so much to say

I keep meaning to blog, but there just isn't time. And when there is time, I can't stay awake to do it!

Sunday, October 28, was our 7th anniversary. We celebrated by going to the beach for part of the weekend. We stayed at a beautiful beach house and just lazed around and ate pastries - it was divine and just what we needed! I have a picture of us on the beach but my camera is at my KM classroom right now. :-P I'll upload it later.

Life just seems to keep getting busier. I really need to lighten my load. Some changes are in the works, but I will post about those later after proper notifications have been made and decisions have been finalized. I could use a few prayers, too!

Here's some really big, important, exciting news: We are going to have yet ANOTHER niece or nephew! Yep, folks, my brother's wife is pregnant. Braden is going to be a big brother! I am just ecstatic! This will make #5 for us! We have Emma, Braden, Will, Angela is pregnant with #4, and Kari is pregnant with #5! Yay for Uncle Brian and Aunt Sis!

Kindermusik keeps getting better. The kids are really opening up and getting used to me, and to each other, and to class. At one point yesterday I had like 3 or 4 kids on my lap at the same time. I LOVED it! Lately, I hate for class to end! :-) I am so fortunate to be able to do this. I love it so much!

The coolest thing happened yesterday. Last week, I had been complaining and joking with one of my piano students' moms about how Florida is made of mildew and mold. She was saying they had just pressure washed their house, and I was saying how bad my sidewalk was looking again. (In case you don't know how crazy the mold and mildew can get, check out this post from last year when we pressure washed our porch and sidewalk for the first time!) Anyway, she said that they had a pressure washer and we could borrow it and she would bring it next week.

So yesterday, this student shows up and her dad and grandpa were with her and they brought TWO pressure washers with them and they pressure washed my porch, sidewalk, and driveway while I taught the lesson!!!! I mean seriously...people just don't do that kind of thing anymore! We're all too busy for random acts of kindness! I was just so thrilled, and so grateful, and so shocked, and so amazed! They are the nicest people ever! (Of course, I gave them several free lessons!) LOL Anyway, my faith in humanity was restored yesterday.

(And it was lost again today because I had to go to Walmart and you know how I feel about the way people act in Walmart!) Ugh!

All right. I have to go and do something useful. Hope everyone had a great Halloween! I promise to post pictures soon. :-)

quickutz club

Yesterday I joined the Quickutz club at Violette's, an awesome scrapbook store in Lakeland. They meet once a month and make a project or 2 and club members get either a special deal on QK products (yesterday it was buy one, get one free on all dies - even Revolution dies!) or some months we get a free die! Love it. So yesterday was my first club meeting ever. The store is about 70 minutes from my house, but about 20 minutes from church, and some of their meetings will be on Sunday afternoons. I had a rehearsal in Winter Haven last night anyway, so I rushed to Lakeland after my Kindermusik class. Here's what we made:How cute is that??!! It's a picture frame - 12x12. I totally love it. And of course, I ordered the die that made the leaves - it's one die that cuts 3 leaves. Adorable. Everyone at that store is so friendly and nice, and I'm so excited to be a part of this club!

funniest line

...from a book I'm currently reading, "Miss Julia Strikes Back:"

"Let me tell you. If you ever think you'll be throwin' up in public, I'd recommend against havin' a mustache. The combination is not a pretty sight."

a weekend of learning

Well, our weekend of Tim Holtz classes was awesome! I had a great time with Christy, scrapping, learning, and shopping. Here's the book we made in our class, Nostalgic Memoirs:

We actually learned how to sew a book binding! It was VERY cool! I'm pretty happy with the way mine turned out. The covers are canvas, and we learned how to use ink and blend it to make a unique look, and then we covered it with beeswax to seal the ink. Very fun! And then we junked it up with some cool ribbon and hardware.

And in the Mystery Class, we learned how to make this little mini-book out of a 6x6 paper pad, with no paper left over - no waste! Awesome!


