hump day

Happy Wednesday!  It is hard to believe that it is Wednesday, but yes, it is.  I am looking forward to the rest of the week because I have 1 student today, 2 tomorrow, 3 on Friday, and 2 on Saturday along with the family birthday party.  I am excited about that.  I did also find out, Andrew is NOT graduating Sunday, it is in MAY.  Well, that just ruins my plans for a surprise this weekend with having Richard come out.  Bummer, is all I have to say about that.  I will just plan it for next month.  I do hope it is not on the same day as the Spring Concert.  Andrew is not very forth coming on details for this event.  I doubt he even knows when it is.  I do hope he tells me soon so that I can have Richard in on the details and then surprise Andrew.  I know I would love to have my big brother at my graduation, oh wait, I did.  As a matter of fact, Richard and I had the same commencement day for our MBAs.  It was grand to have him to myself for the first part of the day.  I was disappointed that he didn't come to my party, but I had lots of other people come and students too so that was good.

It is a quiet afternoon right now.  Carson will be here in 30 minutes.  What a cutie he is.  He has a very nice voice too.  I do hope he practiced well this week and had no trouble.  He has only had 1 lesson so far.  He did very nicely though for his first lesson.

Rick DID have his lesson last night.  I was worried because he was gone for a month, but he arrived and had a great lesson.  Next week I think we are going to do some sight reading with do-re-mi syllables.  I have to dig the book out for all my vocal students.  They all need to learn this.  Ear Training can be either super easy or really hard, not usually an in between thing for students.  I found the sight singing rather easy but the dictation difficult.  We won't be doing any dictation.

I haven't put my new printer together yet.  I keep meaning too, but then I forget or I get busy, mostly I forget, stupid fibro fog!  I am thankful that while I have fibro fog a lot, I am able to focus on lessons.  I don't know how I would do if I had more a day, but I used to be able to teach 6 to 8 lessons a day and now I am lucky if I get 4 in one day.  I am praying for 5 more students that have lessons weekly.  I find I am sleeping a bit better and don't freak over finances as much now that I have a couple more regular students.  I am almost paying all the bills.  I still have medical bills to pay and I hope to get them on track this next week or so.  I just need 5 more and all the bills will be covered nicely.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 comes out on Friday.  Unfortunately, I will not be getting it on Friday.  I will have to wait until next month or so.  Same with the new Narnia movie.  I just don't have enough money this month for them.  Oh well, maybe next month.  It isn't like I am lacking in anything to watch, I have several I haven't seen yet.  I still haven't watched some of the ones Mom and I watched together.  I just haven't been able to do it.  I had to tell the young lady at the pharmacy that Mom passed away.  She was shocked.  She had thought that I just left Mom at home all this time.  She was totally stunned because she had seen Mom quite a bit with me.  It made me tear up on the way home.  I just miss her so much.  I wonder how my friends who are in the same club as me did it.  How do you go and move on without your mom?  Especially if you were as close as we were?  I often wonder and want to ask them, how do you do this?  How do you get out of bed and want to face the day?  If it wasn't for teaching, I doubt I would ever get up.  I think I would just lie there and fade away.  Teaching is the only thing that gets me up.  Without it, I don't know what I would do.  How do you get up and motivate yourself when you are so sad?  i miss her so much all the time.  I just don't know.

It is pretty nice and sunny out today.  I do hope you are having good weather too.

Tuesday 4-12

I am watching the news and there is a designer who makes dresses out of garbage and recycle materials.  Somehow, I can't see me wearing a paper dress or a plastic bag dress.  That just looks and sounds weird.  The dresses aren't really practical either, but hey, it gives him something to do so okay.

It has been a nice and sunny day today!  Unfortunately, it will rain by the weekend.  Charlie is going to come this weekend or next to do the bushes for me.  He is going to trim and shape them all.  I am very happy about this because it so needs to be done.  Our backyard will look a bit better, but since the gardens are not weeded during the summer, it won't look super good.  Hey, I am least getting the bushes and shrubs  shaped and taken care of.  As long as the grass is cut all summer that is all that matters.  I am not worried about a great looking yard, just a better looking one like we have had these last few summers.

