Emma is the sweetest little girl ever.  Since I've been so sick lately I've been taking naps occasionally.  The other morning I was fading out, on accident, on the couch.  Emma turned off all of the lights downstairs, turned on the bathroom fan (she knows I like white noise when I sleep), brought me a phone and blanket, and then she went upstairs to her room, closed the door, and played.  She certainly is a mother at heart.  Of course, I woke up to her singing Frozen songs at the top of her lungs an hour later in her room, but even that was still cute.

I've talked with some friends who have had clogged ears, and they all said it lasted a couple of months.  Joy.  At least the pain is starting to die down.  I guess I'll just have to get used to hearing out of one ear for a while.  But, I'm still going to see an ENT just to make sure there's nothing that can be done.

Errolyn auditioned for the Middle School orchestra yesterday.  She's still a beginner, but she's way better than the other 5th grade string players and doesn't want to be stuck with the other kids playing super easy music in the 6th grade orchestra.  The 5th grade strings teacher doesn't teach them anything, but plays on his computer and just tells them to practice something.  I volunteered one week to kind of show him how to teach and to help the kids (he's a choir teacher and knows nothing about violin).  Errolyn said the practice after I taught, the choir teacher had them open the book and all play together and was going over my instruction sheet I'd left on posture and technique.  She was excited that he was teaching them something.  But then the next 6 rehearsals he did nothing again.  So, she dropped out.  I normally don't let my kids quit things in the middle of the year once they've committed, but the teacher obviously is not committed to helping the students at all, so I let her drop out as long as she promised to have lessons with me instead.  She agreed and has improved a lot.  She'll find out what orchestra she'll make in a week or two.  The Orchestra Director said she's automatically good enough to make the Upper Intermediate Orchestra, but depending on how the other auditioners do, she may even make the Lower Advanced Orchestra.