Happy Halloween!

Oliver dressed up like a cow for Halloween---we had friends kids trick-or-treat last night. I ordered Oliver a medium costume and it is so tight on him that he couldn't move and Daddy made me take it off. :( I can't believe I got the wrong size. Oh well. As you can tell by the look on his face, he is not liking Mommy playing dress-up!



So happy I don't have a choir competition this Saturday. I had one last Saturday and I had 5 junior high students make All-Region. Now I get a few Saturdays to myself! I was so excited to get to sleep in and wouldn't you know it, we were up at 7:45 today! Dang! I've already got my car lubed at Wal-Mart and in a little while we are taking our nieces, Sophie and Gracie, to a new hot dog restaurant in town that has a big play area and kid games. Fun! We haven't got to spend time with them in too long! Sophie told her daddy the other day that she was missing Aunt Suzy and Muncle Baby (what she calls Jer). Such a sweetheart!

So thankful for the sunshine! All that rain was so depressing!

Christmas is on the brain! I've started buying things and stocking up! I am trying to cut back a little this year---not sure if my husband will cooperate with that though! I ordered Oliver 3 gifts for Christmas the other day and told my husband they were for Christmas. Well, they came in and Jer gave two of them to him--he couldn't stand waiting! He said we'd buy him more! So much for cutting back! Ha!

The addition on our house begins in 2 weeks! I'm so looking forward to it! We are turning our garage into a recording studio. Yay--all Jer's gear can get out of my house! He has guitar/recording gear in EVERY room in the house except my bathroom! Seriously--even kitchen and bathroom cabinets! It's crazy! Now we'll have our spare bedroom back and hopefully put a baby in there in the future! That's the plan at least!

Jer and I are going to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra next weekend for my birthday! I can't wait!

Happy Halloween!

Night out!

Last night we went to Hot Springs with some of our closest friends to celebrate Jeremy and Mika's 10th Anniversary. We ate at Belle Arti Italian Restaurant and then went dancing at the Arlington Hotel. It was lots of fun.

Here is the anniversary couple:

Jerod and Jennifer:

Nevada and Jewelie:

Jer and I (don't know why his face was so red):

When we left we saw the biggest pumpkin ever and the girls and Jeremy had to pose with it:

Yesterday Jeremy and Mika left for Hot Springs early, so I got to take their son, Gaven to his soccer game. He did so good! I love all our friend's kids so much. Jeremy and Mika have 2 little girls also. Gaven was adopted when he was almost 3 and fits in with their family perfectly!

Proud!

I left on a bus at 5:00 a.m. with 10 senior high students yesterday. We went to All-Region Choir Auditions. I am so excited to report that 9 out of my 10 students made the choir! Around 600 students auditioned from schools of all sizes. My school is one of the smallest that compete and my students hung in there and did just as well as the big schools! I am so proud! In the 9 years I've been teaching, I've never had that many make it (last year I had 7 plus an alternate who moved up). My one student that didn't make it is an alternate, so hopefully she'll get to be in the choir anyway, which would make it 10 out of 10! We got home at 9:00 p.m. last night! Long day, but definitely worth it!

Icky, achy, yucky

So when I was typing my last post I didn't feel good, but thought it was just allergies. Nope--Wednesday evening I just started feeling worse and worse and aching in spots I didn't know could ache. Went to the walk-in med clinic Thursday morning barely holding my head up. I didn't even mind them sticking that flu stick up my nose. I had every sign of the flu (even fever which I NEVER run), but my test was negative. The dr came in with a face mask on and didn't get near me and Germ-X'd her hands twice in about 3 minutes. She said she was almost positive I had the flu and thinks I caught it so early it didn't register on the flu test. Got Tami-flu at the pharmacy and went to bed. Tamiflu did not agree with me and made me dry heave for about 3 hours, but once I finally got to sleep, it kicked in and I slowly started feeling better. I still feel worn out and yucky, but it is functionable. My husband is taking Tamiflu now because he doesn't want to get sick--he had the flu last year and I slept on the couch 7 nights! Not fun! He tried to sleep on the couch Wednesday night, but gave in and came to bed! :)

Funny story from the clinic Thursday morn---my (step)father-in-law came in to the clinic with chest congestion while I was sitting there. He is such a cheerful, talkative man and he comes in smiling and talking and all of us sicky people are just staring at him. Mom had told him I was there with the flu. (When I got there that morning, a student I teach was there with her mom. I walked in the door and the mother says to her daughter, "Don't let her breathe on you". uh...thanks...wasn't planning on it. I probably GOT this sickness at SCHOOL anyway!) So I sat down in a single chair away from everyone else knowing that I might be contagious. After Papa checks in, he says real loud, "I'm just gonna pull a chair up and sit next to my daughter!!!" He sits right up next to me and I can't help but giggle a little. He is just like a big teddy bear and wanted to take care of me! By the time he was done talking to me, everyone in the waiting room knew what I had, what he had, that I was his daughter-in-law, and that he loved me! So sweet.

