Johanna Speaks

Last Sunday, I played violin for our church! It was my brother Nicholas playing guitar and our friend, Abbygail, playing the piano and I playing the violin. Abbygail usually plays the violin, but since the person who plays the piano was gone on vacation with her husband, Abbygail took over because she is a perfect piano player. But when the people return from their vacation, Abbygail will go back to playing the violin, and we might play together for church. And apparently, they won't be back for about one month or so. 

Last Sunday was my first time playing for the church! It was a lot of fun! And it sounded great! And this Sunday, I will play again, hopefully.

 Nicholas is the one who picks out the music each Sunday for us. They have been easy to play so far. I have to practice every day, so I get it all right. Tuesdays, the church has bible study, and usually, everybody who is learning how to play an instrument comes, and we practice the songs for Sunday. So we get there, practice songs for church then, eat, then have bible study, then go home. Tuesday's Bible studies are really fun to attend. The Bible study itself is really great! I mean the dinner is too! But the Bible study is also great! :)

Thanks for reading this blog post! There will be more! :)

I went to a horse expo with my sister Noelle and her sister-in-law, Elliana. It was a lot of fun going there! There were a lot of different horses! They had such beautiful hair!! There was even archery too! That was probably my favorite thing to watch. Two girls around my age were on horses, and at a trot, they would have their bows ready and then shoot at the target. They would always hit the target and not miss. I took a lot of videos and pics of the expo. I will put them down here below. They would also have a show where they would bring out a lot of horses, then have them trotting around and around, and there would be a lady speaking into a microphone and talking about the horse and where it comes from. Near the end of the horse expo, they brought out beautiful Friesians! I also took pic and vid of that too! Here they are!

Today is going to be the last day of Spanish!! I am going to be so sad when it's over! Well, we are starting up again at the end of August. But that's going to be so far away! :( And right now, I am in Coffee Theory writing this. We usually go to Coffee Theory on Tuesdays because that's the day we care for our dementia patient! :) So today, we are also going to be doing that! Well, back to Spanish class. :)

 So yesterday, we had Spanish class as usual, but this time he asked us if we liked songs, so we said yeah, we did, and then he put on a Spanish song for us then began to sing along with it. Then he went through the words he sang and asked us what does this mean or this means. Oh, and then in the story, we were supposed to be frustrated because we didn't have a Cocola. So we literally had to act like raging angry! Simeon and I did it and a few of the boys did it but the rest of the girls didn't do it because it would be too embarrassing. And I am going to have the Spanish class in the coffee shop, and I sooo hope we don't have to act frustrated! Because that would be embarrassing at the coffee shop! I am fine in our house doing it but not at a coffee shop. Just no. 

Can't wait, though, until the end of August! It's been so much fun doing Spanish Class! And during our break, we are supposed to be reading for two hours every week if we can. He said we didn't have to, but it would definitely help us with our Spanish a lot. 

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So recently, I just switched out my violin for a rustic looking one because I love the way those look, and the one that I got almost has a warmer tone to it. It's not as high-pitched as my other one. So I think it's way better than the one I had. And these are the reasons why this one is way better. 

1. This has a warmer tone to it and is not as high-pitched as the other one. And I like it that way.

2. It looks AMAZING!!

3. And the bow looks and feels better. 

4. It has a hygrometer on the inside of the case, so it tells you if it's too hot or something, and my other one didn't have that. 

5. It's just amazing!!

When I first tried it, it felt more slippery. Like the bow started to slip more easily. But after I played it more, I got used to it. I am still renting this one. All I did was switch violins. The one that I just got was $500, but the one that I used to have was $287. I haven't bought them but renting. I also tried learning a super hard song called "Swallowtail Jig." I learned a little part of it. But it is seriously really hard to play. I recorded myself playing a tiny part of it. I will put it here and the song also. 

Here's the song:

And here's a little bit of me trying to play. She's going like super fast in the video above! I am going slow but going that speed really hard for me already. So don't judge! :)

My mom and I visited a lady who has dementia. I did a blog post a while ago about her. And of course, again, I won't actually say her name but only the last letter of her last name because of privacy. :) 

Well, for a while, my mom and I have been going on Tuesdays to Mr. and Mrs. M's house to take care of Mrs.M while her husband went out for bible study because Mrs.M might try to get out of the house and walk anywhere or do other things in the house that may be bad. So we usually go to their house, watch her, give her breakfast, and make sure she is occupied with things. Sometimes she can get aggressive with things. But that is part of having dementia. Whenever we go to their house, she usually says random things and sometimes gets aggressive with things, but my mom tries to give her another thing or change the subject so she doesn't get too aggressive! But also, saying things out of the blue is part of dementia, sadly.

