A Lovely summer afternoon

I have been enjoying a quiet afternoon of reading Harry Potter number 6.  I am about 1/2 way through it at this point.  I don't think I will finish it tonight but probably will tomorrow.  I got up earlier today than I have been and that is good because I have been going to bed later and later which means getting up later and later so I should be going to bed at my regular time tonight and getting back on schedule.  I have one one hour lesson tomorrow.  I do enjoy Rick's lessons very much.  He doesn't practice too much during the week at times, but when he does practice he does very well with it.  He is having trouble with the tempo of "They Call the Wind Mariah" song.  It is quiet fast and there really is no help from the accompaniment, which is hard to follow unless you are very familiar with it.  I find even when I am playing his part at times I am off tempo and I am very familiar with the song.  One of the other Broadway pieces, "If I Loved You" beginning is getting better.  Most of the song plays the melody in the piano part except at the beginning, of course, the hardest part of the song.  Over all, I am mostly pleased with his progress.  His will be the only lesson tomorrow.  On Monday, Bob has rescheduled his lesson to Wednesday because of his work schedule but Katie will have her lesson so I am very happy about that.  I love my Katie!  Actually, I really like all my students from my little ones who are so adorable to my adult students who are very nice.  Beth is really getting into singing because we started a new song and she wanted to know what we will be working on with this one.  I was pleased.  I give songs for specific techniques most of the time but most of the students don't really ask why so it was surprising by a nice surprise, that Beth asked what was the technique to work on.

I am going to try to get my little ones together to go and see the newest Winnie the Pooh movie this week.  I really want to see it and I have already talked to the parents about all of us going.  I always have parents go too when little ones are involved.  It is best.  I have a lovely gift certificate that will allow me to go see both the Harry Potter movies and the Winnie the Pooh movies.  I am very grateful for it as you know, I am trying to pay as much as I can on my property taxes from 2010 so I can start on my property taxes 2011 before the deadlines of both sets of taxes.  I don't allow much fun money for myself as I have quite a bit of fun stuff here at the house and don't need too much.

I am hoping that in the next few weeks Julie will be available to help with the family room.  I have to call on Monday the Salvation Army to pick up the stuff.  I think about it when I can't call and when I can, I don't think about it.  What can I say?  I am me.  I also want to put the china cabinet back together with all the stuff where it belongs.  Right now some of the stuff is in a box and the rest is just sitting in the cabinet not where it belongs.  Yeah, I really wish that had not been touched.  It really didn't need to be moved or anything removed.  At least the stuff on top of the cabinet hasn't been touch.  Okay, it does need to be cleaned, but not removed.  I plan to take this summer to do a good housecleaning through the house.  I have done some but not near enough yet.

Anyways, it has been a very nice afternoon and evening so far.  I am preparing myself for the new Harry Potter movie with reading the books.  Next will be watching the movies.  I have loaned the 6th and 7th part 1 movies out but I will get them back soon, I am sure.  I have seen most of movie 3, all of the 4th and the end part of 5 so I am almost caught up and ready to see the latest and final movie.  I hope Kathy gets to see it tomorrow.  She isn't sure that she and her boys will be able to, but we are all hoping they can.  I do hope you are having a good day too.

Mid July

We are supposed to be getting a heat wave starting tomorrow all week next week.  Yeah, a full week of aching more than usual.  I ache more in extreme heat and extreme cold.  i don't know why, I just do.  The cold makes sense but not the heat.  I have no lessons tomorrow.  It will be another Harry Potter day.  I do have to do some vacuuming since I have put it off this week because I was reading all my Harry Potter books to get ready to see the newest and last movie.  It is sad that this is the end of the movies because they are so good.  Yes, I still like the books best, but the movies are very good too.  Mom really liked them too.  Pretty much anything I do or see I immediately think of whether or not she would like it.  Since we liked so much the same, everything reminds me of her.  It is bittersweet to do things I know she would like without her.  It makes the happy somewhat sad.  I am going to wait until Kathy to come for the weekend before I see the movie.  I know that she will see it before me because she is planning to take the boys so she will see it again with me.  I also plan to see it another time with my Muglia girls.  They saw it last night at the midnight premier.  I was up until about 2 am reading book number 5 last night so I didn't get up to early.  I am going to get up at about 12:30 tomorrow.  I have some things I want to do before I sit down for a lovely afternoon of reading.  I will be starting book 6 this evening and finishing it up tomorrow along with starting with book 7, the last one.  I loaned Bill, Heather B-T's husband the 6th movie as he hasn't seen that one or the 7th movie part 1.  As soon as Charlie sees it and returns it, then I will loan him that one.  It is interesting to see the earlier movies and see how young the characters are.  The have grown so much.  They started as children and now they are all adults.

