Somedays are not so great.

It has been a day that probably should not be repeated. For a very long time. Here's a rundown of the "highlights" of a low day.

6:00a.m. I woke up on account of my bladder. I glanced at my clock and relized that I had reset the time last night to my alarm time and my "actual" time had been set to my alarm setting. Thank you, Lord, for alarm clock bladders.

7:20a.m. Dropped Nathan off at school. At that point I realized that I had left my cell phone on the counter.

7:40 a.m. Arrived at Colonial Kitchen (my Fave breakfast spot) for a meeting with a friend/collegue. He forgot about it. I waited for 20 minutes and then ordered my breakfast.

8:20 a.m. Headed to school to take my first guitar lesson!

8:21 a.m. Realized that my guitar was with my phone. At home.

8:40a.m. Canceled the guitar lesson when I could get to a phone at school.

8:45 a.m. Listened to my band director friend talk about his awful weekend. For the next hour.

10:00 a.m. Gave a lecture to my Varsity (audtioned) choir about how they better start singing and acting like a Varsity choir.

11:30 a.m. Heated my soup in the microwave only to dump it on the counter, down the cabinets, and onto the floors while I was taking it out of the oven. It was very hot and it was a tomato based vegetable. (for those of you thinking about how I had to clean up a spill).

11:45a.m. Cleaned the kitchen area in my office and opted to go buy an apple and a carton of milk. And eat 6 whoppers (malted milk balls). (This moment was by far the most delicious decision of the day).

2:35 p.m. School ended and I walked to my car only to discover an almost flat tire. Nail in the tire. Could see it with my naked eye.

3:05p.m. Got the tire filled at a gas station on my way to pick up Nathan.

3:30p.m. Arrived at the middle school and almost fell asleep waiting for the boy to get done with band practice.

4:00p.m. Got ready for a quick nap.
4:01p.m. Stan arrived and wanted to go out for early dinner.
4:06p.m. Maddie arrived home "starving".
4:07p.m. Given up last bit of hope that I will get a nap.

4:20p.m. Loaded into the car for Cracker Barrel.

4:40p.m. Were seated and given the nicest waitress. Who was way too busy. So we waited for 20 minutes.

5:15 p.m. Dinner! Rush, rush, rush.

5:45p.m. Madison and I departed for Children's choir Rehearsal.

6:00p.m. I stood in line for "reserved seating" tickets for the December 6th Holiday concert.

6:45p.m. 45 MINUTES OF WAITING IN LINE--made it to the front of the line. The concert is on the 7th, not the 6th.

6:46 p.m. GIANT PROBLEM: MAJOR CONFLICT Trying not to cry as I make my way to my car.

6:47p.m. Reached my car, checked my calendars and confirmed that Madison's concert and my chorale concert (that I direct) are on the EXACT SAME TIME AND EXACT SAME DATE. Can't understand how this happened when I checked the dates twice before booking.

7:01 p.m. Arrived at Belle Tire only to find that they had closed one minute earlier. Put more air in my tire before I left.

7:02 p.m. Arrived at Meijer and broke a dozen eggs as I put them into my cart.

7:10p.m. Checked out

7:30p.m. Picked up Madison and headed home.

8:30p.m. Started this post.

8:45p.m. Getting ready to publish this and still have no idea how to make myself magically appear at both places on December 7th. Any ideas?

Goodnight. Heidi

A little Fall cleaning.

Instead of cleaning the house today, I decided to try some new templates out and fix my signature which has looked a bit "skeletonly" since I changed the layout last.

Anyway, I guess I will try this look for the weekend. I should really start my fall cleaning now.

The 2nd week of Trombone

It is with great honor that I present my first absolutely horribly homemade video post!
Enjoy!



Maybe I should actually read the instructions to imovie before the next attempt!
Heidi

A tough day for Maddie

It was a mixed day of emotions for my youngest today. She is in a gifted/talented program at her school and the G/T teachers take the brightest out of school one full day a week and expose them to all sorts of engaging activities. It is a place that they all learn to get along and develop tolerance towards other G/T students.

