_06

I hate peeps. Hot take.

SPEAKER_03

I love peeps. Hot take. I bet I had one. Hot take. Really?

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_04

Right around the table.

SPEAKER_03

We're on every edge of the spectrum.

SPEAKER_04

We've talked about candy on this episode before. I don't even it doesn't touch my mouth. Wow. My son Caleb.

SPEAKER_05

In can't with candy or peeps? I don't eat candy. This is gonna be disgusting, guys. I can't wait.

SPEAKER_04

Here. After what I just did.

SPEAKER_03

He is a reason. I would willingly chubby bunny all of this just for fun.

SPEAKER_05

Really? Only one. Go for it. No, two. Let's I can't. I'm gonna look at this. I can't wait to see this. Don't let Zen C.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, choking hazard.

SPEAKER_04

Alright, let's hear it. No, this is what it is. So don't choke.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, very good. Well done. Very good. Well done. Alright, let's see here. There's only two more left. So uh, Matt, you haven't got a candy yet. So I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, thank you. I was gonna say no more games for Matt.

SPEAKER_03

No more games for Matt. Let's see. She got sing a line from your favorite Easter hymn. Oh, got lots of.

SPEAKER_06

I wish I got that one.

SPEAKER_02

Warm up those pipes, bro. Here we go. Up from the grave, he heroes with a mighty triumph for his foes. Alright, that's a line. He heroes a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with the saints to reign. He rose. He rose. Why is it like the Broadway version? Hallelujah. Christ arose.

SPEAKER_03

Wow. Amen.

SPEAKER_05

Well done.

SPEAKER_03

Amen.

SPEAKER_04

Hold on, let me see if I can uh how quick! It's a great one. That's a little bit less flashy than what they was doing. Sing it to this. Come on.

SPEAKER_02

What's the verse? Oh, in the graveyard. Come on, give us some Broadway. Jeez. Oh my gosh. I'm impressed he knows these words.

SPEAKER_06

Here comes. Also wouldn't know if he's making a hands.

SPEAKER_02

From the grave. He arose with a mighty triumph for his foes. Keep going. He arrows. Victor from the dark domain. And he lives forever with the saints. He wrong He Rallia Christopher.

SPEAKER_06

Well done. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02

You deserve a payment.

SPEAKER_04

Man, I am sweaty.

SPEAKER_06

Look at your glasses. Wow.

SPEAKER_04

I can't wait to make YouTube shorts on that clip.

SPEAKER_06

That is a oh, and here is your last egg. Let me see what it is. Matt gets a candy. Oh man.

Drafting The Perfect Easter Basket

SPEAKER_04

Alright, that is that is a uh that's a perfect segue. We're gonna take a quick break on the plugged in podcast. And uh let Nate uh gather himself. We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_02

He said high energy. Here we go.

SPEAKER_04

Alright, welcome back. Episode number 28 of Plugged in Podcast. After that ridiculous segment that we just survived. Holy. That was incredible. It was great. Uh next on the show today, what do you got?

SPEAKER_06

We are gonna do one of our favorites here. A draft. We're going to draft the perfect Easter basket.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_06

So five rounds. We'll go around and pick whatever we want in our basket. Twist, game twist. You get everyone gets one steal. So you can steal at any time? At any time. At any time. Let's just I don't know what the rules are, but that's the rule now.

SPEAKER_03

Anything in the basket or just candy?

SPEAKER_06

Anything.

SPEAKER_04

Ooh, okay. I feel like we did candy segments before, and I I just I'm the all-time worst. So we might have. No. You're great. Oh. Thanks, Nate. Jeez. I didn't know we were going for that. But you're not a candy guy. I know, I know. That's what I'm saying. So, like, if you give me the first overall pick, like it'd be like me picking um mashed potatoes. Like for for num num number one. Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_06

No, worst thing ever was my kid calling me Larita Potatoes Heinzman in the car.

SPEAKER_03

Uh Jackson's a big listener of the show. That is not my fault. By force.

SPEAKER_04

It might have been my fault.

