pictures of the decorations!!

Here are some of the pictures of the decorations!

The girls did awesome!

I will write more this evening.  These are the 2 pianos, the book shelf, and the princess table with the tree on it.

Monday before Christmas 12-19

I have the perfect gift for Emily and Lily.  I can't write what it is, but I really like what I got them.  I will hopefully see Lily on Wednesday.  I am not sure though since she is a very busy young lady now that she is in 8th grade.  She is only going to get busy as she enters high school next year.  Sometimes, I think back to how young she was when I first met her.  I remember Emily and I heading to a movie and Lily crying because we weren't taking her that particular time.  She was so sweet in a way because she only wanted to be with us.  We took her the next time.  I remember the first time she came to the movies without her sisters with us.  I don't remember what we were going to see, but it was a good children's movie.  Mom was with us.  Because it was such a monumental moment, we also got treats from the concession stand.  She picked this candy, jolly ranchers.  When we opened the bag, she discovered the weren't the type she liked.  Normally, we wouldn't have gotten anything else but she really didn't know so Mom took her back to the stand to get something else.  I believe Lily came back with popcorn and a beautiful smile.  She is a very special young lady so are her sisters.  Emily just finished her first semester in college.  Elyse and her husband are saving for their first house.  All in all, the three are doing well.

I haven't taken pictures yet, but I will.  I also have to pick up the boxes in the living room too.  I want to take a picture of the front window but I need to do it during the day.  When Isaac arrived today, I hadn't turned on the lights.  His mom did and they liked the tree that the girls did.  Sometime next week we are supposed to go and see a movie.  I hope to see one with Lily too.  It all depends on all of the girls' schedules.  They are all very busy.  I don't have a lot of lessons this week because of the holiday, but I have a couple new lessons with 3 little girls.  They will have an hour lesson, 20 minutes each.  The younger girls are almost 5 and in preschool.  The oldest is almost 7.  All three have their birthdays in February.  I am looking forward to the lessons.

This Christmas seems to be harder than last year at times.  Not all the time, just some times.  Tonight was one of them.  As I was coming home, it hit me.  I am alright now, but it was a rough few minutes and of course, I was driving when this happened.

I am out of my tramadol again.  I knew last week I should have called for refills, but I kept putting it off and now I am out.  I sure hope it comes in rather quickly.  It needs a new prescription.  Naturally, I waited until the last minute.  You would think by now I would know better, but no, not me.  I have to learn the hard way again.  Maybe that should be my New Year's resolution.  It is something to think about anyway!!!

I hope you are having a good day.

the living room is now Christmas Wonderland!

The living room is completely decorated except for one piano.  I will fix that tomorrow.  I also have to put the bins out of the way too.  The tree is loaded down with decorations and it looks just great.  The top of the piano I am not currently using is covered and decorated but the one I am currently using in lessons is empty except for the CD player on it.  The 4 girls did a great job decorating.

Church went well and without ANY lightheadedness today.  It must have been the contacts causing the issues with eye straining.  I accidentally put the old prescription in the left eye and since I could still read and watch TV, I didn't think it would be a problem, but apparently, I was wrong.  I changed them last night and they are fine now.  I don't know if I am singing on Christmas Day or not.  There will be one service at 10 am instead of the usual 3 services.  (Choir only sings at the first service except for once a month when we do all 4 including Saturday night)  I will be at my old Church with Kathy and family on Christmas Eve then off to her parents house to watch the kids open presents.  I enjoy watching them open presents and see the looks on their faces when the see what they get.  I just love her children, they are such neat children.  Christmas Day is still up in the air, but since it is a week away, it doesn't matter at this point.  I will be somewhere with friends and that is what matters.  Either I will be with Kathy on Christmas Day or the day after or I will be at the Hubels on Christmas Day.  Either way, I get Kathy some time during the weekend.  I have an older laptop (from a few years ago) and 2 boxes of games for her to come and collect sometime during the weekend.  I hope her children like the games I am giving them.  They were mine but I don't play board games as much as I used to so I have too many.  I kept a few and the rest go to Kathy's kids!

