Sing with me, "Please, release me, let me go...finally!

Exhaustion isn't a word. It is a state of being!

Where to begin?

My theme song?
Freebird.
Or School's Out
Wasn't there a great tune in Footloose that sang about being Free? You bet. One of my favorites.
Try Born Free.

Anything musical that comes to your mind which embraces the element of freedom or escape from something that dominated your thoughts, life or time. Your choice.

Now would be a wonderful moment to celebrate being released from a major time and energy commitment, responsibility and a vested emotional interest. Except I'm one wiped out dudette.

The Holiday Craft and Food fair went well. True there are a few things we'd really wish we'd done differently, LIKE REMEMBER A FLIPPIN CAMERA!!!

The ready made mixes for the bean soup, Russian hot tea mix, beer breads and Mocha Cocoa flew off the tables. The chocolate covered spoons, the pies we made all summer and fall and many other preserved food items, were a hit!

And the jams!
I bought, cinnamon apple cider, Pineapple, Green Pepper, Peach and two of the port wine jams. They were out of the Garlic - pooh!

We sold out of the cat nip toys and the home made doggie bones. However, hardly anyone wanted to by home made bird feeders with suet and/or peanut butter.

Want to hear one of the reasons?
"Oh, once you start, you can't stop or they'll starve! That's too cruel! So we won't buy any at all."

Um, does that make sense? If there's an ice storm and they can't scritch or scratch for food, since when is offering them an alternative " cruel"?

I remember when we were planning our basket raffle, a/k/a Chinese Raffle. Who knows why that name is attached to this event when there's nothing Chinese about it ....
Anyway, we were struggling to get eight ideas off the ground and when all was said and done, there were SIXTEEN baskets of goodies offerred.

Guess what? I WON ONE OF THEM!!

Oh, do you want to know what I won?

A hand painted weather station in the shape of a bird house. It has an attached yard stick to measure the snow, a thermometer and when the weather is nicer, a rain guage. Cool, huh?

And a surprise. *grin*

There is SO much I could say about the whole experience. But blog hopping is supposed to be a quick thing and this could turn into a book.

I wouldn't do that to you.

Suffice it to say, I was in tears of happiness a few times, pulling my hair out at others. Got mad at someone ( which I don't usually do) and had someone threaten to walk out on me. (Averted, naturally). We were short of man (woman) power and I was responsible for three sections. The Pet Corner, the three tables of "Make an Offer" and the knitted/handmade section. At one point, the fourth area of "Make an Offer" which had two more tables assigned to it was also my responsibility.

Talk about crazy!
Talk about Stress!
Talk about thankfullness that there were HONEST people willing to wait to pay!!!
Talk about being grateful to the small core of women who stuck with me through all of this.
Talk about relief that It. Is. OVER!

However, yes folks here it comes.
I'd like to share, briefly, a moment of a personal nature. A moment that is special and perhaps uplifting.

Are you game?


There is a young girl who's helped us right along. 8th grader. Sweet as a peach and a credit to her parents. Her mom is my VP.

Half of her face was attacked by a viral infection that inadvertantly got a secondary bacterial infection on top of it. It looked painful and itchy. Her face was swelling and one of her eyes was swollen shut.
Did she stay home?
Nope.
(FYI-she wasn't contagious at all)
But she was incredibly self conscious and worried and depressed. She hid the inner emotional toil this was taking on her so well - like a stoioc trooper -she worked both days at the fair and we didn't realize how deeply upset she truly was.
Until later today.

Earlier this morning, when she told us of her ER visit, she made a little comment about her looks.
I told her the truth, that I didn't notice the disfiguration.

"But I don't "SEE" it."

Do you know what I mean?

I was concerned for her.
Angry for her in the casual way her regular MD association(managed care HMO) treated her -- read "lack of care".
But it in no way detracted from her person. She was still wonderful in my eyes. I didn't feel she was "Less" because of how she looked.

Her mother later came to me in private, emotional and intense.
She said,
"Michele, you have no idea what that one sentence, what ONE sentence has made in the life of my daughter. I've told her that she's beautiful no matter what but because I'm her mom and I can see HER no matter what is happening, she wasn't buying it.
She's beautiful to me, but she couldn't hear that or believe it, coming from me. But you said that one thing that made her day. Saved it and changed it for her. That one sentence was pivotal. You said, "But I don't SEE that." Thank you. Thank you so much!"

And she gave me a hug. I hugged her back as one mom comforting another. Receiving thanks for something that at the time seemed such a small thing but had a profound effect on another's life.

Words have power.
Power for good.

Of anything from this event, with all I've written about, this ... this little story means the most to me. THIS was an ultimate success story.

I had tears in my eyes when she left.

Can you see why?