Last day of the month

Another month is about to end.  May Day is tomorrow.  I read in my books how important May Day celebration was.  In Henry VIII's time, it was a wonderful celebration.  In ancient days it was a day to thank the gods.  They had bon fires and jumped over them.  It was a celebration for all people, no matter what their station in life.  Now, it is a day on the calendar.  Momma used to love the day when we were small because at school we used to have a maypole that we would dance around.  It was always a good time.  Momma sometimes made us a Maypole to dance around when we were very small.  I wish we had pictures of some of the things Mom made for us.  Mom was very creative.  Of course, after my father left she had to work 2 jobs and didn't have time for these small things.  I am glad I still remember some of this stuff, I just wish we had pictures but we don't.

Anyways, May means Spring Concert time!  I usually have the concert in April, but this year it is later than normal because of some of the students schedule.  So far, the students are doing pretty well and most are almost ready.  By the time the concert arrives, all of them should be ready.  I pretty sure about that.  Isaac is working on his "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter.  He is singing "Be Kind to Your Parents".  I think he will be ready.  Little Rachel had her lesson today too.  She is such a beautiful little girl.  We had some laughs at the lesson today.  She is such a great little student.  Rachel is playing "Chim Chim Cheree" from Mary Poppins.  I asked her if she was going to wear a pretty dress or a costume for the concert.  She looked at me and smiled but said no, she didn't have a Mary Poppins costume so she is wearing a pretty dress.  I had to smile when she said that.  Rachel is a tiny blond hair/blue eyed young lady.  I love her laugh, it is so cute.  Rachel just started her level C books.  Today was a new hand position for her.  I think she is doing wonderful.

Yesterday was such a good day.  I went to church, as usual.  It was a good sermon about anger.  I do have a lot of anger at times.  I am angry about some things that happened in the last few years.  I am trying to work through the anger, but it is so hard.  Letting go of anger is one of the hardest things for me to do.  I am angry at some members of my family that hasn't gone away yet.  It certainly isn't righteous anger like Jesus and God.  It is really the sin kind of anger.  I am working slowly through it.  I am certainly not as angry as I was, but the anger does come up every so often.  I am not angry all the time either, just sometimes.  It mostly is when I think about it when it shows up.  I would say at times I am even angry at being sick.  It is hard to be sick some days because the hope of getting better isn't on the horizon too often.  I also get angry at being sick because I have family members who can't handle or deal with the fact that I am sick.  It is more like, you sleep too much, you never feel well, comments like that.  I can't help being ill, but apparently, to some of my family, I should be able to just take something and be immediately "normal" again.  Yeah, Mom used to get mad at comments family would say.  It is kind of weird, but my friends understand my limitations better than my family does.

After church I took a nap before I went to a MMA meeting.  Oh my, what a crazy day.  The meeting was supposed to be a closing the fiscal year and so much more has happened.  I don't know.  I should have handled a situation differently, but I didn't and it has caused major drama.  I sure hope the drama is over because I don't like drama.  I did learn an important lesson though, always deal with the situation right away instead of not because it snowballs and it always snowballs apparently.  The meeting lasted 4 1/2 hours.  That was a super looooong meeting although it didn't seem like it was to long at the time.  I had dinner with the Hubel family and watched a couple of episodes of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.  We had hamburgers and salad.  It was so good too.

I am getting rather tired now.  I am going to read for a few minutes.  Tomorrow I have to get a blood test for my protime.

A Fun Evening with Friends at Barnes and Nobles 4-28

Once again, Kelly Lynn, Star, and I closed the Barnes and Noble.  Star's friend, Chalaine also was there.  What a great night!  I really had a good time chatting and drinking tea with them.  Star brought some homework with her.  She is taking an art class.  She drew quick portraits of the three of us since that is one of her assignments.  I think she is an awesome artist.  I really do!  Anyways, we all met about 6 after we all ate dinner at home.  I did make the mistake of running through the Burger King drive thru before I thought about what I was doing.  Not only did I get a diet coke, but a chicken sandwich (the fried type) and french fries.  Well, while I was at Barnes and Noble, I got a bit of a tummy upset, but now it isn't so bad.  I had a bagel at the store along with a tea and it calmed my stomach right down.  We talked about so many different topics, it is hard to believe that I am about 18 years older than them.  Star has always been an old soul and I think Kelly is the same.  I really liked Star's friend, Chalaine.  She is a really nice young lady who is going to beauty school.  Eventually, she would like to do hair and make up for the movies and theatre.

I am watching Game Plan.  I have seen this one before.  Actually, I have this one on DVD.  Mom and I went to see it when it was in the movie theatre!  We both laughed through the whole thing.  I like this movie a lot.  Speaking of movies, I am planning to take my girls (Muglias) next week to see "Mirror Mirror".  We all want to see it and it looks rather funny.  I am not interested in the other Snow White movie that is coming out, but this one looks good and I think the girls would like it too.  Then we will get something to eat afterwards.  I love spending time with them.  They are such neat girls and fun too.

Tomorrow is a MMA meeting.  It is the end of our fiscal year so Diane wanted to have a meeting to make sure everything is just so.  The general end of the year meeting is after the board meeting.  I think Kelly will be sending students to MMA's competition next year or at least I hope so.  She is teaching at home now.  She was at a studio but really wanted to teach at home instead, which I totally understand.  I do like teaching at home now.  When I was younger, I preferred to teach in the student's home or the store, but now I like teaching at home.  It is so much handier when you need music or CDs or both.  I have some music I need to get ready for next week after the meeting.  I have to burn a few CDs and copy some music for students.

I think I am going to read for a few before heading for bed.  I have to be up early for church tomorrow. I do so love singing in the choir.  I sit on a stool during the singing part of the service because I can't stand very long anymore.  I just can't.

A Sunny Friday, 4-27

Just think, only 3 days left of April.  It is hard to believe.  I think the weather for March switch places with April because we have been colder than usual and in March we were hotter than normal.  The weather in this state is just insane.  I am not sure what summer will bring, but this year the weather has been very unpredictable.  I just hope it isn't super hot.

I only had one student today since Calli and Acer are absent.  Emily is almost finished with her level 1B piano book.  She is doing pretty well.  Emily has a bit of trouble remembering her notes at times but we are working on them.  I figure in about a couple of weeks the lovely young lady will be in level 2.  Laith will be in level 2 in a matter of weeks too.  I have to go and pick up Rahul's book so I will get Laith's and Emily's at the same time.  I seem to going to the music store quite frequently for books for the students.  I don't mind since I would rather be sure that they pick up the right books that they need than get the ones they don't need.  It works much easier this way although once in a while the parents forget to pay me back.  It is annoying when that happens but since it is rare or once in a while, the getting the books is better for them.  Whatever (within reason, of course) the students need, I will get.

I have been re-reading a lot of old books these days.  I finished reading the Anne of Green Gables book about a week or so ago.  I simply love those books.  I am so thankful that mom introduced me to them.  Once I learned how to read (in 3rd grade), I started reading faster and faster so keeping me in new books was rather difficult for the lovely lady.  Mom would take me to the library once a week where I would come home with a pile of books.  I also read most of everything in the school library.  During the summer, Mom, Andrew, and I would ride our bikes to the library.  Mom had put a rack on my bike and I had a bag that went over the rack with two pockets, one on each side of the bike.  I miss riding bikes with mom.  I wouldn't dare get on a bike right now.  Oh my, with my poor balance, can you just imagine?  I shudder to think what would happen.  I am wayyyy to heavy to be riding a bike.

I am reading the Friarsgate series by Bertrice Small.  I like most of her books, some I don't, but mostly I do.  I like her Skye O'Malley Series and her Skye's Legacies books.  She also has a 2 book series of Blaze Wyndham.  Those are good too.  I also really like Catherine Coulter's books too.  Although my absolutely  favorite author is Lucy Maud Montgomery.  I love ALL her books but my favorites are the Anne of Green Gables books.  I love Anne.  She is such a great character.  The scrapes she gets into and how she gets out of them are so interesting.  I think the next favorite is "Blue Castle".  This one is about a young woman who gets told she only has a couple of months to live.  She gets married to a man she barely knows and ends up falling in love with him.  At the end of the book, she goes back to the doctor only to discover that there was another woman with the same name and she was the one who only had a couple of months to live.  It is a beautiful book.  All of L.M. Montgomery books are beautiful.

I am hoping to meet up with Star and Kelly Lynn tomorrow.  I am not sure since I haven't heard from the girls since yesterday and they both weren't sure at that point so I don't know.  It is alright if I don't, I just hope so.

I am so exhausted tonight.  I just came seem to stay totally awake right now.  I am trying to stay awake for another hour before I head to bed.  I just have to, otherwise I will be up around 2 and not be able to sleep until about 5.  If that happens, I will have a hard time being awake tomorrow too.

I have a bad headache now.  I am so sick of being sick.  I think I have said that before, but it is true.  Usually, it isn't a big deal and I can't get through the few hours I am up, but today just isn't that day.  Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Thursday, 4-16

I am not feeling so well tonight.  I didn't go to choir practice because I just don't feel too well.  I am dizzy and all over not feeling good.  My head is a bit more sore than usual, but not unbearable.  I am not sure what is up, but that is okay.  I will just go to bed early and hopefully get some sleep.

