Just put your pizza in your poncho and go! --Molly Pants

So, it's been a while since I have posted, huh? Well, Darcy, my friend, you can't say much about taking a while to post now, can you? :) And Aunty Ann...you should blog my dear! Then I could read yours and trust me, it can be very theraputic! :)

Halloween was great this year. We took the tiny-est Jacobson downtown to the businesses dressed as a cute little froggy. He was fascinated that people just kept putting things in his bucket. Man, he's cute! (If I do say so myself)... So we had a blast doing that and then we got a sitter and went out on date night for a drink and then to the haunted house on the 3rd floor of the Union Hotel. I screamed my head off the whole entire time. I don't like stuff like that anyway and I kept telling Sam that I didn't want to do it, but a bunch of his kids were acting scary in it and really wanted us to go, so we did. And it was in fact very scary! I'm sure the kids had a great time listening to me scream my head off. I was so freaked out! We got out of there in record time because I kept pulling Sam from room to room. Creepy!!

Work is going great, but accompanists are hard to come by these days. Anyone who is reading this blog and plays piano, or has played piano, should be an accompanist! Someone who can sight read really well and get the pieces sounding great within a couple of lessons is really hard to come by. I have 4 accompanists working for me right now just to cover the amount of student and repertoire I am teaching! It's crazy! I wish Yuki could stay here in the states instead of having to go back to Japan. She's great! She can do all of that stuff! I miss her very much.

As far as school goes, everything is lining up and I am off and running. I have met with people in Boise to discuss the stuff that I need to do and present what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. They were all impressed with the different person I am now versus who I was then. I had to remind them all that I was a 23 year old graduate student who had been going to school since I had turned 5 with no break. I am definately a different person now! So, I have registered for my pedagogy class and lucky for me, she agreed to just have me finish the one assignment that I didn't finish when I was there. So, I just read a lot of books and write annotated bibliographies on them which....I can do from home! :) Yeah! So, I have to pay for the credits and stuff, but I can do the work at home. I registered for my remaining history/theory credits in the form of "Music History in the United States" which is taught as a night class on Wed. nights. I was soooo releieved to see that it wasn't two or three days a week or anything like that. So, I am scheduled to start driving to Boise in January on Wednesdays for a lesson and class. I am studying constantly for my history predictive exam. That thing is huge! It's a 4 hour exam and they give you sheets of papers with names of composers, titles of pieces, styles of music, whatever and you have to just write as much as you know about them. So, I have made flashcards and have broken it all down into sections and am studying like crazy. I always have them with me and yesterday I was sitting on the floor at the oil changing place watching Ethan play with the toys and running my flashcards while waiting for my oil to be changed. I have also started working on my 5 pieces I have to sing for "audition" for the faculty at BSU. I am already admitted, but my voice teacher wants to see how I work on my own and how fast I can get pieces to a performable level. So, I have been busy. If I thought I was busy before with momming, working, etc..., I really had no idea. Every single spare minute I have lately has been spent on studying in some way. My poor house is suffering, but I plan on taking this morning to clean it and then have a social hour with a friend coming for tea. I am working hard, but I am so very excited to be finished with this degree. It's been hanging over my head for a long time and I am excited to have it finished, solved, done, and over!

Let's see...other than that...there really isn't a lot going on in my life these days. Sam and I are finishing up our kitchen one weekend at a time and are looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving dinner here for all our family. Some won't be able to make it, but it looks like lots of them are coming. It should be really fun.

Sam's first concert was last night and I thought all of his groups did a very nice job! They sounded good and looked good and from what I heard, everyone loved them. The fall is such a fun time with the weather getting colder and colder and I feel more excited about this fall than any because I am so motivated by all we have going in our lives. I am sad that it's dark by 4pm, but we live in a beautiful valley and that's one of the prices we have to pay. I am a little worried about winter travel to and from Boise, but I have 4 wheel drive and we are getting studded tires on our vehicle this year for specifically that reason. Plus, just to put all your minds at ease, they recently did a bunch of construction over Ladd Canyon and put in heating strips under 1 lane of the freeway going both ways, so at least one lane will be ok to drive in. I have Timmy and a couple of other friends in Boise should I need to stay the night if the weather is to bad to travel in and Sarah and I have already come up with an emergency child care plan should that happen. I know, Ross, you are laughing at my because of my crazy planning personality style, but I am ready! :)

Well, I am off to get busy doing my busy day things. More later...
Jamie