mid week

I had 3 one hour lessons starting at 4:30.  It was nice.  I miss teaching one lesson after one lesson.  The lessons started with Carson's piano lessons.  He is doing pretty well.  He will be starting to read bass clef notes next week.  I can't wait.  It should be fun.  I asked him to please bring his flash cards next week.  We will need them.  Then he got 2 new vocal songs.  He was pretty happy to sticker 2 songs that we are done with.  He did ask if he could sing one of them if he wanted too.  I said sure, you can sing it all the time if you want.  Carson is such a cutie.  He is 8 years old and has been singing for about 6 weeks now and playing piano for about 4 weeks now.  Rick is back from his yoga trip so he had is lesson this evening.  We started two new songs tonight too.  Beth brought her audition material so we worked on it for about 1/2 lesson.  I was happy that she brought the music so that we could work on it.

Other than the lessons, not much is going on.  I bought some new wet swiffer cloths but I didn't feel like cleaning the floor so I didn't.  I will do it tomorrow after Breanna's lesson before Amanda's lesson.

It has been an okay day, it definitely improved this afternoon.  I was tired and a bit bored but since I slept in I didn't want to take a nap.  Kathy called right before my little guy's lesson, I was happy to talk to her.  We spoke for a good 20 minutes until Carson arrived.  She is coming to town to help me on Saturday.  I can't wait for that stupid unit to be empty!  I am so looking for it.  I am also very happy to see her this weekend.  I am thankful for the help.  Julie is going to help me with the family room after Emily and Lily are out of school.  Emily graduates this year.  Oh my gosh!  Emily turns 18 on Friday!  Oh my!  I just remembered that.  I remember her when she was 6, now she is going to be 18.  Wow, that was fast.  At least I have Lily for a while longer.  She is 13 and growing up super fast.  It is hard to believe how fast she is growing too.  Aggie is going to be 21 on Friday.  She reminded me of that last week.  Students grow up way too fast, that is all I have to say.

Pain level is okay today, just normal, nothing more than normal.  My head is a bit worse than usual today.  I don't know why.  It just is.  I hope it is back to normal tomorrow.  I hope your day was okay.

thoughts of the day

It was such a fun lunch today!  i met up with my friend Jennie at Applebee's and talked for about 2 hours.  I really enjoyed myself a lot.  I got to see a few scrapbooks that she had put together.  One was from their first trip to Disney and the other was a family tree of her husbands family.  They were both done so nicely! I have to put some of the pictures of Mom in a scrapbook of just her.  I want to make one for each boy as well as one for myself.  I think the boys would like it a lot.  I just don't know if I will be able to sort the pictures enough to do that.  I will try this summer when my sewing room is finished.  I will have room there for crafts and scrapbooking too.  All in all, I would have to say lunch was great.  I love meeting with Jennie and hearing how the family is doing.  She has 4 children, the oldest 2 are twins and they are 10, then an 8 year old with the 20 month old finishing the family up.  She is also planning to go to the 25 year reunion this October.  I wanted to check for sure.  I am glad she is going too.  I am planning to go and so is Kathy with her husband, Tony.

I realized that because I was so wiped on Sunday, I missed Army Wives!  I did!  I can't believe it!  How did I miss it?  I was in bed about 8 pm.  I just couldn't stay awake anymore.  I will hopefully be able to catch up with the episode on the Lifetime channel webpage.  I am going to try to watch it tomorrow afternoon before lessons.  I have never watched anything on the computer from the Internet before.  It will be a new experience for me.

