The weekend actually came.

We kept telling each other that no matter what, the weekend would come. Whether we finished on time, sold enough tickets, or flopped the weekend would come and we would be again free.

Time to back up a little. A few months ago, I was invited to join a “task force” or a board for my Symphony. I went to my first meeting, and they asked the question “where would you like to see the Symphony in three to five years?” Everyone started throwing out ideas on how we could grow, when I got this crazy idea. Before I even thought about it, I blurted out that we need a youth symphony. My director turned to me and asked if I would be willing to be in charge of such a group. Was I ever?!

With Halloween, the symphony decided to do a few fund-raisers to help pay for the scholarships we give our outgoing seniors and of course, my new symphony. We charged a cover price for our concert, we held a silent auction outside in the hall before the concert, and the best idea of all, we created a haunted house.

It was Sultry Husband’s idea, and I suggested it to the board. They loved the idea of a Haunted House, and we were more than happy to jump right in. We built things in our garage for over a month prior to the dates. We asked volunteers to come over on Saturday evenings to help out, a few would come, but it was mostly just SH and me.

As the dates of the Haunted House drew closer, we started to panic a bit because of our lack of help. SH mentioned this to his father, who jumped into his car and drove over 400 miles to help out. He stayed all week, and man did he ever help! I loved that he would do anything we asked. The best part was that I could send him home with my girls and I knew that they were in good hands, and being put to bed. SH and I had several nights when we were at the old barn past midnight, and one where we were there till 2 am, when I had to get up by 5:30 to teach. I don’t know if I have ever felt so run down and tired in my life. Add to all of that a sprained ankle (which is much better now, but still twinges if I step wrong), and you have a very difficult situation to say the least.

It was difficult to get our volunteers lined up to work in the Haunted House, but eventually we had enough bodies promised. Opening night came, and we finally put the finishing touches on everything about 10 minutes before we opened the doors. One prop broke just before, and we had to just do a semi fix for that night, but other than that- phew! Running the thing was just fun, I got to take the money and send in the groups. SH was the background man, there to make sure everything was in place and working. We had so much fun!

After taking out our original budget provided by the Symphony, we counted out the cash. I seriously felt like Scrooge with all the piles of money around me. We made around $1,500 for my youth symphony! I don’t know how far it will go once I start buying music and all that, but let me tell you I was jumping up and down in delight. We start up in January for sure now!

The best part of all though, was that the weekend actually came. We survived, and my life is now back to normal. Well, if you count the actual mountain of laundry waiting for me as normal anyway… I was too busy in the building and running of the Haunted House to take any pictures, but I will be staging it again just for my camera next week before we strike it all. I will share them as I take them 😉