Calli and Acer had their lessons this afternoon.  Acer now is learning, officially, the Caro Mio Ben song just like Calli.  He also wants to learn her "Feed the birds" song.  It is so fun to teach them their lessons.  Acer is almost finished with the level 1A book for piano and will be starting 1B rather shortly, like in about 2 weeks.  I have to find the level 1B Cd for Acer.  He likes to hear his songs that he is learning on the CD.  He also likes playing along with the CD which is what it is for.  I like watching him play different songs on the piano, it is interesting because every week he comes with new ones he has figured out during the week.  He plays music all the time, the drums, the piano, the new accordion.  It is interesting to see what he will bring to his next lesson.  For the next 2 lessons though, he will be the only one having lessons as Calli will be having a great (I hope) time at camp.  She goes for 2 weeks on Sunday.  She had a good time last year so I am pretty sure she will have a good time this year.  I really do.  I can't wait to hear all about it in 3 weeks.

It has been a short day today as I am tired earlier than usual.  I may head up to bed soon.  I could sleep right now so that would be good.  I do hope you are having a good day too.

visiting day

I went to lunch with Anne today.  She is on vacation from NYC.  We went to Olive Garden and had a very good time.  I really liked visiting with her.  She is going to a Harry Potter party tonight before they go to the movie at midnight.  As much as I love harry Potter, I am NOT going at midnight tonight.  It will be very crowded and people have been lining up all day at the various theatres.  I do hope she and her friends have a wonderful time.  Anne and I had a lovely lunch and chatted away.  I got the latest scoop on her life and told all of mine.  It was a pleasant way to spend some time.  

After lunch I went to the doctor's office for the usual blood test.  Yuck on that one.  There was a new nurse and I was very concerned she wouldn't be able to get me as that is always my concern.  I was like you get one chance and that is it.  It hurts too much.  Well, much to my surprise, she actually GOT me!  Surprise!  I know!  She was excited about it because everyone told her how hard I am to get so now she can go and brag she said.  I thought that was kind of cute, brag to the rest of the nurses that she was able to get me when very few can.  I also had to call about my bill because they did something goofy with it.  It has been taken care of now.

I have no real plans for the weekend.  I am not able to go to the family BBQ as I just don't have the money.  I am actually not that upset by that because I am really working on getting my bills in line and pay the property taxes so to spend that extra money would not be good right now.  Not at this point.  I do plan one trip to Canada this summer and that is when Mom's gravestone in put on her grave.  That I plan to go and see.  Her ashes were buried in Chatham, Ontario right near where she grew up and was born.  The family farm that was sold during the war and her grandfather's farm are somewhere around the cemetery that we put her ashes in.  It is next to a historical church that she attended as a child.  She wanted to be buried in Canada with her grandparents so that is where we put her.  If anything happens to me, that is where I would like my ashes to be buried to.  Right near Mom.  I need to be near her.  Anyways, I am skipping the family BBQ in lue of that.  I think that is super important to save the money to go to.  Other than that, I am not planning any trips or anything like that.  I need to put all my money on the taxes so that it is taken care of by the deadline.  I am more confident now that it will be okay with the way the bills have been paid for this month and the plans for the rest of the month.  I am very happy with how I am doing with the bills.

Well, it has been a great day.  I do hope to see Harry soon, but not this coming week either.  I am hoping that when Kathy comes to town, we will see it together.  She will be here the last weekend in July so only 3 weekends away.  Yeah!  I do hope you have had a good day too!

It's a Wednesday!

