After Madison jokingly told me he was sick of looking at the poison ivy post, I thought it was about time I posted again. There's not a whole lot to report, my life is starting to sink into a good routine, and things have been going well. I got rid of my poison ivy, thanks to benadryl...and that was a happy day. I had it all up my arms and some on my legs. Thankfully Madison doesn't get poison ivy, but I stayed my distance just in case.
This week was good and unusually busy. Monday is my day to get work done, errands run & try to advertise for more students. I make it a goal to try at least 1 thing every Monday to get more students, whether it is calling someone in Tupelo or mailing a letter or printing a flyer and hanging it somewhere.
Lessons all went well this week. I really do enjoy the students I have. Some are so excited and prepared, and others are very frustrating to teach. We are starting Christmas music and the students are very excited. I teach Tuesdays through Fridays now. On Wednesday night, we had orchestra rehearsal for the L-O-U Orchestra. That has been a good experience for me, although I don't always feel like going! I'm always glad to be done afterwards though.
On Thurs. night, I helped a friend out named Charlza (she's in her 60's and the orchestra teacher for the public schools). She's having a hard time with the orchestra program this year and it was fun to be able to help her out. When she asked if I wanted to play with the kids or just meet them, I said I'd rather just meet them (I thought it may be weird for me to play with middle schoolers). Then she explained that community members play for this first concert with them and that they didn't have a violist from the community (I'm the only one other than Irwin who just plays viola for gigs...). The 4 violists all just started a year ago at the most. Local adult musicians come in to encourage the kids and sit in the back and play for their concert, so I brought my viola and played with them. The kids were so excited about it, and Charlza introduced the 4 community members & I (who I know from the Ole Miss music faculty/staff) to the orchestra and to the parents who came to hear the orchestra. She explained that I had just moved here and opened a violin & viola studio which was so exciting to me. I had a few parents ask for my number for lessons which is exciting, and Charlza took a huge stack of my business cards to hand out.
Friday I had my group at the classical school here in town. They were SO HYPER because not only was it Friday, but it was Halloween! My kids range from 4th to 9th grade in this particular group. They are all very gifted students and we have a lot of fun together. They are a mix of Suzuki and traditional students who all take lessons currently from teachers in Memphis or from Irwin Bell. We have a lot of fun together, but it's a challenge for me to control a bigger group of students. (it is now 7 kids). They want it to become a string orchestra next year! Good thing I enjoyed conducting class & did well in that class...
One of the moms gave me a little box with candy & chocolate & yogurt covered pretzels...the people are so excited and sweet to me, I love my Friday job. It's a challenge, it's tiring being in charge of a group of very active, excited kids with instruments...but it is rewarding and a nice change.
Tully (the oldest of Madison's 2 sisters) visited us this weekend (she just left a while ago). She's a freshman in college at Samford. Friday night she came and I made dinner, then we went to hang out in the Square for a little while. Saturday we got up and went to the game and visited in the tailgate tents in the grove for a while. Then we came back and played games. Later we went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner, Rooster's Blues House. It's a new place on the square that is in our price range. This weekend really flew by and I had a lot of fun. We love when people visit -- it's so much fun! We had a blast with Tully.
Here's some pictures from the game:
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