oh my!

I got a call from my brother yesterday.  We have a new issue to deal with and we both need prayers about it.  I can't go into details about here, needless to say, it is frightening for (I think) both of us, I know it is for me.  So please, pray for us.

Other than the newest upset, it has been an okay day.  I didn't wake up at 5:30 like yesterday, thank goodness!  I woke at my regular time, noon or so.  I had the regular type sleep, up and down with pain every few hours, but overall, a lot better than yesterday.

My young man, Carson, wants to add piano to his lessons.  I am excited about that.  He is 8, which it is a great age to learn.  I called his grandmother to let her know I would pick up the music and she was shocked, she didn't know that he asked for piano lessons too.  He is such a cutie.  He sings very nicely.  We started one new song today, Peace of the River.  I actually had 2 songs for him to start, but the printer was being a horrible printer today so it didn't go well.  I had shut down the computer so it didn't print until after his lesson.  Oh well, I have it for next week.  I can't find the book that I got the songs out of last week anywhere.  I am wondering if I put it in Calli's bag.  She has the other copy of the book and I am wondering if I accidentally put them both in her bag.  It is just not anywhere in the dining room or the living room.  No more lessons tonight.  I only have Carson.  Tomorrow I have Breanna and that is it too.  It is a bummer only having 1 or 2 lessons a day, but I am very THANKFUL for the few that I have.  It is starting to get better.  I am hoping summer lessons stay the same as they are right now.  The new ones are the question marks.  Bob, Charlie, Katie all have lessons all year round so I am hopeful that all my students only take off lessons for vacations.  We shall see.  I also do hope to go and see Richard this summer, all depends on what happens now for us.

I can't wait to see Kathy this weekend.  I get to see her on Saturday and Sunday.  I mean, that is just awesome!  I don't get to see her very often since we live so far apart from each other but I will see her twice this weekend!!!  Yeah!!!

I got the movie Tangled for my birthday from my aunt and uncle.  I was very happy about that.  I plan to watch it this weekend.  I also now have the movies, harry potter part 1 and Narnia.  I couldn't resist.  They were on sale.  I am doing pretty well with this thrifty thing.  I plan to do better.  I write down everything I spend so I have been keeping better track of it.  I discovered that I spend a lot on going out to eat for brunch at Tim Horton's and other places so I have bought brunch food and am trying to keep the cost down as I can't really afford to keep doing that.  I am excited to be closing the storage unit too, as this will allow the money to go to other bills that need to be paid.  I also am saving for a nook.  I really like them and am chomping at the bit to get one.  I put a few dollars away each month to save for it.  I figure between now and Christmas, I will have enough money to get one.  I am getting much better at saving money.  I hope to be an expert like my mother was.  She was the best at this.  If there was something she wanted, she simply saved up the money to pay cash.  I, not being of a patient nature, would charge it first and pay later.  Well, this cash only life that I lead is actually good for teaching patience.  I am, however, getting bombarded with requests to get a new credit card.  Yes, I am totally staying away from that.  It is just not a good idea to get a new one, plus with the bankruptcy not dissolved yet, I don't want a new one at this point in my life.  I will possibly look into to it in months to come as things (hopefully) improve.

I have medium pain today and the headache is its normal pain level.  Sometimes it is really annoying to have a headache everyday that nothing can be done for.  Doctors just can't do anything about the chronic headache, or at least the neurologists that I have seen have told me.  They can do something about it when it gets bad, but that only puts it back to normal pain level.  The rest of the pain is normal too.  The Melixicam (spelling??) seems to be working as well as the Celebrex did so that is good.  My hips feel so much better than before I tried Celebrex.

I do hope this finds you doing well too.

a different Tuesday

I woke up the first time at 3:30 with a thirst for milk.  I don't know why, but I wanted a glass of milk so I got up and went downstairs for my glass of milk, well, actually, 2 glasses of milk.  I was very thirsty.  Then I went back to bed.  I woke up again at 5:30 am.  I was wide awake.  I have no idea why.  I was also a bit cold.  I went downstairs and got something to drink and turned on the computer.  I had to post that I was awake at that time on facebook since it is such a rarity for me to be up that early.  I went back to bed about an hour later and got up again around noonish.  I was really dozing, rather than sleeping well from that point on.  My bottom sheet and blankets are all twisted on my bed.  I have to practically remake me entire bed so that I can get to sleep.  I do hope I sleep better tonight.  I am not up for another sleepless night.

