I want a new Nose 1-27

My little nose has been running on and off since last night.  I would literally wake up to blow my nose.  It is very annoying.  Of course the fear shoots through me, is this just a little cold or is the vasculitis back?  Ever since I had a bout of vasculitis in 2003, a runny  nose just sends fear right down my back until it turns into a cold.  I am hoping it turns into a cold.  I do have a bad headache tonight, and that could also be either  a cold or vasculitis so for now, I just wait.

I at least, feel less "off" today than I did on Wednesday.  That could be either the beginning of a cold or vasculitis.

Anyways, it has been a decent day.  I got my hair washed and dried and had some lessons.  Carolyn, my neighbor and fellow choir member, came over to go over a new song we got last night at choir practice.  It is a good one, but the last page is very hard so she and I went over a few times.  I feel a lot better about it now, I just hope I feel good about it next Thursday during practice and next Sunday when we are singing it.  I simply love being in this choir.  The music is a nice mix and the people are very nice.  It is also very nice getting to know Carolyn and her family better.  We have been neighbors for over 20 years, but it seems like in the last couple of years that I have been getting to know them much better.  They are a very nice family.  Carolyn was the young lady who would come over and stay with Mom while I went shopping or had appointments.  Mom really liked Carolyn and they got along rather well.  Barbara Jean (Carolyn's Mom) was one of the first people I called when they said Mom was dying.  She came over right away.  They are a nice family who I like a lot.  I have spent several evenings with them. Right now they have my first season of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" DVDs.  They have seen the pilot movie and the 2nd episode.  So far, I think they all like the show a lot.  I know that Mom and i spent many hours enjoying that show both when it aired on TV and watching the DVDs.  I also told Carolyn and Rachel, that they were welcome to come and borrow any DVD of mine that they wished except the few that belong to Andrew because they would not be family oriented or appropriate for them to watch.  I plan to eventually pull those from the library and donate them.  I don't watch rated R movies.    At this point, they just don't interest me.

Calli was so funny tonight.  We giggled as usual through our lessons.  She stayed a bit after until her dad came to pick her up.  I went to take a picture of her and then she wanted the camera.  She took a lot of pictures and you should see some of them!  They turned out really good.  For a child who has a smidge, a very, very, very slight smidge of vision in the upper left corner of the left eye, she took some good pictures.  I was really impressed.  I also thought it was cute because she was so excited to take pictures.  Calli just had a ball with that camera.  I will post them on face book and tag her mother and father tomorrow.  I was going to do it tonight but I am getting rather tired.  I deleted the ones that were either too close or pictures of her fingers or my hair (she took a whole bunch of the back of my head!).  She did take 2 of her, they were a little bit clipped but overall, they were good pictures.  Calli is just filled with so many surprises.  Acer did very well too.  He wanted to do a siren for a warm up before his singing lesson.  I didn't have a problem with it because they are a good warm up before singing and I have asked both kids not to sing without warming their voices up.  They always warm up before they practice singing.  They are very serious musicians and I do love teaching them.  Acer has really become more serious these last couple of months about piano lessons and working hard with proper fingering that I am so proud of the young man.  Of course, all of my students are awesome and I am proud of them all.

Well, the news is on and the weather is on right now.  We are getting more snow in the morning, afternoon, and Sunday.  For the total weekend, about 2 inches.  That isn't too bad, but yuck, snow.  Otherwise known as the white stuff.  By Tuesday, rain.  This weather patterns are very strange for this time of year but I will admit that I am totally enjoying the warmer weather that we are having.  Last weekend was the first time the snow actually stuck overnight.  Of course, that has been gone since Tuesday when it started to rain.  I don't ache as much when it is warmer out.  I am not as cold tonight as I was last night.  I am not sure if it was warmer today or not.  It is hard to say.  Anyways, if you don't like the weather in Michigan, just wait a second and it will change!  That is the saying in this state!

I do hope you had a good day.  I am going to read for a bit and then head to my very comfy bed!  I love my new blankets!  They are so warm!

