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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:)