I haven't heard from Andrew so I don't know the details of his graduation on Sunday.  it is kind of annoying as I am trying to coordinate a surprise from him.  I do hope to hear the details tomorrow.  I messaged him this afternoon so I am hopeful he got it.  I need to know these details, like where and what time.  I need an address so I can get directions for it.  It is a 2 hour drive for me to get there.  We have the family party on Saturday and then graduation on Sunday.  I am not sure what I am doing for Easter.  At this point, I have no plans.  Kathy is coming to town so I plan to see her on the Saturday.  I still have some gift certificates from Christmas so we will be using them.  I love both restaurants that we have them for.  We shall see where we go.

I am setting up the new printer tonight.  I have to scan a paper and send it out tomorrow.  I have had the printer since last Thursday, but I have not pulled it out yet.  I am excited about scanning pictures of the family with it since I found a few more pictures out of an album I have never seen before.  It has pictures of me and my family when I was about 7 or 8 years old.  I even have a birthday crown in one of them.

I am doing laundry tonight.  As usual, I waited to the last minute to get it done.  Someday, I will do some laundry before it is super necessary, but I am not holding my breath about it.  I have a pile of clean clothes on the dryer that need to be put away.  If I have a guest this weekend, I will for sure be putting them away.  i also have started putting some stuff away in the living room.  I can't believe tomorrow is Wednesday already.  I have to move the box that has the disposables in it and move it to the garbage.  Since all the packages are open, I can't donate them anywhere.  Bummer, but nothing I can do about that.  I also have to move the Christmas boxes downstairs along with the Christmas tree.  The living room just needs to be picked up a bit and the CDs put away.  I have a pile of originals that need to go upstairs to my room where the originals are.  I am not sure what originals need copies made of them though.  I am going to check that sometime this week.  There is some music that needs to be put away too but I will do that after next week.  I have a student or students everyday but Sunday this week.  I have Carson's lesson tomorrow.  He is such a cutie.  Charlie and Rick had their lessons tonight.  Both are doing pretty well.  Rick was absent for the last 4 weeks.  He was on vacation to Hawaii and Las Vegas.  He seemed to have a good time from what he said.  I liked Hawaii when I was there 7 years ago.  I went for a writing conference.  I went snorkeling in the volcano and up the road to Hana.  It was lovely.  I had a very good time.  I think the best conference that I went on was the one to Mexico on the cruise ship.  Mom came with me on that one and it was so much fun.  We had such a good time.  Mom and I giggled a lot during that trip.  I have been lucky, I have traveled some before I got too sick.  Now, I am not so interested in traveling a lot right now.  Maybe as I get more students I will be interested, but right now I am happy to stay here at home or go see my brothers.  That is the only place I want to go to.  Visiting my brother is all.  He has the lovely attachments, William (10) and Abigail (11 almost 12).  So hard to believe they are that old now.  Where has the time gone?

I am planning to watch NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles then off to bed.  It has been a good day so far.  I did some laundry, I taught a few lessons, I read some of my book, I cleaned up a bit in the living room, so now I am a bit tired and ready for bed soon.  I do hope this finds you doing well.

spring!

We have decent weather today.  I don't remember if it supposed to rain or not but being this is April and not May, I would say chances are very good for rain.  I put out the trash bins for tomorrow, well, Bob actually took the trash bins out for me.  They were really heavy today as they were very full.  I will have empty bins again after tomorrow.

Bob was struggling a bit through his lesson today.  For some reason his fingers just wouldn't behave for him.  This is very, very rare for him.  I teased him a bit by saying his fingers want to go to the garden and work not play the piano.  After going through the songs and parts of the songs again, he was back on track.  He will be ready for the spring concert in May.  He will be playing Volare and a Bach Invention.  His Mozart Sonata will not be ready as we are only on page 3 but that is okay, these pieces take a long time to learn as they are long.  I love this sonata that he is learning, simply love it.  It is one of my absolute favorites of all time.  Mom loved it too.  When Frank played it last year or so, Mom was so cute, she would bob her head in time.  You could see she was singing the song in her head.  I so miss her listening to all the lessons.

