November 4

It has been a good day so far.  I am tired now, but since it is near 9 pm that would be normal.  Tomorrow I will have 2 lessons for the day, just Camille and Sandra.  Sunday has 2 lessons too plus church in the morning.  I will have time before the lessons to take a nap.  That will be very necessary since I have to get up so early for church.  This is the last week for Rick until January.  It should be a good lesson!

I went to Walmart this evening after Emily's lesson.  I checked out prices of Blue Ray players because right now pretty much a lot of the movies are coming out in blue ray combo packs.  That was how I had to buy the new Pirates movie.  I don't have a player and after checking out how much they are, it will be a rather long time until I get one.  They are about $100 or so and I don't have that kind of money to get one right now.  Perhaps next summer or fall I can get one.  I can save for one after I pay off the taxes.  I believe that this month I will again be able to pay $400 payment.  That will be awesome because if I keep this up, I will have the bill paid in full at the deadline and I will not lose the house.  So far, I am doing really good with it all.  I went in Walmart to pick up milk and bread, just milk and bread.  However, you know how it goes, you walk out with so much more (like 2 movies - Pirates and Winnie the Pooh, 6 soup cans - they were on sale, socks - I needed some, new Christmas lights for the tree - I only have 1/2 the tree with lights, and a few other items I can't think of at this time).  Next time, I will write a list and stay with it or I hope I will.  The only movie I plan to purchase now is the Harry Potter movie and that will be next Friday.  I am excited about this movie.  I love the Harry Potter stories so much.  Now when I see them, I remember how much Momma loved the Harry Potter movies  and books too.  When I had my blood clot, she came to visit me everyday and the first few days I was really in so much pain and I was so out of it.  Mom read to me and she read the first Harry Potter book.  She knew I had read it and how much I loved it, so she thought it would be good to read to me.  When the lady who was in the bed next to me went home, she came over to ask Mom what book she was reading and who it was by because she had to go buy so she would know what happened.  Mom and I chuckled together after that.  It took about 2 weeks to recover from the blood clot although after the blood clot I have had trouble with walking and standing.  It was as if the blood clot made the fibro and arthritis worse.  I don't know why, but I could no longer walk 1 to 2 miles a day.  I haven't been able to walk that much since then.  I try not to think about that because it upsets me.

Things are going pretty well for me.  I was so scared after Momma passed away.  I really was because I had never lived on my own.  I always had Mom because I never moved out.  I had opportunities to move out, I just never really wanted to.  Mom and I got along really well and so I never really wanted to go anywhere.  The furthest I moved was down the hall.  I always had the small room because I didn't have to share.  After my younger brother moved out, I joked with Mom that I could have the big room now.  We scrubbed the walls and steam cleaned the carpet.  When I came home that Saturday, I went to my room only to discover it was almost empty.  I called out to mom and asked what happened to my stuff.  She said go look in the other room.  I went and well, I had moved to the bigger room.  I was very excited.  When Andrew moved back in a few months later, he moved into my old room.  A few weeks later Andrew asked if he could have his room back.  Mom said no, it's Heather's room now.  He said okay.  I don't really think it fazed him what room he was in, but my old room is so apparent that it was a girls room at one time.  i had a purple rug with yellow walls.  The drapes are white with flowers on it and so was the bedspread.  I didn't have a lot of students, about 7 with 4 being once a month, 1 every other week and the others weekly.  However, within weeks of Momma passing away I began to get more students.  It has increased ever since.  The students I received from the online company in January have all quit since then.  Many were adults, some were temporary, and a couple were middle school students who supposedly quit for the summer but I haven't heard from them since.  I do still have almost everyone who started in the summer and a few not from the online company that are still with me.  It is working out very well.  We are all getting ready for our Christmas concert and some, competition.  I still miss Mom immensely and all the time but the fear isn't as bad.  It isn't as scary as it was a year ago at this time.  With time, I think it will improve.

I do hope you are having a good day too.

"you thought of me, above all" 11-3

This song, "Above All" is what we are singing this Sunday.  It is a wonderful song that for the last week would in my head at random times.  I am really enjoying being a member of this choir.  I am an official member now.  We use planningcentralonline.com to keep track of the music we are doing and the hymns too.  It is a traditional service with a mix of traditional hymns and praise songs.  I love the blend, which surprises me because I am more of a traditionalist and want hymns but I am finding the mix is great.  I do really like the new church too.  I did like the one I was raised in, but I was invited to join this choir and I was looking to try a new church.

