Absent mindedness

I can blame it on the pregnancy now, and then after the baby, maybe I can blame it on being a new mom, but I am not sure how long I can make excuses for my forgetfulness.

I went to meet a friend today for lunch to pick her brain about how to get my piano certification finished. We had a wonderful talk, and we were getting ready to leave right when the rain started pouring down. Much to my horror, I couldn't find my keys! I asked if any had been turned in, I checked the bathroom (because I am there frequently) and much to my dismay they were nowhere to be found. So my dear friend let me use her umbrella, to see if I had left them in my car, and when I still couldn't see them, and all the doors were locked, she drove me all the way to Joel's work to get the other set of keys, and then back again! I was very touched by her selflessness, and willingness to help this poor old prego lady out! May God bless her!!!

Kid's Say the darndest things

My niece Ella Hulson has said some of the funniest things lately, that I decided that I wanted to start documenting them. Until my little boy is talking and saying cute stuff, I want to share these with you!

I have been teaching Wade and Ella piano for awhile now. Ella, we started in a pre-reader book, where they are real creative with how they teach the very basic of basic principles, one of them being the finger numbers (thumb is 1, pointer finger 2, middle finger 3, ring finger 4, pinky 5). So I have been drilling these with Ella, by sining "This old Man" And we do different things with each finger. Well, one day she came to her mom, and she goes "Mom, I hurt my 2 finger!!" I thought that was so funny! I knew then, that she understood, and it was clicking!

We were driving to visit Abbie at NSU, and Ella informed us that when ice cubes melt, they turn to water. Then a few min. later she exclaims in horror: "I swalled a piece of ice!" I tried to comfort her by saying that it was okay, it would just turn to water in her tummy. Well, a few seconds later she goes: "But it was big...as big as my Eye!" Why she picked her eye to compare it to, I don't know, but is sure made me laugh.

We were on the same drive, and out of the blue Ella goes: "I eat really fast." To which we replied, "oh really." Then she goes, "Well, I eat cookies really fast!"

Last night at awana, they were driving off, and I was walking to my car, and Ella saw me, and said: "Mom, Hannah is having a baby, that is why she walks funny. She's twisty." Megan called me and we were just rolling! I guess my hips twist when I walk, so she said I was twisty!!!

I love my little darlings, Wade, Ella, Owen, and Greg! And I can't wait to have a little one of my own to laugh at and with.

Israel's room!

I thought that I had found the bedding for Israel's room at Pottery Barn Kids. We had decided to go with an airplane theme, and the bedding had an airplane, a car and a truck. It was adorable, yet expensive, therefore we were only going to get the bumper and the quilt. But...I found out that Owasso was having a JBF sale, like Tulsa did, and that Saturday was their half price sale. So Joel and I drove over there to check it out, and see if we could find anything we needed. We walked in, and I started to feel really bad because it was so small, and there was nothing that we came to find, plus, we kept seeing all these signs that said "if there is a red star on the merchandice, it is still full price. Well, everything that we had looked at had a red star. I then walked over to the bedding, just in case there was something I liked better than what Pottery Barn Kids had (which is rare). Then I saw it! A Pottery Barn Kids crib set with the bumper, quilt, bedskirt, shams, two sets of sheets, and a pillow case, all for 175.00! And the best part, it was all airplanes!!! For some reason we decided against it, and let it with a worker. We wondered around looking at other things, and I commented on how everything I wanted had a red star! All of a sudden I remembered the bedding. I turned to Joel and said: "Oh my goodness, did that bedding have a red star?" He went back to the worker, came back with the bedding that did NOT have a star!!! Which meant that we were going to get it half off!!! i couldn't believe how perfect it was! We got it home, and put it in the room, and found out the blues did not match, therefore we were going to have to paint the room. We did this Good Friday, when Joel had the day off. Then today!! We picked up our crib, and put everything together!!! It looks wonderful!

Toot Sweet!

Saturday afternoon I joined my husband at New Life Ranch so that he could have his family at "Family Camp". After the last chapel, we were sitting in the dinning hall with Mark and Maureen Gullikson, and Mark and Tracy Shiew, eating ice cream sundays, although, I wasn't. But the whipped topping on Joel's icecream was so good, I said I could eat a whole bowl of just that. Well, after saying that several times, but keeping Joel from getting me some, Mark Gullikson stood up, went over and filled a bowl up with whipped topping ans sprinkles! I ate the whole thing! It was so good. That is what I would rather have now than icecream; not too sweet, but creamy and sweet enough! Anyway, we all got a good laugh.

Victory!!!

Saturday, I entered some of my students in a piano competition. They worked hard to memorize and perfect their selected pieces, and for some it really paid off. One of my students won her division, and another won an honorable mention! I left that day so proud, and encouraged, and tired.

30 weeks pregnant

I have reached the 30 week mark! Ten more to go....maybe! I look at this picture compared to the one I took at 21 weeks, and I laugh because I thought I was big then! And I know, I am still not huge, but I feel huge.

