I did not post yesterday, I don't know why.  It was an alright day.  Nothing to impressive happened except I had 4 lessons.  Becca was still sick.  She has bronchitis and is getting slowly better.  Her sister, Rachel, had her lesson though.  She and Frank practiced together for the first time.  It was interesting.  She has never practiced with a live piano player before so it was new for both of them.  I think they will do well together.  Frank is almost ready for the rest of his music for competition.  Next week is the benefit concert.  I can't believe it is almost here.

Today is a mostly boring day.  I had Katie for her lesson and Charlie later, but that is about it.  Mom is having a CT scan tomorrow and isn't too happy about it.  She was really upset earlier about the whole thing.  Accused me of not telling her and stuff like that.  I did tell her, she just doesn't remember so I wrote it down.  Like that is really going to help.  

She got really upset at Tim Horton's today.  I don't know why, but she freaked.  We were sitting with Rosemary and all of a sudden she was upset, so we had to leave.  I was not happy about that.  I was actually kinda mad.  I am tired of her tears and comments about jumping in the lake.  It gets very weary on a person.  I  gave her an anxiety pill when we got home.  It helped some but not much.  If this keeps up, we are going in to see her doctor.  I am not taking this too well.

I hope you are having a good day.  It is alright here, nothing spectacular.  It is also snowing again, which looks really pretty, but we will see how much we get.

Last night's dinner went well.  Mom liked it although she did her usual "will I have a problem if I eat this?"  She is very worried about missing the bathroom.  She NEVER has and I don't understand, but I just reassure her she is fine.  She is having a rough day although perhaps now she is out of it.  She was crying while she helped me get dressed and while we were at Tim Horton's.  She won't tell me why.  So I just let her cry and hand her Kleenex.  She let me sleep in today until 11:30, in fact, she wasn't even out of bed before me today and that has never happened.  I don't know if that is part of her bad start to the day.  I am going to put some Walker Texas Ranger (we are on season 6) in, she likes that.  We have nothing to do today.  Tillie was supposed to come over but yesterday her real estate agent called and wanted to meet her today after the showing of the house.  We think there might be an offer.  She certainly can't missed that!  I hope it is what she wants for the house.  Houses just aren't selling so I don't know if they will offer her what she wants.  Over here, not much is selling at all except foreclosed houses because you can get them cheap.  I have to come up with the tax money for 2008 or we will lose the house.  I think we have enough to pay it.  I hope so!

Well, it is still cold here but not as cold.  I hope your day will be good.  I plan to watch TV with Mom, read my book, and knit.  Have a good one!

I am using my slow cooker!!!!  Yup, I have potato soup, corn, and mushrooms in it.  I make it kinda like a stew.  I would add chicken, but the pieces of chicken I bought were breaded.  didn't mean to do that, it was $6 too, so a waste of money.  I will have to find something else to use them with.  I have the ham thawing for tomorrow's dinner, rice, spinach and ham.  Kinda scary that I am cooking a bit this weekend.  Mom helped me open everything and put stuff in the crock pot so I wouldn't have to stand super long.  I think after about 2 minutes my left hip starts to protest a lot, so standing is not the best for me.  Doing laundry with this problem is a nightmare.  Mom helps though so that is good.  It is getting harder for her to help me as her memory decreases, but she still can do some things.  She, as usual, is sleeping in her chair.  We spend a lot of time in the dining room because that is where the TV is.  I know Katie said she would move it to the living room, but there is no room in there with the 2 pianos and the stereo.  It is a very crowded room as it is, and the TV just wouldn't fit.  But I was thankful she asked.

Not much to do right now.  I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned off the counter.  I will swiffer in a bit and do it in sections.  I found my stylus pen for my DS last night.  I was very excited about that.  It has been missing for a month.  It flung out of my DS holder one night and I couldn't find it.  I found it hiding under the table.  I guess I didn't swiffer very good the last few times I swiffered.

It has warmed up a bit here, Mom is still freezing, but not as cold as last night.  She has only one little hoodie on and a blanket around her.  I have the little heater in the kitchen going to so that helps a lot.  It is facing her and blowing directly in her direction.  I get a little bit from it, but she gets the most.  Works for me, I am not as cold as she is.  I also didn't have to turn the heat up yet.  Probably will when the sun goes down.  This week is supposed to be much warmer so yeah! for that.

