Friends Are Friends Forever!

Many of you see this title and you think instantly of the song by Michael W. Smith. Good job, that is exactly where I got it from. I have loved this song for such a long time, it reminds me of the wonderful friendships that God has blessed me with in my life. I have been able to live in different states and meet wonderful people. Everyone reading this blog, has touched my life in some way and has helped me be the person that I am today, so if you don't like what you see, you only have yourselves to blame! :-)
This past weekend, some college friends and I have been able to get together for the third or fourth year in a row. However, this was actually the second year that we were all able to be together, so we have started a tradition. A tradition that I hope will go on until we are no longer able to travel.

(Kim, me, Marika, Tonya and Julie)

This really all got started with me wanting to come to the Mennonite Relief Sale in Indiana. For those of you who are not familiar with this relief sale. The relief sale is a huge bake sale, craft show, handmade quilt auction. 80% of the proceeds I believe go to Mennonite missions and the other 20% go to local charities.
I had grown up in Indiana and had gone with my Grandma and Grandpa H. to the sale when I was a kid. I have very found memories of helping grandma when she would help with the Quilt Auction. Now that my grandparents have passed away, this was a way for me to still feel connected to them in away. I know that sounds really silly, but I guess it's what I needed. My aunts and uncles on that side are in the area, so I am able to visit with them as well, it was great to see them!

Tonya and I had started our trip Thursday night. We drove to Indy and spent the night with her aunt and uncle and then continued our trip on Friday morning. My aunt Rosie and Jerry would be waiting for us at my aunt Letha and Jerry's house (yes, two uncle's name Jerry on one side). Anyway, when we got to the house, we all went out to eat at a neat little soda shop and then we went back to Letha and Jerry's house to visit. Tonya decided to go visit her aunt and uncle in town and then went on to Julie's house. (I usually spend Friday with my family and then Saturday with the girls and Bob, I'll talk more about Bob later)
We visited for awhile then met up with Aunt Verda and Uncle "Squeaky" Lowell at the Essenhaus for supper.

Jerry Letha and Rosie

Me, Verda and Jerry (Squeaky is taking the picture)

Afterwards, we all went over to Squeaky and Verda's house and had dessert and talked. There was a lot of laughing going on, I know it's hard to believe!
Jerry and Rosie took me over to Bob and Julie's house on their way home and I waited for everyone to get there. Bob, Julie, Marika (and kids) and Tonya had all gone to the relief sale for supper and Kim and kids (Milo and Sadee) were on their way from Illinois. It was great to see everyone, there had been some additions to the family since last year. Marika had a little boy, Quinn. Bob and Julie had added another son to their family, Aaron. Jonathon is now a big brother and is a good big brother. Unfortunately Marika's husband Tom and Kim's husband Arnoldo have not been able to join us yet. There were plenty of "Aunt's" around, so there was no shortage of love and attention to the kiddos. Personally, I think Tom and Arnoldo are scared of spending the entire weekend with a bunch of women. Poor Bob has no place to run, so he's stuck! Actually, Arnoldo was with us the very first year...that's right, yeah I think I have proved my point! :-)
Before I forget, let me tell you what a wonderful guy Bob is. First of all, he doesn't mind spending the entire weekend with us, at least he says he doesn't mind. He also does alot of the cleaning up and cooking for us, letting us just spend time with each other. Thank you so much Bob for opening up your home each year and letting us steal your wife for the weekend, it really means alot to us. Also, a big thank you to Julie's mom and dad, who let Tonya and I sleep at their home.
On Saturday we headed over to the relief sale for pancakes and sausage. They start serving from 5:30 am to 10 am. Yea, we got there at 9:30am. I did go with my great uncle Paul one year at 5:30 am because it was his birthday, now that's love!!! :-)
I had gone looking for uncle Paul when I got to the relief sale, my aunt Verda had run into him and told me he was looking for me. Unfortunately I didn't see him, but I ran into a great friend, who the last time I saw her was last year at this time. So I think we are going to have two traditions the same weekend.
Lisa, has been in my life ever since I can remember. Our parents have always been good friends, so we were introduced to each other at a young age. I think Karen (Lisa's mom) has a picture of us talking to each other in our walkers. I was probably the one talking. I came out of the womb talking! (Sorry for the graphic visual!) Anywho, even though Lisa and I don't see each other much, except I guess at the relief sale. It doesn't seem like much time has passed when we get a chance to talk. Lisa has been married to a great guy, Ryan, for 11 years and they have a beautiful little girl Greta! I was able to go visit them a few years ago when they lived in Alaska, that was a great trip.



