TGIF!! Yes and I really mean it!

What a tough week I had at the school. It was such an unbelievably hard week. One little gal had a grand mal seizure while I was watching her this week. I had never seen one of those before and it scared the daylights out of me. Today that same girl had about 5 small ones. I just can't imagine how long she can live with this condition. The boy I was watching had nothing but bathroom trips that I had to lift him with a lift. He only ate about 3 bites of lunch. He drools and had 2 seizures. I found myself getting more and more depressed as the day went by. I just wanted to bail. I always stick with something but this is more than I can take. Not many people can do a job like this day in and day out.

On a lighter and really happy point in my life is the fact that I now have 4 co written songs done in the month of August. That is a real big deal for me since I have been in a real dry spell. I think real exciting things are ahead.

Tonight the whole family went to dinner at Applebees where my daughter works. We wanted to leave her some big tips. She is leaving for college on Sunday. I am sure I will get choked up about that. Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Yea! It is friday!

My idea of a perfect day includes going to a coffee shop and just hanging out. That is what I am going to do this morning before I have to work this afternoon. It is so relaxing and gives me some great thinking time. I feel creative and relaxed in that atmosphere. If you have read my blogs this week you can tell it was a pretty stressful week. I just need some time away from all that. It makes me realize the only time away from the constant needs of a handicapped child for the parents is when they can bring the child to school. It must be so taxing. I still say God bless all the people in these situations.

I am working on 3 different books that I have been writing for quite some time and maybe I can get a little work one on those today. Have a super weekend everyone!

DAY 3

It is the third day for me working in the classroom I am in and it is not getting any better. Today about broke my heart. I was with a little girl that is so precious and beautiful and she obviously will never walk or talk. We put her in a walker and she moved herself about 18 feet in a 30 minute period of time. It is like she just gets a little gripping with the floor and pushes off. This is to just help her be in an upright position at least a little bit each day. Another little fellow moved maybe 1 to 2 steps in the same period of time. It is very sad and depressing. Then after getting back into the room we had a bad bathroom experience. It required clean up. Once again, it is just about more than I can bare. I can't even think of a song at a time like this. I can't think of anything else but this. Sorry to depress any of you.

I am going to go sit at the piano and try and work on another song I am co writing with a new writer from Canada! Have a great night!

I think this is more than I can handle

I think working in the classroom I am working in this week is more than I can handle.
I am so stressed out. Like I said in the last post this is the hardest classroom to work in. For those who have never worked with the handicapped it is the most UNBELIABLE experience you can imagine. God Bless the people who do it full time. I just can not handle it. Today the child I was working with must have been autistic or something. The teachers actually asked me to stand out side the bathroom and tell him to go and not flush when he was done and then I was to look and see if he had a bowel movement and write down on a chart , small, medium or large? Can you imagine this? Most of these children in my opinion belong in a special home. Not is a public school. This child was ok but the rest in the room are severly handicapped. Unable to walk or talk, living life in a wheel chair and mumbling a sound or too. We spend all day wiping drool from their chins and trying keep them from choking or having seizures. I have to say I really think these children are better off in heaven. They have absolutely no quality of life here on earth. Everyday is a struggle just to survive. I just say a little prayer that God's will be done in their situation. I pray that they are healed, even though it would be nothing short of a miracle. God bless the teachers and caregivers who give of themselves in this field. I am not strong enough to be that person.

Today was so hard

School started today. I am back subbing in the handicapped classrooms. I can usually handle it. Today I was sent to the most difficult classroom in the district. I was miserable. Once again this particular teacher greeted me with barely a hello and are you ready to get started here? In a condesending tone. She wheeled me an extremely handicapped boy that must be 10 or 11 and needed his diaper changed. He is in a wheel chair all the time. He doesn't walk or talk and I had to wipe his drool off his chin for hours. Later he had a feeding through his feeding tube that went directly into his stomach. It is all so depressing and makes one really realize the great blessing to be born normal. I do love the kids and don't mind so much the intense care they need. What drives me away is the rudeness displayed towards me being there as a helper. Very unappreciated and taken for granted. It is no wonder they can not keep a teacher helper in that room for long. What a shame to treat someone who is there to help in such manner. Last time I was there last year. A book was thrown at me without explaination and I was told to just figure it out. Figure out how to take care of three handicapped all at once. No one in the room wants to talk to me or answer my questions. It is like I am a ghost in the room and only the children can see me but they can't talk. Well this won't be going on for long.

So how was your day? Any better then this one? It wore me out and I still came home and did two massages and 4 piano lessons.

Another day at the fair

Well I decided to take one more trip to the fair. I didn't think I would go again but my mom was playing the piano for one of the vocalists. I took the shuttle bus. That reminds me why I don't do things like that. haha! Not that it was that bad, but just imagine a ton of people on the bus and a baby restless and crying for most of the ride. I would have rather taken my car and paid for the parking. It was another HOT day. Ugh! I think mom and I got over heated. Mom did a great job playing the piano. Everyone always enjoys her playing.

Got two new country songs done!

Well Natalie and I finished our two country songs today and they will be on their way to Nashville to be demo'ed. I have high hopes that something will come out of them. The songs are called "Weapon of mass seduction" and "Reaching out for you". We would love to get them into the hands of Carrie Underwood and Tim McGraw. Ha! We can dream can't we? Time will tell.

