paperwork friday

I turned in all the paperwork.  Well, I hope it was all the paperwork.  I couldn't turn in my pay stub  because I haven't gotten my first paycheck from takelessons.com yet.  I get it on the 5th so that is good.  I have a busy afternoon tomorrow.  I have 4 lessons so I am excited about that.  I had Stephanie's this afternoon.  She is doing pretty well for just starting the song.  She does have one piece pretty much memorized.  She has solo and ensemble in 2 weeks now.  I will see her on Wednesday next week for 90 minutes.  I was nervous about the length of the lesson, but it goes pretty quick, so I am happy about that.  I have another solo and ensemble student tomorrow.  Both these students are temporary ones, but I do hope they turn into permanent ones, but if they don't that is okay.

It is so cold here.  It is supposed to be in the single digits this weekend.  Thank goodness I have a nice new parka to help keep me warm.  I also have a nice warm scarf and hat.  My gloves aren't that warm, but I have warmer ones if needed.  I do hope where you are is warmer than it is here.  We are also supposed to get more snow.  I think this is the weekend to stay home.  Thank goodness I got groceries yesterday!  Oh, wait, I have to get some medicine tomorrow.  Ugh.  that means I have to go out tomorrow.  I need the medicine or I would wait to next week.  I do have to go to Windsor next week for the afternoon.  I am going on Wednesday.  I will be going to Tillie's for lunch.  I have some business to attend to and then lunch.  I need to be home by 4 pm for Stephanie's lesson.  I don't anticipate that being a problem.  I am planning to arrive by 10 am so that I can leave by 1:30 after lunch.  I haven't actually seen Tillie since December at the family party and she was very busy that day.  I was having a rough day that day so I left early.  It was the 2 month anniversary of Momma's passing and it just hit me pretty hard.  It occurred to me that everyone there had someone except me, whether it was children, significant other, or mom, and I had no one.  They all had a little family of their own and I don't.  My little family is gone. It just wasn't a good day for me.  I was glad Darrin left early so that I could leave before dark too.  When I am that upset, it is best to leave before dark.  I have better contacts now so that is good, I can read street signs again.  I am frightened at times about my eyes and the macular degeneration.  Sometimes when I am typing the words are blurry and no matter what I do I can't get them to clear up.  It isn't everyday, but it is often enough that it drives me crazy.  Eyes are so important.  I know it is something I need to keep an eye on.  I do see better with the new contacts.  They are a new kind that allows lots of oxygen through so I no longer have the oxygen deprivation problem in my left eye.

I don't have any plans for Sunday right now.  Phoebe is supposed to stop by tomorrow afternoon to drop off the ladder.  I am hoping to see Peggy soon, I am not sure when.  As soon as Wendy is feeling better we will be meeting for tea.  She is so nice.  I wish we were closer in high school and the years after.  Well, we are friends now and that is what counts.  She is one of the friends that came to the viewing of Mom.  I really appreciated all my friends and family who came for those two days.  They were pretty awful.  I hope to never go through anything that awful again.

It has been a productive day for a change.  I did take a nap after I went to drop the paperwork off.  I didn't want to mail them because it could get lost in the mail and I don't want to lose that stuff so I dropped it off the the drop box.  The office is rather close to my house so it was no big deal.  I copied everything and then stuffed it in the envelope.  Now my dining room table has paperwork all over it again.  I will put the bills in the bill file tomorrow.  I am too tired to do this tonight.

I hope you had a good day.  It was for me.  I feel good when I get stuff done.  I hope that next week is productive too.  There are days when I feel like my old self again.  It happens more often than it did in a while.  I still have rough days though, I miss Momma all the time, but I am slowly reconstructing my world to a world without her.  I never really thought I would, yes, I know, that is awfully naive but that is me.  It is a world that I am slowly muddling through.  Some days, I am just treading water, while others I am drowning and some I am floating.  All in all, I am finding my strength, the strength I didn't think I had.  I guess I do have some, I just don't know how much.  i know Mom would want me to be strong.  That I know for sure.  She always said she wanted me to be strong and stand on my own two feet.  Well, I need a bit of help, with the standing on my own two feet, but I am doing alright.

a better day - but more snow!

