Renewed appreciation.

My husband and I have been married for 18 years.  We've hung out for 21.  We been through ups and downs, but nothing that has had us ever consider parting ways.

Ever.

We're lucky that way and I know it.

Recently, stories keep tumbling in my door about family members and friends in dire straights with marriage.  There has been infidelity, verbal abuse, growing apart and cases of mutual disrespect.

M and I were having a heart-to-heart last night.  I was regaling him with stories that were told to me of loves lost, hearts broken and those just trying to scrape it together to make it work.

"Makes you appreciate me a little more, doesn't it?" my man said to me with a grin.

I truly have been fortunate.  Tacky to say, but a lot of men would have left me after being told that I couldn't have children or risk a 90% chance at death.

M would tell you that he has been fortunate because a lot of women would have left him for his undiagnosed digestive ills that he's been battling for 12 1/2 years.

Never once have either one of us considered it.

M and I have always had a mutual respect for each other.  A coworker was talking a few weeks ago and I mentioned something.  She told me that the relationship that M and I have together isn't that typical and that we really were made for each other.

I know it.  So does he.

How fortunate I am.  How fortunate we both are.

Please don't copy art and don't come into the gallery and tell me about it.

I had a customer come in with her friend.  We have a lot of different people come in, but you could really tell that these two ladies were not folks to generally frequent a gallery.

"My friend wants you to tell her who did a painting that she has."

"Well, that's not really our thing.  We're a fine craft gallery and a fine art gallery would be more the place to look for that."

She pulled out her phone.  She showed me a cock-eyed photo of a painting.  It wasn't close up.  It wasn't detailed.  I could see what it was but she wanted to tell me the artist because . . .

Wait for it . . .

She took a photo of the painting, then sent it off to [a big box corporation] and had a canvas made of it.

:tips of the head:

She wanted me to tell her the name of the artist of the painting that she has.

1.  It is not a painting that you have.  You have a printed canvas.
2.  You have a forged printed canvas of a work that you took a photo of.
3.  The artist would now be [big box corporation] because you STOLE SOMEONE'S WORK!

She was stunned that we didn't know, even though they admitted at this point that the piece was from an original that the one woman's brother had and it was from Washington state.

:tips of the head:

We're in Ohio.

I tried to explain that copying an artist's work is kind of rough for the artist . . . I trailed off because the ladies turned and talked to another coworker and listened to not a word I was saying.  A customer was at the counter.  She witnessed the whole thing.  She was appalled and was shaking her head in agreement with me.

Don't knock off artist's work.  It isn't nice.  If you do, don't come to a gallery expecting us to tell you all about the art that you just forged.  That is not cool at all.

My daughter's first trip to the circus.

A couple of weeks ago, K called to tell me that she was given an envelope at school because she was one of the top 5 readers in her class.  In the envelope was a ticket to the Tadmor Shrine Circus.  She was so excited.  The location where it was set was smaller, so I knew that though she tends to get overwhelmed in crowds, she should be able to rock this one out to actually be able to enjoy it.  (She gets that crowd phobia from me.)

Y'all, my girl LOVED it.  Now, this was not a circus rich in animals.  There were some lions and elephants.  Oh, there was a little dog.  There were ponies for a pony ride thing during intermission.  It was just a nice, small circus.

She kept telling me how glad she was that she won the ticket and about how she was having such a good time.  It truly made my heart happy.  We've been trying to pull as much good from this 5th grade year as possible.

No lie, today was a busy beginning of the day.  She was set to acolyte.  We were having a 100th celebration of our church and we were having a dinner afterwards.  Guess who was signed up to be greeters and totally forgot?  :hand held high:  Oops!  The one lady who was sitting behind us in church said, "Hey!  You guys were the greeters for today."  :insert shocked face:  "Crap!  I forgot about that!"  I stuck out my hand to shake hers, "Welcome to - - - United Methodist Church!  We're so glad to have you with us today!"  I apologized to the secretary and I asked her to e-mail me a reminder next time.  She laughed.  My in-law's came to join us.  They wanted to see K acolyte and frankly, they were good with Palm Sunday service.  (My MIL was thrilled to get green palms!)  We had a combined service that she truly enjoyed.  They had new members presented to the church.

This is where I feel bad.

My MIL leaned over and said, "Did you do that?"  "Yes.  We didn't invite anyone.  We had no idea what to expect.  We just did it on our own."  We didn't.  We transferred our membership from our old church.  We went to about 6 weeks of classes.  We attended regularly and were involved in a Sunday School class, so what they wanted us to do we were already doing it.  Frankly, when we transferred our membership the last time, it wasn't a big deal.  We signed a paper.  They sent a letter to our previous church.  With the Methodist Church, you have a bit more of a ceremony.  Oops.

I mentioned that after church we had a potluck.  I invited my in-law's to stay on.  My MIL insisted on bringing something, but I told her that she didn't need to worry that there would definitely be plenty.  Oh, there was plenty.  We had to pull the "we have tickets to the circus in an hour" card to get through the line sooner.  People understood.

So, back to the circus.

Presenting the flag at the start of the circus.  

The lions.

What's a circus without a ring master? 

I can't even do one hula hoop let alone an entire slinky worth!

It was a fairly small venue, so every seat was a good seat! 

I'm not this talented . . .

. . . at all.  

The elephants.  PETA was outside of the venue and made sure to give K a coloring book on her way in.  Actually, it is a well done coloring book.  Props to them for handling my circus guilt in a coloring book so well.  

Taking a seat. 

My girl loving the light-up glow stick she bought.  Bless her soul.  She wanted a light-up stick more than she could see straight.  I did promise her that she could buy something from one of the vendors walking around.  Turns out that she bought the "clearance" light stick.  (She's my girl.) It was only $5.  :)

And don't forget to purchase your balloon on the way out, folks!  We skipped those doors.  

It is a fundraiser for the Shriner's and they do wonderful things for kids.  It was a fun day and not an overwhelming time.  We left there happy and not feeling like a wet rag.  That says a lot for two ladies in the house who get crowd anxiety in a horrible way.  

Thank you, Shriner's.  My daughter loved the time she had at your circus and was delighted that she got a free ticket!