We are so immersed here

Photo of the last day of music class with my Level 3 students. Group hug!

I thought I would give you a time line of recent teaching current events:

Saturday May 2nd: I played and "auditioned" to be the 4th quartet player for Magic Strings. Any weddings or gigs that come our way, I'm part of the quartet!

Thursday May 14th: last day of music for my school!

Tuesday May 19th: I heard through the grapevine that the music teacher at Parker school down the street from our house was moving to the mainland.

Wednesday May 20th: I dropped off a resume seeking a 1 day music teaching position. (The goal being 1 day at Waimea Country School and 1 day at Parker School)

Thursday May 21: I get an e-mail from a wonderful teacher creating a home school coop group class requesting a weekly music class with me this upcoming year. I mention the idea of getting some keyboards to do a group piano class.

Thursday May 27: I get an e-mail from another great home school coop group down in North Kohala. I told them if they could like up 7 home schooled students for me to teach back to back I would drive the 30 minute commute and teach them. It's all lined up. I start next week.

Tonight May 28th: Alex and I are invited to the special pre opening test run of a great new trendy Japanese restaurant Fujimama's. (I teach the owner's daughter) While at dinner I bumped into several Parker school mom's. They said "Just so you know, the buzz around all the families is that you are lined up to teach at Parker school. I mean come on! The spot was almost designed for YOU that it's just expected!"

I joke with these moms "Between private lessons, home school music coop lessons, the symphony, the weddings and gigs, and now potentially being the music teacher for 2 school districts, this only pushes me further and further away from EVER having the time for children. You do realize this right?"

I did an official private lesson student head count. I'm now at 71 private students. I have 3 more lined up to start in August when they get back from the mainland for summer vacation. That's 74 private students folks.

Alex and I are so incredibly immersed in this community. I'm sorry to all our family and friends in Seattle. We are not going ANYWHERE anytime soon. But we are having quite a journey!

And as we were going to sleep I told Alex "I'm working extermely hard right now. But one day Alex, I want multiple numerous children of my own". He replied "Oh boy!" The big joke being somebody asked me the other day "And how many children do you have?" and I said "Umm 71"?

You'd think we were landscapers!

We now have a clear view of the pond from the front porch
BEFORE PICTURE
AFTER PICTURE!
HOW WE REMOVED THE 150-200 POUND FERNS

I'm learning to remember to quickly grab my camera to take BEFORE pictures. I've been working on making this an automatic instinct for the past 10 years paling around with a Woodbury. In Bellingham, we'd rip apart a bathroom for a remodel and knee deep or after the project I'd shake my head and think "Why didn't I get a before picture?!" It's so fun to compare before and afters. We planted Hapu Ferns around the pond area 5 years ago, not thinking about how they grow into GIANT ferns very quickly. My parents say it feels like living in the movie "Honey I shrunk the kids" seeing the ferns tower above you. Well the ferns blocked the view of the pond from our front porch and crowded the pond area as well. So we did another mass transplant of well established greenery to the lot! We divided dozens of irises from our yard and alternated yellow and white iris clumps.

Paddle boarding Mama Cathy and Cleo

Happy Memorial Day blog readers! I somehow convinced my students to have piano lessons today, so I am teaching in Kona. My father in law recently bought a new toy. I see all the celebrities in People magazine paddle boarding in Hawaii. It's the hottest trend! Here is Mama Cathy standing up on her first try. Cleo swam out to join her!

Lacking photos

I haven't been taking many photos lately!
BUT! SCHOOOOOLS out for SUMMER! I won't return to school until after our Seattle trip August 17th. That is a LONG vacation! I'm waiting for a teacher to e-mail a great photo she took of me being hugged by the entire class. Boy did I sure get my hug quota filled on Thursday!
And in other big news, tomorrow I will begin my very first dance class! I've never taken formal dance training my entire life. The class is more of a work out dance class called Nia. I might bring my camera to take some pictures. I'm going to try to do Nia Mondays and Fridays at 8:30am.
And finally, we spent the weekend transplanting over crowded trees from our house to our lot. We didn't space a few trees well enough and they were crowded. So we dug up several huge trees and ferns and dingoed them over to the lot. Spread some beauty bark. Divided and planted irises. Spruced up the pond area. And Moki enjoyed some beach time on Saturday. I had fun making up games for him. The best being "bobbing for coconuts". He tried so hard to get a hold of the floating coconut!

Happy Mother's Day!

I am so blessed to have such a beautiful, talented, gifted, loving Mama Lama!
And I am double lucky to have the ubber Mother in Law Mama Cathy! She is such a wonderful mother and I feel very loved and cared for by her!
They really are siblings! They made the same goofy face eating an amazing brunch created by sister Shaye!
Celebrating Mother's Day. Grandma Ruth just turned 86 and is sharp, whitty, and funny as ever!
More pictures from Mother's Day brunch
I played in the symphony on Saturday for the West Hawaii Dance Academy ballet. These are the world's cutest identical twin 3 year old ballerinas!!

Wishing all the Mother's out there a wonderful Mother's Day! We had a lovely brunch down in Kona.
This weekend we installed a drip line irrigation system so each tree has it's very own drip line system. No more spending hours watering each tree! I'll take pictures this week. On Saturday I played violin and viola for the ballet. Unfortunately during intermission I wanted to put a few things in my car and when I went to the parking lot some punk punched all my locks in! I have automatic locks so instead of being able to break into my car, the thief jammed and broke all of my locks. He wasn't able to get into my car, but NEITHER WAS I!! I had to call the police and they came out and dusted for prints (but didn't find any, not even mine!) They said "Sorry miss, but this is an unsolvable crime!" And I said "But I can't get into my car!!" I was able to get into my trunk and squeeze through my car (wearing my nice orchestra dress) and shimmy into the drivers seat and drive home. I'm taking my car to the mechanics today to get an estimate. If the entire lock system needs to be replaced, that will be several thousand dollars. Luckily my insurance will cover anything over $250. I still feel so victimized! My Subaru is an old, beat up, worn out, dirty stinky dog mobile!! I always joked that if my car was broken into I would consider it a free car cleaning service!
On a happier note, I received news that my second cousin Carmelina is pregnant! They have 4th and 6th grade boys, my sweet sweet cousins. Maybe this surprise bonus baby will be a little girl! But I know they will love either. I don't know if they read my blog, but CONGRATULATIONS!! I want to send you a little baby aloha shirt!

Meet the String Family

I am starting a mother/daughter group cello class today. So before I rent out my beautiful cellos (notice adult full size and child half size) I thought I'd take a group photo. The tiny violin is a 1/16 size next to my full size violin. Meet the string family!