It has been an okay day, great day for the lessons I had.  Charlie and Rick are both doing well.  Both were slightly late today for some reason.  Oh well, they still had their full lessons.  It actually worked out well that Rick was a bit late because of traffic since Charlie was a bit late.  Charlie is working mostly on what he is going to play for the spring concert.  Rick will not be in the spring concert as he will be out of town until very late the night before the concert.

I plan to watch NCIS tonight, both shows.  I love them so much.  I miss watching them with Mom but at the end she couldn't watch them since she thought they were real.  I think I have seen every episode this season.  I have the first 6 seasons on DVD.  I didn't get the DVDs of season 7 because I have seen most of them and I really can't afford them plus the USA channel plays reruns all the time so I can get my NCIS whenever I want.  I won't be getting season 8 either.  I will be loaning the first couple of seasons to Kathy for her son Matthew because he has become interested in the show now that he is 12 almost 13.  He likes the show so I am going to loan him so old seasons to see if he likes it.

I did have a bit of a bad headache earlier today, but now it is back to the normal headache.  I do hope this finds you doing well and having a good day.

A Lovely Monday

I was so exhausted this morning that I stayed in bed and dozed for a while.  When I finally got up, I was a bit dizzy but that passed.  It happens a lot and I know it is just a side effect of the medicines that I take.  I went down and had some brunch and took my daytime medicines.  Today is the first day for the substitute for Celebrex.  I am hopeful it will work out well.  So far, it is doing alright.  It is a bit of a chilly day so it is definitely a good day to try it.  I have been a bit chilled all day.

Bob had his regular lesson this afternoon.  He is doing very well.  He, again, took my trash bins to the road for me.  He is so nice.  He is also going to check to see if he has a trimmer for the bushes since both of mine are broken.  This will help Charlie a lot this coming weekend.  I will find out later this week.  I would return it next Monday after Charlie uses it on the weekend.  Charlie is coming again Saturday to do the shrubs.

After Bob's lesson I went to Walmart for some milk and bread.  I went to make a sandwich and realized I didn't have any bread.  I picked up a few things and the came back home.  Nothing to exciting, some Easter treat bags for the Heyart children.  I am making some Easter treats for the kids for Sunday.  I am so thankful I am going to Kathy's parents house for the holiday.  I am thankful to be included in their holiday dinner.  I think I have enough candy for the kids.

Emily had her 3rd lesson this evening.  She is such a doll.  She is so cute and is playing very well.  Next week she starts reading music!  That will be exciting for her.  Her eyes were wide with excitement when I told her that we would be learning lines and spaces next week.  Because of this we added the Treble Clef Sign and the Bass Clef Sign flashcards to the flashcard pile.

Not much happening this evening.  I am going to watch Dancing With The Stars in a bit when it comes on and then head for bed.  Tomorrow is 2 more lessons so that is wonderful.  They don't really start until 5:30 though, so I have the afternoon to get some housework done.

I am so glad that tax season is almost over because that means soon we will be starting on the Family room.  My sewing corner will be a reality.  I am excited about that.  The library will be there too.  I am bringing the bookshelf that is in the living room back down in the family room.  I will move the shelf that is in the dining room back into the living room and that is where the kids toys will be.  I need the bookshelf back downstairs because I have books that need to go on it.  I love reading and I love books so I have plenty.  I don't plan to get rid of any of my books that are in the family room.  I will also put the writing books back on the shelves too.  They are in the storage unit right now so they need to come back.  Next month the storage unit will be closed.  I am anxious to be done with that.  There are about 4 to 6 business boxes that I have to keep and I will put those in the garage.  I am not going to get a different storage unit because they are very expensive and rather unnecessary since I have a garage.  I will also be figuring out a way to sell the fibro cook books that I have in the garage.  Andrew and I wrote them in 2005.  Some of the front info (not the recipes) are outdated because of new testing and studies.  I have about 800 of them left.  Yeah, that is a lot.  I do hope to sell some, if not all of them some day.