The "getting along" with others was a real chore for Maddie today. In the process of not being nice to other children, she decided to also be rude and disrespectful to two of the teachers along the way. I got a phone call from one of the teachers before I left my own school explaining in detail the day-that-shall-not-be-named. Even though Madison has a lot of pride issues to deal with and doesn't do well with admission of guilt, I think she got the idea that she had done something really wrong. The two teachers who were the targets of her frustration today were Ms. K and Ms. C. She doesn't know Ms. K very well but Ms. C has been her G/T teacher for 3 years! Here are her letters of apology. Don't mention these to her in person....that would not be good for my relationship with her. Oh, before I share the letters, I wanted to tell you that these letters are actually 2nd drafts. The first drafts simply had the word "I'm sorry" scribbled across the half sheet of torn paper. By the end of my extremely well crafted and eloquent "speech of insensitivity", she ripped the letters up and stomped off to her room. We have to work on anger management too! But after 10 minutes of soul searching, she came down the steps with big crocodile tears in her eyes and presented the new letters.

Letter to Ms. K:
Dear Ms K,
I am sorry for the way I acted at the learning center. I acted like I was spoiled. I should have acted more like my friends who didn't get upset. Please forgive me.
Madison P.

Letter to Ms. C:
Dear Ms C,
I'm sorry about how I cried yesterday. I'm really sad about how I acted and know I made a mistake. Ms. K's letter was easier to write becsue I don't know her as much. But writing one to you is harder because I feel so guilty. So I hope you can forgive me.
Madison P.

Isn't it amazing that even a nine year old can feel how hard it is to apologize to the people that we care about the most? I think Madison is on the right track.

Always,
Heidi

Help me, I'm drowning

I am not feeling well. I have watched all the people that surround me on a daily basis get colds for the past two weeks. I have been healthy through it all--until yesterday. I woke up with a sore throat and lots of drainage. It, the stuff in my head and throat, has now made its way to my ears and they hurt now!

Today I had no church responsibilities so I took the day off. I try very hard not to feel guilty but my parents taught me well and it is hard to just stay home. I decided that it would only be right. It is not good to expose people to this nasty cold!

I am cooking and cleaning today. I know it's Sunday but I rested a lot yesterday!
Happy week ahead!

An Old Friend

I have walked through life with countless friends. About 20 years ago when I was in college, I heard a sermon about how we have emotional layers of friendships. I don't remember the whole sermon, but I do remember three of the friend categories. One category was an "acquaintance"--the kind of friend that is always nice to you and you are nice back but that is about as far as the friendship goes. I have a TON of these friends. I think it goes along with the territory of being in leadership positions in my professional life. (I always have wondered if people assume that I have lots of friends because I am the "director" or the "manager" or the "teacher"? ..... hmmmm)

Another category was the "casual friend"--it was the layer that included people that you might go shopping with or invite over to play a game with. I tend to have a handful of these friends that have surrounded me for most of my life.

The last layer of friendship that I can remember was called the "lifer". It is a friend that has been there for many years of your life and may not always be a physical part of your life but you always feel a connection with them and when they do show back up, you experience great joy and incredible overwhelming relief that they are still the same. Just like you remember. And you realize that you REALLY miss this person. I remember sitting in the pew that morning thinking "I don't have this "lifer" category in my life...it must be for old people". I was 19 years old then.

Well, guess what? I am officially OLD.

Tonight I was on Facebook and my old room mate from college found me and invited me to be her friend. She was also in my wedding. And she knew how to hot wire her Audi if it didn't start in the rain--this is still a very impressive trait that I hold very high on the coolness list. I, of course, accepted her request to be my friend, and was so excited when her name popped up on my screen. She and I were very close in college but somehow we lost contact with each other several years ago. Tonight she was online when I was online so we started to instant message each other. It took like 5 minutes to fall into the old rhythm of conversation and jokes with each other. It was almost as if time had stood still. She is still the same.... and I am too. And guess what again? I think I have a "lifer".

Sometimes it is really good to get old. I need to go dry my eyes now.

Happy Friday Peeps.

Heidi

Sam I am.

Today after school I stopped at Sam's Club for 2 items-some gatorade for Nathan and some granola bars for Maddie.

I didn't know that Sam's was so special on a Thursday afternoon at 3p.m. I apparently have been left in the dark for some time. Besides picking up my two items, I also picked up the following: whoopie pie, frozen sliced strawberries, porkloin, chicken/spinach sausage, swiss cheese, chicken noodle soup, shrimp scampi, 2 bite scones, and chicken pasta casserole....all in sample size cups.

I figured that I consumed at least a few hundred calories and decided that dinner could be very small. Today Sam(ple) I was. Tomorrow Sam(ple) I may be again. It was an extremely tasty afternoon treat!

Happy day Peeps!
Heidi

Lean verses Fat

I am getting ready to make a very important decision.... I made two choices for dinner tonight and would like you to help me make the choice of what to eat. Ready? Don't forget to comment!

THIS--

OR...........

THIS!!

