Hurry up and wait

Well, I think I deserve beaucoup kudos, bells should ring, people should gasp and just generally be shocked by my accomplishment this morning. I showed up to the commercial shoot at 6:21 this morning with five kids whose hair had just been washed and brushed, dressed nicely (not to mention the 4 or so outfits each had in reserve, along with 2 pairs of shoes each), and myself nicely dressed (hair washed!) with 3 outfits in reserve matched with shoes and earrings! Folks, that's 9 minutes EARLY!!! The commercial shoot itself was a neat experience, and the kids got an up close look at the concept of hurry up and wait. As early as we showed up, they didn't start shooting 'til about 7:30, I think. The commercial is for University Physicians, I think, with a theme of "doctors are everywhere." After a tiny bit of makeup we did the first scene, which was a Dr. wearing a University Physicians coat and myself holding hands with Rachel and pretending we were walking into Rachel's ballet recital. This is the outfit Rachel wound up wearing:

We just walked about 15 feet about 15 times or so, with the cameras getting closeups of Rachel and the Dr. (I didn't see any of the footage, but I'm hoping the camera just "brushes" by me and is mostly on Rachel and her "daddy.") The rest of the morning was spent hanging around and being in the background of other scenes of "doctors in our community." Elizabeth and Caroline got to do closeups in another scene as well. Yea! The crew was VERY nice to us and the kids learned a lot about how movies and commercials are made. I can't wait for them to see the finished ad so they can see how music and voice-over ties the little scenes they filmed into a message! Meghan promised they would get me a copy of the ad, and it will go on here as soon as I get it. They only annoying thing about the day is that I took no pictures! A nice sidebar is that we did get paid - $50 each. Not that it's so much, but I thought I was just volunteering, so the $300 check was sweet. Funny story - Daniel kept flip-flopping yesterday about whether or not he thought he could stand in the background. When he saw the equipment truck and all the people around this morning he immediately blurted out, "I'm not going to be in the commercial, Mommy!" When I signed the release forms and realized we would be paid, I mentioned it to Daniel, whose immediate response was to say, "Ooooh, I'm SO in!" Who knew this was the best way to motivate him to push past his insecurity and fear of embarrassment? Sure, it's a great way to motivate adults, but he's 10! With the way he switched the minute money was mentioned, I'm wondering just how far money would motivate him. Should he be wearing a sign: "Will strip for cash!"? Or is this just an early manifestation of political potential? Sigh. It was cute how excited they all were about earning so much money!

We were done by 10:30, so I took the kids to back-yard burgers and let them play there (in the treehouse play area) for an hour and a half. Then we came home and did NOTHING useful for the rest of the day. As I type this, I can't stop yawning. Sorry if the rest of the post blathers on and on, I'm just too brain-dead to re-read and edit it! Looking forward to a great weekend - the kids are going to my parents for the weekend and Chris and I will stay here ALONE! Maybe it will help take my mind off the fact that Kimber and her family are leaving Mississippi tomorrow (or Saturday)....