It's All HIS Fault

For once I can say that something broken is not my fault. Matt broke my car. Yes he did. He broke the drivers seat. I have no idea how but now the back rest won't lock into place, except all the way back. So since my in-laws are coming to town this is actually perfect timing cause Matt can just take the truck and I can just ride with the laws. On Tuesday I am taking the car in to hopefully get fixed, under warranty.

Also we are taking on a new project. I started digging a ditch in my front yard, and Matt is going to finished it for me, between the flower bed and the grass to keep the grass out of my newly blooming flowerbed. Now I have finally convinced Matt to let me get some stone for a border. Today we are going to pick out the stone we will use to make the border. Now we just have a super dangerous ditch. Matt dug it a little too wide and deep about a foot wide and 3/4 foot deep. We also got some huge, already made planter beds for a raised veggie garden from a church friend. They are about 10x2. We got 2 of them and I am going to start preparing the beds this year for next years garden. I am so excited.

Matt is in the process of getting an extension for staying in the military. That is correct, he wants to stay in. It actually has been pretty cool with the support he has gotten from his commanding officer a Lt. Colonel and also the CW5 (Chief Warrant Officer 5) who has the support of a 1 star General. Matt has also been promised to get a rental car the next time he goes to the Warrant Officer School in AZ, yes he is going back but now with this support he will not get sent home. We figured that with almost 8 years in the military he might as well go until he hits his 20 year point with the military to get his retirement benefits. So only 12.5 years left of the military. This is something he wants to do and I will fully support his decision. Well that is about all with us over here. Hope everyone is having a great start of the summer!

It is Finished

Just got back from the studio recital and it went GREAT!!!! Short, but great. Yeah, so I am so obsessive with everything down to the last miliseconds, that the way the kids got on and off the stage was very efficient, all 17 of them had finished playing only 25 minutes after we started. How's that for a speedy recital. Everyone had a great time and all of my kids played so well. While they were all playing I had to hold back some tears cause I was so happy for them and this is why I wanted to teach. In the 7th grade my band teacher Ms. Verde/Mrs. Mcgee/ Mrs. McVerde (she got married and we just combined the 2 names) she really helped me understand why music was so great and how powerful and fun it was. I decided in the 7th grade that I wanted to teach. Well in college I was helping out with the marching band at Tempe High and I hated it so much. I realized that I work better teaching one on one than with a bunch of kids who didn't want to be there. My goal as a teacher is that I want one student to gain an appreciation for music as I have and I know that most of my kids felt that feeling tonight. I am so happy for them, and I can't wait for next year's recital when most of the kids will be playing some incredible music. So hats off to my 17 little musicians!!!!

SOL's, Sweating, and Recital...OH, My

Lets start with the SOL's. No it does not mean the bad word thing but it is called the Standards of Learning here in VA for the Standard Exams that are offered to students in like 3rd, 5th, 7th and I think 9th grade. All of my students are freaking out about it and we have the recital in 11 days now. If they don't pass the SOL's they have to take summer school. Well they are SOL if they don't pass I guess, but whatever. And by the way who the heck came up with the name of the exam? I wonder if the "nickname" ever crossed their minds when they were pitching the title of the exam names.

So yesterday I started the next phase level 3-4 of my workout regime for Power 90. Yesterday I did the circuit training, and still feel the affects of it today when I did the sweat training. My bum is killing me from all the squats and lunges from yesterday and having to pick up my leg for the kicking part of the CD did not help much. I AM GOING TO GET IN SHAPE AND GET HEALTHY IF IT KILLS ME...( I know I am a drama queen but it took me over an hour to get through both sections yesterday and today and it should take me 45 min. I will get there I promise you.) For some weird reason I am actually kind of liking the whole, can't move my bum is killing me, cause I know I am doing something good. All it takes is to Decide to do it, Commit to do it, and You WILL Succeed!!!!!!!