I woke up late again today.  I have got to get out of this bad habit.  I have to copy some stuff to send in.  I am planning to copy them tomorrow and then drop them off.  I only have until tomorrow to do this so I have to get this done.  I can't not do this.

I had another new student this afternoon.  She is very nice and so is her mom.  She was a few minutes late because they got lost.  They had to call the company to get directions to my house.  they were about 5 to 7 minutes late.  That was okay as I don't have anyone else today.  Besides, it was the first lesson and you have to make allowances for timing on the first one.  I am excited to work with all my new students.  I do hope that they all have their books soon.  I am running out of books to loan out.  I have to pull some solo and ensemble music tomorrow for Amanda P tomorrow for Saturday.  I have Stephanie again tomorrow.  She is singing a song in French and it is very hard for her.  We worked on it for almost the entire 90 minutes yesterday for her lesson.  We shall see how much she practiced.  I hope she practiced a lot.  Solo and ensemble is only a few weeks away.  Amanda is going to solo and ensemble too and she hasn't picked her 2nd song yet.  I have a few ideas of songs that I think she will like.  I am excited about Saturday because I have 4 students that day.  Next Saturday, I will have 5 lessons.

I am possibly going to see Peggy this weekend.  I am not sure though.  I do hope so.  It would be fun.  I have gift certificates that I can use.

I went grocery shopping today.  I forgot to bring some cash for the medicine I need to pick up so I will have to do that tomorrow.  Oh well, not a big deal.  I will get the synthroid tomorrow.  I don't really want to go all the way to Walmart again, but I don't have a choice since that is where my medicine is filled at.  It is that time of month when my medicines all need to be refilled.  A few of them are refilled every few months though so that is good.  It makes the monthly cost cheaper.

I am still so tired.  I don't feel like I have completely regained my strength from getting the cold earlier this month.  I still feel so wiped out with it.  It is really getting annoying.  I am tired of sleeping so much. I am going to go to bed earlier tonight with the hopes that I get up earlier.  I want to be up by 11:30 latest.  11:00 would be better as I have things to do.  I want to get the stuff done early so I can be ready for the lesson at 4:30.  I am just so tired.

I am watching My First Place.  It is too funny to see people go into the potential house/condo's bathroom and complain that it is outdated and it looks fine.  They do that for the kitchens too.  Makes me wonder what they would say about our house as our bathrooms have never been redone.  Our kitchen, however, was redone in the late 90's and Mom did a great job.  Hayley would like me to repaint the dining room and kitchen but that is not on the top of my list of things to do.  I like the color, actually so I am not sure I would repaint it.  There are rooms I would like to repaint, but that is not on the list for right now.  I have to save money to do any changes of the house.  I rather like the house the way it is.  I like the way our house looks.  The only changes I see I need to make are to the yard right now.  I am hoping that Addison or his dad will be able to trim the bushes in the back yard.  I need the garden in the back yard weeded and the stones put back in.  I need a new bush in the corner of the garden.  Also, in front of the house will need some bushes too.  Andrew ripped them out and never put anything back.  I would like something there.  That probably won't get done until next summer, not this one, but the next one, but that is okay.  I don't mind.  I have time to deal with this stuff.  I still need to decide where to start with the house.  I have an idea of where I want to start and what I want to do.  I will start in a couple of weeks so I need to make sure I am not as exhausted as I am right now.

Well, I am heading to bed soon.  I am just so tired.  I hope I get a good sleep and wake up nice and refreshed!  Okay, now I am dreaming!  I just hope I am not as tired as I have been all day.  That is my goal.  I do hope your day has been good too!

a slightly bummed out day

I am a bit bummed out today.  The new adult student that I thought was all excited to learn to sing better and all that, well, he quit.  Yup, after one lesson, he quit.  So, since his girlfriend paid for 3 classes I will be refunding 2 of them to her.  I didn't put the money in the bank yet, so I still have it in the piggy bank.  Also, my 2 fish are dead.  Yup, that too.  I guess I am not any good at taking care of fish.  That kind of makes me sad too.  What can I say?  it is not my day.  I do hope the new student I have this afternoon, for 90 minutes, (I am a bit worried about how long the lesson is) goes well.  She has a performance in 3 weeks.  I don't know what her worries are about or anything or why they think 90 minutes is needed 2 times a week, I just don't know yet.  I shall find out soon enough as they arrive in 25 minutes.