I have the heater on again tonight.  I am just so cold!  I have a sweatshirt on too, but still, I am cold.  Tonight is NCIS!  I love my NCIS!  It is the season finale though, I think.  That disappoints me, but hey, what can I say?  I love my NCIS shows.  I think I have been able to see the every episode of the last two seasons.  I know I have missed a few of NCIS Los Angeles this season and last, but I think I have seen all of the regular NCIS episodes.  I am sure if there is one that I have missed, I will catch it on the reruns.  I don't watch a whole lot of TV, it just isn't interesting to me right now, but I don't miss the NCIS shows if I don't have to.  I did watch a lot of HGTV but it is getting boring now that there are a lot of repeat shows.  I have started reading a lot more again.  The used bookstore is great for that.  I need some new authors.  I think I have read every book that my favorite authors have written, if not, it is darn close.  I take suggestions, so if you have any, let me know.  I was very into Kristin Hannah a few months ago.  I have read almost all of her books now.  I own about 8 or so of them now.  I think I have read most of them 2 times through.  I have read all the Harry Potter books at least 5 times now not to mention the Twilight Books at least 3 times each.  I am not sure where the book New Moon is right now either.  I know that it is downstairs somewhere.  I can't wait until the books are back where they belong, on the bookshelves.  I am bringing the bookshelf downstairs that is in the living room right now.  I will replace it with another shorter bookshelf for the children's toys that I keep for siblings waiting for piano lessons taking place.  Acer has asked if I had other toys other than the cars, legos, and stuffed animals.  I had to say, I am sorry, no I don't.  I don't know what other toys to add to the collection.  I am on a very tight budget and would not be able to add any more for a few months.  I will ask him for suggestions.  Maybe there is something at the Thrift Store that the kids would like.  It has to be a silent toy though and Acer really likes ones that make noises, not that I blame him, they are the fun ones.

Today was a really good day.  I enjoyed lunch with Jennie and Charlie had a really good lesson.  I gave him all the returnable cans because he and his girlfriend are collection them for the relay for life.  He was happy about that.  I was glad to help.  I had at least $10 worth of returnables for him.  I hope tomorrow is as good as it was today.  I have 3 one hour lessons tomorrow starting with Carson, then Rick, and finally Beth.  I am very glad about that.  I do hope you are having a good day too.

is it really May?

It is so cold outside again.  Is it really May?  The calendar says so, but the temperature tonight has wind chill in it!  What is up with that?  Last week we had 2 days of upper 70s and now we have 30s.  Such is the life with Michigan weather.  Ugh, is all I have to say about that.

I am so excited about tomorrow.  I will be meeting my friend, Jennie for lunch!  I only get to see her every few months because of her work schedule and the fact she lives 1 1/2 hours from me.  We meet 1/2 way in between us at Applebees.  I am so happy to be seeing her.  Then I just have my Charlie's lesson.  I am very excited to spend an hour or so with Jennie.  We have been friends since we were in Junior High.  We met in band class.  Jennie plays the tuba (still does with a civil war reenactment band) and I played the clarinet (I still play too!)  We were in band together all the way into high school.  I bet I have pictures of us somewhere in the house from band camp.  I loved band camp.  The first year I roomed with Kathy and Karlyn and the second year I think I was with Kathy again, but I am not sure who else.  Kathy and I have been friends since we were three.  Facebook certainly has been a good thing for me as I am now in touch with friends that I haven't seen since High School.  I am actually planning to go to the 25 year reunion.  I haven't attended one, so this will be the first but many of my facebook friends (and kathy and Jennie) are planning to attend also.  It won't be until October though, so I have many months before it happens.

I have had to turn the little heater on again tonight because I am just so cold.  This weather is just insane! I hope the weather where you are it isn't so insane like it is in Michigan.

Because it is so cold, I have a bit more pain in the lower back and hips than usual.  I do hope there is something that can be done about it.  I feel the ache all the way to my bones, not just the muscles.  I have to wait until June 13 before I go back to the doctor.  Although, I suppose if they find something, they may call me in earlier.  I will wait and see.

This weekend will be exciting as I am CLOSING the storage unit!  It is 1/4 empty.  I have a few more boxes that need to come home and the rest will be donated!  I can't wait until it is empty and closed!  No more paying for the stupid storage unit.  I should never have opened it at all but at the time I thought I was doing the right thing.  The plan was to move from where we are now to closer to the store (I still had it at that time).  Well, we ended up losing the store before we moved, which in the long run ended up being better than us moving with how quickly the little Momma went down.  I am also very glad we never moved.  I would not want to live in a new house without here, at least here, I have many good memories of us.  My first (and favorite) memory is me walking down the stairs and Momma was doing something in the kitchen.  I was almost all the way down the stairs and Momma looked up and smiled at me.  That is my earliest memory.  I have many good ones like that.

Here is a group picture of the students from the concert yesterday afternoon.  They all did so awesome.

Notice Acer in the corner not wanting to be a part of the group.  I did get a good picture of him and Aggie together.  He is such a character.  I simply adore him as well as all my students.  We are going to have a BBQ concert this summer in August.  I think it will be a blast.

