Such a BAD Blogger!

It's been over a year since I posted here. *sigh* So much for resolutions.

Anyway, the highlights of late:

Darin is no longer YM President. Phew! He's now ward finance clerk. Plus he's working, plus he's the Band Booster Board President, plus he's spearheading some renovations we're doing on our house.

Oh, yes. That's some news. We refinanced our house in April. It was an awesome experience. We'd though we had missed the boat last year on getting a better interest rate, but rates plunged again this spring. Were were able to drop from a 6 and 3/4% rate to a 4 and 1/8%, dropped from a 30 to a 15 year mortgage, cut 2 1/2 years off the life of the loan, picked up $11,000 in credit for home improvements, lowered our monthly payment, AND from the first payment we're paying more on the principle than on interest. So we're gotten a new roof, a new patio cover, we're getting new windows and doors, and we're considering what to do with the rest of the money. We still have around $2500 to spend. Maybe a new driveway or a furnace. All of them things that will make the house more appealing to live in, more economical, easier to sell at a higher price if and when we get to that point.

Suzanne has a new hobby. Beekeeping! I love my bees! Anytime you have a couple of hours to listen to me talk about my bees, just let me know. I'd be glad to oblige. I'm also getting ready to start a new school year and helping out with the marching band. Tonight we're finishing up the scenery/props for this year's show, which is Scheherazade. I'm SO excited. Rimsky-Korasakov's Scheherazade is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music. I'm also starting a new homeschool project and a blog to go with it. It's called Jump-Start With Art. http://jumpstartwithart.blogspot.com
I'm pretty sure Maren's excited about that, but only mildly. It is, after all, school.

Hannah is in massage school and loving it. Of course we're loving it too because (DARN IT!!) she's required to do a lot of practice massages. She's also continuing with her fiddling, learning new songs, playing regularly. She and I play every Saturday at Ogden's Farmer's Market, and she and I and the band (Abby Brown, Helen Bride, Jessica Morgan, Ian, me and Hannah) play every Wednesday night at MacCool's in Ogden. We play for tips at both venues.

Ian is, well, just marching. When it's marching band season all he does is talk about marching band and spend time with his marching band friends. When it's NOT marching band season he complains that it's not marching band season. I don't know what he's going to do this year. It's his last year. He's a senior. Unless he joins the U of U or Weber State marching band, he will be done marching come November! Gah! He's also taking a more determined foray into the public school aspect. He's taking an AP US Govt. class at the high school. It'll be a good challenge for him and I'm pleased so far with the timbre of the class and teacher. I'll learn more about it next week at a parent orientation for the class.

Maren is starting band at the jr. high this year. She's VERY excited--not so much for jr. high band, but that she'll be ready to march in the OHS marching band in 9th grade. That's the goal. The jr. high band is just a means to an end. She's playing the trumpet and is taking trumpet lessons from the high school's band teacher, Mr. Gillette. We'll start out homeschool next week. I wish I could say she's looking forward to that, but...

Well, I've done my duty.