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Well, we’ve had all kinds of ideas for updating the blog and finishing the pictorial history of our road trip, but after hitting Asheville without great internet access, we kinda lost steam.

And then I realized we’d still failed to mention certain events that have happened this year prior to the roadtrip.

What a year. It feels like it’s actually been a year just in the last 7 months!

The year started off well enough-we enjoyed Christmas with Andrew’s family and then came back here to gear up for the new semester. My (Jessica’s) Memaw had a heart attack on Thanksgiving day in 06 and wasn’t doing tremendously well so my parents were in the process of moving her and Pawpaw back up to Springfield (again. Long story) in January. Around that time, Pawpaw was diagnosed with cancer in his brain, hip, lungs, and bones. He chose not to tell Memaw because she wasn’t doing so well (after the heart attack, they performed a quadruple bipass and did some other reconstructive surgery and she was in an unresponsive state for several weeks after that).

Mom and Dad got Memaw and Pawpaw moved up to Springfield in late Jan/early Feb. and Memaw passed away a week later. Two weeks prior, Andrew’s uncle Jerry passed away suddenly from a heart attack. So January and February were hard months with all that. We were able to make it to both funerals (one in St. Louis and one in Arkansas) so that was good.

In March, we had visits from Helen, Dad, and Charles. It was fun to see them! Helen came down to spend part of her spring break with us and she and I had a fabulous time shopping and updating wardrobes (thank you InStyle!)

In April we had some flooding adventures, as we posted earlier. My car died right around finals (yay). But in May we were able to replace it with another good ol’ Civic.

At the beginning of May, Pawpaw passed away. He was able to live at home with Mom and Dad with hospice care, so it was really cool that he was surrounded by family. Most of them were able to say goodbye before he died. Andrew and I were a little sad because we were hoping he would be able to hang on just a couple more weeks until we could make it up there in mid-May, but that wasn’t how it worked out. We had seen him and talked with him several times though, shortly before he passed, which was nice for us. So back to Arkansas for his funeral. Even though it was a hard time, it was really neat to be at the funeral with SO many family members, uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins, etc. One thing that really struck me as we were sitting in the service was that to a member, all of Memaw and Pawpaw’s children and grandchildren including spouses, were all active Christians. That was special. Memaw and Pawpaw were strong believers and they really did a good job of passing that on.

Then a couple weeks later, we hit the road! We went to Springfield, MO, St. Louis, Indiana, North Carolina (with a little stint at the Honda dealership in Lexington, KY in between to fix some bad wiring), and TN. It was quite a trip! We were able to spend some nice time with Grandma and Grandpa out in Asheville and saw their new digs. It was also neat to spend time in St. Louis with Andrew’s family, see Simon and Audrey, and get to meet our newest nephew, Henry Edmond, whom Andrew spoke to with a british accent most of the time.
We got back to TX just in time to have Andrew’s brother Brian, his wife Molly, and their little boy Simon (and baby on the way:)) come down! It was a lot of fun. Simon is a CUTIE! He really liked Stevie (unfortunately it wasn’t mutual) whom he proceeded to chase around the house calling “tittytat!!” For the record, Simon is 2.

Fourth of July was spent with my cousins over in Dallas, Kerri, Chris, their kids (Amai and Asher), Scott, Meredith, and their kids (Secily, Knox, and Boone). It was tons of fun to see all of them!

A couple weeks later, my sister Rachael and her husband Sam came down (along with soon to be baby Hannah Elizabeth). We had a nice relaxing time together. Andrew and Sam had a blast with the Wii and one of the days that Andrew was at work and Rachael and I were out shopping, Sam became pro in tennis AND bowling!

The day after they left, Andrew’s parents came through on their way to a conference. More Wii and lots of relaxing time:)

The day after THEY left, our washing machine overflowed and flooded the house. It was a disaster. Who would have thought so much damage could be done? There was standing water throughout the house (most of our floors are ceramic tile/hardwood and only the bedrooms and one living room have carpet). Fortunately, the insurance covered it. They got people out right away to soak up the water and set up fans to dry out the carpet and drywall. A special shout out to our friends the Jordans who gave up their whole day to come over and help us frantically move all the furniture into our front room and kitchen! After 5 days of continuous noise and chaos (two things I don’t handle well at all!), the fans were able to be turned off-yay! They came out and got the carpet laid in all the bedrooms on Friday and Andrew and I were up almost all night putting furniture back in and getting things ready for my brother Charles to come the next day!

Things have calmed down somewhat now. We’re still waiting on the construction crew to come out and replace the padding/carpet in the living room and all the baseboards and some door frames in the house. But I can handle that since we’ve gone ahead and gotten the house back in order.