After breakfast, we all went looking around at the different things. A few of us went into the Quilt Auction barn and watched that for a little bit. This auction usually goes on for hours and the quilts bring in the most money. It seems that there aren't as many quilts as there used to be. Although when you are a little kid things seem to be alot bigger then they really are.

Auction time!


Trying to show some of the empty racks and some of the quilts


More quilts

After we all had looked around, it was time to grab my favorite BBQ chicken (Nelson's Chicken) and headed back to Bob and Julie's.
There we hung out and played with the kids, we had beautiful weather, so it was great to get outside and play with them. The kids were able to run around a little bit at the relief sale, but it's not as much fun as a big yard, especially with the adults chasing them.






Tonya and I headed back to TN after we had a wonderful breakfast with everyone on Sunday morning. What a great weekend!
Here's a picture of all the kids.

(Milo, Kim holding Sadee, Jonathon holding Aaron and Quinn)

I will leave you with the Chorus of Michael W. Smith's song:

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

Oh Atlanta...whatever!

July 18th, I headed down to good ole Atlanta to visit "Cousin Chris"(I put Chris's phone number in my phone under "Cousin Chris", so now I just call her that instead if Chris), who has been living there for about 3 or 4 months now, I think! She actually lives in a suburb of Atlanta so I didn't have to deal with the Atlanta traffic that I had heard about, at least on Friday.
I will give you a little history on Cousin Chris, she and I are about 7 months apart, she's older! :-) Cousin Chris's family lived right beside my grandparents, so when my family came to visit my grandparents, we got to see some cousins.
We were inseparable, more of me just following her around everywhere. If "Chrissy" (she's now grown out of that now), went inside, little Stacy went inside. We did alot together, I don't remember us grandkids getting into alot of trouble, but there is a "sandpit" story that I will tell you sometime, that you will need to hear my version first, right Cousin Chris!
Now, I was supposed to go and visit her about 1 or 2 months prior but I had gotten sick and wasn't able to make it. She had gotten Atlanta Brave tickets and since I bailed on her, I told her I would buy tickets this time.
I had a nice drive down to Atlanta, it took me about 3 1/2 hours to get there and was greeted with a friendly hello from "Charlie" her dog. Charlie, is a black mix dog, I'm not sure what all she has in her, but she was really cute and she sat, rather layed by me on the couch several times during the weekend!
Saturday, the game started at 7pm and Cousin Chris suggestd that we head out about 4pm, that would give us some time to look around in gift shops at the stadium and just hang out before the game. For those of you who don't know Cousin Chris, she is a huge Braves fan, she has been ever since I can remember, so if cousin Chris wants to go to the stadium early, I am in no way going to object!!! :-)
Cousin Chris had seen on the news that there was construction going on that would possibly slow us down getting there, but we figured we are going 3 hours ahead of time, we will be fine! Ahhhh, famous last words!
The information that was given about the constuction, should have been more along the lines of. "Do not get on I-75 South, unless you were planning on parking your car there." That information would have helped us with our decision of getting on I-75. When we got going on it, it didn't seem that bad, but then all of a sudden, we came to the parking lot and sat there for 15 hours...okay, not 15 hours, but let me just tell you that we finally got to the game at the begining of the 2nd inning, yea do the math, we left 3 hours early and got there after the game already started. Does anyone else see that I was in the car the day before for the same amount of time, but I actually was moving and even went into another state. Oh and let me tell you, I was in "another state" as well sitting in the parking lot as well. I was going crazy, but I think I handled it outwardly fine, maybe you need to talk to Cousin Chris about that!
Apparently the brilliant state department thought it would be a great idea to shut down 4 of the 5 lanes and do some paving all weekend long! Now, I am not the brightest bulb in the pack, but I can tell you this, NEVER, would I have thought that this was a great idea. Why, would you want to shut down a major highway, on the weekend and when there is a sporting event at home! I believe my suggestion would have been, "why don't you do this at night, from maybe 9pm to 6am every night for a week or two."
Now, I understand that there were other options that we could have taken and since I was knew to the area and Cousin Chris really hasn't gotten the chance to know the Atlanta area yet, this is really just all of our own fault. But I would still like to blame the state department or who ever makes those decisions, to maybe rethink that idea.
Okay, I am done venting about that now. Even though, it doesn't sound like I had a good time, I really had a great time visiting Cousin Chris and watching the game. I took a couple of pictures, so I thought I would post them.