How adorable is that! Yes, that swirl on the front is a piece of Grungeboard. It's SO cool! We also used some neat acrylic chips and fun hardware. I spent way too much time distressing and inking my pages, but it was so much fun! The right side of each page was a pocket page. I also won a door prize in this class - a 6x6 pad of Basic Grey Figgy Pudding with fibers and some hardware - LOVE IT! :-D

And - what's a weekend of scrapping without a little SHOPPING??!! Ruban Rouge is a great store and I picked up some goodies while I was there. I also stopped at another store in Lakeland on my way home - Violette's - I had no idea that was such a great store! All in all, here's my stash from the weekend:


Got some Prima sprites, AC Fall felt shapes, Fancy Pants biggest board, a few chipboard books (Maya Road - train, and Basic Grey - bracket), Heidi Swapp silhouette flowers, big blossoms (not shown) and ghost clocks, Prima paintables, assorted paper from Scenic Route, Creative Imaginations, KI, Basic Grey, and K&Co., some Bazzill scalloped cardstock, Tim Holtz GRUNGEBOARD (of course!), 7 gypsies photo corners, Tim Holtz Tonic paper piercer (retractable and so nice!), a Quickutz magnetic book (to store my cookie cutter dies), a mini score-it board, some Cosmo Cricket chipboard lacing cards, and some K&Co. wedding stickers (for cards). Yummy!!!! :-)

Who wants to come over and scrap?

night sweats

I really don't have any business blogging right now! I'm going to Tampa tomorrow for the weekend and I haven't even started packing. I'm so excited - I'm going to Ruban Rouge - a very popular scrapbook store - to take some classes taught by none other than Tim Holtz!! We are going to be able to use (and buy!) some of his brand new products that will not be released until December. I'm BEYOND excited!

I'm meeting up with my friend Christy, whom I met at Lifetime Moments. Yes, that's a message board! We're going to just enjoy a girls' weekend and crop the days away! I will post pictures when I get back.

In other news, this whole week I've been experiencing night sweats. WARNING: if you are a guy who thinks girls should just "glisten" or "perspire," stop reading now! (I don't want to ruin the mystique for anyone!) I have woken up in the wee hours every night this week sweating up a storm. Last night I was so hot, I got up and turned the air down, and when I got back in bed, my pillow was soaked and so was the spot where I had been laying before. Gross! With that and the hot flashes I've been having for some time now, I'm wondering what in the world is going on with my body! (Could I be perimenopausal at age 34? Maybe...)

vote for brian!

Brian and his friends got together and made a horror movie. It's about 6 minutes long and it's for a contest. You can go here to vote.

Just know that there is a bit of blood and gore, so don't watch it if you can't handle that kind of stuff. You can vote without watching it, just go down below the video and click on 5 skulls for the 3 categories.

Today is the last day to vote! Thanks, everyone!

fall into reading 2007

Yay! My friend Leslie just told me about Fall Into Reading 2007!! I'm really excited to see how many books I can read! Anyone can participate, just go here to sign up.

And without further ado, here is my list for fall:

1. Main Corpse - Diane Mott Davidson
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
3. Sisterchicks Down Under - Robin Jones Gunn
4. While My Pretty One Sleeps - Mary Higgins Clark
5. The Note - Angela Hunt
6. Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult
7. Mercy - Jodi Picoult
8. Still Summer - Jacquelyn Mitchard
9. Iced - Carol Higgins Clark
10. The Infidelity Pact - Carrie Karasyov
11. Getting Rid of Matthew - Jane Fallon
12. Best Kept Secrets - Sandra Brown
13. Queen of Babble in the Big City - Meg Cabot
14. Daddy's Girl - Lisa Scottoline
15. The Quickie - James Patterson
16. Second Chance - Jane Green
17. Finding Noel - Richard Paul Evans
18. Miss Julia Strikes Back - Ann B. Ross
19. Peace Like a River - Leif Enger
20. The Grilling Season - Diane Mott Davidson
21. The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith
22. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons - Lorna Landvik
23. Santa Cruise: A Holiday Mystery at Sea - Mary Higgins Clark
24. The Christmas Thief - Mary Higgins Clark

BLUE = currently reading
PURPLE = finished

summer reading thing recap

Well, the summer reading thing ended yesterday. I read ALMOST all of the books I wanted to read, but Kindermusik took up way more time than I thought it would! LOL Here's my recap:

1 The Blue Zone - Andrew Gross
2 The Sixth Target - James Patterson
3 Main Corpse - Diane Mott Davidson
4 Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
5 Sisterchicks Do the Hula - Robin Jones Gunn
6 Sisterchicks Down Under - Robin Jones Gunn
7 The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith
8 Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
9 Being Committed - Anna Maxted
10 While My Pretty One Sleeps - Mary Higgins Clark
11 Queen of Broken Hearts - Cassandra King
12 Heartstopper - Joy Fielding
13 Body Surfing - Anita Shreve
14 Divine - Karen Kingsbury
15 Dream When You're Feeling Blue - Elizabeth Berg
16 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
17 The Note - Angela Hunt
18 Where Are the Children? - Mary Higgins Clark
19 Dedication - Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
20 Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult

BLUE = currently reading
PURPLE = finished

*How many total books did you read? Were you surprised by that number?
I read 15 books and am in the middle of reading 2 more. Yes, I'm surprised at the number, because it's so little! I can usually read more than this, but as I said, I'm working now and so I don't have as much time.

