Thursday 9-15

I am so glad that it is Thursday because my friend, Julie came over!!!  She arrived at about 11:20.  I had gotten up at 10:30 and got dressed.  I went downstairs and sat in the living room with my feet up on the stool.  I took a wee nap while I was waiting for her.  I knew that she may be late as she was working at her office to clear up a project.  I didn't mind because it meant a bit more sleep for me.  She brought some homemade Apple spice cake and oh my, it was soooooo delicious!  I really liked it.  Julie is an excellent cook and baker.  She just is.  She has been not feeling too well these past few weeks.  She was even in the hospital but I think she is on the mend.  We just chatted about so many things!  Julie is going to help me with the family room when she is up to snuff and available.  Her youngest daughter is the famous (well to my blog she is famous!) Lily.  Lily is now 13 and in 8th grade.  I haven't seen her in a very long time as the summer was so busy for her that we just weren't able to get together.  I hope to see her a bit more now that she is in school.  I am going to get Lily another Gingerbread House for her to decorate again this year.  She had such a good time decorating it.  I had a good time with her that day.  It is strange to have Lily here without Mom.  Mom loved Lily and her sisters.  Lily could bring a smile on my mother's face really fast just like her sisters.  I have pictures of the gingerbread house Lily decorated last Christmas on my face book.  She did an awesome job.  That is all I have to say.  I will get different candies this year.  I think i will add mini M&M's.  We will  make some homemade cookies too.  Lily is just a really good baker like her Mom.

Project Runway is on.  I like this crazy show for some reason.  Their clients this week is the significant other of a bunch of men.  Most men have no idea what their women like.  I think this is the funniest one ever so far this season.  I will be heading for bed right after this show.  I have a bad headache again today.  It isn't as bad as it was earlier, but it is still worse than usual.  I ended up taking a nap before Logan's lesson because the head hurt so bad.  He is a nice student although he is slightly hard to teach as he doesn't exactly like the classical music.  There is a song he really wants to learn called Ancient Words so that is what we are working on.  I had told him that if there was something he wanted we would learn it.  We also went over some basic intervals and chords today.  He is interested in theory to help him learn his notes better.  He is doing actually much better than he thinks so.  In about 4 weeks or so we will be starting the Christmas Music.  I am excited about Christmas music.  I will be starting Christmas music for my girls on Monday since they only have lessons once a month.  I also need to make the newsletter about what is coming up for students.  We have a craft day, the Christmas Concert, and the Michigan Music Association Competition.  I have the information for Kelly Lynn to for the Competition.  We may actually have several new teachers at the meeting on Sunday.  I am very excited about that.  I also need to type out the minutes from the last minutes.  I haven't done that yet.  I will be starting on them soon.  I will have them done in time for Sunday.  Thank goodness this meeting is later in the afternoon because I have Rick's lesson before it.

Saturday, I will be going to do a bit of grocery shopping.  I only need a few things.  I don't have a lot of money so I had to cross off a few things on my list.  I have hamburger and chicken in the freezer so they are off the list.  I also have corned beef in the fridge and another one in the freezer.  I also have some pork roasts too that I can make.  I have spaghetti sauce and spaghetti too.  I have other pastas so I have the basics.  I also have the veggies too.  I do need some Kleenex, mushrooms, cheese, and a few other stuff.  I also need some light bulbs but if I don't get them, it will be okay because I have enough light right for now.  The dining room chandelier has all burned out bulbs but the other light is fine.  I have to get the light bulbs from another store than the one I am going to on Saturday.  I also will need to get a fresh milk and bread as I am almost out of bread and the milk will be out dated.

Tomorrow will be Acer's and Calli's lesson.  Beth will also have her lesson because she needed to reschedule this week.  I also get to sleep in a bit tomorrow.  That will be nice as I am so tired right now because of the headache.

It has been a decent day despite the bad headache.  I really enjoyed visiting with Julie.  We got a few things taken care of so that is nice.  We had a nice discussion with what was going on with both our families.  I enjoyed my lessons.  I do hope your day was nice too.