Breanna is ill today so she didn't have her lesson.  She got the cold that her nephews had.  Lucky girl.  Apparently, her mother has it too.  Poor kid, I sure hope she feels better soon.  Everyone else had their lessons though.  Benjy and Joiene have picked their songs.  They are playing songs from their books because they are still in the first book so they are not playing songs from movies.

I am hoping that next weekend I will be able to pick up my girls and take them to see "Mirror Mirror".  It looks good and I think they will all like it.  I just have to check and make sure it isn't PG13 or Sarah will not be able to go with us.  I just checked, it is rated PG so little Sarah can go too.

While I was commenting on a post for facebook today, I saw a name from the past.  It was kind of a shock to realize that this person was my friend until about 2004.  She, unfortunately, was the, I am your friend as long as you can do something for my daughter, type friend.  As a teacher, I come across people like that once in a while.  Fortunately, I don't have that bad experience very often.  Most of the people I have become friends with through teaching are true friends and are still friends to this day.  Julie and Ross are perfect examples of this.  I no longer teach any of their children (2 have grown up and Lily is too advanced in piano for me), but we are still good friends.  Sometimes, I am friends with the parents first before they take lessons, this was the case with Heather B-T and her children.  Heather and I were friends first and then I started teaching Calli and Acer.

I ordered a 2 part arrangement of "Double Trouble" along with the CD.  I don't know why I didn't think about this when I realized that the CD is missing.  I am upset with myself over the losing of this CD though but this will be just as cool.  At least the CDs are no longer $80 to $100 each.  They are down to $26 or so.

Laith will be moving into level 2 in a couple of weeks.  He is doing rather well when he doesn't guess his notes.  He plays smoothly when he reads his notes.  His Spring Concert song is coming along very nicely.  By the time the concert arrives, he will be more than ready.  I just hope that Benjy and Joiene will be just as ready.  Wama played all 3 of her pages instead of just playing the first page this week.  I was very pleased.  Deema is doing well with her song too.  I think all the students will be ready for the Spring Concert when it arrives.

I am going to read for a while.  Maggie finished the new book by Kristin Hannah, "Home Front".  She liked it too.  I knew she would.

Wednesday 4-25

It was a busy day today.  I had 3 make up lessons.  I don't mind, I would rather that they make up the lesson as oppose to cancel the lesson outright.

I am out of diet coke now here at home.  I am not planning to buy anymore since I am not supposed to have them anymore.  I am trying really hard to give up the diet coke totally.  I forget and that is the problem.  I don't mean to have any, and then I order before I think about not getting it.  I am trying really hard to give it up completely.  I have successfully not had any fried food this week so far.  I am working on eating healthy.  It is something I am going to be working on until I get it right.  I have bought some healthy food like fish and chicken when I shopped last.  I love fish, I just never think about cooking it.  I plan to cook some this week.  I have nice veggies to.  Some of the veggies come in individual packages and I am glad about that.  They cook up nicely and taste yummy.

Law and Order is on right now.  I don't remember this episode, but with episodes over 20 years, it is clear that I have missed many a episode especially in the last few season since I stopped watching them because the little lady would become afraid.

My student, David (24 or so years old) were working on the song, "Friend Like Me" from "Aladdin".  We talked about what we would do if we were given 3 wishes.  We both agreed that it was best not to wish for things.  I would want my mom back but I don't want her back the way she was because she was so ill.  I would want her in her prime, the way she is in Heaven.  We both agreed that sometimes we wish for things and they don't turn out the way we planned.  God is definitely a better guide than we humans are.  I guess that is why He is God and well, I am not.  I am working on giving God my fears and worries but it is hard to do.

My 3 lovely young girls had their lessons this evening.  The 2 youngest ones are just learning a new position today.  They are learning G position with several new notes.  Knowing these two, by next week they will know their new notes pretty well.  Brooke and Jillian are simply wonderful as well as their older sister, Aubrey.  Aubrey is writing her first extra points paragraph, although for her, a few sentences will do.  She is in first grade.  I asked her to pick a composer and write a few sentences about him or her.  She looked pretty excited about it.  I am glad she is excited about this.  I realized on Monday that I owe my Miss Rachel a $10 Toys R Us gift certificate.

I spoke to a former student tonight.  His name is Frank.  He lives in Georgia now.  I miss him.  He is still playing the piano and is also very into composing his own music.  He wanted to become facebook friends with me so I can see his videos and listen to his music.  Frank is a wonderful pianist, simply wonderful.  He also wanted to know if I remembered what he played in Chicago at competition in 2010.  I think I remember the book he was playing out of, but I am not exactly sure.  i hope to find it.  I know I will find the right one because it will be the only one in the book with the measures numbered.  I told him I would look for it.  It was so nice to speak with him again.  I miss him.  He was always a good student and I loved to hear him play.  He was fascinated by how Calli and Acer played piano since they are both blind.  He was having a bit of trouble at home and at school before he moved.  He even quit piano for a few months before they moved.  It was so sad, but it seems he loves it again and that the move was a good thing for the family.  It is hard to believe but he is a junior (10th grade) now.  Wow, how time flies.  I am glad to be facebook friends with him now.  The profile picture is of him playing the piano.

I am getting tired now.  I think I will read for a bit before heading for bed.  I hope I sleep decently tonight.  It wasn't too bad last night although I did wake up as usual a few times.  I find that if I end up on my back, I have to get up and stretch because my left hip and back hurt when I sleep on my back.  If I walk back and forth to the door then get back into bed, it feels much better.

Tuesday 4-24

Why do they always want to change things?  This new interface is not as nice as the old.  It is like facebook, you do NOT have to always change things.  For example, my favorite Chinese restaurant has NEVER changed the menu because what they have is awesome and the amount of people who frequent the restaurant proves it.  When Mom was here, she and I went at least once a week there for dinner.  We had our favorites, the diner up the street and the Chinese restaurant.  Wow, now I want Chinese for dinner and I am full.  I will plan for that tomorrow.  i love their almond chicken, shrimp fried rice, and their broccoli and shrimp dinners.  I am making my mouth water and I am not even hungry.  Anyways, this is just to illustrate an idea.

I had very few lessons today.  David is ill and Charlie has another event he must attend so he will have an hour lesson next week.  David will hopefully be healthy enough for lessons tomorrow.  Aaiyana rescheduled her lesson for tomorrow while Rahul has changed to Tuesdays now instead of Wednesdays.  This way he and his brother will be on the same day.  Bob had rescheduled his lesson today too since yesterday he was working and tomorrow he has to take the puppies to the vet so he was free today, so he came this afternoon.  Bob is doing very well.  He is playing, "Beyond the Sea" for the spring concert.  I haven't picked anything for Rahul or for Sam yet.  I will pick something next week that we will practice until the concert.  I am not sure how Rahul will sit during the concert, but I will find out.  We will talk about the concert every week until the concert.  Sam will do alright once he chooses his song.  I think he will be just fine.  Natalie and Hannah are working on the program covers.  Natalie, Hannah, Lydia, and Calli will all be announcing in the concert.  I will have the songs in a word document on a flash drive for Calli so she can read it on her notetaker.  Speaking of notetakers, I have to put 2 songs in a word document for my new Brianna on a flash drive for her before her lesson on Saturday.

Tonight is NCIS night.  I love those shows so I am always excited about Tuesday evenings.  I do think NCIS Los Angeles is a re-run but I am not sure if I have seen it before or not.  I will find out tonight though.  I haven't pulled the other computer out yet.  I am going to do this tomorrow afternoon before lessons.  I have to copy some stuff for Allison tomorrow now that I have ink for the scanner.  I ran out of ink last week when I was copying stuff for her.  It was rather annoying that I didn't have another one ready to go.  I usually do because this way i never run out of ink.

NCIS is a re-run but since I can't remember it too well, I don't mind.  The man who was supposed to cut my grass showed up today after Carolyn cut it for me.  I was not a happy camper with him as I already paid him.  I will be canceling him after he cuts it one time since I already paid him.  Carolyn wants to cut it this summer so I am happy to have her do it.  She is such a cutie.  Carolyn is not going to be in choir practice this week because she will be interviewing for a job on Mackinac Island for next summer.  She is so cute.  She was like, you will have to put up with me until then.  I commented back on how hard that would be and laughed.  She is an easy going 17 year old lovely young lady.  Carolyn is homeschooled and is so proud of herself because she finished her school work for the school year.  I am not sure if she knows what she wants to do with her life after high school, but knowing her, it will be interesting.  She comes from a very nice family who really watch out for me and other neighbors.  It is nice to live in such a nice neighborhood with good neighbors.

I called the stomach doctor's office today like I was supposed to.  Apparently, Dr. Tayeb was incorrect. It takes more than one week before the results of a biopsy and scope are in so I will call again next week.  So far, I haven't had too much trouble with the tummy with the new medicine.  I am not feeling too well tonight, but it should be okay by the time I go to bed.  I took some tummy medicine.  I am not sure what exactly I expect the doctor to say that I already heard, but one never knows.  It is more of a precaution to call and double check with them.

