Not too much going on today.  I have to print the coupon for border's books so I can get this month's book club book.  Aggie chose it.  It's one of her favorite books so I think I will probably like it.  I like reading different books than I normally would have, it makes life interesting, and I need an interesting life.  Usually, it is kinda dull nowadays.  It was interesting when we had the store, but now, not so much unless I am teaching, then it is fun.

We ran into Irv and Rosemary at Tim Horton's this afternoon, what a fun time!  They are our neighbors who live down the road from us.  He is president of the subdivision board of directors.  I am a board member so I see him once a month at the meetings and I run into Rosemary a lot at Tim Horton's.  It is always fun chatting with her.

Mom's tummy is back to normal today.  Thank goodness!  She didn't feel so hot last night with a sore tummy but now she is fine.  She is sleeping in the chair again.

We didn't go to Windsor today after all, I just didn't have the time this morning as I wasn't feeling so hot myself.  I feel better now, but my head is not too happy with me.  It is better, but not enough to have to actually think on filling out papers.  I will go next week.  Thursday this week and next week are doctor appointments so that only leaves Wednesday for going to Windsor, unless I have a make up lesson, which I won't know until next week.

I have to finish Rachel's song in finale for competition.  It is a rather difficult song and I have a tape of the accompaniment somewhere, I just don't know where.  I wish I could find it, but I have looked and I don't see it anywhere.  I am going to look in the office again in case it is hiding in there.  I hope so, it would be better than what I am trying to do.

I hope you are having a good day and doing well!

I am rather tired now.  It is about 8:30 pm.  I am watching NCIS.  I love this show.  Mom has a tummy ache tonight.  I gave her some medicine so I hope it is working.  I don't think either one of us are up for something lasting long tonight.  Poor thing, she is sleeping in her chair.  She has had a couple of decent nights and days the last couple of days.  I am very  thankful for that.  We were planning to go to Windsor tomorrow but with Mom's tummy, we shall see.  It has been hurting her on and off all day so we may just stay home and go next week, all depends on her.  I am seeing my friend, Heather, on Thursday.  I am so excited about that.  Mom loves her kids, they are awesome.  I have some piano CDs for the little guy, Acer, to figure out on the piano.  I hope he likes them.  Calli plays too and she is doing really well.  I hope to find some information about teaching children with vision impairments how to play the piano.  It sounds very fun to me to learn how to do this.  I am hoping it helps Calli and Acer who love music.  

Mom has done really well the last few nights.  I am happy about that.  Her tummy isn't doing so good right now or all day.  She gets tummy aches every so often but I did take her to the specialist and they did a lot of tests and she doesn't really have anything wrong.  So I am glad of that.  Pain level is medium and I am a bit cold.  I have the little heater on the table but it is facing Mom right now because she is even colder than I am.  It is supposed to warm up in the next few days, man I hope so because it is really cold tonight.  I have another blanket for Mom's bed and two more for mine.  I know will have 6 blankets on my bed.  My room is the cold room in the upstairs.  Mom's is the medium room, my old room is the hot room of the upstairs.

I hope you are warm wherever you are!  or at least trying to stay warm!

Well, I was WRONG!  We can have a great night and a good morning all in the same cycle!  Mom did great last night, she went into bed and didn't get up until she needed to go to the bathroom and this morning did well too!  I am soooooo happy about that.  She let me sleep until the alarm clock went off (too early if you ask me, I reset it for 25 minutes later!) and then let me sleep again until it went off again.  Then she helped me get dressed and we brushed the teeth and were ready to go.  All in all, a great day so far.  Bob had his lesson, the girls had theirs, Grace will have hers later in the week, and Frank will be here tonight.  I love the Mondays of the month.  Tuesdays are a close second.  Wednesdays and Thursdays are not so fun because there are no lessons, but hey, can't have everything can you???

I actually spoke to both of my brothers yesterday.  Shocking I know.  Andrew called to see how Mom is doing and I called Richard last night.  Both are doing alright, Richard is still working so that is awesome.  His job is a temp one and the contract was supposed to be up in August/September, but he is still there.  I hope he finds another one quickly after this one is over.

I think my brothers are missing out on Mom too much.  At least Richard is, Andrew was, but he saw Mom at Christmas and I think he realized that if he doesn't stay in touch with Mom, eventually she won't remember him.  Richard lives so far away from us but he works about 4 hours away.  I don't know if he will come and visit or not or just let his memory fade away from her.  I, on the other hand, even with the rough spots, love being with mom all the time.  I get her and they miss out.  I hope we will visit Andrew a bit more now because Mom really enjoyed spending the time with him over the holidays.