I am so off for timing today 1-25

Mariela was here this afternoon.  She is a very nice woman from Argentina.  She did a nice job cleaning and vacuuming the floors.  She scrubbed the utility/kitchen/dining room floor too and vacuumed the rest of the carpeted rooms.  She clean 2 of the 3 bathrooms and boy do they look awfully nice.  I am almost afraid to use them for fear of dirtying them up, almost.  I did make some beef stew tonight for dinner.  I am not really that hungry right now so I don't really want any tonight or at least right now.  I may want some later, I don't know.

I am so off on timing tonight.  I got mixed up at the little ones lesson.  There are 3 girls who share an hour. It works well for us except for some reason I thought I was running slow, when in reality, I wasn't.  Fortunately, her mom asked me about it and it was straightened out right away.  I was able to slow down a bit and do flash cards for each of the girls and then show Aubrey her new part of the theory game.  She was so excited about that.  It is so nice to see how excited they get about this stuff.

I managed to have all the water from the stew dry up.  Yup, I don't know how you can fail at cooking beef stew in the crock-pot, but I did.  I have never had that happen before.  Wow, what can I say?  I don't know if it is even salvageable.  I sure hope so.

I am watching TCM right now and Angela Landsbury is being interviewed.  She is so awesome.  I just love her!  I have seen so many movies and TV shows including "Murder She Wrote".  I have seen EVERY single episode of that show!  I haven't seen all the movies but some of them.  I plan to get the movies DVD soon.  She is such a down to earth woman.  She gives thanks to the people who she worked with whether they are the directors or the actors.  They are talking about "Murder She Wrote" right now.  It was just wonderful.  She is such a nice lady.  I like how she doesn't really talk abut her family.  She barely mentioned that she did talk her family to Ireland when her children were having trouble but she didn't go into detail.  I like that the interviewer did not try to get her to say more either.  He stuck to talking about her career.  That was so wonderful and I just can't describe it.  Apparently, she is the actor of the month for TCM.  They are re-running a lot of her movies.  I will have to check the website for the schedule.  I am glad I stumbled upon it.  I really am.  I was just channel surfing to see what else was on and lo and behold, there it was.  It made me smile when they talked about "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" as well as the "Murder She Wrote".  It made me smile with the memories of Mom and I.  Mom and I would watch "Murder She Wrote" every week together.  I have all the TV episodes but I need her 4 movies after the show was cancelled.  I remember Mom and I racing downstairs on Sunday evenings in our pajamas with our blankets to sit together on the sofa down in the family room.  Angela was also the voice of Mrs. Potts in the "Beauty and the Beast", my favorite movie ever.  I love her singing the song "Beauty and the Beast".  It is simply Beautiful.

I do hope you had a good day!  We will have sunshine on Friday!  (finally!!!!!)  Tomorrow is rain and above 40 degrees.

another guest writer

This is one about massage and fibromyalgia by Jenna.  I hope you enjoy it!!!

T9:Massage and Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a frustrating illness. A syndrome rather than a disease, fibromyalgia causes muscle pain, twitches and even a sensation of burning in the muscles. In fact, the name fibromyalgia means “fibrous tissue muscle pain.” Up to 5% of the population suffers from fibromyalgia; as many as 6 million people in the United States have this syndrome.

Fibromyalgia causes pain in the ligaments, tendons and muscles of the body and those with this syndrome often say they feel they are aching all over. When muscles are not used, they are more likely to spasm, trapping oxygen, nutrients and waste materials inside the muscle. Your central nervous system – the brain and spinal column – is also involved in fibromyalgia and the syndrome can affect the neurotransmitters and hormones used by the central nervous system. Fibromyalgia is more common in women than men and has even appeared in a few children. It cannot be cured and the syndrome often lasts for years. Trigger points -- tender areas in soft tissue of muscles – are one of the signs of fibromyalgia. These are located in distinct areas of the body and are used to aid in diagnosis of the syndrome.

Massage therapy seems to benefit individuals with many illnesses, from headaches to mesothelioma cancer to  fibromyalgia. It can help reduce stiffness and pain and promote relaxation. Massage therapy may enhance the production of neurotransmitters and other substances that help to block pain, such as endorphins, serotonin and norepinephrine. The stroking, palpating and kneading of muscles help relieve tension and improve blood flow. Massage can also increase flexibility and range of motion, decrees stress and depression and help you sleep better.