One the TV is all about Prince William and Catherine's wedding.  I remember being so fascinated with Princess Diana.  I got up super early to watch the wedding.  I also got up super early to watch Prince Andrew and Sarah's wedding too.  I am not sure if I will get up at 5:30 am to watch the wedding.  I imagine it will be played over and over all day long.  We shall see if I am awake enough for the wedding in 11 days.  (The TV told me that.  I had no idea)

I am going to watch Dancing with the Stars now then off to bed.  I am a bit tired now.  I have been very tired since Saturday.  I think the stress of the day made me very exhausted.  I do have a bit of a bad headache again today.  I do hope it is a good day for you and less pain!

so tired today

I am so tired today.  I don't know if it is because of the long day yesterday or the stress of yesterday, but I am exhausted today.  There were so many desserts yesterday that I ended up bringing home almost the entire yellow cake.  The chocolate one was the shape by I don't care for chocolate cake so I left it.  I really shouldn't have made them, it was a waste of my time and my money.  I wasn't very happy about that but next time, I will not make anything.

I also got called a goody two shoes yesterday which did not make me feel very good.  I was actually really mad with the tone of the voice that was used to call me that.  So now, I am a spoiled brat and a goody two shoes according to Tillie.  I don't find that funny nor do I think it is true.  They were not said in a complementary tone either.  Andrew agreed with the good two shoes comment.  Yeah, what a way to make a cousin feel good.  I did not feel very welcome, I actually almost left because that was so mean.  I don't go places and insult people but I guess I am fair game.  I almost got in an argument with a cousin because she said if she could she would come and take my Japanese maple out of my yard and put it in hers, I said no you wouldn't, she said yes she would.  Well, really?  It is my plant in my house and my brother Richard planted it for my mother.  I was like, oh my, just go to someone's house and steal a plant.  Fortunately, she has emphatically said she is not coming back to my house, so I am hoping I am safe.  Apparently, when she was cleaning out Mom's room (they were supposed to only sort, not get rid of - yeah, many tears over that one) she became ill.  She pretty much said my house is full of mold and something like that.  I pointed out that there is no mold in my house.  I know there isn't, I had it checked and we are all clean from mold.  My mom waterproofed the family room 10 years ago and it is still going strong so no dampness and no mold.

I am not sure why it is okay for people to hurt my feelings when I get reminded not to hurt other peoples feelings (I do NOT go around insulting and hurting people's feelings either).  I guess I just don't matter to certain members of the family.  If I have to worry about their feelings, they should worry about mine.  I am glad I will not be seeing them for Easter, I am going to Kathy's parents house with Kathy.  It was nice to see my Uncle and his wife and a couple of cousins I haven't seen in a really long time, but the insults from 1 cousin and 1 brother were rather mean and I didn't need that.  I don't know if I will go to too many family functions for a while.  It will depend on who is there.  I do like seeing the ones who are nice to me, but I can do without the argument and the insults.  I am not a spoiled brat nor am I goody two shoes.  Do I like to do what is right?  Well, yes, but you don't need to insult me because I am not a rule breaker or a law breaker.  I didn't find it funny at all.

I am heading back to bed again soon because I am so tired today.  I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Party Day

Today was my and my cousin, Darrin's birthday party.  It was fun.  I still have trouble at family functions because Mom isn't with me.  I miss her even more when we are all together because she should be with us. She was the matriarch, now Tillie is.  Wilbert was there.  He doesn't look like he is really doing too well.  He sat at the kitchen table most of the time.  He did come into the living room for a bit right before he left.  Tillie left before he did because, I guess, they have trouble getting him out the door when she is there so this is the best way to do it.  Andrew was there too along with many cousins.  My cousin, Kenny, his wife, Vicki, and their son, Kyle were there too.  I haven't seen Kyle since he was a little boy.  Kyle and I are now facebook friends.  He is very interested in the family tree.  Tillie and Wilbert have done a lot of work on the McAgy family tree.  Mom was interested too, I was at one time, but right now, I am just not into anything.  Maybe in the future I will be.  Kyle did comment that when he got home he was going to have to draw a family tree to see where everyone belongs.  I can imagine that it would be confusing.  It is difficult when you are meeting one side of the family you have never seen before.  I know them all, so it isn't an issue to me.  My Uncle John, his wife, Michelle, and their son, Jayson were there too.  They just got back from Jamaica last week.  Michelle's niece was getting married there.  They had a great time.