I got in touch with the alumni chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon.  They are a music fraternity that I was a member of in college.  Was supposed to have a meeting tonight, but they are canceling it because of the white stuff coming down!!!!!!  I will have to wait until next month to go.  Tuesday, the president, said it was no problem bringing Mom either!  How awesome is that.  I guess some of the members bring their husbands and kids too so they are definitely family friendly.  I am really happy about that.

Pain is alright except my neck.  I must have let it get cold last night because one spot kinda hurts a lot.  Silly me.  What can I say??????  I am going to be working on some of the Christmas Crafts I want to put on next year's tree.  (I plan to put up a tree next year, we all know I didn't this year!)  I hope this finds you doing well and having a good day!!!!

So I guess either I have Mom have a good night and a bad morning, or a bad night and a good morning, I would hope both the good night and good morning, but maybe I am wishing too much.  She began wandering around the upstairs at 7:30 am.  Yeah, not happy about that, I am not a morning person.  I hope she doesn't do this every morning or I will never have a good sleep again for a long time.  She did stay in my room for about 1/2 hour around 9 ish, so I slept for a 1/2 hour before she started calling my name again.  This is the first time she has done it, so maybe it was a fluke.  i am hoping so.  She is fine now, sitting in her chair.  Debbie will be here for a lesson soon so Mom is a happy camper now, she just wasn't this morning.

Andrew called, I was surprised, pleasantly surprised.  He wanted to know when I was going to go and get Mom's OHIP number (Ontario health insurance), we will probably go this week Weds or Thurs depending on what my schedule is like.  Tillie's package came in so we will take that to her too.  Mom does pretty well on day trips and we don't go to far so I am not in extra pain so good all around.

I am getting ready for the benefit concert next month.  I hope to have Katie, Katie, and Danielle over for a brief rehearsal before the concert.  I haven't heard them play in a while.  Katie P and Danielle have been in college away from home so I am glad they are playing in the concert.  I heard Katie K play a bit ago but I can always hear her play she is so good.  I think she is playing the Phantom of the Opera music for the concert.  Danielle is doing Beatles and I don't know what Katie is planning yet.  Debbie is going to be the MC and perform 4 songs.  I am really excited about this concert.  It is the week before competition so any of my students who are competing and in the concert will play their competition music.

Pain is a little high after this mornings episode, I expected to be.  I hope it goes back to normal by dinner time.  I have to buy the new book for book club this week.  My border's coupon expires tomorrow so I hopefully go before then or get a new coupon.  i love books, they are the best things in the world.

I hope you are doing well despite this yucky weather or are at least somewhere warm!!!!!

After Lily's lesson was book club.  Aggie, Katie, and Katie couldn't attend today.  Maggie and I had a blast anyways!  I love the time period of the book I choose for this month.  The Tudors.  Henry VIII is a fascinating man, even though I would never want to be one of his queens.  It an interesting time in history with how the women had no choice in anything they did.  Men told them what to do.  The book is called, "The Other Boleyn Girl" and written from Mary Boleyn's point of view which I find so interesting because you can see Anne from her side of it.  I have seen the movie too, it is pretty close to the book, I think because I can't remember it exactly.  I will have to watch it again, maybe tomorrow after dinner.  

Maggie and I have such fun times together.  Her husband, Bob, is my student so that is how I met her.  Lily is doing well with her lessons, she seems to really enjoy singing and even plays the vocal part on the piano while she is practicing.  I am very pleased about that.  Aggie missed her lesson too, she had a lot to do this afternoon since she goes back to Michigan State University tomorrow.  I miss her when she is gone, she is a neat young woman.  I will see her in two weeks for her next lesson though.  I will have Debbie's lesson tomorrow.  I am almost done with her music for the benefit.  I have to copy the music for Aggie still, I just don't think about it when I have time and panic about it when I don't, not a good idea!

Mom is alright today.  She has a new thing now.  She asks how much does it cost to stay the night.  She forgets she owns the house and we pay a mortgage on it.  She doesn't like sleeping in her own room, but logistically, it wouldn't never work to put our beds in the same room.  Her room is too hot for me and my room is too cold for her, and she sleeps with her light on, so that wouldn't work for me either.  I like a cold and dark room.  She is doing pretty well, I think, over all.  Her cut on her lip is looking much better too.  Tomorrow I am going to move some of the boxes in her room away from the bed so I can remake her bed, this way, the blankets will not be hanging down on the one side of the bed and she can't get tangled into it again.

Pain isn't so bad today.  I do have a bit more of a headache right now than usual, but as long as it doesn't get worse I will be fine.  I hope you are enjoying your day as I loved mine!  Talk to you tomorrow!

