My life is really boring

I really don't have much new to say today. It's just Halloween so we will be trick or treating. The kids are excited about it and the weather is good so it should be a great time.

My choir director no-showed on me yesterday so I am still up in the air on how that will work out. I called her today, but had to leave a message.

I can't wait until the harvest is in! My tuning schedule is getting kind of crazy and I really need Tracy to watch Reagan!! But it is moving along...

Pearls before swine

I am trying to train a new choir director at church. It has not been going well, but we are doing our best to accomodate everyone's circumstances. She hasn't been very open to my offers to help her learn to lead correctly, but I know it is partly because she has a very busy schedule and her health isn't always the greatest.
Now all of a sudden she wants to have input into the music selections. This is a good and a bad thing. I had been hoping she would take an interest in helping to select the music, but she could have spoken up three months ago when I chose the Christmas music for this year!! She also informed me that songs with multiple parts running at the same time (ie. 2 or more melody/lyric lines) just sound like a big jumble of garbage. Gasp! I didn't even know how to reply to that one - some of the most powerful music I have heard is in this format!! And, since she doesn't even always make it to practice, we have been working on just such a song.
Fortunately, I think I can work around this problem. Most of the music we sing is just regular four-part choir. But at the same time, I try to be open to suggestions and we are doing songs I don't like because I know that other people do like them. Why do people have to be so difficult??!

Another great Halloween party!

Talara had her annual 'cousins' halloween party last night and it was a great success! We had 23 kids in attendance. The only real disappointment was the lack of a headless horseman in the haunted forest. I haven't had a chance to ask Talara what happened to him - she seemed as surprized as everyone else last night when he was a no-show.

The haunted house was spooky and we even got Brig to go through (with the lights on, but hey! that's progress!)
Eric and I carved some elaborate jack-o-lanterns. My wolf turned out great. I love to carve the intricate pumpkins and everyone seems to enjoy them.

Well, I still haven't managed to finish Justine's costume, so it's back to the sewing machine for me!

Have patience, Dev

I enjoyed your comment, Dev, but you are writing it in the wrong place. Tracy doesn't even know about this blog!! LOL - don't be too offended, he's just geared differently than us in this regard. He's not one to sit in front of a monitor unless there is sports on it.

Fall break is upon us and, as always, the weather is going to be miserable. Nothing like a couple of days off from school to bring on the bad weather. Now I will be trapped in the house with four children with cabin fever! But we are looking forward to our annual Halloween Party - hosted by Talara. Eric has been working like a rented donkey on the haunted house - it's a great diversion for him and the haunted house always lives up to the hype. In fact, I'm not completely sure that Eric ever got all the way through any of the haunted houses he hasn't worked on... . Oh well. I suppose someday Eric will find bravery.

I know I hate haunted houses, but I have a good reason. When I was a very small child, my sister and I decided to go through the walk-through haunted house at the fair. Part way through and in a pitch dark hallway, Shauna let go of me and I just froze with fear. I'm not sure how long I was rooted to that spot before one of the workers finally found me and brought me out. Nothing like a good childhood trauma to sear the fear into your brain - but hey! it's been almost 30 years. I can get through Talara's haunted house anyway!!

A Secret Blog?

My husband mentioned last night that he thought blogs were stupid and people who wrote them must just have too much time on their hands. Hmmm - I guess I haven't mentioned to him that I have a blog!! I would not say that I have more time than I know what to do with, it's just a good outlet - of course, he is a hunt-and-peck typist, so a blog would take him longer than some I guess... . Not much excitement here - just coming into a busy tuning time, so I'm trying to figure out how to get everything done!!

A spare minute!

I can't believe I have a spare minute. I tuned a very difficult piano this morning (in the middle of nowhere) and also had to tie a broken string back in. I hate putting strings in, but I am getting better at it - only 2 cuts today! LOL. So now I am finally home. The little one is sleeping, so I got some lunch and now here I am. The older kids don't have to be picked up for another hour and a half, so I can catch up on a few things - mostly needing to get the halloween costumes finished up.

So I'm not really sure what to talk about. I don't know that anyone will actually read this, but at the same time I feel kind of exposed. My sister's blog is interesting - but she has a great writing style and, well, she's blonde, so I get a kick out of some of the stuff she writes. She's also very opinionated and doesn't mind sharing.

I would have to say that my life is rather ordinary. I am married with 4 kids and I live in a victorian farm house that is a bit of a money pit and always under construction. When my 3rd child was one I took up piano tuning and repair - kind of crazy, I know - but almost 9 years later I am still at it. It has been the source of funding for our house projects and has worked out quite well as it is part time and I can set my own hours and the money is decent.

My oldest son is 14, so we are having some teenage antics, but my youngest daughter is 2, so we are also having adventures in toilet-training. At the moment we also have a litter of 4 kittens in our garage. Never a dull moment, and thankfully most of them are happy. My main question right now would have to be 'How do you get through to a teenager?'. He doesn't seem to believe that I really have been-there-done-that. I anxiously await the day when he has his own teenager to try and get through to. He's a great kid, though.

Well, I guess I'm off to the sewing machine. My son is going to be the Phantom of the Opera and my daughter is going to be Christine and Christine HAS to have a dress! The younger two are going to be Sulley and Boo from Monster's Inc, so it is shaping up to be a fun Halloween!

A first for me

I can't believe my little sister has influenced me to start my own blog. It feels weird, but I will give it a try. Thanks, Dev!!