Star Gazing!!

Back on June 22, (yes I know that it is now August and I am just blogging about June!)anywhoo....like I was saying. Back on June 22, I had the great privilage of volunteering at the Country Music Hall of Fame "Medallion Ceremony" - inducting Tom T. Hall and the Statler Brothers into the Hall of Fame.
I was assigned with another lady to hand out programs to the guest and yes to the stars!
I was asked to be there at 6pm - the ceremony would start around 7pm. When I got there they were having a reception for the inductees and friends.So I was able to do a little "star gazing" while they were eating.
While some of us volunteers were hanging out, a girl, Nicole, that I have become friends with since volunteering at the hall. Comes walking up fast to me and says, I just passed Reba and she is coming this way. Sure enough, just as Nicole had got the words out, there comes Ms Reba McEntire around the corner with her husband Narvel Blackstone, heading straight towards me. I immediately started repeating in my head "Don't say anything stupid, just say hello!" So as she walked by, I said "Hello, welcome!" (Ah, what a relief, I don't have to worry about being escorted out of the hall!!!) She smiled and said "Thank Yu!" That was so neat, I wasn't expecting her at all to show up. I found out later that she was going to be singing "Flowers on the Wall" at the ceremony.
When it was time to start handing out the programs, I was on one side of the entrance of the Ford Theatre. I really didn't think I would have that many "stars" that would come through my line, but I was happily surprised! I got to hand the programs and say "hello" to Brenda "Dynamite" Lee, Ralph Emery, all of the inductees, which I congratulated each of them and they either said "Thank you, hun" or "Thank you, Stacy!" (I had my name tag on obviously), Little Jimmy Dickens, Eddie Stubbs and Kelly Clarkson was even there, I know there were others, but of course now I can't think of them. Vince Gill and Amy Grant as well as Reba McEntire and Emmy Lou Harris, who was also an inductee, but had been inducted earlier in the year with Pop Stoneman (never heard of), went in the other line.
I was so thankful that I got the opportunity to do that, everyone was so nice and it was a "genuine" niceness, you can tell when people are being fake to you and I didn't see that at all.
I could have stayed and watched the ceremony that was being simulcast upstairs in another area, but they were going to honor Tom T. Hall first an I didn't care to see that. I was able to see Vince Gill and Amy Grant sing an old hymn with the Jordonaires. If you don't know who the Jordonaires are, they sang with Elvis Presley.
I headed home shortly after that and was home by 8pm. I heard on the radio the next day that the ceremony went till about 10 or 10:30, I'm glad I didn't stay.