I plan to do some grocery shopping this week.  I need to pick up a few things.  Not too many, just a few.  I also need to go to Windsor next week.  I haven't been there in a month.

Yesterday, was the 3 month anniversary of Momma's death.  I am a bit better than I was in October, but I still miss her so much.  At times, it seems unreal that I won't see her sitting in the living room or coming down the stairs or hearing her call my name.  I just can't believe that I won't be with her everyday like I was.  I wonder how my brothers are doing, but they are always like, move forward, don't look back.  Well, I miss Momma, how can I not look back?  She wasn't a big part of their lives like she was mine.  For a couple of years at the end, she was my life.  I miss taking care of her.  I miss her all the time and I am not so sure that will ever change.  I know I can move on with my life, but that doesn't mean I don't miss her because I do.  I just miss her a lot.

I hope today improves some, because it is just not my day.  I am looking forward to the lesson I will teach.  That will be in 15 minutes.

I do hope your day is good.

Tuesday

I had 2 lessons today.  I was a bit nervous over the new lesson because you never know how adults will react to classical music.  He was all for it.  I was very excited about that.  He seemed to like the song we started with and the broadway one too so that is good.  He needs to purchase 2 books.  Since I am not wanting to limit his range (he has a nice wide one) with picking 1 Broadway book so I will just loan out what he needs.  I copied his music this afternoon and the CDs too.  I will get him a binder (I have some downstairs) and page protectors.  He is very nice.  Charlie had his lesson too and he is doing pretty well with musical interpretation etudes.  They are rather hard, but he is doing alright with them.

Tomorrow I have a new student that is a temporary student.  She has a performance on February 5 and wants some help with her music.  She is actually coming Wednesday and Friday for 90 minutes.  I am not sure the 90 minutes is necessary, but I will find out.  Usually, an hour is the most that people have for lessons so this is new for me.  We shall see where she is with the music that she is performing.

I also need to pull some music tomorrow for my new one on Thursday.  The newest one on Saturday is going to solo and ensemble for school and needs one more song that is off the list.  I will pull the alto books that are on the list or the ones I think are on the list.  I figure by the end of the lesson we will have a song for her.  I also have another new student next Saturday for piano.  He is an adult.  I spoke to him today.  I will get the books for him and he will pay me back.  It will be easier to pick up the books and then I know he will get the right ones.

This week I have students every day except on Sunday.  It is the first time in a long time that I have lessons every day.  I do know that the Wednesday and Friday student is just temporary, although it would be nice if she switched after the performance to a weekly student.  I can only hope.

I had to turn the heat back up again.  I just couldn't help it.  I was so cold even with the little heater, I was still so cold.  Now that I am on the special program that protects against getting the heat shut off.  I pay the same amount every month for 18 months and then they look at how much heat I use and then make the adjustments for the next 18 months.  I called them for information on the budget plan.  They usually do the budget plans in May not January so that plan was out for me, but I am happy with what I have now.  My electric bill is almost the same every month so I not worried about that.  This new development really helps the budget a lot.  I am glad about that.

I am tired a bit tonight.  I was very tired earlier but then I perked up.  I am almost over this cold.  I think tonight I am not going to take the cold nighttime medicine because I think that is why I am so tired these last few weeks.  We shall see if this helps.  I sure hope so.  I am tired of being even more tired than I always am.  I need more energy to get through the day.

Tomorrow I hope to move all the violins so that I can take pictures of the shuffleboard for my cousin, Darrin's friend.  I have to measure it too.  I hope to have it gone by the end of the month.  That would be nice.  It would be nice too if he wanted the bar stools too but that is too much to hope for.  I don't want them as they are in the way.  I do want the round table and the chairs that go with it.  It will be good for sewing.  I have a couple of other tables for sewing too.  I hope to have a nice sewing room by summer.  The other half of the room will have a sofa and a chair with a TV and exercise equipment.  I want to use it for exercising.  I am keeping two of the exercising machines and the rest can go.  I will put shelves along 2 walls so that we will have storage for sewing stuff and other things.  I do need to eventually get another book shelf for the family room too.  I like having one on each side of the sliding door and one of them went into the living room.  I am going to move the DVDs and all my books back downstairs to the book shelves.  It will be better for them as I like to watch DVDs while I exercise.  The family room will be awesome when I finish with it.  First thing, is getting rid of the shuffleboard.  It is in the way right now.  Of course, nothing will be done until after tax season except for moving the shuffleboard out of the room.