Wednesday 9-14

I woke up this morning with a really bad headache.  Fortunately, it is back down to the normal headache at this point.  I got up and went back to bed.  I ended up staying there until about 2:30 because it just hurt so much.  Finally, I had to get up to get ready for my only lesson tonight.  Beth will have her lesson on Friday.  The student I had this afternoon was a new student named Allison.  She is 18 and will be starting college this January.  She wants to be an actress and major in Theatre and Musical Theatre.  We started working on Caro Mio Ben and God Help the Outcasts.  She loves Disney too just like me.  Her mom came with her and she is very nice.  I am very pleased with how the lesson went.  Allison played the flute so she can read music and count.  I am going to start her on sight reading next week.  I am excited to work with her.

I do not have anything planned for the evening except relaxing.  The bad headache really exhausted me.  I may even go to bed early.  Tomorrow Julie is coming over at 11 so I will be up by 10:30.  I need to eat breakfast before she arrives.  I am so excited to see her as I haven't actually seen her in a few months.  With my teaching schedule and her schedule this summer, we just weren't able to meet.  I am very happy to be spending some time with her tomorrow.  It should be a good time.  I have Breanna, Laith, and Logan's lessons tomorrow.  Breanna has changed her time from 12:30 to 2:15.  That works fine for me.  I don't have to get up as early!

The news is on right now.  The forecast for the next week is pretty chilly.  It won't be in the high 70s until next Monday.  I don't really mind the cooler weather as it was a very hot summer.

It has been a quiet day because of the bad headache.  I am almost ready for bed now and it is only about 7:30 pm.  I will stay up a bit longer because I don't want to wake up in the middle of the night and stay awake for a long time.  That would just be bad.

I hope your day has been good.

Tuesday 9-13

I am so glad that next week will be the season premiere of NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles.  I can't wait as I love those two shows a lot.  Kathy is excited about Survivor starting up again.  I think she said that was tomorrow night?  I have never watched Survivor so I am not sure.  I am glad the new seasons are starting again.  It gives me something else to look forward to during the week.  I used to watch Law and Order SVU a lot.  I don't know if I will start watching that again or not.  I haven't seen in for the last few years because Mom was afraid of the show and then I forgot when it was on so I haven't watched it at all.  I like the show, but if I miss it, that is alright.  It is not a big deal.  NCIS, well, that is a big deal although once a month I will miss it because we have our subdivision meetings at the same time.  I can survive missing it once a month.  I had thought about getting a DVR but until those taxes are paid, nothing extra will be bought.  I have to be very serious with myself on this or I will find myself homeless and that will not be good.  That would be horrible.  So for the next 6 months, I am buckling down.  So far, it is going okay.  I have a lot of the monthly bills already paid for the month and it is only the 13th!  I have the hospital, 5 doctors, and the taxes left for the month.  I am so thankful for the new students.  The additional students have really made it much easier to pay the bills.  It is nice to be able to sit down and pay bills without wondering which ones have to stay unpaid.  I am planning to go grocery shopping with the lovely Calli this weekend.  I hate grocery shopping but I figure it was fun when Calli came with me to get groceries for the BBQ that maybe it will make it fun for regular shopping.  She loves grocery shopping.  I think taking an excited 11 year old should be an interesting trip.  We have about 2 places to go.  We also have to go to the hardware store for light bulbs.  I need some 40 watt and 60 watt regular light bulbs and then I also need some 25 watt chandelier light bulbs for the house.  I do need to go to Toys R Us sometime this week too because Emily just earned her first gift card.  With the addition of her birthday points, she has enough for a $10 gift card.