It was a very busy day for teaching too.  I had 6 lessons.  I had planned on 7 but Brianne was absent.  She had to stay after school to do a project so she couldn't attend her lesson.  Brooke, her sister, had her lesson and is doing really well with the difficulty of her Christmas Music.  She also is going to start a David Lantz Christmas piece too.  I think she will do very well.  Joiene and Benjy had their lessons too.  Despite not practicing, Benjy is doing pretty well.  I really wish they would practice, but I can't seem to impress upon their mom how important it is for them to practice.  Benjy wants to play well and you can tell when he is here, he really wants to be here (and not just for the legos either!)  Breanna had switched her song from "Jingle Bell Rock" to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus".  She and I went over the chords for the song because she wants to play it on the guitar while she sings.  Allison finally received her new piece for the concert, "Do You Hear What I Hear".  She did very well when we went over the song.  So, over all, the students are coming along with their Christmas Concert music.  The concert is one month from tomorrow, ahhh!  I am a bit nervous about having it so early, but it is the date we received so we will all make it work.  In a way, it is better to have it so early.  One because then the students can just enjoy their other activities during the season and two, the students will have more lessons in December.  What started to happen is that after the concert, students would take off until they went back to school in January.  This way, I hope no one will stop until January because it is so early in the month.  Laith also had his lesson.  He has the hand positions that are new down pat.  he is playing his songs really well.

I am tired now because of how busy today was.  I am thankful for the busyness of the day.  I look forward to being busy during the week.  It makes the day better and go faster.  I really hope that by end of January, I will be at my limit for students.  That would be beautiful.

I hope your day was as good as mine.

memories, light the corners of my mind

I am missing Mom so much these past few days.  I have memories coming to me a lot (happy ones though, not sad).  I just miss the little lady so much.  I am thankful though, that I have the good memories to think about and not bad memories to think about.  It is kind of funny, but I don't remember the bad times as much now that she is in Heaven.  I only really remember the good times with her like when we saw Amy Grant and she pretended that she forgot to go and get the tickets.  I had given her the money for the tickets the night before and she was supposed to go the next day while I was teaching.  When I came home, she said she forgot to go and we would go the next day.  I was really disappointed but I tried not to show it.  I figured she probably got caught up in a project and time slipped away.  That night she came in my room and asked me to help her get this paper out of her pockets.  I thought it was a really strange request (this was years and years before Alzheimer's) but I did it anyway.  I reached into her pocket and pulled out the paper.  It was Amy Grant tickets for her Christmas show.  Mom had gotten us 5th row main floor.  I asked her how because I had given her enough money for balcony.  She smiled and said she knew how much I love Amy Grant and pitched in the rest of the money for a Christmas Treat.  (Oh, and she was 2nd in line at the store.  She waited about 45 minutes before it opened so we would get good tickets)  We had a great time at the concert.  Michael W. Smith was there too.  This was very typical of my mother.

the First day of November!!

I am so glad today is the first of November!  I really am.  I only had 1 lesson today instead of 2 but I will see Charlie for an hour next week for his lesson.  He is such a nice young man.  I am really not going to like it when he stops lessons after graduation this spring.  He is a senior so our time is limited.  Aaiyanna had her lesson and she is doing pretty well with her Christmas Songs.  She is 8 years old and very cute.  She has a nice voice too.  The change between her chest and head voice is pretty smooth for her age.

I went to the subdivision meeting tonight.  It was lots of fun to go.  We talk about a lot of things during the meeting.  I am writing the newsletter for our subdivision.  I will have it ready to go by the end of the week. I will then email it to John and then he sends it to the guy who copies it.  I will pick it up and the kids will deliver it.  First, I must finish the letter.  I thought I had all the stories I needed but I have a few other things to put in it.  I really only wanted a 2 pager.  I don't want anymore than that.  I will work on this tomorrow.