I love the chemistry between Ziva and Tony.  It is so fun.  The flirt with each other and it is so fun to watch.  I do hope at the very end of the series, as they did with JAG, that Tony and Ziva get married like Mac and Harm did.  It made the end of the series less painful (since it was ending) and fun.  It gave hope for the future between them.  I had originally wanted to see Tony and Kate get together, but unfortunately, Kate died in the line of duty protecting Gibbs.  Gibbs is by far my favorite character on the show with Abby a close second.  Abby is so interesting and fun.  The TV just said the "final 3 episodes begin next week."  What do they mean the final three?  They can't be taking my favorite show off the air!  They just can't.  Apparently, they are.  I am so sad now.  At least I hope that NCIS Los Angeles will last longer.  Oh my.  I may have to get seasons 7, 8, 9, 10 on DVD eventually to have the entire series on DVD.  I can, however, watch the re-runs on USA for now!  Thank goodness!  That would just break my heart.  Okay, I think it has not been cancelled from what some of the other websites say so I will just have to wait and see.  I love this show!  I think I have said that before.

I almost forgot!  My friend, Julie had her heart surgery today.  To think that several years ago, she would have had to have a full heart transplant to save her life, today, they just replace or fix the valve.  From what Ross says (her husband) she is doing very well.  She has to lie flat for 6 hours after the surgery so in about 15 minutes she will be able to move.  Julie is tired, but that is understandable.  She gets to leave the hospital tomorrow night.  Can you imagine?  Heart surgery today, home tomorrow?  The advances of modern medicine.  We have been told that she will feel better almost immediately so I am so hopeful about that.  I am so glad that she is doing well and coming home soon.

I do hope you are having a good day.  It hasn't been too bad for me.  I can't wait to speak to Julie this weekend.  I figured I would give her a few days to relax and be resting before I call.  I am so glad she is doing well.

Monday 4-23

Once again I forgot to call the hospital for physical therapy.  I keep forgetting to do this and have been forgetting for about 3 weeks.  At first it was the getting ready for the scope and now that is totally over so now I need to make sure I call to see how much physical therapy costs and what exactly is covered by Medicare and what isn't.  I do hope most of it is because otherwise, I will not be getting physical therapy as I can't afford to pay it myself.  I hope to remember to do this before lessons tomorrow.

My girls had their lessons today.  Natalie and Hannah have decided on their songs for the concert.  Both, of course, are songs from Harry Potter movies.  This was not a surprise since Natalie and Hannah just love everything about Harry Potter.  Lydia is also playing a Harry Potter song too.  She loves Harry Potter as much as her sisters.  Sarah will be playing a song from her lesson or solo book.  She is very happy with that.  Sarah is so cute.  She was having a bit of problem with one of her songs, but we fixed it and think she understands it now.  I did ask her Mom to add flashcards to her school work so she will do them everyday. The answers are on the back for the lovely young lady.  I am very pleased with how well all four are doing.

Isaac had his lesson today too.  We found out that the day of the concert is the day he will be coming home from a camping trip with the Boy Scouts.  Amy thinks it will work though so I am sure she will figure it out.  Isaac has been working on Hedwig's Theme for piano and Be Kind To Your Parents for vocal.  He is doing very well on Hedwig's Theme especially since that song is harder than where he is in piano.  He is just learning how to do skips in music and this song goes back and forth between treble and bass clef not to mention it is a new hand position which means new notes in the left hand.  He really plays the song well and will be ready for the concert next month.

Selma and I get along so well.  The problem?  We talk TOO MUCH!  I know, can you imagine?  Me?  Talk to much?  Wow, how is that possible.  Anyways, we chatted for a bit and then she played her assignment.  Selma wants to be an actress when she grows up.  She plans to see if she can get some work this summer.  I think she would be very good.  Selma has her headshots already and just needs to write her resume.  Selma is almost done with her first piano book.  She is in the Alfred complete level 1 book.

I am going to read for a bit now.  I hope your day was a good one.

A Fun Sunday 4-22

I went to church this morning and then came home to take a nap before I went to pick up my girls.  I picked up the girls, Sarah, Hannah, Natalie, and Lydia around noonish.  I think I got there about 12:05 or so.  I asked them what type of food they wanted and they picked Mexican so we headed to Chipotle's for lunch.  They were rather full.  As a matter of fact, we had to split up to eat for a bit.  Sarah and I were at one table and Hannah, Natalie, and Lydia at another until the people at the table next to them left so Sarah and I moved to the table right next to them.  After lunch we headed to Baskin Robbins.  I had a small ice cream, oh my, I am so full right now.  Sarah had an ice cream cone that we put in a cup after she ate 1/4 of it.  She was so full!  Lydia, Hannah, and Natalie finished theirs although I noticed that Lydia didn't finish all of hers.  I think she was super full too.  I don't suppose any of us will be having dinner!  I know I won't be.  I am still full!  Although, that isn't unusual for me because I often get super full a while after eating like today.  I ate the same amount I usually do except for the small ice cream.  Anyways, I am getting used to the extra full feeling even though I don't like it.  My stomach IS feeling better with the new added medicine.  However, I have not totally given up the caffeine free diet coke like I should.  Since my stomach is feeling better (except for the annoying extra full feeling) I don't think about it.  Like this morning, I meant to get a tea with my bagel and I forgot and order a pop.  At lunch, I meant to order plain water, nope, I got a pop.  Ugh, I sure hope to get this down pat rather soon.  At least here at home I drink decaffeinated pop but when I was out, it was caffeinated, which is not good.  Overall, it was a good afternoon.  I had to get gas this afternoon so after the ice cream, we went to the gas station before I took them home.  It was sad to take them home but I didn't make plans for us after we ate.  Next time I will.  Maybe we will see a movie or something but I have no idea what is even playing right now.  I do hope Star Wars is coming out soon again.  I know they re-released the first one, which isn't my favorite, but I do hope they do the others because we will definitely see those ones in the movie theatre as soon as they come out.  I think the girls need to see them in the movie theatre.  We will, however, have to forgo the 3D as it makes me ill.  I think all four girls will really enjoy them on the big screen.

I saw a commercial for the Titanic exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum.  I am hoping that one of my friends, Star will be interested in seeing it.  They are also showing a movie called, "Titanica".  They are showing the Titanic movie by James Cameron, but I am not interested in seeing the movie.  I saw it once but I don't want to see it again but the other movie sounds much more interesting.  They also have pieces of the ship of itself so that would be rather interesting.  The exhibit will be there until September 30 so that is good, we have plenty of time to go.  I would like to go to the exhibit and see the Titanica movie.  It is a docudrama and is sounds really good.  I think Star will want to go as she is very into the Titanic stuff.  We also want to see the exhibit that has the dresses of Princess Diana.  We are royal watchers, she and I.  I have some stuff that my mother had that I think she will like.  I have duplicates so I don't mind giving her Mom's.  I asked her if she was interested and she was.  She collects thimbles like Mom and I did.  I have many of the same as mom because it didn't occur to me that I should not purchase the exact same ones as she did since I never moved out.  I have a couple of small plates of the Queen Mother that I am going to give her also.  I have the same plates.  We got them in Prince Edward Island at Woodslee.  That was where the replicas of castles and other important places in Great Britain were on display.  They even had a miniature of Shakespeare's house where he was born.  There was a shop named after Charles Dickens's store from one of his books.

I have a regular week coming up.  I have the girls' lessons tomorrow.  They have lessons once a month.  Sarah said she was having a bit of trouble with her songs this time.  It is the first time she has played hands together.  Her sisters wanted to know why she didn't ask them for help.  She said it didn't occur to her.  Well, the lovely young lady now knows that she just needs to ask and her older sisters will gladly help her out.  I told her we would go over it again and not to worry about it.  Sarah seemed relieved.  Poor young lady, being all worried that I would be upset with her.  I am very pleased with her progress as well as the progress of her sisters.  I was worried that only having once a month lessons would be hard on Sarah as she is a beginner but she has adjusted well.  Natalie, Lydia, and Hannah are at the point where their music takes so long to put both hands together that a month is perfect for them.  I was worried about only having once a month lessons at first but after the first two, I quickly came to realize that it was actually better for them since their music is so hard and complicated now.  The one thing I am working on with the girls is keeping an even tempo.  Natalie, as well as the other two, fly through the passages they know well and slow down at the parts that are harder.  It is something that we will be working on for their spring concert songs.  Hannah and Natalie are going to draw the covers of the spring concert program.  I plan to have two sets of covers.  I think it will make it very interesting.  I used to only have the students draw the covers but then I started using clip art but I am back to using students' art again.  I love children's art.  At the store, we always had a contest and the top three program covers were always used.  This is the first time since I lost the store in August of 2008 that I have used children's art.  I love the cartoons and animation that they have come up with.  Hannah is going to draw Disney type characters to represent the Disney movie music that will be played and Natalie will draw the  Harry Potter characters to represent Harry Potter.  Overall, I think it will be good.