All in all, it has a good day.  I hope your day was good too.  I am excited that I have a good week planned.

Monday - busy lesson day

I had 3 lessons today.  Little man, Acer, has a fever so he didn't come for his lesson.  I do hope he is going to be back to normal shortly.  Bob and Calli had their lessons and both are doing very well.  Bob has a 2 part invention by JS Bach and a Sonata by Mozart while Calli is learning Red River Valley on the piano.  She is singing Country Gardens and Rainbow Connection.  She is almost done with level 2 and almost ready to begin level 3.  I am excited with how well she is doing.  Bob did very well through the rough spots today.  He is happy with his progress too.  Basically it was a very nice musical day.

Tomorrow is one of my new students.  He is an adult male who will be taking voice lessons.  I have the books to copy for him.  I also will have the usual lesson with Charlie.  He is doing very well with his tenor saxophone too.  I must say at this time I am pleased with each of them.  All my students are working very hard at their music and work hard during lessons.  I love teaching.  For me, it is the best job in the world.  I really like it.

It has been a very good day today.  I am going to go and make some dinner now.  I think I feel like having some soup.  I really like soup.  It is one of the best foods ever.  I am rereading the Anne of Green Gables books.  I am on the 2nd book.  I love these books so much.  Mom originally bought them for me when I was a child and I just love them.  Hannah Muglia is also reading them too.  I think she will like them a lot.

I do hope your day is good too!  Have a great weekend!

A quiet Sunday

It started out as a bad day for me.  I got up late, again and I wanted to get up earlier because I don't like this new habit of sleeping in very late.  I have got to stop it.  Tomorrow I have a few things I want to do before teaching.  I need to decide what songs to copy for Ed and make a CD for him.  I also need to make some copies of music for my new one on Thursday too.  I want to get on top of this so that I have the music ready.  I don't have too many copies of the books left so I need to copy the music.  I should have done that for Amanda and Kayla, but I didn't.  I need to for the other Amanda and Koffi.  I have two adult male students that are starting and I only have 1 copy of guy songs so I have to copy them for the guys.

I emailed Richard when I was upset and crying.  He emailed me back right away.  He was reminding me to keep busy and not think about it too much.  To look forward, not backward, which is very Richard.  I called Kathy after I emailed Richard and by the time we were done, I was feeling much better.  I should have just called her.  She always makes me feel better.

I am feeling better now.  I think that I need to get busier and not sit around thinking too much.  I spend a lot of time on the computer because I don't have a lot to do.  I need to get off my butt and start working on the plan for the house.  January is 1/2 over and I haven't even started.  I only have a bit left of the month to make my plans.  I don't want to still be thinking about it in February.  I want to start working on my plan in February.  I want to have this house the way I want by summer.  Kathy and Tony are going to help me clear out the storage unit when the weather warms up in the spring.  I am thankful for that.  That is an expense I don't need plus I don't really need a storage unit.  I have a house that has lots of room.  We got it because we were going to move to Rochester near the store.  I shouldn't have ever got it, but I did and now I am sorry but I will get it closed soon.  Most of the stuff will be donated.  I am keeping a few things for myself and the rest is going.  I want the keyboard that in there and the pictures in the boxes.  There are few other boxes I need to keep from the store and a couple of other boxes but the rest is going.  A lot of the boxes, a good majority of them, are old reference books and stuff I don't need.  I am glad that I will be getting this gone and taken care of.

Tomorrow I am going to go in the family room and find the craft bags.  I am going to pick a kit out to make and start working on it tomorrow night.  I am going to stop playing around on the computer all night and do something productive.  I want to be more productive like I am used to.  I used to be busy all the time and I am want to do that again.  I did get my notebook out and it is on the counter.  I have everything ready to start my planning.  By the end of the month, I will know what I want done and where I want to start.  I want the house in order so that if Richard can come with the family for a visit I will have room for them.  I am hoping to see them this summer.  I haven't seen the family in 2 1/2 years and I miss the kids a lot.  They are growing up so fast.  I do hope to be able to see them more often soon.  We shall see if that is able to happen.  I am hoping by summer to be able to put a bit of money away for the plane fare to see them at least once a year if not twice.  I feel so far away from them.