I also have to make the flyer for the Christmas Concert.  I will probably do that tonight or tomorrow.  I have a blood test tomorrow so I will be up a bit earlier than usual.  I can always take a nap if necessary.  I took one this evening before I went to the meeting.  I was rather tired today.  I have a bit of a bad headache now.  I hope it improves soon because I don't want to go to bed with it.

I am really tired tonight so I am going to take some medicine and hope that they bad headache goes down to the regular headache.  I do hope you have had a good day.

IRS and other random thoughts 10-31

I received a letter from the IRS today.  It is over the payroll taxes from the store I had.  I had a payroll company do my payroll and stuff but when the store closed they did the end of the year paperwork but never sent it in.  Needless to say, this was a surprise when I got notices about this.  Since then I have sent in all the paperwork.  Well, they lost the W-2s and W-3 from that year.  I was on the phone with them but I only had to wait about 30 minutes (which for them, that isn't a bad wait) until I talked to a real live person.  He was very helpful.  He was polite and nice too.  I always heard that they are not, well, my experience (as limited as it is) has been that they have wanted to help and they were polite.  He told me to make a copy of the W-2s (all 7 of them) and the W-3 and send them in.  He gave me the address and told me what part of the notice to send in with them.  Talk about a good thing.  I was very pleased.  He put a hold on any action and said most likely when they balance, everything will be dropped and that will be the end of the paperwork mess up from the store.  The only thing left for me, paperwork wise, is paying on the sales and use tax that we owe from the last year.  I am on a payment plan and that paperwork is all taken care of.  Thank goodness for that.  I am very happy about how this is turning out.  I will copy those papers this evening and mail them tomorrow.  It shall be done quickly on my part so that they get them sooner and can put them in the beginning of the process to take care of them.

I think I am missing Mom a bit more than normal because it is Halloween.  She really liked the younger children and their costumes.  It was just something that she loved.  Then again, Mom just really liked children.  She had worked with children since she was 14 when she was a girl guide (Canada's girl scouts) leader.  From there Mom went to work with Army Cadets in Windsor (boy do I remember that!  I have lots of memories of being at camps and away with them) to working with my students for sewing and other things.  Mom just enjoyed children a lot.  I would say that Mom really loved lots of things.  I am hiding in the house tonight because I just don't really want to do much.  Trick or Treating here lasts from 6 pm when the sirens go off to 8 pm when the sirens go off again.  I do like how the fire department lets people know when it starts and when it ends.  It really is for the best this way.  When we were small we would go to our elementary school for trick or treating.  Sometimes I would do a lot and other times I would be with mom in the classroom where she would be passing out the candy.  I really liked how the school had a party because all the candy was checked by the fire department (back then people would put glass or razor blades or something equally dangerous in children's candy) and you had a safe environment to go trick or treating.  My friends would all be there too and as we got older we could go without my Dad taking us around.  We would all meet in the gym/lunch room where they would be serving cider too.  I just remember it being a good time the times that we did it.  I know in early elementary we did this, but I don't remember later elementary after my dad left.  I don't remember too much about Halloween then.  I know at one point it was just Mom, Andrew, and I but I don't really remember too much about it.  I have a picture of Andrew and I in our costumes in 4th and 5th grades in the china cabinet.  I was a princess and I wore one of my Mom's fancy dresses.  It was pink (naturally!) and I loved it.  She even had a little jacket to go with it so I wouldn't get cold.  The little jacket was white.  I remember the other holidays so much better than Halloween.