SPEAKER_06

It might have been. Someone else encouraged it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

And then encouraged our son. Okay. Well, on that note, Nate, why don't you have the first overall pick? Because you really sang you really sang that out last segment.

SPEAKER_03

I feel like you gotta go iconic, right? You gotta go with the giant chocolate bunny. Yeah. And those things are so annoying though, because you would bite the ears off and they would be hollow inside. Well, they make filled bunnies. Well, uh we were too poor for that, okay? So we had the hollow bunnies, and inside was just air. Well, but they were great. You need you need to see that chocolate bunny sticking out of the basket when you, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Um, okay, Matthew. Yeah. Uh I don't even know where to start. Like Do you know what Easter is?

SPEAKER_06

It's his name A candy.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. So we talked we talked before, like, so I love Reese's Cups. Yeah. But then like, I know Layoff. Lay off. Lay off Heinzmith. Um, so I love Reese's Cups. Yeah. Can I just say that? Because I feel like when we talked about Halloween candies and I said Reese, you guys were like, well, what about that? And then you broke down like six different kinds of Reese's.

SPEAKER_06

I have six different kinds of Reese's on my Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I'm saying just Reese. Just give me the classic Reese's Cup Classic. How about like a like uh yeah, like the big cup? I've seen those in the store. Oh, like the one big cup.

SPEAKER_06

Sure.

SPEAKER_04

All right. Sure, done. Wow, wow. All right. I'm my it's getting close.

SPEAKER_06

Okay. It's getting to it. Um my first pick, and I will come at you if you steal this, Nate, because I introduced him to the Cadbury mini eggs. They're delicious. With the sugar on the outside. That was a Pete Vaughn staple. And he'd eat a whole bowl of them and then get to the point where he had one of each colour left and he couldn't eat any more because he didn't want to disrupt the Ask him. It's real. OCD is real in our family, guys.

SPEAKER_04

At what point do we steal? It can be any point in any point. Wow.

SPEAKER_06

Okay. All right, so that's my number one. Okay, okay, okay. So say it again, Larry. Cadbury mini egg.

SPEAKER_03

Got it. So Matt went with just Reese's cups. Yeah, I'm gonna go with Reese's eggs. Because the proportion of peanut butter to chocolate is superior in those eggs.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Okay, I'm gonna go. Um, I'm gonna go with plastic eggs with money. Oh, I'm going, I'm going with money. Well, that is a good that's a good basket component. There you go.

unknown

All right.

SPEAKER_04

What kind of are we talking coins or dollar bills? I'm just, you know what? If my son's listening, it's coins. So pennies. Pennies, pennies, maybe nickels.

SPEAKER_03

I had hollow chocolate bunny, so there was no money in there.

SPEAKER_06

All right. Well, just to continue this conversation of Reese's shapes.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_06

The Reese's carrot.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, that's on my list.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, you can't have eggs and carrots. Well, why not?

SPEAKER_03

Eggs are for chickens and carrots are for rabbits.

SPEAKER_06

Here we go. All right. Well, that's my number two. Nate.

SPEAKER_03

All right. I'm gonna go. Um you went with the Cadbury mini eggs. I'll go with the Cadbury cream eggs.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_03

Different variation.

SPEAKER_06

Cadbury cream eggs. Thank you for taking notes because I realize I'm not writing any of this down.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, I'm just this is the first time I'm hearing of any of these candies. So I'm maybe I'll do some research later.

SPEAKER_03

Like, oh, I need to try this one and this one. Or what would you put in a basket if you didn't have candy? Money. Well, no, I'm a beef jerky.

SPEAKER_04

No. What a censor myself here. Good job. Good filter. Thank you. Uh no, I'm used to the the giant egg, the giant chocolate not that no, sorry. I'm so flustered right now. The giant chocolate bunny. Yeah. Yeah. That's gonna basket. Yeah. And yeah, maybe a couple small little uh the hand motions today are great.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

This episode's gonna cut short real soon.

SPEAKER_06

This is all, this is all getting back at potatoes, Heinzman.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it's your number two.

