Another Topsy-Turvy Day

Yesterday seems like a blur....we spent the day at Carly's house, helping her mount her new Tappan microwave/ fan above her stove. Carly worked like a wild woman, Mark advising her along the way. She scrollsawed and hammered and wired and did all kinds of *stuff*. The net result is great, and we are happy we could at least give moral support!

Today, we went out to the garage to attempt the brakes on the Explorer again. As Mark and I worked, he called me over to have a look....ugh....yet ANOTHER problem. The rear passenger side coil spring was broken. Mark said it looked like it broke very recently. As I looked at the spring, I could see that it was broken in another place. It had snapped what looked like a long time ago as it was quite rusty. This is a little more than upsetting as this is a 2002 model with about 41,000 miles on it. The good news is that the rear brakes are all done and the rotors were in really good condition. No new ones needed! When Mark does the front brakes, he will inspect those rotors as well, but in a glance at them thus far, they look to also be in good condition. Yay, the brake job won't be nearly as expensive as we thought. We will, however, need to have that spring looked at and replaced.

As Mark worked for a little while, I was able to sneak off and take a few pictures of the boys. I finally settled on one and made up oodles of wallet size pictures to enclose in my exchange cards.

Sounds simple enough, eh? NOT! After trying the laser printer and two different inkjet printers, we were finally able to print up the pictures. It *only* took about three hours.....

My mom called this evening with some very sad news. My Uncle Nick passed away late this afternoon. This is my father's older brother who was 84. My heart breaks for my cousins, as they loved my uncle so much. He spent many years as a single parent, raising six children, five of whom were girls. This family has had so many tragedies in the past several years. I pray God's peace on this family.

My uncle had a misfortunate accident last September, when the vehicle he was driving backed into a pond. My uncle fought with all his strength and stamina to release himself from the machine, and in the process, he took in a good deal of pond water. A few weeks later, he was in the hospital with pneumonia. I had no heard how he was doing.

I am so grateful that I took the time off from my crazy schedule to attend my aunt Doris's funeral, as I got to visit with my uncle at that time. He was such a strong and admirable man.