Oboe Joe

I would like to introduce you to my nephew Joe. He attends the University of Minnesota where he studies the oboe. He will graduate this year. Joe is a talented young musician. Has performed as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies.



Joe is currently the Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. He also plays with the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of the West Bank Winds Woodwind Quintet. Joe has a private teaching studio and is co founder and oboe instructor of the 4th Street Music Collective. This is just to name a few of his amazing dedication to music. He has pursed this since he was young and remained dedicated to playing the oboe. He also has a great singing voice and plays the piano well. His love though is the oboe.



Joe has been auditioning at schools for undergraduate school. He auditioned at Julliard and Yale. There was one other but I forgot what school that was. We are all so very proud of Joe and his accomplishments. The good news is in, Joe was accepted to Yale! What a great accomplishment for him.



I taking a road trip with my youngest sister this weekend. I haven't left the state for at least ten years. We are heading up to Minneapolis to hear Joe perform as a soloist with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra on Sunday. I will get to see my oldest sister, Joe's mom. My younger sister's daughter and her only grandchild live in St. Paul so we will see them too. They are forecasting snow Friday night and Sat. around here, I will be so disappointed if the weather wrecks our plans. Check this out about Joe's upcoming guest solo.

A Man of Few Words, But a Man With Many Names

My husband Pete was a man of few words. He was quiet and a little bashful. I' m chatty and a bit crazy! They say opposites attract and I think that's true. Well, as you know I have posted some things about my hubby Pete, but that's not his real name. I was introduced to him through a friend of mine that I worked with back in 1985. Pete was a friend of her husbands, she thought Pete was cute, but warned me that he was really quiet especially around people that he didn't know. He was pretty darn cute and a really nice guy but he was quiet and shy. It was like pulling teeth to get him to say much. That got better overtime, but he still wasn't a big talker in big crowds of people he didn't know, he wasn't one to start a conversation with a stranger. Let me explain the man of many names. Pete, not his real name, but that is what I called him. His name is James. Since I was introduced to him and all his friends called him Pete, that is what I called him. So my family and most folks I knew called him Pete. His family and everyone at his workplace knew him as Jim. I dated him for four years before we got married and it was to hard to start calling him Jim. I did however call him Jim on occasion and James if I really wanted his attention. I have confused lots of people when I would refer to him as Pete and then once in a while I would say Jim. People would give me a strange look, like perhaps I had more than one man in my life. The doctor called him Jim, his nurse called him Pete. My poor husband had to answer to lots of names. When he was in the hospital before he passed, I had called my Pastor and told him that they had to put Jim on a ventilator, he was coming to pray with us. My Pastor knew him as Jim. The next time I called my Pastor and told him that we were going to take Pete off the ventilator as soon as all of us had gathered, as the Pastor was coming to be with us when that happened. I was an emotional mess at that time. The Pastor said well ok, but who is Pete? I bet he thought I was either totally gone or I had two men in my life. I think it is funny now, I think back and remember he sounded so puzzled, like he didn't know what to say. Of course I had to give a brief explanation on who Pete was. I think he breathed a sigh of relief!

Previous Post!

I just posted and I have this long empty space before you can get down to the comments. I don't know how to fix it. So if your going to comment you'll have to scroll down through the empty space to comment. How did that happen? I wish I was smart enough to figure it out!



I forgot this important news. The insurance company came through, finally!!

What were you doing 27 years ago on this day?

What were you doing on March 11, 1982? This is me in March of 1982. I am fat and pregnant with my third child. I was 27 years old. Tom and I were poor. We had 2 other children, Seth almost 6 and Emily 3. We lived in a two bedroom apartment in Omaha. Note the awful hairdo! What was I thinking. I had always had long hair and this was the first experiment with short hair. A shag haircut!

This is the early morning of March 11, 1982. I am having my coffee and making a list for my mother-in-law. I am in labor. I am reassuring my oldest son Seth, that mommy is going to the hospital to have our new baby. Those days we didn't know if it was a girl or a boy. He was a little worried about his mommy. Emily was sleeping and Tom went to get his mother to stay with the kids.