I do hope this finds you doing well!

Spring Concert day!

The Spring Concert went well.  All of the students who performed did very well.  One little one, decided at the last minute he couldn't do this, but that was okay.  He has only had a few lessons and that was just fine.  He didn't want to stay to watch the concert so his mom took him home.  I will see him at his lesson this week.  I also mentioned to him that he has the option to sing with someone at the concerts and Aggie was right there and said I will sing with you.  He smiled at that so I think for the next concert, Aggie will sing with him.  He is such a good student not to mention an adorable young man.

We had a bit of a reception after the concert which went well.  All the students talked to each other and started to get to know each other a bit.  It was wonderful.  A couple of students couldn't stay for the reception, they had to go right away, but that was okay.

I am just waiting for it to become time for bed.  I am so tired.  These concerts take a lot out of me, but I wouldn't miss them for the world.  I love the concerts that we do.  I love the students showing what they have learned and how they have progressed.  I really do.  I finished the program in plenty of time last night, the only thing I did do though was leave Calli's CD here at home.  yup, I had to race back home to pick it up before the concert started.  Boy was I missing Mom for organizing me for the concert.  Usually, the bag is packed the night before.  i remembered that in the middle of the night but I was too tired to come and pack it at that time.  I packed it this morning and forgot the CD.  Thank goodness i remembered before she sang or it was too late to come back and get it.  We even got started close to on time with this oopsie that I did.  The concert lasted about 45 minutes to an hour.  We all stayed for about another 1 1/2 hours after chatting away before we cleaned up and left.  I am rather tired now but I was fine while I was there.  I brought home some pop that was left over and a few cookies and 2 brownie cakes.  They will be for this week.  Boy are they yummy!  I will eat 1 a day and not have too many in one day.  That is my goal.  I have done pretty well with eating better this last couple days.  I will do even better this week.

I have a busy week of the usual lessons.  I also have a subdivision meeting this week too.  It is the annual meeting.  I have to remember to set aside the dues money that will be collected at the meeting.  I should be able to pay it while I am at the meeting.  It would be better if I did, that way I won't forget all about it like I have in the past.  Not a recommended thing to forget.

Pain levels are a bit higher than usual, probably because of the rain.  My hands are sore tonight too.  It has poured rain all day.  I hope next weekend is good because Kathy and Tony are coming to help empty the storage unit.  It should only take a few hours on Saturday and then we should be finished with it.  That is my goal!  I do hope this finds you doing well and having a good day.  Maybe even some sunshine for you!  As soon as I get the results of all the testing being done, I will post them.  I have started having some night sweats again.  I am hoping I won't tonight.

getting ready for the concert

I am printing programs as we speak with the new printer.  Boy, is it slow.  I thought they were supposed to be faster and better.  I think I will use this one for scanning and copying only after this.  My oldie, but a goodie, prints much faster than this brand new one.  It isn't even like there are a ton of pages, we are talking, 20.  Then I get to design the front of the program and wait forever for it to print too.  I do like creating the programs though.  that is fun for me.  I don't know what I will do on the front, but it will look pretty.  My old printer can print on both sides which really comes in handy for these things, but I am out of color ink and it doesn't behave properly if I don't have both inks.  I have discovered this the last few months.  I will get the new ink later this month.  It just isn't on the important to do list.  I am looking forward to tomorrows concert.  I have 10 students performing, so I am printing 20 programs.  I hope that is enough, if not, oh well.  I will print a mast copy for the announcers.  It is easier that way.  I also have a master one for me.  Mom used to save them all but I have no where to put them anymore so I don't save them anymore.  Boy I miss mom for these things.  She used to help me get everything in order for the concerts and now my assistant isn't here anymore.  It is amazing what she used to help me with.  I would have had this program yesterday if she were here instead of today.

I had Kayla and Amanda's lessons this morning.  They are ready for their first concert.  Both are nervous, which is understandable as it is their first.  I am not sure outside of Calli who the announcers will be.  Probably Aggie will be one and then Calli.  Usually the Muglia girls take care of this for me, but they are unable to be in the concert because baby should be arriving any time now!  I am quite excited about the arrival too.  This will be number 9 in the family.  They are such a nice family.