Swedish massage, deep tissue massage and myofascial release are the massage techniques most likely to benefit people with fibromyalgia. Swedish massage is designed to increase oxygen delivery to the muscles and uses long, gliding movements, kneading, tapping and vibration. Deep tissue massage is a vigorous form of therapy that targets deep muscle layers and can help loosen areas where the muscles have become hardened or inflexible. Your muscles are covered with a thin layer of tissue called fascia that can become tight and cause pain. Myofascial release uses stretching techniques to help loosen the fascia.

Guest Writer

Hi!  Here is the article written by Julia.  I hope you enjoy it:

Gluten intolerance doesn’t mean it’s the end of your world; it doesn’t mean your bread-filled life has to be over. Gluten intolerance or Celiac disease shouldn’t prohibit someone from being able to enjoy foods that would normally have gluten in them. 

There are many companies that produce foods that are gluten free. Grains and starch from sources such as corn, potatoes, rice and tapioca are acceptable replacements for a gluten-free diet. 

Almond and gram flour are two good alternatives and can be used in the same ways that regular flour can. Different types of bean and soybean flours are also sometimes used in gluten-free products to add protein or fiber. 

There are even some gluten-free beers and alcoholic beverages starting to hit the market. These beverages are usually labeled as such, but there is still some controversy over what exactly defines a fully gluten-free alcoholic beverage. 

Gluten can be used in many different ways, so the gluten-intolerant and/or people with Celiac disease must be careful of certain unexpected products. For example, gluten can be used as a stabilizing agent or a thickener in foods like ice cream or ketchup. They should also take into consideration the ingredients of any medications, vitamins or cosmetics, which can sometimes contain traces of wheat or gluten in them.

Gluten-free diets are becoming increasingly popular as more people are becoming diagnosed with gluten intolerance or Celiac disease. There are now even things like gluten-free cake, pizza and gluten free bread makers available for these special dieters. 

There are a lot of unique possibilities with gluten-free diets, and all of these new options can help with them. Bread lovers who are gluten intolerant can finally enjoy delicious and satisfying breads and cakes from their own kitchens.

busy day tuesday 1-14

I went to the Payroll people and got the form I needed.  I would like to know why they didn't send it in 2008, but they didn't really have an answer and I had to pay $125.  I was not a happy camper about this.  That is a lot of money that I could have used for other bills.  I will be mailing it tomorrow with the letter it came with.  I will copy the papers before I mail them though.

Mariela is coming tomorrow to help clean.  I am very excited about this, finally, my house will be somewhat clean with nicely cleaned and scrubbed floors, the bathrooms in tip top shape and the kitchen too.  The family room will be vacuumed and well, everything will just be done nicely.  It is so exciting!  I am asking her to come once a month to help with a good cleaning and perhaps I will be able to keep up a bit.  It is so hard for me because of the fibro and my house doesn't look super good right now.

A couple of my students are ill this week with the flu.  There is a really nasty flu bug flying around in the schools around here.  We cancelled one little guy's lesson ahead of time because he has this horrible flu and I don't think he is going to be feeling much better tomorrow.  I don't wish to take a chance of getting this flu and passing it around to my students.  That is just not recommended at all.  I don't want it nor do I want my students to have it.

I am waiting for the last student of the night to arrive.  She is a competition only student.  I wish she would take regularly scheduled lessons, but she doesn't.  She really needs to have regularly scheduled lessons to work on technique.  Her technique is weak and we need to fix that.

Charlie has rescheduled his lesson to Thursday since he has a 1/2 day of school.  I think he has exams that day too but I am not sure.  Brooke and Brianne had theirs last week so I am not sure about Charlie's school.  They are in different districts so their schedules for school are a bit different.

My girls are home from Washington DC.  I have looked at their pictures.  It looks like they had a really good time.  I am glad.  This was the first time they went on an overnight trip without their mom or dad.  They are 16 now.  That just amazes me because I remember them at 7 and 8 years old!  I am hoping to see them this weekend sometime.  I need some help with the filing and the taking down of Christmas decorations.  I haven't even started it yet outside of taking down the garlands.  Perhaps I will take some down tonight.  I don't know.

