Whew! got a lot done today

I've got the 4 boxes I need to get mailed all packed and ready to go to the post office in the morning- hopefully it won't be too terribly busy and the girls and I can get in and out. Here's also hoping they have trays of cookies out too so I can bribe them into behaving if necessary! It's always so much work to get everything wrapped up and packed and out the door in time, and then we just have to wait and see if the post office can actually deliver them in a timely manner.

I was really really pleased with how all of my scrapbook pages and calendars turned out this year. I swear the quality from the copy shop has improved each year. I have them printed on a glossy cardstock, and this year they look just as good as the ones I print at home on photo paper- and at 43 cents a page it's a bargain (love that bulk discount they give me)! The gal who checked me out, and did all of my page trimming, said they had a new color copier that was great, and I would certainly agree. I paid a pretty hefty amount to have everything trimmed for me, but considering how many hours and how much pain it would have caused me to trim 566 pages myself I definitely think it was worth it LOL!

And on the concert front, I figured out why I was having so much trouble with the high notes today. During the break in the first rehearsal for the concert in September, my swab got stuck in the top piece of my oboe while I was cleaning it out. I sat through the rest of the rehearsal and just fingered the keys and when Mr. Hunt asked why I wasn't playing I had to show him that silk swab hanging out of my oboe- Can you say "embarassing?" I took it to the repair shop and they removed the swab in time for the concert that weekend, but I was having trouble with the high notes and couldn't figure why. So, after the concert I took it back in and told them to look at it and clean it up since who knows how long it had been since that was done. I realized today that one of the octave keys must be clogged up still- not happy that that was what was wrong since I had paid to have them fix it :( After practicing this afternoon and not having any more luck than usual, I realized that it didn't make any difference whether I had that octave key pushed down or not- any changes in octave I had were from me changing the pressure on the reed. That is just unreliable and totally exhausting! So, I did a daring thing and took the octave key off myself and cleaned out the hole with a small piece of wire- wow that hole is tiny too! Definitely a scary thing since I can recall a couple of occasions in years past where just tightening a screw too much messed everything up and nothing would play. I got it back together and practicing was oh so much easier after that! I could sail up to that high C without having to panic about whether or not it was going to come out.

The first rehearsal with the orchestra last night went pretty well, all in all, considering my high note troubles. The gal who will be playing first oboe and all of the english horn parts (I've always wanted to try the english horn!) was not able to come to practice. She plays with the Air Force Band, so I heard her play Monday night when we went to their concert, and they had a recording session scheduled. Since she wasn't there I got to play all of the solos- I was thankful I had been practicing them! It was good though, and now the Sunday practice and performance will be better since I can hit high Cs with confidence again ;) We will have to see how things work out for dividing up the solo stuff, since I haven't met this gal before. My mom just sent me an email forward from the director and he says they have now sold 1300 tickets for the concert and they expect to sell out in the next two days- max is 1500 for the building- big huge ACK!! I have never played in front of so many people before, and to have this be for Michael Card too- can you say major stress??!! I would appreciate all of your prayers Sunday afternoon and evening!

Oh, and I got layout number 261 done this morning too using the gorgeous A Snowy Morning collab by Corina, Kate and Anne at FPD.

credits: A Snowy Morning by Corina Nielsen, Kate Hadfield and Anne DeJong at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; Alphapalooza Stampers by Corina Nielsen at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; On the Edge Frame Cluster by Nancy Comelab at The-LilyPad
fonts: CK Becky

Now if only the Christmas newsletter would write itself and all of the envelopes address and stamp themselves too, I'd really be happy. Santa's elves are welcome to stop by my house one night and wrap all of the kids' gifts up for me too ;)