I have Emily tonight for her 2nd lesson.  What a cutie.  She is missing her front tooth and you can see it trying to come in.  She is 7.  She is very excited to learn.  I love students that are very excited to learn.  It makes my job super fun and you can really get the student excited.  With a student at that age, I don't use the word practice, I just tell her or him, to play their songs several times through a day.  it seems to work okay and they do it.  I also say that they can play for their dolls or stuffed animals.  I used to put my dolls on the floor, arranged in an audience fashion, and then I would practice my clarinet.  I loved, and still do, playing my clarinet.  I don't play as often as I used to, which isn't very good, but i am getting back into the swing of practicing it.

Richard may be coming for the weekend.  I am excited.  I haven't seen him since Momma passed away and well, quite frankly, I can't say I enjoyed visiting him as I was so sad and upset at the time.  This time, if he is able to come, I will enjoy my brother's visit.  He is such a good big brother.  I simply adore him.  I also adore my younger brother (who for some reason likes to tell everyone he is older than me).  At this point, I do not see either one of them very much so it will be good to see them both.  I don't think the boys have seen each other in about 6 years.  That is an awfully long time not to see your sibling.  Fortunately, I see Andrew every so often at Uncle John's.  Richard I don't see as much since he lives about 3,000 miles away from me so I am thrilled when I do get him here.

Not too much happening today, getting the trash out was the big job of the day.  I have to clear up the living room before Friday and make up the bed in Mom's room.  I need to put the Christmas tree back downstairs and the decorations in the furnace room where they belong.  I plan to read some more of my writing course.  I am on chapter 14 now.  Only 4 more to go and then I am done with the initial read through.  I had some ideas this morning at about 4 am.  I am going to put a notebook in my room for when I can't sleep and I come up with some story lines, or ideas.  I used to do this all the time.  When I was in college, I used to call the answering machine and say my ideas or sing the tunes in my head for when I was writing music.  Mom always chuckled at that.  She would check the machine and her my notes to myself.  She never minded.  Sometimes she would write out my ideas that I put on the machine for me so I would have them when I came home.  She was very good at dictating notes.  The melodies or lyrics she would just leave on the machine.  That was not her forte.  I always had her listen to my songs or read my stories.  I even had a recording studio in the family room for about 10 years.  I no longer need it as everything is digital now and that was all analog but it was fun creating Christmas tapes for everyone in the family.  I miss doing that.  Mom would listen to them all the time.  Sometimes I would be like, Mom, I don't want to her me sing, and she would say, too bad, I do.  She was very proud of my musical abilities.  She loved that I am a teacher.  She was so proud of that.  Well, if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be a teacher or a musician.  She got me started on loving music at a very young age.  She would hum some melody and I would hum it back.  We did this starting when I was about 2.  We had music in the house all the time when I was small.  I so miss those days at times.  Now when I hear certain music or certain songs, I can smile and remember her.  It doesn't hurt all the time to remember her, just some of the time.

a lovely day

What a beautiful day, both with the weather and with going out to dinner/lunch with friends.  Emily was even able to be there!  I was very happy to see her.  She is so busy as she is a senior in high school this year and she now works part time.  I was happy to see her and Lily for dinner.  We went to Olive Garden for our meal.  I love that place!  It is so yummy!!!  We had a really good time.  I think we were there for a good 2 hours.  We had to leave when it was time for Lily's youth group meeting.  I had such a good time.  I haven't had a relaxing time with the Emerton's in a while.  They are just so busy.  They are such good friends of mine.  They were good friends of Momma too.  I got seafood Alfredo.  So yummy!  Lily got macaroni and cheese and french fries.  She said it was very good.  Emily got a salad.  The food at Olive Garden is always good.

