Busy, busy, busy!

I'm still alive, in case anyone wondered! So much going on here at Parker Ranchero.

Above are two pictures from my 2 daughter's piano recital yesterday. Elisabeth is at the top (17) and Rachel (10) is in the bottom picture. Elisabeth actually teaches Rachel. Mrs. Smith, Elisabeth's piano teacher, invited Rachel to join the recital of 20 other students. She calls Rachel her grandstudent! LOL! Both girls played difficult selections for them and did marvelous jobs. We praise God for the talent He has given them in this area.

My MIL and DH's grandfather surprised us by coming up for the recital. They arrived Monday afternoon and just stayed for one night, leaving shortly after the recital. We have not seen them in quite a while, so it was great to be able to visit, although it was very short.

I have not been piecing much at all. I have sewn a few non-quilt items on the machine. I made a curtain for my sewing area and a jumper for myself. I don't even remember the last clothing item I've sewn--it's been that long. I'll take a pic of both items later. The sun is not up yet, so the pictures would be dark. Plus, if I turn on a bright light in here, the parakeets start squawking, and they will wake up the 3 sleeping boys down here in the adjacent room. A parakeet alarm clock is not a desirable item in any home, let me tell you!

Just when you thought nothing else would break...

We've had a rough 4 months of breakage. To sum up, we have replaced our water heater, vacuum cleaner, washer, dryer, dishwasher, (hopefully car today), and now the double oven is on the blink. Oh, DH repaired the frig in this period of time, too. This has made our financial life so difficult (based on the fact that we're not independently wealthy), but God has provided all we need.

Two nights ago I set the top oven on self clean due to a mysterious and yet-unknown sticky residue that obviously baked out of something. We started watching a DVD of Little House and I went to the kitchen to make some popcorn. I noticed that none of the lights in the display on the oven were on. Well, TMALSS, the breaker box fuses were fine, the wiring was fine, but the oven was kaput. It took much labor and time to determine the above items, but one of my DH's friends came over and helped him pull the oven out of the built-in cabinet and test everything.

An appliance repairman came and fixed it several days later (Monday). We were going to bake my Apple Dumpling recipe since my MIL and GFIL were here. You guessed it--the oven was dead in the water again. Supposedly someone is coming over within a few days to take another look.

It's been a rough few months. Good thing that THINGS are not our source of happiness!

Elisabeth gets her braces off today. We are excited for her about that.

My DH was supposed to leave tonight for a 3-day retreat with my oldest 2 boys. We found out late last night that one of his cousins died yesterday, so he might be staying to go to the funeral. Died of a drug overdose. How incredibly sad. I never knew he used drugs. It made me wonder as I have before, "WHY?" Why would a person use drugs? I usually come to the same conclusions...the person doesn't think it will really hurt them (let alone others), they think they're too powerful to succumb to the ugly side of that lifestyle, or perhaps they don't think anyone would care if they endanger their life that way. My heart aches for our aunt and uncle. I wonder if my children are ever tempted to delve into that type of thing. You can bet I'll be talking to them as the opportunities arise about it again in the near future.

~Joan