Month: December 2012

Work like usual today. The classes were a little small, but none were canceled due to lack of participants.

This evening is our annual New Year’s Eve party. (I missed last year because of our family get-together.) So I will be back over there at 5:30 and probably stay until it ends at 10:30. Then I will have 5 more hours of work and could take almost a whole day off this week if I wanted to. But I will save the hours for when I have to be gone to play for a funeral this Friday and for the Roselawn concert rehearsal next Monday morning.

I am, of course, contemplating my goals, dreams, wishes, etc. for next year. Lose weight. Be more social. Stay on a budget. All the normal stuff.  I’d like to think of something new, but there are so many things I ought to do that I can’t think of things I’d like to do. Anybody have any new ideas?

It was back to work today. Actually I worked a long day, too, because I want to get off at 10:00 on Friday. So I worked until 3:00 today and will again tomorrow. I had some end of the year stuff to work on – looking at attendance trends in various activities and fun stuff like that.

Classes today were pretty sparse. There were 9 in the first aerobics class, which actually surprised me. But the second class just had two people – a couple. The man told me at the end that he is so glad his wife pestered him until he relented and joined this class, because he just loves it! Comments like that make my day!

I went to the library and got a couple books so I can use my time in the evening a tiny bit more productively. I’m not sure that reading a mystery would rank much higher than watching t.v., but I’m getting a little tired of t.v. I’ve been watching too much -either Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix or Christmas videos. I did get a wonderful set of videos for Christmas, though, and I still have two to watch. They are the type I’ll enjoy over and over – great story and one of my favorite actresses (she was also in Grey’s Anatomy for several seasons.)

I’ve been working on house plans for when we move our manufactured house to the property. Basically the plans are just for the basement and garage, but also for where the decks go and where the stairs will go to the basement. I love doing plans, even if nothing ever comes of it.

Great talking to everyone yesterday!

Today I was going to wash the carpets at 1208, but the rental places are not open. Bummer. I guess I will have to do that on Wednesday after work. Dad is going to pick out a refrigerator today. We have an extra stove, so don’t need to buy one of those until 117 is ready to go. Unfortunately our really cool refrigerator at 117 won’t fit anywhere else, so it has to just sit there for the time being!

I have two church services tonight – 5:00 and 10:00. Should be fun. I love Christmas services!

Went skiing again today. The snow was just perfect.

We did a lot on 1208 yesterday – got a new ceiling fan/light in the living room, put smoke detectors in all the bedrooms, cleaned out the kitchen cabinets, fixed the drain that was leaking in one bathroom, etc. We spent the whole afternoon over there.

Dad has to work this a.m. Nothing special planned for the next couple days except the church services.

Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season. I’m enjoying it a bit more now that all the concerts are finished. The last was the kindergarten program at Roselawn on Thursday afternoon. A really lot of people come out for a short kindergarten program! I also played about 15 minutes before it started.

Yesterday we closed on our latest house acquisition. We will call it 1208 because it is at 1208 West Sexton. If you don’t remember the details from when we first made our offer, it is a manufactured home built on a crawl space. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. The master bath has a garden tub and a separate shower, so it is pretty big. There is a laundry room right off the master bath and the kitchen, which is quite handy. Dad had to fix a couple things with the water when we had the city turn the water back on. I washed some walls and vacuumed it all really good. I’ll rent a Rug Doctor Monday and do the carpets. Then I just have to wash out the cupboards a little and it will be ready to rent. We put the ad on Craigs List this a.m.

We are actually considering eventually moving it to the property and putting it on a basement, adding a couple bump-outs for interest and maybe raising the roof a little. We saw a gorgeous home on the Parade of Homes this year that was a remodeled manufactured home. We recently decided we wouldn’t be able to build from scratch, so this is the best idea we have that would allow us to move to the property eventually. The price to build new is already up to $100 – $130 per square foot, which puts the size home we want out of our reach. Ah, well. We’ll figure something out.

I went skiing for the first time this afternoon. They have totally torn up the cross-country trails behind the high school. Made for rather difficult skiing, skirting all the downed limbs. But it was fun, anyway.

I’m slowly checking concerts off my list. I had one eliminated (Clear Lake gradeschool), but added one to take it’s place (Roselawn kindergarten). But most of the hard ones are done. I realized part of what makes it so draining is having to dress up and do my makeup and hair over and over and over. This afternoon is the last New Auburn Comm. Choir concert. We were afraid the weather would cancel it, but we haven’t gotten too much snow yet. It looks nice and Christmasy, though.

Our senior citizens Christmas party was yesterday, too, and that went well, as expected. The Chetek-Weyerhaueser choir groups were amazing. They have such a good group of singers. Sort of like the good-ole days of the Fritzes, Madisons, Erbs, etc.

Dad is back from Waukesha. Grandma is doing well and should be coming home from rehab the end of this week.

Between last night and the 20th, I have 15 performances. Yes, you read that right. I remember having 10 once. But 15 has to be a record.

For Chetek, there is the middle school (last night), high school, and Roselawn concerts. For Clear Lake, the middle school and gradeschool concerts. For UWBC, two concerts, back to back, tomorrow. For New Auburn Community Choir, 4 concerts (this Sat and Sun and next Sat and Sun.) For Cameron elementary, two concerts, but I’m only counting it as one, because they are the same day. Plus I agreed to play for the recital and the juries for a student I know at UWBC. And I’m playing for the Methodist church cantata again.

Getting to the performances is one thing, but getting to all the rehearsals is another! Good thing I’m organized, because it is hard to get this many in without having to waste much vacation time from work. I’ll have to use some, but most of the practices are in the afternoons, so I don’t miss work. The Roselawn concerts always require being gone in the morning, but that is it.