I was thinking about Mom earlier today and that brought some memories out of all of us together.  I have very little memories of my dad.  The only reason I know what he even looks like is because I have a picture of him in one of the picture albums.  I don't know what brought this memory on except I was scratching the top of my arm where my booster shot scar is.  I do remember that day really well.  Mom was never really allowed to tell Dad when she took us to the doctor because he felt his first wife was constantly taking my sister (I have never met her, she lives in England as far as I know and is 16 years older than me) so he didn't want Mom taking us "all the time".  So she just never really mentioned it to him whenever we went.  Well, that day was my booster shot.  Remember how much those hurt?  I do remember because I didn't cry too much I got to pick out a book to buy.   (That was Mom's bribe, a book if you don't cry)  I remember we went during the day so I missed a bit of school.  I was not unhappy about that.  I didn't like school then either.  We came home, Mom made dinner and I remember we were sitting at the counter in the kitchen not at the dining room table.  I was sitting to the right of my dad and Mom was at the left end of the counter.  I must have been wiggling (that was usual for me.  I wiggled all the time) and Dad got mad.  i remember trying to not wiggle, but it was hard so of course, being the young child I was, I wiggled again.  He smacked my arm exactly where the booster shot site was!  I immediately burst into tears because that sucker hurt.  My dad was like, what I didn't hit her hard.  I jumped down from my seat and went to Mom to be soothed.  Mom just quietly said, she had a booster shot today and you hit her where she got the shot.  He didn't apologize, he just said, well, she shouldn't have been wiggling.  I have very few other memories of him, but this is the strongest one I have.  I do remember Mom putting ice on the spot to help it stop hurting.  She even let me sleep in her bed with her that night.  I have so few memories of my dad (he left when I was about 8 and the last time I saw him I was 9) but boy do I have many of Mom.  Mom used to tell me how she knew when I was faking sick to stay home from school.  I would go to my dad and say I didn't feel good.  If I went to her, i was really sick.  She told me this when I was in my 20s.  Of course, this all changed after he left.  Then I just went to mom.  By that time though, I was having so much trouble with my tummy, that I missed generally at least once a week or once every other week.  It wasn't until I was 40 when the doctor said what was wrong.  My stomach doesn't digest properly.  That is why I take reglan.  It is kind of funny to realize how quickly we adjusted to no dad, but the adjusting to no Mom is so hard.  I guess we were so used to dad traveling all the time that it didn't make a difference.  We always had Mom with us and she was the one who took really good care of us.  Even he admitted at the time of the divorce (in court no less! and he was mean to Mom during the divorce) that she was a really good mother.  She certainly was.  Yes, she made mistakes, but we talked about those when I was an adult and she apologized for some of the things she did.  I apologized, she apologized and we put it behind us.  I think that was when we became more than Mother and daughter, we were friends.

I do hope everyone has a good Halloween and a good day.  I am enjoying the peace and quiet here in the dining room.  I think I am going to make some chili for dinner now.

The day before Halloween

I don't particularly like Halloween.  I am not really sure why, outside of it is such a focus on horror and I am not a horror girl.  I can't watch scary movies or horror movies.  I can't read scary books or horror books either so I am just not into Halloween.  Mom loved seeing the smaller kids dress up for Halloween and come to our house trick or treating.  I am not going to be passing out any candy this year.  I am just not up to it.  It is going to be cold and rainyish and well, I just can't stand that long.  If it was nicer out then I could sit outside and pass out candy but it isn't going to be nice so no trick or treaters for me.  I will do what I did last year, sit inside and watch TV.  There was a time a few years ago we had a lot of high schoolers who wouldn't even dress up.  They wouldn't even wear a mask!  It was insane.  Fortunately, the few years have been more littler ones.  Those are the ones Mom loved to see.  When we were small, Mom decorated the house for Halloween but not with anything scary.  We had a witch, but she was a pretty one, and I think we had some cute ghosts too.  I don't completely remember.  I just remember how Mom loved to decorate for every holiday.  She never missed one when we were growing up.  I have some nice window clings for Thanksgiving this year.  I will put those on the windows but I don't know where our other decorations went.  They were for on the table.  I will have help decorating for Christmas, Lily will be here for that.  I am going to see if she wants another gingerbread house.  If she does, then I will get one for her, if not, that is okay too.  It is all up to the lovely young lady.  Whatever she would like, works for me.

I took a nap after church today.  Yes, I actually made it to church again!  I was there for 7:30 am.  I sang with the choir and enjoyed myself.  After the choir was over, Carolyn (another really nice young lady) and I went to sit with her family.  I think next week I will leave my coat with her family since I will be sitting with them.  I love her family.  They are simply wonderful people.  I am thankful they invited me to sing in the choir.  I am hoping Katie will join too as she is a wonderful singer and a great young lady too.  My Katie goes to the same church and it was a nice surprise to realize that.