Next week is shaping up to be a good week.  I have 4 lessons tomorrow plus I will have the music copied and put in the binder.  Tuesday, I have 2 lessons.  I have a new lesson on Thursday.  On Saturday, I have 4 lessons and I am going to see Peggy this weekend so all in all it is shaping up to be a good week.  I also have some house work I plan to get done too.  I think I have a plan to do some where it won't cause extra pain.  My goal is to get the vacuuming the carpets and the floor in the utility room, kitchen, and dining room.  I will be putting the paints away and cleaning up the corner that they were in since before Christmas.  I also need to completely clear the kitchen counter off.  I did most of the dining room table last week and I have mostly kept it up.  I want to go to Joann's and get a new Valentine themed table cloth too.  I like having table cloths that go with the season.  I think I am ready for that again.  I had table cloths that matched every season but they were donated.  I will change the table cloth and then put it in the closet upstairs for next fall.  I didn't need to buy Christmas ones because I have 2 that are very nice.  I just didn't put them out.  I never got to it.



With how things are turning out, I do feel like Momma is watching out for me.  Things have really come together for me since she passed away.  I needed new students to pay the bills and I got them.  I need some more and I am sure that I will get them.  So far, the new company is happy with me.  I have marked all my lessons in a timely manner and so far everything has gone very well.  I am not anticipating any problems.  Kayla will have her music by this weekend and I hope that Amanda will have hers ordered.  The other Amanda needs solo and ensemble choices so I will have them ready for her on Saturday.  She is an alto.  I am hoping I know where my young singer alto book is.  It can't be too far.  Fortunately, almost all of my music has been put away so I will find it easily.

Well, it is almost time for bed.  I am rather tired tonight.  Crying makes me very tired.  I hope tomorrow I will be less tired.  The cold is almost gone, thank goodness.  I have just a bit of it left.  I figure by the end of the week it will be completely gone.  I do hope you are doing well and are not sick at all.

fun Saturday

I had 2 lessons today!  Yes, 1 was new and a friend of the other student I had today.  I am excited about that.  Both girls did very well at their lessons.  They are 12 years old and are starting with the Italian Song, "Caro Mio Ben".  It is a nice introduction to classical music.  A beautiful piece of music.  They each also have a Broadway piece to learn too.  It was nice to have music through the house for a couple of hours.  Starting next Saturday, I will have 3 lessons each Saturday.  Every other Saturday, I will have 4, those are the weeks that Aggie is home.  I am so happy with how lessons are shaping up.  I still need some more lessons, but I am getting there, slowly.  God is working in my life and I can see it.  I am hopeful that I will have enough students to be okay by summer.  So far, so good.  I am glad about that.  I am busier now than I was and that is good.

After the lessons, I went to my usual, Tim Horton's and got my sandwich.  I was tired after the lesson, so I took a nap.  I am so tired all the time right now, more than usual.  The fatigue is sometimes really bad.  I think I have napped more in this last two weeks than I have for a long time.  I am just so tired all the time.  I don't know if the change of pain medicine has made a difference or not.  It's hard to say.  My cold is almost over.  I hope it leaves rather quick, like tomorrow!  Two weeks of this is more than enough, I think.  I hope the rest of my family is getting better too.  I know that Maia's family and Tillie are all ill too.  Michelle is sick again this week.  She had it last weekend too, but she has it again.  I am hoping that Maia is healthy enough to go to a movie this week.  If I don't seen the Narnia in the movie theatre that is okay, I will get it on DVD.  I also want to see the Harry Potter movie again while it is in the theatres, but there again, if I don't, that is okay.  I was very sad when I saw Harry Potter so I can't really say I enjoyed it as I usually would.  It is hard to like things when you are sad, but how else can I be right now?  I am sad most of the time.  I am a bit better when I am with people or teaching so I think I am doing pretty good right now.