Next week TCU and Wesleyan start back up again. I’m not sure I’m ready mainly since I haven’t had much time to think about it and prepare, but I should have time this week! I need to finish my lesson plans for the class piano and work on more pieces to put together for a small piano concert. Almost there.

Well, that catches all of you guys up on our year. I’m praying the next few months will be nice and calm:)

Well, Monday was definitely a Sad Day. I got the news that my one and only faithful little car Zippy died. *tears tears tears* He was my first and only car and he met a tragic and untimely end with only 125k miles on him. Although if you were looking strictly at age, he was definitely due (he was 17)! The brief version of the story is that he and I were driving home from work a couple of weeks ago when a storm blew up. It had been storming here so much that as soon as it started raining, it started flooding. I came up on an intersection where I saw many cars stalled out and almost completely covered in water, so I turned around to find another way home. Alas, the other way was flooded too and I realized too late that the street we were on was heading down hill and I couldn’t turn around because the force of the water was pushing Zippy and I into an intersection so flooded that there were rapids and the water was rushing over the front hood of Zippy. We got picked up by the current, spun around a few times in the intersection and by the mercy of God were pushed over to the side of the street where we were able to get some traction. Amazingly, Zippy was still running, so I gunned him up into someone’s driveway, got out of the car, asked the very nice elderly couple who’s driveway I was in if I could wait out the storm in their house to which they immediately and kindly agreed. Even more amazingly was that after the storm blew over and the water receded, Zippy started up yet AGAIN and got me home.

But after that, he didn’t start. We had to use our neighbor’s van to jump start him to get him to the mechanic where he sat for a couple of weeks while they tried valiantly to save him. But there was just way too much damage and we had to let him go. So, even though he died young he died a very noble death:)

So now the question is, what to name the black 01 civic…..? Suggestions?

The semester is almost over! Thank God. It really has been brutal. I sure have learned a ton, though. One of the big things is that I love teaching and don’t love accompanying so much. I’m coming to the realization that I’m more of a concert person and like working one-on-one with people to really establish a connection and produce a great product/concert. So I guess in that sense I love accompanying. But I’m not into the whole mass-accompany-for-everyone bit. I like to perfect things and when I’m accompanying for tons of different people each week plus choirs and teaching full time on top of that, I don’t have the time I really want to practice and perfect things. Anyway, I’m sure that’s not terribly interesting, but I’m learning that about myself.

Lori Dunn and I did a duo piano concert on Sunday at Wesleyan and it went pretty well. It was our first concert together and we threw it together over the course of a couple months. She did an AMAZING job. Perhaps if Andrew is willing, he can post a couple of the pieces we did (the Dello Joio, Copland, and Prokofiev, maybe?). I definitely hope we can do more together soon.

Next week is juries for Wesleyan and then the week after for the TCU kiddos. I’m trying very hard to be encouraging while at the same time trying to instill the fear of God in them…..we’ll see how it turns out:) I have to say again that I truly do love teaching and I love working with the students at both schools very much. They work hard!

Well, I know all I write about is music and work, but that’s truly all I do between the months of August and May (and I still do a bit of teaching for June and July, but not nearly as much as during the school year). I’m very excited about getting a life back in a couple of weeks! I can taste the freedom of my summer schedule and that’s probably not a good thing at this point.

I’m looking forward to seeing Rachael and her baby bump in a few weeks! Also looking forward to spending some time with Helen before she heads off to Morocco (have to learn how to spell that….hmm). Had some nice visits this spring from Dad, Charles, and Helen. Looking forward to Brian and Molly and Simon’s visit this summer!!

Well, I’ve been random enough now. That’s my little update!

Wow! I’m so proud! I actually remembered (or lucked out) how to log in and post without Andrew’s help!!

Well, at least I warned you in my first and only blog to this point that I wasn’t much of an online journal type, but a rehearsal of mine got cancelled today, so I guess I’m feeling particularly happy and adventurous.