A Lazy Day On The River

Today, I spent 5 hours going down the Duck River in a canoe and had an absolute blast!
There was a group of 22 people (11 guys and 11 gals) from the Kairos that met at Brentwood Baptist Church this morning at 8:30 am. I know...can you believe that I got up? I am so not a morning person, if you don't believe me you can ask any family member and they will tell you. But I love hanging out with people, so I was willing to sacrifice my sleeping in.
We got to the Duck River (in Columbia, TN) around 9:30 am and were assigned partners (1 guy to 1 gal). My parnters(canoe mate, if you will)name was Jacob, I found out that like everyone else in this town, he works in the music business. He manages about 4 or 5 Christian artists/bands. It sounded like a really neat job, although, he really is on call at all times!
We all got in the water around 10 am and headed down the good ole Duck! For the most part, we all stayed together, there would be some that would get way ahead or way behind but in no time we would all be back together again. This was really a great group of people that went. We all seemed to get along great!
One of the guys that I play kickball with was actually swimming in the river and decided to try and dump us, but I informed him that I had no problem with hitting him in the head with my orr! :-) He eventually went away and we were on our way again - tip free!
We came across a couple of rope swings, there was one in perticular that we all tried. Yep, you heard me correct, I even gave it a try. I have seen people swinging on these ropes before in movies or music videos and I have always thought that it would be a lot of fun to do. I had so much fun, I did it twice. My first jump was the best, I was given a score of a 10, beginners luck, I say! My second jump was more of a pathetic jump, I really don't know what happened, but it just wasn't as smooth as the first although I still hit the water. Unfortunately my canoe mate was not as successful, Jacob's one an only jump cut him a little short of the water and he ended up cutting his foot and scrapping up his back and arm and then ended in the water. We all just looked at him not knowing what to do, "should we laugh", "I hope he's okay", etc... He was okay, a little embarrassed but he handled it just fine. From then on, he became known as "That Guy"! You know the stories I am talking about, the one's that start like "Remember that time when "that guy"....
Around noon we stopped and ate, which was nice to take a break and then we got back on the river.
Some of the group had stopped and gotten out to swim. Jacob really didn't want to get out and I was perfectly fine staying in the canoe and just floating down the river watching the others. We came across some cattle in the water and they looked like they were starting to form a wall trying to intimidate us. But as we got closer and the cattle could see that we were not backing down an in fact were pretty good canoers (am I even close as spelling that correctly)...anyway, they decided to head to shore and we went on our way.
We also came across some type of spring, that shot straight up in the air. Apparently there were only a few us that saw it, it was really neat!
I kept telling Jacob that we really should write a guide book because we were such awesome canoers (there's that word again), he was in complete agreement. I let you know when it comes out!
Finally after 5 hours and 9 miles later, we ended our trip and were returned to our cars.
I didn't realize how tired I was until we got into the vehicles and I started feeling sleepy! I ended up burning my arms, surprise there! But I am still confused a how I was able to burn my knees when they were covered the whole time! It's just amazing to me, why would I have expected anything less!
God provided such a beautiful day and introduced me to so many wonderful people that are now friends, what an AWESOME GOD WE SERVE!
There is going to be a white water rafting activity August 9th - I say "Bring it On!"