I went and got the X-ray today.  The technician took 5 pictures of my hips and 5 of my spine.  Boy that table is super hard.  I am glad it is over and that I don't have to do it again for a while.  I wonder what they will find and whether or not it will tell them why I have been so sore, weak, and exhausted so much.  It is really getting in the way of doing things, the weakness I mean.  I am feeling okay mostly, today, but still my arms are so weak and uncomfortable.  I don't know what it means and I am tired of doctors.  (ooh, the printer finally stopped printing!)  I will be right back.  Time to make the cover and print that too.

Cover is done, just needs to start printing, which it should in a few minutes.  It takes a while for the printer to start too.  It is kind of annoying because part of me always wonders if it is going to print and print right.  I shall find out shouldn't I?  It is starting to print.  The first page printed backwards for some reason.  I fixed it.

So today was a slightly busy day with the lessons and the X-rays.  I hope that the testing is all finished at this point.

Tomorrow after the concert I am going to Calli and Acer's for dinner.  We will be having beef stew.  Yummy!!!  i love beef stew.  I make it in the crock pot every so often.  Right now my crock pot is waiting for the dishwasher to clean the inside pot.  Then this week I am going to make the last of the corned beef that I have.  I love corned beef but it is a seasonal thing for a roast although you can get it all year for lunch meat.  Sometimes I do that.  I really like corned beef a lot.  When my brother is in town and we go to the Irish Pub, I always get the corned beef meal.  It is so yummy!!!  Once, they messed up and made the wrong corned beef meal for me and they let us keep the mess up on free while they made the proper one.  I was glad because then Mom and I had a corned beef dinner for the next night.  Although I would have paid for it but they said no because they messed up.

It has been a good day, normal for pain wise, except for the weakness of the arms and body again.  Outside of that, I am having a normal pain level day.  I do hope you are having a good day too.

friday

I am so glad it is Friday.  I have a busy tomorrow planned already.  First up, I have 2 lovely lessons with the beautiful girls, Kayla and Amanda.  Then, I will be going to get my xrays on my hips and lower back.  I also will be creating the program and the CD needed for the concert on Sunday.  I don't have to make an appointment for the xrays, so I am really happy about that.  I am going tomorrow right after the lessons to get it out of the way.  I had the blood test this afternoon.  I went in to show the nurses what tests were being order so they could tell me if I could get it done at my primary care doctor's office.  Well, since I was there they said, we will do it now so I had the test today.  They took 3 tubes of my blood.  It isn't the most I have had taken, I have had 12 tubes taken before when I was at the Cleveland Clinic.  That was a lot plus I had to do a blood culture too.  That means you get poke and then you wait an hour and get poked again.  Yeah, not fun.

Callie and Acer had their lessons this afternoon.  Today was also Acer's Happy Gotcha Day.  This day 4 years ago, the Bowman-Tomlinson's went to China and picked up the little man.  It has been a great 4 years ever since.  Both he and his sister are such amazing children.  I simply adore them.  I adore all my students, they are great kids.  I have the best.  Katie has decided not to sing a solo at the concert.  She is so overwhelmed right now with school that she just doesn't feel like she is ready for the concert.  I said, no problem.  She is going to sing the duet with Amanda, but no solo for her.  She will probably do solos next concert in the summer, if we are able to have a summer concert, if not, Christmas will be good for her.

I am very tired again today.  I have been so tired, more than usual, lately and feeling weak.  I do hope these new tests find out why or least find out something that may help me.  Last night I was in bed at 8 pm.  Yes, 8 pm.  I was awake for a bit at 11:30 pm to about 1:00 am, but then it was sleep until noon today.  I am really wanting to not sleep that much, but what can I do?  I don't know.

I have decided to keep taking the Meloxicam even though it has a high risk of bleeding.  If I don't take it, but nighttime I can no longer walk so that is just not a good thing to me.  Kathy and i are going to start a blog together to encourage us to keep on track to lose weight.  I really need to do this.  I have started this evening.  I had a nice bowl of cereal for brunch and had a burrito bowl for dinner that was loaded with veggies.  No more burgers and fries.  I don't even feel very well when I have too much fries, but I eat them anyway and then just deal with the tummy.  No more, nada, finito.  I am done with them.  I have nice lunch meat, yogurt, good veggies for dinners, plus nice meats for dinners.  I am going to stop going out to get lunch because it isn't the healthiest food and it is expensive.  How can I save money for a emergency fund if I go out all the time?  You can't so saving money is more important.  I have good lunch and dinner food in the house and that is what I am going to have.  I feel good about this decision.  When Kathy is here next week we will create our new blog for each other.  This way we can encourage each other as we live 150 miles away.  She is on the west side of the state and I am on the east side.  This way, we will be able to really be accountable to someone and who could be better than a best friend?  no one, that's who.

