Concert Week

 This week I had rehearsals with the Idaho Falls Symphony.  I really love being able to play my instrument, especially with such a great group.  This concert has a Western theme.  As skeptical as I was when I first looked at the music, I'm actually really enjoying it.  We're playing a piece by Copland, which means I get a headache from counting all the weird rhythms and from all the time signature changes.  

We're also playing with a violin soloist which is a really fun piece.  And we're doing the William Tell Overture!  This piece was on my "bucket list" of pieces I wanted to play for awhile just because it looked so fun.  I did get the chance to play it one other time, but I'm not really counting that.  It was when we lived in Utah and the city we lived in was in their second year of trying to start up their orchestra.  The group was very small.  Like there was one stand each of cellos, violas, and 2nd violins and two stands of 1st violins.  No basses.  And there was only enough people in the winds and brass to cover about half of those parts.  There may have been one drummer covering what percussion parts they could.  And if I remember right we skipped the cello solo part at the beginning of the piece.  That little group was doing the best they could, but it is so much better to have a full symphony!  We are taking it at a crazy fast tempo and it gets my adrenaline pumping!  So to sum up, it's been pretty fun.

I wish I could say that I made it this whole week without getting a call from the school, but I can't.  Thursday morning Ava woke up telling me her tummy hurt.  I couldn't tell if it was for real or not.  But all while getting ready for school she kept saying it more and more.  While walking to the bus stop she was in tears, so I told her she could stay home for an hour and see if she felt better and then I'd take her to school.  She did start to feel better, so I took her in.  Then 2 hours later I got a call from the school nurse saying she didn't want to eat because her tummy hurt and she was afraid it would make her throw up (I don't think she felt nauseous, I think because of our stomach bug she just associates stomach hurting with throwing up).  I went to the school and talked to the nurse and she said that Ava kept needing to go to the bathroom and that maybe it was a UTI.  So I took her straight over to an urgent care center and they checked her out.  While in the waiting room she had to go to the bathroom 2 more times.  Then we got back to the room and they said they wanted a urine sample.  So I had to help her squeeze a few drops out so they could check.  They said they did find trace amounts of blood, but it wasn't enough to do a culture.  The doctor asked us if we could try one more time to get a urine sample, and the second time she finally squeezed enough out!  They started her on antibiotics, but I guess it takes 3 days for the culture before we find out if it's a UTI for sure.  

I tried to get her to go to school this morning, but again she was crying all the way to the bus stop so I let her stay home.  After half an hour she said she was okay, so I got her in the car to take her to school.  We didn't even make it to the end of our street before she said she had to go to the bathroom, so I turned around and kept her at home.  

I sent her teacher a message apologizing for all the school Ava has missed already and that this isn't normal for our kids to miss so much school.  She said it's been a bad year for sickness and the whole class hasn't been there at the same time for weeks.  So Ava and I got some more bonding time and we spent the day going over letters and letter sounds and sight words. 

While I was at home going over all the letters I thought "Maybe I could do home school".  And then I realized I was working with just one child and that child was my most easy going and it would be much different if I had all three, so I'm okay sending her back to school on Monday.  

On a happier note, I had my yearly physical this week.  I got my bloodwork done which I always get nervous about.  But everything was great!  So that made me feel a lot better.  And it was really nice not having to take the girls with me.  This is the first time in a long time that I haven't had to take a child with me to the doctor and it made the whole experience much more peaceful.  I love my kids, but it's very hard to keep a couple 5 year old's entertained at a doctors office!

In between rehearsals and doctor visits, I did manage to dehydrate 2 rounds of apples!  My mom and the mom of David's cello student both gave me a ton of apples.  I love using my dehydrator because it makes the house smell so good.  I've used it for bananas, tomatoes, and apples.  Whenever I get some more time, I would also like to try making fruit jerky.  Maybe once my kids develop their immune systems a little more and aren't home sick all the time I'll break out my dehydrator more and use it to make all sorts of fun snacks!