I only had 2 lessons today.  I was just about to eat lunch when Carson arrived for his lesson.  He often comes early so I put my lunch aside and went to the living room for his lesson.  I finished my lunch when he was done.  He is going to be absent next week.  That is 2 absences next week.  Boo!  I do hope both boys have a great time even though I will miss them.  Beth will be here next week but needs to reschedule for the following week.  Hey, no problem there!  I like rescheduling.  Beth did very well in her lesson this evening.  I had a new song for Carson all ready but we didn't like the accompiment so we dropped the song.  I was disappointed to discover it is not piano but full orchestration which is very hard for young people.  the book was edited for boys Carson's age.  Yeah, it was a disappointment.  Beth did get a new song.  She finished On My Own and started Wouldn't It Be Loverly.  I was happy with how her lesson went.  She is also learning how to sight read and really seems to grasp it.  I am very glad about that.

the rest of the day was a reading day as I am trying to get ready for the newest Harry Potter Movie.  I am about 1/3 of the way through book number 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  I think one of my friends said that this book is her favorite.  I am not sure what my favorite is.  I love most of them the same.  I don't like book 7 as well as some of the others, but I do like it.  I like the Epilogue the best.  I wish she had included the list of who married who like we saw in the TV special that was aired about the same time book 7 was released.  Mom and I watched it together as she was also a Harry Potter fan.  She loved the movies.  When the movies first came out, I didn't want to see them.  As a matter of fact I refused to see the first 2 movies in the movie theatre then one day I was babysitting the Marchetti boys and we watched the first movie on DVD.  Well, I was hooked, they did such a great job with the movie that I went and purchased the first two movies on DVD.  I made Mom watch them with me.  She loved them.  When the 3rd movie came out Mom and I went to see it.  I found out that the IMAX theatre was showing the 3rd movie so I ordered tickets for my students and about 30 of us went to see it.  On that big screen it was simply marvelous.  I sat next to my student Mark and his mom.  He was fun to watch because you could tell how much he loved it.  Mom loved it on the big screen too.  I have seen each movie in the theatre ever since.  I am hoping to go with Kathy when she comes to town.  I can't wait to see it.

I am not planning to go to the movies this weekend.  I plan to see Winnie the Pooh probably next week sometime.  I am not sure.  At first I was thinking Wednesday, but Bob is having his lesson on that day instead of Monday due to his work schedule.  I will have to wait and see.

I am meeting Anne tomorrow for lunch at Olive Garden.  I used to go there a lot, but I haven't been there  in a really long time now.  I still have some gift cards from Richard that I am going to use it.  I haven't seen Anne since Christmas.  She is in town for about a week and I am very excited to see her.  She is going to a Harry Potter party tomorrow as well as the midnight showing of it.  She will have a good time.

I do hope you are having a good day too.

3 lesson day!

I should have had 5 lessons but Elizabeth's uncle is very ill and is in the hospital so I only had 4 lessons.  I hope to see her next week.  Rachel just turned 6 and is doing very well.  She is so tiny and adorable.  I think she such a great kid.  Laith is also doing very well too.  He was absent last week because he was in Mexico.  He is such a cutie too.  Charlie had his lesson and is doing pretty well.  He needed to redo one exercise this week, there was just too many small mistakes, so he is doing it again for next time, which will be in 2 weeks since he will be absent next week.  He is going up north with his girlfriend's family.

Today is a good weather day.  It is not super humid for a change.  I am really liking that.  It is going to be like this for a few days so woo-hoo for that!  This weekend gets pretty hot again, but I will just hide inside like I do during the heat of the summer.

Breanna had a make up lesson this afternoon since she will be absent on Thursday.  She is leaving for the audition of American Idol this afternoon.  I am excited for her.  She is pretty ready.  I think she will be practicing all the way there.  She has her 3 songs that she needs.  Starting tomorrow at 8 am, they will pass out the wrist bands that have the order of the auditions.  She is planning to camp out in line so she will get one right away or as right away as she can do.  Friday at 8 am the auditions start but I think they have to be there by 6 am or something like that.  I do hope she does well.  I am so excited that she is going.

It has been a busy day, I had my hair washed and dried this afternoon too.  I have such a hard time doing it with my shoulder having issues that it is better to go and have someone else doing it.  It really isn't too much money either, only $4 each time so I am able to do this.  I am done teaching for the night and will have dinner shortly.  I have the words for Carson's new song printed and the CD is copied for the young gentleman.  He is such a nice young man.  He usually comes to his lesson earlier than scheduled but I told him that was okay since it is summer and the only other lesson isn't until later in the evening.