I do hope you have a good evening and that blogger is behaving today unlike yesterday!

lovely new student

I had a new student today.  She is 32 and wants to singing better because she is becoming involved in community theatre.  What a wonderful goal.  She is working on 3 songs and will begin some classical music next week.  She is very interested in singing well.  She plans to audition in June for the Music Man.  Next week she will also have her audition music too.  I am excited to work with her.  She has a nice tone to her voice and we worked on the basics, lifting her eyebrows, air flow, and a few other things.  Beth will also be working on her breathing this week too.  She has a really cute notebook that she brought with her.  She ended up being 20 minutes late because she got lost.  Just as I was turning the computer on to get her phone number, she called me saying she was lost.  GPS's always seem to get people lost when they are on their way to my house, same thing with directions from Google or Mapquest.  So I gave her the directions and she arrived about 5 minutes later.  She was rather embarrassed to be late but that is okay.  She was also very nice about having to change her time just for next week because Rick has that time as a makeup for the day before when he would be just arriving home from his vacation.

Carson also did very well with his lesson today.  He chose his 2 piano pieces and is planning to sing only 1 song.  He is such a cutie, he really is.  He is going to sing "I'd Do Anything" from Oliver.  He is playing 2 piano songs that we are working on.  Next week he will be learning to start to read music.  We start with bass clef first and then we move on to treble clef.  I am excited and I have to remind him to bring flashcards next week too.  He doesn't always remember to bring them.  We haven't really needed them until next week.  He forgot his other two books  today.  We did have some homework in the Theory book but I don't know if he did it.  I will find out next week if he did it.

I had to go to the arthritis doctor this morning.  She isn't really happy that I am taking Meloxicam.  There is a risk (apparently very high) risk of bleeding with it because of the coumiden I take.  I have to have an xray on my lower back and two hips.  I have been extremely weak lately and super exhausted.  I also have to get more blood tests done.  Ugh, as if I don't get enough blood tests, I need more!  Yeah, I will be getting that this week or early next week.  For the xray, it is a walk in clinic at the hospital.  Out patient services.  The doctor wants me to go to the hospital because it is where I got it before and they can compare the old one to the new one.  I don't know what to do about the Meloxicam because it really helps the hips and back pain.  I haven't had any bleeding problems since I started it so I guess it has been okay.  I just know that without it, the pain is excruciating and I can barely walk so I really don't want to stop taking it.  There isn't anything else I can replace it with and that is the problem.

Despite the not sure what to do about the medicine, it has been a good day.  I am tired, as usual, and getting ready for bed soon, but overall, I have to say it has been an okay day.  I miss Mom, but that is soooo normal.  Pain is normal too.  I am yawning like crazy now.  I hope you have had a good day too.

I was getting super worried abut Charlie.  He was 20 minutes late and didn't answer his phone when I called.  So when he arrived, I was relieved.  He is rarely late.  In fact, generally he is a few minutes early so you can see why I was very nervous.  Once he arrived he quickly got his instrument out and his music on the stand so we could begin his lesson.  He did pretty well.  He is almost ready for the concert, which is on Sunday.  He is playing 2 pieces on the tenor saxophone and 1 piece on the drums.  I am excited about the drums because I have never heard him play so this will be exciting to me.  Acer will be excited too, I bet.  It has been a slow day for me.  I was going to go to the storage unit but I am feeling so weak and tired today so I will go tomorrow as long as it isn't raining.  I also have my arthritis doctor's appointment tomorrow morning.  Ugh, that is all I have to say about it.  I need to update my medicine list and print tonight.  I can't forget.  There I just did it.  It should print anytime now.  I have to get new ink for the old printer this weekend.  I need it to print the programs I need for Sunday.  I like creating the programs.  They are fun.  I don't do anything fancy anymore, just something simple now.  I used to go all out and elaborate but now I just don't do that.  I may next year, but this year I am just going to do something simple.  This new printer prints very slow not at all what it says on the printer box.  I don't particularly like how slow it is but it is also a copier and a scanner so that is why I got this one.  I suppose I could have spent more money and gotten a better one, but I didn't have the money to spend so I have this one.