It was sewing day!  Finally!!!!  I was sooooo excited this morning about it.  So was Mom.  The girls got new outfits to start on this afternoon.  We couldn't actually start anything because we have to wash the material first for shrinkage so next week will be the start of the outfits.  I got Sarah her material for the skirt she is going to help me make.  She is so excited about sewing, I am just in heaven over it all.  I have new scissors to use too.  I just have to buy another pair of pinking shears because we have lost them.

Other than that, not much happening around the house.  Mom is doing alright, I am doing alright, so it's good.  I hope you are doing alright too!!!  I just mailed all the competition stuff out and I emailed the forms the other day, so I am ahead of schedule there!  Go Me!  finally, a year where I am ahead of the game, not behind it.

I hope you are having a wonderful day and see you tomorrow!

What a night!  Yup, it was a good one!  Mom stayed in bed after she went in the first time.  It has been so long since she has done that I can't remember.  Then to top it off, she didn't wake me up in the morning early!  I actually got a bit of sleep for a change.  I am one happy camper about that.  

I had my blood test today.  I will find out the results later in the afternoon for the pro-time, but next week on the cholesterol.  The nurse was able to find my vein right away and it worked first time she poked me.  It was wonderful.  I have mean veins, they hide from nurses who have needles, that causes the nurses to have to poke a lot and that hurts.  So all in all, it has been a good day so far. 

It is supposed to snow a lot today, ugh, but it will look awfully pretty out!  I can live without snow though as long as it doesn't get too cold.  I think it a bit, Mom and I are going to a movie or watching one here at home.  It just sounds like that type of day, know what I mean?

I have to figure out what I am going to do with the rest of my life, career wise, I mean.  Right now I teach a bit, and some actually pay, but most of them are on scholarship and the rest of my money comes from disability.  I have to look ahead of when Mom won't be here to help pay the bills and the house.  I am starting to work on that now so that I am ready when she needs 24 hour care.  I just don't know what I want to really do, I want to open a new school of music, but I am not sure about that yet either.  We shall see!

I hope you are having a good, snowy day!

Rather cold today, not as cold as yesterday, but rather cold nevertheless.  It is freezing in here too, I went to get my fleece jacket so I won't be cold.  This is crazy weather.  I know, you would think I would be used to it after my whole life in Michigan, but I just am not.

We went to visit Pine Ridge today.  What a disappointment that was.  Yes, the apartment Mom could afford, that was the good part, the bad part, the care is on top of the apartment.  Not in our budget.  So I was rather disappointment.  Tillie came with us, but she didn't need to ask any questions because we just can't afford that for Mom.  It was an assisted living place not a nursing home.  I thought this would be a good place for her, but I was wrong.  So I guess when she needs more care we are going to have to look at home care unless she needs nursing home.  I am not putting in her in one until she needs it.  That is for sure.  We are doing alright most of the time, the two of us together.  She didn't have a good morning though and I don't like it when she has a bad day in front of people because they tend to think that is how she is most of the time.

I had a make-up lesson this afternoon, Bob.  He plays really well, he sight read his newest piece, Yesterday (by the Beatles) wonderfully.  I think he is going to play in the benefit concert too.  I hope so.  I am pleased that I finished the newsletter for the month.  yeah, me!

Pain isn't really too bad for how bad the weather is.  I hope your day is going well.

Mom doesn't want to go outside tonight.  I told Jose that evening is bad for her, but it's the time he wanted.  I hope she changes her mind by the time he gets here.  She is upset right now so I gave her her anxiety medicine.  I hope it helps her feel better because right now she doesn't want to go.  

Tomorrow we are going to visit a assisted living facility.  I hope mom likes it because by end of summer I anticipate that she will need them.  I hope not, but I will be ready for it.  Tillie is coming with us.  I invited her to come with us.  She will be here about 11 ish am.  I will be up by 10:30 am to make sure I hear her.  I am glad she is coming because she may have questions I wouldn't think about.  Georgette said they looked at this place for her mother-in-law and it was expensive.  I told the lady from A Place For Mom how much money we have to work with, so I hope it wasn't a mistake by sending us there.  We shall see!

She is calmer already about going out she has already forgotten that she didn't want to go.

It has been a good day, I had two students, Zach and Charlie.  They both are doing quite well.  Zach has solo and ensemble next Saturday, he was a bit late today so I asked him to come early next week to make up the time.  With competition next week, it's crucial that he has all the time with me he needs.  He knows one piece real well, but the timing on the other is a bit shaky at times.  He pretty much had it by the time he left, but I will feel better checking into it.

