Monday - 22 days until Christmas!!!

Are you ready for Christmas???  I am not quite ready but I will be soon.  The tree that Heather B-T gave me looks simply beautiful.  The students did such a great job, they really did.  I have had such a time with the bad headaches that to even think about decorating was too much for me.  Fortunately, my girls who decorated last year wanted to do it again along with Acer and Calli.  The kids are wonderful.  Of course all my students are awesome.  They just are.  The tree is beautiful.

Today, Rachel had her lesson.  She has been absent for a couple weeks because her grandmother was out of town.  Rachel is ready for the concert.  She played her song perfectly.  I was very pleased with it.  Rachel is ready the first who is totally ready for the concert.  I would say that Isaac is the second one to be ready as he knows his song that he is singing very well.  I am pleased about that.  My 2 little ones were very wild today.  Rahul was repeating everything I said for part of the lesson.  I seriously hate when kids do that.  I asked him several times to stop and he didn't.  His mom was there and told him to behave, which he did listen to for a bit until near the end of the lesson when he started it again.  Sammy was somewhat better but he would day dream in the middle of a song.  Yeah, definitely not the best way to end the teaching day.  Fortunately, the don't usually act this crazy during their lessons.  They are such sweet boys when they are not being too wild.  I actually don't mind a little bit of wild, just a lot.  I know small ones can't always sit still so it doesn't usually bother me when they are slightly wild but this was wayyyyyyyyy more than slightly wild.  Both boys will be singing the song that I originally wanted everyone to sing but some of my piano students are having a bit of a problem so just my singers will be singing it along with Sammy and Rahul since they know it by heart.  I was completely floored because my piano students that are older are having trouble with the song and yet, these two little ones know it by heart.  There will be my 7 singers and my two little ones.  It should be awesome.

This week is the week I am working on the students' ornaments.  I need to get the batting tomorrow.

I had an appointment with the Rheumotologist this morning.  She said my joints are doing well but the soft tissue is swelling in my hands and legs.  We talked about weight loss and the bottom line is I need to lose the weight because eventually, the joints are going to be a problem.  I know this, that is why I started really watching what I was eating.  I also am going to try using my inhaler for asthma before I exercise and see if that will help.  Also, I am adding more veggies and fruit to my meals.  I am eating them, but I want them to be the main ingredients of my meals.  This is what I have begun to do.  I also have changed from eating white bread to healthy wheat bread.  I am cutting out white rice.  This is a bit of a challenge because I love chipotle and their rice is so good.  If I go for lunch or dinner, I will be cutting out the rice and focusing on the peppers and onions, tomato salsa, black beans and a very small bit of cheese.  I really like the tomato salsa.  It is so awesome that is for sure.  I will also be giving up the chips but that won't be too bad because usually I eat them way after lunch or dinner.  They are good but not that good.  They aren't worth putting more weight on or getting diabetes, or high blood pressure or anything else associated with being overweight.  I am glad that Kathy and Heather B-T are also working on losing weight so the three of use can do this together.  I am so proud of Kathy because she has started running, which she loves to do, and has lost over 30 pounds these past few months.  Some day in the future we will both have reached our goals.  For me, it could be a couple of years process as I so much more to lose that both Heather B-T or Kathy.  Heather B-T has lost some weight too.  I did and then I gained it back.  I need to be more careful because my nighttime headache medicine can cause weight gain so I need to keep track of that.  I have been working hard on making good healthy choices.  Sometimes I do good and sometimes I don't.

Well, time to read before heading to bed.  My headache isn't so bad today.  It is just the normal everyday headache today.

The first few days of December!!!!!!