I am pretty tired now since I have been up since 6:45 with NO nap this afternoon!  After church, I picked up Donna and we went to lunch at Chipolte's.  She liked it a lot.  I knew she was allergic to a lot of things, but man tons of food too?  Pork, Sour Cream, are just a few.  We had to leave earlier than planned because the cleaning agent that one of the employees were using were making her sick.  We had finished lunch by then so that was okay.  I dropped her back home and then came home to read.  I was going to take a nap, but I was reading instead so that didn't happen.  I will probably go to bed early since I am so tired.

I have been having a problem in the night lately with night sweats and upset tummy.  It has happened several times a week in the last few weeks.  I have been having to get up and sometimes change my top and then go downstairs for some tummy medicine.  It is really annoying.  I have a bit of an upset tummy right now so before bed I will take more tummy stuff.  It is almost time for my other tummy medicine again.  I sure hope that it will fade away as quickly as it came.  I am just not up for this.  I ran out of my Xantac yesterday morning and I can't get it until tomorrow so I hope tonight isn't too awful.  I have some Mylanta on hand such I need it.

I do hope you are having a good day.  I am getting rather tired and I foresee going soon.  It is only 8 pm so I am going to try to stay awake until at least 9 so that I won't wake up wide awake in the middle of the night.

Super Great Day! 12-17

I paid the rest of the property taxes!!!  Yes!!!  It is paid (well, I mailed it so give it a few days to get there).  I am so happy about this because I can now focus on the 2011 taxes!  Yeah, I am, as of right now, only behind with the summer taxes because the winter ones just came in and they are due by March 1.  Whether or not I get there by then, I don't think so, but I will have started paying them loooooong before then.  It was such a good feeling to write the check and mail it!

The other reason it was a super great day is that my lovely girls, Natalie, Hannah, Sarah, and Lydia came to help decorate.  I was so pleased with how well they did.  We have the sled on the wall and the wall hanging from Disney.  A lot of my Disney ornaments are on the tree.  I have so many.  The tree is covered with them.  I know that they are really too big for the tree, but it they are so beautiful and I love them.  Next year I will decorate outside too but this year I just don't have the money to spend on the electricity.  Speaking of electricity, mine for some reason has jumped and I am concerned because I use less electricity than I use to and the bill is super high.  This is the 2nd month in a row and I don't understand why.  I have to call them on Monday because my electricity usage has not changed that much to be that high.  If more than one person lived here, I could see it, but it is only me so I don't get it.

I have to change my contacts tomorrow morning because it is time for them to be changed.  I am hoping I won't be so dizzy tomorrow, if I am then I won't be able to be in choir because during the rehearsal I get dizzy and feel like I am going to pass out.  I am usually alright by the time the service starts, but even then it can happen.  I truly do think it is my contacts and I will change them.  It has been a while and I need to start keeping better track now.

I got up earlier than usual for Brianne's lesson.  She is going to be put in the Snell books level 4 and her sister will be in the level 5 ones.  I will also add fun stuff in it too so that will hopefully be interesting for them.

all the music that was in the living room is now in the office in piles on the floor.  I will take one pile at a time and put them in order and then put them away.  I plan to do a pile or so a day so that I will not have to stand for so long.  There are about 5 to 6 piles.  I also will take care of the CDs that I use for my singers.  There are a lot of those out right now but they will be much easier to put away.  I have some CDs I need to copy as I don't like to give out the original CDs.  In order to get a new CD, if something happens to the originals, I have often have to buy the entire book and CD combo, which is expensive.

Tomorrow after church, I am going to see Donna.  I have a few things for her.  A bunch of Videos and a keyboard.  It is my old one.  I have no idea if it works or not but we will find out.  It needs new batteries, that much I know.  I have the stuff in the trunk of the car now.  I think that is everything I need to bring her.  If I forgot anything, I have no idea what it could possibly be.  I think I will probably come and take a nap.

I very tired now.  It has been such a full day.  Tomorrow will be a super early day starting at 6:45 am to get ready for church.  I do like the new church.