Kayla and Amanda had their lessons this morning before I went to the party.  Both are getting ready for the Spring Concert.  Kayla has decided she is only singing one song.  I said that was perfectly okay.  Amanda is singing one with Katie and then she is singing one by herself.  Kayla is singing one with Amanda.  All in all, I think it will go well.

I have a bit more of a headache today.  I got it at the party near the end.  I left before most everyone did since I had a long drive to go.  It was 1 3/4 hours away and about 1/4 tank of gas.  I do hope that my head goes back to its normal headache.  Somedays I don't even notice the normal headache all day, but tonight's is pretty bad.  I am also very tired.  Driving by myself so far makes me exhausted.  I do hope to see my Uncle again soon.  I also got to spend a lot of time with my brother Andrew.  I forgot to bring the gift I found that Momma had bought in 2006 at Disney World for him.  He laughed when I told him about it.  I was so happy to find the music box that she bought me when we were in Disney.  It was in her Disney box that they saved of her stuff for me.  Momma must have bought it when we were there years ago and forgot about it.  She would buy Christmas gifts all year long and then put them away until Christmas.  Andrew wants me to get rid of all our stuff and move to London with him.  I did tell him that I do not want to move and I like our house.  He said he doesn't like our house and he doesn't miss it at all.  I guess that is good, it means he likes London, Ont., which is where he lives.  He and Angie live together now.  I am glad to see they are together.  It seemed like that just wasn't going to happen.  I was teasing Andrew about having children, and apparently, Angie wants some so oh, okay, maybe I will be an aunt again someday.  If not, that is okay.

I am very tired now.  I am definitely heading to bed early.  Charlie is supposed to be coming tomorrow to trim the bushes.  Addison was here to clean out under the bushes.  He had to earn some volunteer hours for church so he asked if he could do something with my yard.  Hey, I was all for it.  He is also going to cut the grass this summer for me again.  Thank goodness.  I would not be able to do it.  I just can't walk that well to do it.  I am thankful that Charlie is going to trim the trees in the yard, he is doing the front and the back.  The side bushes are okay, they don't need to be trimmed, I don't think.  Between the two young men, our yard will be rocking.

I do hope you had a great day too.  It was a good day despite missing Momma at the party.  I just miss her so much ALL the time.  I don't expect it to get better.

Friday thoughts

I am so glad it is Friday again.  The week flew by, which is good for me.  I had Katie's lesson earlier this afternoon.  It was so hard to get up this morning because I think I was awake most of the night.  I don't like it when it is like that.  I don't know why I was awake most of the night, but i am so tired now.  I foresee an early night since I have to be up at 10:30 am tomorrow for lessons.  After lessons, I will head over to Windsor to pick up Lia and Esther since they need a ride.  Since Andrew is not graduation tomorrow (it is in May), then I won't have to worry about leaving early enough to get a good sleep so that is good.  That was my big concern.  Now I just have to get the info from Andrew about the graduation.

I am making the cakes tonight for the party.  I am excited about seeing so many of my cousins.  I haven't seen them in a really long time.  The last time I saw them was at Mom's burial in Chatham and I must say, I was not doing to well then so I didn't enjoy the visit because I was so sad.  I am still sad a lot, but sometimes it isn't so bad.

I have discovered I really like going to the hair salon to get my hair washed.  It feels so nice and pretty.  I have been wearing it up for so long, I forgot how dark my hair is.  The scalp is doing better too.  It was really difficult for me to wash my hair with one arm since the other arm doesn't work to well.  The bursitis doesn't let me lift the arm up too much so that was pretty hard for me to do.  I go to the salon on Tuesdays and Fridays to get my hair washed.  I also like it when other people do my hair.  It usually turns out better than when I do it.  It has always been that way for me.

It is a regular missing Mom day.  A few nights ago it was a horrible missing Mom night, but so far today, it is just regular.  I have to go and find the cord for the trimmer.  I just remembered that.  Charlie may or may not be coming tomorrow to do the bushes.  It is supposed to rain tomorrow so I am not thinking he is coming tomorrow.  Maybe Sunday, if it doesn't rain too much then.  This whole weekend is supposed to rain.  Next weekend is supposed to be better though, so I am looking forward to that.

