Author: Tim

Yesterday Kristen asked about the river and flooding… so tonight we drove by Huber Park on the river and it is definitely high.  I expect by Wednesday the roads will be closed.  Apparently the river is already at flood stage, but hasn’t crested over any roads yet.  And considering that it flooded in the Fall and the river never really had a chance to go back down before winter, I expect this year’s flooding to surpass last year (by a long shot!)

I’m a little bummed because I have 2 families over the river who will have to miss a few weeks of lessons because of the road closing, but hopefully we can get one more lesson in before then.  They are both Monday students, so we should make it through this week at least!

So, stay posted, and I’ll start uploading pictures soon!

Well, I made it.  The State Contest is finally over.  Yesterday was smooth sailing, which should have been a red flag to me that today would not be as smooth… we had problem after problem it seemed today.  Which started at 8:30 this morning–30 min. before the judging was to begin–when one of my judges called and said she couldn’t get there because her car wouldn’t start.  Yikes!  I already had students lining up to perform at her room!  Luckily the new V.P. of Contest had arrived early today and she agreed to step in and fill in for the missing judge.  If she hadn’t been there I honestly don’t know what I would have done–I was already severely short-staffed with volunteers and I didn’t have any one else I could even ask.  But it worked out.  She’s a trooper and didn’t complain at all (even though she had to judge yesterday too, and had planned to have a day to just relax and oversee things today…)  And luckily I didn’t need her for anything since I’ve done this long enough that I feel pretty capable on my own.

Which was a good thing today, because we had a lot of “stuff” to deal with:  students showing up too late, or too early, or accidentally performing in the wrong room, or having the wrong information from the teacher, or volunteers not showing up, or the parking garage entrance gate malfunctioning…. there was a lot to deal with today.  But, like I said–I made it through.  And I was able to fix just about everything so people left smiling.  I even ran into my student today as I was running back and forth.

Speaking of my students… I had 6 (actually only 5 of them performed b/c one decided not to go last minute) students in the Finals and I was able to check their scores tonight before coming home.  It looks like 4 out of the 5 won!  How very very exciting–I just have to get confirmation tomorrow that I read the results correctly and then I get to pass along the wonderful news.  It’s nice to know all of the hard work really paid off.  🙂

And now I’m just waiting patiently upstairs for Tim to finish his Men’s Bible Study so I can go down and find myself some supper.  Since I had to stay and clean everything up, I didn’t get home in time to eat before the guys came at 7:00.  Then, I’m off to bed, so I can get up (not as painfully early) to head to the MMTA office to spend the day tomorrow tabulating and mailing all the results.  Yippie.   But I have a really good amount of volunteers that have agreed to help tomorrow, so I am very optimistic that things will go smoothly and quickly so I can come home and see Tim & Chloe.  I’m always amazed at how quickly this weekend flies by

Oh, and I am happy to say that I even remembered daylight-saving time this morning.  🙂  It would have been a terrible start to my day if I had forgotten that and showed up an hour late…

I’m so happy it’s Friday night.  This semester has 20 lessons in it, so that means I only have 19 more until the summer schedule (whatever that may entail).  The first week back after a vacation is always the hardest.  I handed out a reminder letter this week with important dates and information that also informed all of my students that we’re expecting our second child in July.  It’s nice to have that taken care of–now I can start to wear maternity clothes and not feel weird.  🙂

In other news I’ve been asked to be a judge for the MMTA Preliminaries at the end of January.  I agreed, because they are very short on judges, but I’m already stressed out about it.  I’m planning to thoroughly prepare next week by listening to every song on the contest list and writing a mock critique so I know what aspects I’m looking for in each song.  But I’m still nervous.  Hopefully this will be a positive experience and not a huge mistake…

Tomorrow Stacy and Holly are coming to visit!  I’m very excited to see them both and hang out and catch up. Hopefully I’ll remember to take some pictures.  But for now, we’re going to veg in front of the t.v. watching some more episodes of The Office.  🙂  Night!

Sore… So, I got on the exercise bandwagon and did a really intense leg workout yesterday.  And boy am I sore today.  So sore that I seriously entertained the idea of just staying in bed all day.  But it’s a good sore, and I’m glad I’m starting again.  Even if it kills right now.

Scared… Chloe has developed an aversion to going to bed for the last couple of nights.  She seems to be afraid of something, but we’re not sure what exactly.  Perhaps shadows, perhaps an imaginary lion, perhaps noises outside or perhaps just the dark.  Either way we’ll be trying to diffuse her fear for the next few nights…  She is also having a hard time dealing with wearing a diaper at night.  She doesn’t want to go potty in her diaper, but then if I let her get up to use the toilet, she keeps getting up every 30 min.  So we make her stay in bed (or at least try to) but it’s making her stay awake WAY past her bedtime which is making her WAY crabby the next day… ugh.

Christmas is a-coming!   I just love that we already have snow–we got over 11 inches of snow on Saturday night.  It really helps me get in the mood of Christmas.   And it was the nice, light kind of snow that is so pretty.

Here’s a picture of the snow–the first one Tim is putting in the ruler… and the second one you can just barely see it peeking out of the snow!

In other news Tim and I have finally set a date to potty train Chloe.  We’ve decided we just have to get it done–so we’re going to start the day after my recital.  That way we’ll both be around all day with nothing to do except that (and for the next few days after too…).  I know she is very ready for it, it’s just a matter of gritting our teeth and accepting the fact that she’s growing up.  I’m sure I’ll keep you posted on how it goes… haha!

This morning Chloe and I met the Bakers to play at the beach for a while.  It was a simply b-e-a-u-tiful morning to be outside so we just soaked it up.  I always treasure the days Chloe gets to play with other kids.  It’s very interesting to watch her process what she’s seeing the other kids doing…

I particularly like the picture at the top because it looks like Kieren is explaining something complicated to Chloe.  Plus, it’s just funny to see him sitting in his little hole.   🙂

In other news, I had a wonderfully productive day.  Which also included backing up the files on my computer which makes me feel so much better.  Tomorrow I’m doing all the grocery shopping and packing and last minute cleaning so we can be ready to go by tomorrow evening.  I’m starting to get really excited about going now that I have more and more crossed off of my list.

Only one more day until we leave!

Today was full…

Church in the morning, drive to St. Cloud, Birthday party for Logan & Allison, drive to pick up bunk beds for Bakers, drive to St. Boni to deliver bunk beds to Bakers, drive home, transfer stuff to car, drive to Woodbury, meet Nana to get keyboard and have supper, drive home… collapse! And Chloe was a peach through it all, even though she only got a 30 min. nap.

It was a great day, but I’m tired… so I’m off to bed and I’ll write more tomorrow (and I’ll check to see if I got any fun pictures from today’s activities).

Erica is gone….. I am lonely….. I miss my girls…….