I am watching a program on overweight teens, I mean extremely overweight.  They are all getting the gastric bypass surgery.  I was asked about getting it done but I don't want to get it.  I have thought about and from what I have read about it, it is very risky and I am not ready for that type of a risk.  I have friends who have done the surgery, but they all have had major problems afterwards.  My exercise machine is now uncovered so i can go and use it everyday.  I am not sure how long I can use it, but I think any amount of time is good.  I used to be be able to do a 1/2 hour a day but this was 6 years ago before my blood clot.  Since then my mobility has gone down.  I hope to get it up higher again.  I figure I will start by counting my steps instead of time.  I have a goal to have more mobility and not so dependent on my scooter.  That I should lose weight will be the by product.  Every time I make the goal to lose weight, I end up gaining weight so I figure this time I will target mobility.  I want to be able to walk up and down my street with my CD player in my ear like I used.  I used to walk about 3 miles a day.  I would put my music on and I would just go.  I am not sure with the arthritis and the fibro how much I can do but I figure some is better than none, which is what I am doing now.

I do hope you had a good day.  I did.

9 days before Christmas

It is 9 days before Christmas and my bloggy friend, Jojo's blog made me think of this special memory of my mother and my childhood.

When I was very small, I must have been early elementary at the time because I firmly that my dad was still here, one day after school, I came home with my younger and older brothers and our house was all lit up.  Someone had brought out the trees (we had two, 1 in the living room and the other in our indoor patio) and decorated the living room one.  Lights were up outside along the roof of the house and the trees.  Down in the indoor patio were the decorations all laid out for us to decorate the tree with hangers on them.  Our family room was fully decorated too.  Decorations were in the windows in the living room and dining room too.  Pretty much everywhere downstairs that could be decorated, was.  We asked Momma who did them and she sat us down.  She said that Santa thought we were very good children and sent his elves to decorate while we were in school.  The funny thing is, we believed her for years on this one!  It wasn't until we were in upper elementary that we learned momma did that.  Well one year my brother, Andrew and I decided to be the elves for Mom.  I don't remember if Richard was there or not, it was too long ago.  I remember Andrew and I decorating the big tree downstairs and leaving Mom to do "her" tree with ornaments complete with their hangers ready to go.  We put the decorations in the windows and started the family room.  Mom came home before we finished but she was really happy with what we had done.  Later that night we hung the outdoor lights.  I had never seen her hang them herself before and I had an unnatural fear of Mom on a ladder.  I, for some reason, always melted down when she was on a ladder.  I had a fear that she would fall and it would be a bad fall.  Eventually, she sent me inside to make some hot chocolate because I wouldn't stop crying.  She told me she wouldn't fall off the ladder because she wouldn't be so high, but still, I just clung to her and cry.  Mom and Andrew finished hanging the lights with me inside so I wouldn't have to see it and I thought she wouldn't get on the ladder.  After that year, she always did the lights when I wasn't around.  i think I was about 13 to 14 before I could handle her on a ladder.  I have never seen anyone fall off a ladder in person, just on TV in movies and shows but I was terrified of Mom on a ladder.  It didn't matter if it was inside or outside.  I have only seen her on the roof once and it sent me in the house in tears.  Anyways, I digress!  Mom really loved the Christmas Season and really made the most of it.  That is what I am thinking of this season.  Yes, there is a bit of sadness as she is in Heaven, but with Christmas and why we celebrate it, it is hard to be sad all the time.

Another thing Mom would do when we were small (this was after my dad was gone).  She would get a birthday cake with "happy birthday, Jesus" on it.  This wasn't done every year, but every few Christmas she would do this.  When I was in junior high, we started setting the table and adding a place setting for Jesus to join us.  I had read about this tradition and that it was so cool, that we did it a few years.  Remembering some of the traditions and things we used to do makes me smile and in a year where there were very few smiles, I need to focus on them, not the sad times.

After Acer and Calli's lessons, Bill brought KFC for dinner so the 5 of us sat down for dinner.  It was yummy.  Bill also took about 12 or so boxes of books that Julie and I put together and he is taking them to his library for donation.  He works at a library so he is the perfect person to take them too.  I have enjoyed them and now someone else can too.  It was really cute, Acer informed me where his seat is at the table and he was right!  It is where he sits every time we eat together.  Bill sits opposite from me, Acer on my right with Heather next to him and Calli is on my left.  She is such a good kid, both of them really.  I simply adore them both, then again, I have great kids for students and I adore them too.  Some are more cuddly than others, but all of them are awesome.  Three of my lovelies will be here tomorrow to help me decorate.  I will take pictures and post them.  Hannah, Natalie, and Lydia are wonderful girls. They only can have lessons once a month and I am thankful that they can have them at all.  I am not sure if Sarah, their little sister, will be coming or not.  I will find out after Camille's lesson tomorrow!  I have Brianne in the morning and then Camille in the afternoon with the girls after that.