I have to get music ready for Beth tomorrow.  She is a new adult, she will replace Amanda being going at the end of the month.  She wants musical theatre training so that is what we are going to do.

It was pretty nice out today again.  Tomorrow it is suppose to be in the mid 70's with high 70's on the weekend.  I am glad it is warming up.  I have been so cold this winter and spring.  It started in the fall with the temps dropping faster this year than usual.  I just don't want the super hot 90's weather so soon.  That weather I don't do well in either.  That is too hot for me.  I foresee doing what I do in the winter, hiding inside.  That is why I say I am a fall/spring girl although this spring so far has been cold.

I am so tired and weak today.  I did take a bit of a snooze this afternoon and I feel like I could go to bed right now.  This is insane.  It is only almost 8 pm.  My NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles will be on soon.  Maybe I will go to sleep right away for a change.  That would be a dream!  I have to be up early because I have the doctor appointment.  I may end up going to bed rather shortly and missing my shows.  If I knew how to tape them, I would but I don't.  I also don't have a DVR right now either.  I hope to get one this summer.  I am usually home so I don't miss much, but it would be nice to have for nights like tonight.  I don't have too much planned for the week except getting some more boxes out of the storage unit.  I am trying to get a few that I want out every few days so that when Kathy and Tony arrive, we just have to donate everything else.  I have to remember to tell Heather B-T that we are emptying the storage unit next weekend.  If she is available, she and Bill are planning to help.  I am excited about all the help I am getting.  Next up, the house.  Once the storage unit is empty and the boxes I need are at home, I will start my planning of the house.  Julie and Lily are planning to help me for that.  We will need muscle people when the furniture needs to be switched but that isn't right now yet.

I am so not feeling well tonight.  I think I am turning in shortly.  I am just so weak.  I don't understand this.  It hasn't happened in such a long time that I don't know what to think.  I don't know what is wrong either, but I will rest like my body is telling me too.  I am getting pretty good at listening to my body when it wants to rest.  The only advantage I can think of for living alone.  I can rest whenever i need and not have to worry about Mom.  Other than this, there is no advantage of not having the little Momma around.

I do hope you are having a better day than me right now.

Sunshine

It is so sunny out and I am loving every minute of it.  It is nice out, still need a jacket, but overall, it is so beautiful outside right now.  We are, of course, going to get some rain this week.  We were supposed to get it this weekend, but we didn't.  Now it is forecasted to be tomorrow and later this week.

Today is the baby brother, Andrew's birthday.  He is 42 officially now.  He he he!  We are exactly one year, one day, and one month apart in age.  It is super cool to us for some reason especially as my mother was not a planner when it came to children.  She was happy we came along, but she didn't have a specific plan for each of us so to be that exact apart is pretty neat.  God works in such mysterious ways.

Yesterday was a good day, I didn't cry at all and was able to think of happy memories of Momma.  Andrew saw my profile picture on face book and wanted me to tag him.  I then mentioned I had 4 albums full of pictures of mom and asked if he wanted them.  He said yes.  I will now tag him in every photo that I haven't tagged him in.  That is a lot of photos as my cousin, Maia scanned a whole bunch for me.  I have more to scan, but I keep putting it off until later and so far later has not arrived yet.  So my newest project is to tag Andrew in all of Mom's photos.  That should be interesting.  I don't think he realizes how many I have, but hey, he should have them too.  She was his Momma too.  I have a disc for Richard of pictures of Mom.  He doesn't want any originals (thank goodness - I get to keep them to frame!) He just wants the scans of them.  That works for me too.

I had one lesson so far today.  Bob and I decided that for the week he should concentrate on his recital music only.  With the concert a week away (it is Sunday!), I feel it is best that this week all students focus on their recital material only.  This way they are very comfortable with their music for performing. I will create the program on Saturday as I have learned from the past that changes happen all the way up to the day of the concert.  It is quite disheartening to have to redo the entire program and reprint it for the changes, now I just wait to the last possible day.  I just have to get colored ink for the old printer and I am all set.  I will do that this week.