It is 83 degrees today.  How lovely!!!  I am enjoying the sunshine today.  It goes back to the 50s tomorrow and for the rest of the week.  I suppose that is good because I don't relish a super hot summer this year.  Thank goodness for a/c!  I also on the very hot days, miss the pool we had when I was growing up.

Not much happening for the rest of the day.  I am going to work on my writing course some more for the evening.  So far, I am reading the entire course through and then I will go back and read it again and do the exercises.  I am starting to get a few ideas for a story.  I have never had this issue before so it is new to me not to have a story in my head.  I don't really like a blank head.  I miss the music and stories that would fill my imagination.  I am hoping the fog will clear up as I start writing.

I did talk to my big brother, Richard, on my birthday, Friday.  I called him about 9 and then he called me right back.  He said he wasn't sure what time to call.  The kids are busy as usual.  The are now 10 and 11.  Abigail will be 12 in July.  Seems like yesterday she was born.  I sure miss them a lot.  I don't get to see them very often.  I haven't seen them since July 2008 when Mom and I went to Seattle to see them.  I am hoping to see them this summer.  I just miss the whole family so much.

I am having a medium pain day.  Not too bad for the nice weather we are having.  I do have a bit more than usual of a headache right now.  I took some pain pills so that should help.  I have a busy week of teaching ahead of me.  Boy, do I like that!  I just wish I had more!  Hopefully soon I will have a few everyday except Sunday.  i do hope this finds you doing well!

Saturday thoughts

It has been a good couple of days.  I was very worried about how I would feel yesterday without Mom and all, but I remembered her and I also found some pictures of a birthday of mine when I was small.  Talk about funny pictures.  They made me laugh.  I vaguely remember how Mom would make a big deal about birthdays, she didn't go overboard (like at Christmas) with presents, but she always let us know how important that day was for her.  She loved to tell me and my brothers about when we were born.  She liked to tell me how she watched me be born.  There was a huge mirror on the ceiling in the hospital that she looked at when I was born.  She also liked to tell me how she knew that she was having a girl, even though in those days nobody knew.  Momma painted my room pink and everything before I was born.  She told everyone that she was having a girl and she was right.  There are pictures of my brothers and I in that album that I just found.  We were so young in those pictures!  I am going to scan them for my brothers and then I will also put them on my computer for me.  I am keeping all the original pictures.  I don't know what I am going to do with them, but I will come up with something.

I had my usual 2 lessons this morning.  Amanda and Kayla are doing very well with their lessons.  Amanda started on a new song that Kayla wants to sing at the concert.  Both girls are going to sing with each other or with Katie for the concert.  Amanda did say she would like to sing Many a New Day by herself.  I said great, that would be wonderful.  I have told both girls it is up to them whether or not they sing with someone or by themselves.  Whatever they are feeling up to.  I am very happy with how my students are progressing.  I just need a few more.  I now have students everyday except for Sunday.  That works for me.

Tomorrow I am going to dinner with Lily and her family.  I am looking forward to that.  Her family are such good friends of mine and they were good friends of Mom.  Mom loved hanging out with Lily.  Any chance we got her made her smile even if it was just taking her home from somewhere.  She felt the same way about Emily and Elyse too.  Boy, I miss her.

It has been a good pain day too despite the dampness in the air.  It is suppose to rain again tomorrow but be very warm, 78 degrees, then back to the normal, 50s for the rest of the week.  We are having a very strange spring this year.  I do hope you are having a good evening!

