I Follies and I Can't Get Up

Slow blog time for me lately. The main reason...my brain, legs, arms and voice are tired. For the past two months I've been involved in a musical performance called the Charity League Follies. It's a fund-raiser they do every few years to benefit the Easter Seals program in town. I've been singing, dancing, and learning my lines and I'm about ready for this whole "out of my box" experience to be completed. I've enjoyed parts of it and I hope the actual performance will be fun. But, so much of it has been stressful, overwhelming and time-consuming. We've had Dress Rehearsals all this week and they will continue tonight and tomorrow with the live show on Saturday night. I have fun on stage but I have to take the long road to getting comfortable and confident in order to do so. We'll see...

Sara's dad came in for a "brief" visit last week and one of the things he was trying to do while he was here was sell one of his bird dogs to a guy in Tennessee. Well, Dennis had to leave early so I had to complete the sale and drop-off the dog. This dog is the son of a Grand Champion and so just his name and that fact alone get a lot of people interested in him. He is a very well-trained animal or so I've been told. Because I learned while watching him for a day that it doesn't matter how well-trained a hunting dog (or any dog for that matter) is if you don't know the right commands. Let's just say I learned rather quickly that he doesn't respond real well to "Come back Copper!" I guess I got a little exercise out of the deal though.

Then I met the "buyer" at Cracker Barrel in Calvert City. The funny thing was some people from church saw me there, in a different vehicle (a truck), with a dog they had never seen before and I was passing this dog off to another truck next to me and receiving something in return. When they came up to say hello and ask what was going on I immediately started to think about the rumor possibilities..."in order to make ends meet, local minister dabbles in dog-dealing on the side!" Just another example that often in life, there can be more to circumstances than what meets the eye...

You Are What You Shampoo...

Winterfest really ended up being a wonderful weekend! Although often it doesn't feel wonderful to me. I think it is because the ultimate responsibility for 54 people falls on my shoulders. I find myself constantly concerned about various teens, about making sure people are in the right place (and not lost), about safety, about schedules, and about everyone's enjoyment of a weekend trip. I still am able to have fun but I'm a little on edge most of the weekend with a heightened sense of awareness and responsibility. I am grateful to both my chaperones (who were wonderful) and my teenagers (who are always respectful, responsible and well-behaved) for another memorable Wintefest!

Once we arrive home though I feel like I can finally breathe. I can feel the burden removing itself from my shoulders. Sara and I made sure everyone had a ride home from the building and then it was time to head over to the kennel to pick up Topaz. When we got him in the car it didn't take long to realize he smelled awful. So it was decided that as soon as we got home Topaz was receiving a bath.

We got him into the bathtub and began looking for the dog shampoo. It wasn't in its usual place on the back edge of the tub. We quickly found it though on the upper shelf in the shower. Hmm...odd place for it...we don't usually put it up there. Then we remembered that we had guests stay with us last week who were without power at their own house. Sara and I both burst out in guilty laughter. Turns out our friend Kevin mistook the dog shampoo for one typically best suited for humans. I thought I noticed him itching a little more the last couple days.

Needless to say it was a good way to release the stresses of a long weekend! And of course, when I saw Kevin yesterday, I made sure to bark a little! He was less than thrilled, but his bark is worse than his bite...