Wow, Christmas is so close now.  It looks so far away before Thanksgiving, but now, it is almost here. I am not ready yet.  However, my house looks very festive.  The girls were here along with Calli and Acer to put up the tree and decorate the tree.  They also put other decorations in the dining room.  They did a really nice job.  I just watched as my headache was more than medium bad but less than super duper bad.  We got the tree from Heather BT.  It is about 4 to 5 feet tall and it is beautiful!  The lights that have not seen the light of day for about 10 years, actually work!!!  Yes!  Isn't that cool?  When Natalie went under the house in the crawl space, there were way more boxes under there for Christmas than I remembered.  I am glad I had her bring a lot of them up.  I have a box full of Christmas mugs.  a regular copy paper sized box.  I am going to trade out the Christmas mugs for the regular mugs.  I also need to switch the regular. everyday dishes with the Christmas dishes.  They are only on a higher up shelf in the cupboard so it isn't a big deal.  I love the Christmas stuff.  I will take pictures of the tree and the dining room tomorrow.  I am very pleased with how it looks.  It very nice of them to come over to do this for me.  They were all excited to decorate the tree and house.  All I did was to watch and relax.  Truly I have the best students.  The Muglia girls decorated my tree last year so they wanted to do it again this year.  They know along with Calli and Acer that I haven't been feeling too well this fall so to have them come and do this was awesome.  Peter and Sean emptied some of the attic a couple of weeks ago.  They did bring down some of the decorations that were in the attic.  I am not sure what is all up there, but we will look in the spring when the warmer weather comes.  The did bring down a lot of the camping supplies.  I told the boys that if the supplies were in good condition and usable, then they could have it.  They were so excited about the tents and stuff we found.  I was pleased that my tent was in very good condition and they love it.  I spent many days camping in that tent.  I know, a prissy girl who does not like to get dirty loves camping.  I know it is weird but true.

Tomorrow is an appointment with the rheumatologist.  I think it is just for a check up on medicine and the pain level of the fibro and arthritis.  I have to print out a paper that has all my medicines on it.  It is printing now.  I have a book to bring and read while I am waiting.  I really hope that I don't have to wait very long.  She is very thorough.  Dr. A likes to cover all the basis so I don't mind about the wait.  Besides, it isn't like I have to teach right away tomorrow when I am done.  I have a few lesson tomorrow.  It is a few weeks before the Christmas Recital.  I have to go and get batting tomorrow too for the ornaments for the kids.

Well, it is time to relax and read for a bit before I head off to bed.  I hope tomorrow is a better day with the everyday headache level and not above it.

The Last Day of November 11-30

I started posting on my facebook page what I was thankful for.  I saw in my news feed several of my friends taking each day of November to write what they are Thankful for.  I was a few days behind, but I started about November 5.  Some days it is super easy to think of things I am thankful for and other days, well, it was harder to think of things.  Part of the reason it was hard on some days is because I lumped together several things.

I had to use the breakthrough medicine today.  My friend, Heather B-T gave me the injection.  It hurts so much when you get the injection but boy is the relief nice though.  It brought down my bad headache to a normal headache level.  I am one thankful girl for that!  My arms are bit sorer today than usual.  I am not sure why, they just are.  I am sure that my being extra tired today is added to it.

Natalie didn't have her lesson today so that meant I had Acer, Calli, and Emily's lessons.  Emily has decided that she would like to be an announcer in the recital.

I can't believe that tomorrow is the beginning of December!  Only 25 more days until Christmas!  I have some of the gifts that I am giving but not all of them.  I will be done early next week though except for the ones I am making.  That will be done by next weekend that is my goal anyways.

I am now hooked on that angry birds game.  I particularly like the angry birds star wars version.  Yup, I am on level 31 and I love this game.  ugh, I must blame my aunt Michelle and my best friend, Kathy.  Between the two of them, I am now love that game.

Time to read a bit before I head for bed.

Almost the last day of November 11-29

Today is a bad headache day.  It has been bad all day.  I took some pain medicine but it didn't even dent the pain today.  If it is still really bad tomorrow, I will have to try the shot.  I am afraid of needles so I am not sure if I can do this myself.  I will find out, that is for sure.  I am so tired of headaches, doctors, illnesses in general, and most of all, being tired all the time.  The new headache medicine that I take every night does help with sleep, so I don't wake up as often as i did, but it still is not a restful sleep.  I am glad that I only had 2 lessons today as it is between a medium bad and a really bad headache for most of the day.  I do plan on heading up to bed rather early.  I do hope that it will be better tomorrow when I have a few more lessons than I did today.

I am planning to cut out the ornaments tomorrow after I get the batting that I need for the insides of the ornament.  It will look like a little music book with the student's name and the year on the front of it.  I also need to get some red floss so that the ornament can be hung.

I hope your November has been a good one.  It is really hard to believe that Christmas is only 26 days away!!!!!!