It is has been a decent day and I am hopeful that yours was good too.

10 days until Christmas! 12-15

I am such a happy girl this afternoon.  I will be able to mail the rest of the taxes tomorrow!  I am very excited how this worked out.  I am really glad about that.

Church Choir practice went well.  We were working on stuff for Christmas and Sunday.  I am not sure about Christmas Day yet.  I am still waiting to see what all is going on.  I know that Christmas Eve I will be with Kathy and her family with her parents.  It should be really good.  Kathy is just waiting to find out what the in-laws are doing for the Christmas.  If they have something on Christmas Day then Kathy's parents will have something for the Monday.  Either will work for me as they usually have stuff earlier in the day and I don't teach until 4 so that should work.  I have Rachel and Isaac's lessons that day.  I am anxious to see Kathy and family.  I know, it has only been a few short weeks since I last saw them, but still, I want to see her rather soon.

I am tired now so I will be in bed soon.  I don't have to get up early tomorrow so that is good.  My girls are coming on Saturday for decorating.  They will be here at 2 pm.  It should be a fun time.  I need to also pull some music for Brianne on Saturday.

I hope you are having a good night!

Wednesday 11 days before Christmas 12-14

I had a decent day.  My head is the normal pain level and not too high for a change.  My fibro is the normal (for me) pain levels, in other words, dealable and I have milk and bread for the week so I can have my soup and my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch or dinner.

Oh my!  Julie was here after my blood test this morning (don't laugh too hard, I did write morning).  I had to be at the doctor's by 10:20 am.  I was in and out within 10 minutes.  It was amazing.  Also, it was the same nurse as last time and she got the blood in one try!  Talk about wonderful!  After that, I met Julie at my house.  We went through ALL the boxes of books downstairs.  Julie also took the books that were up here in the dining room downstairs on the bookshelf.  It looks so beautiful.  It really does.  We have about 10 to 12 boxes of books going to the library or the St. Vincent de Paul people, wherever Julie thinks is best.  The DVDs will be going down soon.  We have a few things to clear out first so that the furniture can be rearranged and in placed.  I really took a good look at the furniture today.  Unfortunately, it needs a lot of work.  There is so much that needs to be re-stuffed so I have decided that eventually I will be replacing it.  Right now, I don't have the money.  I will look for used, good furniture and also sales at furniture stores but not until the taxes are under control.  I don't need anything fancy.  I really don't.  I also looked at the dining room chairs and they are going to need to be replaced too, eventually, not right away, but eventually they will need to be.  It is kind of upsetting because I had my heart stuck on keeping the furniture but it isn't really good enough for that.  Oh well, time to deal with that later not now.  Right now my money is all accounted for, taxes, taxes, taxes (the property type).  I am happy with how I am doing, like I said yesterday so I know that I can keep to a budget pretty well.  Not super well all the time, but most of it.

I had to run to the music store this evening to pick up Laith's new books.  He is moving from the prep young beginners series to the basic series.  Since he really knows his notes well, this is definitely the move for him.  I am very pleased with his progress, I really am.  I have Samuel, my new little guy tomorrow too.  He had to change days just for this week only.  I didn't mind, I have the time to change since I have lots of room most every day.  I only have a few lessons every day except Sunday when I don't have any that aren't make-ups.  It is a good schedule for me because I have time to rest if I need it.  I tried to rest before Natalie's lesson, but I couldn't sleep so no nap for me.  I went on the computer and face book instead.  I also received an email from Aaiyana's Mom.  Aaiyana, indeed, had girl scouts today so she couldn't have her lesson after all.  I really like that young lady.  She is such a good girl.  Natalie is learning Schubert's "Ave Maria".  She is working very hard on her vowels and her placement.  We ran out of time to work on breathing more so that is first thing next time when we start "Ave Maria".  I think this particular song is one of those songs every singer should know.  You never know when you will be asked to sing it.  I have song it at several funerals and a wedding.  you just never know when the song  will be required, you just don't.

