the end of the week 11-2

There is a telethon on USA right now for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Several of my favorite singers performed.  Jon Bon Jovi sang a medley of who says you can't go home and Livin on a Prayer. It was really good.  It is so unbelievable when you see the pictures and film of the affected areas.  It looks like a war zone, I know in a way it is, a war with the weather and we lost.  I can't even imagine how those people are feeling.  It is so scary.  I have a friend who is in NYC.  At this point, I don't think she has any power but I don't think she was in the flooded areas, I am not sure since so much of NYC and the rest of the sea board was hit so bad.  I did call her and I hope to talk to her this weekend.  I have seen her online so I think she is okay.  It is just amazing what nature can do.  Hurricanes, Blizzards, Tornadoes, Earthquakes, just so much devastation.

Tomorrow I will be pulling all the Christmas books.  I have ink now so I can copy the paperwork that I need to copy and then mail that in to the hospital.  I will also be seeing Lily in her school play tomorrow night.  I can't wait to see her in her high school debut.  I also can't wait to see my girls next weekend.  They will have their lessons on Monday.  I have to bring music to Sarah so she can start practicing for the concert.  Most of the students have picked their songs already.  I need to get a book out for Nina so she can pick a song tomorrow.  Then I can copy the songs for the rest of students.  I figure by Sunday I will have everything ready to go.  That is the plan anyway for the weekend.

Head hasn't been to bad today.  I am excited about getting another hour of sleep on Saturday night!  Daylight savings time ends.  I don't know why they even bother with it.

All Saints Day 11-1

It is a light teaching day.  I have 2 students this afternoon.  Since it is a bad headache day, I am not going to go to choir.  My head just aches too much today.  Both Faith and Breanna are absent today and normally Sammy would have her lesson on Tuesday but she needed to reschedule because of an after school activity.

I am probably going to go to bed a bit early since I am not feeling so well today.  Today is just one of those not so good days that I spend a lot more time resting than anything else.  At least this is only the 2nd bad headache I have had this week instead of the 3rd or 4th one, so there is some improvement.  I am hoping for more improvement next week.  The infection is clearing up.  I do think I need another week of antibiotics so I will call Dr. G tomorrow for another week.  She told me if it wasn't cleared up by tomorrow to call so I will.

Time to go and organize the bills so they can be mailed tomorrow.  Tomorrow should be a better headache day.

Halloween 2012

My least favorite holiday is almost over.  I don't like Halloween.  I just don't.  It doesn't have anything to do with religion or anything like that.  I just don't really like it.  Mom really liked it when we were small and she passed out the candy for the last few years of her life.  She loved the little ones costumes. I like the little ones costumes too, but it is too cold to sit outside and I can't stand long enough to pass out the candy so I hide inside.

Tomorrow is November.  The hated October will be over although it wasn't as bad as I feared.  I did okay on the anniversary of Momma's passing.  It was a few days before the anniversary that I was a wreck for a bit.  It is hard to think about the little lady's last week without tears at times.  In my mind, I can still see her lying on the hospital bed in the hospice unit.  Her little feet were propped up on pillows so she wouldn't get sores on her ankles.  She had one on her tailbone and I know at one point when they moved her she was in pain.  I saw her cry, which, of course, made me cry too.  The nurse came right away to give mom some pain medicine.  They had to move her every 2 hours so she had some one checking on her all the time.  That was one of the reasons I had her moved to the hospice unit instead of at home.  I am thankful for the time that I did have with her.  I have lots and lots of wonderful memories that I would have missed if I hadn't been the one to take care of her.  I always knew it would be me.  I don't know why, I just knew.  I remember when I was 19 and she got into a horrible car accident.  She had a car broadside her and pushed the passenger side of the car to the middle of the car. It was a true miracle that she lived through that.  I took care of her then.  At that time, Momma and I were not getting along, not one bit but that didn't matter.  She was in the hospital for about 5 days and then the doctor asked me about who would be taking care of her.  I said I would be.  He gave me very careful instructions that I took extremely serious.  Momma was home for 6 weeks recovering.  When she first came home, I had to get some comfortable clothes for her.  I bought about 4 sweatsuits for her. I thought that the fleece would be much more comfy for her.  I picked some really cute ones in lots of pretty colors.  While Momma was recovering, we didn't argue or raise our voices at each other at all.  Of course, once she was fine, we started arguing again.  We are so much a like it is scary, which is why I think we argued a lot when I was in high school and college.  I took taking care of her so very seriously.  I remember one day near the end of her 6 weeks at home, she wanted to go downstairs for dinner.  Well, the doctor didn't want her going up or down the stairs at that point because of her head injury.  I told her she couldn't go downstairs.  She said she wanted to.  I said she couldn't and if she did I was calling the ER doctor and she would have to be re-admitted to the hospital.  Needless to say, I won that argument.  It is just kind of funny to think about a young 19 year old saying no to her mother. Our doctor said I did a good job taking care of her.  I wasn't surprised because how could I not take good care of her.  She was my mother.