Tuesday 11-27

I had an appointment with the neurologist today.  She "tweaked" my dosage for my medicine.  I have moved up from 100 to 150.  I tried to break the pills, but I couldn't do it.  Thankfully, I still have some left from when I had taken the 25.  I made it work so I have taken my nighttime medicine.  I hope to have some more progress with the bad headaches.  Right now, they are not as often as they used to be.  I get them 3 to 4 days a week instead 5 to 6 days a week.  Also, when I wake up with a bad headache it often goes down to the regular headache in the afternoon and sometimes it doesn't get bad again at night, but sometimes it does.  I know this is weird, but it is an improvement as before if I had a bad headache in the morning, I had it all day.

I had a few lessons this afternoon.  Bob had his today instead of yesterday since he was called into work.  Laith also had his lesson today instead of Thursday because he is busy on Thursday.  He is such a cute little guy.  He pretty much has his Little Drummer Boy down pat.  We spent the entire lesson working on it.  Laith was not really that happy about playing it several times in a row, but he did do it and by the end of the lesson, he was happy with how it sounded.  The other students are doing pretty well with their Christmas Songs too.  Overall, I think everyone will have their songs ready by the 16th. I just have to get started with their ornaments.  You know, Christmas seems so far away for so long until after Thanksgiving.  Then, it seems like it jumps right out at you!  I have 20 days to get this ready. I know I can.  Tomorrow I will be cutting out the ornaments and pinning.  I also need to get some batting but that can wait until the weekend.

Well, it is cold today.  I have noticed that if I take 2 Advil during the afternoon, my knees are better so that is what I have been doing and it does seem to help.  I am going to watch the rest of NCIS Los Angeles before reading a bit before bed.  Today is just a medium bad headache, not a super bad headache.  I hope that the new dosage starts to kick in really soon although I know it takes about 3 to 4 weeks to see if it is going to work.

The beginning of the week 11-26

Christmas is in 29 days!  Oh my!  I have a couple of gifts ready to go and a few more to get before Christmas.  I pretty much know what I am getting people.  I am making ornaments for the students and then I just have to get a few family gifts for the smallest members of the family.  I do need to get my brother a gift card as well as my aunt and uncle.

I was planning to make cookies this evening, but I am not feeling so good so I will do this tomorrow.  I have a few lessons tomorrow.  I will have time either before or after lessons for making the cookies.  I also have a doctor appointment in the morning.  I should be exhausted since I got up earlier than usual.  For some reason I am not.

I am now addicted to the angry birds game, star wars edition.  Oh my, I started playing it last weekend. It is fun and I do like it.  I have the regular angry birds game on my nook too, but so far the star wars one is super cool and fun.  I think I am on level 22 now out of over 100 levels.  Some of them need lots of creativity in figuring out how to pass the level.

I am not feeling super well tonight.  I am hoping that it is just a case of the IBS stuff and nothing else, but ugh, when my IBS starts acting up, I could just scream!  I do hope it ends soon.  Silly old IBS.  Sometimes it is the co-conditions that are worse than the pain from fibro.  Tonight would be one of those nights.  My head isn't so good tonight either.  I do hope tomorrow is better.

Last Sunday in November 11-25

It has been a rather quiet day.  I originally planned to have the girls along with Acer and Calli to come and decorate the living room for Christmas.  I have a new to me tree from Acer and Calli's mom that I am going to use.  It is a four foot tree while mine is just about 2 ft tall.  I am excited to use many more decorations than I have used for the last few years.  We will reschedule and plan this another day.  In a way, it actually worked out better that we rescheduled as my head ended up hurting even more.  Right now, the bad headaches are in the morning or at night.  During the day, they don't seem as bad.

There is a NCIS marathon on right now.  I have seen most of these, but since I love the show, I don't mind the re-runs of them at all.

I spoke to my friend, Robin on the phone this evening.  She is home sick.  She is very dizzy and her tummy is not good either.  I do hope she gets better.  It was nice to have a nice long conversation and we caught up on what each of us are doing.  Zachary, her youngest son, is coming home for the holidays in a couple weeks.  I hope to see him while he is in town.  Zachary was my student when he was in high school.  Now he is in his 2nd year of university.  Robin's oldest son will be moving out of state after Christmas.