Army Wives is on right now.  I really like this show.  I have the first 4 seasons on DVD.  I didn't buy season 5 because I saw them all on TV.  I don't plan to purchase it in the future either since I have already seen them.  Season 6 is on now and I really like it.  Mom liked the first 2 season that she had seen.  I think being an Army family I can relate to some (not all) of what they go through.  Because at the time Mom was in the Army women were not deployed, that part I don't relate too but I can only imagine.  I do know that Mom would be deployed today if she were in her position back then.  I am thankful that she was never deployed when I was young.  It was a fear of mine.  I was so scared that Canada and United States would go to war against each other and we would be put in concentration camps like the Nazi's did.  Fortunately, Mom fixed that fear and explained how that would not happen so I was relieved although when she was away for training or camps I was afraid being far away from her.  Apparently, I cried for her a lot or so I have been told.  I vaguely remember being upset every time she went away.  Sometimes she would be gone for a very long, about 2 months at a time in the summer.  To a small child, 2 months is a lifetime away.  When it was just Mom, after Dad left, Mom would take us with her and we would camp at a nearby campground while she trained during the day.  That was usually a good thing and we enjoyed our time camping.  For such a girly girl that I am, I LOVED camping.  I have no idea why, I just really did.  I always had my dolls and barbies with me too so I had plenty to play with.  We would also swim during the day.  At night we would cook dinner by the campfire before heading off to bed.  I had my own special pillow for camping that Mom made.  It was in the shape of a Panda's head.  Even my barbies had their own camping supplies thanks to Mom.  She made sleeping bags and other camping necessities for them.  She was so creative that way.  Momma even made me a couple of backpacks so I could carry my "babies" easier.  One was for one baby and the other was to carry 2 babies at a time.  I was happy with the backpacks that I wore them out.  I still have my dolls in the attic but the backpacks are long gone.  By the time I put away my dolls, they were worn out and tossed away.  I supposed being used daily for many years wears things out.  I still smile at the memory of Mom showing me how to use my new backpacks.  I have so many memories about things like that.  I remember the first time I had to pick out school clothes from the store.  I had never had store bought school clothes.  You went to the store to buy tights, underwear, and undershirts, but you went to the fabric store to buy the material for the clothes that Mom would make.  I cried and cried and cried.  She was so confused as I had never done that before.  We got home and I was still crying.  She asked me why i was crying and I asked her is she still loved me.  She quickly assured me she did.  I thought because she wasn't making my school clothes that it meant she didn't love me anymore.  Mom explained that she had to work 2 jobs that she didn't have the time to make all my clothes like she did.  We went back to the store the next day and I picked out a few dresses.  Mom did tell me that she would be making my Christmas dress so that calmed me down.  She would still make the special dresses for holidays.  I was in 4th grade the first time I had store bought dresses.  Mom had made everything before that except play clothes.  I sure miss sewing with her.  I haven't been able to sew since she died.  Every time I try, I cry because sewing was our activity although i did sew plenty without her.  I would sew at night Christmas Ornaments and she would sit with me.  I am so glad she taught me how to sew, I am just not sure when I will be able to sew again.

It was a good day.  I hope yours is good too.

Saturday 4-21

NCIS is right now.  It is a re-run but as always, a good one.  I do love this show.  It is the one where the director, Jenny Shepherd was killed.

I took a brief (2 hour) nap this evening.  I am still rather tired but I have church tomorrow so I will go to bed early.  I am taking my girls (the muglias) for a while tomorrow afternoon when they are done with church.  I plan to pick them up about 12 noon which means I will have a short nap after church tomorrow.  It won't be a problem.  I do get teased a bit about my after church nap but I don't mind.  It is the truth after all.  I do usually take a nap after church pretty much every week.  On Thursday, it was announced we will not be taking the summer off from choir.  It works for me!  I love singing in church.

Tomorrow we are singing, "Your Grace Amazes Me".  It is such a great song and so true!  We are singing a few other songs with the congregation that I like to like "Holy, Holy, Holy".  The songs that our choir director picks are usually good ones.  My student, Katie will be joining choir after her mission to Haiti.  She is leaving in mid May for, I think, 2 weeks.  I am not sure exactly how long she will be gone for.  I am so excited that she is going.  She will learn so much while she is there.

Today, Breanna and Katie auditioned for a scholarship.  I have no idea how they have done as neither has let me know.  I don't know if they know who got the 2 scholarships or not.  Last year the decision was made really fast and the students knew that night.  Katie is a senior this year and Breanna is a junior.  Katie isn't sure where she is going to go to school next year or what her major will be.  She is mulling over a few choices and majors.  Breanna is planning to go into music but she isn't sure where.  I know she is planning to tryout for XFactor this summer and possibly American Idol.  Right now we are working on the spring concert song she is playing and singing.  She is going to perform, "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You".  The Elvis song from Lilo and Stitch.  Since the music must be from a movie, she picked that one.  My smallest students will not be playing songs from movies as the songs are still too hard for my tiniest ones but that is okay.  My six smallest are so adorable.  Of course, I happen to think that all  my students are simply adorable.  I love them all.  Today, I had a new student named Brianna.  She is 13 and is in 7th grade.  She is a friend of Calli's from her old school in the vision impaired classroom.  Now she goes to a different middle school.  Brianna brought her note taker with her.  I am going to have her download 3 songs next week into her note taker so she will have the words when we work on them next week.  She has a very nice voice and I think we will have a good time working together.  I think after another week she will know the layout of the hallway and the living room of my house much better.  Calli pretty much knows the layout of my entire house by now especially since she spent the night here a few days ago.  I was just glad to help my friends out.

I have decided that I don't really want any pets at this point.  I had thought about a dog recently, but I really don't want one now.  Maybe in the future, but right now I don't.  Heather B-T brought Maisy with her and she kind of frightened by small students so I don't think it is a good idea to have a dog since it may frighten some students.  I don't want a cat because I have students who are very, very allergic to them so basically, I just don't want a pet at this point.  I think that would be the safest idea for me.  Anytime I get the urge to get a pet, I will just buy a new beanie baby and that will solve the issue.

I bought the movie, "We bought a zoo" last week.  I have to watch it.  I may do that tomorrow afternoon.  I have several movies I need to watch that I have bought in the last 3 years.  Some of them I bought for Mom and I to watch but she became afraid of TV so I didn't put them on in case they frightened her.  I so miss her.  I think I miss her more now than when I first lost her.  I was in such a daze and the "this can't be real" feeling for about 9 to 10 months.  Now I know it is real and it is horrible.  It makes me wonder how people last years and years after their loved one passes away.  It just seems impossible that she is gone and not sitting next to me at the table watching NCIS.  We spent so much time together and did so much together.  I am used to being without Mom, but I can't say i like it any better than I did when she first died.  I simply don't like it.  I wish she were here with me.  I do look forward to seeing her again in Heaven some day.  That thought sustains me at my darkest moments and I do have them frequently.  I just miss her so much.

Well, I am going to read a bit before heading to bed.  I am looking forward to being with my lovely girls tomorrow.  They have no idea what I have in store for them!  I love surprising them.  They are like my nieces.  They think of me as an aunt and a piano teacher.  I just adore them to pieces.  They are such special girls.

I hope your day was good as well.

It's Friday! 4-20

I can't believe it is Friday again!  Wasn't it just Friday yesterday?  It sure seems that way that is for sure!  Anyways, it has been a decent day.  Painwise, my head is the normal pain and the fingers are rather sore as usual, but the rest of the pain is the normal pain, nothing is above the regular pain that I have everyday.

Calli and Natalie started working on Double Trouble even though I don't have the CD available right this minute.  I am hoping to find it on the other computer.  I am really hoping so.  I will check it tomorrow when I pull the computer out of the box.  Natalie brought it up for me.  I thought it was super heavy and she brings it up like it is nothing.  Wow, I am truly wimpy.  A 11 year old student can carry something that I can't.

Acer was so excited about his new yo-yo today.  It is so cute how excited he gets about yo-yos.  He was jumping up and down when he showed me the new one.  He is such a cute kid.  He is doing very well with his spring concert song, "Heigh Ho" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  He is playing that on the piano.  His vocal song is "Summertime".  My friend, Kelly Lynn has a friend that raised the song about a 3rd for me since the original was either too high or too low for him.  I am trying to teach him about placement right now.  So far, he is doing pretty well although I do have to remind him since it is new to him.  I think once he gets used to the new technique, it will be second nature to him.

Calli is doing very well.  She almost has Minuet in G by J. S. Bach down pat.  I foresee about one more week and then she will be rockin' out the song!  Her vocal piece, "Once Upon a Dream" is wonderful and she is doing awesome at it.  Calli works very hard all the time.  She wants to do a good job and really master the song whatever it is.  I love her work ethic.  Whether it is music or sports or school work, Calli wants to learn it and learn it well.  She doesn't ever do a half baked job, not that I have ever seen in the 3 years I have been lucky enough to know the young lady.  Her main goal right now is to be on the Paraolympic team in 2020 for Goalball.  She is very serious about Goalball.  It is a wonderful sport for the blind.  I hope to see her in the Paraolympics in 2020.

Emily is working on the song, "The Bare Necessities".  She learned the first page for this week and today we went over the entire 4 pages.  This is the longest song she has ever played.  I am so proud of all my students with how well they are doing.  I simply adore them all.  I think they all know that I think each of them is very special and they all are.

It has been a quiet week since the Bowman-Tomlinson family went home Tuesday night.  They didn't have power for a couple of days so they came here because I had power.  It was nice to have unexpected company.  I am glad that I have the extra room for them.