Tonight is NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles.  It is also dance moms.  I will watch the NCIS stuff though as long as they aren't re-runs and watch dance moms on the computer.  It is kind of neat that I can watch full episodes of the TV shows on the computer.  It is quite neat what the computers are able to do now a days.  My student, Breanna likes Dance Moms too.  We both think that the dance coach and the moms are crazy.  They really are.  Even the craziest mom at my old dance studio that I went too isn't as crazy as these moms, although they are close.  Either that or time has erased how insane they actually were.  That is possible too.  Of course, the rivalry between the two dance studios is funny to watch too.  At one point they were all a part of the same studio, Abby Lee Dance Company, but the one mom, Cathy, took her daughter back to her studio.  Last week they competed against each other and Abby Lee won, but it was close.  Then there was the issue of age.  Cathy deliberately lied about the age of one of her students.  If I was that mother of that dancer, I would have been super mad at Cathy.  Competitions cost a lot of money and to deliberately lie about the dancers age means the dancer is disqualified.  Anyways, it is an interesting show regardless and I do like it.

the next post will be a guest writer.  Her name is Julia and she will write about Gluten free diets.  I do hope you will enjoy the article.

Have a great evening!

the start of a fresh musical week

Mondays usually start rather slow except for once a month when I have the Muglia girls.  Then I get up early and head straight over.  This was not the Muglia day though, so it started rather slow.  Bob has his lesson and then my little Rachel.  Isaac was sick this week, poor kid has the flu or the start of something.  Selma was here for her lesson.  We chatted for a good 30 minutes before we actually started.  Oops!  It was a good thing I didn't have a student after her tonight.  We had a good chat though.  She is a wonderful young lady and very talented.  She is also artistic so I may ask if she will design the spring concert cover.  I like to do that every so often, have a real piece of art as the cover.

Tomorrow I will, hopefully, get the last piece of paperwork for the store.  I sure hope so.  I am tired of this IRS stuff.  At least I know this will be the last of all the paperwork that was not filed.  I plan to ask why this was never filed.  I paid them to file those types of paperwork and they didn't.  I want to know why because this has caused me trouble with the IRS and they need to tell me why they didn't file any of the 3rd and end of the year paperwork.  Anyways, the end of the year stuff has been taken care of, I am working on the 3rd quarter stuff.  We lost the store in the middle of the 3rd quarter so they should have sent the paperwork.

I am very excited about my schedule now.  I was so scared last year at this time because I didn't have enough students to help pay the bills.  I was also scared because I didn't have Mom anymore.  Now I am not as scared.  It took a year or so before the fear calmed down to a more manageable level.  I am still get scared but I have good friends to speak with if I need to discuss something.  I am thankful for that.  I also have got my power of attorney for health care in order.  I just need the other power of attorney to finish.  It is good to be prepared.  This way, I won't need it.  I figure if I don't have it, I will need it, if I do, I won't.  That was always how it happened with Mom and me.  I miss her all the time but I can think about her without crying now, which is a step up from last year at the time.

I have to burn some CDs for Tracey tomorrow.  I do hope you have had a good day.

a nice Sunday 1-22

It was a lovely, restful day today.  I went to church, then came home for a lesson, took a nap, and then went to my neighbor's house for dinner and a movie.  It was lovely.  Dinner was a great, yummy soup with cheese sticks and egg rolls.  They were all really, really yummy, let me tell you!  I thoroughly enjoyed.  The movie was the Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, part 2.  Don Knots and Tim Conway are so funny.  They were such great comedians.  The movie was really good and so was the company.   I will have to have them come here for a dinner and a movie some night too.

this week I have to go to the company that used to do my payroll when I had the store.  For some reason they never filed a form that needs to now be filed.  I am just waiting for a phone call to let me know I can go and pick it up.  I had though to pick it up tomorrow but I may be going on Tuesday.  I will call tomorrow to see if the paper is ready.  I think the lady did say she would call, but I will just in case.  The form had to be printed from the archives since it was from 2008.

We are having the strangest weather this winter.  It snowed on Friday/Saturday with temperatures in the teens and tomorrow it should be about 45 degrees and thunderstorms.  However, I will take all the warmer type days I can since I am cold all the time.  I seem to ache a bit less at bedtime when it isn't so cold too, it is a small difference but every small difference helps that is for sure.

