A busy Sunday & a blog makeover!

*** First of all, what do you think of the new layout? Too difficult to read? I can change that easily by adding white behind the words...let me know and be honest! It won't hurt my feelings :-)

Random fact of the day: I have 15 mosquito bites on my legs and have hardly stepped outside in the past few days except going to and from my car (the weather has been HOT and muggy) and Madison has 0 and has spent more time outside...go figure! I cannot stop itching them and look like a child because I have band aids all over my legs...needless to say, I wore jeans to orchestra rehearsal today, not shorts...haha.

Madison is on the phone, and I decided it would be a good time to blog, since I was just browsing blogs, listening to the POURING rain, and being serenaded by one of my Ella CDs. It has rained a lot lately, which has made me happy. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but I love rain and storms. They put me in a good mood...haha!

I had a busy Sunday today --- it was fun though! We went to church at Christ Pres, the director of RUF from Ole Miss spoke and it was good. It was definitely a message I needed to hear. It was kind of one of those "shift a lot in your seat" type sermons. Not like I can ever sit still through anything without shifting or bouncing a leg...but I guess for me, it was some extra shifting. :-)

Madison and I had a nice, relaxing afternoon and I made breakfast food around lunch time because it was impossible to find a parking spot anywhere in the square to go to Bottletree, but it worked out just as well, because we were both wanting a big breakfast and I love making breakfast food, so it worked out well! He's good at scrambling eggs and such, and it's fun to cook together sometimes! I haven't quite mastered multi-tasking while cooking...I've had a few minor kitchen disasters, but no fires...yet...haha. :-) I'm learning though!

This evening was the first rehearsal for the Oxford/Lafayette/University Orchestra as they call it. It was fun! I miss the caliber of the Wheaton College Symphony orchestra, but I obviously knew it would be that way, so I wasn't disappointed at all if that makes sense. It will be fun! I met some really nice, friendly people. There's a grad student (violin performance major) girl from Beijing, China that is really sweet and wants to get together sometime. We may play some duets or something sometime. The guy sitting behind me teaches piano at the Methodist church in town and wants to hand out some of my business cards for violin & viola students, so that was exciting.

I am a little discouraged at the lack of interest in violin or viola lessons around here. It really depends on the area you're in, and I'm hoping soon I will hear from more people. It's a slow process. It's a pretty posh area, so you'd think it would be really common for people to want their kids in stuff like music lessons. As I learned in pedagogy, different areas respond to different types of advertising. I am getting worn out and running out of ideas. I have:
-Contacted all schools (public & private & preschool/kindergartens & sent them business cards/flyers)
- Advertised with posters around town
- Contacted everyone I have found that is in the least bit connected to music in Oxford
- Advertised in the newspaper
- Advertised with the school I'm teaching for 1 day a week, and with the music store in town.


If anyone has ANY ideas that I did not list, I am more than welcoming your ideas :-)

Well, time to go check on Madison - he's working hard on homework now and off the phone. He starts law school tomorrow morning! :-o

Lizzie