Other than cleaning spurts, not much going on in our house today.  I will be practicing my knitting in a little while so that I can start on a project tonight.  I am going to make a scarf for Mom.  She lost hers, so she needs a new one.  I have other projects in mind too.  I hope my hands let me knit, they no longer let me play the piano very long anymore.  I usually have to save my hands during the day for my lessons, so I am very rusty right now.

I hope this finds you doing well and having a good day.  It is an alright day over here for us.

It feels like 50 below out today.  Mom is still in her winter coat right now.  I will get her out of it eventually and then put her in blankets.  I did turn the heat up again today.  It is just so cold in here.  When it is around 30ish, it isn't so cold in the house, but man, get below that and wham!  it's cold in here.  I turned the heat up a lot last night and I should have just turned it up a bit and put another blanket on mom, she complained it was too hot upstairs at bedtime.  Can't win with this weather can I?  It makes me frustrated but I try not to get to frustrated about it because she can't help it.  We had to go to Tim Horton's today because we had no milk or bread, so we had nothing to eat for breakfast.   She didn't do too bad, it is just around the corner and it was quick in and out.  Then back to the house.  

I am going to cook with the slow cooker tomorrow!  I am going to take potato soup, corn, chicken, and another veggie and put them all together!  I have made this before and mom seems to like it.  It is really good potato soup, nice and thick the way I like it.  It is almost like a stew, so that it is really yummy!

I am going to do some knitting today while we watch mindless TV, not much good on during the day until Oprah, and I will miss her today because Zach is having a make up lesson and Rachel and Rebecca are having their lessons too.  I don't really mind because if I had to chose between the two, you know I'd pick lessons.  Speaking of lessons!  I have a new student, Heather's daughter, Calli.  She is 9 and a doll.  She is going to hopefully start next week.  I sent Heather my schedule so she can work in what will work with her.  I am excited about this.  All my girls are just going to love her and her little brother.  I just know it.  Acer is still a little small for lessons, he is only 5, but maybe when he gets older he will too.  One never knows.

I hope you are staying warm!  It is very cold here in Michigan.  It is supposed to warm up on Monday, so let's hope so.  Time to get the blankets out!

We were at Heather Bowman Thomlinson's house today.  Mom did pretty well there, but not with the cold.  We aren't going out this weekend until it warms up a bit on Monday, she just can't take it.  She has major meltdowns over being cold.  It makes me really mad, but there isn't anything I can do about it except throw more blankets on her.  I am not happy about this development at all.  It means no sewing tomorrow, which I look forward to each week.  I am trying not to be mad, but it is a losing battle.  I hate the disease she has, I hate it more than the diseases I have.  She, of course, is unaware of how upset this makes me, which is actually good because she would meltdown again over that.  

Anyways, after that, today has been fun.  I relearned how to knit from Heather BT.  I am going to practice more tonight.  Silly me though, I bought the wrong type of needles and yarn.  I should have called her but I didn't.  Sometimes my brainlessness is amazing.  I will return all the yarn except one because I am going to make trivets for the table with them and one set of needles and get the right type.  I knitted about 4 rows before her children came in.  No use knitting when her children arrive.  Mainly because they have all my attention and mom's. 

I hope you are warm and sunny today!  Try to stay warm unless you live somewhere warm, if you do, yeah!  Wish I was there!

I GOT MY CROCK POT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I am a bit excited about it?  Sunday dinner will be the first time I use the pot for company.  Tillie is coming over for dinner.  I went grocery shopping (definitely not my favorite thing to do!) today for every thing we will need to cook in the pot.  Mom, of course, went with me and helped me get them into the house.  I also bought her a pair of slippers so her feet will stay warm and she won't have to wear boots in the house, which I hate.  Mainly I hate it because I have a hard time cleaning and wearing outside shoes in the house dirties the house faster.  We will take sat afternoon to clean the kitchen/dining room floor and the stairs and the bathroom floor.  I am trying to spread out the work during the week so we don't have to take a full day to do them.  I love my swiffer dry and swiffer wet jet.  They work so well and don't leave a film on the floor.  I will also be cleaning up the kitchen on Friday night and Saturday afternoon so that it looks nice for company.  I know Tillie doesn't really care what it looks like, but I do and I am tired of a dirty kitchen/dining room and a non perfect bathroom.