I only had 2 lessons today.  I had Aaiyanna and Charlie.  Aaiyanna had the beginnings of a cold.  The poor kid was trying to blow her nose but she had a cut in her nose that would hurt each time she went to blow.  I felt so bad for the young lady.  We talked about lifting the eyebrows while she is singing.  We couldn't work on breathing because of her cold.  We will take care of that at her next lesson.  She is such a cutie and a doll to work with.  Aaiyanna actually had 2 songs completely memorized.  Remember, she only received the music last week!  She had Castle on a Cloud and I'd Do Anything for You memorized.  She simply loves the songs.  I was really quite surprised by pleasantly so.  Charlie had an hour lesson because he had to miss last week.  I so love how he makes up lessons as opposed to skipping them all together.  We worked on some articulation, which is one of his main weaknesses, and then some other exercises that will strengthen his fingers when playing fast.  Overall, they both did really well with their lessons.  Tomorrow is just my new student, Allison.  She is 18 and wants to be a singer.  I am hopeful she likes what we will be learning.  I have to find out if she is planning to go to college for music or not. That will help shape what we will do in our lessons.  I am looking forward to the lesson.  Beth has rescheduled to Friday for this week because of a school activity tomorrow.  She is a 1st grade teacher.  I really like her a lot.  She works really hard.  Beth is interested in performing in Community Theatre.

I am tired as usual.  It is getting a bit late.  I am hoping that I will go to bed a bit early tonight since I am feeling a bit more tired than usual.  I got up a bit late too but I have been just so tired today.  The drastic change in temperature usually wipes me out.  We went from almost 100 to low 70s overnight.  Today was about 80 and tomorrow is supposed to be high 60s.  I am thankful for the cooler weather though.  I don't do as well in either really hot or really cold weather.  Yup, tomorrow will be a bit chillier than it has been.  I am thankful for the cooler weather.  I can breathe better then!

I do hope you are having a good day.

Monday 9-12

I love Mondays because I have several lessons.  Today I had 6 lessons with 5 being in a row.  That is actually my limit because I get too exhausted if I put anymore in.  Once a month I will have 4 more on a Monday but since I rest a lot the day before, it is okay.  I just go to bed much, much earlier on those Mondays.  Emily (6:30) has actually moved to Friday at 6:15 starting this week so I will only have 5 regularly scheduled lessons on Monday.  That will be okay.  Tuesdays are nice too because I have about 2 lessons with another one every other week.  My 4 pm is an hour lesson so in a way, it is 2 lessons.  Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are also 3 lessons so things are picking up nicely.  I am pleased about that.

I haven't really done anything else today but teach.  I read a bit before and after Bob's lesson.  I am reading the Canopy by Angela Hunt.  She is a good author.  I have read her historical stuff and her contemporary stuff too.  It is very interesting.  Most of this book takes place in Peru in the Amazon Rainforest.  It is very interesting.  I finished the O'Malley books that I have.  I plan at the end of the month, if I have enough money left over from paying bills, to order book number 4 and the prequel.  That will make the collection complete.