I am not sure if I am meeting Donna tomorrow or not.  I have to give her a call to find out.  It will be a quiet day tomorrow if I don't.  I don't mind.  My quiet days are getting less and less which is exactly what I want.  I would like to be busy during the week and then rest on Sundays.  That is my goal.  I now have lessons on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  In February, I will have lessons again on Wednesday as well.  Basically, my weeks are shaping up nicely.  I like teaching at home.  I find it much more relaxing than going to people's houses.  i was always nervous about being on time or late, did I bring the music I need?  Stuff like that.  Here, I have the music I need and I am always on time because I am already home.  I love how the living room is set up for teaching.  I will have everything ready for the week tomorrow.

It has been a good day despite being so exhausted.  I hope this extra exhaustion goes away soon.  I hope your day was as good as mine.  I love my new students and my old students.  They are all super awesome!

Friday

I talked to the two new students today.  I like to call right away so I can introduce myself to them.  This way I can let the moms know that the students need to bring a blank notebook and that there will be a few books to purchase.  I am excited about any new students I get.

I got a letter from the social services.  I have to send some info to them by next week.  It won't be a problem.  I will copy the stuff this weekend and put it in the drop box.  I will have some help.  I hope by summer I won't need the extra help and that I will be standing on my own two feet.  That is what I pray for every night.  So far, it is okay.  I am doing okay.  I did do something brainless this week.  I have been meaning to pay the phone bill for a week now.  I kept putting it off and so today I go to make a call only to discover the phone has been cut off temporarily.  So I went and paid the bill.   I am annoyed at myself because there is a $15 fee to reconnect the phone.  Wasted money because I procrastinated on paying the phone bill.  I am very annoyed over this.  I can't afford to do things like this.  Every dime counts just like it does for so many people that I know.  The one thing that is comforting to me is that so many of my friends are in the same position that I am in.  That is a big comfort to me.  I know that I am not alone and so much of the time I feel alone now.  I can't really say I feel lonely, because I don't think I am.  I have many times during the week where I see people.  I am lonely for Mom.  I miss her and her constant companionship.  I am getting used to being by myself.  It isn't so bad anymore.  I still miss her, but I think I always will.  I don't think that will change.  From what my friends say who have lost their moms, they still miss them so I think I always will.  Anne says it just gets a bit more bearable.  Somedays, it is bearable and other days it is not.

My cold is still lingering on.  From what I have heard, most of my family is ill with flues and colds.  My Uncle Ken has pneumonia and is slowly getting better.  Audrey was taking care of him and became ill herself.  My Uncle John and his family all had the flu.  Maia and her family have the flu and colds, so it is all over our family.  I do hope that Maia and Tillie are feeling better for next week and come for a visit.  I haven't had company since Thanksgiving and I am ready for some.  We aren't planning any work to do, just a visit.  I am not doing anything this month but making plans for what needs to be done.  I ordered another welcome mat last night.  I need one more because they aren't as big as the old ones we had.  With this one, it will cover much of the tile and then the tile will be protected which is my goal.  I don't want the tile to be messed up by salt or snow.  It is in really good shape and I want it to stay that way.  I am sorry that the rugs got donated and not put away for this year.  A little late now.  Eventually I will need mats for the other two doors too.  If I can, I will get some rugs in the spring from Target.  Right now they are very expensive so it is on the want list not the need list.  Maybe I will get lucky and find some at the thrift store.  Hard to say.  I haven't gone in to see if they have any yet because it just isn't a necessary right now.

I have to go and pull some music for Amanda tomorrow.  I have the Broadway book in the living room ready, I just need to pull the Italian book for her.  Kayla should be returning hers tomorrow because her books should have come in this week.  Thank goodness I have 5 copies of the Italian book.  I will need to make more copies of the CD though.  That isn't a problem as I have plenty of blank CDs available.  I am glad I have teaching stuff I need to do.  It keeps me busy and productive.  I am happier when I teach although I am still rather sad most of the time.  I figure it will be a long time before I am happy all the time again.

Lily won the spelling bee in her school today!  I am so proud of her.  She is an amazing young lady and very smart.

I do hope you have had a good day too.  So far it has been alright.  Nothing to exciting other than paying the phone bill.  I do feel good when I pay a bill for some reason.  It makes me feel good when I can pay a bill.

Thursday brrrr

It is kind of cold today.  Not as cold as it got last month, but still too cold for me.  I had to turn the heat down a couple of degrees because I got the bill and freaked.  Yeah, more than twice what it was in December.  I will use the little heater more because I am cold in here with the heat turned down a bit.  I am toasty warm with the space heater near me.