Birthday

It is my birthday today and surprisingly, no tears as of now.  I am completely missing the Mom at this point as it is the first birthday without her, but surprisingly it has been a good day so far and the evening promises to be even better as Calli, Acer, and family will be here for dinner and cake.  I just finished making the cake.  Oops, I think I should use a different pan next time.  I thought it was a 13 X 9 and it is a bit smaller.  It took 10 extra minutes to cook.  Oh well, I am sure it tastes really good as the cake mix is from a box brand I like.  I decided that next week for the family party I am going to make 2 13 X 9 cakes for the family party instead of ordering one.  It will be more fun to make them.  I am going to make one chocolate and one yellow.  I don't particularly like chocolate cake but I do like yellow.  I will get the ingredients that are needed this coming week.  I am waiting for my lovely students to arrive.  They should be here any moment.

I spoke to Kathy this afternoon and then I got my hair done.  Because of the bursitis in the shoulders I have been having trouble washing the hair so I found out on Tuesday when I got it cut that they wash and dry hair for $3.  That is not expensive at all.  I spend more than that on a pop.  The hairdresser suggested until my scalp is better, to have it done 2 times a week and then in a bit drop it to once a week.  Works for me.  So after I talked to Kathy for a while I went and had my hair washed and dried.  Boy does it feel nice.

My little ones should be here any moment.  I will write more later tonight.

It was a nice evening.  We had KFC for dinner and then nice cake for dessert.  Acer and Calli did well for their lessons.  Calli hadn't Brailled out her Candle of the Water song so she and I took care of that after her lesson.  She brought her tools with her, her slate and stylus and together we Brailled the words for her.  This summer I plan to go to the library and see if I can braille out her words before she gets a new song.  Now, we are doing it a bit backwards.  Instead of me having the words ready, I don't.  I hope to change that by Summer.  I am glad that she is enjoying her lessons.  We started a new piano song this week and she put her hands together for her old song.  She is doing very well.  This summer I am hoping to have a bit of money to get some braille music.  They have it available on dancing dots.com but I don't have any yet.

All in all it hasn't been a horrible birthday.  I had an enjoyable evening and the afternoon wasn't too bad either.  I didn't get up very early but that is okay.  I was rather tired.  I did go to bed early last night.  I think I slept pretty well for a change, I only work up a few times instead of every couple hours.  I was happy with that.  The pain level is average for me.  Now that I have the pain pills again, I am glad.  I am sleeping better with them.  Overall, I haven't been super sad today.  I have been sad, but that is to be expected since it is the first one without my mother and my older brother seems to have forgotten it is my birthday.  i am a little disappointed in that.  He usually calls me on my birthday every year.  I am hoping he will call this evening before I go into bed.

a decent day

It has been a good day so far.  Not too much pain, not too much fatigue for a change.  I even slept pretty well last night, which is unusual.

I had Breanna's lessons this afternoon.  She is doing pretty well.  She practiced one piano piece wrong though so that totally bummed her out for a few seconds.  Then she was fine.  She learned 2 new little pieces for piano before we turned our attention over to voice lessons.  She brought with her the pop song she wanted to learn.  We went through it twice.  It is a Miley Cyrus piece and it is nice.  She will do very well at the spring concert with it.  I don't know what else she will sing either, but we will decide before the concert.

After Breanna's lesson, Carson had his first lesson.  He is a nice 8 year old boy who's grandmother lives across the street from me.  He is so cute.  We started with warmups, which are very new to him then we moved to 2 songs.  Next week we will talk about eyebrows and things like that.  I foresee all my girls going gaga over him.  He is that cute and he sings rather well for being 8 years old.  He has a nice boy soprano voice.

I went to Tim Horton's afterward for some lunch.  I had a bit of time before I needed to pick up Lily.  I was so excited about today because I would see Lily for about a 1/2 hour.  Her parents were both unable to pick her up so I volunteered.  Hey, it was no problem, plus, I got Lily for a short time.  She showed me how my alarm works on my phone.  Now I know.  I am excited about that not that I need it right now, but hey, once in a while it could come in handy.

I don't have any plans for the rest of the evening.  i am going to watch some news to see the weather forecast.  It is suppose to rain a lot tomorrow and then have a bit of a warm up.  I can't wait!  This has been a rather cold winter for me.