Tonight is the Design Star Season Finale.  I never thought I would actually be interested in this type of a show, but it is good.  I am very surprised since I have very little talent to decorate.  I really don't have much.  I keep it very basic.  My cousin, Hayley, now she is the one with talent.  She can take anything and make it beautiful.  She is very, very, very talented.  I love watching her create something beautiful out of an ordinary item.  It is just really cool.  I also like watching Project Runway.  Now there is another show I NEVER thought I would like, and I do.  I like to sew but I am not a super great sewer.  I can sew pretty well, but I am not good enough to be a designer plus, I can't draw to save my life.  I can do the basics and a few fancy things, but not super fancy and I am not the tailor my mother was.  She could tailor an outfit beautifully.  She was an amazing seamstress.  When I was small, Mom made all my clothes.  I remember every year we would go to the fabric store and she would let me help pick out the dresses (I only wore dresses all through elementary school) I wanted.  I loved that she made my clothes.  I really did.  In 4th grade, I had to have store bought clothes because Mom just didn't have the time to make any clothes for me.  She was going to school 24 credit hours, working 2 part time jobs that added up to 40 hours a week plus she had to take care of me and my brothers.  I cried when she said to pick out what I liked.  I simply cried like a baby.  The saleslady just didn't know what to do so Mom and I went home.  I was still crying.  When we got home Mom asked what was wrong again (she asked in the store but I couldn't answer, I was crying too hard).  I asked her if she still loved me.  I remember the strange look she gave me.  She said yes right away.  I then said, then why aren't you making my clothes.  You always make my clothes.  Momma set me straight and explained why I needed to have some store bought clothes because of all the things she was doing.  I understood eventually and we went back to the store where I found some nice dresses.  Store bought wasn't too bad, but Momma made better clothes.  Mom still made all my Christmas outfits though all through high school.  I liked wearing long dresses or long skirts on Christmas and I liked to match her so she always made our outfits.  It was during a fitting of a long skirt that Mom discovered that I had scoliosis.  She was working on the hemline when she said I wasn't standing up straight.  My friend, Jodi was over so she called her up to see if it was just her.  Jodi said I wasn't standing up straight.  I was, but my one shoulder was 1 inch higher than the other and I had a lump in my back.  I didn't think anything about it but Mom called my doctor right away and I went to see her.  She was stunned because I had had a full check up including a check for scoliosis that previous May.  I had to go and see a specialist in Toronto.  I ended up having an operation in December of 10th grade.  That is how I got the 2 rods in my back.

I am tired tonight, but I expect it and it is a good tired because I was busy today.  I simply love all my new students.  They are wonderful and the younger ones are so adorable.  They are so cute.  The older ones are doing very well too.  I do have a new student starting Saturday at 12:30.  She is an adult and we all know how well that has gone for me but I am hopeful about this because she has played the organ and wants to play piano.  That might mean she is serious and knows how much time is required for learning piano.

I do hope you are having a good day.

Sunday 9/11

It has been a day of contradictions.  On one hand, remembering ALL those who have fallen since and including 9/11 and a day with family.  It puzzles me to no end how people can hate so easily.  I don't understand it at all.  I never have and I don't think I ever will.  How someone can hate someone for things like different religions, races, countries, etc.  I don't know.  We are all human, aren't we?  Doesn't that unite us in some small way?  I wonder if the world will ever get rid of the hatefulness that is in it.

I went and saw the Help this afternoon.  It was a good movie, pretty close to the book, surprisingly.  It was very well done and I did like it a lot.  There again, it is another example of looking at differences and treating people like they are less than human.  In the book, one of the main characters, Hilly, wants to have a law passed that every house that employs a maid have a separate bathroom for them because they are a different color.  I won't give away anymore of the plot, but this simply amazes me that people think this way.  The excuse was that we all have different diseases the two different races.  Wow, I know I was born around the time that the book and movie take place in, but my gosh, I don't understand this type of thinking.  I remember in grad school, I was working on a project with a woman in class and she asked me how many African-American students I had.  I actually had to pull out my schedule and count because I didn't know off hand.  I had students of all different races.  To me, they are all students.  I don't separate them.  I don't remember how many I had, but as one parent put it this past spring, I have a United Nations of students.  I had to think about that one too.  She was right.  I don't think like that.  I wasn't raised to think like that so I just don't understand the thinking that these people were doing.  However, it was good to see it because it shows what it was like.  I don't understand it and I guess I never will.  I am glad we are moving closer to a color blind society, but I wish we would get there much faster.

I did enjoy my day.  I saw the movie with Tillie.  I had spoke to her earlier in the week and she invited me over to go see the movie since we both wanted to see it.  She took me to lunch too.  It was a wonderful day overall visiting.  We had very nice chats and discussions.  I am glad I went.

I do hope your day was good too.

Saturday 9-10

I am so glad today is Saturday.  The end of a horrible week.  I do hope next week is better.  I would say it can't get worse, because, as bad as it is, it can get worse.  I just hope it doesn't get worse.