Hoping I'll be able to sing/play tomorrow night with our band. I'm skipping practice tonight.

My dog and my husband's car have contributed to the icky/yucky this week too. Oliver got neutered and had his hernia sewn up over a week ago. Some of the hernia started tearing open this week and he was bleeding, etc. He had to get a shot at the vet and is on antibiotics once again! I swear it is never-ending with that dog! Then my husband's Camry is undriveable--not sure what is wrong--his dad is working on it. It was the first car we bought and has been in our family 10 years! It has 270,000 miles on it. I feel like it is on its last leg, but I don't want a car payment! There are other things a lot more important to pay/save for! We are wanting to add on to our house very soon and a car payment would prevent that i think! Yikes!

Cool thing happened at school Wednesday--Wal-Mart managers/associates visited with a big cake and prizes to do a "Teacher Appreciation" assembly. They drew 10 teachers names and I was one of them---I won a $100 Wal-Mart gift card! Whoo hoo!

Hope you all have a sick-free weekend!

AND......Go Hogs! Beat Texas A & M!

Bunco

Bunco was at my house Monday night and boy was it fun! We hadn't played since June so we were long overdue! Here are some pics!

This is our group (we had 2 missing):

These were the winners for the evening (go Brin--she was kissing her scarecrow):

Here are us teacher buds (Kim, me, Kristy, Holli):

And me--I rolled 4, yes, my favorite number---4 Buncos! I was so proud--I didn't win, but didn't care. I'm just proud of my 4! hee hee!

Gotta go. I'm ready for bed. I'm exhausted and my voice is almost gone--being a music teacher is wonderful, but wears on my voice so much--and our band has a gig on Saturday so I NEED my voice! Gonna get in the clean sheets, curl up with my sick puppy (that's for a later post), my hubby, and Prison Break, Season 2.

Let the sun shine!

Praise the Lord for the sunshine! I have missed it greatly this week! My car just got a nice bath and looks so much better! Now if I could just get our lawn guy to come....I can barely find Oliver in the grass!

Rock the River was good last weekend. I didn't feel good at all, but we had a good time. Our band plays this week at the youth-wide "Saw You At The Pole" Rally. It is the evening of See You At The Pole (duh).

This next weekend starts the month of Saturday choir competitions. My next 3 out of 5 Saturdays are booked with taking kids to all-region competitions. I love to see my students compete and do well, but it just wears me out. I think I'm ready to just teach all elementary music or all high school choir, but not both. After doing it for 9 years, I'm tired!!!!!!!! And OLD!!!

Bunco is next week at my house! Pictures to come!

Not much else exciting going on here....just taking it one day at a time. Sorry for the boring blog updates. Can't think of much else to write about. Time for a nap!

Why does this always happen?

We leave in 2 hours for Rock the River in Fort Smith. Our band, Muzzleloader, plays at 3:30 today. I've been looking forward to this for months and we've practiced a lot this past week. BUT, I am sick. I've been sneezing a lot, but it hadn't turned in to anything. It hit about halftime of the junior high football game we were at on Thursday night. We left the game and I went home and sacked out. Yesterday I felt horrible all day at school. I took Aleve Cold & Sinus, Zyrtec, ZiCam allergy nose spray, drank Vitamin C immunity builder stuff, and took ZiCam tablets. Woke up this morning to a sneeze that I thought would blow my face off. I've never seen so much snot!!!!!!!! (yes, graphic---sorry)

Anytime in the fall when I have something important on the calendar, I get sick. Two years ago our band was playing at a 4 day rally and I got strep throat and could only sing the last night. Last year I got a massive sinus infection right before a huge day-long choir competition I had to take students to. This year we have this concert today and I am sick. Thankfully I only have to play keys---I do sing on one song, but I think I can make it. This REALLY frustrates me, but I don't know how to fix it!!!!!!! If you read this, would you say a prayer for me today about this? I would really appreciate it.

In other news, my dog did this to our carpet this week:

My husband has been feeling bad leaving Oliver in his cage when he goes to work during the day so he bought a $100 iron dog gate that he bolted to the frame between the kitchen and living room. Then on the other side of the kitchen we put up a baby gate. This picture is of the carpet in the hallway---the baby gate was right past this spot. Oliver was left alone for 1 hour and accomplished this. I was so frustrated when I got home. I've been wanting new carpet, but don't have the money for it now! (the current carpet is 5 years old)

So now we have a dog who obviously HAS to stay in his cage when we're gone, a $100 gate that is of no use to us now, and a torn up carpet. And Bunco is at my house in 2 weeks. Guess I'll be investing in a nice little rug to go there. (sigh)

Gotta go get ready! At least I'll get my Peppermint Mocha from Starbuck's when we get to Ft. Smith! Maybe that'll help me feel better.

Have a great weekend!