Saturday, February 5, 2011

Self-Improvement

My new years resolution was to start learning again. I feel like since I've finished college and stopped teaching, I do very little to expand my brain. Plus I wanted to try some "new" things and improve myself in attainable ways.

So I talked it over with Jared who was totally supportive, talked to my friend Melissa about teaching me, and started piano lessons the end of last month. I've only had 2 lessons so far, but I love it!

At my second lesson

I'm playing out of the book Melissa used when she was 5 years old, so the songs are titled things like "Bone Sweet Bone" and "Mr. Frog Likes to Hop," but I find them a perfect challenge. I practice everyday using my friend Keegan's keyboard that she was so nice to lend me. My goal is to eventually be adequate at playing hymns and Christmas carols.

This just goes to show that moms are usually right. When I quit piano lessons when I was in my tweens or so my mom warned me that I'd regret it. I swore I wouldn't, but I do. I really, really do. I should have stuck with it when I was playing on her money. Hee hee But at least I'm learning now.

I'm also starting Spanish lessons with my new visiting teacher and friend, Blanca. We do a swap. She helps me with Spanish, and I "help" her with English. So far we've only gotten together one time, but we're meeting again this Monday, and hopefully we'll be able to keep it up every Monday.

I've also started running again. I'm up to running 2 miles about 5 times a week and have gotten to the point where going that far doesn't make me feel like I'm going to pass out. So that's progress too.

It's so nice to finally have something about MYSELF to blog about!

4 comments:

Michelle said...

You sound like me. My mom said the same thing to me when I quit piano. I started taking lessons about four years ago and did it for two years, but quit again once I had Halle. I don't have a piano and it just got too hard taking kids over to my in-laws to practice. I used an adult piano book. It started easy, but got hard quick. Good luck. You are inspiring me to try again.

The Rasmussen Family said...

Oh my gosh! ME TOO! I regret quitting lessons...You've inspired me...I should go back and learn to play! Awesome job Stac!

Amber said...

I'm proud of you!! You're the girl the girl the girl that is the one that rocks my world!!

p.s. The word of the day is scelyp. Mostly that just sounds like an exaggeration of slip, like if it was a really bad one so it was a s-a-lip. Does that make sense?

Sara said...

I want to start piano lessons!!! and spanish lessons, and running for that matter. That is so awesome! Love you!