Recently, Mr.M had to take Mrs.M to a caretaker place for people who has dementia because it was getting hard for him to take care of her every day. So for about four weeks, she has been at Willow Springs. And he visits her every day. Last Tuesday, we decided to visit her at Willow Springs. It was, I think, around 2:00 PM when we visited her. We visited her around that time because her husband said that was the time she usually walked around. So when we got there, we asked somebody working there where Mrs. M would be at.  They started to look, and then a different worker said she just sent her to her room. So we got shown into her room. And there we saw Mrs.M! My mom said, "Hi, it's Renee and Johanna here to visit you." She doesn't know who we really are, but that's because of, again, dementia. We had brought some hymns to sing with her because she liked to sing hymns when we usually bring some. So we started to sing with her for at least an hour, and then we asked her if she wanted to read a kid's bible story that we had brought or would like us to read it to her. She didn't respond. And then we asked her if she wanted to sing more, and she said sure. So we started to sing again. But after two songs, she didn't want to sing anymore. 

She said, "It's embarrassing not to remember things." We looked a little surprised at what she had said because she never actually talked much when we watched her. And she also said she knew she had dementia, and it's always hard for her to remember things. Ok, this was super weird! She was telling us that she knew she had dementia! And when you have dementia, you can't really think and can't remember things and say random things that pop up in your head. So for her to say that was amazing! And by the way, this lady was in her 70's! My mom started to ask if she knew her mom since her mom and Mrs.M were close friends a while ago. She said she can't remember. So my mom started to tell her stories of when Mrs.M had her first baby, and she got to watch it. And about her mom. And we even showed her a picture of my mom's mom, Mr. and Mrs.M, and some other friends in a picture together. Mrs.M said they looked familiar to her but can't remember them. My mom said, "That's ok. Do you remember anything of your parents?" Mrs.M said she and her parents had taken her to the beach in a trailer when she was really young once. But that was the only thing she could remember about that. For her to remember something that happened such a long time ago was crazy! It was like almost talking to a person who didn't have dementia! My mom told her that every Tuesday, she and I would go over there super early in the morning to take care of you while Mr.M was at bible study so that if you woke up, she wouldn't have to worry about where was Mr.M. Then she said, I feel so bad for my husband. He has to put up with me. And still, he is with me even when I have dementia. She said she was so glad to have us take care of her and to have a husband like Mr. M. 

At that, tears started to come up. I tried forcing them down, but I just wanted to cry.  It was so sweet to hear her say that. I wasn't sure if I was the only one crying or not, and then my mom looked at me and said, it's so hard not to cry. My mom asked Mrs.M if there was something she can pray for her about. She said that her memory would return and that her back would stop hurting. So my mom started to pray. And after she prayed, Mrs.M asked my mom if there was anything she could pray for her about. My mom said all her kids would marry, have happy families, and be Christians all their lives. So when Mrs.M started to pray, she asked what her kids' names were. So my mom said to repeat after her, Jonathan, Caleb, Nicholas, Noelle, Gideon, Simeon, Ezra, Johanna, and Sophie. After Mrs.M said everything, she said, I can't remember all those names! It's ok, my mom said, laughing. And she started to pray, and I closed my eyes, and the tears just reappeared again! I could control my tears better if I had kept my eyes open. :) So I did. And for some reason, whenever I looked out the window, I could definitely control my tears! Just looking out the window made me happy. Anyways, enough about tears. ;) 

After Mrs.M prayed, we walked to the door and were about to say goodbye when my mom asked her what she would do. Walk around in the hall or try falling asleep. What do you want to do?  Mrs.M said that she was afraid to go out into the hall because she might not be able to go back to her room and might go into a different room on accident because she can't remember. So my mom said she would try to help her with that. So we walked into the hall and showed her that a picture of her face would be right outside her room. Then she said, I look so ugly! My mom said no, you don't. So we had her walk to the middle of the living room that was in the place, and then asked her, now, which way would you think your room would be? She went in the right direction. Also, there were like four different directions she could have gone, but she did go in the right direction! We told her before you go into a room, look at the picture next to the room and see if your picture is one of them. 

She actually started to go into almost every room without looking at the pictures first! We told her we don't want her to go into a different room by accident! And when she looked at a picture that wasn't hers, she said, that's the ugliest face I have ever seen! My mom and I chuckled to ourselves and then said ok, now is that your picture or not. She said it wasn't and then went to the next door to see the picture. Is this your picture my mom asked. No, she said. And so on until we went to her door and asked if that was her picture. She started to be saying no, but my mom said you sure? Look at it closer. Does it look like you? Then she said it was. So she went into her room. Then my mom said, if you still can't find your room, ask one of the workers here for help. They know where your room is. My mom knew she wouldn't remember that but just said it anyway.

 She and I said goodbye, and Mrs.M started to hug me. She actually had never done that before. We would usually hug her, and she would stand there. But this time, she started to hug me. And she even started to smile! And said thank you for your help and for visiting. It was just so sweet! It was like a whole new person! She never smiles, by the way. I know that sounds bad, but she wasn't mean all the time. That was not why she doesn't smile. She just didn't. It was rare to see her smile. She used to before she had dementia and all. So it's just super sweet to see her smile. She even asked me what grade I was in! For her to be talking and smiling and all of that! Man, it was just crazy! I was so glad I was there! Well, we said goodbye to her and headed out the door. We also told her we would return next Tuesday to visit her again! She said she was excited about that!  

Thank you for reading my blog post! Leave comments! Bye!