To My Blog

Dear Blog,

I know, I know! I'm a terrible friend! Lately I've gone days and weeks without any communication with you. You probably feel like I've forgotten all about you, that I don't care. But I promise that's not true. I think of you everyday. I have a million excuses, like how life has been so busy that I've run myself ragged, and how I have been feeling under the weather for awhile . . . but they're just excuses and I know you don't want to hear them. So, I'll just say, I'm sorry. Please forgive me! I'm back, and I promise to be better at keeping in touch.

With that said, do you want to hear about what I've been up to lately?

Yes?

Well, we are getting settled into our new apartment. Slowly but surely. The decor for the bedrooms and bathrooms is still sitting in a corner, and I still need to hang a curtain to cover our laundry room closet, but one thing at a time, right? I promise I'll send you pictures when we get things fully settled.

Oh, and I'm still teaching tons of piano lessons! I have 28 students and counting. We have our 'Music from the Movies' recital coming up in September! The students and I are really excited for that! After that it will be time to start working on the Christmas recital - CRAZY!!

I did two major cake orders this past week. One was a wedding cake! My first non-family wedding cake. :) I think it turned out okay in the end, though we did have a bit of trauma in transportation. Sorry, no details; I don't feel like reliving that particular moment. But all's well that ends well.

(More pics here.)

That reminds me! I was also in charge of two HUGE Relief Society activities in the past two weeks. Well, they were related, but they were each a big undertaking. Maybe this is a story for another letter, it would take too much room here.

So, Gerald just finished his first week of school. He's getting back into the swing of things; it's going to be a busy semester! Speaking of school, Katelee is LOVING her preschool. She cries on the days there is no school, she loves it that much. Probably her very favorite thing about preschool is Show-and-Tell. About once a week, each student gets a chance to do Show-and-Tell. Katelee was so excited for her very first Show-and-Tell. She chose to take the seashells we found at the beach this summer with Grandpa and Grandma Thurston.

She told her class all about her first time at the beach and about her grandpa and grandma who she loves so much!

We've also done a lot of play dates and swimming and park days and babysitting. It's made for a busy but fun few weeks. We're trying to enjoy the end of summer while it's still here. Katelee has especially loved all the kids we've had over lately! One day we were especially lucky to babysit the sweetest little baby girl ever. Katelee was in heaven! She smothered that little baby with love and attention! Luckily, the baby didn't mind one bit. ;)

Katelee also had a stake primary activity about creating. Every primary child in the stake was invited to create something (anything!) and submit it to the 'Creation Museum.' Then, the children were invited to come and visit the museum. After much indecision, Katelee finally chose to do a painting. She worked very hard and very seriously on her painting. This is the face of a true artist.

When her painting was complete she named it The Jelly Bean Bug Dance. Isn't that a great name? She was very proud of her finished artwork and had fun seeing it displayed at the 'museum'. Oh! Blog, I almost forgot to tell you the most exciting news of all! My favorite brother*, Tyler, just announced his engagement to the sweetest girl in the world, Taylor. (Tyler and Taylor - isn't that cute?) They will be married in November!

Congratulations, both of you! We are so excited to have Taylor join our family! (You did good, brother!)

So, blog, there you have it - a pretty complete update on our lives. Again, I promise to not neglect you so much anymore. Keep your eyes and ears open, because I'll be in touch again soon.

Love,

Jennifer

*Okay, so Tyler is also my only brother. But he's still my favorite!