Gotcha!

Wait til' I tell my blog readers about my "Gotcha" moment today. You will find it funny, I promise. First I just had to share this little cartoon I found hysterical, especially because my little practical joke had to do with a singing audition. I looked for a graphic for this post and this came up and I had such a good chuckle, just HAD to share it.

Second, ...I'll just say we had a great service today...God moving mightily in the gifts of His Spirit, and more. I was wondering just how tired folks would be from daylight savings time and if it would affect much but it was a great day. Some highlights besides the great service were see our precious Maddie again for the first time in five days. Heather and Troy and their family have had her all this time, sitting for us while we were in Orlando. They brought her to church this morning. (We keep her in her kennel in our office during church.) I couldn't wait to see her and plaster her with kisses. Her whole face had my pink lipstick all over it!

We had lunch with our dear church members & friends the Shehan's, and also the Stewarts. Great fellowship...it's always so short when you are with friends this special. (I love our people, have I mentioned that?)

This afternoon we spent some special father/son and mother/daughter time. Jordan and Larry played golf and then Savanna and I went to get our nails done. The shop was closing when we walked in. It was already five minutes past closing (I didn't know that or I wouldn't have gone but since I usually don't go on Sunday I wasn't aware.) Would you believe my nail people love me so much they said, "We'll stay for you" and they stayed for Savanna and I for TWO HOURS!!! I am not even kidding you. Seriously. They love me but I also love them tremendously because they often give me a great financial break which is a real plus since I probably wouldn't still be getting my nails done in this economy were it not for their generosity. We had fun together and both of us got the same color done -- GREEN! A light Easter-y green type color. Savanna has been into green everything lately and so we went with it. And mine has little pink designs and hers has little white whispy designs. (Yes, I know designs can be expensive but I never have to pay for them. Like I said, they give me tremendous blessings for being a loyal customer. Not that I owe anyone an explanation but I'm just sayin'... )

FINALLY NOW... on to my practical joke.......

Somebody really got one over on me today. We have a great new couple in our church...Mike & Juleen Stramiello. They have been with us about 3 months so far and are actually professional actors having done live theatre, movies, you name it they have done it. We were introduced to them quite some time ago however they have recently just come and made our church their home and given us the privilege of being their pastors. Well, they come with incredibly high accolades and I have heard much about Juleen's singing ability. I was excited to have her on our team. (I have already seen them act ~ as I've watched a movie they did. Looking forward to having them on the drama scene of our church too!) So, today I was auditioning Juleen after the service for a spot on our music team and also to do some special things for Easter. So, we go to the choir room and get set up and the sound track comes on and she begins to sing with all her heart and soul and quite seriously I might add...................

and it was AWFUL.

I mean it was one of the worst sounds I've ever heard.

Seriously. It was pathetic.

It was as bad as some of the worst American Idol auditions. And she kept going, so sincerely and it got more and more pitiful. I was trying to not show my shock while at the same time being so disappointed inside. I had such high hopes of her being a powerful addition to our team. Plus in the short time I've known her, I just adore this woman...she's amazingly sweet and helpful and has actually just helped me with a decorating project at my home. (Did I mention she's an interior designer too? What can't she do?) So I'm thinking, "how am I going to let her down easy? What nice way can I tell her, this is horrible?" I was going to do the Paula Abdul, "Okay, first of all, you look great!!!" (Because she really did! She always looks like a million bucks.) But I knew I would have to say something about her voice and I was dreading it. I mean, seriously this audition was HORRIFIC.

So suddenly she messes up the lyrics and fumbles around and then says, "Oh, I'm sorry, I need to start the track again, I forgot the words there and messed up..." (it got worse by the moment) And then...........

She restarted the track.

And she started to sing.

And it was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. She sang one line, looked at me with a huge smile and pointed and dramatically said, "Gotcha!" and continued on to sing the rest of the song with an absolutely stellar not to mention anointed performance!!! When it was over I said, "Oh my gosh, you had me! You had me!" And we laughed almost til' it hurt and then she said, "I wish you could have seen your eyes when I sang the first line. I know you were trying your best to mask it but Pastor Deanna, I could see the shock in your eyes and your angst over what in the world you were going to say when it was over... "

When we came out of the choir room her husband Mike (who is also a real jokester) and my husband and another couple who are their close friends (David & Gayle who brought them to the church in the first place) bursted out laughing at me that she got me with this joke. They all knew ahead of time that she was going to do it.

The joke was on me...and boy was it effective!