Mid-Year Update

Hey everyone. Since it's been half a year since our last post, I thought I might add a few updates since Brandy has been so busy being the most awesome mom and wife. Normally, she's been really good at keeping this thing up to date, but when I list what's been going on, you'll understand why she hasn't had time to put much up on here...

Ok, 2012 so far in list format...

In January we moved into the University of Utah's Family Student Housing. We'd been staying with my Dad and step-Mom since August while home hunting. By January, all our prospective bids had fallen through and we decided to get an apartment because who knows how long it would be before the house thing worked out. And of course, as soon as we moved in and enjoyed awesome neighbors, comfy personal space, and a great ward, one of our bids was accepted. (And on a side note, two weeks later a second bid was accepted... when it rains it pours right?) So our stay was a short one, but we really enjoyed out time there and the people we met.

In February I sang the title role the U's semi-staged concert-version of Mozart's Don Giovanni. It was a big success and got good reviews too! Check out the Friday night performance.

We closed on the house on March 15th. It was too bad we couldn't have closed a week earlier, because we closed at the very end of spring break, but we're just so happy we finally had a home. It's what I call a project house. It's a step up from a 'fixer-upper' but still needs a lot of work. We fixed up the bedrooms and bath to move in, but we figured we'd wait until later to work of the other parts of the house. We didn't want to chew off too much more than we could chew. The boys love having a yard to play in, and eventually it'll be nice to have a little workshop set up in our 2-car garage.

The moving process was even more fun (smell the sarcasm) because of the opera production going on at the same time. I sang in the fully-staged production at the University in April. Carlise Floyd's Susannah is an American Opera (don't feel uneducated if you don't know it) and our production got great reviews. 

I finished up the school year in May and we enjoyed a little time to settle into the house. Over the summer I was working more hours at the library, and enjoying a little more time at home. Johnny finished up his first year at pre-school. He's been going to school twice a week for a few hours because of his speech delay. We finally were able to get him tested, and apparently he has what's known as pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). That's an umbrella-term that encompasses lots of specific disorders (like autism, aspergers, or retts). Johnny's is mild, and it should be totally treatable. He'll be behind in school (which would happen anyway because of his Oct birthday), but he should be caught up by the time he is around 8. Brandy was really relieved to know that there was something physically wrong with him, and she wasn't doing anything wrong. He speech and communication has gotten a LOT better. And now that summer is here and school's out, we're still able to get a little speech therapy by trading therapy sessions for voice lessons with one of his teachers. Win-win.

Brandy has been getting bigger and bigger with the new baby. In mid-June we had the ultrasound and found that we were going to have another little boy. Brandy's excited to get her three Musketeers and I'm hoping they'll be the Three Amigos. Unless some major change comes up, we're planning on naming him James Daniel Brandyn Tuutau. (see that? Harry Potter's dad plus both his parents).

End of June we headed off to our annual trek to the Mendocino Folklore Camp. This was the camp's 50th anniversary, my 12th year, Brandy's 3rd, John's 2nd, and Joshua's 1st. We had a great time, and it was great to see everyone again. 

For pioneer day, I sang in the "Days of '47 Parade" in downtown Salt Lake. It was fun. I dressed up like a Matador, and I sang the famous "Toreador" song from Bizet's Carmen. Not only did I get to sing in the parade, I was also on the radio being interviewed about opera & stuff and I was on the front page of the Salt Lake Tribune. Not too shabby.    

And most recently, our little Joshua turned 2 years old on Aug 1st. Brandy celebrated with him by taking him to the dollar store and letting him and Johnny play with the balloons. She then took them to Walmart and they got a candy bar. Pretty fun for a two-year-old. The Monday before we spent the evening BBQ-ing in Orem and had some cake balls. They boys loved their new bubble guns!

So, things are going well here with the Tuutaus. Hopefully we'll get more updates that once every 6 months... but hey, it's better than once a year, right!?