Anyways, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving next month and then Christmas.  As far as I know, I am planning to go to Kathy's parents' house with Kathy and her family for both holidays.  My family is having 2 parties before Christmas so that is good.  Usually the day after or a couple days after Christmas Uncle John and Aunt Michelle have a family dinner that both Andrew and I go to.  I will check into that in the weeks coming.  I also will be starting the ornaments for the students and family for Christmas.  I sewed with Aggie and I wasn't sad.  Sewing was something I did a lot with Mom and before the costume that Aggie needed, it upset me to try to sew.  It doesn't bother me right now though.

I think that I am going to ask the girls to come and decorate again this year.  I need them to also go into the attic and get down the decorations that are up there.  I know there are several boxes of them.  What ever we decide I don't want will be donated so other people can enjoy them.

I had 2 lessons today.  My Sarah was not feeling too well so they were absent.  I hope she is feeling better now.  I had a medium bad headache today.  My knees were a bit more achy than usual from the cold.  I had a followup with a Doctor from the ER visit this past weekend.  The infection is doing well and is clearing up.  The doctor said if it still was hurting by Friday, to call and she will have the medicine refilled for another week.  Overall, she is happy with how the infection is doing.  The doctor that I went to see is actually one of my students' mother.  I did have a referral from Doctor Gradolph, but since I know Jasmin, I would rather see her.  She didn't have a problem with it at all.  Oh, and I lost 2 pounds this month.  I am happy about that.  I just need to lose much, much, much more.  I know I can do this.  Losing the weight is a goal I can keep.  I feel better with eating healthy food instead of the junk and fast food.  I just have to work harder at adding the exercise too.

I am going to read for a bit and watch Law and Order: SVU before heading for bed.  My lovely Breanna is going to have her lesson tomorrow.  She takes lessons every other week now.

Tuesday 10-30

Tomorrow is Halloween and usually I don't have any lessons because of trick or treating.  However, I do have 3 lessons tomorrow since they are earlier in the afternoon.  I plan to hide in my house this year.  Several cities in this area have postponed trick or treating because of the expected weather here tomorrow.  While here in Michigan we do not get the brunt of the storm, we will get some backlash (for lack of a better word) of it.  It is supposed to be very cold, icy, wet, and they are expecting it to be dangerous for trick or treating.

I only had 2 lessons this afternoon.  Sammy rescheduled for Thursday.  Amy and Dan are doing very well.  Dan has played before but it was about a year ago.  He has been my student for about 2 1/2 months ago.  Amy has been taking lessons for about 3 months now.

I am getting Christmas music out for the students to start to practice for the concert.  I do have a few who are planning not to be in the concert.  I don't mind if they don't want to be in the concert.  I have had some students in the past who have never played in a concert or competed in a competition.  Most of the students have chosen the songs they want to play in the recital, only a few are left that haven't chosen yet.  By the end of the week, I should have everyone who wants to be in the recital choose a song.  I have to put 2 songs in finale so that I have CDs for the students to sing to.  It doesn't take too long, but sometimes it seems like it takes a long time.  I should have them done by next week.

I think the dosage for the headache medicine is possibly starting to work.  Sometimes, during the day, the headache is almost gone.  The bad ones are either in the morning and then it goes back to the normal headache or in the evening right before bed.  I think that is somewhat of an improvement.  I am hope to actually attend church this Sunday as I have not been there for about 1 1/2 months.  I like the church I attend now and I don't like missing it.  I love singing in the choir.  They are really nice people and we sing songs that I like.  This Sunday we are singing "Your Grace Still Amazes Me".  It is such a beautiful song.  I hope to be able to sing with the choir this week.

I need some new books to read again.  This weekend I will go to the used bookstore to get a few new to me ones.  Right now, I am reading a lot of Danielle Steel.  I like most of her books, only a few that I don't like.