SPEAKER_04

You know, when this show ends, it's at some point, that is gonna be an all-time highlight.

SPEAKER_06

It will go down in history. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Anyone who picked for the first two rounds, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. What goes on my plate first, anyway? I'm only bringing it up because you're the best. All right, what's your number two? I'm taking a uh number three, whatever it is. Let's go with um an a bag of MMs, but like the Easter mix. Oh, like pastel colors. Yeah, that's on my list too. Okay, well we'll take it off.

SPEAKER_06

Approved. Yeah. Okay. My number three. Right? Is that where we are? Number three for Lorita. Yeah. Starburst jelly beans.

unknown

Oh thanks.

SPEAKER_06

What? They're so much better than the regular jelly beans. My the Vaughn Easter bunny always had Starburst jelly beans. Oh, I see. So you're up.

SPEAKER_03

Cool. Um I'm gonna go peeps. Uh, I know they're a very polarizing topic. Some people eat them either either love them or hate them. Some people eat them stale, some people eat them fresh, like like me. Peeps.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. All right. I'm gonna pick the candy that I've brought up before that nobody likes except for me. I am taking some Smarties. Oh. I want to. Jackson loves Smarties. Yeah, come on. Jackson loves them. Yeah, do you guys remember how I eat them? Because we talked about this before. Don't you eat the you unwrap that thing and brrrr all the whole right there?

SPEAKER_03

Machine gun that thing.

SPEAKER_06

Right in. Down the hatch. Jackson was trying to explain them to us one time and we were not finding it. And then he found it in a mixed bag. He's like, this is what I was trying to tell you.

SPEAKER_04

Smart it. Smart it.

SPEAKER_06

All right. My next is Swedish fish and friends. Oh. Swedish fish and friends. Okay. I they have the best texture out of Swedish fish.

SPEAKER_03

So who are the friends?

SPEAKER_06

Uh, there's a little turtle friend, a little there's a little seahorse friend, a little dolphin friend. Very tasty. The whole ocean.

SPEAKER_04

Easter, I think Swedish. Sweden.

SPEAKER_03

Very good. All right. Um, okay, so you said the Reese's piece is carrot, which I'm tempted to steal. But I'm not going to steal because I don't know if I was the only person who had this growing up, but we had the cheese ball carrot. And it was shaped like a carrot with orange cheese balls.

SPEAKER_06

I've never seen a cheese ball carrot.

SPEAKER_03

So what are we calling this? I'm calling the cheese ball carrot.

SPEAKER_05

Cheese ball carrot.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you know, I'm going for versatility here between savory and sweet. Marshmallow and chocolate.

SPEAKER_04

I went straight sweet. Well, I'm gonna steal the I don't want the cheese ball carrot. No, but I am stealing the giant bunny. Oh yes. So that rounds out my five unless it gets stolen. Darn it. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So bounce it back to you, friend.

SPEAKER_04

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

All right. Well then I'm stealing I'm stealing the Reese's piece of carrot, and I'm exchanging it for the cornball cheese ball carrot.

SPEAKER_06

No, you you now you get both. You there's no exchanging. Now you have multiple orange carrots.

SPEAKER_04

Nate has Reese's eggs, Reese's carrot, Cadbury cream eggs, peeps, and cheese ball carrot. Awesome. I know.

SPEAKER_06

So now Lorita. Now I have two picks, right? Okay, but then I'm gonna throw I'm gonna throw some high chews in mine.

SPEAKER_03

I brought those to our meeting.

SPEAKER_06

Who cares? Who and the cheese ball carrot is wait, what's it called? Hi chew.

SPEAKER_03

Those are good. Okay, not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_06

It's like hi-H-I-Chew spelling. Got it, thank you. And my last pick is the blue nerds clusters.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, blue nerd clusters. Yep. Yep clusters. Nice. Okay, so what uh basket. Lorita, here's your basket. Okay. You got the Cadbury mini eggs. Yep. Uh Starburst jelly beans. Yep. Swedish Fish and Friends. Yep. High Chew. Yep. Blue Nerds clusters. Sounds like a good diabetes meal to me. And uh my basket, which may speakly have won, is now the giant chocolate money, the Rhesus Big Cup, plastic eggs with money, Eminem's Easter pastel mix, and Smarties. It's a pretty good basket.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I should have stolen the money. I didn't think about that.