I slept through a lesson today.  Fortunately, they called (after calling the sister for my phone number) and I woke up.  I accidentally set the alarm for pm instead of am.  Thank goodness Becca is a patient person and waited.  We had the lesson and then Rick came for his lesson today instead of tomorrow because it worked better for his schedule.  I don't mind though.  Whatever works for him generally works for me.  Tomorrow I am going to see "the Help".  I read the book and it was good so I am looking forward to the movie.  I do need to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 again!  I really do!!!  I plan to see it when it hits the cheap theatre with my Muglia girls.  All the girls and I are so excited about the Harry Potter stuff!

Not much going on tonight.  I will just be relaxing and watching a bit of TV.  I don't know if there is anything good on or not, but there is always HGTV if there is nothing else to watch.  There is some sort of concert on NBC.  Kid Rock is singing right now.  He is also playing the piano.  I may keep it on this station for a while.  I think they said that Bon Jovi would be playing too.  I love Bon Jovi a lot.  They are my favorite band in the world.  It is the NFL kickoff.  Wow, I thought it was something for 9/11.  I know there will be programs on tomorrow on the 10th anniversary of it.  It is hard to believe it is 10 years now.  I don't think it is something most people who have seen the images will forget them.  I was sleeping when it happened.  Mom and I were going to Canada for a concert that night.  We were going to see Kate Smith, one of Mom's favorite singers.  I was looking forward to it.  When I got up, I checked the phone for messages because I did hear it ring.  I listened and didn't understand what Mom meant about us not going across the border that night for the concert so I called her back.  i quickly learned what had happened and turned the TV on that was in the kitchen.  I couldn't believe what I saw.  My student, Anne, called and wanted to come over after school.  She had seen the images in school during the day.  It was as if the world had ended and in some sense, the world did end, the world we knew.  Everything has changed since then.  So many things have changed since then, especially for the ones who lost family and friends that day.

I do hope next week much better.

9-9 Friday

It was a lovely evening.  I had Calli and Acer's lessons.  Both are doing very well.  At first Acer didn't want to play the song we were working on but he did do it a few minutes later.  Then we started a new song.  He is doing very well with it.  I just need to get him a CD of the book so he can hear the song at home if he forgets part of it.  I find this works very well with him.  I have the level 3 CD somewhere for Calli but I can't find it right now.  I hope to find it shortly.  After we had our lessons, we relaxed and visited while we waited for Heather B-T's husband, Bill with our dinner.  We were going to play games after dinner but Bill had to stay late for work so it got too late to play games.  We will play again at a later date. Calli is doing so well with her "Ave Maria" by Schubert.  She also started "In the Bleak Midwinter".  I simply love that song.  I really do.  Her piano is coming along too.  I am very pleased with her progress.  We worked on  the rest of  "Village Dance" in her lesson book.  Knowing her she will have it down pat next week.  I would be surprised if she didn't.  Over all, I think all the students are doing well.  There are a couple who don't practice on a regular basis, but they are the exception not the rule.

I have another new student from the online company.  She is an adult who wants to learn piano.  She can already read music and plays the organ.  I will pull different levels so we can find what will work with her. She signed up for 45 minute lessons.  I have 2 lessons tomorrow.  I have Rebecca at 12 noon and Rick at 1:30.  He is having his lesson tomorrow instead of Sunday because it works better for him.  I will head for Windsor on Sunday.  I am going to a movie.  I am going to see the Help.  Tillie is taking me.  I am actually rather excited to see this movie because I have read the book and it was good.  We were going to go tomorrow but Rick needed to change his lesson so that leaves Sunday free.  I will go and get some gas and head for the border.

I am tired now after an exciting evening.  I am watching 20/20 and will head for bed right after it ends.  It has been so nice and cool this week.  It is supposed to be warmer on Sunday and through the week, but it has been a really nice change.  It is also supposed to rain tomorrow and possibly on Sunday.  I don't mind the rain right now because our lawn needs it and so do my flowers.  Yesterday when I it rained all day, I moved my flower pot so the rain would water the flowers.  I tend to forget until they are wilted and the flowers are gone.  I don't remember what kind they are, but they are awfully pretty.  I got them from Rachel.  I really like them because they are hardy flowers.  I forget to water them, then I quickly go water them, and then they perk up again.