I am getting myself ready for the newest Harry Potter movie.  It seems strange to see the last two movies with Mom as I saw the rest with her, but I am planning to see it.  It looks really good.  I have finished the first 2 books again and am on the 3rd book.  I am about 1/3 the way through.  I really love the Harry Potter books.  My absolute favorite books though are the Anne of Green Gables books.  Harry Potter books are the close 2nd favorite books.  I do like the movies although they are NOT enough like the books like I would personally prefer however, they are very good.

I do hope you are having a good day too.

A Monday

Harry Potter number 5 is on family channel right now.  Boy is this movie sooooo different than the book but it is still good.  I am glad I thought to check the family channel to see if was on.  I love Luna.  She is such a great character and the actress who plays her is very pretty too.  The movie is almost over so I did most of it, but that is okay as I can watch it on DVD if I wish to watch what I have missed.

I am feeling a bit better over the big brother situation.  I pray this ends soon.  It is awful to have someone you love that angry at you.  It really is.

I had my Muglia girls this morning for their lessons, all four of them.  I simply adore them.  The girls are all doing so well.  The youngest taking lessons, Sarah, just started a few months ago.  She is doing very well for having lessons once a month and missing last month.  The older three are really playing some hard pieces right now.  I am very happy with their progress.  Bob as usual, had his lesson and did very well.  We worked on the 3rd page of the Clementi Sonatina he is learning.  I am so pleased with how well the students are doing, all of them even my new students.  I have a new student next Monday at 7:30 pm.  She is not from the new company, she found me on the web.  I am so glad I added myself to different directories for lessons.  Most of those ones I am on the vocal lesson directories, there aren't that many for piano right now.  I check every so often.  I have a website that I my friend, Laura created for me.  It is just a one pager, no need for anything to fancy but it works well.  Anyways, the newest student is an adult, which makes me nervous since I have had 8 adults start and quit since January, but she wants to start at the beginning and doesn't mind classical.  Her ultimate goal is gospel music so I am hopeful she stays for a long time.  She sounded very nice over the phone.  She is going to call next Monday to get the address.

I love this part of the movie when Sirius says to Mr. Malfoy, get away from my Godson.  I don't like the part though where Sirius dies.  Dumbledore has arrived and he and Voldermort are dueling.  This is such a good movie.  I wished I had seen the entire thing.  I may have to put the DVD in tonight after lovely Emily's lesson.  Fudge just arrived and noticed that Voldermort is actually back.  Took him so long to figure it out.  Harry tried to tell him at the end of the last school year but he didn't want to believe it.

I do hope you are having a good day.  So far it has been alright.  It could be better, but I can't change that at this point.

A fresh week

It is Sunday and the start of another week.  I do hope this week is better because, well, to put it bluntly, last week totally sucked, completely sucked.  I am trying to get a hold of my younger brother to see if perhaps he can help with the property taxes.  I think I will have enough by the deadline in a few months, but I am not sure.  I have buckled down to really put every penny I can towards the property taxes.  I should be able to make another payment either this week or next depending on what bills come in since it is the beginning of the 2nd week so that is good.  I am learning to be like my lovely mother, she was very good at money, she was thrifty and knew how to save when she wanted something or needed something.  I am not like that, money slides out of my hands to trivial stuff quickly.  I am learning to be thrifty like Mom.  She was just so good at so much stuff that I need to learn.  I will learn this though, I am determined.

It has been a decent day.  Rick's lesson went really well.  I am very pleased with how well he is doing with his music.  His range is started to expand, which is awesome.  He did really well on "If I Loved You" at the end with those high notes.  He is a bass and the range in that song is very wide.  He has a few other musical theatre songs too plus a few classical pieces.  I am really happy that he is continuing lessons.  He is anxious to be in the summer concert, which I am not sure when that will be yet.  I do hope to have the date soon because August is next month.