So far, eating healthy is going pretty well.  I do try to eat a lot of vegetables and I have a salad almost every night.  I have to order new inserts for my foodmover so I can keep better track of my food and nutrition.  I am working on adding exercise too.  I just have been really exhausted these past few days so I haven't been able to add as much.

Tomorrow is the follow up appointment for the ER visit on Saturday.  She needs to check the infection and see if it is clearing up or getting worse.  It seems to be doing alright to me.

I am going to read a bit after I finish watching the NCIS Los Angeles.  I hope your evening is going well too.

10-28

Yesterday just didn't quite work out as planned.  I was planning on 5 lovely lessons and a beautiful afternoon of movies or reading.  Instead, I had 3 lessons (my 2 that are moving next week haven't shown up in 2 weeks and I have called to find out why) and went to the emergency room.  I was in so much pain that I just couldn't take it anymore.  Turns out it was a good thing that I did go because I have an infection under my skin, which explains the horrible pain.

The antibiotic made me a bit sleepy this afternoon so I had to take a wee nap.  Surprisingly, I only slept for about an hour instead of 3 to 4 hours like usual.  Law and Order SVU is having a marathon on right now.  Most of the episodes I have seen before, but they are always good.  I am glad that it is still on with new episodes each week.  Mom and I used to watch it all the time together.  It was just one of the shows we watched together.

Aggie has finished her dress that we were working on last week.  I can't wait to see the picture of her in it.  I am going to be starting the ornaments for my students this week.  I need to get a new dressmakers pencils since the ones I have are unable to sharpen anymore.  I am not going to wait until December like I usually do or at least, that is the plan.  I have some really cute music Christmas material for the ornaments.  I am going to make some for my littlest cousins too.

There are 2 Christmas parties this year.  Kayla is having one and so is Danielle.  Danielle's party is also a 1st birthday for Miles.  I looked at some toys for him this afternoon.  It is hard to believe that he is 1 already.  He is so cute.  He likes me to hold him or at least he doesn't cry when I hold him.  His sister, Elizabeth, turned 4 in September.  She liked what I got her for her birthday too.  I am not sure about what to get Miles.  He is as cute as his sister.

This week is Halloween.  I am not planning to pass out candy this year unless it is warm out and I can sit outside to pass it out, otherwise, it is just to long to stand and too cold to sit outside.  I am planning to get some candy to give to the students who are having their lessons on Wednesday and for the Hubel kids.  I think that they will like that.  They do so much for me that it is nice to do something for them for a change.  I really like the family a lot.  Halloween is not my favorite holiday.  It was Mom's thing.  She used to decorate the front window and the dining room every year.  She really got into it.  Mom would be so excited about holidays that it made us excited too.  I remember how she would ask us if we wanted to go to the store with her.  I mean, we always said yes since you never knew when you would get a treat.  Looking back, I know that we would have had to go with her since she wouldn't leave small children home alone, but it made it seem like we had a choice of going or not.  That was just mom.  Christmas and Easter are my favorite holidays.  I love how people think of other people more at Christmas time.  I love Christmas Shopping too especially if it was for my mother.  I remember when I was about 25 or so, Mom needed a new winter coat.  I wanted to get her one, but she said it was too expensive for me to get it for her.  Well, she should have let me get it because by the time I bought everything that I got her, the coat would have been cheaper.  She was so fun to by stuff for.  Another time we went to a store for her to try on pants that she needed.  Mom tried on the pants and I wrote all the info down.  The next day, I went to purchase them.  By the time Christmas came she forgot that she tried them on.  I know she used to pretend when she knew what we were giving her, but this was a bit overboard until I realized she really DID forget what I got her.  The last thing that she actually bought me herself for Christmas is my Carebear.  It is a stuffed animal that I cherish.  She was so excited to give it to me that she put it on my pillow so when I woke up, I saw the bear right away.  Mom was standing at the door laughing.  That was Christmas 2008.  By the next year, she wasn't able to pick things out for me.  I think it was her last Christmas where she was more of herself instead of the Alzheimer's mom.  I am so glad that I have these memories of her because neither of my brothers have the daily memories that I have.  I am glad that I was with her everyday up to the end.

My head isn't so bad this evening.  I am thankful for that.  It is just the everyday headache, not a bad one right now.  I am hoping that this week will be good as far as the headaches go.  I didn't have as many bad ones as I have been having.

The Color of the Leaves 10-25

It is so beautiful here with the fall colors on the trees.  In my backyard I can see several of the trees my neighbors have and the are simply beautiful.  God's creation is so awesome.  My hedge is full of green, yellow, and red leaves.