See you when I have to wipe off my face and take a drink of milk!
HAPPY HEIDI

Coca Cola Cake

I am all set to make this lovely tasting and looking coca cola cake tomorrow as my night time project. I call it a night time project because I have an evening meeting but I need the cake by Thursday so I guess I will be up a bit late. I owe it to a lady in my church choir. Please let me explain!

A few weeks ago our church celebrated their 175th birthday. The service was set to start at 10:30 a.m. and conclude many minutes later. In that service, we had a baptism, communion by intinction for 600 people, brass quintet, string trio, 4 anthems, 3rd grade bible presentations, and everything else like sermons, offertories, prayer, and hymns that you would find in a typical Sunday service. Just for fun, I decided that we, the choir, would have a contest to guess the ending time of the service. First prize would be a cake--not an ordinary Better Crocker $.99 cake but a Coca-Cola Cake. You can look at the recipe here. It is absolutely divine.

Most people guessed in the teens of 12 o'clock for an ending time. One lady guessed super early (11:35a.m.) and another guessed super late (12:44p.m.). Every time a minute clicked by and someone's guess lost the contest, I looked at that person and just shook my head. They shook back and acknowledged defeat. Some of them even put a quick "L" on their forehead. Much sadness spread through the choir. It probably wasn't the best contest for a celebration Sunday! My winner was Nancy with a guess of 12:38. People, we were in church for over 2 hours! We are Methodists....we must have set a record for something! Nancy, the elementary art teacher, will get the cake.

It's a lot of stress. I hope my frosting looks perfect. She's an artist! I know she will be judging....

Heidi

A rain to remember

It has been a very blustery and rainy weekend. We felt the remnants of hurricane Ike way up in Michigan all through the weekend. 9.2 inches of rain fell in 3 days. It was bad.

My pictures do not show the rain all that well. But bad pictures are better than no pictures at all. These are all taken from my front and back porches....I didn't want to venture out into the puddles.

My beverage of choice

Today started out to be just a normal day. It was the first Saturday of our first full week of school and I couldn't wait to be able to sleep in, do some power cooking, and enjoy my children's company! Here is a run down of my "normal" day:

1. Tried to sleep in until 8a.m. but my bladder woke me up at 7.

2. Got up and discovered that my other early riser (Nathan) was up as well. Our chatter woke the youngest member of our family. She decided that is was "Mom and Maddie Morning" and told me to get ready to go out for breakfast with her!

3. Even though I paid, it was fun! Then I got the phone call that changed and rearranged my whole day!

4. A client from the auditorium called me and told me that there was some major leaking on the roof that covered the stage. A performance was scheduled for 3 p.m. today and the leaks were were right in the front of the stage!

5. I called lots of people....and finally got a crew to commit to come out TOMORROW to fix the roof. Not much of a help when you have 2 shows that are scheduled for TODAY.

6. I made a trip to the auditorium to find that the clients had an American flag that they wanted to magically fly in at the end of the show. This is usually no problem but when we hung the flag, it was so huge that when we brought the flag down it piled miserably onto the floor when the stars started to appear. So, we tipped the flag fat ways and totally broke all the rules of safety to get the flag to stay in place and prayed that it wouldn't fall during the shows.

7. After spending just an hour at the auditorium, I had everyone taken care of and the show started. I snuck out the back door, leaving two very capable techies in charge.

8. As our family was enjoying a nice homemade chicken dinner in the late afternoon, I heard the siren blow. WHAT??? A tornado warning in September?? This can't be happening!!

9. I made a frantic phone call to my techies, couldn't get a hold of them, and then my cell phone rang a minute later. A stage manager from the group that was in there had already decided that they should stop the show and take cover. He just wanted to know where to put 200 people!

10. I very calmly gave him directions. I knew that I should have been there doing this in person. I then poured an extremely large glass of Diet Caffiene Free Coke, convinced my children that we weren't going to perish, and headed to the basement.

11. So, that is how my day has gone so far. A bit too eventful for a Saturday. The Tornado has passed and we are safe and I will continue to sit in the basement and sip Diet Coke for a few more minutes!

Heidi

A Wild Week

It is the first full week of school and I have appointments, meetings, bookings, or rehearsals every night of the week! By Saturday, I will have experienced 14 hours of choir rehearsals, 4 hours of open houses, 5 hours of musical practice, 4 hours of auditorium set ups, 4 class orientation hours that I ran sound and lights for, and endless hours of tending to my daughter's newest cold virus. And this has all happened "after school".