I think I am going to bed now.  I am so tired.  I do hope you had a good day.

9-8 Thursday

Well my excitement of having 2 new singers yesterday is over.  Apparently, Sarah was being forced into and so she has quit after one lesson.  Her mom is hoping that in a few weeks she will want them and then resigning up for them, but if she was determined not to have them before she met me, I doubt she will be back.  I am hoping for a few more students this fall.  So far, with the online company I have 12 students plus about 5 weekly, 2 every other week, and 4 monthly of my own without the online company so fall is shaping up nicely.

I have one student this evening, his name is Logan and he is 16.  He plays the piano and is doing pretty well.  He has difficulty in note reading, so I got him some flash cards to help with that.  I am going to make a note reading paper for him too to see if that will help because the cool books I had have been used.  I can't remember what one of them is named so I can't have Logan buy it.  It bothers me that I can't remember but with Fibro fog, what can I expect?  I just looked up what notespellers I have and went to check the 3 that we possibilities and they aren't it.  It must have a different name or something.  That is the only thing bad about having so much music is that if you can't remember what it is called, you can't find it. I will make him one then.  That will work.  I made him one using Finale.  It is a music notation program that is really neat.  I can also make accomp. CDs with it although it takes a long time to do.  A very long time to do.  I don't really like to do that anymore so I try not to have to but in this case, I was only making the sheet music.  I will find that book soon.  I am determined to.

I am very tired today.  It hasn't been the best week for me.  Family strife and all.  I thought it was better and I found out (the hard way of course) that it was worse so yeah, not my week.  I am determined that it will not affect my teaching and so far it hasn't.

I read a facebook post from 2010 today.  They randomly post what you post the year before and the year before that.  I guess Mom and I weren't doing too much of anything this day in 2010.  It is strange to read 2 posts about someone who is in Heaven.  Reading these little facebook posts are okay though, they don't upset me at all.  Some of them are rather funny.  I tried to make Mom's day a bit happier and she liked to laugh a lot.  She deserved to have her last days happy.  I tried anyway.  I will find out someday when I am in Heaven with her if I succeeded or not.

I think I am going to rest in the living room while I wait for my student.  Like I said, I am so exhausted today.  I think several days of tears and upsets are catching up to me.  Tonight will be a calm lesson with Logan and then tomorrow is Acer and Calli who are always fun to teach.

I do hope your day is good too!

9-7

I am so glad it is Wednesday.  It is so nice and cool out.  I have had to wear a jacket for the last couple of days when I went outside.  I don't mind.  I have my Tinkerbell white hoodie on here in the dining room.  I actually had to turn the heat on this morning as it was about 68 degrees in the house.  A bit too cold for me.  I am glad it is a bit cooler.  I have been able to breath better these past few days and my headaches are the normal ones not the bad ones that come with the extreme heat.  I had 2 new students this afternoon.  Natalie, 11, will be every other week and Sarah, 11, every week.  Both are singers.  I think the first lessons went well.  Both girls are very excited about learning to sing.  Natalie had taken singing before for about a month, but she didn't think she was learning anything.  Sarah has never had lessons before.  Yesterday, I had another new student.  Her name is Aaiyanna.  She is 7.  She did very well too.  I was pleased.

I am almost to the point where I cannot add another student.  It is a beautiful feeling, let me tell you.  I figure I can either take 2 to 3 more with the online company or 2 not from the online company.  I have had several new students since June and they are all planning to continue this fall!  I am so excited about that because ALL the students who started last winter, have quit, yes, every single one of them.  I thought perhaps Kayla and Amanda would come back but I haven't heard anything from either one of them yet.  Oh well, it would be nice if they did, but if they don't, I will have other new ones.  I am excited about all the lessons, new ones and the old ones.  It should be a great fall.  I am working on competition music and Christmas music so that is keeping me very busy.

