Catching up

So as my cousin pointed out, it's been awhile.  Keri is always good at letting me know when it's been a bit long since my last post.  Someone's got to keep me on my toes!

Let's see.  I turned 25 on February 17th and had a lovely birthday party hosted by my parents on February 15th at the Casa Las Palmas room on Cabrillo Blvd.  It was so nice to see everyone and I'm so thankful that everyone made the trek from near and far to help celebrate my quarter of a century birthday milestone!  For the first time in I don't know how many years, I had a cake instead of cherry pie.  If you know me, you know that I love cherry pie and prefer it as my dessert of choice on my birthday...I have had this preference since I was little.  This year, since cake serves more people, we got a delicious lemon cake with lemon filling and lemon frosting from Fresco, and not only was it pretty, but it was also very tasty!  And that's coming from someone who doesn't do cake.  Jason took me out to dinner on my actual birthday and I saved all of the gifts from my party to open on the evening of my birthday as well...I have a thing about opening gifts prior to an actual date.  I don't open Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve, and I don't open birthday gifts or anniversary gifts or Valentine's gifts or whatever before the actual day.  Did the same with wedding gifts we got in the mail prior to our wedding.  It takes a lot of will power, but it's worth it in the end.  Anyway, the party was so much fun and just like a wedding reception, it was over far too soon.  Memorable day for sure.

What else?  OH I have a new cousin!!  Keri and her husband Ryan welcomed their second little boy into the world on March 2nd!  Brayden Kenneth Metzger weighed in a 8lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long.  He is just precious and so very handsome and now Jake is a big brother!  We can't wait to share in his growing up! :)  Many congratulations (for the millionth time) to Keri and Ryan!

Jason's junior high jazz band and the high school jazz band he's teaching for part of the semester (long story) competed in a local jazz festival on Saturday, March 7th and both of his groups took 1st place in their divisions, and took most of the section awards as well!!  They did such a wonderful job and I'm just so very proud of all of the hard work and dedication Jason puts into his work.  He is one talented guy.  He does put in a ton of hours being split between two schools, but how special to see his hard work paying off.  

Jason and I went to Arizona with the drumline he teaches at the high school last weekend (February 27-March 1) and what a whirlwind trip that was!  Jason and two parent volunteers drove the 3 school vans full of kids all the way from Santa Barbara to Phoeniz, AZ and back.  I used to go on those kinds of trips all the time as a student but it had been awhile since I'd been to an away competition...a lot of work and a lot of driving for such a short amount of time.   The kids had a good time and made finals, ended up placing 6th out of 14 schools.  For many of them, it was their first time performing in a drumline setting so it was a great experience and they really did a great job.  Jason is on the road again this coming weekend to Union City, and then it's National's in April, which are held in Dayton, Ohio.  

And then, mercifully, in early June, it's summer break!  He can't wait.  His working schedule has been chaotic and beyond busy at best this entire year, so he's decided not work a part time job this summer - in the end, it's only 2.5 months and he doesn't make enough to really justify paying the taxes on the income anyway.  Plus, we've rationalized that the lack of income for a few weeks is a small price to pay for his sanity.  Instead, Jason will be keeping busy doing some upgrading on the house.  New carpet, new paint in some of the rooms, and doing some landscaping.  He might teach some private lessons on the side, too.  Stay tuned for more on Jason's summer plans.  I, on the other hand, will be working as usual.  Ick.  Oh how I miss summer vacation.