My fellow blogger, Christine Murray, will be releasing her book "Storm in Teacups" soon.  I have offered her to do a guest post sometime between Christmas and New Year's.  I am looking forward to that.  Her book will be released through Amazon.com and a few other places.  I am not exactly sure where the other places are.  I know she said so, but I can't remember.  When it happens, I will let you know.  It is just an exciting thing to be publishing your book.  I self published a cook book for Fibromyalgia.  My brother did the recipes and I did the introduction.  It is a bit dated now since we now know a few more things through research about Fibro but the recipes are very yummy.  They really are.  Andrew is a great cook.  Both of my brothers are great cooks.  At one point, Andrew was considering going to cooking route through school, but changed his mind.  I think he got sick of cooking and now just cooks for fun now.  I used to do this every holiday meal to Andrew, especially if we were having a turkey.  First, I would thaw the turkey like you are supposed to then I would go upstairs to Andrew's room and know on the door.  He would say, "what?"  I would ask what to do first with cooking the turkey.  He would holler through the door what to do.  I would go and do it.  Then I would go back upstairs and ask what was next.  I would do this about 3 to 4 times before he would open the door and say, "I'll be down in a minute."  At that point I would happily go down the stairs and wait for him.  Andrew would generally throw me out of the kitchen and finish the turkey himself, which was exactly what I wanted him to do in the first place.  I did this for years before he finally figured out that I do know how to cook a turkey, but his always taste much better.  This would be because he is a better cook than me.  Now he lives in London and I go somewhere else for the Turkey dinner.  Perhaps, at Easter I will make a dinner for people to come over.  My house will be in better shape at that point.

Well, this is really becoming a long post so I better end now.  I hope you are having a good day.

Tuesday 12-13

Ah, Tuesday night, my favorite night of TV, NCIS, NCIS Los Angeles and soon Dance Moms too!  That starts again in January on Kathy's birthday.  I also see Katie and Charlie on Tuesday so that is good too.  My students often make my day better.  My student, Aaiyana didn't come today.  Apparently, her father's car broke down and he couldn't call me and her mom's phone was dead so she couldn't call me either.  We have rescheduled for tomorrow.  I am glad about that.  This way, she and I will still have her lesson since she is supposedly not going to be having lessons in January.  I guess she isn't practicing enough.  The same old store since the beginning of lessons in the world, the lack of practicing.  I hear that so often.  If I had a quarter for every time I have heard that in the last 25 years, I would be rich.  Too bad I didn't start collecting quarters then every time I heard that.  Hmm, maybe I should start now.

I can't believe that Christmas is less than 2 weeks away.  This weekend the girls are coming to decorate.  I am sort of not really that into Christmas this year.  Last year, I was in such shock but this year I am just sad.  I partly wish I could go to sleep this Saturday night and wake up January 2nd.  The other part of me doesn't want to miss anything between now and the end of the year.  I am having lessons the week between Christmas and New Year's.  I am very happy about that.  I used to have to cancel all lessons at that time because no one wanted lessons and this year they do!  So far, there are a couple of cancellations for next week, but not really any for the following week as of right now.  I will have my few lessons for both weeks!  It is a good thing!

I am so excited that my plan for paying the property taxes so far.  If I stay on track, it will be paid by the deadline!  Yes, this is true!  Then I shall start saving EVERY month for the 2011 taxes and some year down the road I will actually be on time and in the right year.  Ugh, this is just crazy.  Boy, get behind 1 year and look what happens.  It is not recommended to get behind in your property taxes.  It really isn't.  I hope to never be behind again once I am on track again.  It is such a crazy place to be.

I bought a new book for the new year.  It is a book for keeping track of bills.  This will improve my current system, by which I mean, tossing the bill and envelope on the table and eventually having to search to find it so I can pay it.  I used to use these type books all the time and I was very organized at that time.   However, I must say that once I lost the store, my organizing skills dropped big time.  It also comes with a receipt organizer too.  I am sure I could use that too since I also do the toss and hope I find it should I need it again.  I did like being organized better than being unorganized.  I am just in a daze a lot of the time from the fibro fog.  Sometimes organizing takes a lot out of me because I have to concentrate for a long time and concentrating is hard for me.  I get brain fog a lot.  I can only concentrate for short periods of time.  That is why my lessons are planned the way they are.  This way, I can rest when I need to.  So far, it is working out for me.

