What now?!?!

I have been on such a roll this week updating you on my less than normal life and don't you worry your pretty (and handsome) little head's - I won't disappoint!!! I should really entitle this entry - Living life outside the Asylum - A walk on the Wild Side!

Let's see, where do I even begin? Ok. Big breath. Sorry if I loose you somewhere along the way, I'm exhausted... Anyway, I'll need to back up and give you a bit of history first. Sam entered the Mandan Art Show sometime back whenever the deadline was; I believe in February... As you know, he was deep in the throws of ski season and also the preparation of the ACC Art Show and so he was feeling very pumped but didn't have much prepared. So as he's frantically filling out the registration in order to get it in by the designated time (a race against the clock - who would have thunk it?!) I walked away and came back to look at his list, all of sudden, he's got the list filled. Granted, it only costs like $2 to enter each piece, but I'm like - "Sam, what is this? You don't have that much art here. What is this? A piece entitled 'The Best Ever'? I've never heard of that, much less seen it?" He says, "I know, I just made it up - I made them all up!!" He's very positive and optimistic for those of you who don't know him! Eight all together. Eight, count them 1-2-3-4..., you get the picture...

kas;jdg;ajg;aklfjh;kldfj - oh sorry, I must have dozed off and woke back up just after my head hit the keyboard!!!

Ok, fast forward to April 23rd, the day to turn them in because the show starts on April 24th. Look at this picture with me - I get home from work about 2pm, you can turn your art in from 1-6pm on the 23rd. Sam gets home around the same time and says, I'm going to start.... "Spring's Song". Ok, let me re-write that sentence, because I'm not quite sure you got that - Sam gets home around the same time and says, I'm going to start.... "Spring's Song". Did you catch that little tiny bolded word? It holds a lot of power! Remember a couple days ago when I said that Sam got up at midnight to paint and I woke up to the beautiful picture of crocus'? He had to do that in acrylic so that it would dry fast enough to get it in the show.... So out of those 8 paintings, let's see how many he has as of 2pm yesterday.

The Crossing - 30X40 started but not finished, no frame
Spring's Arrival - 5X7 crocus';finished, although not signed and no hanging stuff on the frame
High Prairie Parade - 18X24 not done, external hard drive died, no hope of finishing
Spring Song - 9X12 just getting started at 1pm
High Country Cowboying - 9X12 started, not finished, no frame
Blue, White and Brown - 5X7 not started
God's Country - 8X10 done, but not signed
The Best Ever - 8X10 not started

Well, it was going to be a busy afternoon! I don't want to drone on and on, but I will also point out that the registration form had underlined and bolded - NO LATE ENTRIES ACCEPTED. So that answered a lot of questions. Well, our local Hobby Lobby and last minute framing shop closed at 8pm and oh, by the way, did I tell you we had a dinner to be at 6pm where Sam had to say the Opening Prayer? So that meant that Sam had approximately 3 hours to finish all of those unfinished paintings, get them framed, and the backing put on all those pictures, plus, they needed to be delivered before we left for our dinner since there was no possible way we'd make it back by 7pm! An impossible feat - you might say!!!! But alas, you are no Sam Coleman, the ultimate optimist on the planet! (By the way, I'm beginning to see a pattern here, my craziness blogs are all induced by Sam...hmmm....makes a girl wonder....)

Anyway, to make a long story short, he got an extension till 7:30 this morning to turn in his art and so we headed off to our Campus Crusade Dinner and got home around 10pm last night because we had to squeeze in a trip to Walmart to get some picture hanging supplies! So I started right away on putting the backing on some pictures, finding another couple of pictures that he could substitute with those titles, even though, this is a lesson - when he registered with his make believe names, he made up random prices and the art he ended up turning in was some high quality stuff! People would be crazy not to purchase those amazing pieces of art for so low of a price! If I had some money, I would even purchase them! Sam came to bed at 4 this morning and the alarm was set for 6:30 to finish up some stuff, take a drive into town and still get back by 7:30 this morning!

Guess what!!!! Done. Actually we only got 7 out of the 8 delivered, all signed, all ready to hang, all with frames on them, I don't know how he did it, but that crazy man did it! Then to celebrate, we headed out to Dakota Farms for breakfast - this little restaurant down the hill from our house, which I don't really recommend. We'd never been there before, but wanted to go sometime and took this as a great opportunity! We had a server (I don't know what's politically correct, but she didn't fit the bill for server - she was a WAITRESS!) Let me just describe her, Sam wanted to take a picture of her - First of all, she has worked there for 30 years! She was wearing a long sleeve turquoise shirt, a short sleeve royal blue and fuchsia pink one over the long sleeve with a denim vest over that - she had on jeans that had pink and blue hearts on the back on them and a gigantic star down at the bottom of one of the legs, with her turquoise cowgirl boots sticking out - bright blue eye shadow and bright pink blush with tons of pink and blue do-dads in her hair! Oh, I can't forget to mention the rhinestone bracelets up and down her sleeves!!! And she told us she'd been up since 5:30 to get to work on time at 6am - I was thinking - "Go girl - you are dressed to the nine's in half an hour!" I don't know about you - but that's my kind of woman!!!! Did I mention she was probably in her 50's at least?

So what next? Well, Sam is at home, snoozing away and I'm at work - addressing over a hundred invitations to a Seminar in a couple of weeks - oh, and the highlight - talking to all of y'all!!! I know I mentioned a little snippet of snow yesterday and haven't mentioned it again, that's because I'm in denial. Yes, it came. It's cold again. It's dreary. It's time for Parent's Night Out tonight - that means 5-10pm, Sam, me, and a bunch of Sr. Highers taking care of however many little people there are! Snooze. I think it's nap time for me! Almost!

I'm tired just after writing all that! I hope your day started at a little slower pace!

Until the next snow storm in the Tundra.....

Love, Sarah!