I find that I am reading a lot more than I have since Momma has been gone.  I love to read and that was one of the things she taught me to do (I couldn't read until 3rd grade and once Mom found out that I couldn't read I learned in 6 weeks flat).  She loved taking us to the library and getting books out to read.  Now my problem with the library is I don't return them on time!  It isn't their fault, it is entirely mine.  I read the books and then forget all about them.  Now I go to the used bookstore once a month a get a bunch of books for a very low price.  I am thrilled to have discovered that I have 3 boxes of books that were in the storage unit.  I have even more books to read now!  I am set for the next few months, that is for sure.  I can't wait until my library is ready for me.  It shall be wonderful.

I am not sure what all I am doing this evening.  I have Emily's lesson at 6:30.  She is such a cute girl.  She really is.  She is doing so well too.  Emily will perform in her first recital on Sunday.  Other than Emily's lesson, I don't have any concrete plans.  I don't feel like doing housework, so I am putting it off a day.  I will do more tomorrow when I have the entire day to do it.  I have Charlie's lesson but not until sometime after 3.  He is coming early to pick up the rest of the garbage from the trimming of the bushes. He takes them home and burns them.  Hey, whatever works for him, works for me.  I have a pretty open schedule.

I talked to my friend, Rosemary who just lost her husband.  She is doing as well as can be expected.  We are going to go to lunch someday next week and she will come to the homeowners meeting with me.  I am glad to have the company.  She is a very nice lady and a very good friend.

Anyways, I am off to finish up cleaning the kitchen, I have to dishwasher going and I need to clear the counter and wash it.  I also am getting a bit hungry so I may make me some dinner before Emily's lesson.  We shall see how I feel after cleaning the kitchen.  I do hope this finds you doing well and having a good day too.  Pain level is normal so I am glad.

It's Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

It has been a good one despite not having Mom here with me.  I went and picked up my friend, Donna and we went to Burger King.  We had about 2 1/2 hours there laughing and talking.  It made me miss Mom less for a little while.  Then I went to Walmart because it occurred to me that they wouldn't be too busy today and I really needed some milk and bread.  i got some good buns.  I also managed to pick up a few other things too.  I never seem to be able to go and pick up only what I need!  I can out $56 later but I would have bought some of the food later this week anyways, so with the exception of the magazines (they had the Royal Wedding on the cover) everything will be eaten or consumed in some way.

Then I came home and called the #1 Mom on my list, Kathy.  We chatted for a while.  It was nice.  Her kids made her some stuff and hubby is cooking dinner tonight.  They may all go for a bike ride after dinner.  Sounds like a fun evening.  I will be making my dinner soon and then just relaxing and watching TV.  I have successfully survived my first Mother's Day without the little lady.  I was so afraid that I would melt down like crazy on this day but I didn't.  While I am missing her a lot, in is the same everyday.  It has changed.  I don't think it will.  Some days are just more bearable than others.  I don't expect that to change too.

Last year, Mom was still okay at this time of the year.  She was in stage 6 at this point.  We had started on disposable undies for her.  She could walk by herself without any assistance but she preferred to hold my hand for direction even in the stores that I ride the scooter in.  It was so cute!  She was very quiet, but that really wasn't anything new.  Mom was a pretty quiet person most of the time except around me.  We could chat all day about everything and we did.  She was able to watch TV at that point too and still go to movies.  It wasn't until late June that TV frightened her.  So we were able to spend Mother's day watching her favorite movies, old Disney flicks. She simply loved them.  I don't remember which ones we watched, had I known it was to be her last, I would have paid stricter attention to those details.  At that point, I expected to have her for a few more years, little did I know it would be months, not years.  I did take her to Olive Garden or Red Lobster, I am not sure which, we loved both of them.  We had a nice early dinner together and then we watched more movies.  We laughed and giggled all day together. I bought her flowers that she had picked out.  We went to the flower shop on Saturday and I asked her what her favorite flowers were.  I was surprised by her answer, because I always thought roses were her favorite, and while she loves them, tulips are her favorite.  We got a huge bouquet of tulips that lasted about 2 weeks for her.  She loved them.  They were so beautiful.  i was going to get me a bouquet of them but I thought that would make me sad so I didn't.  It was really one of the last months that were good for her.  July was a good month, but the end of May and beginning of June were awful for her and starting in mid August is when she really started sliding downward.  But at this point in May we were having a good time.  We also called my little brother because it was his birthday too.  She chatted a bit with him and so did I.  Over all, it was a good Mother's Day for her.

