if it weren't for them darn kids....

I'm not a bad person- really.

It's not my fault.

Today a piano tuner came to the house to tune our two pianos. This piano was a huge investment for us. It was delivered on Megan's 12 birthday, so I'll never forget when we got it. We searched for a piano for a year- one we could afford to replace the $600 piece of junk we had. We had come to a cross road.

Megan's teacher told us she had to quit or we had to get a better piano... ours was ruining her ear. AFter all our searching we found this one on a sale & knew immediately it was the one- it was the right price (thousands less than what we had looked at) with all the beauty, sound, & class that would make our children want to play.
We dutifully had it tuned several times over the first year & several more the next 3--

we payed for someone to move it when we moved into this house & immediately had it tuned again. That was 9 years ago & that's when the tunings STOPPED.

BLame it on me... blame it on money... I don't know?

I just didn't get it done!

Brett's parents brought us a second piano- we inherited #2 from his grandmother. He's a little upright that lives in the office. He has served us well. It's much quiter when life is busy to practice in the office- plus two kids can practice at once. That does happen - really. But- we never had him tuned.

Well,

everything was fine until today...

Today the piano tuner came.

A nice round man with a VERY thick Italian accent. I was off at the elementary reading with kids. I should have know it was going to be a long day when Jack met me at the garage door to tell me- I was gonna Love this guy- he's hilarious! Uh Oh....?

He spent the next three and a half hours tuning away.

That is- inbetween coming into the kitchen to tell me that

" I musta getta thisa instrumenta tuned. every. year. mamm."

He brought me every. single. item. that did not belong... bobby pins, paper clips, rings, paper, ribbon.

With a hearfelt plee....

"PLEAse mam, donta letta the children putta the toys in the instrumente."

I told him to no avail- that it's not my fault.

I don't even wear bobby pins- it's the children.

I try to tell them.

They don't understand "the instrument."

I explained- I love the instrument, I do- it's the children. They practice a lot- but they are irresponsible. I try-- but whatta canna mama do..a?

"I can getta the instrumenta tuned every year ... and cleaned to."

"So mucha dusta in the instrumente can cause the asthma, the breathing problems, even the high blood pressure. Clean the instrument mamm- not for me.. but becausea the a moth & the mice coulda live in the instrumente if it is dirty. This ees a professionally instrumente!"

What the hell?

If mice start livin in the piano- I've got more problems than just the toys dude.

I've gotta sinus headache.

hailey just got home skipping a test she's not ready for-

jack has been asleep on the couch for most of the tuning fun-

I'm ballet driver & brett's out of town-

and it's early out day which means trent will be here any second.

Dang- it's only 1:00 and it's already been a long day.