I need to buy a new rug for the doorway to the garage.  Now that my lovely little car is in the garage all the time now, I go in and out that door and with this wet weather, I don't really have anywhere to wipe my wet shoes on while I switch to my slippers.  My students are getting used to taking there shoes off on wet and snowy days.  I don't like shoes on in the house when the weather is wet or snowy or if there is salt on the ground to melt snow or ice.  I don't want the salt to wreck my carpet.  I know it is old but I like it and have no plans to replace it anytime soon, besides I can't afford it either.

The new round table is working out well.  i like it.  I also like the tablecloth I have on it.  It is cute with hearts all over it since it is a Valentine's Day one.  I have my Valentines too for my students.  I am settling into the new year.  Right now, the 2 students who are going to competition are getting ready for it.  The rest are doing well with their pieces that they are learning.  I will start working on the Spring Concert songs next month.  The girls will be coming over in a week or so to help me file the music and CDs.  We are also slated to go and see a movie!  I can't wait.  They are out of town right now at a youth rally in Washington DC.  I think it is the first one they have been to without their parents.  They are going with their church.  I can't wait to hear all about their adventures in Washington DC.

I do hope you had a great day.  I certainly did.  The movie and dinner was a perfect way to end a quiet day.

busy day 1-21

It started out with 2 little lessons.  The students did very well and the lessons were enjoyable.  Camille is really coming along in piano.  She is ready for the 3rd book already.  I know, she just finished 1B it seems like.  I really like teaching Camille because she is so excited to play.

After lessons I went to pick up Calli.  I picked her up and we went through the drive thru of McDonald's to get our drinks.  (Grocery shopping makes one thirsty even before we start)  We arrived at Walmart and began our list of items we needed.  I had a long shopping list today.  I needed so much for the month.  Calli and I giggled our way through the food section of the store.  I picked up everything I needed and we then headed to the cashiers.  Calli likes to put the food on the conveyer belt herself so I don't really help much at all.  She is very independent and I really like that about her.  The she would take the bags and put them in my scooter cart.  Before we go outside we have to transfer the bags to a regular cart as I don't like to take scooters outside at all, even if they say I can (which is on clear days, definitely not today).  It is too cold old and it will hurt the batteries.  So once Calli and I transfer the bags from one cart to the other we head for the car.  We put the bags in the car and drive back to my house.  Calli helped me bring them in and put them away.  I am running out of room in the back room for any more cans of soup or vegetables right now.  I will have to rearrange something in the future.

When we were done with that, I was going to go to get my hair washed and dried as they were closed last night.  Calli said, no, I can do it.  She did.  She helped me wash my hair and she dried it herself.  I did the bangs but that was about it.  Calli is very good at the hair.  I think she was very pleased with herself too, I know I was very pleased about the whole thing.  My hair is done and ready for church tomorrow.

We have game night tonight.  We are meeting at their church.  I have never played dungeons and dragons so this is all new to me.  I think we meet once a month and play.  Since I don't usually do a whole lot in the evening (too tired mostly from teaching or doing stuff in the house) I am looking forward to this evening.  I will probably find myself going to bed a bit early too because I am really tired after the shopping and the hair wash/dry.  I also have to get up early for church tomorrow.  I can take a nap after church before the make up lessons if I want or I can wait until after all the lessons are done.  I do have to do some laundry tomorrow too so I may be changing into jammies when I am done teaching.  I am also going to make some nice beef stew for me tomorrow.  I bought a kit of it and it sounds so yummy.  When I get up in the morning I will put it in the crock pot and let it start to simmer all day.  Yummy!  Beef stew!!!!!

The game was fun.  It was kind of confusing at first, but fun.  I didn't realize it was a story type game.  I am a cleric.  Apparently, I can doom people and heal people.  It came in handy tonight as we were journeying to a town and 6 goblins and 1 bugbear creature was attacking us.  Thankfully, there are no visuals because I can't imagine what a bugbear or a goblin looks like.  I am also half elf.  I am not sure when we are playing again, but I think it is once a month.  The church was having its own game night so that was nice.  Acer is too young to play the game so he entertained himself with his play saxophone.  You hit different buttons on it and they play different music depending on what mode it is in.  He also rolled around in a car for a while.  His grandmother was there too only I didn't see her until the end.  She was in the social hall with some of the other church members.  Heather B-T's brother James was there too.  He was explaining all the rules and my character from the game to me.  He was very helpful.  Bill and Heather were too.  Josh is a nice young man who was also playing the game.  I have a book that will explain more to me.  I plan to read it this week and perhaps take some notes.  It was fun tonight.  I have never done a role playing game before so this is all new to me, although I love playing games.  I am hoping to host a games night here at home in the next few weeks.  My friend, Mani from college, is interesting in a game night so is another friend of mine.  I have the room downstairs at the round table or here in the dining room too.  It all depends on who shows up.  I am thinking monopoly would be a good game or Trivial Pursuit.  I have 3 Trivial Pursuits: Disney, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings (the movies not the book).  I also have a game of Sorry and Uno (winnie the pooh uno no less)  It all depends on what people would like that night.

