Happy Easter & What's Been Going On With Jim?

First and foremost, Happy Easter, He is risen indeed. My day started with rising at 5:20 am and getting to church to sing at the sunrise service by 6:20. I sing in a praise band as well as play percussion instruments. I then sang in the choir for the next two services. We had a full brass section, the pipe organ, our hand bell choir and timpani for the last two services. I must say that the music sounded fantastic and as usual on Easter we end the services sing the Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. After church my family all came over for dinner. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, hot cross buns and a peach pie for dessert. The afternoon ended with climatically with our new puppy jumping up on the kitchen counter and flipping the pie onto the floor and devouring half of it. Happy Easter!

Back to the puppy. Yes, the golden retriever that I mentioned in a past post has been adopted by me and the girls. Her name is Lady and she getting close to five months old. She was a Christmas gift to my folks by my sister. What is that rule about never giving a live animal to someone for a gift if they don't know their getting it??? Anyway, Lady has grown large enough to hop over my parents backyard fence and they live on a road with a lot traffic. They were concerned that she would get hit so two weeks ago she came to our place for a visit and decided to stay.

Lady is really a lovely girl, she's all blond and is learning the Lawson household rules very fast (except for pie eating). The girls and I really love her, my folks miss her but are here often to play with her.

You may have seen on Mark Minnick's blog that I am on Nutrisystem. I started two weeks ago and so far I've been making progress. My goal is to lose at least 40 pounds and I have no doubt that I'll be able to do it. I tried this diet for the first time about 14 years ago and I lost 42 pounds in 12 weeks. It's not that difficult, you just have to strictly stay on the diet.

I recently made a professional move regarding work. My position was eliminated at TCM and am in the process of transitioning into a new position. In the meantime I have been doing consulting work for The Progressive Group. When a door closes, a window opens. The Progressive Group is owned by two members of my church whom I traveled to Israel with last year. They are great people and needed someone with my experience to facilitate programs for their clients. I am also doing voice over/recording work for books on CDs which I used to do when I did theater full time.

Hip, hip, hurray! Dani was accepted to Shenandoah University to major in education and minor in dance. She is so excited to go there in the fall and I am excited to return to my male prostitute days to pay for the unbelievably exurbanite costs of a private school. It's like buying a nice new car every year. BUT, she was accepted and that is the main thing, I am so proud of her.

Okay, that's enough catching up for now. I will be posting more frequently and get back into the groove. I missed you all. Much love.
Jim