Music Recital

Tonight was the big night of Madison's piano recital.  She performed without hesitation, actually rushing up to the keyboard to play for the audience - and we were so proud of her!  She played "Mr. Snail," which required the use of two hands, and she did it very well.  Immediately afterwards, she sang a song, "Hide and Seek," as Mrs. Pam played keyboard to accompany her.  The other students performed solos as well, but the evening also had group performances.  For example, the night's production began with all the children singing a song from the original Dr. Doolittle musical.  The grand finale had Madison playing keyboard with a few other children, and the remaining children playing percussion instruments to accompany her.  It was her first orchestra performance, and she did very well.  She was quite comfortable, and not at all nervous.  This may be in part because of all the practice that she's put into the big event - but a lot of credit should also go to Mrs. Pam, who is an excellent teacher, who makes the kids feel quite comfortable as they play or sing.

Tonight, all the grandparents were present in the audience, plus Mommy and Daddy.  It was a short event, but one we were all glad to attend.  Again, Madison did very well and we're so very proud of her!

In fact, afterwards, it was time for an ice cream treat!  Mommy had printed out a coupon for a free Blizzard, so we all went to Dairy Queen after the big event and had ourselves some ice cream.  For the record, Daddy's favorite Blizzard flavor has always been chocolate covered cherry, even though sometimes they don't get the mixing just right.  Madison tried a M&M's Blizzard, and appeared able to eat the entire thing without any problem whatsoever.  You could put her in front of Fudge Mountain, and she'd attempt to eat the entire thing!

Nana and Ba-Ba did quite a bit of work at the old house today, fixing up the garage and more.  Daddy, however, did pretty much nothing.  He's still in recovery mode, and apparently will be for another week.  Symptoms are fatigue and large amounts of soreness still.  Future doctor visits on this Monday will hopefully clear things up further - Mommy made those calls just today.  The two doctors' offices were supposed to do that, but this is the future we face with red tape and so forth.

Speaking of "so forth," we got the hospital bill today, which was staggering of course.  Insurance hasn't stepped in yet, but it's still such a large number to fathom.  It really makes you think about things.  One of the costs was "supplies," which does not include the medicine (that's listed under "pharmacy," I assume).  Anyway, the "supplies" I used at the hospital were over $1,500!  This prompted me to go back and think about the supplies I used, which included a hospital gown, two of those plastic cups, bed sheets, maybe the IV bags, needles for poking, and here I'm scratching my head trying to come up with other "supplies" that could possibly justify $1,500.  Talk about a rip-off!  If you want to narrow down the problem with helping people medically these days, it pretty much comes down to a bill for $1,500 for supplies.  Obviously, if people are paying too much for simple supplies like this, then you know they're paying way too much elsewhere too.  And who actually pays for all of this?  Not me, of course.  But that $1,500 doesn't just go away either, does it?

Today won't be remembered for a silly hospital bill, of course.  Today was Madison's day to shine - she did so well, and we're so very proud of her.  We're her parents, so we can get slightly repetitious on that!

We would converse in polar bear and python, And we could curse in fluent kangaroo. If people asked us, can you speak in rhinoceros, We'd say, "Of courserous, can't you?"


- from "Dr. Doolittle"