Mom and I went to see the movie "the Tooth fairy" this afternoon.  It was cute.  Julie Andrews was in it and she is great in everything she does.  Mom liked what she saw of it, she did, as usual, fall asleep a brief time during the movie.  We had a semi showing with only a few other people in the theatre and it was in the big one.  After that, we went to Olive Garden for dinner.  It was good, but the waitress was slightly dippy.  I was unhappy with her so she didn't get the great tip I usually leave.  We were eating (forks up and down eating not just sitting on the table) and she asks me if we want boxes.  Hmm, let's think about this, we ARE EATING! No we don't want boxes yet.  The she handed me the check without asking us if we wanted dessert.  Well, what if we did?  I hate that.  She rushed us through the meal.  She won't last too long there, she is not waitress material for that restaurant.

I hope your day is good, mine was pretty good, movie and getting the crock pot was good.  Tomorrow will be great - I will relearn how to knit.  We are getting our yarn and needles in the morning before Mom's blood test!  I can't wait.  Also, stay warm!  I am putting on extra blankets on my bed tonight, that is for sure!!!

So, yeah, I know what time I am meeting Wendy, it's 1:30, she works until 1:00 pm.  Guess when I remembered that, when we were waiting for her.  She was right on time, we were early.  Actually, it worked out pretty well because I was able to feed Mom some soup since she was cold and another donut before Wendy arrived, so that was good.  Next time though, I will get the time right for me.  Silly me!  We had a great time, at least I did, Mom did really well, she doesn't say much, just quietly sits there and listens.  She did have a hard time sitting at the end so it was good that Wendy had to go and pick up her son from school.  Mom is doing fine now, back to her normal self.  It was so fun talking with Wendy and realizing how much everyone has changed since high school.  I am looking forward to the next reunion.  I hope to meet with Wendy again soon.  It was just so awesome.  We didn't really hang out in high school, we each had our own circle of friends, but it sure is nice to be friends with people I went to high school with now.  On face book I am friends with several that I was mostly casual friends with, more like people I knew, but didn't really know well.  Kathy told me I would be happy about this, I should have listen to her years ago, but I was just too stubborn for my own good.  I told Wendy about Kathy and her kids and how they are doing.  I hope to take a day trip in March to see Kathy and the kids.  February is just booked on the weekends, the 13th is the benefit concert and I will be broke after that, then the following weekend is competition, so next month weekends are busy.  Maybe the last weekend in Feb, we shall see what her schedule is like.  Mom really liked going to visit her when we did in December.  Day trips are good for her right now, just the right size for her.  She doesn't get to confused because we are coming home for the evening.  I still don't have my back disability so I don't know if we are staying over night at competition or not.  I am sort of thinking we shouldn't even if the money comes in because Mom doesn't really do that well at someone else's house overnight and she might wander.  We shall see when it gets closer.  Tillie is coming to competition too, so I am excited about that.

Tillie can't come tomorrow to see the movie with us, but she is coming over on Sunday for dinner!  yeah!!!!  Yes, I will be using my new crock pot on Sunday for dinner.  After we buy the crock pot I am going to go to Border's and get a slow cooker cook book.  It's bound to have some new yummy recipes that I can either prep at the table or quick prep.  I am looking forward to cooking again.  Never that I would say that, never in a million years, but I am so tired of frozen dinners and I think adding some home cooked meals would be good and worth the effort.  This might help Mom gain some weight too.  She needs to gain about 25 to 30 pounds again.  It is hard for her to keep the weight on, I know, backwards from me, but it is true.  She can lose weight by just breathing it seems.  She will have a CT scan in about a week to double check everything is okay.  I will make the appointment tomorrow and her blood work appointment too.  The doctor wants her to have the blood work first in case there is something wrong and she shouldn't have the IV of the CT scan.  I doubt there is anything, but it is best to double check these things, right?  

