Wow!

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted to my blog! Well, I guess I CAN. Once our 4 jobs get going, I have trouble finding time to blog. And when I DO have time, I spend it with the family. :)

This week is a hard week for me. I am doing final tests to determine which students will be accepted into the Strings program at Conder. Friday, letters will go home and some students will be ecstatic while others will be very, very sad. Next week, some will ask me, "why didn't you pick me?". Ugh. I hate that. It doesn't help that I have around 80 students signed up for 40 spots. That's a 50% cut! Grrrr..... The good news is, I have been able to test much more accurately this year. My schedule allows for smaller groups of students. So far, I love it! I hope it will work out well once I am trying to schedule small group lessons for 125 students! What a blessed elementary Strings program! We're setting records for sign-ups AND retention!

As for the family:
I am having a great school year. I love teaching violin. I am getting small projects done around the house like ordering pictures to fill in Christopher's baby book and to switch out the pictures in the collage frames in our house. I would like for people to know Christopher exists when they enter our home. Right now, the pictures are WAY out of date! I had a teary moment when choosing a picture from February for Christopher's baby book. That was one of the hardest months of my life. I selected a 'happy' hospital picture. I am building up the courage to face "the list" of people I need to write thank you notes to. I have so many things in my heart that I want to share with those who helped us in any way. I am terrified of opening up the list I created day by day while we were in the hospital. I will re-live every moment. So for now, I am pondering all of these things in my heart as Mary did when the wise men brought gifts for her baby boy, Jesus.

Casey is working at a little slower pace now that USC classes are started. No more busy season! A little catering side job here and there and hoping to work at all of the football games. He reads books a lot and still loves to cook. He helps me coupon A LOT. He helps me with the kids A LOT. He treats me well.

Michael is SO cute. He says the funniest things too. He is starting to do "dress-up" more. We have dress up stuff for a knight, handy man, and gamecock football player. He also loves lightsabers and magnets. He recognizes a lot of the alphabet magnets and is always curious about letters and numbers. He loves to do homework for school when they assign it. He is helpful around the house. He likes to play outside. Just a typical sweet little boy! I love him!

Christopher is walking, talking, and teething! He has 16 teeth and his last 4 (canines) coming in. (Needless to say, he has his grumpy moments.) He is moving up to the toddler class at daycare this week. I know he will love the music and the lessons. He also loves big boy toys. Oh the wonders of having a big brother. Some of his words are, "baby, bye bye, here you go, cheese, thank you, woof woof," and others we can't make out yet. He talks all the time. I love his curls although Casey jokes about cutting them. I know they won't grow back. I have convinced Casey to keep them until we have our family photo shoot in October.

That's about it! A pretty long update for me!

Hope to check-in more often. Happy Tuesday!

{<><} Stacy