Just call me Mozart...

It was probably when I was in 2nd grade that my mom & dad first decided to send me to piano lessons. I took lessons from a family friend for awhile & then started taking lessons from Mrs. Hunter a few years later. Mrs. Hunter was very strict but also a great piano teacher & I ended up taking lessons from her until my senior year of high school. I started going to music contest when I was in the 5th grade & I was actually pretty good, earning a 1 rating most years for my performances. Even though I played volleyball & softball, I still managed to cram in piano lessons afterwards--sometimes as late as 6:00pm.

Piano was something that has always been a part of my life, it's give me some of my proudest moments & it was even the cause of my most embarrassing moment (which is another story for another post). I always told myself that I wouldn't lose my ability to play, even once I got older. Well, you guessed it--I went to college, got married, & quit playing mostly due to a lack of access to a piano. My mom has always had a dream of owning a baby Grand piano and for the past few years I've been strongly encouraging her, knowing that when she got a new piano--so would I.

Well...on Monday morning, my wish came true. My parents were finally at the place where they pulled the trigger & purchased a baby Grand piano. It's actually a Clavinova, which is a digital piano with the ability to sound EXACTLY like a Grand piano but also with the ability to play hundreds & hundred of other sounds. The piano is basically smarter than any human being. Anyways, it was delivered on Monday with the promise that the delivery guys would also take the old piano from its original location & move it to my house the same day. (Much easier said than done...)

Moving in the Grand was the easy part...they had it on this little cart, rolled it in, put on the legs, & set it right up.

Sorry mom, I forgot to take a picture with the lid propped up all beautifully!

Next came the old upright piano, which just happened to be located in the loft of my parents' house & was so heavy that when my parents' built the house in 1980, they actually put the piano up there once the floor was done, covered it in plastic, & finished the rest of the house around the piano. Now, the piano was coming down...

See my Dad in the upper left...he got stuck up there & unfortunately wasn't able to help the moving guy on the bottom end! Nice smile Dad!

It was definitely one of the more tense moments I've experienced in a long time. That piano is HEAVY & one wrong move and everyone was falling down the stairs or through the railing.

Thankfully everyone & the piano ended up at the bottom of the stairs in one piece.

We headed to my house where a little more maneuvering had to take place, and finally it was in its resting place.

I really didn't know you could safely turn a piano on its side...guess I was very wrong!

The piano needs a good tuning, and a little bit of minor upkeep but it works just fine for now. My goal isn't to be able to play every piece of music out there--I really just want to be able to play the song I played at music contest my senior year in high school like I could back then. I don't want to look back one of these days and say "When I was a little girl, I used to be able to play the piano...but I can't anymore." I'm sure the new will wear off eventually, but for now I'm just so happy to have the ability to do something that brought me so much joy in my childhood.

Hello old friend...

Hopefully one day my children will also learn to play on this very piano...even if grandma does have a Grand!

Just waiting on someone to sit down & make beautiful music!

Thanks mom & dad, it means a lot that this was the piano were I learned to be a musician, not just a plunker--even if I did jump off the stage!