We have a definite date for the Christmas Recital.  Everyone but Sarah have their songs.  Sarah will get hers tomorrow when I see her for her lesson.  I do hope that Hannah and Natalie are feeling better too.  They are still getting over their colds.  I do hope they are much better.  I miss them when I don't see them.  I actually miss all my students when they are absent.  Antoinette had her lesson today instead of last Wednesday.  I like that she always wants to make up her lessons instead of missing them.  She is a nice young woman and is doing very well with her music.

It snowed over night last night.  My little car is not inside the garage right now so she got snowed on.  The Christmas boxes are in the middle of where my little car should go.  I will move the boxes tomorrow so my little car will go in the garage and be safe from being snowed upon.  There are more boxes in the attic but I don't need to get them down right now.  I will look at the rest of the stuff in the spring.  I am not in a major hurry to empty out the garage attic.  I know there are more toys and games up there too.

The snow has made me ache a bit more than usual.  My back is a bit sorer than usual from being cold today.  My knees have also been a bit more bothersome these past few days.  Nothing super serious, just enough to irritate me at times.  I am cold but my heat is on and it is set at 73 degrees so you would think I would be warm enough but for some reason, I am not.  I am going to make myself some tea and warm up.

I will also read for a bit after I have some tea.

Saturday 11-24

It has been a good weekend so far.  Thursday was such fun at the Hubel's house.  It was a good dinner too.  I brought 2 different pies for dessert.  We ate the dessert upstairs in a sitting room.  2 of Barbara Jean's friends came too and brought a guitar and a Ukulele.  They sang some songs and it was nice.  I left a little after midnight.  My headache was just the normal headache until about 2 or 3 hours after I went to sleep.  I woke up with a bad headache so I went downstairs and got something for it.  When I woke up again in the morning, it was only medium bad, not super bad like it was in the middle of the night.  It stayed medium bad until I got home, then it got a bit worse.  Right now, it is between medium and bad so it is sort of manageable.  Yesterday was a good day too.  I had to be at Kathy's parents' house by noon so I got up a bit earlier than usual to head across town.  They live in a nice condo about 45 minutes away from me.  The lunch was really good.  Kathy's mom is such a good cook.  The turkey was really good and everything else with it.  After that, Kathy helped her mom clean the kitchen up before we went out.  We were planning to go and see the new Twilight movie, but we ended up not going because it was just so busy.  We just decided to go to the bookstore and then back to her parents' house.  Once we got back to the condo, we played games with the girls and her mother.  The boys, Tony (Kathy's husband), and Dad were playing one of Jacob's games that he had brought with them.  The kids are all growing up so fast.  Matthew is now actually taller than his dad.  He seems to like that.

Today was a quiet day.  Acer and Calli had their lessons.  Acer and I came to a compromise with what key he should sing his Christmas Song, Jingle Bell Rock.  We then made a CD for him to sing to.  Calli sang her songs really well as usual.  She didn't realize that I wanted her to translate the words to braille for the group song.  Calli knows that know so she said she would do it this week.  Acer was a bit more wigglier than usual.  It took a few times to remind him to calm down because he was totally out of control some of the time.  We had a chat about good choices and bad choices with consequences.  Fortunately, he calmed down and did his lesson.

Tomorrow, the Muglia girls and the Bowman-Thomlinson children will be here to help decorate the living room.  I am excited about this.  I invited the Hubel children, but they are busy.  Hey, it isn't a problem that is for sure.  Maybe next year!

I must confess.  I have started playing the angry birds games.  I really like the Star Wars version.   Oh my, I didn't think that this would happen but it did.

I am going to read for a while before heading to bed.

It's Thanksgiving!!!!!!!! 11-22

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

I will be heading to the neighbors for dinner shortly.  I am pretty excited to be heading there.  I also will see Kathy tomorrow and I am rather excited for that.  All in all, it should be an excellent time with friends and their families.  I am one blessed girl.  I am not as sad this year as I was the last 2 years, but I miss Mom and I know I will forever.  It is just more bearable now than it was then.