I picked up some Easter candy for the Heyart kids for Easter from me.  They didn't have cute little bags though so I will have to use zip locks.  I will get the candy in order for next Sunday.  I can't believe how late Easter is this year.  It is amazing how late it is.  I am glad I am going to the Knights' for Easter.  I mean, Kathy 2 days in a row?  What could go wrong?  Nothing!!!

Well, I think I am off to make some cakes!

somewhat productive day

I moved 8 boxes out of the storage unit into the garage today.  I was very happy about this.  I am now exhausted from doing it, but happy at the same time.  I sorted through some boxes and placed some away from the others that I am keeping.  There are sooooooo many that I am not keeping.  Lots of reference books are going.  They are old and out dated and I don't want them.  I do not have the room for them, nor do I want to make room for them.  I am just thankful I got 8 of them out.  I plan to get some more next week since this weekend is supposed to rain all weekend.  Yuck, but hey, it is April and you know what they say?  April showers bring May flowers and i do love the flowers.

I talked to Kathy for about 45 minutes this afternoon when I got back.  She is working on the Easter basket planning today.  It looks like I will be at her parents' house for Easter dinner.  Hey, works for me, I get Kathy 2 days in a row.  Since I have no Easter plans, this will work beautifully.  I do plan to get the kids a bit of chocolate for Easter.  I will get it this weekend before they are all gone.  Nothing huge, just a little something for them.  I also have to get some eggs and oil for the cakes I am making tomorrow afternoon for Saturday's party.  Saturday we are celebrating my birthday and my cousin, Darrin's birthday too.  It shall be fun.  It will be at Darrin's house.  He is a very nice cousin, well, most of them are.  He has a daughter named Ocean Dawn who is just delightful.  She is a growing so fast.  I think she is 10 or 11 now, I am not sure which.  I will have one cake say Happy Birthday Heather and the other Happy Birthday Darrin.  That way we are both covered.  I am checking tonight to make sure that it is only us, if there is another birthday, I will add the name to one of the cakes.  I did find out Hayley won't be at the party.  I am a bit disappointed, but she has something that came up so she can't make it.  Audrey isn't sure either because it depends on her exam for the day.  I do know my cousin, Kenny and his wife, Vicki, will be there.  I am very excited about that.  I look forward to seeing all my cousins there, there are just too many to name here.  I have a lot of cousins.  My uncle John will be there too with his family. My younger brother will be there too so that is good.  He is officially finished with his college work now.  He is looking for a job.  He is an outreach worker in London, Ontario.  I think he will be great at it.  I do hope he gets a job soon.  He officially graduates in late May from what he said today.  I plan to be there and am hoping our older brother will be there too.  We both miss him a lot.  I haven't seen him since Mom's funeral and Andrew hasn't seen him for 6 years.  I at least get to talk to the big brother every so often, whereas I don't know if Andrew does or not.  I forget to ask him and he doesn't mention it.  I hope he does.  It is good to be in contact with brothers.

I think I am going to lay down for a bit.  I am so tired from bringing in those boxes.  Hard to believe 8 boxes exhaust me, but they did.  Next time I will only bring 4 home at a time.  There aren't that many left that I can lift anyway so I am almost done picking them up and bringing them home.

I do hope your day is going well.  Mine is despite the extra exhaustion and the disappointment of not having Christine's lesson tonight.  Her mom is ill so we will make up the lesson as soon as her mom calls me.  Christine is a very talented young girl who will go far with piano.

hump day

Happy Wednesday!  It is hard to believe that it is Wednesday, but yes, it is.  I am looking forward to the rest of the week because I have 1 student today, 2 tomorrow, 3 on Friday, and 2 on Saturday along with the family birthday party.  I am excited about that.  I did also find out, Andrew is NOT graduating Sunday, it is in MAY.  Well, that just ruins my plans for a surprise this weekend with having Richard come out.  Bummer, is all I have to say about that.  I will just plan it for next month.  I do hope it is not on the same day as the Spring Concert.  Andrew is not very forth coming on details for this event.  I doubt he even knows when it is.  I do hope he tells me soon so that I can have Richard in on the details and then surprise Andrew.  I know I would love to have my big brother at my graduation, oh wait, I did.  As a matter of fact, Richard and I had the same commencement day for our MBAs.  It was grand to have him to myself for the first part of the day.  I was disappointed that he didn't come to my party, but I had lots of other people come and students too so that was good.