Amazing Race - Two Rivers Style

How many of you are familiar with the tv show "Amazing Race"? There are teams of 12 that fly all over the world collectiing clues to the final location, the winner wins 1 million dollars. Well, out Single's Ministry team (which I am apart of), hosted a version of that at our church. Instead of flying teams all over the world, we had teams of 2 or 3 drive all over Nashville collecting clues. Surprisingly enough with the gas prices, we had a great response of people that wanted to participate.
I had planned this event last year, but it was only involving my Sunday School class. This year I suggested that we include all of the Single's, this would be a great event for all of us to meet and get to know each other better.
On Saturday, June 21 at 3pm, seven teams left the church parking lot in search of their first location. The first clue sent the teams to the Belle Meade plantation. The teams didn't have to do a task at this location, they just needed to get there and get their clue for their next location. The second location was Centennial Park, I need to tell you that last year when we did this, we had the park as one of the locations, not knowing that there was a huge Gay and Lesbian rally going on that day, it was hilarious! This year, there was not rally of any sort going on, and the teams had to find Sean (a professional entertainer - aka "Clown") and learn how to make a balloon animal. Sean had the balloons blown up already, each person on the team just needed to make a balloon animal before they could get their next clue. You like how I make sound like it's so easy to do! The third location was Ft. Negley, here they had to eat a Moon Pie and a RC cola in honor of the Moon Pie Festival that was going on in Beltbuckle, TN. I know, the fort didn't have anything to do with it, I just really wanted them to eat a moon pie and drink and RC cola. Now, the catch though was that the same person could not do both and so there had to be two people and they they couldn't do it at the same time, meaning that they had to go one at a time, which would slow them down. The next location was at "Cooter's", this place has some memoralbeilia...memoralbel..."stuff" from the "The Duke's of Hazzard". They have the General Lee, Daisy's jeep and one of the sherriff's cars. So here, the teams needed to have their picture (polaroid)taken in one of the cars before they could get their final clue. I was told that one of team members was so excited, that she actually jumped into the General Lee just like the good ole boys did, not knowing that she could of simply opened the door. I should have given her extra points having heard that, I love that! I would have probably done the same thing.
Going off on a little tangent, I promise I will come back to the race, but talking about the Dukes of Hazzard, it reminded me of when my brother and I were younger. I remember a time my mom moving our cars side by side out in the yard, so that my brother and I could pretend that were were the Duke's, jumping into the cars through the windows. What a great mom!!!!!
Now, back to the rest of the story. The final clue, sent the teams back to the church, where they had to find me and bring their balloon animals and polaroid picture from Cooter's to the finish line.
Sean had also created this huge race car that we had at the finish line. Unfortunately at one point it blew into the grass and popped a couple of the wheels, but he was able to fix it and later donated to the library which is doing a racing theme for the summer, how cool was that that they decided to do that theme for the summer, all planned before the "Amazing Race" was even announced!
After everyone got back we had a cookout and even played a couple of innings of Kickball.
What a great day, I hope the teams had as much fun as I did planning the event!!!
Here are some pictures from the day!

My CMA Festival!

The Country Music Festival was this past weekend, it starts on Thursday and then ends on Sunday. Aside from the patrons, most of the locals don't really care for this weekend because that means thousands of tourists everywhere! I really haven't taken part in the CMA festival, due to the fact that I would have to take off of work and it's usually the hottest weekend of the summer. Despite all that I still think it's a great event, you can see all your favorites all in one place!
This year, volunteering at the Country Music Hall of Fame, I found out that Kathy Mattea was going to be giving a performance there on Thursday. This would be a free performance for me since I volunteer. I decided that I would take a couple of hours off and go see her. I am so glad that I did, she did such a great job! I really miss hearing her music on the radio. She sang some songs off of her new cd, from what I heard, I think it would be a great cd. Then she sang some of her older stuff, in fact, we all sang with her on "18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses." It was really neat to hear. The theatre that she was in holds only about 200-300 people, so it was a really neat intimate setting. She talked about how some of the songs came about and what she has been up to for the last 10 years. She then ended with the song that my mom and I love, and I found out that it's a true story that her husband wrote about his grandparents. The song is called, "Where Have You Been," she stated that this song is her "signature song", how every artist has a "signature song". She joked that when you have a "signature song", you better enjoy singing it every day for the rest of your life! :-)
For those of you not familiar with the song, here are the lyrics, I also posted some pictures from the performance.

Where Have You Been

Claire had all but given up
When she and Edwin fell in love
She touched his face and shook her head
In disbelief she sighed and said
In many dreams I've held you near
Now at last you're really here

Chorus
Where have you been?
I've looked for you for ever and a day
Where have you been?
I'm just not myself when you're away

He asked her for her hand for life
Then she became a salesman's wife
He was home each night by 8
But one stormy evening he was late
Her frightened tears fell to the floor
Until his key turned in the door

Chorus

They'd never spent a night apart
For 60 yrs she heard him snore
Now they're in a hospital
In seperate beds on different floors