This is a lovely photo of me. I spent the morning and a good part of the day in very hard labor. With not much progress they decided to do a Cesarean Section. I was put out and never felt a thing after that! Thank God! Andy was born at 2:46pm. at St. Joseph's Hospital in Omaha, Ne. I spent 5 days at the hospital. I had hemorrhaged into my abdomen overnight, I had to have 3 units of blood the next day, I was on stand by surgery so I never got to eat. Two days later at supper, they brought food to me. Then the doctor came and said Andy had congenital cranial steno sis. He was born without a soft spot on his head and his skull was fused already. This meant that when his brain grew his head would grow long and social pressure would be hard for him. So at age 6 weeks he had surgery on his skull to open the suture line in the skull that would allow his brain to grow and his head to be a normal shape. That is a story to be told another time. I could not eat after that upsetting news.

Andrew is born. He doesn't look to happy. He weighed 10lbs 5 0z. He was one big baby! I did have my one tube tied after this. My babies got bigger every time and I was not going to ever give birth to a 12 pounder!

This is my baby Andrew John, 5 days old getting ready to leave the hospital. He is going home to meet his brother and sister. Andy was a very good baby. I just can't believe that my baby is 27 years old today. Happy Birthday Andy!

Tom and I divorced when Andy was 3 years old. Pete is the only Dad that Andy really knew. Tom has not seen Andy since age 10. He wouldn't know him if they ever ran into each other.

Note: Yesterday, March 10th would have been me and Pete's 20 year anniversary.

I haven't been reading blogs lately, I haven't been feeling well, have been having some cardiac tests this week. I am falling apart all of the sudden. I will try to get caught up with my reading soon. I thought I would do better at posting this month. This is the first one!

Birthday Boys

I have been really bad about finding time to post and read blogs this month. I hope that I can get caught up over the weekend. I took today off to try to make some contacts once again with my hubby's life insurance. Last I heard they were to mail out the check over a week ago last Wed., haven't got it yet! I have trouble catching up with the guy who is supposed to be handling this. First he said he didn't get information sent last Oct. I had my nephew in law call him, he's an attorney, then we started to hear from the insurance guy. We resent the information again. Then he said he didn't have the death certificate, which was sent in October, so we sent another one. This crap is taking a long time. I just want to be finished with it. I am sharing with you a short photoshow of the Birthday Boys. Cain was 12 on Feb. 17th, he belongs to my oldest son. Jacob was 12 on Jan. 28th, he is Seth's girlfriends son. So I have attended a couple of birthday parites for the boys. Jacob is the darker hair, smaller boy and Cain is the bigger boy. So please check out my newest production Birthday Boys!

Junk Mail

I am sure that everyone receives their share of Junk Mail. Call me strange but I like junk mail. Some of it is fun to look at and it certainly is better than bills. I received this in the mail the other day, just an insurance agent marketing for house insurance. I really didn't pay to much attention to it. But just as I was about to throw it away, I noticed the picture of the house on the front with the lovely Magnolia tree in bloom. Well I guess he has been taking photos of houses, because the house of this piece of mail is my little house! I scanned this so I don't know if you will be able to see it that good. Do you like Junk Mail??

Alive and Well, Ok sort of!

My computer is finally fixed. I am way behind on reading blogs and posting for this month. My son took me out for supper last Saturday. We went to Omaha to the Cheesecake factory and we had a nice time. Seth loves to go out to eat and he loves to try new and different things. I feel better today, I had a terrible week. Work stressed me out terribly this week, I had a meltdown. I took a vacation day yesterday, but we had to close anyway due to the snow storm. My boss happened to call me at work on Thursday, that was the day of the meltdown. He called really to touch base on the budget. I had him on the phone so I opened my mouth and let everything flow. He was very encouraging and he told me I am way to hard on myself. I fell like I should be making more progress at work, but it is a tough place with staff who don't follow directives or don't think they need to be accountable. I try not to let work stress me that much and I try to remain calm, but the week just didn't let me do that! Feb. 10th last week was 5 months that my honey passed away. I know that was in the back of my mind. It seems like only a few weeks ago, but 5 months already! It doesn't seem possible. I guess an occasional melt down is ok. He said I don't have as many as the other directors do! After the phone call he said , why don't you just get out of there and go home. It was only a half hour early, so I grab my purse and ran for the door!! I have Monday off , I so need a break from that place!! Hopefully, I can catch up on checking in on all of you! Somebody Loves me, my youngest son and his girlfriend left me an orchid plant, it was nice surprise to wake up to on this Valentine's day.