I have picked some pictures of her to show.

The first one was when she was 11 years old.  I love that picture.  The rest are just randomly chosen from when she was young to last March when she was 76 and about 7 months before she passed away.  I hope you like my choices!


Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms!!!!!  I hope it has been a good day for you too!

nice and sunny day out

The sunshine was so pretty this afternoon.  Katie came for her lesson and she helped me move the boxes out of the trunk.  I need an empty trunk tomorrow so that I can put Donna's wheelchair in it.  I hope I remember to bring everything I need to bring tomorrow.  I am not very good at remembering these details.  I did write down what to bring tomorrow.  I am picking her up at 11:30 am.  Yes, that is earlier than I like to get up on a Sunday, but not by much.  I will be up at 11 am and then off to get her.  She doesn't live very far from me.  We are heading out but I am not sure exactly where we are going until I get her tomorrow.

After I drop Donna back home tomorrow, I want to go and get a few more boxes from the storage unit.  I almost have everything I want from it except the business boxes.  Those are still there right now.  I hope by next week they will be gone and put here in the garage.  I hate filling up the garage again, but it can't be helped right now.  Once the family room is finished the boxes of books that I have brought back will be put away on the shelves so that won't be a problem.  The business boxes will stay in the garage because there is no point in them coming in the house to take up space.

I went looking for the receipt for our latest furnace to see if it had any info of how to take care of it now that that is my department.  It was on Mom's dresser.  It must have gone with the rest of her stuff so I have absolutely no info on the make, the brand or even what year this was all done.  I am a little upset that important receipts have disappeared.  you would think that after one look it would be put in my room to keep.  Guess I was wrong.  I am so going to be here whenever anything else is being donated or thrown away because too much stuff that I have had to buy again has disappeared.  It is just frustrating.  I will be contacting Julie for help with the family room after the storage unit is empty.  That is project number one.  Katie has stated that on Fridays she is available to help empty stuff so I may have her come after school before Calli and Acer's lessons and help me get rid of some more stuff.  The more I do now the better it will be when Tony and Kathy are here.  My main goal is to bring what I want home so that I know everything is pretty much going to be donated in the unit.  I will look at the boxes in case there is something.  Somewhere in there are good dictionaries that I want and another good reference book.  I think I have most of my reading books in the garage now, but I am not sure.  I will just check as we go along.  Katie was saying something about the library wanting old reference books.  We may be taking some to her work then.  She will find out this week.  I know there are a few boxes of old reference books.  I am anxious to get this project finished and over with correctly without anything going to the wrong place.  I want my reading books and the sewing books, but other than that, outside of the business boxes and the writing books, everything else can go.  Then I will start on the inside downstairs.  I figure by end of summer it will be finished.  I have some shelving units that need to be switch and some furniture that need to be switched around.  I dread having to bring the furniture back upstairs and the other stuff back downstairs but I want it done.  The living room furniture will allow for some pictures and things to be placed in the living room because there is the coffee table and the two end tables.  The living room will look very nice.  The princess table will go in between the two chairs that go with the set.  Overall, I think it will look very nice.

I dread and don't dread tomorrow.  I am spending some of it with Donna and the rest of it alone, but that is nothing new, I spend a lot of time alone.  I think of Mom all the time, so that won't be new either.  With the living room furniture back upstairs I will be able to put some more family pictures on the tables.  That will be nice.  I have a few I want to put in frames as well as some of the ones I already have in frames.  My room will be the last room finished.  The dining room will get done as the family room does since the books and the DVDs are going back downstairs where they belong.  I want the dining room to be more of a dining room not a media room like it is now.  I will start to save money for a new TV in the fall for the family room.  I have a nice DVD player so that doesn't need to be replaced.  The new printer will sit down in the office and the old one will be up here.  I plan to bring out the other computer downstairs too.  It won't be attached to the Internet as there won't be a way to do it, as of right now.  but I may be able to later.  It doesn't really matter as I do most of the stuff here at the table in the dining room.  I just want one printer on the counter and that is it.  The DVD player will go on the stool with the cable thing on top of it like I had before the desk came in the room.  The desk will be donated as there will not be room for it downstairs.

I do hope you are having a good day.