As I said earlier the recital is in only 11 days from now. I am super stoked about it and also very nervous as well. Everything has been arranged and it will be a very fun night. I am still trying to make my piano piece even better but for some crazy reason I keep listening to the 5 Browns play my recital piece and want to reach through the speakers and say, "How do you play so perfectly, every single time?" MOM DON'T READ THIS PART...Not that you don't already know what it is. I tried to make a CD for Mother's Day to send to my mom and mom-in-law with a few songs, but I was all by myself in my living room, and after 9 takes I still can't play the end of my big piece/recital piece, without biffing up like crazy. I just listened to it again and I can not convince myself to burn it on a CD. I will probably try again but I fear that it just won't be as good as I want it to be. Well, I'll keep you posted with the results. Have a great week!

What's New...

Just wanted to fill everyone in with what is going on with us ALL the way over here in VA.

I am making all the final preparations for my studio recital which is on May 17th. I have designed the program and how the kids will be getting on and off the stage, (safely but quickly) and I will be starting 3 new students in May so I am so excited for that. I will have 19 students performing and myself, and one student is going to have a private recital on the 8th, because she will be out of town on the 17th.

Matt has been away all week in DC for work and will be there for another week, and gas prices are so bad that I am not going up for the weekend and he is not coming back down. But since he has been away I have been busy with the house. First, I went and bought some flowers and planted them in the front yard and I also planted a bunch of seeds too. So I kind of dug up our flower bed and it looks like there are holes everywhere, which there are, but I am excited to see if the flowers even come up. Second. Before Matt left, he and another neighbor put up our new ceiling fan, but didn't wire it correctly to all the light switches. So a guy in my branch who is an electrician came over to check it to make sure it was not a fire hazard and fixed the fan installation, and he also installed our new track lighting in the Kitchen. I love it. My payment was to him for the work he did was dinner. This weekend or early next week I am going to be working on my veggie, fruit, and herb garden with this help of Sister Copeland, who is a guro of the garden and all things in the ground, she went with me to a nursery last Tuesday and helped me pick out flowers and also taught me a lot about flowers, and her husband is the one who fixed our fan and installed the track lights. She has some extra flower bed borders and is giving them to me to help start my garden this year. She has been a great help to me.

I also have a third calling in my branch, and boy was my dad right when he said that I will have more than 2 callings at once, now I am on my third but one of them I am just a backup so I don't really do it every week. I was just called to be the Branch Pianist, basically I play in Sacrament, and at Baptisims but I was already doing both of them, but now it is official. So I am now the Branch Pianist, the Primary Pianist, and a Primary Teacher. It is kind of funny because I play the piano for all 3 hours of church.

I am also still exercising 5 times a week still trying to make it 6 times a week, but haven't lost a noticiable amount of weight, about 1.5 inches around my waist. I have been gaining a lot of muscle so I am getting buff again. I am hoping that soon I will have lost a little bit of weight so that I can start to see more results. Matt also started a much more intense work out regiem called Power 90 X, you might have seen the infomercial late at night. I am doing the Power 90 and once I finish that I will move onto the Power 90 X. I am making a huge effort to finally get back to where I was before I got married and hopefully even smaller, and healthier. My friend Corrine has been a huge inspiration to me in getting my big butt in gear, but I am on day 40, Almost half way there.

Well that's about all with us over here at the moment. I will be adding in the pix of the ceiling fan and the track lighting when Matt gets back, cause I don't know where the card reader is for my computer. Hope everyone is safe and well!

Louisa Losers!- Day 31 out of 90

Who else was glued to the TV last night to watch the season finale of The Biggest Loser. I defiantly was. I was routing for Ali to win and I am so glad that she did. Well right now I am in my fourth week of a little group we started over here called the "Louisa Losers". Each of us is partners with someone/anyone else. There are people that live in my town that are partners with friends that live in Utah and Idaho. I am partnered with Matt. Well we pretty much started it because we all wanted to get in better shape, and there is a prize of some sorts that goes out to the group that looses the most weight. I don't think that will be Matt and I because he is trying to bulk up and I am trying to lose. But he has already lost 3 pounds and I gained at first and I am back to my starting weight now, and I will be shedding my weight now. I am on day 31 of 90 so wish us luck. I have been exercising 5 days a week and will be working out 6 days a week starting this week. If you would like to join our little group just to give you an excuse to exercise and get in better shape just email me and let me know.