I have a light load today.  I am not sure where my students are that are supposed to be having their lesson right now.  They are often late and sometimes miss for no apparent reason.  While I would rather teach the lessons, I do get paid whether or not they show.  They are 6 and 7 year olds now and are really cute.  I just wish they would actually practice.  I do the best that I can with what time I have with them, but they are talented and really could be doing so much more at this point.  Saturday, I have a new voice student.  She is 12.  I do not have any ink in my scanner/printer so I will have to loan her the books that she needs for the next 2 weeks.  She will be an every other week student.  I spoke to her dad yesterday and they seem to be very excited about lessons.  I have a binder ready for her and a note book, but since I can't copy anything for her here, I may be able to go to Kinko's and copy the music there.  I do have other things I need to copy too so that might be the best thing to do.

Emily will be getting her new books tomorrow.  She is very excited about this as am I.  She is a lovely young lady who is in 4th grade.  She likes her school and she seems to get along with all of my students.  Then again, I think that all of them get along well together when we have recitals so that is good.  I don't expect them all to become best friends, but I do expect that they are nice to each other.  My teenage students are very nice to the little ones.  I have had where the teenage students were mean to the little ones, fortunately, that is not happening right now.  I am glad about that.

My head is the normal, everyday headache today.  Yesterday was much better for it, but since it isn't super bad, that is okay.

My students arrived late today so they only had about 20 minutes each.  I don't have anymore students for the evening.  I have to go and pick up some books for Emily tomorrow so that is where I am heading out too shortly.

wow!

I have 100 followers now.  That totally surprises me!  I am one grateful fibro girl!!!  Thanks for reading!

Midweek already 10-24

I can't believe it is Wednesday already.  Wow, did I sleep through Monday and Tuesday?  It sure feels like I have.  I went to see an associate of my Primary Doctor this morning for the pelvic type pain.  I sure hope what he gave me works otherwise I will have to go again and well, that does add up and since I already owe my doctor so much money, I need to not have to go.  I also realized that I totally forgot to bring the filled out form for my doctor to sign.  *sigh* Fibro fog at work.

I don't have a whole lot of lessons for the next few days.  My busiest day is now Monday instead of Thursday.  I don't mind because it is the nature of the business that I am in.  I am thankful for the few hours I work a week.  Without them, I would be losing my mind and that would not be a pretty sight.

This week we don't have choir practice since there is an event at church that will take place in any of the rooms we can practice in so no practice tomorrow evening.  I think I will cut out the ornaments that I am making for my students for Christmas.  I am also making some for the little ones in the family.  I love the fabric that I have for them.  It has music all over it in a Christmas theme.  It should be really cute for the ornaments.

I tried to take a nap this afternoon since I was a bit tired, but I only slept for about 1 hour or so.  I am not sure but I have a feeling that after my last lesson, I will be heading up to bed.  I am a bit tired no, but I have a lesson in about 20 or so minutes and that will perk me up.

The new headache medicine seems to helping a bit.  Today, until I thought about it, I didn't have a headache.  Naturally after I announce the good news about it, my head starts to ache a bit.  However, it is Wednesday and the last bad headache I had was Saturday night so there is some improvement.  I will see what the rest of the week turns out like.

A Fall Day 10-23

Tonight is NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles.  I simply love those shows a lot.  I have missed the last 2 weeks because of things I needed to get done.  Tonight, there shouldn't be any reason for me not to see the shows.

It is a quiet type day in the house.  I have only 3 lessons today and 1 is already done so just 2 more and then I am done for the night.

I have some paperwork that I need to take care of tonight.  I have run out of ink again, so I have to go and buy some so I can copy the paperwork and mail it in.  Tomorrow, I am getting up early (like 8:30 am) so I can go to the Social Security Office for my statement of income that I also need to put in.  I sometimes think paperwork will be the death of us all.  I only have a smidge left to do so that is good.