SPEAKER_03

If you just swapped the Smarties for the cheese balls, you would be top tier.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Well, I'll take the second tier gladly. Gladly.

SPEAKER_06

Gladly. All right.

SPEAKER_04

Easter basket draft.

SPEAKER_06

So what's wait, did we say Nate's basket?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. It was the worst. Oh yeah. Reese eggs. Reese carrot. Cadbury cream eggs. Oh, that's right. Peeps. It was the worst. And the cheese ball carrot. That's a pretty good thing. You can have your basket. They're all good. They're all good. There's a first, second, and third place, but they're all good. Yeah. Yeah. Also, you can have my basket. I just don't, I won't eat it. I don't want it. And the money? Thank you. I'll take the money. You know, I'm about the money.

SPEAKER_06

Well, then I'm gonna say Caleb, dollar bills.

SPEAKER_04

All the dollar bills. He um, by the way, in church yesterday, he uh we have a coin bucket at home. Yep. That's just like well, like nobody cares change anymore. But I I think this is like so 15 years worth of change just sitting in a jar. Oh my gosh. And each Sunday, like little by little. So the first Sunday he realized he could bring offering, like he got a couple coins, and then the next Sunday he got a handful of coins. Now, so like yesterday, anyone who watched Sunday school in Quincy, he had filled his pockets with his spring jacket, so the jacket was heavy and was just like amazing. Like so long that Kristen like moved on to the next Sunday school song and was just like, you keep going, buddy. Like you keep filling that, filling that basketball. I was like, Caleb, this isn't gonna last forever. Like this is gonna, we're gonna spend all the coins, and then there will be none.

SPEAKER_06

At some point, there will be no coins.

SPEAKER_03

Literally, there are no more pennies, you know, soon. You gotta use them now.

SPEAKER_06

That's true. Well, that was fun. All right, Larita, take us home.

SPEAKER_04

Last segment.

SPEAKER_06

All right, so just rounding it, rounding it home here. Um, obviously there's a lot of fun things that have to do with Easter and Holy Week and everything, but just wondering if we can kind of go around the table and reflect, I guess, on what Easter what Easter means to us. So like an Easter memory, a favorite Easter memory, um a moment in life where you experience transformation. Just something about what Easter means to you and what transformation means to you. And I'll start it off because I have a ready. I'm ready. I'm ready with this with this part, not the rest of it. Um so when we were in Columbus, uh, we had a really awesome opportunity to do a Good Friday service um with all of the Columbus Corps. So there was Columbus Hilltop, there was Columbus uh Worthington Woods, um, there was Citadel, and then us, right? It was us four. And there wasn't like a ton of times that everyone got together, but we did this Good Friday service where we emailed out all the crossers and just asked everyone to come to the core and to contribute. So Worthington Woods was known for having like a a good brass band. So they would bring their best their brass band would come. Um our worship team would play.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, Delaware too.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, in Delaware, and Delaware would come. But each core kind of had like a niche and would fill in and um just make this full service. And one of the things I really liked that we ended up doing, I don't know if we did it every year or just one, but we split the Good Friday account of Scripture and all of the um the spoken words of Jesus into like seven different little gospel shots and had an officer, a different officer from each of those core, speak to that phrase. And it just was a really beautiful way to get all of our core together. And you know, even just around Columbus, there's so many different cultures, there's so many different backgrounds, and new salvationists and like lifelong salvationists. It was just a beautiful time together. And then on Sunday, our core, we always did an Easter breakfast, um, we did an Easter egg hunt, we it was just so much fun. And it's it was such a fun time to be a core officer and to be together with your core family. But I especially loved um getting all of the core together and everyone kind of bringing their their niche into one service. And it was just, it was really a beautiful, beautiful picture of heaven. But it was I loved, loved those planning for those days.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I love Easter at the core. Um I don't I don't know traditionally, I mean it's it's one of those days where there's junior soldier enrollments and senior soldier enrollments, and so it's really a celebration of you know the new life that that Christ has given us, um, and also just new opportunities to serve him, you know, in in a life of commitment to him. Um growing up, the uh I really loved the Easter lilies in the chapel. And I just have these these memories of the Easter lilies lining the uh the stage and just kind of the smell of that. Yep. Um and my core, they would we would have uh kind of like a like an empty tomb sort of constructed and built on stage. Um and so just kind of seeing that I'm a visual person, so I loved just the visuals of Easter. Um we would do an Easter cantata.