Tomorrow I get my Muglia girls for the first time in 2 months.  I am very excited about seeing them.  I have pulled the music I needed for them and it is at the front door waiting to be taken to them.  I am anxious to see what they think of the music I have picked out for them.  The pretty much love so much music that I have yet to actually pull something that they didn't really like.  That is a good type student to have.  Young Sarah, the 6th Muglia and the 4th girl, is just beginning and doing super well.  I was nervous about having a beginner only have 1 lesson a month, but since she practices so well and she has 3 older sisters if she has problems, that it is going really well too.  I just love Sarah.  She is so adorable and such an enthusiastic student.  I also found a book I forgot I had that Carson will do well with.  They are Broadway songs that I think he will really like.  I just have to copy the CD for him before Wednesday.  I am planning to copy it tonight or tomorrow.  Either way I have the music waiting to go.  I have to type out the words for him.  He also likes to know how many words are in the song so I know put that on the bottom of the song for him.  I don't know why he wants to know, but that is okay.  I will put it down.  It is easy because word counts words for you as you go along.

I called Tillie today and let her know that I will not be coming to the family BBQ on Saturday.  I just don't have the money.  I really don't.  It comes down to choices, either I spend the money on gas and the tunnel plus the dish to pass or I pay bills.  I had to choose the bills.  Summer months are just very tight for me so I have to be careful of what I spend my money on.  So far, I am doing very well with it.  I am pleased with my efforts.  I do know that I am planning a trip to Canada this summer for the day but that will be in August when my Momma's gravestone is placed.  I need to see it.  I will meet Andrew there that day so I am saving my gas money for that trip between this month and next.

Anyways, it has been a decent day so far.  I had a really good lesson, I took a nap, and now I am watching some TV.  I picked out some new music for my girls.  I also even put away the book that I didn't need after I pulled it.  I didn't put it on a pile, I put it away.  That is good for me.

I do hope today is good for you too.

A Harry Potter Afternoon

I slept in, mostly dozing for a while before I finally got out of bed.  I didn't really feel like so I didn't get up very early.  I am just feeling worse than usual, mental stress more than physical these last few days.  I do hope I improve in the next few days because I have many lessons to teach this week and I must be on my toes to do it.  The quick gist is that I managed to anger my older brother so much that he is not speaking to me at all.  I don't know if he will ever speak to me again.  I really don't.  It has upset me because I can't even explain why I chose to make the decision I made and I think he thinks I did it to upset him, which I didn't.  I really had no choice.  I truly didn't and if I could explain, maybe he would be less mad, at least I would know that I told him the truth about why I did what I did.    I just feel so alone right now with him so angry at me.  I already feel like an outcast in my family, he was the only one I felt really was on my side and supported me and now this.  I am truly alone in the family or at least that is how I am currently feeling right now.  It may not be rational, but it is what I am feeling these days since the terrible phone call a few days ago.  Maybe it won't be so painful in the next few days.  I can only hope although I don't have much of that either right now.

I am watching the 3rd Harry Potter movie.  In preparation of the newest and last Harry Potter movie, the family channel is doing a Harry Potter movie marathon.  I missed the first two.  I don't know when they played the first two, but I only missed the first few minutes of the movie.  I caught it as they were on the train to school with the Dementors were about to get on the train and go into the car where Harry and crew were.  At least I have a good evening ahead of me.  Lots of Harry Potter!  Something decent for this horrible week.

I don't have any lessons today.  I have a lesson tomorrow so I am thankful for that.  It will be a busy few days with Monday being one of the busiest.  I have my lovely Muglia girls on Monday.  I am very excited about it.  I haven't seen  them in 2 months because their dear mother became so ill right after the baby was born.  She is, thankfully, healing and slowly getting better.  I am so glad about that.  Anyways, I have 17 lovely lessons this week and I am so thankful for that.  At least I still have teaching, I have something.

A Calm Day

I didn't have any lessons today.  I was so tired.  It has been an absolutely horrible week with the exception of lessons.  They all went well, but the rest of the week is horrible.  It all starts and ends with family.  You know, the people who can make you super happy and super mad in less than a few minutes.  I don't expect it to blow over anytime soon, but there isn't anything I can do about it.

I also am not going to the family BBQ next weekend because I just don't have the money for the gas or the tunnel.  I really don't.  Not to mention I don't have the money to bring a dish since it is a potluck.  I just don't have it.  I have to count every bit of money and need it too pay the property tax.  I know that if I buckle down I will have everything I need to pay the taxes by the deadline in 2012.  I have made a start of a payment plan and I am happy about that.  The county doesn't do payment plans, but they accept payments any time no matter the size so I have my own private payment plan that should work if I am diligent with saving money.  I can do this.  I hope to have my 2 students who quit for the summer back in the fall plus 1 or 2 new ones for the fall too.  That will definitely allow me to pay the house bills and the taxes much easier.  I can only hope.

