Month: January 2013

Well, I’m home and relaxing from my day now. The auditions this a.m. were fun. There were 15 girls, aged 6 to 14 and when they all sang Tomorrow together, it was the most beautiful sound I’ve heard in a while. When they all sang separately, there were quite a few with very nice solo voices, so when they were all together, it was just heavenly. It will be a hard decision to pick Annie, because the best ones, of course, were the oldest ones, but they just look too old to be Annie. Personally, I’m rooting for my piano student, who happens to be the daughter of Hans and Leslie (Madison) Olsen. She has an absolutely beautiful voice for her age. (Might be another Stephanie Olsen coming up.) But she was on the small side, compared to the others. Unfortunately, none in the middle-sized group were as good a solo singer as Ella Olsen and a couple of the older girls. Will be interesting to see who they pick! Whoever it is, it will be fun working with them this summer.

For my afternoon tai chi talk, only 3 people came. It was at the end of the day, which probably was the main reason. Plus, not that many people even know what tai chi is. But one of the three was Linda Heppner and she might start coming to my exercise classes at the center.  But while I was there, I shopped at all the booths and bought myself some more Sentsy bars for my Sentsy melting thing and some earrings and some sweet treats. Fun afternoon.

Ah, I wish the weather didn’t affect my mood so much, but it does. Today is warmer and it has been snowing on and off – big fluffy flakes that are easy to shovel or even sweep off the walks. The wind has picked up a bit this afternoon, so we still need to bundle up, but this morning, before the wind started, it was downright balmy. I was glad to be out shoveling! and I am having a happy day!

Sort of busy day tomorrow. John Dutmer asked me to come up to the college and play for call-backs for Annie. I guess there are quite a few good girls and they have to whittle it down to a smaller number. I feel bad that some of the kids who tried out won’t get to be in it, but that’s the way it goes, I guess. I am glad that we will have the pick of the crop, so to speak, to work with this summer, because it should make for a better and easier to put-together show.

Then, in the afternoon I’m presenting a workshop on tai chi at a local homemakers’ event. They do it every January and have food and entertainment and booths and, apparently, people giving workshops. That will be fun – I’ve done them before for other events and totally enjoy teaching new people a little about tai chi and qi gong.

Everyone of you has a warmer forecast than us, even Shakopee. It is going to be 16 below tonight. 16 below. That is cold. I don’t like cold. I’m tired of being cold all the time. I was thrilled that this morning was 3 above. It actually felt warm and I didn’t even zip my jacket.  But now, more cold. AAAGGGGHHH!

Just for the record, ten years from now, I plan to be in GA when it is this cold in WI.

Yes, winter is actually here. Which, I realized today, means that we will be able to enjoy spring and summer more because we will remember that we suffered adequately through our winter. That was the problem last year – we didn’t suffer enough, so we really couldn’t enjoy the rest of the year to its fullest.

Teeth cleaning today. No cavities, but the dentist keeps suggesting that I get my front teeth fixed. They have gotten pretty worn away, not to mention chipped. I’m thinking about it, but it is a rather expensive venture, if I also get the $510 night guard to wear at night to protect the newly fashioned teeth from getting destroyed by my night-time grinding. But the truth is that I need the night guard anyway, because all my teeth are getting pretty well ground down and I want them to last the rest of my life. Decisions, decisions.

Keep warm all you northerners. And you southerners – enjoy your day!!

And, if you haven’t been chiming in on the discussion about where to stay in August when we get together, make sure you check that out, too. It is on the Christmas/Thanksgiving get-together site.

We ordered a new Encore program for the computer so I  could do some music arranging and I’m having such fun. I’m arranging sort-of easy 3 part pieces for the church choir that I’m going to direct (from the piano). It is so fun to be able to have nice-looking arrangements pretty easily and quickly. And it is fun to be able to play them back and listen to them and tweak them right from the computer, rather than running back and forth to the piano like in the olden days.

I recently discovered this little bottle of flavoring that you squirt into your water to make it taste better. It is found right by the Kool Aid and such in the store and is in a small enough bottle that you can stick it in your purse or pocket. I use it in my big glasses of water that I need to drink each day, and it makes them go down so much easier. I don’t really like plain water all that much and it is far easier and takes much less space that always making lemonade in a pitcher. I did take it with me when we went out to eat, but I forgot to put it in my glass of water there. But, if I had, I would have drunk more water with my meal.

Yup, tonight is the rescheduled night for the Roselawn Elementary concert that was cancelled in December. It went really well at dress rehearsal this a.m. so it should be great. I’ll be glad to finally do it.

Do you know what the most exciting thing of 2013 is? It is that we are going to get our credit card debt paid off this year and never get in credit card debt again. I cannot begin to describe how exciting that is to me, after years and years of complaining about our credit card usage and the enormous fees we were paying as a result of it. May 30, 2013 is our goal. Pray that we are able to do it!

Weird week we are having. Two Mondays, and so close to each other!

Why do I eat so much junk over the holidays? You would think I would learn. So I end up feeling just horrible. Yuck!  I’m making a great attempt at avoiding all junky food today, and so far, so good.