Another year, another post

Since a few of my friends have decided to start blogs, I have decided I am going to try and keep up with mine. So....... here's what's happening with the Hooks':

November:
We took a trip to Georgia during Thanksgiving week, so we could attend Huey's brother's wedding. It was wonderful to get to know my brother-in-law and new sister-in-law better. The only part I DIDN'T like? The loooooong drive! It took us about 17hrs to get there, and about 20 to get back. And we did it all in one day. At least the scenery was nice. We saw signs for many interesting civil war spots, but when we got off the freeway to explore, found out they were way off the beaten path... too far off to go exploring on our short trip. Hopefully we will have more time to explore next time we go to GA. At least we can now say we've been to Florida! We drove through on our way there. Not that we saw much. It was almost dark by the time we made it over the Florida state line, and quickly got VERY dark. There were no lights on the section of FL highway we drove. Scary!
BTW, I DID have nice shoes on for the actual ceremony... but they hurt! lol

December:
Huey and I both celebrated our birthdays. Yippee. As a late birthday/early Christmas present, we added a new addition to our family: Buddy! Buddy is a shih tzu/lhasa apso mix. He is such a GOOD dog! He almost never barks, has never had an accident, and loves to be pet and cuddled! Our apartment complex had a porch decorating contest for Christmas. We won 3rd place. Someone with reindeer won 1st. The apartment manager loves reindeer. So now we know we need reindeer next year! lol
We spent Christmas with my family. It was fun. My parents gave Huey his own domain name for a website, and some really really nice business cards. He has already handed out a few of them! Huey would really love to be a personal chef.
He lost his job on New Years Eve, but got another one 3 days later! He now works at Libertine Bar in Dallas. It is a much longer commute than before (45 minutes vs. 10 minutes!), but overall I think it is a better job. At his last job, checks were bouncing, and they weren't ever busy, and they just plain sucked. :)

January:
On January 3rd, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary! Wow. 3 years! Crazy how time flies by!
After our anniversary, we started the HCG diet together. So far we're doing pretty darn good! I lost about 13.5lbs in the first week! We have about a week to go. I'll let you know what the final results of our first 40days is.
I am now up to 21 piano students! We had our second recital on January 8th. First recital was held in the primary room. This one had to be held in the cultural hall! Could have held it in the Chapel, but since most of my students aren't LDS, and parents like to video their kids, and thats not allowed in the chapel... the cultural hall it was! Someone from the ward who was there to clean the building that morning helped me set up chairs with his sons. I was so glad! Instead of something that would probably have taken me about 60-75 minutes by myself, it only took about 30! We set up 120 chairs, and most of them were taken! Whew. I was so glad to have that over and done with. Our next recital will be in October. That gives me time to breathe. :-)
I also started taking violin lessons, with Rosemary Weiland. She is an awesome teacher. I am learning a violin duet of I am a Child of God, which also has a piano accompaniment. We're scheduled to do it in my ward's sacrament meeting on April 17th, with my mom playing the piano!

me and most of my students solid ice, covered by a layer of snow


February:
February's weather this year has been CRAZY! We started of literally freezing. Below freezing. We had approximately 3-4 inches of snow, and also some freezing rain. With temps in the teens and lower 20's for several days, we were pretty much iced in, and couldn't go anywhere. I had to cancel all my Tues.-Thurs. lessons that week, AND also my Friday make-up lessons! It was awful. The only good thing I can think of that came from that, is that Huey wasn't able to go to work either, so we spent 4 days together, without needing to do anything! That was kinda nice. Although if I had 4 days with my husband, I'd much rather spend it on the beach!
Last week we sold Huey's car, so we are officially a one-car family! Now the only debt we have is school debt. No more car payments, HOORAY! I thought it would be a big adjustment, getting used to having only one car. It actually hasn't been that bad. The only time I have to take him to work so I can have the car, is Saturday, so I can go to my violin lesson. Other than that, it really hasn't been as hard as I thought it might be. Hm. I think thats about it for now.

Ice on our banister Buddy loved the snow!