Tomorrow is church, make up lessons, and then laundry day.  It comes awfully early so I am going to read a bit and then head for bed.  I do hope you have had a good day too!

Friday 1-20

Fridays are usually quiet with a few lessons and that is about it.  I usually get my hair washed and dried on Fridays after lessons but because of the storm we are getting, they must have closed early.  It is kind of a bummer for me.  I guess I should have gone earlier when I first got up or before my first lesson, but I didn't.  I waited.  The roads were not very good when I went out.  I went right there and came right home.  My cousin is supposed to come over tomorrow to shop and pick up some packages at my house, but I am not sure I will see her.  I will find out tomorrow.  I will check facebook right away when I get up to see if she will be arriving or not.  I have 2 lessons tomorrow.  One will be a rather long one because we are actually doing 2 lessons at that time, the other will be a regular lesson.  After that, my cousin is supposed to stop by and pick up the packages then Calli and I will go grocery shopping.  Tomorrow night is game night at Heather B-T's house.  That should be fun.  Sunday will be church in the morning with 2 make up lessons in the afternoon.  It should be lots of fun.  I am looking forward to going grocery shopping with Calli.  She is such fun to go shopping with.  Calli is very independent, very.  She likes to be in charge of the scooter when we are in line.  She likes turning it off when she wants.  Calli also likes to steer the scooter.  If the part of the store we are in is not busy, I will let her help steer however, if it is busy she just holds on to the cart part of the scooter.  We have so many giggles when we are shopping.  She likes to take things off the shelf and put them in the cart.  I just direct her to the shelf that the items are on and she picks them up.  Calli is very much a big help to me, not just company, although she is very good company too!

Emily is doing better on her notes this week.  I think the computer game was really helping her but her dad got a new computer for Christmas and the new computer doesn't have the computer game on it.  Breanna has it right now so when she gives it back next week, I will give it to Emily.  The game seems to help all the students.  I have noticed that several students who were having trouble remembering their notes started improving when they started playing the computer game.  My goal is to have Emily know her notes down pat by the time she is finished with the level 1B book she is in.  I like to have all the students really well by the time they start level 2.  Usually by the end of level 1B the students know their notes really well.  Level 2 has them starting to move their hands away from the 5 finger positions that they are used to.  The songs are much more complicated too with 3 note chords instead of one note at a time in the bass clef.  I just wish the vocal music had level music books too.  The Royal Canadian Conservatory does have levels, but they don't have CDs to accompany them.  They still don't.  I do hope some day they do because there is some good music in them.

I wonder how much snow we have right now.  We are supposed to get about 4 or 5 inches overnight and into the morning.  I am so glad and grateful that my car is in the garage.  It is the first time in 15 or so years since my car has been in the garage.  I also like it because then no one knows whether or not I am at home and since I am avoiding certain people, it comes in handy.  I haven't heard from them so that is good.  I do hope they never call again.

I hope you have had a good day.  I am tired now.  I don't seem to be the extreme exhaustion that I had earlier in the week.  My tummy has actually been okay today and yesterday so maybe the episode is over.  I can only hope so.  Tomorrow I get up earlier than I do during the week because I teach earlier in the day than I do in the week.  Unlike most people, my Saturdays and Sundays are my early days while during the week I get up later.  I do hope you have a good day tomorrow!

a music filled day 1-19

The house was filled with music today.  I had a few lessons and then choir practice.  It was definitely a good day.  My students Deema and Wama are doing so well for their 2nd lesson.  I simply love the girls already.  they are so eager to learn all about piano.  Deema even went ahead.  She was on the black keys for her assignments and figured out middle C position by herself!  I mean, wow, how cool is that?  I was so pleased at her interest.  Her younger sister, Wama, is very excited too!  It is so nice to teach students who can't wait to learn.