I called the cable company today.  I have gotten in the mail some advertisements from them advertising a  lower price than what I pay.  I have never done this before but I called and asked if there were any specials that I would qualify for.  They lowered my rate by $10.  Hey, that is $120 for a year savings so yeah, that is great.  I am excited about that.

I do hope this finds you doing well.  It has been a pretty good day for me, although I am a bit tired now.  I think because I was go go go and now I am not.  It is too late in the day to take a nap so I will just head for bed a bit early if I am still so tired.

Wednesday

It is raining and has been raining all day.  Yuck, is about all I can say about that.  I am a bit achy from it too.  I was slightly (?) airheady today.  I arrived, I thought, on time for the doctor.  Whoops, I actually was late.  I totally forgot about the mammogram I was supposed to have.  I did have it done, only 45 minutes late.  Fortunately, I did NOT have to reschedule this.  I am thankful for that small thing.  I don't know who invented that machine, but they need to come up with a better invention.  It just hurts so much.  I don't know if it hurts nonfibro people as much, but it just hurts.  Anyways, after that I saw my doctor and we decided to try the Meloxicam that the insurance company will cover.  If it does not work, then we will appeal to the insurance company and then apply for help to cover the $127 that the Celebrex costs because on my meager income, I just can't afford that.

I had a total surprise when i went to the secretary of state's office this afternoon.  I did NOT have to wait!  That is correct!  no waiting!!  I went in and went to the info desk to get my number.  She asked what I needed to have done and I said new tabs and a new handicap sticker as my expires on Friday.  She said she could do that right now.  I was floored.  I have been using the automatic stations because the lines for the people are huge and you end up waiting for a good hour or hour and a half just to pick up new tabs.  I couldn't believe this.  No waiting?  What planet was I on?  I have no idea.  But, 10 minutes later, I had my new sticker and my new tabs.  I did not put them on yet because it is raining out today.  I don't want to have to get new ones because they fell off so I will wait until tomorrow.

I am very tired today.  I don't know if it is the lack of sleep the 2 nights before last has caught up or what, but I am exhausted today.  It also could be all the running around I did this afternoon.  I am not sure.  I am debating on whether or not a nap is a good idea.  It is almost 4:30 pm.

My neighbor, Mary stopped by to see me with her grandson, Carson.  He is 8 and is interested in voice lessons.  Well, I gave her my number (I was in the car ready to go to the secretary of state office) and told her my availability.  She has Carson after school Wednesdays and Thursdays.  Well, that works perfect as those days I have a lot of availability.  I said, look at your schedule and then let me know what works for you.  She said she would give me a call tonight.  I look forward to that.  They live across the street from me so how convenient is that for the young man?  We could start tomorrow or next week, whichever works for him and Mary.


I have had a decent day despite the pain.  I am thinking I might just go into the living room and take a wee nap now.  I am just that tired.  I do hope I sleep well tonight though.  I have to get up a earlier because of Breanna's lessons.  I also am thrilled because I get Lily!!!!  I am picking her up from school tomorrow because Ross will be out of town and Julie will be at work.  The 2nd to last week for taxes is super busy.  I signed off on Mom's and mine today.  I did nearly cry when I signed mom's because it is her last ones ever.  Anything that is the last one for mom makes me weep.  I just miss her so much.  I know so many of you understand that feeling very well and I am thankful for all of the support, prayers, and kind words you have given me.  It sure helps in this very sad time especially since quite a few members of my family think I should be over her by now or moving forward and not looking back.  Either way, I am grateful for my friends and the part of the family that understands how this has been a living nightmare for me.

