And... oh yes! STILL Waiting!

Everyone who reads this blog is probably getting tired of hearing me say that we are still not living at home and still waiting for our place to be finished. Trust me, I feel your pain! We are so grateful to our fantastic grandparents for opening their home to us, but there really is no place like home and we want to be back to ours SOOO badly! As of today we have been out of our place for an entire month... seriously.

BUT there is some good news - there is LIGHT at the end of this dreary tunnel! Jake stopped by our place yesterday and the bathroom is FINISHED except for the painting (which should be done today) and the laundry room is quickly coming along. It needs to be "mudded" today and there is a bit more tile that needs to be put in but we are hoping to be back home by MONDAY at the LATEST! (*Sorry for the caps... I am excited!*) Recovering our house from this project should be quite the project itself as no room was left unmarred by construction dust, dirt, grime, and crazy 5 year old children who decorate furniture with hard candies; but if it means that we are living at home again, I don't really care at this point!

In other news, Jake finishes up the Spring 2009 semester TONIGHT! One last final and then we are done until June 10th. He is only taking one online course this summer that runs from June 10th - August 10th. We already have him registered for Fall semester and he will be taking 10 credit hours. We are debating if one of those classes will be online or not. If he likes his online course this summer then that is the route we will be taking, otherwise we can just get him enrolled in the class at the Taylorsville SLCC campus. We have filled out the FAFSA and Discover Card will hopefully start paying for school soon... so hopefully we will start getting some financial help with all of these crazy school bills!

Jake is still working at Discover Card and is really branching out in the retention department. They just recently got trained on how to handle dispute cases and Jake really enjoys that. He may have to switch to a later shift in June (starting at 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning) which would make piano lessons really interesting for me... but we'll have to see what happens!

I am really enjoying being a mommy and a piano teacher. My piano students have really done well lately and we are preparing for a big recital this July! I have around 30 students and it keeps me quite busy along with all of my mommy and wife duties!

Did I mention that we bought a new car? I don't remember if I did. We bought a 97 Pontiac Bonneville a few weeks ago after it became necessary to replace Jake's car. (As much as I wanted to sit with a wet bottom every time it rained....) The new car is WONDERFUL and very luxurious. It has an interior climate control and leather seats and everything. And the best part? It only cost us $1700 in a private party sale. We have truly been blessed.

Abrielle is getting stronger every day and has the cutest personality. She is very smiley and loves to giggle. Her favorite primary song is "Popcorn Popping" and she will laugh quite hard when mommy is helping her do the actions. We went to the park yesterday to celebrate my baby brother's 11th birthday and she wasn't so sure what to think of all of the fresh air, wind, and sunshine. She buried her head in Grandma Kim's shoulder and fell fast asleep!

I set an appointment for Jake to get a physical this past month because he hasn't had one since before his mission (over 5 years ago!) I am pleased to report that he is in good health and things look pretty good! He has to go back to get the blood work done because we forgot he was supposed to be fasting, but he gets his blood drawn every other month to donate to the Red Cross so that is no biggie.

My baby brother Kayden has been taking the world by storm! He won the 5th Grade State Chess Championship this past weekend and is quickly climbing the charts in rank as his rating has passed 2000 and he is now officially the youngest Expert Utah has ever had! His rating is now higher than Bobby Fischer's rating was at Kayden's age. If you would like to know more about Kayden and the things he has done lately you can visit his blog at http://kaydentroff.blogspot.com/. We are so happy that his dreams are coming true and we are so glad that we can share in this journey with him!

Jake and I decided that missing "The Scarlet Pimpernel" at the Hale Center Theatre was too tragic - so we bought tickets! We are going to the 12:30 pm matinee show on the LAST day of the show because that is the only Saturday Jake has off of work that a matinee is playing. We are both so excited since we love the movie and the book so much.

I am getting very excited for my birthday next month! (June 16th) We might go on a vacation the weekend after my birthday with my family, which would be lovely! Jake is cooking up some plan that he won't tell me about so I can't wait to see wat he comes up with.

Well, I think that is a sufficient update for now. We love to hear how everyone is doing and we sincerely hope everyone is healthy, happy, and blessed!

Love from Shayla, Jacob, & Abrielle