Farewell Summer Vacation- We Hardly Knew Ye!

Here we are at the end of summer vacation. Not that our summer was filled with much vacationing...

Steve starts teaching again tomorrow, and his night classes start this week as well. With all the hubbub and last minute preparations, it was great to have one of the ultimate peaceful experiences take place today. We got to attend a session of the dedication of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple this afternoon. (Special thanks to Uncle Scott for watching Josh so we could both go together!) What a way to cap off summer break! To be reminded of the blessings available through the temple, and to be reminded that living about 8 minutes away from one is a blessing that so few around the world get to have... a wonderful experience to have to recharge our batteries as we enter into another school year.

The finally-finished piano!

It's done! My one goal for the summer (besides taking 4 master's classes, and of course, moving into a new house) was to refinish our piano. So, here is the finished product.
We sanded down the original finish and stained it a deep black, and then sanded some areas so that the brown could show through. It looks pretty cool.

We decided to personalize it as well.

For those who never saw it, this was the original.

Take a look at those old, chipped keys! New plastic covers replaced the old ivory ones. Sanding them down and filing them smooth was the last part to do.

So, goodbye, old brown piano, and hello new, beautiful black one!

Mid-August Update

Here we are in the middle of August. Steve has to go back to school on August 19th, and the kids come back on Monday. He also starts 2 more master's classes next week, so it is back to the grind for him.

We are almost done with the piano. Mostly we are just waiting for 2 things. 1) Scott to get his football friends to come move it into the house from the garage and 2) the new key tops to get here so we can get those all replaced and put back together. I can't wait to put up pictures of this. It is so awesome.

Over the weekend we went to the Weller Family Reunion up in Sandy. Good food, games, and LOTS of rain. Then I got to spend Saturday with my mom helping judge the Orem Junior Miss Scholarship Program. I was the alternate judge- so I attended everything, judged everything, but my scores were only used if another judge didn't show up or something, which didn't happen. It helped me understand what Scott feels like red-shirting on the football team. All the work, none of the glory.

Me spending all day (really- 9 am until about midnight) with my mom meant that Josh got to spend all day with Steve, which was fun (after the initial mommy-is-gone shock wore off anyway).

And- as a reward for making it through this post- here is the only pictures we have taken in a while since the camera isn't exactly functioning. They are from the phone. Josh enjoying his first ice cream cone that was just for him. He loved it.And another pic of Josh from this morning- playing in the kitchen sink.

School's Out for Summer!

Steve is finally finished with all of his summer master's classes (now that he has less than 2 weeks left of summer break before having to go back to school). My Hermione-ness is rubbing off on him- he has three As so far.
Since we can't just have him sit around and be idle for those 1 1/2 weeks until 'contract time' starts for teachers, he has been working busily on sanding our piano. We should be ready to start staining on Monday, and then comes the joy of removing all the old ivory key tops and gluing on the new plastic ones. But the piano will be so spiffy when we are done.
My little brother is still here with us (by 'here' I mean he sleeps here and eats here...) I am really impressed with his dedication- and with the amount of food he can consume in a day!
Josh is learning new things every day. His favorite movie is Cars and he loves to watch for Mater and say "vroom" when he sees a car or truck (which, in that movie, is all the time). He also has started saying grampa (bum-pa) and when he is really excited he puffs out his cheeks before the buh sound- we'll try to get it on video. He can point to most body parts (and especially loves gouging out eyes). Baths and playing in the water are his favorite activity. He is also getting molars which is not the most exciting experience... And, he never eats. He is so skinny that all his pants fall down, except for his size 6-9 month pants (and he is going on 16 months now). We worry that he isn't eating enough- but he always has plenty of energy and is happy and cheerful.
Sorry- no pictures this time. Our camera is broken, and seeing as we are still a few months from Christmas, we'll have to settle for cell phone pictures. But the cell phone is all the way downstairs...

Phew!

Kristen's brother Scott is staying with us for a few weeks while he is doing football camp. Instead of paying money each day to move in early to his apartment, he figured he could just come here. It's been fun to have him here. Josh thinks he is so great, and runs down to his room shouting "Scah! Scah!"

In other news, I finished class #3 this last week and will finish class #4 this coming week. Phew! Then all of my classes this summer will be done, and I'll have two weeks before school starts and my next batch of classes start. So...not much of a summer break, but it'll be enough to get my classroom in order and start to plan what I should be doing with my students.