I had planned on clearing the dining room table today.  I now have to do it because the other info I got from the other 2 bills did come in.  I am glad about that.  Now, time to find the other bills.  I will scan these tonight and email them to Chelsea.  This is almost done!  Yeah, the last of the paperwork!

I checked my website for the new teaching company and I may another 2 new students.  They aren't for sure yet, but possibilities right now.  I am hopeful that they turn into confirmed students.  I will keep you posted on this.  So far, I am thrilled with the new company and how they stay in contact with me.

It has been a quiet day.  I expected to meet a friend for lunch, but she wasn't able to meet me after all.  I was disappointed but we are going to try again soon.  I was so tired this afternoon, that I took a nap (that was instead of clearing off the table).  I still have a cold.  It is lingering and I am not liking this.  It seems our family on both sides of the border are ill.  They seem to be going through the flu.  I am glad I only got a cold not the flu.  I don't deal well with the flu.  I deal much better with a cold although I don't know why it is still here.  It should be gone by now.

I plan on getting the music together tomorrow for my new student on Saturday.  She is taking voice lessons too just like my new one last week.  As soon as she was booked, I called.  The company wants us to call and introduce ourselves to the new students right away.  I guess some people were emailing them?  Yeah, that doesn't sound right to me.  As soon as I get the email from the company, I call right away.  I also will be getting my other new student's music together tomorrow too.  He starts on Tuesday after Charlie's lesson.  I am so happy about these new students.  It eases my mind a bit about finances.  Things are starting to come together which makes me glad.

I going to work on the table now.  I have to find a paper that is needed for the bankruptcy.  I need to scan it along with the other papers.  I hope you have a good evening too.

a snowy day!n

It snowed last night.  Not as much as I was expecting, but enough.  I had the neighbor boys come and do our driveway, and they did half.  Yeah, wasn't really happy about them only doing half.  I need the whole thing done so that my students don't have to go and walk in the snow.  I don't like the snow brought in my house on boots.  I know the carpets are old and need to be changed, but hey, I don't have the money to do that so lets keep them in as good as condition as possible.  Just because they are old doesn't mean they have to look worse.  I plan to deep clean them this spring.  I have a steam cleaner.  Thank goodness that didn't get tossed out or donated because I need it.  It is in the garage right now.  i don't like it in there but there is no room in the back room yet.  I will fix that this spring too.  It is only January and already I am planning spring cleaning.  I need to plan ahead so that I won't wear myself out and cause extra pain.  I have been doing okay with the weekly vacuuming.  I am pleased that I am able to take care of this.

I don't have any lessons tonight.  Alyssa will be absent for the rest of the month since her Mom won't be getting home in time to bring her.  I am sad about that because I enjoy her lessons, but I do understand.  A mom can't be in two places at once.  I look forward to February when she comes back.  I am thankful for the new one starting on Saturday.  I will be busier on Saturdays now with 2 lessons.  When Aggie is in town, I will have 3.  I am excited about that.  I think Aggie is coming home either this weekend or next.  I am not sure which week.  I will be finding out before Saturday.

Overall, it has been a semi productive day.  I cleaned up the kitchen a bit.  I emptied the dishwasher and refilled it.  I will be running it shortly.  I have to figure out where to put the stuff on the counter.  I have a new cake plate and cover.  That can go in the back room.  I really like it.  I haven't used it yet, but plan to soon.  I have no reason to make a cake right now.  Lily's birthday is coming up so I may make her one.  Depends on the busy young lady's schedule.  It is hard to believe that she will be 13 this year.  Time seems to fly when I look at her.  I hope to have her over again soon to play games.  She and I had a good time before Christmas playing games.  I also hope to play Uno with Calli again soon.  We had a great time New Year's Eve playing games.  I also would like to learn the game Munchkin again.  It was fun but I only learned to play a bit of it.  I love board games.  I am glad I have friends who also like board games.  It makes for a fun evening.  I love those evenings a lot.  When Kathy comes for the weekend, I imagine we will play some games too.