Life as a piano teacher

Well, I have four weeks and counting of piano lesson left. One of those weeks I only teach on Monday, then it will be a break for the whole summer!!! This will be the first time in 7 years of teaching that I will have the whole summer off. Although, I won't really have it off, because I will be taking care of my precious little baby, due June 12th!

This semester has been one of the hardest, I think, of my career, and if other teachers are reading this, you would probably tell me that I have more to come. But I am partly blaming this on my being pregnant, and lacking part of my brain. It has been so hard keeping things straight! But I am not all to blame...

As a piano teacher I have been told that we have a lot to compete with...sports being the major one. And this semester I have found that true. I lost 3 students to sports, and the rest say they are too busy to practice most weeks. I find it hard to know what to do! I have tried all sorts of prizes, and am now doing fake money, that they can cash in for little treasures once a month. For some it is working, for others not so much. I am at a loss. Many tears have been shed, me feeling like a failure, and not sure how to change things so that kids are more interested. But then there are the few that make my job easy, and wonderful, and so on them, I will try to dwell. I am very thankful for my husband who lets me vent when I need to, encourages me all the time, and tells me what a good job I am doing. I am also greatful for the fellow teachers I have met that have helped me so much, and continue to do so. I pray that I will be able to remember the reason I do this...To bring others to Christ. When some students were dropping out, the mom wrote that her kids would remember me, and remember me praying with them before each lesson. I told Joel, that if that is all they remember, then I have succeeded, because yes, my goal is to teach them the fundamentals of music, but ultimately to show Christ to them. So I pray that God may give me ample opportunities to do this, and that my eyes would be open to see the opportunities. Thank you Lord for these 19 students!

Spring

Life has been quite busy lately. So much is going on. We are little by little getting things ready for Baby Israel. I made a list (I love making lists!) of things that I wanted done before the baby came. And so far, a lot is getting done. Our deck is finished, our bathroom is re-tiled, the baby room is painted, we have doors on the closets, and things that needed to be touched up with paint around the house are getting done little by little. We have ordered our baby crib, which I am so excited about. So like I said little by little things are getting done, but not without many tears....

Being pregnant has taken some of my organization and multi-tasking skills away. This past week was a good example. It didn't help that our car was broken down either, but thanks to my mother-in-law, and brother-in-law, for the use of HIS van that SHE has been using, we still made it around town. But there was still the added stress of figuring out our car. So that started Sunday morning. Monday was a normal day, but all week long I would forget to do major things, like laundry, which I intended to do almost everyday. The house was a mess, and therefore, my life was a mess! I never got grocery shopping done (which I didn't really need much), and on top of that I added more to my schedule than I probably should have. Friday, we painted Israel's room, and barely made it on time to Victory Christian church for their Easter drama (but we are very glad that we went) And then I went to see a friend in OKC on Saturday (the day before Easter) got home, didn't really have food for dinner, and had a cake to make. Easter morning, I woke up, thinking I had allowed myself time enough to do everything that I wanted to do, exersized, iced the cake, which turned out to be a dissaster! The cake fell apart upon getting it out of the pan, and the icing process made it crumble even more. So now I am about to cry. Then I do some finance stuff, to make sure we paid our credit card on time, and then woke Joel up to start getting ready. My plan was to fix a nice breakfast, eat, get ready, all in pleaty of time. But did that happen? NO! My iron ruined the shirt Joel was going to where, we were running out of time to have a nice relaxed breakfast (which Joel ended up fixing, and did a marvelous job too) and on top of that I had forgotten to put a load of laundry in the dryer, so Joel had no clean undershirts! Yes the tears began to flow...again. Plus it was cold and rainy outside, which it is not supposed to be on Easter! So that was my week, one day, I didn't even get dinner done before heading out of the house for the evening. But that resulted in a fun little out to dinner date with my hubby before birthing class...

Two weeks ago we started birthing class, and we are enjoying it a lot!!! We have met several nice people, and hope to get to know them even better as the remaining 10 weeks of class progress. The best part is the tools she has given us to help Joel know how he can help me. After the first class, I felt that we were partners in this, and that I was not just doing this on my own. The tools she has given us to do have been wonderful, and I look forward to seeing how they help in the actual birthing process. So far the pregnancy has gone very well, and my doctor is great! He is a D.O. and has done some chiropractic work on me, which has been wonderful. My hip has been bothering me a lot to the point where I can barely walk, but the other day I went in to see him, and he adjusted me, and by the end of the day I could almost walk pain free! I then overworked myslef the next day, and the pain has started again. Next time, I won't do that!!!

So as you can see, life in the Kelley home, is both exciting, busy, and tearful (for me). I feel like I am more emotional in this third tri-mester, than I was in the first. Once I start crying, I can't seem to stop! Then all I want to do is curl up and go to sleep. Joel has been so wonderful through it all, and I can't imagine going through this without him! Thanks honey!!!

I am sorry that this is so long, but I wanted to catch you up on all that has been going on while I have not been writting. I will try to keep up with this better! Happy spring!!! (if it will every warm up!)