It's a Wonderful Life

I have so much to say about this week, and just haven't had the time to say it. First and foremost, I feel like I'm having a Jimmy Stewart moment from It's a Wonderful Life. After working out butts off the last few months to finalize the lease, get the corporation set, figure out the financials (which of course we're still figuring out!), we finally got the keys to the kingdom and got in all but one of our spaces this week. This was a blessing and curse. Two of the spaces were clay studios--kilns, bags of stuff to make and color clay, molds--the whole nine yards. These two rooms looked like something out of the show Hoarders. They were seriously nasty looking.

After two days of having the most amazing volunteers, all our rooms were emptied, swept, and in one case prepped by pulling all the nails and already patched! It's like the whole town pitched in to make this happen. It's felt like at the end of It's a Wonderful Life when the whole town shows up at Jimmy Stewart's house to help him out with the bank loan. People just show up and start helping. I still am not sure how it all happened, but I am so grateful that it did.

So on to another Jimmy Stewart moment. I had been told by the Homestead Main Street Committee that there was going to be a movie night outside in the downtown area (and for those of you who don't know Homestead, it's a lot like I imagine Bedford Falls would have been, so "downtown" is all relative). I figured it would be a good thing to go to support everyone, plus we could see Night at the Museum 2, which we've seen a million times because we own it. But it's an awesome movie, and this would be an opportunity to see who really comes out to these events. I invited everyone from Atala via an email and Facebook, but didn't really know who would show or not. Even with all the jobs, vacations, and weekend getaways, we had nearly 30 people--kids ranging in age from just a couple of months old all the way to friends in their 50s. It was fabulous! We all sat in the same area, all the kids ran around, played tag, did cartwheels, danced to the music, had dinner, etc. What a great way to celebrate your town and kick off the beginning of summer!

I'm sure there will be many more Jimmy Stewart moments, but I thought I'd share these because they've been so poignant.

Spread your wings!