Well, it’s been a long time since we’ve tended to our website. Not only has life been busy, but we’ve also been working on a website overhaul and web hosting changes. As the site has grown, so too has the complexity in updating it. The new changes in web design and hosting should make it much easier to keep our site up to date.
So where are we?
September: Emily lost her first pet, Calvin (the betta fish). He lived a little over one year under Emily’s care. We held a brief memorial and buried him under a tree in the backyard. While Emily misses her fish greatly, she has decided (so far) not to replace him. Ethan tried out for the Trojans Baseball Club (which is the feeder program for the local high school baseball team) and got in the 9U team. They had scrimmages through the fall and begin practices in January. He is excited to be doing baseball, though he occasionally misses gymnastics.
October: Beth’s parents came out for a visit, which coincided with Beth’s birthday! For Halloween this year, the kids went to extremes on costumes with Ethan on one end of the spectrum purchasing a “Scream” costume from the store, and Emily on the other end, making her Persephone (Greek queen of the underworld and goddess of spring) costume from scratch with the help of a local friend. Emily also spent Halloween raising money for big cats, as part of National Geographic’s “Cause an Uproar” campaign.
November: This was a difficult month for Beth, as the Maia Quartet officially ended its career. The end comes as a result of high turnover in personnel over the last few years. They ended on a high note, performing with the American String Quartet as part of the Hancher series here at the University of Iowa. Beth is now looking at other opportunities and has been discussing possible opportunities within the School of Music. Eugene has been busy with the planning of three major new buildings at the University: the School of Music, the School of Art and Art History (both flood recovery projects), and a Psychology building.
As the weather gets colder here, we wish you season’s greetings as we head towards the end of the year!