We had sewing class this afternoon!  It was fun, except I forgot my sewing machine so the girls only had one to use.  That was not very well done of me.  Natalie didn't sew today because she had an earache and wasn't feeling very well.  Poor kid!!  Earaches are no fun.  Little Sarah did very well, she basted her first seams.  She did 5 of them.  She pinned 3 seams and then sewed all of the seams.  She  has about 6 seams left to do before I can sew them together.  She is doing so well for 6 years old.  Hannah and Lydia did well as usual.  They are learning to be good little seamstresses.  I can't wait to start them on knitting too!  After tax season I am going to learn how to hand quilt.  Then I can teach the girls that one too.  I have great plans for them and me.  Mom slept through a lot of sewing today.  She is so exhausted and now her tummy is hurting her.  I gave her the tummy medicine, I hope it helps.  I have had heartburn for a couple of days now.  I have a prescription that I am taking in tomorrow that will help.  I haven't really had this problem until now.  Not pleasant.  Not at all.

I have a busy tomorrow that I am excited about.  I have Lily at 1, as usual, and then at 4 I have Frank, Rachel, and Katie to practice for competition.  Frank has solo and ensemble tomorrow morning.  I hope he is ready!  I have done all I can for him, so it is up to him now.  He is going to accompany Rachel on her solo for competition.  Then Rachel and Katie are doing a duet.  Tillie is going to come with us to competition.  It should be a fun time for all of us.

It is getting colder out again here.  Mom is in a blanket as well as a sweatshirt, fleece jacket,and a hoodie.  She is finally sort of warm.  I have the heat up to about 73 degrees.  It does get cold in here though when it gets colder outside.  As long as it doesn't get as cold as it did last weekend.  Hope your day is good!

It was a very busy day for a change in the Paxton household today.  First thing, blood test for me.  The nurse had 3 tubes to get and she got everything the FIRST time!!!!  Yeah, what a great way to start the day!  Only 1 poke!!!  Then we were off to Tim Horton's for our breakfast/lunch.  Okay, brunch.  After that we had to go to the bank.  I got a certified check for the taxes so we will be register mailing the check tomorrow!  We won't be losing the house!  Then we went to JoAnn's Craft store to return the needles and yarn I bought last week that was wrong and rebuy what I need.  After I had what I needed, off to Heather BT's house.  We had a good visit.  Mom only cried one time because she had bad memories in her head.  She did start the day off crying for the same reason so tomorrow I am going to give her her anxiety medicine to see if that helps her.  Once I was up and getting dressed she was fine.  Every day this week she has started off the morning crying on and off so I think we need to fix this.  If it keeps up, then I will let her doctor now about this.  I think her medicine will help her, it helps her at night so she doesn't cry at night much anymore.  She even goes into her room without getting upset that we sleep in different rooms.  She used to cry every night about that.

Calli will be starting her lessons next week.  That will be fun and a challenge.  I have never taught a visually impaired person before.  I have, of course, taught many 9 year old children though.  Mom and I are going to figure out how we are going to do this this weekend.  Something to look forward too.  On Saturday, I will have to do my sales and use tax returns from 2008 and 2007.  I don't know how to do this, but I have to finish them by the 15th of this month.  This is the last step in closing out the store.  Thank God it is almost over.  I then have to send in my proof of income and the august of 08 return and I will be finished (except for paying, of course) with the paperwork for the state of Michigan!  I can't wait.  No more phone calls!  I dread the phone calls when I get them.  Richard doesn't have anything to do with this, although he was part owner, because he was the silent partner.  I don't expect him to do with this either, it is my responsibility and I am almost done.  It will take years to pay them what we owe though.  Bit by bit it will be paid.

Tomorrow we have sewing!  I can't wait for that either.  All in all, it has been a pretty good week.  The weather has been warmer so Mom hasn't been as frozen as she had been.  I hope your week is going well too!

We got the money for the taxes.  We went and got it today so now we won't lose the house.  Mom had her CT scan.  She did pretty well, only freaked a bit.  While she was waiting for the next scan she started squirming around looking for me so I quickly ran in and then ran back out.  She had her arms to her side and moved on onto her tummy.  The techs at first were kinda upset about it, but then when I told them about her memory, then they were fine.  One of the techs told the other to write down that she was confused.  I will find out the results in a few days when the doctor calls us for an appointment.  I hope there is nothing there because, quite frankly, she can't handle anything else.  She is depressed enough.  I do need to call her doctor and let her know how much she cries and says she wants to jump into a lake.  She finally said it in front of Tillie, usually it is just me who is honored to hear this.  Tillie told her it was too cold and too icy to jump in.  That is the answer I will give her from now on.  It's too cold and icy to jump in.  Mom was in a good mood after the CT scan which is why I thought it was perfect to go to get the money and visit Tillie, but by the time we got there, she was grumpy again.  I hate that.  I have to learn to let more go because I am getting to stressed and that means she will get grumpier faster.  At least she did well at Tillie's when we got back from dinner.  She did well at dinner too.  She is fine now that we are home and she has had her pre-nighttime medicine.  Sometimes, I have to give it to her during the day.  I don't like it, but I have to because she is too upset.

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!