Feeling a bit nauseated this evening. This weather is just tough. So humid. I worked real hard today doing massages and helped my daughter paint the inside of her new house. I am wiped out!

As soon as we get those new songs back I will post them so you all can listen.

Stardust

I just got back a little bit ago from seeing a late movie, it was called "Stardust". It starred Claire Danes and Michelle Pfeiffer. It was a real good movie. It was your basic fairytale story of good verses evil and good guy gets the girl. I love medival movies and find that romantic. I could live without the sorcery but I guess that is part of that time era. Anyhow if you like that kind of stuff go and see it.

Deepest Sympathy to the Harmeyer family

My love and deepest sympathy goes out to the Harmeyer family with the loss of Heather and her friend who both died in a tragic car accident this past friday. Heather leaves behind Stefani, Erin and Cayden. Her friend also leaves behind a child or two. Cadin was in the car with his mother Heather and her companion and survived but has a bad head injury and remains in critical condition in an Iowa City hospital. Please pray for him. Thank you! I am sure the family would appreciate your prayers!

IOWA STATE FAIR 2007

Another year has past and it is now time for the Iowa State Fair again. We went this afternoon and stayed through the evening.First of all let me say I have never felt the heat as bad as I did this evening. I just can't stand feeling that hot and sticky.

After grazing our way through my usual favorites: Pork Chop dinner, Lemonade, a wonder bar, Margarita and a few other things to take home later ha! We made our way to the grand stand for a concert.
One of my clients gave us free tickets down front to see "Blue Oyster Cult" and "Alice Cooper". Most of you know I am not a hard rocker but I graciously accepted the tickets. I thought if anything we could leave early. Which we did. I went with an open mind. I did think the groups had obvious talent. I just don't agree with all that hmmmm how shall I say it? Head banging, screaming kind of music. Alice even acted out a murder on stage and had some person laying up by the drum set who pretended to be dead then later carried off the stage in a stretcher by two dark scary looking people. It was all so bizarre. At least I can say I have seen it.
It is not for me, but I learned a little more about someone different than me.

Meet my new co writer

My new co writer is Natalie Resczencko. She is a great lyricist from right here in Iowa. We are currently writing two country songs together and have REALLY high hopes that they will be hits. It's been a tough road and alot of work but I think it will all be worth it. We will be pitching our songs on the Texas Songwriters Cruise this December.

Pacific Songwriting Competition (I am deeply saddened)

After months if waiting on July 31st I found out that I placed runner up for Songwriter of the year in the Australian Pacific Songwriting Competition. I also had a 2nd place gospel song "Just a little time" and an honorable mention for a pop song I wrote called "Afterthought". I was so elated and excited! I just couldn't believe it.

But then my world of happiness came crashing down the very next day. I logged online to see if the prize money had been posted only to find out the woman named Deborah who was in charge was appologizing for the limited prize money this year. I thought, WHAT?!! The grand prize in all years past was $10,000.00 and next to the country songwriters names was a mesely $200.00. I got nothing next to my name as a runner up. And for my 2nd place win which in years past was $1000.00 I had received $50.00 Australian dollars which turned out to be $41.79 in US funds. Ugh! I had spent $163.00 just to enter all the songs I did. She claims we did not see the prize money list. Hmmmm I highly doubt that. How come numerous of us songwriters all felt the same way? So much the same why that the grand prize winners from Nashville and myself the runner up all declined the money and asked to be removed from her site. Read this link off of google that I pulled off the net.

Web Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 267,000 for 2007 Pacific Songwriting. (0.15 seconds)

Pacific Songwriting Competition - $50 000 Cash and Prizes ...Written by The Pacific Songwriting Competition. Tuesday, 10 July 2007. Image 2007 Winners Announced Here !!!!! on the 31st July 2007 ...
pacificsongwritingcompetition.com/enter/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=63 - 20k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Did I read this wrong? Some of us want to take legal action but with someone hiding out in the outback...lol I doubt that we could find her. But one thing we can do is warn other fellow songwriters not to join this fraudulant competition. It is really sad that a person could do this to songwriters that work so hard at their craft and try and make us sound crazy for asking about the prize money she always boasts about. Now we are being told that we are so ungrateful to not just be happy with the title. The winners and myself being the runner up have declined the $200.00 and the title and had our names withdrawn.

The woman who runs this competition has posted all of our emails to her publically on her website without our permission and refuses to answer our emails any longer. She would never tell us how many people entered, who the judges were, or where the entry fee's and prize money went. She paid out $1,800.00 of the so called $50,000.00 money that was to be paid out.

Beware my fellow songwriters. This was my first sting in 13 years of songwriting competitions. Hopefully my last!

Sadness over the Bridge collapsing

My heart goes out to all the friends and families involved in the Minneapolis bridge collapsing incident. I feel so bad that this awful event has happened. It was just so shocking to see video footage of this. I can't imagine what is was like for those trapped underneath it all. How horrific. God is with all these people. I know that. I live about 4 to 5 hours driving distance from where this happened.

Things are fairly uneventful around here. Just getting ready for school to start and for my daughter to head off to college. It will be so exciting for her. That's about it for now. Just enjoying the sound of locus in the night air. Ahhhh I love this time of year.