Well, NCIS Los Angeles is almost over and it is a nail biter one.  Sometimes i hate nail biter ones.  Suspense is not always good for me.  However, since I know they wouldn't kill off the main characters, I know it will work out and it did, just in time, naturally.  I love this show.  I can't wait for the new ones after the New Year.  From now until then, it will be re-runs.  They are good and there may even be one I haven't seen yet, since I can't say that I have seen them all, but still, new ones all the time would be a good thing.  I remember when I was young (my gosh, I sound like I am 90 or something!)  Anyways, when I was a child and a teen, shows would run for 26 episodes during the year, now they consider a good season with 13 episodes or maybe a few more.  They are shorter too.  At least they still are making new shows.

I do hope you have had a good day.  Mine was okay, better during lessons, but before and after were just okay.

It has been a few days since my last post! 12-12

Today is Hannah and Natalie's 16th birthday!!!  It is so hard to believe that they are 16, soon they will be driving!  Time has sure flown with those 2.  They were very small when i met them.  Hannah and Lydia started piano first and then about a year or 2 later, Natalie decided she wanted to learn too.  About a year ago, their younger sister, Sarah, decided she wanted to play too.  At one time, their brother, Peter, played the clarinet.  They are a very musical family.  Mary, age 3, has shown some interest in the piano too.

Last night I went to the Hubels for dinner and a movie.  We watched Monte Carlo.  It was quite cute and very funny.  I thoroughly enjoyed it along with the the family.

I got dizzy again at church during our practice.  This is the 3rd time in 2 months.  I was not really happy about that.  I had to leave the practice because I thought I was going to pass out again.  I think it may be my contacts.  I need to make sure the right prescription is in both eyes.  Right now, they don't and I think that is the problem.  I found the proper prescription so I will switch them this week before church on Sunday.  We are singing some fun music in church right now.  I love Christmas Music.  I could listen to some of it all year long, but I do try to limit myself to just between the day after Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, but sometimes it is hard.  Fortunately, we have to start Christmas music for lessons quite often before Halloween so I get my music early!  Some students play such complicated music that they have to start in September.  I don't mind at all especially this year we had the concert about 2 weeks earlier than usual.  It was a nice change from waiting right until the weekend before Christmas.

Bob had a good lesson.  He will be out of town next week and then he will be off on a cruise until Christmas Day.  I will see him on the Wednesday that week instead of the Monday.  Rachel will be absent next week too.  She just moved into a new house and is getting used to her new room.  She was rather tired during her lesson today.  She is so cute.  Isaac had good lessons today.  He played piano nicely and sang his songs well too.  He has a good voice and well, after my girls heard him sing, they want to sing with them.  I told him he didn't have to.  I am going to ask Charlie if he will sing with Isaac in the spring concert.  I can't believe I am thinking ahead to the Spring Concert already.  We are doing movies.  My older girls will be dressed as Harry Potter Characters while Isaac will be Draco from Harry Potter.  I am rather excited about that.  Rachel isn't sure what she will dress as but I have some music from the Wizard of Oz that she may want to play.  She has a beautiful Dorothy costume that she wore at Halloween that she can wear if she wishes.  It is up to her but I think she would look so adorable as Dorothy playing "Over the Rainbow", still, it is totally up to her.

I am very exhausted this evening.  I got up early for church yesterday and I did take a nap in the afternoon, but I was still a bit tired.  I got up early today for my lovely girls but I didn't have time for a wee nap so I am rather exhausted this evening.  I have a bit of a bad headache tonight that I didn't have earlier, thank goodness for that!  My tummy has calmed down too.  It was upset a bit this afternoon but now is fine.  I don't know why, but hey, you never know with me.  Fibro is a strange beast, you know and you never know when a flare is going to show up that is for sure.  I know some of you are VERY familiar with that beast.