I don't have any students today.  I had my normal Sunday student on Saturday this week.  It worked best for his schedule so I didn't mind.  Next week will be the last time he will have a lesson until January.  He is going to Hawaii and India.  He will be gone for about 2 months total.  I do hope he has a good time.  I will be burning CDs this afternoon for this week.  I went and bought some ink for the scanner so I can make some copies.  I need to copy Isaac's music for him.  Katie is making copies for her and Calli.  I have to make copies for Allison and for Natalie too.  Many of the students already have their music.  These are the last of the students who need them except for Isaac, the newest of the crew.

I don't really have any plans for the evening today except for watching some TV and maybe movie.  I don't know.  I am reading a good book so I may just finish it for the evening.  I know what I should do, but I am not in the mood.  I should be emptying the table and putting music away.  I also should be vacuuming the floor too, but I am just not in the mood for anything like that.  I will do it this week.  I also need to fold some clothes that are on the hangers in the back room.  They are the few clothes left of Mom's.  I am definitely not in the mood for that.  I need to though this week, because the pile of clean clothes of mine on the dryer is getting bigger and I need to hang up some of those clothes so I can take them upstairs.

Well, I am going to read for a bit.  I do hope you are having a good day too.  It has been.  Church was good and so was the nap.

Saturday 10-29

I can't believe that October is almost over.  I think I say that every month.  Time is going so fast some days.  Today is one of them.  I have 3 lessons, Camille, Rick, and Katie and all but Katie is finished.  I was copying her music but the black ink is out on the printer.  I will have to pick some up this week because I will need to make copies for Allison and Natalie.  Actually, I think I will have to pick it up tomorrow since I need the music by Wednesday.  It won't be a problem, I will go after church tomorrow.  They should be open by the time I finish church.  After that, I can come home and take a nap.  I have all day tomorrow to get the rest of the music organized for the concert.  I also need to make a flyer for the concert so everyone knows the date and time.

I am glad this horrible month is almost over.  With the except of a couple of birthdays, I simply hate the month of October now, just hate it.  I am glad it is almost November despite it being a dreary month, it will be better than October.  I only have 2 more days I have to get through and them a new month will be here. I will be hiding on Halloween just like I did last year.  I just am not ready to take over Mom's passing out the candy post.  Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, even when I was a child.  I like the costumes part of it but I never really got to eat any of the candy I collected.  My brothers got to eat theirs and my candy.  I think I got maybe 2 or 3 pieces total for Halloween.  I was glad when I was not going trick or treating.  Halloween parties were more fun.

It seems that the last flare is over now.  Thank goodness!  My hips have been okay all week so I am glad about that.  It was so hard to walk last week when the left hip was flaring so bad.  I still have trouble lying on my back at night, but I always have trouble with that.  I lay on my sides and it is much more comfortable to me.  It doesn't hurt my hips or my back when I do that.  Otherwise, my hips and back are really unhappy campers and that is not good.

After Katie this evening, I won't have any more lessons for the week.  Rick came today instead of Sunday because it was best for his schedule.  It works for me.  I like to be super flexible when I can because then if I need to change a lesson for a day, my students and their families are more willing to change.  It works out well for both of us.  A perfect example was the reunion weekend a few weeks ago.  I needed Friday cleared so my students came on Sunday and Saturday.  If I was not so flexible, I would have lost out on lessons, but this way everyone is happy.  My new students are more into rescheduling than canceling and I love that.  My old ones also are more into rescheduling rather than just flat out canceling.  It really works for the both of us, the student and me.

I am going to start cutting out the ornaments this week, I think.  First though, I must clear off the dining room table.  It is covered with CDs and music!  It is simply covered!  I have a small spot for my computer and for me to eat, but that is it!  I have the lovely new tablecloth that I am also anxious to put on.  I have a wonderful quilting mat that I can use to measure and cut the materials out on.  I bought the mat about 2 years ago when Mom and I were going to learn how to quilt.  Now, i am not so interested in it, but maybe someday I will be.  I like the mat for other things too so that is good.  I am anxious to have an area strictly for sewing downstairs.  It will be nice to use.  I will also be able to watch TV (when I get one for downstairs) in the family room too.  I may buy a smaller one for up here and move the bigger one downstairs again where it originally was.  I don't know.  It depends on the money situation, of course,  I can't do anything until the property taxes are completely paid for the year.  Once that is in hand, I will be able to save smaller payments for the next year taxes and perhaps be able to buy a new TV for the kitchen/dining room area.  I also have to have the carpet put on the stairs this winter.  I have both the carpet and the padding, it just needs to be installed.  I have the name of a person to do this but I am also going to check on Angie's list as that seems to be a good way to go.