Tomorrow I have an hour lesson with Camille.  We will spend a lot of time on her spring concert song, "Reflection" from Mulan.  I am thankful for the extra time to work with the lovely young lady.  Camille is also a very serious young student.  I have a couple of make up lesson tomorrow from earlier in the week.  My 3 lovely young ladies will be having their lesson at noon.  Their mom had to have a CT scan on Wednesday and needed to change the lesson.  It wasn't a problem for me.  I try to be as flexible as much as possible.  I figure if I am flexible with them they will be flexible with me when I need to change times or days like I did this past Monday.  I will have another scope in a couple of months to check on the status of my ulcer.  I am hopeful it will heal by then or be healing at that point.

Outside of church on Sunday, I don't have plans at this time.  I am hoping that I will be able to take my girls out for my birthday after church.  Perhaps my girls (the Muglias) will be available to hang out for a while.  I face booked them to see if they are available.  Last week Lydia was confirmed in her church along with her brother Peter.  I saw the pictures and she looked very pretty.  It reminded me when I was confirmed.  Kathy and I were confirmed in the 6th grade although the church we grew up in now has confirmation in 8th grade.  We spent the school year learning about our faith as well as faiths of others.  i remember going to other churches to learn the difference between them and what we believe.  I really think that was a good idea because then we were learning so much more than just what our church believes.  Other than that, I don't remember too much about it.  I do remember I felt so grown up after confirmation.  I really wanted to participate in confirmation.  When our church sent Mom info about the class, I was very excited about it.  The biggest problem would be paying for the retreats.  At that time we were very poor and struggling to meet the bills.  Fortunately, our church had a fund to help students like me.  They also covered my brother's fees when he was confirmed the next year.  Mom was excited for us to be confirmed too just like Lydia and Peter's parents were excited for them.

I don't have any random thoughts today.  Hmm, I wonder why.  Oh well, it is Friday!  That means the weekend is here.  My schedule is a bit backward than most.  I can sleep in during the week but Saturday and Sunday I have to be up earlier.  Saturday isn't too bad because I usually teach at about 1 but Sunday is a whole different story.  I have to be up by 6:45 in order to be in church on time for practice before the service.  I do hope you are having a good day too.

Midweek 4-18

Today is Karlyn's birthday!  Happy birthday Karlyn!  I went to school with her.  I remember when she turned 18.  The days before her birthday she went on and on about how she didn't want he locker decorated.  I was her locker partner.  Peggy, another friend, and I did not decorate our locker before first hour.  When Karlyn came to school and she saw how the locker was plain with no balloons or anything, she was so upset.  What she didn't know is that Peggy and I planned to decorate during first hour so she would see it second hour.  When she came to the locker between classes after first hour.  Karlyn was very happy about that.  We knew she really wanted her locker decorated so we planned to pretend to do what she was saying she wanted.  We knew better.  I wish I have pictures of the locker and us at that age.

I had to call the tummy doctor today to clarify about the new medicine.  I wasn't sure if I was to still take Xantac because I was taking Prilosec in the morning.  That is to help heal the ulcer.  I have to take both medicines, one in the morning, one in the evening.  I will have another scope in a couple of months to see how it is healing.  Since I have never had one before, this is all new to me.  I should find out the results of the biopsy next week.  I do like my tummy doctor.  I often see the physician assistant, whom I like too.  She is very thorough and works closely with the doctor.  I met the doctor when I was in the hospital in 2008.

Breanna and Katie practice with the pianist this afternoon.  Both girls are auditioning for a scholarship on Saturday.  I feel that both are ready.  I hope that they both do very well.  There are two prizes for the scholarship.  The top score gets a $500 and the second place gets $250.  I will know if either of them get a scholarship by Saturday night.  The lady who is playing for them is so nice.  She is in charge of the scholarship.  She played for Rachel and Katie last year.  Rachel won last year.  I stayed in the dining room while Bea practiced with them.  I didn't want to interfere.   Both girls know their songs so that is a good thing.

Antoinette had her lesson tonight.  We are working on her spring concert song.  Well, I didn't realize it was 6 pages long!  I shortened it.  She is playing a song from Tarzan, "You'll Be in Heart".  That is her only piece to practice this week.  Antoinette had a little trouble getting used to the hand position but after playing it a few times, she did really well so I think by the 20th she will be good and ready.  Isaac had his lesson today too.  He and Antoinette graciously changed days for me because of the scope.  I was copying some this for Allison this evening when I ran out of ink!  I knew I should have bought the double package but I didn't.  I will this time.  I used to do that all the time.  Then, when one would empty, I would have one ready to go.  I am going back to that method.  This running out in the middle of copying something needed that day is for the birds.  I do not want this to happen again.

Tomorrow is choir night.  I have Deema and Wama's music ready, thankfully.  I copied those on Tuesday along with Aaiyana's new song.  Aaiyana is quitting.  Next week is her last week.  I am sorry to see her quit but I totally understand about how much it costs to have lessons.  Benjy and Joiene will have their lessons tomorrow too.  They are beginners in the first book so they will not be playing a song from a movie because the songs are too hard.  They haven't learned how to play notes that skip, for example: playing CECE instead of CDCD.  CDCD is step notes while CECE are skipping notes.  They will learn that in the next book.  Despite not practicing they are doing alright.  We do one page a week because they don't practice.  They really can't do much more than that.  We do the note speller and theory books during the lesson so I know it gets done and done properly.  So far, Benjy is still learning his notes and has a few down pat.  I am hoping he knows the rest that he needs to know soon.

I have finished reading the Anne of Green Gables books again.  I simply love those books.  The first and the last are my favorites although I really like them all.  The last book is actually about Anne's daughter, Rilla and her life during World War I.  I can't even imagine what life was like during that time.  Lucy Maud Montgomery died during World War II.  She was so depressed that the world was at war with each other again.  She didn't even write in her journal that she had been writing in since she was a child. I have one volume of her journals.  I also have the book she wrote, "Alpine Climb".  Momma bought them for me for Christmas the year we went to Prince Edward Island.  I had run out of money when we got to Anne's land as they call that area of Prince Edward Island.  I had such a good vacation when we were there.  One of the places we went to was called Woodslee.  This place had miniatures of castles, some we super small and others were 1/10th of the size.  There was even a miniature of the Tower of London.  It was a great vacation.  I have a picture of Mom standing in front of a miniature, but it wouldn't post.

I do hope your day was good!

It is so Quiet 4-17

It is so quiet in the house now.  Yesterday, Heather B-T called to see if they could come for a few days while there power was out.  As I have plenty of room, I said "yes, no problem"!  So around 7:30 pm or so, the clan arrived to spend the next couple of days.  They went home earlier than expected because they now have power.  I enjoyed the company last night and today.  I am so glad that I was able to have enough room for them.  For some reason, their entire area of town was out of power.  They were expecting to have no power for another day but surprise!  Power is on so off to home they went.  Acer is so tired tonight.  Calli went to her house right after school where her grandmother was waiting for her.  Heather B-T and Acer waited for Bill to come and pack up the rest of their things.

I had my tummy scope yesterday at about 9:30 am.  I know have an ulcer.  Ugh, how on earth did I get that one?  He took some tissue at that time too to see if bacteria caused the ulcer, otherwise, I have no idea how I got it.  At least this does explain why the tummy has been giving me major issues.  I will have another one in 2 months to see if it is healing.  the pictures look gross to me.  I can see the hole in my stomach though in one of them.  Heather B-T was gracious enough to rearrange her schedule with the taking of children to school to be my driver and stay with me the whole time then drive me home.  I pretty much slept the entire day away.  I even went to bed early last night.  I was just so tired.  I got up at the usual noon today.

Tomorrow Breanna and Katie are meeting with their accompanist for their scholarship auditions on Saturday.  It was strange to have no lessons on a Monday since I usually teach a few lessons on Mondays.

I finished up Deema's song for the spring concert today.  I have not, however, finished or even started the Double Trouble.  I am almost positive that is on the other computer.  I plan to pull the computer out of the box and check it before I redo the Double Trouble.

I opened up the Dining Room curtains the other day.  There are two, yes two, holes in the screens so I can't open the windows until I get them fixed.  I plan to take them to the hardware in the next month to fix them.

My sink in the main bathroom has some rust spots.  It has caused a couple of leaks so far.  I got a kit to fix some of it.  I also have some paint to cover up the fix.  I sure hope it works because I cannot afford a new sink.  I just can't at this time.  I do think this should be a good thing at this time.  It has worked for us in the past so I am hopeful it will be a good fix again.

Tonight was NCIS night.  Bill pointed out that the woman who plays Hetty looks like Edna from the Incredibles.  I wonder if it is the same woman.  I will check it out.  No it is not.  As a matter of fact, the character is voiced by a man.  Definitely not Linda Hunt.  I love NCIS Los Angeles.   It is such a good show too.  Right now Law and Order SVU is on.

I have wanted to see the new show "Missing" but it apparently it is on Thursdays at 8pm while I am at church.  I will have to watch it online then.  I love Ashley Judd and bonus, Sean Bean is in a few episodes too as her husband!  What could be better?

Randomness for the day: Dr. Oz is finally talking about Fibromyalgia as a real illness.  It is about time!  He says that blood doesn't get to all the parts of the brain.  He talked about it on his talk show in 2 parts.  It was surprising because I thought before (from what I read) he didn't believe in it.  Anyways, this should help let people know about it.  I was rather happy about this.