Claire soon lost her memory, forgot the names of family
She never spoke a word again
Then one day they wheeled him in
He held her hand and stroked her hair
In a fragile voice she said

Chorus

Where have you been
Ive searched for you forever and a day
Where have you been
Im just not myself when your away
Im just not myself when your away


Then on Saturday, I had volunteered to help out at the museum. Phil Vassar was going to be performing in the same theatre and I wanted to see that too. He did such a great job as well, he talked more about his songs, he's got a great sense of humor and then he also donated some of his original writings of some of his songs to the museum, that was really neat.
After the performance, I went into the gift shop to see what I needed to do. I thought for sure that they were going to tell me to fold t-shirts and just help with any questions. Well, I was actualy asked to help with the autograph session. Phil Vassar was going to be signing autographs for about an hour and I was incharge of making sure that the isle was clear so that those that were getting autographs could get through. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it! I couldn't believe it, how was I so lucky!
Phil Vassar's mom and two sisters were there and they walked past me a couple of times. One of the sisters came up to me and asked "How many times have peope told you that you look like Alison Krauss?" I told her, "Not enough!" :-)
I took a few pictures of Phil Vassar, when he was signing autographs and some at the performance, unfortunately not alot of them came out from the performance, I think it was too dark in there. Anyway, here are some pictures.

Okay, I'm almost done with my story, just hang in there!
I had found out a couple days before the CMA Festival that a friend from Wisconsin was going to be coming with her mom (Pat)to the festival. Tracy and I hadn't talked or seen each other since I move down here so it was great to see her again and hang out a little bit. On Friday night I had taken them out to the Loveless Cafe for supper, I thought it would be a great place that they wouldn't get to go to anywhere else and it was far enough out that the other fesival goers wouldn't be at.
Here's a picture of us at the cafe.

For the most part Tracy and her mom were at the festival the whole weekend, but on Sunday they went to church with me and then afterwards, Pat was tired and so she suggested that I take her pass and that Tracy and I should go to the Riverfront and watch the performances and then we would go back to the hotel and then Tracy and Pat would go to the concerts that night.
That was alot of fun at the Riverfront, there are two stages set up on the bank of the Cumberland and they have acts alternating on the stages all day long. This event is more for the up and coming stars and the "seasoned" stars that you haven't heard from lately. Some of the stars that we saw were Ty Herndon and T. Graham Brown, then I noticed that "Cowboy Crush" was going to be playing, I had met the fiddle player (Renae' Truex) from that group a couple of months ago, she came to the museum and helped us with the "Musical Petting Zoo", this is an event that the museum does 2x a month, where they put out a whole bunch of instruments and then they let kids come and play with them and learn about the instruments.
Renae' is such a neat person, she is about as sweet as they come. She plays the fiddle and mandolin, she smiles the entire time that she plays. I had asked her when she started playing, I don't remember how old she was, but she was very young. She had told me that she is from West Virginia and that is how you are raised.
I think Renae' will be very successful with her music and I am honored that I was given the chance to meet her.
Here are a couple of picutures of Cowboy Crush!



What a great weekend! I got to spend sometime with a friend I hadn't seen in a while and I got to hear some great music!!!! Ahh, LIFE is GOOD!