I talked to Tillie this afternoon.  She doesn't drive in snow so she is stuck at home right now.  Maia has finally found a new apartment so they are moving on the 1st.  Lia is moving I think this week.  I am so glad I am not moving!  What a mess that would be.  I am very happy to be staying here.  I am working on how to declutter the house and put it back to the way it should be looking.  I have a notebook for that.  I figure by the end of the month I will have my plan ready to go.  It has been at least a year since I have done fall or spring cleaning so that will be a big project that will definitely take some time.  I have decided that I will start with the utility room.  There are two boxes that need to be emptied and the boxes recycled.  I will wash the pantry cabinets so that they will be ready for stuff to go back into them.  Right now, they are pretty empty.  Most of them were washed this past spring so it will be time to do it again.  Some of Mom's clothes are still on the dryer and hanging up on the rack.  They will be packed and donated.  Then I will move to the kitchen and wash the cabinets and appliances.  I do need to get some more cleaner for the glass top stove, I don't know what happened to the cleaner.  Then I will move into the dining room.  I just have to organize the china cabinet again, and clean the computer equipment that is on the desk.  I do have to clear the table this week though as I need some of the paperwork that is on it.  I also want to mail the patterns to my friend, Angela by the early part of next week.  I wanted to do that before Christmas but I just didn't get to it.

I feeling much better now that I have a plan.  I still have rough days but they aren't as bad as they were most of the time.  I am slowly starting to find my footing in a world without my Momma.  It is tough, but I have to do it.

I hope your day was as nice as mine.  It was a nice, quiet day.  I am almost done with Harry Potter number 7.  I did start Anne of Green Gables last night because Harry is so heavy (it is a hard cover).  I will get more into Anne's books when I finish Harry.

tuesday

It has been a quiet day.  I had my blood test this morning.  Yuck.  At least this time, it only took one poke.  I was glad about that.  I just wasn't up for more than one poke today so I am thankful there was only one poke.  After that, I went to Tim Horton's for brunch.  Rosemary, my neighbor was there, so we had a nice visit.  Once I got home, I realized I was really tired so I took a nap.  I slept for a couple of hours.  I had Charlie's lesson tonight.  He was late because it is snowing pretty hard right now.  I am so glad I am not going out in this weather.  I am not even sure I am going out tomorrow.  I may just stay home.  We shall see.  I know kids are hoping for a snow day, but I don't think we are going to get that much snow this time.  I do hope my nice neighbor, who ever it is, will shovel again tomorrow.  I don't know who is doing it, but I am one thankful girl.  There is really now way I can do it.  It is just beyond me.  It isn't too cold out right now either, not like it was at the end of last month that we had with wind chills below zero temperatures.  I just hope we don't get a bunch more than the few inches they are predicting.  My poor little car is already covered with snow.  She looks so nice and white with bits of red showing through.  I will have to go and uncover her tomorrow though when it stops snowing.  It is times like this I really miss Momma too because she was the snow shoveler until a couple of years ago.  She loved doing it.  I don't know why, but she would be out there shoveling snow.  She always looked so cute bundled up.  I always had a pair of her little gloves on underneath my warm mittens so her hands would stay warm.

Today was just a quiet day.  I have one lesson tomorrow.  I do plan to organize the table tomorrow because I have to find an important piece of paper for the bankruptcy.  I have to send a copy to Chelsea, on of the lawyers at the firm along with the paper I am waiting for in the mail.  These will be the last two papers that are needed for the bankruptcy, I hope.  It has been a long road since august 2008 and I am glad the end is near.

Not much going on right now.  NCIS should be starting soon.  I am almost done rereading the entire Harry Potter series again.  I simply love those books.  When I am done with this one, I plan to start rereading the Anne of Green Gables series.  Both calm me down and remind me of Mom.  She loved those books too.  When I was in the hospital with my blood clot in 2005, Mom would come and visit everyday.  She brought the first Harry Potter book and would read it out loud to me.  It was so cute.  Anyways, my roommate left for home before I did and had to ask Mom what the name of the book was and who wrote it.  She was so caught up in the story, she wanted to read it herself.  I thought that was pretty cool.  Several of my students came to visit me too while I was stuck in the hospital for a week.  I honestly thought that as soon as I went home I would go to work like normal the next day.  Boy was I wrong!  It took a week to recover at home from being in the hospital for a week.  I was so surprised at that.  I did get over it and got better and been having bi-monthly blood tests ever since.

Anyways, it has been rather quiet today and I am not expecting it to get any noisier, so I hope you are having a great evening too.