I hope your day went well.  My tummy is rather quiet tonight (I pray it stays that way) and my head is a bit sorer than usual, but not enough to cause lots of problems so far tonight.

Sunday, 4-15

I had a surprise lesson this afternoon.  I knew that Rick would be back in town briefly and that he may have a lesson, I just didn't know it was today but that is okay because I was home with no plans to go anywhere.  Rick had his lesson and the next one will not be until about end of May after the Spring Concert so it was a nice surprise to see him this afternoon.

I have not been too productive today.  I was so tired that I slept in.  I just couldn't wake up to go to church today.  I didn't even hear the alarm, but I must have turned it off.  I don't remember turning it off, but I must have or it would have still been going off when I finally did wake up.  It is a rather loud alarm too and in order to turn it off I have to get out of bed to go across the room.  I just don't remember it.  I am pretty sure I set the alarm when I went to bed.  However, I can't guarantee that I did.  Either way, I did NOT get up to go to church.  I am rather dizzy today from not having some of my medicine.  I can't wait until tomorrow when I can get my arthritis stuff again.  It wasn't so bad the first couple of days, but the arthritis hurts today.  Overall, it was much better than I anticipated.  My shoulder is pretty sore today.

I am watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith.  I have seen this before and I have it on DVD.  My younger brother loves this movie.  I find it amusing.  It is a good, entertaining movie and a good way to spend the evening while I finally start of the music for the Spring concert.  I have to arrange Deema's song and make an accompaniment for the Double Trouble Trio.  It is getting a bit late.  I have got to do this and I have been procrastinating!  I did say that for this year I would work on my procrastination and I am not doing too well on this one right now.  Some days I am better on it than I am right now.  I guess I shouldn't expect to fix this flaw all in a couple of months that would be why I planned a year to work on this.  I wish I were more like my mother.  She almost always did what she needed to at the time and didn't put things off like I do.

Well, I am going to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith and work on music now.  I hope you are having a nice evening.  It is raining lightly here.

A lovely evening 4-14

What a lovely evening.  I had intended that we would play games but we sat and chatted for several hours instead.  My friend from college, Mani (or Monty as he is also known as) was over for the evening.  It was so nice to see him in person again.  It has been about 8 to 10 years since I have actually seen him in person so I was very excited to see him again.  We are planning to get together again soon.  I don't want to wait 8 to 10 years to see him.  I also haven't seen our friend, Julie from college in about that long too.  I often wonder how she is doing also.  She lives in Indianapolis now.  Since her parents have moved down there, she rarely comes to town.

Today was a good day despite not having the medication.  I was a bit dizzy this afternoon for a while, but now I am not.  I am going to wait and see how I feel in the morning to see if I am able to go to church.  I won't know until tomorrow morning.

Ocean's 13 is on TV right now.  I am not sure if I own this one or not, but it is a good movie.  I enjoyed all the Ocean movies.  I have seen all 3.  They are just fun movies.

Other than church, I don't have any plans tomorrow.  I did purchase the movie "We bought a zoo" and I hope to watch it tomorrow afternoon.  I also need to work on the Double Trouble song for finale.  I should do that tomorrow.  I have to copy some copies of "Supercalifragilistic...".  I guess I do have plans for tomorrow.  I have things that I need to do.  I also need to work on the subdivision newsletter now that we have activities coming up.  I really do like meeting with neighbors once a month to visit and talk about what is going on with the subdivision.  Right now we are working on the annual meeting and the neighborhood summer party.  It will be a huge thing this year.  I am looking forward to it since I don't really know a lot of my neighbors now.  So I guess I should change that first sentence in this paragraph, I have several plans in addition to church tomorrow.  I will be very busy tomorrow.

I finished reading all my Anne of Green Gables books again.  I can't remember how many times I have read them.  I simply adore them.  I am now reading a book by Bertrice Small that I can't remember reading so I have no idea if I have read it or not.  Either way, so far it is a good book.  I have several new  to me books to read after this one.  When I am done with the new to me books, I think I will re-read all the Harry Potter books.  I simply love them too.  I am thinking of getting books 6 & 7 in paperback though because they are so heavy and sometimes they make my hands ache.  I am not sure though because they cost money.  I will have to wait and see.  I am going to read for a while and then head for bed.  Tomorrow morning will come very fast!  I must say though, I love singing in the choir.  It is a lot of fun.  I enjoy the songs we are singing.

Friday, 4-13

It is Friday the 13th.  I guess it is supposed to be a bad luck day?  I am not sure since I am not superstitious.  I don't really believe in bad or good luck.  Anyways, it is almost over at this point.

I don't have any lessons tomorrow or Sunday.  Since I have been off ALL pain pills (except Tylenol) and arthritis pain pills for 5 days now, my head is not doing too well tonight.  I am now off the coumiden and the reglan for two more days.  I have put that I will not be in church on Sunday to sing because I anticipate being very dizzy and in a lot more pain at that point.  I may be wrong, but I haven't been dizzy until today, which is surprising, a nice surprise though so I am not complaining about that.  The pain hasn't been super bad either, which makes me wonder if I really need everything I take at this point.  I shall see how I am by the time I get the lovely scope on Monday.  Heather B-T will be taking me to the appointment.  I am so thankful for such good friends.  Heather B-T is rearranging the family in order to take me at the appointed time.  I just want it over and hopefully I will have new some answers.  At least the tummy isn't hurting right now like it did the other day.

I am pretty tired tonight and I just realized that I didn't take my nighttime Tylenol yet.  Hmm, not a smart move because I will be heading for bed soon.  Well, off to take the medicine (since that is about the only stuff I am allowed to take!) and then read for a bit before heading to bed.

Thursday, April 12

It is almost mid April.  Can you imagine?  In Michigan, that means anything as far as the weather is concerned.  For example, last week it was in the 70s and sunshine, beautiful weather, Tuesday?  It was snowing and in the 30s.  We have had frost warnings the last few nights.  Now, I don't have any plants that need to be covered up, but many I know do.

It has been an okay day today.  I had a few lessons and choir practice.  I am not sure if I am going to sing with choir on Sunday because I will have at that point, have had no pain medicine but Tylenol for one week and I don't know how that is going to be.  Tomorrow my tummy medicine and my blood thinner medicine must stop too.  I am nervous about that tummy medicine stopping.  i am not sure what will happen and how many tummy symptoms will return.  After being ill last weekend, I am nervous about this coming weekend.  I am praying it won't be too bad.  That is the best I can do.

I don't have to teach this Saturday, which is unusual.  I usually have 1 lesson to teach but not this week.  I will miss Camille but she is unavailable for lessons this week.  She is such a wonderful student.  I do have Emily and Natalie tomorrow along with my Calli and Acer.  Saturday night I am having a couple of friends coming over to play games.  It should be rather fun, I think.  My friend, Mani is coming.  I don't know if he is bringing a friend with him or not but I haven't seen him in about 10 years.  We reconnected on face book.  I had often wondered about him over the years but I lost his address and his phone number.  I am not sure if Star is coming.  I hope so.  I will need to pick her up though since she doesn't drive yet, but I certainly don't mind at all or I wouldn't have invited her.  She wasn't feeling too well today but I am hoping Saturday will be better for her.  Kelly Lynn is not available because she is helping her older sister move this weekend so maybe next time.  I am anxious to see Mani and find out how he is doing.  I went to college with him so I have known him since fall of 1988.  Wow, that is about 23 1/2 years at this point.  The first day i met him was in Marching Band practice.  He said he was 26 and his name was Scott.  I had just met Julie and we so believed him.  Well, we soon found out he was just teasing.  He was really about a year or two older than me (I was 20 at the time) and his name was actually Manvydas, otherwise known as Mani.  Now he goes by Monty, but I have trouble remembering that.  I don't know if he minds being called Mani or wants to be called Monty.  It is really hard to say.  I just can't wait to see him until Saturday.

I need to change the table cloth this weekend too.  I have a beautiful spring table cloth.  I like the Easter one, but since Easter was Sunday, well, it is time to change it.  I got the spring table cloth when I bought the Easter one.  I got them from JoAnn's near my house.  I like that store.  Mom and I used to call it the dangerous store.  Another dangerous store is the bookstore.  Yup, both were dangerous for us to go in because we always spent way more money than we should whenever we were in one.  Mom was just as bad as me in either store.  When we were in the bookstore, she would find books that I might like.  She would be like, what about this one?  Same with the piano music store.  I sure miss shopping with Mom.  Well, I miss everything about Mom, truth be told.  I just miss her a lot.  I haven't gone to the JoAnn's store too much because I am not into sewing at this point.  I love to sew, but right now I am working on other projects.  I do have the material I will be using for next Christmas presents for my students.  I just couldn't sew this year.  Because I sewed with Mom a lot, I am having a lot of trouble sewing again.  It is just really hard to sew and not think too much of Mom.  Anyways, I should be okay by this coming Christmas.

Tomorrow I am getting up early because Mariela is coming to vacuum and clean the kitchen and bathrooms.  I am going to read some more and then go to bed.  I hope tomorrow is good for you.

