Month: March 2014 (Page 1 of 2)

I played for 16 entries, 15 of them Class A. I had figured 8 or 9 would go on to State. With four not yet posted, I have 10 going on and of the ones not posted, there is no way 3 of those would not go on – they all involved Isaiah Jensen (two duets and a solo), so it looks like I’ll have at least 13 of the 15 going on. The other two were a freshman soloist that just doesn’t have the confidence yet and probably should not have attempted Class A quite yet, and a duet involving her and another gal who did sing a Class B solo (and got a first on it.) But their duet was actually quite well prepared, so who knows? They might get a 1*, bringing it up to 14 out of 15. Now, admittedly, Mr. Dutmer does give me the better kids to accompany and he plays for the ones that need more help. But, still, I’ve never had this percentage go on, except back when I accompanied one year for Cameron HS.

Anyway, it feels like a very successful day. Particularly since the things the judges complimented them on were often exactly what I’d helped them work on.  And my two piano students also both got 1*s. Yea!!

I do a class at 6:30 a.m. with one client – a kickboxing workout that is both fun and challenging. Then I’m done for the day, unless I need to go in to school, as I do today. Also, I changed 2 of the 3 Friday lessons to another day, mostly because we were missing so many lessons. All that leaves on Friday afternoon is the one music therapy lesson. And it is really exciting to see how much he has improved in some non-musical things since we started!

Anyway, that leaves Friday feeling so open to do what I want to do, rather than what I have to do. This morning I made cupcakes, because we are doing cupcake decorating as the activity at The Garage tonight. I made 72. That should be enough for everyone who is there to have one, plus all the people who help take two or three home with them. People have been asking about this particular activity more than any other, so it will be interesting to see how many we get involved.  I made devils food, yellow, and strawberry ones. You can’t really see that the unbaked ones are pink!

I got up this morning and it was drizzling/misting and rather warm, compared to the past several days. I’ve been reading a book series set in northern Scotland and they would call a day like today a “nice soft day.”  Kind of nice, even though it is wet.

Today is a fun day. I have a class at the Center at 10:30, then I’m staying for the senior citizens meeting and potluck. Then I head over to school to practice for contest, then up to Cameron for lessons at 3:15.  Dad and I are going to use a Norske Nook gift card for supper, then choir afterwards.

Tomorrow is the final prep day before contest. I’m looking forward to a few days that I don’t have to go to school next week, but then the Roselawn practices start on Thursday. Fun, fun, fun!

I started with the priming yesterday! Who0-hoo! Dad was still working on the upstairs bedroom, but there wasn’t much I could do up there. So he gave me the 5 gallon bucket of primer and I did the ceilings and walls of the new dining room (formerly my piano room) and the front foyer. The other rooms will need to be textured first, because there are some textured walls already in those rooms. But it is nice to be working on one of the last jobs to need to be done. Today Dad is spending the day there working on the wiring on the upstairs bedroom. I’m at home getting things done here.

It was a crazy week, but here it is the weekend already. I had a concert Monday night, so was in at school all afternoon Monday, then lessons and back to school  in the evening, before running to New Auburn for the second half of choir. And I have a concert to play for this coming Monday and high school solo/ensemble next Saturday, so I spent the whole afternoon Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at school. Then I went immediately to lessons, then on Wednesday to church and on Thursday to choir. So I’ve only had the mornings to get things done, and they are somewhat busy with my classes. And yesterday I had a funeral to play for, which took a chunk out of my morning, too. So today was the first day I could do anything at all fun, like make cookies and hard boil eggs and make homemade noodles for supper.

But the best thing is that I think I’m finally in the right mind set to lose weight. I’ve lost this same 5 pounds several times this year, but this time I feel more confident that I’ll keep losing. It seems I really have to have a deep-seated need to get the weight off before  I actually buckle down and do it. This time is was because when I got done with my run last Saturday, I just was so frustrated that running is so hard right now. And I realized that if I ever want to enjoy running again, I need to lose the 25 – 30 pounds. It isn’t about my age. It isn’t about looking good. I can make all the excuses I want, but if I want to enjoy running, I need to be carrying less weight. Then there is this financial show in which the guy always says at the end of the show, “Spend less, have more.” It is such a catchy phrase. And it occurred to me that “Eat less, lose more” has that same catchy ring to it.  So that is my motto. And it keeps popping into my head and stops me from eating things I shouldn’t.  So, anyway, I’m back down the 7 pounds from the start of the year again.  It also helps that I’m working out with clients each morning at 6:30 a.m., so I’m getting a little more exercise. But that isn’t enough to account for all the weight loss.

