We are supposed to get a blizzard tonight/tomorrow. SO, I just took an amazing hot bath to warm up (since my dear husband is distracted playing a computer game instead of getting more firewood or lighting the furnace). I LOVE my jacuzzi tub. I am going to MISS it SO much when we move.
Speaking of which, I guess some people didn't know we are moving! We are buying a house out in Hibbard, just a few minutes away from where we live right now, and right around the corner from the Wahlquists! It is a foreclosure, so it's taken a little longer to close than we originally planned (which we expected). Last I heard they had started drilling our new well and we are just waiting for them to finish any repairs they need to make and for an appraiser to come out and tell us if there is anything else we need to fix on it before we can close on the house. We are hoping to close in the next week or two so we can get everything moved and done before we leave for AZ for Christmas. Thomas and Audrey are headed to the Valley on the 13th of December, and Ethan and I are coming on the 17th. I have to stay a little longer to finish up playing for juries up on campus.
I've been going through old boxes of papers and filing cabinets and de-junking everything so we don't have so much stuff to move. It's been kind of fun going through all this old stuff and remembering high school and friends and elementary school teachers. It's been fun to go through some of it with Thomas too, and share that part of my life with him. I feel like I've always known him, and it's sometimes almost surprising when I realize there's only a small part of my life he's been in it, and a large part he didn't know a lot about. It's fun to get to know him more every day.
Thomas is still crazy busy but is learning to balance work at home with family time. He really likes his new job but is struggling learning to manage his own working time, like setting his own hours. Really a lot of his stress (and my stress) is that he isn't done working at Allstate yet. His boss just had surgery and he's on the phone or headed into the office almost every day to help the newbies manage things. I don't mind that so much, but when you add it to trying to balance that, working for Auto & Art at home, MissionShoe stuff, and trying to fit it all into a schedule it gets kind of crazy. Not to mention trying to get some face time with his adorable children... if I do say so myself.
Speaking of them, Audrey and Ethan are getting so big. Audrey's favorite thing ever is Toy Story- we borrowed and rented Toy Story 2 and 3 this weekend and had a marathon. She loved it! We also loved getting to finally see the third one since we hadn't yet. She is talking so much better every day and she is so wonderful. She has definitely entered the "terrible twos". I was beginning to wonder if she would at all, she was doing so well. And even still, she is a good girl. Things are just so dramatic! :) Audrey loves being a big sister and is already picking on Ethan to show her love. Ethan is amazingly tolerant of her, but he has his limits. He is ALMOST ready to pop his first tooth out, but not quite. He is going through a growth spurt I think, because last night he slept for 13 hours STRAIGHT (no waking up to eat at ALL) and then he took a 4 hour nap today. And went to bed on time so tired. I haven't slept that well since he was born! He is starting to eat more foods now, he likes green beans ok but he isn't such a huge fan of peas. The funny part is that even though he doesn't like the food, he keeps eating it. Today I was feeding him peas, and he makes awful faces and was actually crying because he didn't like the taste, but he kept eating it didn't spit it out. Silly boy! I guess he loves his food! He is still doing pretty well nursing, which is more than ok by me. Audrey didn't make it this far nursing- she was pretty much done by 6 months. It's interesting learning to nurse another baby- Ethan has been very different in a lot of ways. I love my kids so much!
I am enjoying accompanying up on campus. I am grateful to have had such wonderful accompanists in my college experience. I still keep up with Tiffany (I worked with her for most semesters and my recital). She is still struggling with cystic fibrosis. Go here to read her blog. I try to keep her and her family in my prayers. I am also grateful for professors who taught me how to treat my pianists. I feel like there are so many students on campus up here (and teachers who don't think to teach them how) who don't really appreciate their accompanists enough to show them courtesies they should. Again, sometimes their teachers just don't stress how important a good accompanist is or how to keep one. I've only run into a couple who are actually *rude*; for the most part people are at least decent. But they are cheap. They don't want to pay for anything they can get away with not paying. I actually had one girl last week who was challenging me, to the dollar, over her $27 bill for November. Sheesh! I miss ASU sometimes. More serious musicians ready to go places and work hard, willing to pay for quality and appreciate it, taught to appreciate and REHEARSE with their pianists... *sigh*.
I love to cook. I am going to try and share more of my favorite recipes that I find. Here is my favorite for today...
"The Chewy" (chocolate chip cookie) by Alton Brown
These are SO good. I think they might be the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever made. I have a problem keeping these in the house. I might need extra Pilates and Zumba to make up for it. The recipe calls for scooping dough with a #20 disher, which I didn't have, but I looked up how much that is, and it's just under 1/4 cup (about 3.2 T). I just used a 1/4 cup scoop not filled all the way. Please, use real butter, and don't forget to chill the dough thoroughly.
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