I am going to read for a few minutes, Katie should be here shortly.  It has been a nice and busy day with lessons and getting music ready for lessons.  I am getting up super early tomorrow for church.  I do hope you are having a good day too.

Friday 10-28

It has been an interesting day.  I went and picked up Maia to bring her to her boyfriend's house.  It was just a quick trip over the border, few minutes there, few minutes back.  The only hiccup was the charcoal in the trunk of my car.  I had thought it was gone but a few days ago I found it in the trunk of the car.  Did you know that charcoal is not allowed to be brought into Canada?  No?  Neither did I.  Fortunately, the border patrol officer let me through and I will have it taken out tomorrow.  I meant to have it taken out today, but I forgot to remind Heather to help me.  I hope I can take it out of my car myself because I am NOT driving around with it anymore.  Next spring, I will give it to the church to replace the charcoal we used for the summer concert.

Acer did really good at his lesson today.  He sat there nicely and he did the proper fingering with both hands.  It was really nice to see how he did.  Then we worked on his high notes and what to do about some of the straining he does.  I think the new trick will work.  I am very pleased with how he did.  Calli also had two good lessons.  She does both voice and piano.  She has a lovely singing voice that is rather mature for her age.  Her range is out of this world for her age and well, for any age truth be told.  She has over a 3 octave range.  It is close to 3 1/2 octaves.  Think Mariah Carey high notes and this 11 year old can hit them.  Amazing.  We finished the left hand for Hark the Herald Angels Sing and started the Little Drummer Boy.  We have about 4 weeks now until the Christmas Concert, which is going to be on December 4.  Emily began her Christmas Concert music too.  She played them very well today so I am not worried that she won't have the music down pat.  Emily will do well.  I have to copy the music for Katie tomorrow.  I just remembered that.  Also, Calli and Katie need their duet too.  Katie will have to decide what they are going to sing.  I just hope that Calli likes it too.

I have been thinking about this for a while.  I have often wondered of the inequities of some things.  This has happened within the family with me for a long time now.  I am expected to accept people's lifestyles, belief systems, and look at things from their point of view, but when it comes to me, I don't get the same respect, for lack of a better word.  I am, at times, ridiculed for what I believe, how I live and in general, my point of view.  I don't understand this.  We are all different in many different ways that is just the way we are made but my differences are insulted (sometimes this happened last spring) and looked down upon.  I just don't understand this at all.  I don't say anything about the differences in our lifestyles but it is okay to put my lifestyle down.  I do not go around speaking the Gospel nor do I condemn people who don't believe in God.  That is there personal business between them and God.  I figure I have enough I am going to have to explain to God that I am not going to start picking up someone else's stuff.  Everyone sins and makes mistakes.  The only perfect person died about 2000 years ago.  I am far from perfect but I try to live my life as I was raised.  I am a Christian.  I was raised in church.  However, I have not attended a church in the last 7 or 8 years.  I recently joined a church choir and have started attending a different church than the one I was raised in.  There is nothing wrong with the church I was raised in, I just feel at this point, a different church is where I need to be.  I have many family members who don't believe in God and I do not try to convince them otherwise nor do I look down at them because their belief system is different than mine.  I just try to live my life and think that actions speak louder than words.  I may not understand some of the reasons people do what they do, however it is not my place to criticize them or put them down.  I want the same things for them that I want for me: to live my life how I see is best, be happy, and be successful.  I want my family to live the way they think is best, raise their children the best that they can, be happy, and be successful.

This is just something I have been thinking about for a few years now.  It has been a thinking and a good day.  I hope your day is good too.

Lovely Day 10-27

I have been busy from the moment I got up to when I got home from Choir practice.  I woke up later than originally planned because I reset my alarm.  I was just so tired!  So I rushed to get ready for my first lesson with Breanna.  I had lessons from 2:15 to 7 pm with the exception of 3:45 to 4:30.  I had a small break then.  It was a lovely day full of music.  After my last lesson ended (the first one with the young man named Isaac - whom I have known since he was born), I went to choir practice.  So basically, it was a day filled with music.  Tomorrow I have Acer, Calli, and Emily.  I am picking up my cousin, Maia to bring her over to her boyfriend's house.  He is on the road right now so he won't be able to meet her at the border.  She is going to help with the gas money and tunnel money because it is the end of the month and it is very tight this week (just like it is for soooo many others that i know)  I am grateful for the things I have and that I am able to pretty much pay my bills on time!  (Mostly, anyways - I am still behind in a couple but not too many).