Day 5- Hershey and the Amish

We stayed the night in PA so that we could just go straight to the town of Hershey and get some free chocolate. Funny story though. My parents, Matt and I stayed in a family suite and Matt and I were in the hide-a-bed. My parents were in their room and I finally finished getting ready for bed. I went to sit at the top of the bed to sit up and right when I sat down the bed went up. The foot of the bed just rose up and practically pinned me and Matt in. The first thing I did was call for dad to help us but he never came to the rescue, and once I did that Matt shot a look at me in disgust and said, " I can get us out." Well he did it was just so funny the whole thing that happened. After being cramped in a car all day long I get cramped in a hide-a-bed. Anyhew, back to the day.

The little town of Hershey, how quaint it is with its street names as Chocolate Ave. Cocoa Ave and many more. Also little subdivisions like Cocoa Towns. They also have Hershey kisses as the street lamps. Some are wrapped and some are just the chocolate. We went to Hershey World and had a tour of how they make chocolate, and I did get some pix of that. It was a very fun experience. We had some pretty good Sundaes, our was vanilla and chocolate ice cream with chocolate fudge, Carmel topping, with Kit Kats, Reese's Pieces, and Macadamia Nuts on it and whipped cream. We couldn't finish it all the way but it was very good.

Next we drove to a very cute town called, Intercourse, PA. I promise it is named that and only because many major roads cross in the town, and not for the other reason. It is an Amish town with some amazing stores in it, and a very fine restaurant. Matt found a kettle corn stand with fresh kettle corn and got 4 bags worth. That is his favorite snack food. They have an amazing fudge shop and actually explain how they make it by spreading the fudge around on these huge marble tables. They have a relish and jam canning store which you can taste things before you buy them. I was in heaven there. Everything was so good. There is this Raspberry salsa that is incredible. They even had Amish people working there canning as you buy. There is also this craft store that had a ton of hand crafted stuff and I wanted so many things but I only got a couple of things. We then went to a very nice restaurant called the Kling House. They use the canned food from the other store on almost every thing and it was amazing. My strawberry lemonade was the best I have ever had. They just used lemonade and put some of their strawberry preserves at the bottom and it was amazing. I got a chicken salad sandwich with raspberry preserve on top and, boy howdy was it tasty. (I have been on a strict eating habit for the past 4 weeks, and this week alone has sabotaged everything that I had done, because I have had some amazing food.) Anyways, I had more fun in this little town of Intercourse than I did at Hersey. I have really enjoyed my time with my parents and they are leaving in a day and a half. I have been cramped in a car though but it still has been very fun.

Day 4- Gettysburg

Well I actually went to Gettysburg and learned a ton. We hired a personal tour guide to ride with us in our car and take us around for about 2 hours. It was really neat and he was very knowledgeable. My parents had me watch the movie Gettysburg on Sunday and Monday night so that I would know what happened there, yes, so I would "know" because I pretty much only knew the south was fighting with the north and who won and that was about it. I didn't do too well in that part of history. Well I sure know a lot more than I did and the movie helped a ton for me. One of the things that really blew my mind when we got there is how the people could tell what was a good hill to capture, because the tour guide took us from one end and showed us where the Confederate army wanted to be and it just looked like a little stump in the hill. Like Little Round Top, but when we were actually on it, wow the Union Army had a major advantage point from up there. It was a very neat experience to be there and see where this great war took place and very difficult to comprehend that many people in that area and how many actually died there. It is defiantly not something I will forget anytime soon.

--Matt at the museum--

Artillery cannon from the Union side looking at the Confederate Side

--Looking down from Little Round Top--

--Looking from the Union Artillery line back to the Confederate Line where that monument is--