I do hope this finds you doing very well and maybe you may even have some sunshine??  I certainly hope so!!!!

next time, I better read the email better

I thought I read the email correctly when I got the first email about the writing course.  Apparently, it is a download course.  I found that out when I called them this afternoon because I was getting concerned that I hadn't gotten my course yet.  I quickly got my password and user name.  I tried to download them this afternoon.  I had to stop when Charlie arrived for his lessons.  I discovered why it wouldn't download properly.  I had too old of a Adobe reader program.  I have since corrected that problem and now I have the correct version.  Wow, what a day!  I have since downloaded all the stuff I needed to download and there were several documents.  The actual course is 318 pages with several other documents, one being 118 pages.  I will be starting the course tomorrow after the doctor appointment.  I also have to go to the secretary of state office which I didn't do this morning.  I didn't fall asleep until about 5:30 am.  I woke again at 7:30 and turned off the alarm.  I was so tired that I just couldn't stay awake.  I awoke again at 12:30 pm.

I ran into Rosemary and Kim, my neighbors, at Tim Horton's.  I was planning on reading a bit and then going to get a haircut.  We were there about 2 hours.  We just chatted about everything.  It was a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed myself.  I did have time before Charlie's lesson to get a haircut so I headed to the hairdressers.  I got a few inches cut off and now have bangs.  I still have long enough hair to put it up in a ponytail.  I am happy about that as I like ponytails.

Charlie's lesson went well.  We talked for about 15 minutes so we ran over.  Thankfully, I didn't have another student after him.  He drove himself to my house from his dad's work today.  His dad has a shop and he details cars and fixes them.  They just moved to a new building so Charlie was doing yard work today.  He said he likes working outside, boy was that music to my ears.  I asked Charlie how much he would charge to trim my bushes in the backyard and shape the ones in the front.  He saw what I meant so I am hoping he will let me know next week.  I have been needing someone to do this for me.  I am hoping to get it done in May.

I was able to pick up my pain medicine today so I am very glad about that.  I hope to sleep better tonight.  I have not slept well since I have not had them.  I am very sore tonight so I am very happy that I have the medicine.

I do hope you are having a good evening.

warmer weather with a bit of rain

It is 57 degrees out today!  Okay, that coupled with rain does make the excitement go down however, the temp is very nice.  I wish it would stay, but apparently there is a massive cold front coming.  This is all normal with Michigan or my part of it anyway.  I had to run several errands this afternoon before teaching at 3.  I am so glad I got most of the done already.  I do have the toilet handle screw and the light bulbs to purchase.  I am going to do those tomorrow.  I got my music back from Annie.  The latest adult student who lasted one lesson.  This is actually why I used to not take adults but with the new company rules, I have no choice.  You have to take who they assign.  Well, the 4 adults the assigned me have officially all quit.  Adults don't realize, I think, the amount of time it takes to learn an instrument whether it is piano or singing, it doesn't matter, time is necessary.  I think they think (some of them) that once a week at a lesson is good enough.  Well, it isn't.  You have to put in time to practice and they don't consider that when they sign up, so they quit.  The only kids that have quit were the temporary ones who signed up for solo and ensemble and needed help with just that.  It makes me even more thankful for Bob, my lone adult student who has studied with me for 5 years.  He is a wonderful student and a good friend.  Both he and his wife are great people.  I just have to find out if they are coming to the party next week.  I forgot to ask last week, oops.  Sometimes my fog is really bad and I have to work super hard to focus during a lesson.  Thank God I know the music so well.  Usually during lessons though, I find that even in bad fog days I can still concentrate on lessons.  I haven't had a an issue with too much fog during a lesson, before and after, well, that is a different story.

Maia and Tillie are suppose to drop by to pick up Tillie's things.  She has towels, sweater, drill, tools, a commode, and a couple of scanners that are hers and need to go home.  I want her to take the commode, it is in the way in the garage.  I am almost to the point where the garage is empty enough for the little red car to go in.  I can't wait for that day!  My little baby car has never been in the garage.  She has only seen it from afar.  Maia also has a treadmill she needs to take home.  That is also in the way.  Once I have the table and chairs moved into the backyard, then I just have to move a few boxes out of the way and poof! I will have room for the car to go in.  I just can't wait.  I do have to bring a couple of stones back into the garage so I will know where to stop.  I think they were gotten rid of when Maia and Tillie cleaned out the garage a while ago.