I woke up at about 4 am this morning and I was wide awake ready to take on the world.  I just wish I had my get up and go later in the day.  By the time I get up late in the morning, my get up and go has got up and gone.  I was tired again by 5 am so I went back to bed until about 12 noon, which is my normal time to get up.  I think, for me, one of the biggest obstacles in my life is the extreme fatigue that I have.  Yes, I have pain everywhere but that just makes me even more exhausted than I already am.  For me, I am so used to the pain that some days I don't really feel the full brunt of it unless I bump something or think about it.  I know it is there, but when I am distracted, it isn't always so bad.  Now that is not to say that I never have extreme pain, I am just saying I am used to the everyday pain.  When most people ask me how I am, I always answer fine, because to me it is normal to be in pain and so tired.  When my best friend asks me how I am, I will give her the lowdown about it because that is what she wants to know.  She doesn't want the standard answer.  I also think one of the worst things for me besides the exhaustion are the headaches I get.  I have had a headache since about March of 2003 so I have had a headache for about 9 years.  I don't remember what it was like not to have one.  I am hopeful that the new neurologist will find something to break the cycle of headaches.

For some reason, I am having pelvic pain again today.  It started yesterday.  If I still have it tomorrow, I will go see the doctor tomorrow.  It isn't super bad like it was a couple of years ago, just a little bit bad.  however, I will NOT wait as long as I did back then to see a doctor.  I just won't.

My student should be here soon.  He is a piano player.  He is doing pretty well.

Monday 10-22

I had several lessons this afternoon and evening.  It was a nice lesson day.  My two littlest ones will be switching to Mondays instead of Wednesday.  It seems to work better for them so it works for me.  I like being able to be flexible for the parents, not only does it helps them but it helps me if I need to change a lesson for some reason.

It was such a nice, low key weekend with Kathy.  I thought it was cute that Kathy's girls wanted to come with her.  I am just glad that I didn't flare and we had fun.

I have to do some paperwork this week that I keep forgetting to do.  I FINALLY wrote it down so I will do it tomorrow.  I need to get this done as soon as possible.  Wow, my spelling is not so hot tonight.  So far I have forgotten how to spell about 3 or 4 words.

I am really getting tired tonight so I will be heading to bed early.

Lovely weekend

Oh my, it was such a lovely couple of days with Kathy here.  She arrived Saturday morning.  While I taught my few lessons, she ran over to the Disney Store in the mall.  There is not a Disney Store in her area so when she comes here, she always goes to see what is new and with Christmas coming, it is good to start ahead when you have 4 children like she does.  When I was finished, we went out to lunch/dinner at a restaurant that I had gift certificates for.  We both really enjoyed the food there.  I have a little bit left for another visit so that is good.  Kathy and I are both HUGE MacGyver fans so I had a disc of movies that were done after the series was over.  I had not seen either one of them and neither had Kathy so that is what we did, we watched 2 MacGyver movies and boy were they good not to mention how we were remembering our college days when we were totally enthralled with Richard Dean Anderson.  *Ah*, it was such fun.  We chatted some more before we headed for bed.  Mom's old room is one of the guest rooms so that was where she slept.  I got up after she did, but that is nothing unusual as I tend to sleep in more than most people I know.  I got up at 10 and after getting ready for the day, we went to Chipotle's for lunch.  Kathy had never been there and apparently there is one on the opposite side of town from her so she was in for a treat.  She loved it as much as I do.  If I wasn't so full from lunch, I would want more, thankfully, I am full and not going to eat anymore.  After lunch, Kathy had to leave to go home.  She was planning to stop at her parents' house since she would pretty much go right past there on her way home.  Her dad had surgery last week and is doing fine, but she wanted to visit them anyway.  Her parents are really two of the nicest people ever.  I spend the 3 major holidays with them.  I am very lucky about that too.  I have known them most of my life since Kathy and I have been friends since we were 3, but still, to be a part of their holidays, is very nice of them plus I get to see Kathy and the kids, which is definitely a plus.

One of the nicest things about this weekend was I didn't have a bad headache at all yesterday or today, just the usual dull headache.  It did hurt a bit more than usual when I went to bed, but when I woke up it wasn't too bad at all so I am one thankful Fibro girl.  It is also good that if I did, Kathy wouldn't be mad at me or anything and I knew she would be up for whatever I needed to do if it was bad but since it wasn't, that is great.

This afternoon, I have 2 lessons.  Both are piano lessons, although one is usually a voice lesson but he wants to learn a bit more about the piano.  It was strange yesterday that my two girls weren't here for their lessons.  They are moving in a few weeks so I am thinking that maybe they got caught up in it.  I did leave a message on their mom's cell phone, so I am hoping they will call and let me know what happened.  They have never just not shown up without a phone call before.  This is very weird.  The two girls are so sweet and cute as well as their little sister.  I am hoping that everything is okay with them.  I am planning on calling them again this evening to see if everything is all right.