Wednesday 4-11

I am such a silly.  I totally forgot to write down that my 5:30 and 6:00 (3 girls) will be absent today so naturally, I got worried and called.  Fortunately, her mother just giggled a bit about it.  I apologized for interrupting her day since she DID tell me that she was going to be absent.  If I don't write it down, then it doesn't happen, that is just the bottom line and well, I didn't write it down.  I also forgot to copy the music that my lovely Allison needed.  I didn't write that down either.  With brain fog, I must write everything down or I will never remember.  Of course, sometimes I must be prompted to write it down so I remember. Fortunately, I have very understanding students and they do giggle when I forget to go and write stuff down.  I kept a sticky note pad by the piano so I have it to take notes in.

I went down to the secretary of state this morning to renew my license and my tabs.  Ooh, not to self, put new sticker on tomorrow morning before driving!  Anyways, naturally, I missed the deadline as usual, so I had to pay 2 late fees, one for the tabs and the other for the drivers license.  What can I say?  It is done now!  I didn't even have to wait that long.  I think it was about 15 minutes, which for our secretary of state is really unheard of.  It is completely unheard of when you are renewing your license.  The picture will be awful as usual, but as I am not really a photogenic person, I don't particularly care about the picture.

I have cleared my schedule for Monday's scope and recovery.  All students have been accounted for and only one has cancelled for the week so that is a plus!  I am so happy about that.

More randomness:   Apparently yesterday a female sportscaster was covering the Detroit Tigers game when it started to snow.  My friend, Kathy was watching or listening, one of the two, and she said something to the effect of here is something you don't see everyday, snow during the Tigers game.  My friend had to laugh and post this to face book, I had to laugh too.  She must not be from Michigan, many a baseball game has been played with it snowing in April in Michigan.  You can't be totally clear of the possibility of snow until May down here.  I am not sure about up north or in the Upper Peninsula.  I thought it was super funny.

Another fact:   one of my favorite actors, Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, National Treasure, Percy Jackson, Troy, to name a few movies he has been in) dies in a lot of his movies.  I never really noticed until it was pointed out on the Internet.  Anyways, he is in the TV series, Missing, and I guess the beginning episode his car blew up and it was thought he was in it.  Since I have missed this, (I know, horrors!) I think the interviews have all said his character was not in the car when it blew up.  I was meaning to see this since it sounded very interesting, but I have no idea when it is on.  I will be checking it out this week so I hopefully will be able to watch the episodes I have missed online and catch up.  I also really like Ashley Judd and she is the main character. I will let you know if indeed, the character Sean Bean plays actually dies in this show like he did in Game of Thrones (not that I watched that, I found that out from my friend who does watch the show.  I don't have HBO).

Well, that is all the randomness I can think of tonight.  Nothing to interesting in the news today except we are expecting more cold weather for the rest of the week until Sunday which is supposed to be in the 70s.  Welcome to Michigan!

Tuesday, 4-10

Easter was a good day.  I spent the first part of the day till afternoon with Kathy and her family and then went to Julie's for the evening.  It was a wonderful day.  I really had a good time.  I enjoyed the day with Kathy and her children.  I remembered to bring the candy for the kids but I forgot the gift certificates for the boys and the stuffed bunnies for the girls.  Yup, talk about brain fog!  A definite brain fog moment.  I will be sending them to the kids this week.  At least I remembered something, I suppose, but I tried so hard to remember everything.

Good Friday night ended up being a horrible night.  At first I was upset that Natalie missed her lesson but then about 15 minutes into what would have been her lesson, it was a good thing she was absent because I was ill right in the middle of it and for the rest of the night.  It was so upsetting!  I was so exhausted and my chest was so sore the next day from it.  I think I literally slept the entire day and night of Saturday.  I was up maybe an hour or so twice all day long.  I did have to run to the store because I was out of the basics like bread, milk, jello, you know, the tummy friendly food.  Anyways, I was feeling much better by the end of the day but completely exhausted.  I wasn't sure if I would be up for singing in church early in the morning and the Easter activities, but I was fine.  I was one very tired girl when I got home, but that is nothing unusual.

I will be getting the tummy scoped on Monday.  It isn't too much of a problem as I will be sound asleep while it happens.  It is this week before the scope that will be difficult for me because I must stop all pain medicines except for Tylenol, and all arthritis medicine 7 days before which means it is day number 2 without any tramadol.  I also must stop all tummy medicine and blood thinner medicine 3 days before the procedure.  I am not looking forward to this week at all.  I am just not.  So far it hasn't been super bad but Tylenol doesn't do too much.  It does help some, but not too much, enough so far and that is important.

Tonight I went to the homeowner's association meeting.  We are planning a block party this summer.  Boy, it will be huge.  I have contacted 2 of my friends to see if one is available for face painting and balloon animals and the other for her sons' band.  It should be rather fun.  I have never attended our subdivision party so this will be a first for me too and I have lived here my whole life!  Usually, we were out of town when they would have it or I was working or teaching or who knows what else!  I am looking forward to it.  I don't really know a lot of my neighbors as I keep close to myself a lot unless I am teaching.  One of my neighbors would like me to teach her daughter piano, so she is going to call me.  I am looking forward to that.  That will be rather fun, a new student.  I have room for a few more but not too many.  I am almost full up to the rim for lessons.  I am thankful for the students I have.  Not only does it help to pay the bills (you know the never ending bills!) but for something to do.  I really like teaching and I feel I was born to teach.  I did like performing and at times I miss it, but generally, I think I was born to teach.

A note of randomness from the news today.  Did you know that tax day has the most crashes than any other day of the year?  I didn't know either.  Just some random fact that they mentioned on the news.

Tomorrow I have to get up a bit early because I have some errands that must be done before teaching.  I dread getting up early, but it is a necessity or I wouldn't be getting up early to go that is for sure!  I am not a morning person!  I never have been, never will be (at least at this point in my life!)  More randomness, when I was small, my mother used to have to get me up about 15 minutes than the boys.  I would come down the stairs and sit on the bottom stair in a daze until my brain realized I was actually up.  Too this day, I still sometimes have to do that.  It generally takes a few minutes for me to realize I am actually awake.  It is kind of funny now when I do that.

Well, time to read for a few minutes before heading up the stairs to my lovely, wonderful, cloud like, super soft, warm bed.  I hope you have a good night too!

Good Friday 4-6

It is so hard to imagine what this means to me and other people at times.  How do you explain feelings of total awe that someone loves you so much that not only did He die for you, He went through pure torture for you, without a thought of Himself?  I marvel at that.  I would like to think that I would die for someone I love instead of them but how do I really really know unless I am confronted with that situation?  Anyways, the miracle of Easter is very awe inspiring to me.

Sunday is my birthday.  I will be 44.  Oh my.  I remember when I was younger (in my teens), I thought 44 was sooooo old.  Now, I don't think it is old at all.  My body feels old, but my spirit feels young.  I met up with some wonderful students and their parents for ice cream at the local Baskin Robbins.  Oh my, what a joyous occasion it was!  Several were able to attend so I was very pleased.  Even my neighbors, the Hubels were able to attend.  I had such a good time.  Aggie was there and she was very excited to see Acer and Calli as well as meet some of the newer students and their siblings.  Camille, Wama, Deema, Lulu, Mina, Ella, Acer, Calli, Antoinette, and her nephew were there as well as Carolyn, Peter, Sean, Rachael, and Melissa Hubel.  I had such a good time.  It looked like they all had fun too.  Surprisingly, I got some really nice presents!  I was not expecting presents!  I got a new salt and pepper shaker, a stuffed bunny that is just adorable, some beautiful flowers, wonderful cards from the students, and a beautiful snowman mug.  I really liked what I got.  It as such a surprise.  I also got a beautiful basket filled with a garden type stick that has a stone that says inspire as well as a chocolate bunny and chocolate eggs.  Yum on the chocolate!  Overall, it was a lovely day shared with lovely people.  I had a very good time.

Calli and Acer had their lessons this evening.  Both are doing very well.  Calli was finishing up putting both hands of Minuet in G by J. S. Bach.  She is playing that for the spring concert.  Calli is going to sing "Once Upon a Dream" while Acer will be singing "Summertime" and playing "Heigh Ho".  Acer and I finished "Heigh Ho" today at the lesson.  My friend, Kelly Lynn's friend, is going to see about changing the key of Summertime for Acer and I.  I hope it sounds okay and does well.  I should be getting it back after Monday.

On Wednesday, Kelly Lynn, Star, and I went out after I finished teaching.  We went to Barnes and Nobles and were there until it closed then we went to Ram's Horn.  We stayed until 1:30 am.  Oh my, it was so much fun.  I was so exhausted the next day though!  I had to get up early for an appointment with the tummy doctor.  I have to get a tummy scope again.  Ugh, although since I have been having major issues with the tummy again, I guess I have no choice.

My tummy is getting super upset so I am heading to lie down.  I just don't feel so good right now.

Okay, I guess the doctor is right in getting me a tummy scope.  For some time now, I have had upset stomachs for no reason.  Usually, I can talk myself out of it and calm my tummy down, well, apparently, not tonight.  Thank goodness for the empty box right near me.  I get so upset when I get an upset tummy for no reason.  My stomach is fine now, naturally.  I don't get it.  Why is this happening?  I don't understand.  I also have been getting super full about 1/2 hour or so after I have eaten.  I don't have to eat much or even a lot, it just happens.  It is very frustrating.  I suppose I will have some answers in a couple of weeks when I go for the scope.  I hate these scopes though.  I think one time I got sick in the middle of it.  Since I was asleep, I never noticed, thankfully!  Well, on the 16th at 9:15 am, I will have the scope and hopefully some answers.  I am just tired of this happening.  I think I really am going to lie down for a while.  It isn't anywhere near when I go to bed usually, but this has been a rough night now.  As soon as the washer is finished with my clothes, I am heading to bed.  Good night everyone!

