This is the Title of an Uncreative Violinist.:)

Happy first day of Spring!!!  I've always said that Fall is my favorite season, but Spring is a pretty close second.  I think I'm partial to "introductory" seasons...full of hope and eagerness for what's ahead. I stepped out my door a few days ago and noticed some flowers sprouting out from underneath the brown dead leaves leftover from last fall.  Purple flowers, although I'm not sure what type; there are still so many things the previous owner planted that I'm not familiar with, but I'm really looking forward to adding to the landscape and re-doing the backyard.  She hadn't done much in the back due to her arthritis, so it's kind of a blank canvas right now.  There are two raised garden beds she used for herbs and then wild flowers.  I didn't prepare for winter and now they both look like a mess.  I think I'll have to totally uproot one of them and turn it into a vegetable garden.  I won't get rid of the herbs, since those are a

Good morning! 24 weeks today and Maddie is kicking me as I type.  I think she's got a sense of humor because every time I catch her kicking (and now it's visible, I can see my stomach moving everywhere...it's amazing) and yell for Ryan to "quick, come look!"  she stops immediately.  And he thinks I'm a crazy pregnant person (even though I am). At six months, the kicks and jabs still feel "cute" and don't bother me at all...more like a very tiny person is playing ping pong in my stomach! I'm curious what they're going to feel like as they get stronger. I've heard that they can sometimes take your breath away.  Buuut, so far at this point, I get it: there is just no way anymore that I can take someone else's experience and think the same will happen to me.  The horrid stories you hear from most pregnant women have not happened to me for the most part.  It's so hard to say what causes that, but I'll just say that I'm

I'm normally not a really early riser mainly because I prefer to stay up late.  But around 6:30ish I woke up from a dream (a baby dream, of course) and just lay there thinking about the million things I need to do concerning the baby, my students, projects, the FUTURE, ahhh.  And suddenly I realized, instead of just lying here thinking about them...just get up and start DOING! So I got up, took the dogs out in the dark fog, made French press coffee (husband wanders into kitchen about to leave for work and says, "What are YOU doing up this early?") for hubby to take to work and then get started on looking for a pediatrician, calling insurance, emailing students/parents and it's not even noon yet.  It's a good feeling to scratch stuff off the list. This past Monday I had another visit with my OB...everything normal.  Super short visit.  Heard the baby's heartbeat.  I now notice that Madeline likes to kick harder in the evenings when I'm sitting quietly,

Alright, I'm going to attempt to type super fast and spew out a post in the few minutes I have before I have to run out the door to teach. Well--let me tell you, in the early months of pregnancy I was so impatient for this baby to arrive, time could not have dragged more slowly back then. Fast forward to now--going into my SIXTH month of pregnancy (HOW did this happen?)--and I am overwhelmed with my entire to-do list. This is just a busy time, in general, without being pregnant.  Students' recitals, rehearsals, makeups GALORE (thanks to getting sick more frequently due to pregnancy--and SOME parents unfortunately just demand them right away.  Wish they could be slightly more considerate about my situation, but at the same time I feel guilty that I had to cancel even once. Such is life), going after gigs in an attempt to make as much $$ before I relinquish our second income to become a stay at home mommy. And then the baby stuff:  STILL need to call insurance (which I&#