It is a quiet afternoon right now.  Carson will be here in 30 minutes.  What a cutie he is.  He has a very nice voice too.  I do hope he practiced well this week and had no trouble.  He has only had 1 lesson so far.  He did very nicely though for his first lesson.

Rick DID have his lesson last night.  I was worried because he was gone for a month, but he arrived and had a great lesson.  Next week I think we are going to do some sight reading with do-re-mi syllables.  I have to dig the book out for all my vocal students.  They all need to learn this.  Ear Training can be either super easy or really hard, not usually an in between thing for students.  I found the sight singing rather easy but the dictation difficult.  We won't be doing any dictation.

I haven't put my new printer together yet.  I keep meaning too, but then I forget or I get busy, mostly I forget, stupid fibro fog!  I am thankful that while I have fibro fog a lot, I am able to focus on lessons.  I don't know how I would do if I had more a day, but I used to be able to teach 6 to 8 lessons a day and now I am lucky if I get 4 in one day.  I am praying for 5 more students that have lessons weekly.  I find I am sleeping a bit better and don't freak over finances as much now that I have a couple more regular students.  I am almost paying all the bills.  I still have medical bills to pay and I hope to get them on track this next week or so.  I just need 5 more and all the bills will be covered nicely.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 comes out on Friday.  Unfortunately, I will not be getting it on Friday.  I will have to wait until next month or so.  Same with the new Narnia movie.  I just don't have enough money this month for them.  Oh well, maybe next month.  It isn't like I am lacking in anything to watch, I have several I haven't seen yet.  I still haven't watched some of the ones Mom and I watched together.  I just haven't been able to do it.  I had to tell the young lady at the pharmacy that Mom passed away.  She was shocked.  She had thought that I just left Mom at home all this time.  She was totally stunned because she had seen Mom quite a bit with me.  It made me tear up on the way home.  I just miss her so much.  I wonder how my friends who are in the same club as me did it.  How do you go and move on without your mom?  Especially if you were as close as we were?  I often wonder and want to ask them, how do you do this?  How do you get out of bed and want to face the day?  If it wasn't for teaching, I doubt I would ever get up.  I think I would just lie there and fade away.  Teaching is the only thing that gets me up.  Without it, I don't know what I would do.  How do you get up and motivate yourself when you are so sad?  i miss her so much all the time.  I just don't know.

It is pretty nice and sunny out today.  I do hope you are having good weather too.

Tuesday 4-12

I am watching the news and there is a designer who makes dresses out of garbage and recycle materials.  Somehow, I can't see me wearing a paper dress or a plastic bag dress.  That just looks and sounds weird.  The dresses aren't really practical either, but hey, it gives him something to do so okay.

It has been a nice and sunny day today!  Unfortunately, it will rain by the weekend.  Charlie is going to come this weekend or next to do the bushes for me.  He is going to trim and shape them all.  I am very happy about this because it so needs to be done.  Our backyard will look a bit better, but since the gardens are not weeded during the summer, it won't look super good.  Hey, I am least getting the bushes and shrubs  shaped and taken care of.  As long as the grass is cut all summer that is all that matters.  I am not worried about a great looking yard, just a better looking one like we have had these last few summers.

I haven't heard from Andrew so I don't know the details of his graduation on Sunday.  it is kind of annoying as I am trying to coordinate a surprise from him.  I do hope to hear the details tomorrow.  I messaged him this afternoon so I am hopeful he got it.  I need to know these details, like where and what time.  I need an address so I can get directions for it.  It is a 2 hour drive for me to get there.  We have the family party on Saturday and then graduation on Sunday.  I am not sure what I am doing for Easter.  At this point, I have no plans.  Kathy is coming to town so I plan to see her on the Saturday.  I still have some gift certificates from Christmas so we will be using them.  I love both restaurants that we have them for.  We shall see where we go.

