Brian Regan at his best!

This is Nick

My first post is about my first real job: teaching music.

I teach a 6th grade band, junior high band, high school band, junior high choir, high school choir, and an elite show choir, with pep band on the side. It's not hard though, some of the kids read music.

I just did a big instrument presentation for the 6th graders considering playing in the band. I just thought back to how Dad did it when I was little. I'm proud to say that I safely performed the trombone "racecar" that Dad was famous for. And because of my horrible performance of saxophone, I won't have a lot of sax players. (But I have a load of trumpet players.)

I've been teaching for about 4 days so far and it has been very enjoyable. Kids have learned my real title of Mr. Germer (instead of Lord Germer like in Ogden). I've been able to lay down the law in my classes as I enforce my rules. The toughest part is trying to find fun music in our school library. We've got loads of music, but about 90% of it is either too boring/hard/easy/stupid/and/or/christmasy.

My first big challenge has been a concert/fundraiser that I've been planning. After sending out letters to parents with the concert date I was notified that it was conflicting with another important school event. So now I have to send out another letter to the parents with a revision.

Libby has done something amazing!

For any of you that know the hard time I have had with Libby going to sleep on her own....tonight we had a breakthrough. I was searching online about 4 days ago and came across a blog. A woman had the same issues and she saw a program on TV about it and suggested a method. So I tried it.

Here is how it goes:

The first night, you establish a routine with them. Bath time, PJ's, stories, in the same order every night. Then have ten minutes with them, and you get in the crib with them. This is really a weird step, but it makes sense if you think about. Before we would just lay her in her crib and let her cry herself to sleep for an hour at night which made her associate the crib as being an unsafe place to sleep. So by climbing in there with her she sees me in there, and now it feels safe because she can picture mom in there with her. Then you get out, snuggle and kiss her and lay her down in the crib and leave. You let her cry for 3 minutes, then go in and snuggle her for no longer than 2 minutes. (we are at 5 minutes total now). Then you lay her down and wait 5 minutes and do the same thing, then 10 minutes. The first night I had to do 3, 5 and two tens and she was asleep on her own. So that totals to be about 36 minutes until she is asleep on her own. That is a lot better than an hour of screaming, and maybe, if your lucky she will fall asleep.

The next night you do everything the same except get into her crib. You sit on the floor by the crib. This night I did 3, 5 and one ten.

The next night everything the same but don't sit by the crib, just hold her and snuggle her, then lay her in bed. (3, 5, 10, 10)

Tonight there was no crying. She rolled over and went to sleep. This works and I am so happy that we have found a better, more peaceful solution for Libby and for us. Well that is it, thank you and good night. He he.

The Real Pit Bull

I decided that after all of the goofy stuff we posted we should probably post something worthwhile. I was looking online and I found a really cool website about "the real pit bull." We get a lot of critisizm for owning a pit bull so I think this website will help anybody that might be misinformed about the breed. It is http://http://www.therealpitbull.com/
I cannot see how in the world anyone could see Chio as a mean dog. She would lick your face off before she would hurt you. She sure loves to chew though. We bought her a bone of rawhide. I bought the biggest one thinking that it would last her a couple of weeks. It is almost gone and I gave it to her this morning! Well that is all, thanks for reading, and I hope this blog was somewhat informative......well I can't find the camera to take her picture, so I guess I will do that later.

krys' sibs

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