I am trying to make sure we have some fruit in our diet every day.  I bought fruit cups and fresh fruit for us this month and it seemed to work pretty well.  It may even help me lose some weight, although with some of the medicine I am on and the limitations of standing and walking, I have difficulty with that.  After my student leaves I am going to try our elliptical for a short time.  I don't want to do this before my student in case I get exhausted from it, I never know when that will happen, it happens so quickly when it does. Mom, of course, as usual, is ready for bed now, however, I know when we go up she will be tired until she is ready to jump into bed and then she will perk.  She does this every night so I know the routine.  She is tired during the day because of boredom.  That's why we are going out tomorrow afternoon, so the boredom is broken up.  It helps me stay awake during the day too.  Of course, so does the caffeine in my tea and diet coke.  I have cut down on my diet coke, I won't be buying it for home anymore.  I am going to check to see if it adds to the pain, I haven't noticed if it does or doesn't when I don't have it, so you never can tell.

I also plan to do some boring laundry tonight.  Both Mom and my clothes' are starting to pile up.  Tomorrow we will also be going to JoAnn's and getting our yarn for our knitting project.  After that we will go to Hobby Lobby and get our needles, my friend, Heather, says they aren't too expensive there, so that is good.  I am excited to relearn how to knit.  Mom wants to try it too but I don't have high hopes for that.  She used to knit when I was small so maybe there is a slight chance that she will remember, but I doubt it.  But, hey, if she wants to try, why not.  She may pick it up and then she will have something to do during the day while we watch TV and movies.  That is the one thing I am looking forward too, having something to do during the day.  I plan to make a scarf for Mom, Andrew, Tillie, Kathy, Tony, Matthew, Jacob, Samantha, and Alicia.  I figure by the time I get to the twins I will have this knitting thing down pat and maybe then I can make some baby doll clothes and hats and stuff like that.  I have big plans for this endeavor. 

Today has been a good day, I have one student soon, Charlie.  Zach had to reschedule for Friday as both his parents needed the car today.  He wasn't very happy about it, but hey, it's best to reschedule instead of cancel a lesson.  (gives me something to look forward too!)  Both boys are doing quite well, Charlie has a new book he is working out of and when I get the back disability I will be buying a solo book he can borrow and have fun with.  They now have CDs for these books.  How cool is that?  Pretty cool if you ask me.  I am not getting the CD though, I have no pressing need for it and Charlie doesn't usually like playing with them, so why shell out the $25 it costs plus shipping and handling if he isn't going to use it?

I hope your day is going great too!!!!!!!

I am meeting Wendy today at 1:00 pm.  I can't wait.  It shall be fun.  I almost typed me fun.  Silly me.

Mom had a rough morning this morning, but I was up to the challenge.  When I realized she was in a bad cycle, (it only took 15 minutes this time instead of 3 hours) I got up, she helped me get dressed and then we went to get breakfast.  She got out of it by the time we were getting breakfast.  She is sleeping in her chair right now.  Nothing new there.  I hope to take her to a movie tomorrow and I am going to see if Tillie wants to come with us.  Anyways, not a long post today.  See you later!

It's been a day.  I did enjoy the 3 lessons I had, but other than that it was just a day.  Mom's friend, Jose, can to look at her shower.  She took the door off about 5 or more years ago because my brother kept flooding the furnace room when he took a shower.  It was annoying, darn near ruined the floor and the ceiling.  Then Mom took the door off and he had to take a shower in the tub bathroom.  I don't know why Jose wants the door on but I think he thinks it will help mom.  It won't, but some day it needs to go back on.  I am getting tired of tripping over crap in the house but there isn't much I can do about it right now.  Any time I try to clean it up or reorganize, Mom flips out.  She is afraid that I am going to throw her stuff out.  I am not, but she doesn't believe anyone.  I will, however, throw away garbage like her stupid pieces of Kleenex or paper towel that she carries around every day and then takes them out of her jackets and puts fresh in the next day.

I am meeting Wendy for tea tomorrow.  I am very excited about that.  I haven't seen her in over 20 years, more like 23 years since high school.  Who would have thought?  Not me.  I was the one who never wanted to go to the reunions, now I will probably go to the next one, providing I find someone to watch mom for me.  She isn't coming with me to that.  I put my foot down on that.  I take her everywhere else.  