I am setting up the new printer tonight.  I have to scan a paper and send it out tomorrow.  I have had the printer since last Thursday, but I have not pulled it out yet.  I am excited about scanning pictures of the family with it since I found a few more pictures out of an album I have never seen before.  It has pictures of me and my family when I was about 7 or 8 years old.  I even have a birthday crown in one of them.

I am doing laundry tonight.  As usual, I waited to the last minute to get it done.  Someday, I will do some laundry before it is super necessary, but I am not holding my breath about it.  I have a pile of clean clothes on the dryer that need to be put away.  If I have a guest this weekend, I will for sure be putting them away.  i also have started putting some stuff away in the living room.  I can't believe tomorrow is Wednesday already.  I have to move the box that has the disposables in it and move it to the garbage.  Since all the packages are open, I can't donate them anywhere.  Bummer, but nothing I can do about that.  I also have to move the Christmas boxes downstairs along with the Christmas tree.  The living room just needs to be picked up a bit and the CDs put away.  I have a pile of originals that need to go upstairs to my room where the originals are.  I am not sure what originals need copies made of them though.  I am going to check that sometime this week.  There is some music that needs to be put away too but I will do that after next week.  I have a student or students everyday but Sunday this week.  I have Carson's lesson tomorrow.  He is such a cutie.  Charlie and Rick had their lessons tonight.  Both are doing pretty well.  Rick was absent for the last 4 weeks.  He was on vacation to Hawaii and Las Vegas.  He seemed to have a good time from what he said.  I liked Hawaii when I was there 7 years ago.  I went for a writing conference.  I went snorkeling in the volcano and up the road to Hana.  It was lovely.  I had a very good time.  I think the best conference that I went on was the one to Mexico on the cruise ship.  Mom came with me on that one and it was so much fun.  We had such a good time.  Mom and I giggled a lot during that trip.  I have been lucky, I have traveled some before I got too sick.  Now, I am not so interested in traveling a lot right now.  Maybe as I get more students I will be interested, but right now I am happy to stay here at home or go see my brothers.  That is the only place I want to go to.  Visiting my brother is all.  He has the lovely attachments, William (10) and Abigail (11 almost 12).  So hard to believe they are that old now.  Where has the time gone?

I am planning to watch NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles then off to bed.  It has been a good day so far.  I did some laundry, I taught a few lessons, I read some of my book, I cleaned up a bit in the living room, so now I am a bit tired and ready for bed soon.  I do hope this finds you doing well.

spring!

We have decent weather today.  I don't remember if it supposed to rain or not but being this is April and not May, I would say chances are very good for rain.  I put out the trash bins for tomorrow, well, Bob actually took the trash bins out for me.  They were really heavy today as they were very full.  I will have empty bins again after tomorrow.

Bob was struggling a bit through his lesson today.  For some reason his fingers just wouldn't behave for him.  This is very, very rare for him.  I teased him a bit by saying his fingers want to go to the garden and work not play the piano.  After going through the songs and parts of the songs again, he was back on track.  He will be ready for the spring concert in May.  He will be playing Volare and a Bach Invention.  His Mozart Sonata will not be ready as we are only on page 3 but that is okay, these pieces take a long time to learn as they are long.  I love this sonata that he is learning, simply love it.  It is one of my absolute favorites of all time.  Mom loved it too.  When Frank played it last year or so, Mom was so cute, she would bob her head in time.  You could see she was singing the song in her head.  I so miss her listening to all the lessons.

I have Emily tonight for her 2nd lesson.  What a cutie.  She is missing her front tooth and you can see it trying to come in.  She is 7.  She is very excited to learn.  I love students that are very excited to learn.  It makes my job super fun and you can really get the student excited.  With a student at that age, I don't use the word practice, I just tell her or him, to play their songs several times through a day.  it seems to work okay and they do it.  I also say that they can play for their dolls or stuffed animals.  I used to put my dolls on the floor, arranged in an audience fashion, and then I would practice my clarinet.  I loved, and still do, playing my clarinet.  I don't play as often as I used to, which isn't very good, but i am getting back into the swing of practicing it.

