I really enjoyed talking with each of you. Skjelse, I hope you get feeling better, and Gavin, I hope you are fading into normality again. At least you got it over with early on your mission.
Kieren looked so good and happy in her current assignment. Like Mom's favorite video of new years, "sometimes you never consider that the future can be better than the past". And this area has been that for you.
Gavin looked waaaaaay better than we feared after hearing how sick you were. And I am so pleased at how positive you are through the good and the difficult. And you Spanish is so much better. You are speaking so quickly now I can't even dissect words or phrases. Not that I knew what they were before, but I could tell the drift of many things. Not now, just a blur of sounds.
Skjelse was too sick to have a lot of fun. I hope that changes so you can enjoy the rest of your trip.
I went up to Craig's and am working on patching some holes in the walls caused by girl's flipping each other over in Kung Fu practice.
Then I saw that Spencer's were looking for a plumber referral. I had to check so I called him. Turns out the water heater went bad the day after Christmas. Not such an exciting thing to spend money on. I finally talked them into letting me help replace it. But they don't operate this way usually. So they didn't even know what to buy. So I helped them shop, then I removed the old and put in the new. It had a power vent system so that caused a bit more issues since the new and old were not exactly the same. Like always! But after a few hours we got it back in, gas, venting, and plumbing lines back up and going. We only had to move the plumbing and vent lines. But the next morning there was a drip. It was not there when we checked it all that night. At least they had hot water again. So I ran over, we emptied the pressure, and I was able to add solder to the one joint and get it to seal up again. Now it is all great. I saved them about $4-600 based on quotes they had gotten. I was happy to finally be able to help them in a meaningful way.
Mom's birthday was great. I had worked with Aunt Carol (s) and in the end Carol Baker helped me get a new sewing machine from her shop she works at for less than half price. Cost plus 10% as a special Christmas to employees only deal. This was an investment in "tools" for mom. She has needed it for so many years and I finally took some savings I had for tools (jobs from the past that I saved the tool money for) and for her a high end Brother that does tons of things. She LOVES it and has just begun to learn how to use all the features. It automatically threads the needle! Tons of stitches including decorative ones, and it will do lettering also. I hope this is the last one she will need. I think it will be. More reliable, better quality, just a good machine to last a lifetime.
I spoke at the Dayton branch today, thanks Kieren for your input on the "for unto us a child is born" topic. I used your thoughts as well as some study mom had done on referencing each word/phrase of Isaiah 9:6. And for nearly each one I had mom's scripture reference, a conf quote/story, and for many a personal story to share and illustrate the point.
I like how on the "mighty God" I had learned that when Handel wrote the Messiah oratorio, the first performance was a charity concert and all the money was used to free people from debtor's prison in Dublin Ireland. 142 men were freed from that event. I found it interesting that the very thing that freed the men was the story of Christ freeing us from sin and eternal despair.
I have now removed the grill from the house much to my dismay and to mom's delight. I have build a custom cabinet front over that area and it will be the audio visual cabinet. I have figured out how to run electric to behind the TV on the fireplace and to have the HDMI etc. cables to go through the brick and via the attic to the AV cabinet. So all will be hidden. It looks good so far but still a lot of work to do. That is with the new mantle and fireplace surround plan that mom has. I am trying to do that this week. I had planned to last week but ended up spending my time helping others. Above that area I am putting the old window from mom's house growing up. I took the flowers out of it (that we had not used for 4-5 years) and did a custom frosted glass pattern. Then we can use that for a dry erase board to note down scripture study goals etc for each week and what we want to remember. I painted it black so it matches the cabinet front I made.
Around the black metal wood stove surround we are putting tile. Do you think we should complement the brick colors with additional "glass" type tans and browns, or go with a "pop" of color of some type? I worry about the color because it won't change for 20 yrs, but the browns already dominate the area.
Love you forever, it was great to talk to you. Keep working hard.
Dad
3 John 1:4
No comments:
Post a Comment