My new student, Isaac is 10 and he is taking both singing and piano.  I am very pleased with what he did today.  We started one Christmas vocal song - Ding Dong Merrily on High, and a few pages for his piano book.  Overall, he did really well.  He also seems to have a good music teacher at his school and it shows.  Benjy and Joiene did pretty well since they don't really practice at all.  I don't know why but they don't.  Benjy played his Christmas Songs pretty well and Joiene, when she played them, she did pretty good.  Both Breanna and Brianne did awesome.  Brianne is learning to play a jump base song.  It is a challenge for her because she has never really had her left hand jump around the notes like this before.  She is such a nice girl.  Next week her sister Brooke will be moving her lessons to Thursday after her sister's lesson.  Breanna is also doing very well.  She has her vocal Christmas song that she is singing and accompanying herself with the guitar.  It will be awesome.  She was also going to sing and play Jingle Bell Rock, but she is having problems with the guitar part so we will use a piano track instead.  It works for me.  Breanna is doing well with her piano but she doesn't want to play the piano in the concert.  I told her that was fine because it is.  If she isn't ready to perform piano, then she doesn't have to play the piano in the concert.  Laith is doing very well with new hand positions that he has never played before.  His Joy to the World is really doing well.  He not only learned to play in middle D position, but we added sharps, dotted quarter notes, and eighth notes.  Laith is such a trooper and is really doing very well with his challenging pieces.  We started the first page of Here Comes Santa Claus.  That piece has 2 hand positions and I think he will do very well with it.  All in all, I have to say that a musical day is definitely the way to go!  I don't think I could handle a day like today every single day, but once a week is okay.  Although, I will normally have a break between Laith's lesson and choir.

I am not quite as exhausted as I was when I came in from choir.  I am still rather tired though.  I do plan to head for bed soon especially since I am getting up earlier than usual to go and get Maia.  My flare seems to be gone now.  My left hip is doing very well and seems back to normal.  My shoulder and arm were getting rather sore at practice, but nothing too bad.  I am just glad that the flare seems to be gone and I hope it stays that way.

I do hope you have had a good day too and that tomorrow will be awesome.

Wednesday 10-26

I had only 2 lessons today, Allison and Beth.  Allison is working on 1 of her Christmas pieces and she finished her 2 musical theatre selections.  I am hoping that her other Christmas Song comes in next week.  I had to order it from another store as the original one does not have it yet and it has been over 2 weeks.  The other store is shipping it to my house and it should be here rather shortly.  Beth is working on her audition material for Jekyll and Hyde.  She is doing very well.  The audition is next weekend so we have one more lesson before the audition to polish everything up.  Beth works very hard.  She practices regularly so I figure by next week she will be ready to go.

I have to copy some music for Laith tonight.  We will be starting his Christmas songs tomorrow.  I think I copied one already, but I am not sure.  Either way, I will have it ready for him.  I have 6 lessons tomorrow including the new young man.  I have to copy some Christmas music for him to sing tomorrow.  We might as well start with that since the concert is about 5 weeks away.  I have Brianne and Breanna tomorrow or at least as far as I know I do.  Last week Breanna had to cancel.  I really hope she has her lesson tomorrow.  I miss my students when they don't have lessons.

I am very tired tonight.  I didn't want to get up today.  I was just so tired.  I don't know why I was so tired today but I was.  It seems like it will be an early night for a change.  I think I was awake until about 2 am.  I would really rather be asleep by midnight.  Then I would get up a bit earlier (I don't want to get up too early now!) and get a few things done.  I think I am just not feeling well tonight.  I hope it goes away tomorrow and I feel back to normal.

Tomorrow is choir.  I do like going to choir.  My hip seems to be back to normal so that is good.  I should be able to make it to church on Sunday morning.  That is my goal anyways.  I like singing in a choir again.  I just wish that church was a few hours later than it is.  That would be so nice but it isn't so I will go at the proper time.