Hmmm….things are going well. BUSY. But well. TCU is same old, same old. I have a few students doing a competition this weekend and so are on a recital tonight to have a run through of everything. They should do well if they remembered to practice everything I told them:) We’ll see how it goes tonight. TWU is good, but pretty overwhelming. I just wasn’t used to the pace before I got there, so after 9 weeks, I’m starting to settle in and not feel like I’m behind every single day. Hopefully the rest of the faculty is extending me some grace! They seem like it, but I haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk with anyone yet, so we’ll see. The NATS (yes, it sounds bad, but stands for the National Assoc. of Teachers of Singing) regional voice competition is in Waco this year, so I get to play for all the Wesleyan kids who are going and that’s been fun. I like playing and performing advanced vocal lit. At least it’s a challenge! What I have discovered is that I still don’t really care for accompanying for choirs. I thought after my disastrous experience at MU when I was a sophomore almost 10 years ago (had a vicious lesbian conductor who felt it her life’s mission not to conduct a choir, but to spend the time making life miserable for anyone in it who was straight) that I might try it again and perhaps like it. Well, I guess I don’t MIND it-it’s just not something I’m crazy about. But it’s ok. It’s part of the job and I’m willing to put in my dues. Heh, it’s not like refreshing my brain on how to read open score is a BAD thing!

Onto other things…

We just got back this past weekend from Julie M’s wedding!! It was AWESOME to go back to Lawrence (hadn’t been back since our own wedding) and see people. It was such a comfy feeling to go back because Lawrence really hasn’t changed a bit. I like that in certain towns. Anyway, we saw Toni B. at the CC house, John and Andrea H., Joe and Trisha P. and baby Sandra, of course the Mealiff clan, Lanny M., Bill and Stacey H., Jessica and Isaac H., and many others. It was a blast. I’m really excited and happy for Julie-Mark is a great guy.

Our only other trip from the latter half of this year was to Austin back in August. Andrew surprised me by planning (yes, actually planning it himself-heehee!) an anniversary trip down there. It was great. We rested and totally slept in, walked around Austin, went to the TX history museum, drove around the UT campus, etc. We also got to see Brett and Diana W. there which was really fun! We had dinner with them and then went back to their place to play Scrabble and laugh hysterically at their cat who put on quite a crazy show:)

Well, that’s about it for now. Only 7 more weeks till my wonderful month off! I’m definitely counting down.

Well, I had forgotten that Andrew set us up with a blog and then I started hearing about it (our blog) from other people and decided I needed to check it out. So, here’s my first entry:

…..hmmm…..well, I’ve never blogged before, so I’m not totally sure how this goes, but we’ll see. Eh. Life is good right now. I’m wrapping up the summer session at TCU next week and then I’ll have either two or three weeks off before the fall semester starts. I’m getting conflicting reports about when we actually start back since TCU changed up their schedule/breaks for this coming year. I hope it’s three weeks because there’s a lot of stuff I need to get done before school starts and two weeks will be just enough time to squeeze it all in. That sounds good, but it’s better if it’s three weeks because then it gives me a chance to get a little bored (not really) and to miss my routine so that when the time rolls around, I’m excited to teach again, you know?

Oh! I guess I should fill you in on what I’m up to in case I haven’t touched base with some of you in a while. I got my masters from TCU back in 2004 and have been teaching piano in the music preparatory division since 2002 (part time while in school and now 5 days a week). A few weeks ago I was asked to interview/audition for a job at Texas Wesleyan University to help fill their need for a staff accompanist and I got the job, so I’ll be starting there this fall and doing both jobs….not sure how that’s going to turn out, but we’ll see. TCU is 5 days a week from 3pm-7 or 8pm ish and the TWU job will be MWF mornings till about 3pm. I’ll be accompanying any vocal students who have lessons on MWF as well as playing for the choirs. It should be fun! I’m looking forward to doing more accompanying again and it is also a step up career-wise as it’s an adjunct faculty position….one step closer to my goal of teaching at a university.

On to other stuff! Our very cute kitty, Stevie, just decided to take up residence on my lap as I type, so I’m going really slow right now, but he’s SO cute:) Definitely a snuggle-cat.

It’s HOT here! Today was the 8th consecutive day it’s been in the 100’s. It was 102 at 6pm tonight, so who knows how hot it actually got during the day. It has made my running time shorter and shorter since at nights it only gets down into the 80’s for the low. I run in the mornings, but it’s usually already in the 90’s and I just can’t go for more than 30 minutes-ugh! I was doing really well with following a marathon/half marathon plan (I hadn’t decided which one to do) until a couple of weeks ago. Oh well, I suppose I can pick it back up in the fall once it gets cooler and provided I have enough time in the mornings to do it (translate: if I get up early enough!).

Andrew was awesome for my birthday! He got up early and made me waffles and then when I got home that night, he had fixed a yummy dinner of chicken and cheesecake! :):) It was very nice:)

Ok, well, enough blogging for me at the moment. I’ll get the hang of this if I remember to keep writing!

This is old new, but still worth mentioning. Jessica wrote a web article for RELEVANT Magazine about buying a house a few months ago. Thought I’d share and gloat about how cool a wife I have!

Here’s the article.