Poor Choice of Words

I had been planning to blog on Tuesday. Yes, Tuesday. Not sure why I chose that day. Probably because it's not Monday and it's still early enough in the week that I might get a post in before one or more of my sisters sent my weekly "reminder" that I was neglecting my blogger duties. I had begun writing it in my head and per my usual process came up with my witty title first. It was going to be "Back From the Dead" and would chronicle what we've been doing since I last blogged. Then on Monday afternoon I found out that my grandpa had passed away. Sooooo, I will not be using that title, as you've already noticed.

Anyway, back to the purpose of this posting. Let's see...I haven't blogged since 10 August...What the heck? I really almost went 2 months without blogging?! No wonder Melissa and Cami keep nagging me about it. :P

Here's what we've been up to the last 2 months:

- I did 8 sessions of acupuncture. It was weird at first then by the end I totally loved it and even cried a couple of times because I felt so good/relaxed/calm. The jury is still out on whether it did anything other than help me relax and sleep better.
-Brent got back into hard core studying. We are currently 27 days and 10 hours away from exam day (as calculated by the countdown in the sidebar). Yikes! I'm not sure if that feels soon or far away.
-We went to Northern Ireland for the Late Summer Holiday weekend. I'll blog about that next. No promises but I'm thinking Saturday or Monday? Who knows, maybe I"ll feel extra ambitious and just do it tomorrow.

-I got really motivated and energized and deep cleaned the house in 3 days. I now remember why we HAD to live in this house. It's adorable.
-Finally finished hanging pictures on the walls downstairs and got most of upstairs done too. Maybe soon the house will finally be ready for it's video tour. Again, no promises.
-Did several sewing projects both for other people and myself and the house. Here's my favorite one. They are wall hangings (which have yet to be hung) to go in the Grandma Room, which is our spare room and dedicated to our grandmas. The quilt B's G'ma made for him as a boy is on the bed, and some trinkets from my late g'ma are on the mantle and the room is just light and airy and has an adorable fireplace and makes me feel like I'm back in time. So, I wanted something on the wall that was both reminiscent of simpler days, but also up to date. Don't know if I accomplished both of those, but I like them. A lot. And I'm proud of my quilting skills.

My other favorite project is the bag I found a pattern for on the internet and then copied/tweaked/enlarged to my own liking. I've made a few different versions, this one is my favorite. It is made from fabric someone gave me that they had leftover from a sewing class I taught at church.

-I taught a sewing class at church. The Relief Society President saw my Michelle bag (that I learned to make from the sewing class my good friend Michelle taught back in LA last year) and asked if I would please teach our ward. It went pretty well (despite how 3 of the 7 sewing machines stopped working halfway through causing us to stay until 10:30 because people REALLY wanted to finish their bags). We had a good turnout and everyone was very pleased with their final products. One lady wanted to know if I had a pattern for a smaller, children's version so I scaled down my pattern and she made one for her daughter. I love it so much, I made a permanent pattern for it and am going to start to making them for little people too. Why didn't I think of that?
-Brent finally got counselors for his Elders Quorum Presidency. Life is much easier with counselors, even though they haven't had to do much yet.
-We had friends from LA come and visit. Michele and Dessin celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary earlier in the summer and decided to see Europe. Dessin served his mission in London 30+ years ago and we have a free room so it just made sense. We had fun hosting them and I'm pretty sure they must have slept for a week once they got home because they certainly didn't sleep much in the 10 days they were here!
-Brent worked on a special project at work. He enjoyed the break from his normal routine, got to work with a friend who is on a different team and it was a good learning experience. He helped audit/assess one of Zurich's subsidiaries.
-I started teaching cello lessons to an 8 year old boy at church. He has been playing the violin for 2 years and recently decided he wanted to learn cello too, so his mum asked me if I'd be willing to teach him lessons. I was a cello teacher when I was in high school but that was awhile ago so I was a bit nervous. Luckily, he already knows the basic concepts of string instruments so that makes it so much easier. Seriously. He wants to learn via the Suzuki method (because that's what he's doing in violin) which I have my beef with but it does have some really good points to it. I just made sure Sam understands we will also be learning note names and doing scales and warm-ups, not just learning finger positions and playing song after song.
-Teaching cello has re-excited me about my own playing and I think I need to devote time, at least once a week, to get my cello out and play. I'm sure at first I'll be quite rusty and will spend most of my time doing scales and essentials but hope to work my way back up to some of the solo pieces I was playing 7-8 years ago. I've set a goal to be able to play the Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 sometime in the future (in maybe like 2 years? how about before we move from London?). We'll see how that goes. I do know that I miss playing music. I'm not much for solo pieces because I'm more of a full orchestra kind of girl but maybe I'll get good again and can try out for a local symphony or something someday.
-Brent and I have outlined our travel plans through the end of the year and we are really excited about what's waiting for us after his exam is over. For a little sneak peek, see the other countdown on the side bar.
-A Portuguese woman moved into our ward and because Brent is the EQ Pres and one of the only people in our ward that speaks Portuguese, he has been spending a lot of time getting her moved into council housing (free/charity housing available through the government) and arranging for ward members to paint her flat and finding a cooker, fridge/freezer and washing machine from various people in the stake. It's been an interesting experience but she and her son are settling more now and their free flat isn't quite as run-down. We are hoping she learns quickly in her English classes so that she can get a job and move to a better area soon.
-3 new American families moved into the ward and they all have children and there are also several families investigating the church so our Primary has gone from 15-18 kids (total) on a good day to 19 in Junior Primary alone. Sharing Time has been fun and I'm kind of glad I'm in the Presidency and not a teacher. We may need to call some assistant teachers because the classes are getting quite full. It's exciting.
-We had a lodger move in with us. Her name is Charlotte, she is 18 and from Bath. She recently started at university and wasn't able to find housing before the semester started so she called our RS Pres who in turn asked if we could house her. She moved in the day Michele & Dessin went home and will be living with us until her semester ends on Dec 18th, the same day my in-laws come from UT so there will be some tight scheduling but it's not a problem. She reminds us a lot of Brent's sister, Molly, and she's very easy to get along with. It was a little strange the first week but we are all getting used to each other now and it is nice to have someone else around, especially since Brent's turning into Study Brent for the next few weeks. She also pays room and board, so that sure doesn't hurt.
-And because I love you all, I'll share something that always makes me laugh:

Ok, so I think that's about it. I'm sure there are more little things but I bet you're all tired of reading at this point anyway. Where are all the pictures, you say? Well, there will be plenty when I post about N. Ireland so just hold your horses.