June after Europe

How do you recover after a 2-week trip to Europe?? Let me know if you find a good way. Although really, things went pretty well for us. For one thing, I was expecting Ashlyn to be a total bear towards us when we got back. And it would be well-deserved! But to our total surprise, she was a complete angel. Couldn't give us enough hugs and kisses, and seemed just so, so happy that we were together again as a family. I kept waiting for her to get over it.....and get on to being ornery.....but it never came! I would say her extreme enthusiasm for us being home lasted about a full week, and then after that she was still her usual, happy self. Whew! Can't believe how we lucked out and dodged that bullet! 

I made sure to teach her a few very important facts: 1. What the Eiffel Tower looks like, and 2. That it's in Paris. Ask her and she'll tell you!

After our trip I had the rest of the not-fun task of sending my students off to new homes. Most of them had already been able to find new teachers before or while I was gone, but some struggled. I wanted to take that as a compliment because I was glad to see that they were so happy with my teaching....but....really it just seemed to add to my emotions and heart break about leaving my awesome studio and Boise! I was an emotional wreck for like, the entire 6 weeks after our Europe trip until we got moved to Jerome. I cried like every day. Such a fun time. Very mixed feelings! ANYWAYS, back to the piano students. I tried to be as helpful as I could with helping them find teachers that were a good fit for them. As I did this I learned a few things about my own studio. Mainly that I was NOT charging nearly enough for all the stuff I did for my students! For REAL! Most of my students ended up going to "easier" teachers. Teachers who are great and nice, but not super trained, not really involved in local music events and competitions, etc. And you know why? Because their fees were comparable to mine. Most all of the local teachers I felt were comparable to me in terms of certification, experience, involvement in student events, etc., were charging AT LEAST 30% more per month than I was. UGH! Annoying mainly in 2 ways- 1)Understandably, it was hard for most of my piano families to commit to make a leap in cost for piano lessons like that. So they didn't go to these more serious teachers, but instead found cheaper, less-serious ones. And 2)Why the heck wasn't I charging MORE?! :)

Ashlyn had a good time with these extra stickers she found while I was packing up piano stuff.

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes! I became the box stalker! Anyone who had them, I tracked them down and took them! I'm happy to say we probably paid like $5.00 total for boxes with our entire move. Not too bad considering we boxed up EVERYTHING.