And I’d forgotten how much better I feel when I’m eating right and weigh even that little bit less. It might be spring in the air, too, but I’m just feeling so upbeat and energetic! Life is good!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I had kind of forgotten all the work that we needed to do yet on the upstairs at 117. But we started that this weekend, and now I have a much better idea of what is left to do and how much money it will cost.

We had been vacillating on whether to make the big upstairs room the second bedroom or make the downstairs room off the kitchen (our dining room) into the bedroom. We finally came to a decision yesterday to make the bedroom downstairs. What that means is that we still have to frame out the opening to put in a door and construct a closet in that new bedroom, which will also involve cutting the ceiling tiles and replacing them correctly. And a bit more wiring. But we can put the window we already bought into the upstairs room, even if it isn’t quite large enough for a bedroom window.

We worked all weekend on getting the upstairs room’s floor level. Remember that was the room with the really bouncy floor when we bought it? (Or maybe you didn’t see it then – it felt like you were going to fall right through because there was no support for it downstairs.) Dad and Gary put a huge beam across the middle of the downstairs room to support it, but the floor still sagged in the middle, except that there was a rise right where the beam is. So we cut pieces of 1/4 inch paneling into strips and other shapes and put one or two thicknesses where they were needed until it was fairly level, then stapled them all down and covered the entire floor with 1/2 inch particle board (used, from Gary). I then screwed those pieces down. I used an entire pound box of screws and still am not finished. But it is a very nice floor. It will be carpeted, eventually.

The next project is to build about 30 inch walls inside the existing walls on the sides of the room, so we can run electricity behind them. We decided that was easier than trying to run the wires through the existing walls. We lose a couple inches of space on each side, but it is a really wide room, so it won’t matter. On the east end, we still have to go through the wall to get the electricity in, but that is a lot less to do than the whole room! We are going to put electric heat in that end, under the window. Then we are going to sheet rock over the paneling that is still left (we took some down to make the leveling strips), tape, mud and paint.

And sometime in there, when the weather is warm enough, we need to put in the window. and figure out how to make it look decent on the outside where the new window doesn’t go as low as the old one did.  But, on the positive side, if it isn’t a bedroom, we don’t need to worry about air conditioning the upstairs, either. When it is really hot, they can just not go up there!

So, maybe it will be May before we are done. Or June?  But sometime this year, for sure.  We are already planning our next projects – a new porch on 126 and possible a garage over there. And finally finish the front of the garage here in Chetek. The part we see looks great, but, unfortunately, the part you see when driving by in the alley isn’t finished.

We picked him up this a.m. He is on a special canned food diet, or we can feed him rice and boiled chicken. He looks great and was VERY GLAD to see us! Thanks for your prayers, guys. It worked!

He isn’t home yet, but every time the doctor calls us to update us, she says he is doing great. He got to eat this afternoon, and she said is appetite was VERY good. She feared for her fingers! Now if he will just poop, he can come home. (Sounds like after having surgery…) Hopefully we’ll have him back tomorrow morning. Its amazing how much we miss having him around. No one ran out to greet me after choir last night. And Dad said he just had to throw his yogurt container in the sink when he was done with it. I guess we do spoil him a lot.

After five days of 6:30 a.m. exercise clients, I’m looking forward to staying in bed tomorrow until it gets light!

I’m off to The Garage for a rousing evening of Bingo!

Sherlock was sick during the night and this morning, then I saw he was pooping pure blood, so I called the vet. I was able to take him right in.  He has pancreatitus. I guess it is caused by too much fat in the diet. Anyway they kept him there and put him on IV fluids and antibiotics. It has about a 50% survival rate, but the vet said she is very optimistic since he is still looking pretty good, so we caught it early. She will call us a couple times a day and let us know how he is doing.

I’m feeling rather upset, but I think it is partly because when you start to think about a dog maybe dying, you remember all the other dogs you had that died, so I’m not just feeling sad about him, but also about Skipper and Nikki and my little Maltese and so on.

Please pray that he makes a full recovery. After  he comes home we have to be very careful about everything he eats, because it has a high recurrence rate once a dog has had it.