I am rather tired now.  It is about 7 pm, not quite bed time.  Mom is always ready for bed anytime after 5 pm.  We will go up in about an hour.  I wonder how Richard is doing.  He should really come and visit Mom while she still knows who he is.  She is slowly forgetting all of us, she even asks if I am Heather sometimes.  Usually first thing in the morning or late at night.  During the day she is fine.  She doesn't do this everyday, mind you, just once in a while about once every other week.

I will be getting the new crock Wednesday!  I can't wait.  I am inviting Tillie over for Sunday dinner, I will be making what my friend's children call green rice and ham.  It is rice, spinach, and ham.  I loved it last week when we had it so I will pass this one on to our kitchen.

I will also be getting the lottery ticket.  It has a pretty good size jackpot.  Can't win if you don't play.  good luck everyone.

Pain is medium, not too unusual.  Hope your day has been a good one.

It's raining outside, but warmer than it was.  We are supposed to get the super cold weather back later this week.  Ugh.  Not happy about that, not happy at all.  I am really tired today, I tried to sleep in but with Mom, you know how hard that is.  I think I will slip into the front room and try to sneak a nap in on the chair.  She usually leaves me alone there for a while anyways.  She is sleeping in her chair as usual.  And I wonder why she doesn't sleep much at night, right, I know why, she sleeps all day.

Debbie will have her lesson later today.  Wish it was more than just Debbie, but, nothing right now I can do about it.

Mom is doing alright today except for the sleeping part.  That is actually normal for her.  Sleep during the day, up during the night.  I have tried to fix it, but I am losing the battle.  As long as she is blocked in upstairs, she is fine.  She does get some sleep at night, just not as much as I would like her too.

Pain is medium to high today in the head.  My right side is going to fall off soon.  I took an Advil even though I really am not supposed to, but the Tylenol is just not cutting it.  Not much happening today, hopefully better this week.  I will be seeing my friend, Wendy, on Tuesday and I will see Heather on Thursday so my week is looking good.  The only day that will be boring is Wednesday as of right now I have no lessons scheduled for then, Rachel and Rebecca don't have their lessons scheduled yet, so I hope to know when theirs are soon.

I hope your day is sunny and nice out unlike the yucky rain we are getting.

We went to Chili's tonight, well, this afternoon for dinner.  They were having a special two for $20 that included an appetizer, 2 entrees, and dessert!  We had a gift cert from Christmas from Richard, so I thought, why not!!!  Mom still does well going out to eat so off we went!  I had two lessons earlier, was supposed to be three, but turned out to be 2.  It was still a good day.  Mom and I are now watching Walker, Texas Ranger, season 5 disc 4 episode 2.  We love this show.  After this we are going to go to bed, it's been a long day for her.  I might read a bit in my room.  I am reading a really good book right now.  I have read it before, but it still good.  Mom gave it to me for Christmas.  About 2 days before Christmas she said she wanted to give me books for Christmas so we went to the used bookstore for them.  I got 7 books for about $21.  Mom saw a Curious George Christmas book and I asked her if she would like it, she said yes, so I got it for her.  It was expensive!  It cost about $14 but she likes those kind of books and doesn't have much time left so I got it for her.  A small thing to bring her much pleasure.  I also got her a puzzle book, the type where every page is a puzzle.  There are about 8 pages in it.  It was Christmas theme.   Next year, I don't anticipate a very good Christmas for her, I don't think she will remember much by then so I am trying to pack as much as I can into this year for us, despite the shortage of funds.  She likes simple things that don't cost a lot of money.  We watch a lot of movies and TV together.  She likes that a lot, even when she falls asleep during them briefly.  She is wide awake tonight, I don't know why, but hey, I am not questioning it.

Pain is not so bad considering I am completely out of prescription pain pills.  The refill will be ready Monday, but I don't know if I will have the money, if Grace has a lesson, then I will otherwise I will need to wait until Wednesday.  I have Tylenol so it isn't like I have nothing for pain and if really necessary, Advil.  I don't take Advil because of the blood thinners, but if I really need it, I will take it.

I hope your day is as good as mine was.