Richard may be coming for the weekend.  I am excited.  I haven't seen him since Momma passed away and well, quite frankly, I can't say I enjoyed visiting him as I was so sad and upset at the time.  This time, if he is able to come, I will enjoy my brother's visit.  He is such a good big brother.  I simply adore him.  I also adore my younger brother (who for some reason likes to tell everyone he is older than me).  At this point, I do not see either one of them very much so it will be good to see them both.  I don't think the boys have seen each other in about 6 years.  That is an awfully long time not to see your sibling.  Fortunately, I see Andrew every so often at Uncle John's.  Richard I don't see as much since he lives about 3,000 miles away from me so I am thrilled when I do get him here.

Not too much happening today, getting the trash out was the big job of the day.  I have to clear up the living room before Friday and make up the bed in Mom's room.  I need to put the Christmas tree back downstairs and the decorations in the furnace room where they belong.  I plan to read some more of my writing course.  I am on chapter 14 now.  Only 4 more to go and then I am done with the initial read through.  I had some ideas this morning at about 4 am.  I am going to put a notebook in my room for when I can't sleep and I come up with some story lines, or ideas.  I used to do this all the time.  When I was in college, I used to call the answering machine and say my ideas or sing the tunes in my head for when I was writing music.  Mom always chuckled at that.  She would check the machine and her my notes to myself.  She never minded.  Sometimes she would write out my ideas that I put on the machine for me so I would have them when I came home.  She was very good at dictating notes.  The melodies or lyrics she would just leave on the machine.  That was not her forte.  I always had her listen to my songs or read my stories.  I even had a recording studio in the family room for about 10 years.  I no longer need it as everything is digital now and that was all analog but it was fun creating Christmas tapes for everyone in the family.  I miss doing that.  Mom would listen to them all the time.  Sometimes I would be like, Mom, I don't want to her me sing, and she would say, too bad, I do.  She was very proud of my musical abilities.  She loved that I am a teacher.  She was so proud of that.  Well, if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be a teacher or a musician.  She got me started on loving music at a very young age.  She would hum some melody and I would hum it back.  We did this starting when I was about 2.  We had music in the house all the time when I was small.  I so miss those days at times.  Now when I hear certain music or certain songs, I can smile and remember her.  It doesn't hurt all the time to remember her, just some of the time.

a lovely day

What a beautiful day, both with the weather and with going out to dinner/lunch with friends.  Emily was even able to be there!  I was very happy to see her.  She is so busy as she is a senior in high school this year and she now works part time.  I was happy to see her and Lily for dinner.  We went to Olive Garden for our meal.  I love that place!  It is so yummy!!!  We had a really good time.  I think we were there for a good 2 hours.  We had to leave when it was time for Lily's youth group meeting.  I had such a good time.  I haven't had a relaxing time with the Emerton's in a while.  They are just so busy.  They are such good friends of mine.  They were good friends of Momma too.  I got seafood Alfredo.  So yummy!  Lily got macaroni and cheese and french fries.  She said it was very good.  Emily got a salad.  The food at Olive Garden is always good.

It is 83 degrees today.  How lovely!!!  I am enjoying the sunshine today.  It goes back to the 50s tomorrow and for the rest of the week.  I suppose that is good because I don't relish a super hot summer this year.  Thank goodness for a/c!  I also on the very hot days, miss the pool we had when I was growing up.

Not much happening for the rest of the day.  I am going to work on my writing course some more for the evening.  So far, I am reading the entire course through and then I will go back and read it again and do the exercises.  I am starting to get a few ideas for a story.  I have never had this issue before so it is new to me not to have a story in my head.  I don't really like a blank head.  I miss the music and stories that would fill my imagination.  I am hoping the fog will clear up as I start writing.

I did talk to my big brother, Richard, on my birthday, Friday.  I called him about 9 and then he called me right back.  He said he wasn't sure what time to call.  The kids are busy as usual.  The are now 10 and 11.  Abigail will be 12 in July.  Seems like yesterday she was born.  I sure miss them a lot.  I don't get to see them very often.  I haven't seen them since July 2008 when Mom and I went to Seattle to see them.  I am hoping to see them this summer.  I just miss the whole family so much.

I am having a medium pain day.  Not too bad for the nice weather we are having.  I do have a bit more than usual of a headache right now.  I took some pain pills so that should help.  I have a busy week of teaching ahead of me.  Boy, do I like that!  I just wish I had more!  Hopefully soon I will have a few everyday except Sunday.  i do hope this finds you doing well!