I am going to see my friend, Heather, next week too!  Her kids are so amazing.  I just love them both a lot, they are so talented with music.  I hope it isn't windy because last time we had to leave early because she was afraid of the wind.  It was really windy that day though, I mean really windy.  We had high wind warnings that day, so you can imagine.

Mom keeps asking me when are we heading home, it is really sad that she forgets where we are.  Jose should be here in a few minutes so I better end this soon.

I hope your day is going well.  I am still debating on whether or not to participate in the Valentine's Day swap with Hayley.  Possibly.

Mom's friend, Jose, was over this afternoon.  He needed some help putting his resume on line, so I took care of it for him.  He brought some cream over to help Mom's arthritis foot.  Sometimes it really pains her.  He left some cream for me to help with Mom's little foot.  He is taking her out to dinner tomorrow.  I warned him about how she is after the sun goes down.  I keep the drapes drawn so she can't really tell what time of day it is.  It helps a lot, but he is planning to take her out to dinner.  She worked with him years ago before she retired.  I have known him since I was 14 ish years old.  You can do the math there, I won't, too depressing about the age.

My cousin, Hayley is going to do a valentine's day craft swap.  If you want more info, just email me and I will send you the link to her blog.  She is very talented at crafts and stuff!

Not much really happen this evening.  I don't really want to play my DS anymore, it's tiring today.  Frank had his lesson this afternoon.  He is doing so well.  Bob had to reschedule to Wednesday since the window people were at his house putting in the new windows.  Rescheduling is a piece of cake since I don't have many students right now.  I have mailed the letters to the school directors, hope to hear from them this week!  Fingers crossed!!!!

Pain isn't so bad right now.  Everything seems to be at it's normal annoying place, not to high, but not low enough for me.  I hope your day is good and the week starting out nicely for you!!

Alvin and the Chipmunks are sooooooo cute!  It was a really cute movie with cute music.  The Chipettes were really cute too.  I didn't know there was a movie out in 2007 with the chipmunks, we will have to get it for mom.  She loves these movies.  

Definitely a better day today than yesterday.  No meltdown.  I gated Mom in at the top of the up stairs and that seemed to work pretty well.  She just wondered in and out of her room to my room, just like I had hoped.  She didn't try to move the gate at all so I am one happy camper today.

Lily and Julie were dancing at the end of the movie, it was so cute to see Lily dancing in her seat.  She is going to be 12 soon, and that blows my mind at times.  She has grown up so fast.  And her sister will be 17!  That is even crazier!  Emily was so small when I first met her, now she is a junior and everything!

I have a pretty busy evening around here.  Rachel and Rebecca can't have a lesson on Tuesday as originally planned, so they are on their way for a lesson now.  Debbie will have a lesson (practice) around 6 to 6:30 ish.  I haven't really heard her sing for almost 5 years!  I can't believe she is in her 20's now.  She IS all grown up.  Scary scary scary!  She lives in this beautiful, big house with her best friend, Justine.  I am so happy things are going well for her.  She has a new job, a new house, friends flying in to see her.  I mean, things have really turned around for her since she came back from India.

I am working with a lady named Marie, from a Place for Mom, to help place Mom in a home when she needs one.  I know it will probably be before summer, but I am hoping it will be after summer.  I was lucky I found this place because they do all the searching for you.  They ask you questions and find places that fit in your budget that are good homes, not the bad ones.  They also help you with the questions you need to ask homes about Mom.  Mom is doing better today then she was yesterday.  She fell out of bed a couple of days ago, but we have not had a repeat incident.  She just didn't realize she was at the end of the bed and rolled over.  She cut her lip and bruised her face a bit, but no major damage was done.  Last night I made sure she was more in the middle of her bed than usual.

We went out to eat after the movie.  We went to Olive Garden.  One of the hostesses recognizes us when we go, she is very nice.  When she found out what section we were in, she turned up the heat a bit for mom.  It made it very toasty for her.  We both got noodles and Alfredo sauce.  We like the Penne noodles better than the fettuccine ones, so we always substitute them.  I also get sausage.  yes, I know, lower my cholesterol!  I am working on it.  I usually get chicken but not today!

I got new sewing scissors for Christmas that I can't wait to use Friday.  Friday will be the first sewing class in 3 weeks because of the holidays.  The girls need to purchase new projects and I have to get the material for their younger sister Sarah's skirt.  She wants to learn too.  She is a little too young to use the machine, but not for hand sewing and pinning and cutting and all sorts of good stuff!

Well, we had a great day, and I hope yours is too!