I have to decorate the tree still.  The lights looks so pretty on it.  Heather B-T did a great job on it.  I now have a bag big enough to put the tree in so I can store it in the garage.  I am so glad about that.  I need to decorate the pianos too.  I haven't done it at all yet.  I am seriously thinking of having the girls come and decorate with me this weekend.  I am going to ask if they have not only the time but the interest.  They are such lovely girls.  We are planning to see a movie between Christmas and New Year's.  It will be fun.

I do hope you are having a good day.

TGIF 12-9

I am glad it is Friday and that the concert was last weekend.  I really am.  My lights are on my tree and tomorrow I shall decorate it.  I am excited about decorating the tree.  The lights look so awesome that I am afraid that I will cover them too much.  It took the 3 sets of lights that I had bought and it looks simply beautiful.  Heather B-T did a great job.  Calli picked a new Christmas song to learn for the next few weeks.  It has a super hard part in it but she is doing rather well with it.  Acer had decided against learning a Christmas one.  He is going to learn Wade in the Water from my Ready to Sing Spirituals.  I just need to burn a new CD because I am not sure what happened to the CD that I had.  It is not a problem as I have it in my computer so I just have to open the toast program and then burn a new CD.  I will burn a few of them so that we have extras.  Emily is doing non-Christmas music now too.  She is doing very well with her piano.  I really thing that the computer game is helping her a lot.  Laith liked the game too.  so far, everyone who has tried the game likes it.  I think it has been a good tool for the students.  It is fun and they are learning at the same time.  I like the game myself.  I had to try it before they did.  I haven't heard anyone say they didn't like it.

Tomorrow 2 more violins will be going to my friend, Debbie for her Good Fellows Charity Event next week.  Apparently, they are very popular.  I am glad they are going to good homes and they raise money for the Good Fellows Charity.  I don't have many violins left.  I have had a lot go to charity events this year.  I have a couple of them to finish.  I will do them this winter.  I just don't have time right now, nor do I have the inspiration to do them.  I think that is the biggest thing.  I do hope Debbie brings her lovely daughter, Isabelle.  She is a beautiful little girl and she is so sweet too.  I think she is a really nice little one.  She is in 1st grade and is in the Chinese Program at school.  Acer is also in that program too only they are not in the same classroom.

I have NOT bought the new harry potter movie yet.  It will only be here until the 29th and then it will be gone.  I do hope to have it by then, but bills are needing to be paid so that is why I have not bought it yet.  I love that movie so I plan to get it next week after I pay the doctors bills I have.  I also will have some put away for the taxes.  that is the really important thing to save for.  I am doing pretty well being able to reach my goal by the end of each month so far.  Only 3 more nerve wracking months until the deadline.  So far, I am right on target after a rough beginning this summer.  I will be able to start saving right away for the 2011 taxes.  I am really excited about that.  I will have a bit more flexibility with the budget after March.  I am thankful that I am able to stay here in the house and pay the bills including the taxes.  I really am glad about that.  There isn't anywhere else I would rather be.  My friends are here, my students are here, and my family isn't too far away.

I have had a good day despite a bad headache.  It wasn't bad enough that I needed to cancel any lessons, thank goodness for that!  However, it is still a bad one.  I hope it finally goes back to the regular one by the time I head for bed.  I only have one lesson after all tomorrow.  Brianne is absent because of a family party that is about 3 hours away so no lesson for the lovely young lady.  I will see her next week.  I do hope you are having a good day too.

Before I forget, sometime during the 12 days after Christmas, my fellow blogger, Christine Murray, will be a guest writer of this blog.  She is self publishing her book and it will be in Kindle form.  I am very excited about this!  I can't wait to get her book, although, I don't have a Kindle so I am not sure how I will get it, but somehow I will.  I hope it is the start of a long career for her.  I look forward to her being here.