It is a normal missing mom day and a normal pain day.  I am in a bit more pain than normal because the refill of my pain pills have not be cleared by the doctor yet.  I haven't had any pain pills but over the counter since Friday when I ran out.  It is starting to be difficult because of it, but the Tylenol is trying really hard to work, it just doesn't do as good as a job as the other stuff.

I hope this finds you doing really well today and perhaps with sunshine!!

A new month

I know I am a few days late with the new month thing, I did notice on Friday that it was April 1.  Today was a fun afternoon because I went to a Michigan Music Association meeting.  It was our wrap up meeting from the competition.  We had quite a bit to discuss as this year was an election year.  I am now the assistant Secretary/Treasurer.  As the secretary was unable to come, I took the minutes.  I will be typing them tonight and disbursing them tomorrow to those who were there.  We had so much to talk about.  The hotel made an error and actually owes us money instead of us owing them.  We overpaid.  Thank goodness our current president reads these bills with a fine tooth comb as mistakes, though rare, do happen.  Our new president will, I am sure, do the same thing.  We discussed what we thought of the carnival that we had on Saturday night.  I think it went very well and that the kids all enjoyed it.  We are going to do it again next year, we think.  We may consider adding a popcorn machine and a cotton candy machine too.  All depends on price, of course.  We are a non-profit organization and all of us are volunteers so no one gets paid.  The one benefit we do get, is that our hotel rooms for the weekend are paid for.  I must admit that that will help me immensely next year in Kalamazoo.  I just don't know how else I could go right now.  Things will improve, I am sure, but right now, things are very tight.  I am very concerned about my future finances and how I will still have a place to live with all the necessities like heat and electricity.  The non-essentials are pretty much gone and I find I don't really miss them.  The only other non-essential is cable TV and I get the lowest package because I don't need all the fancy stuff you can get.  I am happy with the regular type stuff like Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Channel.  I also like the HGTV channel but if it became necessary, I would cut these things out too.  They are not too essential to my well being.  I can easily go to the library to check email once a day.  It is only about 3 miles away.  I have to stop by there tomorrow and return books that are now overdue.  Yup, that is the reason I rarely check books out.  I forget to return them!  I have them in the middle of my hallway to the door so I will trip over them if I don't pick them up.

Anyways, I digress.  I really enjoy meeting up with the fellow teachers, even though there were only 4 of us.  The roads were getting pretty bad so one teacher had to turn around and go home.  The roads were just too bad for her.  She lives quite a distance from us, so I totally understand that.  We have some changes coming to one of the categories and mainly everything is going smoothly for the organization.  I am happy to be a member of it.  I do enjoy the competition every year and I don't mind the work it takes to put it on.  I am happy to do my part.  I think I may do the luncheon next year.  Seems like it would be a good challenge for me.  I have the time to do it.  I do miss Mom at these type events though.  She was always my assistant.  She would collect the music back from the students after they performed for me.  She would check it all in and then when we got home, she would refile it for next time's use.  I so miss her for that.  I have about 3 boxes worth that need to be filed and reorganized.  I found some original CDs that have been missing for a long time in another box yesterday.  I am anxious to put them in the right place and reorganize the copies.  I also want to compare the originals to the copies to see what needs to be recopied.  Some have worn out or lost or I need more of them now that I don't hand out too many books.  I am going to be working on Amanda's folder this week.  I found a nice binder and I know where the sheet protectors are now so I can put her book together since her Mom won't buy her the books she needs.  It kind of upsets me because everyone else bought theirs and she didn't, but I can't punish Amanda because of this and I won't.  I will just make her a nice little binder.

It is horrible weather out tonight.  Freezing rain is what it was doing when I came home.  Georgette helped me down the stairs at her house and I managed the rest of the way to my car.  I drove just fine as the roads weren't too bad.  I imagine they will be really bad tonight when the sun goes down.  I won't be going out again, that is for sure.  I plan on staying home.



I do hope you are having a good day.