I talked to Kathy today.  It was nice to speak with her and find out how her 4 are doing on the 2nd day of school.  I spoke with her about another issue I am dealing with and between the two of us, we came up with a plan.  I feel good about the decision I made.  It is the only way for me to deal with this.  Sometimes family can be so hard to deal with but I feel good about this decision.

Tomorrow is my blood test in the afternoon.  I will have the lovely Breanna's lesson and then I will head to the doctor's for the blood test.  I am trying to drink enough water to make tomorrow's test easier.  Then later on I will have Logan's lesson.  This is his 3rd lesson.  I do need him to actually change his lesson if possible because it conflicts with choir practice, but if he can't, I just won't join the choir at this point.  It is okay either way.  I will join the choir later at a later date.

Overall, it has been a good day with all the lessons I have had today.  I only have 2 students tomorrow (3 lessons - Breanna takes voice and piano) so I am looking forward to that.  I love the temperatures out this week.  I hope your day has been good to.

Labor Day

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the rest of the students.  Fall is officially on its way.  Today is about 70 degrees today and it is now about 61 degrees.  What a change from Friday and Saturday that almost 100 degrees.  Yeah, Michigan has strange weather but hey, I will take the 60s to 70s over near 100s any day.  I have nice comfy pants on with my lovely Tinkerbell fleece hoodie.  I love hoodie weather!  I was supposed to have 4 lessons today but only ended up with one.  I am kind of bummed about that but Camille did reschedule to tomorrow.  I don't know what happen to Benjy and Joiene.  I don't know if their Mom understood she needed to call me if they weren't coming.  They are new to lessons and English is not their parents first language.  I will find out next week when I speak with her.  I also don't know if she had my phone number, that could be a problem too.  They are through the online company so i called and we decided to just reschedule the lesson to the end of the month so they won't be paying for it right now.  Of course, if it happens again, that is a different story.  I really do think this time the mom just didn't understand to call me or doesn't have my phone number.

It was an interesting afternoon.  I went to get a few things at the store and on the way home I was almost broadsided.  Yeah, I was driving down the street and the cross street had a stop sign.  How the car missed a bright RED car, I do not know, but they almost drove into me.  Fortunately, there was no one coming my direction so I could swerve and miss them.  I was not a happy camper but I am happy that me and the little red car are still intact and in one piece without anything wrong with it.  No bumps or bruises for either one of us.

I am looking forward to two new students tomorrow and Wednesday.  Both are singers.  One is 7 and the other is 11.  It shall be fun.  I also have another new student who needs to pick their time because they were signed up at the same time as one of my new students.  Overall, so far fall is shaping up nicely.

Fall is my favorite season of all.  It looks so pretty when the leaves change color.  Okay, I must admit, I do not like raking leaves.  Well, I can't do it myself, so I have the young man who mows my lawn do it for me.  I don't have many trees in my yard, wow, come to think of it, I don't have any except the Japanese Maple that is in the front yard, but across the street is a huge, and I mean huge, Poplar tree that sends my lawn lots and lots of leaves.  The tree is so big that if it came down in a storm towards my house, it would take out my whole house.  Fortunately, that has never happened and I hope it doesn't.

