The Ups and Downs of Falling in Love

Our thoughts and daily routines have been all consumed by organs and bike races lately. The bike race this past weekend went well - Hubby and Daughter came home with nice prizes. The award for men was a glass mug with and the women were awarded very cool handcrafted necklaces. If you look closely you can see them in the picture. The necklace is a stone with a bike charm on top...lovely!

Our son came home for the weekend to race - he didn't place, but had a good ride with no mishaps. It was so good having him home and he and I were able to have some one on one time that I treasure.  He even got my scanner working on my printer - so hopefully when it comes time, I'll remember what he told me to do.

As far as the organ update goes, we had a committee meeting regarding the Rodgers model - our choir director had a guest in town that joined us because his church recently purchased a second hand organ and he was able to share first hand what they went through. He recommended someone that we called and they said they heard good things about the company we were dealing with so it was decided a special business meeting would be called to vote on purchasing that organ. Our associate pastor was out of town for

the committee meeting. I shared all this information with my mentor and after seeing a picture of the organ he told us a local church has the exact same model, so this afternoon Hubby and I made an appointment to see it. The church was so kind to let us in to play with it for a while. I FELL IN LOVE!! I loved the touch, feel, sound even more than the brand new one I played a few weeks ago. I felt so at home at that organ. When we came home, our pastor was there looking for an update on the organ...he didn't know we had just come from playing one. I was finally able to get him excited about the purchase because he saw how much I loved it. It seemed at that moment as though I had my organ - all that was left was the church approving it at the Sunday meeting. HOWEVER...Pastor Tony went back to the church with a picture of the organ in his hand to "pray over it" and then he called the company just to reassure himself because there were some things that were "raising red flags" to him. To make a long story short, he found out some things we hadn't seen. I won't go into detail just because it will take so long, but suffice it to say, we won't be buying that organ or dealing with that company EVER!

I'm so disappointed, I almost cried. Hubby said he feels like he would if he had asked me to marry him and I said no LOL. It does feel a little like a break-up of sorts. Now the search continues and I am bone weary of it. 

Speaking of bones, I was at the chiropractor again today - three times in three weeks. The ribs seem to be holding now, but the shoulder blade still bothers me when I practice and my hips went out again...WAY OUT. Even Hubby looked at me this morning and told me I was crooked as if I hadn't already figured that out LOL. I'm in for now, but my lower back is complaining about being messed with. I also have an allergic reaction to something affecting my eye. The combination of all three is exhausting and I'm ready for my recliner and a glass of wine. I've had enough of this day, thank you. 

I just had a little visitor...the neighbor dog came and said hello through the studio window screen. The neighbor girl (my student) is home alone this week as her family had to go back to CO for some things and she had to stay behind for cross-country practice and to take care of the dog. I went out to make sure Renee knew where Grettle was and before I knew it she was talking my ear off - even though she's staying nights with another family, the poor thing is lonely in that big house all by herself. 

There was one bright spot in my week. I went down the hill to practice - oh that organ just washes away so much - cleans out the cobwebs and makes me feel like me again. I practiced for 2 hours - David came in, we talked for an hour about the organ meeting at church, then I played a piece for him and his comment was: "Oh Julie, that was so well done, that is what I have wanted to hear from you for the past 20 years. It's not that it was perfect, there were mistakes, as you know, but rather than correct them, you just worked them in as part of the music, the pauses were part of the beauty and were actually very calming to me as a listener". That meant so much to me to hear him say that...I can't even tell you how much! 

Here are some pictures of one of my geraniums - it's never looked this good in all the years I've had it. It was given to me by a student who is now finished with her four years of college and has been holding down an important job in homeland security for about three years now. Anyway, I wanted to share my two favorites of the photos I took. 

That's all for today...now...about that wine............