Thursday 12-8

It is an anniversary of sorts today.  28 years ago, I had the surgery which straightened my spine.  I have scoliosis and while they could fix the big curve, the neck and the waist curve they could not.  It was a new type of surgery at the time with only 5 doctors in North America trained to perform it.  I had one of those doctors, in fact, I had the doctor who's son invented the new clips for the 2 steel rods fused to my spine.  I didn't have a cast (like the old surgery) nor did I have a brace (like the old surgery).  I had to be careful for about one year and then I could do whatever I wanted.  I learned how to dance after that.  That had been a dream of mine since I was a child and I finally had my first dance lesson in my junior year, in January of that year.  I was 16 at the time.  I loved dance.  I still do, but I can't do much anymore.  One of the things I regret is that when I first got sick, I threw almost all of my dance pictures out.  I couldn't handle looking at them because it hurt so much to dance.  The only reason I have one picture is because Mom had it in her room.  She was so upset when she found out what I did but she didn't yell or anything like that at me.  She just said she wished I had just put them away in a box because someday I would want them.  Mom was right, but I am very thankful that I have the one that she had in her room.  I remember how nervous Mom was about my surgery.  I wasn't nervous or scared at all.  I think partly because it didn't occur to me that it might hurt.  I had watched the video (and grossed out) of what they were going to do so I was just fine.  Mom, on the other hand, apparently was a nervous wreck who was not sure she wanted to sign the consent form.  Finally, her friend, Bev, said she didn't have a choice or I would end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.  Mom signed.  She told me about this after the surgery.  I remember waking up in the recovery room.  I had to go to the bathroom so they brought the portable bathroom and got me up.  That was a shock to me because I didn't expect to be moved the day of the surgery.  When I got back into my room, Mom was there (of course!) and so were my brothers.  Richard told Mom to go to our friends house and get some sleep.  He would take care of me that day and he DID.  He really did.  If I needed something, he was there.  I will never forget that about him.  He really came through to let Momma get some sleep.  I was in the hospital for 10 days and then Bev drove me home.  She put a mattress in the back of her van.  The doctor wanted me to fly home because it would be faster than the 4 to 5 hour drive but we didn't have the money so our friend, Bev came up with the plan we eventually used.  I started off sitting up in the passenger seat.  I don't think we even got out of the city before I had to lie down.  I fell asleep for most of the trip.  I also remember Christmas Eve.  Momma always had this rule (even when we were adults) that you have to go to church Christmas Eve to celebrate Jesus' birthday in order to get your Christmas presents.  Well, since I had just had surgery, I was excused from church.  (Mom would later read the Christmas Story from the Bible with me later that night so I would still have our tradition)  Richard then quickly volunteered to stay home with me incase I needed help.  Well, he got me all comfortable in my room with pillows all ready for me to sit on my bed and then he was ready to take off.  I got upset so he stayed.  Poor guy, he was forced to watch the TV show FAME.  I loved that show so much at that time.  He stayed until Mom and Andrew came home and then he left.  I remember spending much of Christmas Day in bed or lying down in the family room.  It was still a good Christmas.  Momma had finally gotten a good job (the one she retired from in 2002) about a month before the surgery.  They were so nice to her about being off for my surgery.  It was really a good, family owned company at the time.  Her new bosses even sent me a get well soon card.  During the Christmas vacation, Kathy came over and we decided we wanted to go to a movie.  Well, her mom and my mom were rather nervous about this.  I said I could stay up that long.  I proved it by watching TV and playing some games with Kathy for a few hours.  Finally, Mom said okay.  Kathy's mom would drop us off and Momma would pick us up.  Everyone was so worried I might fall with the snow and the ice.  I didn't, Kathy did.  She slipped on some ice but wasn't hurt.  We went and saw the movie and had a good time.  Of course, there is very few times when Kathy and I are together that we don't have fun.  It is just hard to believe that 28 years have passed.  The rods are fused to my back.  There is no way they can remove them.  I can't feel them.  I can break every other bone in my body except where the rods are, not that I wish to experiment with that.

Speaking of Kathy, I have very sad news.  Her Grandmother (92) passed away this afternoon.  Apparently, her grandmother had a stroke a couple of days ago but she didn't wake up.  Kathy was able to see her in the hospital.  This will be a tough Christmas for her and her family.  This grandmother was her Mother's mom.  It is just very sad.  I spoke to her a bit after she received the news.  I knew immediately when she called me right back that she had bad news.  Please, if you can, say some prayers for her and her family.  Even if you expect it, it is something you can't ever be prepared for, or at least I don't think you can.

this has been a sad day for Kathy.  It will be hard for her, but we will be together for Christmas so that is good.  I hope your day was good.