I don't have any lessons tomorrow either.  I don't have any plans for the day right now outside a few house chores to do.  I am going to rest for most of the day probably.  I have had a bad headache for about 4 days now.  I do hope it goes back to the normal headache tomorrow.  I don't like this at all.  It makes me even more tired than I already am especially with the week I have had.  I hope next week is a bit better.  Boy, I really miss my mother tonight.  She is so needed with the bad week I have had.

what can I say?

It hasn't been the best of days.  I hope tomorrow is better.  I did have 3 lessons, Breanna, Calli, and Acer and that was good.  They are all doing rather well.  Breanna has picked her songs to sing for her audition and she will have 1 more lesson before she leaves on Tuesday instead of Thursday.  I am excited for her to go and audition.  I hope she really enjoys the experience.  That is one of my goals for her, to enjoy the experience.  I have other ones too, but that is an important goal.  I really hope she does well and sings wonderfully.  This is one of her dreams so I can only hope she rocks the house.  Calli and Acer are both working very hard on the Italian song "Caro Mio Ben".  We fixed one of their small mistakes today.  They forgot a small section of the song.  No problem, we fixed it.  Calli is doing really well with her other music too and so is Acer.  He learned the entire Indian Drum song.  He is so cute as he plays it.  We are working on proper fingering for him, but he still doesn't like using his thumbs when he plays.  He will, he would just prefer to use other fingers instead.  Hey, he is 6 and plays wonderfully.  He figured out a song off of one of his xylophone toys and did it perfectly, black keys and all.  I was happy about that.  He is such a creative young man that he is so fun to work with.  Calli is a lot of fun too, we have many giggles together.  She works so hard that it is wonderful to see.  She always practices and works so hard at both piano and voice.  Between the 2 of them, it is hard to say who works the hardest and it shows.  The progress Calli has made this past year is amazing.  It really is.  She is already singing Italian Art songs and has a 3 1/2 octave range.  She is 11, yes 11.  It is an amazing range.  I have never worked with an 11 year old who has that great of a range.  The change between her chest and head voice is so smooth too.  Her voice is very mature for her age, it is very strong and pretty.  Music will take both kids very far, that is for sure and then add Breanna to that makes me a very happy teacher.

Other than the lessons, the day is rather dull.  I have 2 days coming up that has no lessons.  I don't know what I will get done or if I will get anything done.  I will see how I feel when I get up tomorrow.  I am not making any set plans.  I will play the next few days by ear and see how they go.  I may go and see Donna, but I don't know.  I will see.

Midweek!

It Wednesday already.  I had 3 lessons and paid a few bills.  I need to pay two more bills right away and then the rest can wait a few days.  I mailed 3 bills this afternoon.  My bank account hates me right now as usual when I am paying bills.  At least this month I did NOT have to borrow anything for the house payment.  I am very happy about that.  Thankfully, I was able to re-arrange the order of the bills.  I am happy with what I did.  I did get a few new students at the end of last month so that will help a lot.  This week I have 1 student who is absent, he is in Mexico with his Mom on vacation.  He is one of my new little guys.

Bob had his lesson today.  His Mother-in-law is still hanging on.  She is coming home from the hospital this week.  She is now a Hospice patient too.  I think Bob said she is about 93 years old.  Wow, I can't even imagine.

Carson had his lesson.  We worked on a couple of newer songs and one new one, Country Gardens.  I love that song.  He is doing pretty well.  I have pulled out a couple of CDs for him, I just need to pull out the books that go with the CDs.  I will be doing that this Friday and Saturday.

Beth had her lesson too.  We started sight reading and she did very well.  I went over reading notes and key signatures with her.  She seems to understand it pretty well.  I was happy with that.  I just wish Rick was a bit more enthused with sight reading, but he isn't so we won't do it.  Beth is doing very well with her music.  We worked a bit on interpretation this week and last.  She seems to be doing very well with it.  Since she wants to be in community theatre, I figured it is very important to work on this too.

The day started off okay, but ended up really bad.  I can't even talk about it right now.  I am just too upset.  I hope it will be better tomorrow.