I am re-reading the O'Malley series from Dee Henderson.  She is a Christian Contemporary Writer.  I love these books.  I had thought I donated them 3 years ago when I donated 17 boxes of books to a church rummage sale.  I have regretted it ever since.  At the time I thought Momma and I would be moving closer to the store.  This was way before I realized how expensive the Rochester Area was and before we lost the store.  I am glad we ended up not moving.  With losing the store, we needed to stay in the house and this was right before the housing bubble burst.  I am thankful we stayed here.  However, there is no way to get all those boxes of books back.  I don't miss the Star Wars books.  They were getting boring and they were killing off the best characters.  Since there are multiple authors, each book was not in sync all the time with other books.  There were some good authors, but others weren't so good.  When I emptied the dresser drawer that had the books in it, I found 5 of the 7 O'Malley series.  I am glad I only have to purchase 2 of them.  I have already read 1 of them.  I found several books that I am excited about finding.  I also found some in the boxes in my room too so my room has been a treasure trove these last few weeks.  My dining room table that was so nicely empty, is now covered with books!  I am sure this is not a surprise since I have been bringing books downstairs from my room.  I haven't had to go to the use bookstore to get new books.  I did find several books that I plan to take to the use bookstore and turn them in for credit for more books.  I also need to go to my friend, Lisa's used bookstore near by.  She opened her own bookstore when the Border's books and music went out of business near my house.  Lisa is doing pretty well with it.  I am pleased with that for her.  She went to high school with me.

It has been a good day despite my sleeping in rather late and the almost car accident.  I am looking forward to the cooler weather this week.  Thank goodness for that!  I do hope your day is good too!

Jessie's Wedding Day

Jessie was a beautiful bride!  She looked simply beautiful.  Her dress was a sweetheart neckline with sparkles all over it.  Her sister, Katie was a bridesmaid and also look so beautiful!  I would love to tell you that I took a lot of pictures and can post them, but I can't.  I was so caught up in the service that I forgot I had a camera.  Yeah, wasn't that smart?  No, not really, but considering I have memory problems with Fibro Fog and doing more than one thing at a time is not something I am good at, I am not surprised.  Robin came with as Mike was ill.  She took some pictures with her phone so hopefully she will post them.  It was a lovely reception too.  We stayed until about 9:30 when Robin started getting a bit tired.  I was ready to go to because the dancing was starting and I usually leave about that time.  I was getting a bit of a bad headache at that point too so it was a good time to leave.  I saw Jessie and Katie's brother, Martin, as we left and told him to let her know it was a wonderful wedding and she and Katie looked beautiful.  I did get to talk to Katie so that was good.  I know Jessie knew I was there because she saw me at the church.  She had both her mom and dad walk her down the aisle.  That was really neat.  It was simply a great day all around.  It just was.  I even broke down and put some makeup on, foundation, eye shadow, and all.  Well as I was putting my eye shadow on, my brush broke.  Yeah, that was not fun but I got what I needed on.  Martin's girlfriend, Chelsea made all the cupcakes for the dessert table.  Boy, the one I had was amazing!  It was so good.  She is an incredible baker.  Martin is going to school to be a social worker, I had thought he was going for being a youth pastor, but I guess he changed his mind.  I think he will make a great social worker.  He plans to get his master's degree too.  He said with social work it is a necessity.  I am so proud of all three of them.  Katie is working on her Nurses Administration degree, Martin is for social work, and Jessie is getting a masters in English.  They all have grown up so well.  They are such good people too.

I ran into a couple of former students' Moms there too.  I actually expected that I would because I know they are friends of Jessie's parents.  It was nice catching up with them.  I knew a bit about the one mom because her daughter, Kelly Lynn is the teacher I loaned books to so she can look and figure out what she wants to do.  She took a big pile home with her and I told her she could borrow them for about a month.  Kelly was like, oh, I will only need them for about a week.  I knew a bit better on that and I knew it would take a bit for her to go through them all.  She is a brand new teacher who I also hope will take her students to Michigan Music Association Competition this winter.  We shall see!

I am very tired now and my legs and feet hurt as I don't have a good pair of dress shoes.  They hurt my feet but I didn't want to wear sneakers.  Maybe I should get a pair of black sneakers so no one will know I am wearing sneakers instead of dress shoes.  I also thought that maybe a pair of ballet slippers would work too.  I don't know.  I hope that by Christmas I will lose some weight and then maybe I can fit into an old pair of dress shoes.  My feet need to lose weight too.  I can only try.

I am going to get a book to read now while I relax before I head for bed.  It was such a wonderful day.  I had such a nice time at the wedding and the reception.  It was simply beautiful.

I do hope your day was as beautiful as mine!