Try not to eat too much and go crazy!  Enjoy your day with whoever you are with!

the day before Thanksgiving! 11-21

Thanksgiving in my house was always a big to-do.  Mom would get up early to start cooking the turkey.  When I was very small, we actually had 2 Thanksgiving.  One would be the 2nd Monday with my Grandparents in Windsor and then the American Thanksgiving in November would usually just be my immediate family without cousins, or other relatives.  As I grew, I helped Mom cook the food and get everything ready.  I was always excited because we used the good china, which meant I did not have to do the dishes.  Mom hand washed and dried them herself.  I was always happy about that.  When I was a teenager, the stress of the family issues really showed up on Holidays.  It was a difficult time for me and for mom.  I am glad that eventually the issues were resolved enough that the stress level went down.  I started taking over cooking the turkey in my middle 20s.  Then I got this brilliant idea to have Andrew cook the turkey and stuff.  Now, both my brothers are excellent cooks.  I am not bad, but they are just so much better and more creative then me.  This is what I would do.  First I would thawed the turkey and cleaned out the insides.  Then I would run up to Andrew's room or call him on his phone to ask what I should do first.  Keep in mind, I do know what to do.  He would tell me and then I would do it.  After the first step was done, I would go back to his room or call and ask what to do next.  I would repeat this for a few more times until he would say he was either on his way or coming down and I was not supposed to touch anything.  I did this for about 15 years both at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I always asked Andrew a few days before to help me and he always said no so this way, he ended cooking it anyway.  I finally told Andrew last Christmas at my Uncle's that I did that on purpose so that he would end up cooking the turkey.  He couldn't believe that he fell for it every time.  I just smiled.  He did have a good laugh and finally admitted that he suspected I was doing this on purpose, but he wasn't always sure because I don't really cook as well the boys do.  Well, now I go to other people's houses for the holidays so I don't have to cook the whole thing.  I could but with my family not having the same day off, it is a bit hard to have them over.  I really do like going to Kathy's parents' house with her and her family.  Basically, anytime I get to spend with Kathy, I am thrilled.  I also really like her parents and family.  I have known her parents for probably as long I have known Kathy.  I believe that after lunch on Friday, Kathy and I are going to go to a movie.  We have very similar tastes in so many things, it is amazing.  From music to books to movies to activities, we have a lot in common.  On Thanksgiving Day, I will be going to my neighbor's house to spend the holiday with them.  I really like this family.  The kids are awesome and very nice.  The parents are really nice too.  Overall, I think my weekend is going to be a good one.

I am hoping that on Saturday I will decorate for Christmas.  I have a few things out of the attic but there is a bit more however, if we don't get it out, who cares.  I do want the boxes that are under the house out because those are my ornaments.  I also need to cut out the ornaments for the students so I have a busy weekend ahead of me.  I will also schedule plenty of rest time.

Sunday 11-18

I am trying to post everyday something that I am thankful for.  Some days it is easy, others not so much.    Today I have another bad headache, although that is not unusual for me.  They are slowly getting better.  Most days, during the day, I only have the normal headache so that is some improvement.  The bad ones are in the morning and at night instead of all day long.

I wanted to start the students' ornaments this afternoon but I need to do Acer's song first.  I need to put it in Finale so he will have the piano part to sing to.  Fortunately, his is the only one I need to do this as Isaac has changed his Christmas Songs.  He originally picked out Rudolph but we switched last week.

There is a SVU marathon on right now.  It is season 13, which is a season I haven't seen too much of so I am glad that they are running this today.  Since it is a quiet type day, no lessons, I am thankful for something interesting on TV.  Sometimes, even with cable, there is nothing good on.

The movie, Brave is out on DVD now.  I can't wait to get it.  It was such a great movie.  I went with the girls to see it.  Oh, that reminds me, I wonder how everyone is doing in the house since last week some were sick.  They are still sick.  I will see them next week.  I do hope my girls are better by next week.  I miss them when I don't see them.  All but Sarah have their Christmas music.  I have Sarah's ready for her.  She is the last one to get her Christmas music.  Everyone else already has theirs.

I am looking forward to the holiday weekend.  I will be spending Thanksgiving with my neighbors down the street.  I am bringing pies.  That should be fun.  Then on Friday (or Saturday) I will be with Kathy and her family at her parents' house.  We are going to see a movie that day too.  That will be fun, I think.  We usually have a good time that is for sure.

Well, I must go and work on the Jingle Bell Rock for Acer now.