SPEAKER_04

Nice.

SPEAKER_03

Wow. As you can probably tell from those, you know, exceptional vocal pipes. It was, it was don't downplay it. It was great. So we would do Christmas and Easter cantatas, and so it was just a great way for uh the core, really, as just an act of worship to put on a little program for people from the community. Um I remember nursing home visitations and and things like that as well being a part of it. Um and then I think another great memory for Easter uh with me, um, or even just the Holy Week time um was Passion of the Christ. When that first came out, and just um every time I still watch it to this day, it's been out now for 20, 25 years. Um, just the profound impact that those like visualizing um you know what Christ experienced and went through um and and personified for us, um it still still brings tears to my eyes. Um but just you know, the reminder, the reminder that um like God gave his everything for us and how how often we take that for granted.

SPEAKER_04

Nice. Um can I share two things? Yeah. Okay, so one is music-based. Well, I guess they're both music-based. One is um the there's a piece of music called Easter Glory by Leslie Condon. That's a good one. Nate loves it because it's a tone poem. Yes. Um so I led it with Mass Brass a couple years ago, uh, but also with the Hilltop Band at Starlake. And one of my favorite memories about it was when, as a conductor, when you're preparing your scores, you're trying to I think I said this in the last episode, but you're trying to figure out the treasure map, or you're trying to figure out what it's really saying. Yeah. And one of my favorite parts about Easter Glory is that I brought an interpretation to this piece that I hadn't really seen written before. Uh, but at the very beginning, so the whole piece tells the story of Easter, and it's not, it's not long, it's like a 12 minutes piece, but it tells the whole story of Easter. So it starts on uh good Good Friday, and so Jesus is obviously like uh walking down with the cross and being mocked and spit on and beaten and all this stuff, but the beginning of the piece just starts with these massive bass drum hits. I have this pulled up, I don't know if it's gonna work, but wow. Let me just try to, just really quick. This is the hilltop band, just a second of it. Hear that? So there's just this like this trudgery of what's gonna happen on Good Friday, and it's the march to the his Jesus execution. Now, later in the piece, there's this like uh this news flash type of thing, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And then you hear Christ the Lord is risen today. Now, in the piece, so that's really slow and trudging along at the beginning. If you match up the tempos that are in different times from the beginning to the end, there's the same bass drum hit that happens in Christ the Lord. That's really cool. So if you do them correctly, you will hear the same violent bass drum, but projecting a different meaning.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, a different message. That's very cool.

SPEAKER_04

So, like the intensity is there, it's the same instrument, it's the same sound, but the meaning is so different from Friday to Sunday. And I'm I'm getting goosebumps right now because I'm just thinking about um what happened in for real on that weekend. And so that's that's um that's a special memory of mine. I liked preparing that piece going through it. And then when you can get your players to buy in and do the music, um, that's always exciting. Um, my other one is lighthearted. So you mentioned this, but um a lot of uh enrollments, dedications, stuff like that happen around Easter time. So I want to play another tiny little clip. This is from uh 1991. Wow. Oh my I think it's Easter. I'm just gonna call it Easter because I think it is. But my brother Mark is being dedicated at the Norwegian Citadel Corps in Chicago. Oh wow, and at the end of his dedication, I had so I was three years old at the time, but I had prepared a little song, and so this is my like vocal, this is my music debut in front of the whole congregation. So I am singing. This is a very short clip of me singing Jesus Loves Me, but there's a little uh twist, okay?