It has been an intense week to say the least. But I am grateful for a job that makes me smile and makes me feel needed. And I am extremely grateful for Great Wall Express, Wendy's, Subway, and Papa John's. Maybe next week I can stick in 5 hours of cooking time as well and feel much better about my health!
Later Peeps!
Heidi

A fabulous weekend/Man of the day!

It is not very often that you belong to a church that celebrates a birthday....a 175th birthday. Our church did just this today and it was a huge festive service complete with 3 commissioned pieces. Stu was asked to compose a piece in February that turned into a 5 movement piece that featured a string trio and choir. It was set in the style of Holst/Vaughn Williams and was done very well. It was a challenge for our choir because much of it was written using 9th, 11th, and 13th chords but it was very beautiful when it was finally learned and performed!

Here are some pictures from the weekend. Our sanctuary just got repainted and we are under a two million dollar renovation so I don't have many things to show.

This was a Saturday afternoon casual concert. Didn't
want to give you Baptists a heart attack!

Heidi

Coming up for air

WOW! What a start to the week. It is too much detail to go into, but I am exhausted! My mixed choir (beginners) is comprised of almost half that are brand new to my choir program. It has been a lot of review of process this week. I vocally tested everyone and tomorrow will be seat placements within each section.

Tomorrow is a long rehearsal for choir at church. It is a long week and I am wishing that Friday was already here!

See you on the weekend. When I have time to breathe!

School Daze

I am in a school daze. Of course I couldn't sleep last night and my alarm clock rang far too early.

Below is a picture of another procrastination technique that I used yesterday. Here is the best tasting pencil ever!

I'll write more after I collapse on the couch this afternoon!

Labor Day

Rocks in My Dryer is having a "Labor day" meme. I am not one for doing these but this was kind of fun! Link on over to her if you'd like to join the fun~

How long were your labors?

Kid #1 (Nate), 24 hours plus.....
Kid #2 (Madison), 24 minutes.

How did you know you were in labor?

I never really went into labor. Nate (#1) was 5 days late and huge (9lbs, 12 oz) so the doctor induced.

Kid #2, Scheduled Labor

Where did you deliver?

With all of them, at a hospital. Where the drugs are. And ice chips too.

And to be a bit more specific: Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester NY. A teaching hospital....." where everyone got a glimpse of you" if you know what I mean!

Drugs?

#1- I had the cervix softening gel the night before things got started and then had the pitocin drip. Then as labor progressed, I had some drug that caused me not to remember ANYTHING for like four hours and then I got an epidural and the world was good again.

#2--Spinal. God's beautiful gift to women.

C-section?

Yes, both babies. Nate was HUGE (as stated above) and I never progressed past 5 cm after 24 hours of intense labor.

Madison was a "scheduled C-section which was literally a 24 minute surgery with absolutely no pain. Until after! :) Madison was 5 days early and weighed a whopping 10lbs, 5 oz.

Both were gestational diabetes babies--which explains the sizes at birth. Both fell in percentile rankings every pediatric visit for the first year. I never knew what size 0 diapers looked like. And my babies slept minimum of 5 hours a night from day one.

And a memory: With Nate, I could control my sugars with diet. With Madison, I was forced to inject insulin. As a hospital precaution, all insulin gestated babies have to spend their first night in the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit to check her sugar levels. When I went down that first evening to finally get to hold her, I was suprised to see a nurse rocking her when I arrived. I asked her if everything was okay and she simply said, "Heidi, it is not everyday that we get to hold such big healthy babies so throughout the day, we have been taking turns rocking her. You see, she is bigger than all of her room mates (3 other babies) combined!"

Who delivered?

Dr. Ribb delievered Nate. I think that is a funny name for a doctor. Nate was born @10:02 p.m.

Dr. Rabinowitz delivered Madison. Madison was born @9:58 a.m. After the birth, I told her that it was too bad that she didn't come at 10:02 a.m. She told me she was sorry I didn't ask because she would have totally been into that challenge! We got along very well.

So there you have it. A little labor for the day.

Heidi

A little rambling

I am getting nervous about school tomorrow. I have experienced the "first day" about 34 times, either in the capacity of a student or teacher, and it always makes me nervous. I guess when I stop getting nervous, it's time to change jobs.

I finished my last big job of the summer yesterday! I finally tackled my walk in closet! I through out 2 bags of yuck and have 4 bags to take to Goodwill today. My shirts are now organized according to color and all the collars point in the same direction. It is a beautiful sight!

Yesterday, we also had a really fun cookout with our 2 sets of across the street friends. We did a potluck style dinner and then played baseball with a bubba bat.

Anyway, Happy Labor Day everyone!