I look forward to all the lessons I have tomorrow.  Thursday are a good day for teaching as I usually have 6 lessons and choir practice.  I hope you are having a good day today.

NCIS night Tuesday 10-25

It was a busyish day today.  I had Brooke's lesson, Aaiyanna's lesson, and Charlie's lesson.  I had to get some music for Aaiyanna before her lesson.  I am missing the CD that goes with it so I have to pull out the original so I can make copies of it.  I just had it a few weeks ago so I don't understand why I don't have it right now.  it is bothering me that I can't find it.  I hope that as soon as I copy the original, I will find the other copy.  That is what usually happens to me so I am hoping that will happen this time.

I have been wanting a table runner to go on my mother's dresser and some small cloths or doilies for her nightstand.  I had some but when the room was emptied, they went too.  I have looked on line and it was hard to know exactly what I wanted especially because I really liked the ones we had.  I went into Walmart tonight and at first I was disappointed in what they had but then I went to another section of the store and right there in front of me was a pretty, lacy, white table runner with 2 doilies that will go on the nightstands.    They are all very pretty and they were only about $4.  That was a nice surprise.  I don't have a lot of money to spend on this, so this was pretty awesome.

I have been so excited that my left shoulder has been doing much better.  After a couple of years of getting used to a frozen shoulder, it is nice to be able to move it a bit more again.  It started hurting a bit this afternoon, but I think the rainy and cold weather is really the culprit this time.  It is supposed to rain again tomorrow too.  I have to go and pick up some music for Isaac tomorrow for his lesson on Thursday.  I am also hoping that the Christmas book is in too.  I need it soon!  Allison can't start her other Christmas song without it.

I have to finish putting Calli's songs in Finale this week before Friday.  I think I need a new mouse pad because mine is totally falling apart.  I have some music fabric and I wonder if I could use some of that to make one.  I don't know.  I will look into it.  I looked on Amazon and they have the most beautiful mouse pad.  I just ordered it.  The shipping cost more than the actual mouse pad, however, they don't carry this one in stores.  I have looked at some of the music stores and they don't have them.  I am going to work on Calli's songs again tomorrow.  It doesn't take too long, but I am so very tired today that it is best I wait until tomorrow.  Speaking of tomorrow, I don't get Lily after all.  The orthodontist cancelled her appointment because of a family emergency.  Darn.  I really was looking forward to my girl.  Well, another time!  It probably is a good idea that she not miss any part of tomorrow because she is having surgery on Thursday and will be out of school for a few days.  I am just not sure how much she will miss.

I must copy some more Christmas music for my little ones this week.  Emily needs to start her Christmas music this week and so does Laith.  I will do that tomorrow so I have them for the rest of the week.  So far, Emily and Laith are about the only ones (except for Isaac since he is just starting) who haven't started their Christmas music.  I am almost ready to start working on competition music!  I am thankful to be so busy.  I emailed a few more teachers asking if they are interested in judging for us this year at competition.  I have hit several brick walls.  I have 3 teachers interested so far.  2 for Saturday and Sunday and 1 for all three days.  However, I need more.  This is very nerve wrecking job.  I am not sure I want to do this one again.  I think some of the other jobs I have done are more interesting.  The newsletter about competition and the concert went out last week and this week.  I will put the rest of the Christmas music away that I didn't need and start pulling out the Competition music.  I don't expect to have a lot of students going this year, but that is okay.  I know that Breanna really wants to go but her family already has a vacation planned so she isn't sure she will be going.  Katie and Rebecca made be my only ones going this year.  Maybe after my new students have had lessons after one year will be interested in going.

NCIS is on right now.  It is such a good show.  I think it is one of my favorites.  I don't know what my favorite show of all time is though.  There are so many good ones.  Oh my!  A twist I never expected!  You will have to watch to see the twist.  NCIS Los Angeles will be on after the regular NCIS.

I am hoping to see my friends Jennie or Wendy some day next week.  I saw them a couple of weeks ago at the reunion.  It was such a good time.

I had a good day.  I remembered to go to the bank and the post office before lessons.  I had good lessons.  I do hope your day was good too.