*How do you feel about what you read?
I liked every book I read and I loved several of them.

*What about your stretch book? Did you find that you enjoyed it after all? Are you planning to read more of that genre/author?
I had several "stretch" books, meaning authors and/or genres I had not read before. They are as follows:
1. The Blue Zone - Andrew Gross
2. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
3. Queen of Broken Hearts - Cassandra King
4. Heartstopper - Joy Fielding
5. Divine - Karen Kingsbury

I enjoyed all of these books, some more than others. I will probably read all of the authors again. My least favorite of these five was Karen Kingsbury, but I will still probably give her another chance. The rest will be added to my list of favorite authors, though I'm still a big skeptical about Cassandra King.

Ender's Game was very new to me - a new genre AND new author. Brian had recommended this book as he loves reading Sci-Fi. And it was really, really good - with a twist I absolutely never imagined. :-)

*Did you read as many books as you intended to? Or more? How do you feel about that?
As I said before, I wanted to read more, and I'm a bit disappointed, but it's really good for me to be working again and I'm enjoying reading more now that I have less time to do it.

*Was this fun? Do you want to continue (if so, sign up for Katrina's Fall Into Reading challenge.)
Yes, I will definitely continue. It was a blast!

the aroma of autumn

As I left from my evening Kindermusik class last night, I smelled a fire burning. It reminded me of burning leaves and when my grandparents used to burn their trash when I was little. Bonfires, hayrides, pumpkin patches - that scent brought all things autumn to mind. Too bad we won't have any TRULY cool weather until November or December! (If you consider the 70s to be cool!)

Last week was a wild one. I interviewed again with the Montessori school to teach their elementary music, and thus started the figuring out of hours, salary, times, etc. I think we have it pretty close to being nailed down. I'm going again tomorrow to go over curriculum and do my final paperwork. I'm a little worried about being too busy, but I'm also excited at the prospect of doing something new. These are some great kids and I think they will be a lot of fun to work with.

My cousin Chris, who is the minister of music at our church, resigned last Tuesday. That was pretty weird. When he resigned, he made it effective immediately. So now we're not sure what exactly is in store for the band. The pastor gave us last Sunday off (a HUGE blessing, after the crazy week I had) and we're going to start putting things back together this weekend. I think we're going to be ok - I'm not sure who's going to lead. I'm not really sure about anything, but I know we love playing together and I'm really excited to see what God has in store for us. I've definitely shed a few tears over the past week, knowing things will never be the same, but I'm also anxious to see what this all means for us. I think we'll be taking baby steps and just getting a feel for how things will be.

Today I saw some love bugs. THEY'RE BACK! They come during certain times of the year, when the temperature is just right. They are a huge pain! I'll be glad to see them go - and get some cooler weather. Though it's starting to be nice in the evenings.

Well, I have one more class to teach in a little while, and then I'm done for the week. I also have a few new piano students! I went from doing nothing to doing everything! LOL Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share later.

just an update

It's been awhile! Although Kindermusik is going GREAT and it's so much fun I can't even believe I'm getting paid to do it, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. One of my marketing strategies included contacting a school about 30 minutes away whose Kindermusik program had to close down this year because the teacher moved away. In contacting them, I found out that they are looking for an elementary music teacher. This is a Montessori school and I'm very unfamiliar with their program, but I've now had 2 interviews with them and today I went and observed a class. They do blended ages, so 1st through 3rd grades are all in the same class and 4th through 6th grades are together. It's an interesting environment! Anyway, I think things are looking positive and it's only a few hours a week, so I'm seriously considering it.

I had one wild class last week - a class with 5 3-year-old boys. They were just crazy! I learned a lot from that class! I now have a strategy for this week, since we didn't really get anything done last week. Whew! Part of me feels like I'm an aerobics instructor! LOL I do get a lot of exercise during the classes. And it's SO fun!

In other news, I actually RAN on the treadmill this week! I know, I'm shocked too. I've never been able to run - I always get a side cramp! I can't even run to the end of the driveway! So I was pretty proud. I only ran for 2 minutes, and then I walked awhile, and then I ran for 2 more minutes!! That doesn't seem like much, I know, but for me - it's a big deal! LOL

OK, here are some pictures of my Kindermusik classroom! I'll leave you with those and maybe my life will become more interesting at some point so I can write about something besides kids and music! :-)