5 days until the birthday!

5 days and I will be 44.  When I was young, I thought 44 was soooooo old and yet it isn't!  I feel older than 44 at times.  Sometimes, I feel that I am almost 90 and other times, like I was 10 or so.  My spirit feels very young, but my body is very old.  I think most of us who have Fibro, feel very old in the bones or at least the ones I know do.  Sometimes, when I am resting, my dreams take me to such wonderful places.  Places I have been or seen on TV or in a book or in a magazine.  I dream of doing things that I know I cannot.  One is walking the great Chinese Wall.  Yeah, that would most likely never happen since the stairs to get there would totally wear me out before I got very far.  I also dream of doing things like skydiving (although the thought of jumping out of a perfectly good plane scares me when I am not dreaming), scuba diving, running a marathon, traveling the world by backpacking.  Sometimes, I get inspired to do something and then reality hits and I realize that I can't physically do that.  I don't usually mind my limitations, but some days it does bother me.  Last night was one of them.  I want to have "adventure in the great wide somewhere" (like Belle sings in the Beauty and the Beast movie and play), "I want it more than I can tell". Today though, it doesn't bother me.  I am watching NCIS, which is pretty typical of a Tuesday night.  When I was very young (about 11), I fell in love with the stars, the moon, and space in general.  I wanted to be an astronaut.  Momma and I researched what I would need to do.  The first thing was that I would join the Navy.  Then I would become a fighter pilot and fly those lovely jets.  During that time, I would become a US citizen because in order to work for NASA you must be a US citizen.  Unfortunately, I didn't grow tall enough to become a fighter pilot, then came the scoliosis.  I fell back into the music dream again, then.  I am not sorry though because as it turns out, I truly feel I was born to teach.  I love teaching much more so than performing, although I do love singing in the church choir and I do like to sing solos once in a while, but overall, I would rather teach than do almost anything.  I am thankful that my dance teacher started me teaching and that Mom helped me so much with how to do it.

Dance Moms is on right now.  They are in New York City getting ready to audition for the Joffrey Ballet Company summer program.  They are such a good program.  I would have loved to train with them.  The moms are being so loud while the audition is going on.  It is just crazy.  That is partly why I like the show because they are so outrageous.  It amuses me.  It is not how I run my music lessons.  I work very hard to not have any favorites.  There is something special about each of the students.  It just takes a bit of time to find that specialness of each student, but I find it.  Anyways, I do find Dance Moms to be entertaining.  Tonight is the first episode of Dance Moms, Miami.  It should be interesting, I think.  I am not sure if I will stay up to watch it since I am very tired now.  I may just watch the end of this one and head for bed right after it.  Oh my, the Abby Lee Company just got a 10th place.  I don't think they EVER got 10th place before.  It was a definitely a blow to the egos.  On the other hand, Chloe won the scholarship to the ballet school for the summer.  That is awesome.  She will learn so much this summer from them.

The movie "Titanic" will be re-released as a 3D movie.  I have one student who absolutely loves that movie.  Selma is planning to see it on Thursday.  She has been waiting for the movie to come out for so long now.  I saw it in the theatre when it was originally out.  I liked it, but there were parts I didn't like.  I am not planning to see the movie.  I think there are other movies I wish to see and I don't do very well with 3D and things coming at my face.

I forgot again to call the hospital for physical therapy.  I have been meaning to call since last Wednesday.  Whoops,  I have got to do this.  I am supposed to have physical therapy for 1 month, 3 days a week and occupational therapy for 1 week, 2 to 3 times.  The occupational therapy is for my hands, which are having a hard to closing.  It hurts so much at times.  The physical therapy is for the back and hips so maybe they won't hurt so much.  The idea is to stop taking the Meloxicam but I am not sure that will ever happen.  I know the risk, but I can't walk at the end of the day if I don't take it.  I am not sure if I will ever stop taking it for arthritis, risk of bleeding or not.  How will I function if I don't take something for the arthritis pain?  I have to take that risk because otherwise I can't move by the end of the day.  At this point, I have no choice but to take it.  I can walk at the end of the night because of it so I don't see stopping anytime soon unless something better comes along.

I am going to read for a bit before I go to bed.

Monday 4-2

Can you believe it is April already???  It amazes me how fast winter went and how warm it was this year.  I am thankful it was warm though because I ache less in the warmer weather (not hot though, I ache more in the super hot weather).  Today I only had 2 students, Rachel and Selma.  bob rescheduled for Wednesday and Isaac is absent this week.  On Friday we are going to Baskin Robbins for ice cream to celebrate my birthday on Sunday.  My little Rachel, can't make it.  She won't be with her Grandma that day, she will be at the sitters so her Grandma decided to go and get the three of us ice cream sundaes.  Talk about a wonderful person!  She said since Rachel and she can't make it on Friday, she would be bring the ice cream to us.  It was wonderful!  We sat and ate ice cream while we visited together.  They came earlier than usual because Rachel is off school for vacation.  I am so thankful for that.  We had such a good visit.  My lovely little one gave me lots of hugs for my birthday.  She is such a wonderful little girl.  Rachel is doing well with piano.  She is really coming along.  Rachel started last June and has almost finished the first two books.  I am so proud of her.  I have her level C books.  We are just waiting for the solo book to come in.  She will finish her level B books next week.  She is playing the last lesson book songs and working on the last of her note speller and theory books.  I just love her.  She is one of my amazing students.  I have lots.  I think all my students are awesome and doing very well.

Most of the students have the week off because of Spring Break.  It used to be called Easter Vacation and it would start Good Friday to Easter Sunday but a couple of years ago the school systems around here changed when it would be so now it is the first week of April.  It was confusing at first, but not now.  I don't have as many absent this week as I thought I would so that is good.  I have a full schedule except for Charlie tomorrow.  He is going to Georgia with his girlfriend's family.  I hope they are having a great time so far.  I think they left Saturday.

I was so tired this afternoon.  I got up for my lovely Rachel's lesson and then after they left, I must admit, I did take a nap until Selma arrived.  Selma arrived at 6:30 so i slept for about 1 1/2 hours.  I am still rather exhausted but I expect to sleep a bit better tonight.

I am excited about Wednesday this week.  I will see my friend from high school, Wendy that day.  We are meeting for lunch and I expect it will be fun.  Wendy is so nice and I am so glad we have gotten to know each other better.  We didn't really know each other in high school and reconnected on face book. I am thankful for face book because I have reconnected with several friends and school mates.  It has been wonderful.  I will see Jennie in a couple of weeks and that will be fun too.  We meet about once every few months.  I saw her in February so I am looking forward to seeing her again.

Well, I am going to read for a bit before going back to bed.  I hope your day is a good one.

April Fool's Day

I have never liked April Fool's Day.  When I was a child, I would manage to be absent from school on those days.  It isn't that I was always getting a joke pulled on, I just didn't find a lot of the practical jokes very funny.  When it comes to practical jokes, I do not have much of a sense of humor unless they are truly harmless.  Fortunately, as an adult I have not been around too many practical jokes.

It has been a quiet type day.  I went to church.  It was a good service.  It was communion Sunday as well as Palm Sunday.  We sang at the start of the service, which is unusual.  Usually, we sing sometime in the middle of the singing but not at the beginning.  It was a song we have sung before so we pretty much knew it by heart.  I wasn't sure I would, but I did.  We have a rehearsal earlier than usual on Thursday.  I have emailed my student asking if they can come earlier than usual because of this.  They don't have school on Thursday so I am hoping it will not be a problem.  If they can't, I will just be late.  That won't be a huge problem because I will let Lee know, I would just prefer to not be late so that I am sure what we are doing on Sunday.  After church, I will be spending the day with Kathy, her family, and her parents.  It should be a fun day especially as it will be my birthday as well as Easter.

I simply love Easter.  Sometimes I think I love it more than Christmas Day, but not the Christmas season.  I love the Christmas Season because of how (most of the time) people treat one another.  They start thinking of other people and treating each other nicely.  Easter is nice too because people do think of others, not as much as they do at Christmas, but it is close.  I went to Walmart yesterday for a few small things.  Okay, a lot (I mean a lot!) of money later, I came out without the second thing I needed from there.  Fortunately, I remember just as I was about to leave so I went back in and got what I needed.  I did manage to get a few things I didn't necessarily need, like a new book and a new DVD, Bambi.  I bought Bambi II a few months ago but realized that I didn't have the original Bambi so I picked it up yesterday.  Fortunately, I won't have to go there anytime soon so I don't have to worry about over spending.  As it is, I owe my savings account about $113 for shopping yesterday.

I am getting tired, soon I will go back to bed for the evening but right now I am drying some clothes so I have something to wear this week.  It is kind of necessary you know.  A complete boring job, but a necessary one since I don't have the money to buy a new outfit for everyday.  Wow, that would be a lot of clothes, I don't think that much would even fit in my closet or my drawers.

I do hope you are having a good day.