Judge

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilage of spending some time with a male named Judge. No, not that kind of male, Judge is an 11 year old black labrador.
My friend Stephanie (Judge's mom) needed to go out of town to take care of her grandfather for a few weeks and she asked me if I would be able to take care of Judge one of the weeks that she was gone.
Now, not having taken care of Judge before, Stephanie thought it would be a good idea for me to come over a couple of times, so that Judge would get used to me and actually let me in the house when it was my turn to come and dog/house-sit. So we did that and everything went good...then came the time for me to come by myself.
My friend Mel had watched Judge the week before, so the day that I was coming, she left Judge outside in the fenced in backyard, so that I could let him in the house when I got home. So I got to the house and went to see how Judge was doing, I was greeted with a waging tail and a low growl! Thankfully, I had not opened the screen door yet. "Wow, this isn't good!" was my thought, "maybe I should leave him out there for a little bit and continue to unpack my car" was my next thought. So as I brought different stuff in, I would continue to go to the screen door and see if the mood had changed and maybe I had moved up to the "pals" stage. The car was unpacked and Judge was still not happy. So I thought, "how about I call my good friend Mel!" So I called her and she offered to come over when she got off of work, which would be 8:30pm. I was glad that she was going to come over, but it was only 6:30pm and I thought I should maybe try one more idea. I knew Judge loved walks, so I suggested through the screendoor if he would like to go on a walk. Well, I do believe I had peaked his interest, due to the rising of his ears an a little tilt of the head. Just to makesure he understood what I said, I suggested it one more time and yes, this was definitely something that he wanted to do and the reason I knew this was because he was now hopping at the front door and barking. I ran and got the leash and decided that now he could come in the house.
Well, because I was so happy that he wasn't growling at me anymore and that he really wanted to go on a walk. I completely forgot to change into other shoes, so Judge dragged me all over the neighborhood in my sandals that had about a 3" heal on them, nice!!!
On our way out of the house, I had grabbed a big stick that Stephanie walks with, she had informed me that I wouldn't need to use it, however, if I felt more comfortable with it, there it was. So I decided to take it, just incase. Thankfully I didn't need to use it, however there was a little chiwawa, however you spell it,you know the Taco Bell dog. (As a side note, I hate those dogs. I know that "hate" is a strong word, but I really do "hate" them) Anyway, one of those dogs came running out at us like it was going to attack us, Judge just sniffed it and kept walking, I was winding up my foot, to send it airbourne, but one of the neighbor girls came and got it before it met my foot and took it home. I really think I could of cleared it over one of the houses!! As we got towards the end of the last street before we headed home, I saw this cage, now let me tell you, the last time that I saw cage this size, was about 10 or 15 years ago, when my family took a trip to South Dakota and we went to "Bear Country". Yes that type of cage was around a grizzly bear. So you can only image what kind of dog was living in that cage. All of a sudden, out steps "Cujo" - for those of you not familiar with "Cujo", he was a large St. Bernard, that had rabbies. Even though this dog did not look as bad as "Cujo", nor did he try to get to us, I did inform Judge, that if that dog had somehow gotten out, that "he was on his own"!
When we got back to the house, I had decided to start supper and I needed to make a couple of calls. I had forgotten my phone charger for the house, so when I was getting off the phone, I ran outside to use the car charger. As I shut the house door, I remembered that the door was still locked and that the key was still in the house. Yes, I had locked myself out of the house. The first night and only about 2 hours into watching Judge, not a good start!
Now not only had I locked myself out of the house and Judge in the house, but do you remember my comment in the last paragraph about me starting supper, yeah, I had turned the oven on! Sooooo...I called Mel again, I wasn't able to reach her. So I thought I would call another friend, Christa to see if she had a spare key. She didn't have a spare nor did she know of anyone that had one. But, when I told her that the oven was on, she said she would be right over!!! :-)
Even though Christa was on her way over, I wasn't sure what we were going to do with neither one of us having a key. Now we could have broken or window, although I didn't want to do that for two reasons, I didn't want to pay for a window and I wasn't sure how excited Judge would be about someone coming in through the window, even if I had taken him for a walk. So I called Mel a couple more times, still not able to get a hold of her, I decided to have her paged. When I told her what I did and after she was done laughing, she informed me that she had a spare key and that she was on her way. Mel told me when she got there, that one of her co-workers wanted to know "if I was going to make it!" We both laughed hard on that!
Thankfully, that was all the excitement there was for the rest of the time that I was there and Judge and I got along wonderfully. He really is a great dog, he has a great personality, he made me laugh on several occasions. Who needs a man, I'm just gonna get a dog!
Stephanie has done such a great job with him, I'm thinking about getting a dog myself and then have her train him until he's like Judge and I then I will take it from there!! I haven't talked to Stephanie about that yet though!!!