SPEAKER_00

So no Bible tells me so very strong.

SPEAKER_05

That's so precious.

SPEAKER_04

So yes, Jesus loves Marky. So my brother Mark was being dedicated. That's awesome. So we have we have that on tape, and that's uh that's if you want to see what my dad looked like around uh age, you know, I am now. So he's right here.

SPEAKER_06

So it's not far off. That is so cute.

SPEAKER_04

But that is uh an Easter memory. Um, I don't necessarily remember that in real life, but we've had that family video around for, you know, as long as I can remember. So that's awesome. That's great. Kind of blend the family videos into your like, oh, I do remember. No, I don't, but yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah it happened. Jackson says he remembers a lot. I'm like, you've seen a lot of videos of my phone.

SPEAKER_04

All the pictures and phones.

SPEAKER_06

Exactly.

Upcoming Events And Live Podcast Plan

SPEAKER_04

Well, guys, happy Easter. Happy Easter, everyone. If you're uh if you're listening, um, we hope you have a wonderful Easter. Yes. Uh, we hope you that you've taken time to reflect on on Good Friday, holy week in general. Yeah. Uh there's a lot to take in, a lot to think about. Um, I would challenge you, it depends on when you're listening to this. I don't know when we'll get it out. I'll try my best. Um, but find things that supplement your walk. You know, whether you're just reading the straight scriptures, uh, we are releasing an Easter uh video devotional series. Yep. There's 10 million videos on YouTube. Um, make sure it's a reputable source. Yeah, true. But there's a lot of stuff to supplement uh kind of your personal walk with Jesus during this week. Um, you guys want to briefly hit up any of the we had a lot of upcoming events. I said to Chris this morning, I was just like, six weeks from now will be please stop. Yeah. Three mass brass concerts, youth council, star search, a farewell of the divisional leaders, the yam overnighter. Yeah. Um what am I forgetting?

SPEAKER_06

Probably something.

SPEAKER_04

I said to him, like, all that's gonna transpire in six weeks, and then when that six weeks is over, if we're not a thousand percent ready for a conservatory and music camp, yeah, we're something, yeah. And you guys, I know, feel that and more about um about camp.

SPEAKER_06

No, it's so true. We have youth councils on the horizon after all of that chaos hits. Um Nate, what what are the dates?

SPEAKER_03

May 15th to the 17th, uh grades seven to twelve. But also we always love to have young adults participate and and help as you know, small group facilitators and help in the dining hall and things like that. So great opportunity to really just pour into our our youth and our young people.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Theme is level up. And um we kind of took a different approach than like a game level up, but more of like a mountaintop level up. And uh we're doing a mix of of different things, but just kind of this idea of journey and the climb and you're like you were just talking about our walk with our walk with Christ and what that looks like and how we can continue to build. So it's gonna be a good weekend. And then before all that is all of your stuff.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Well, uh yeah, Star Search, Yam Overnighter. So la at the end of last episode, you told me to speak into existence another episode. So I'm gonna do this now. Oh, do it, yeah. So maybe you're listening to this episode on your way to the Yam Overnighter. So what I'm going to speak into existence is that we are going to try to do a live episode of Plugged in Podcast in the lobby during registration of the Yam Overnighter. So if you're on your way right now, be ready to get a microphone put in your face because we want to hear your thoughts. Exactly. We want to hear your thoughts about yet.

SPEAKER_06

Let's do it. As ridiculous as it's gonna be. Who's your favorite instructor? Yeah, what's your favorite band piece? What's the big favorite thing you're doing in Yam right now or for the finale if you're listening to on Friday tomorrow at the finale? Yeah, something. All of the things, but whatever it is.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so we're gonna try to record live during registration of the Yam Overnighter. So be ready with your thoughts. Uh, that's all I got. You guys got anything else? That's it. All right, that's a wrap on episode number 28 of the Plugged in podcast. Happy Easter. He is risen. He is risen indeed. We will see you next time.