Choir went pretty well.  We are singing a very powerful song on Sunday and not just the lyrics but the range!  As I no longer have a very top range, I often sing the second soprano notes when given a choice of super high notes.  I used to be able to pop those notes out without a problem, not anymore.  Now I can't hit them.  The highest I can now hit is the G on top of the treble staff.  Despite the limits to my high range, I love singing in the choir!  I really do.  there are some really nice people in the choir too.  One gentleman, Mark, has a granddaughter who 5 weeks ago had the same operation I had 28 years ago.  She is doing very well and went back to school this week.  His granddaughter seems to be doing really well and I am glad about that.

I am feeling a bit better tonight compared to the last few days.  Last night when I went to go to bed, I started having major tummy pains.  They lasted until about 3 to 4 am.  the last time I looked at the clock it was 4 am.  I hope for a better night tonight.  I will certainly pray for it.

Tomorrow will be a quiet type day.  I do have a few lessons so that will be good.  Acer and Calli will be here for their lessons as well as Emily.  It is also the day I go and get my hair done.  I go once a week to have someone wash and dry my hair.  I like the ladies who do my hair.  Usually, it is Monica but if she isn't there Cindy will do it.  I like them both. Well, off to do some reading before I head for bed shortly!  Hopefully I will have a much better night's sleep!  I do hope you have a good night too!

Wednesday 1-18

It has been a good day.  I had a few lessons, Rahul and the Richards' girls.  They are all so cute.  Allison did well today too.  She is working on confidence, she is getting better so I am happy with her progress.

My phone doesn't seem to be holding its charge now.  It is a concern for me.  I don't know if that means I should just get a new phone or a new battery for the phone.  I am so not good with phones.  This phone has been such a good little phone.  I have pictures of Mom on it so I need to somehow get them off of it.  I am just not sure what to do with it right now.  I have asked my friend, Ross, what to do.  He is a tech guy and good at it too.  I don't know how much a new phone even costs at this point.  I know that my contract is not up yet but when I was qualified to get a new phone, I didn't get one.  Phones are so very confusing!  I don't want of the touch type ones because I don't really like them.  I like the style of my phone even if the pictures are not super great.  I still like it a lot.  I just got an answer from Ross.  He said a new battery would be the way to go so I am going to.  I should be able to get it from Amazon.com.  The phone is charging right now so I hope it will last at least until tomorrow so I can research what type battery I need.

My old dining room table is at the end of the road right now.  So far, only the chair has been taken.  The other chairs are down in the family room.  They will get brought up and taken out soon.  I am not worried about that and they are not in the way in the family room.  It is awfully nice to have a nice library.  Whenever I finish a book, I just go down the stairs and get a new one.  I put one away and take the other up the stairs.  It is quite cool.  I am saving up for both a blue ray player and a new TV.  I am planning to get a small TV for the kitchen/dining room and take the one that is currently in the dining room back down in the family room.  The blue ray player is for the family room too.  I already have a DVD player in the family room.  I have one up in the dining room too.  The TV in the kitchen/dining room is the old style with a big back to it.  I want a slimmer one for that room.  It is still a really good TV, it just is too big for the kitchen/dining room.  Eventually I will repaint the kitchen/dining room.  First I need to put new flooring down for the entire kitchen/dining room/utility room floor.  The old floor is not a very good color anymore.  Maybe the new person who is coming to help me clean will be able to get some of the stains out of it.

My head is a bit sore more than usual this evening.  I don't have a sore throat but it seems like it is about to get sore.  It is a strange feeling.  I have felt like I am coming down with something all week.  I sure hope I am not.  I do not want or need a cold.  I have a busy day tomorrow with a few lessons and choir practice.  I am not sure what song we are singing this week in church.  I can't remember right now.  I will find out tomorrow.

Well, it is getting late and I am getting tired.  I will go to bed earlier than usual tonight because I teach a bit early tomorrow and I have to go to the bank before my evening lesson.  I owe one mom $2 because I was $2 short with change last week when she paid for books for her girls.  I hope you are having a good day.