A-Z meme

 

Karen tagged me for this meme…my first one! The perfect way to write my third entry for the month of May. My how time flies…

A. Available or Single

Available only to my husband of 13 years.

B- Best Friend.

John…he’s my best boy friend.  My best girl friend would be Jen…even though we live far away, we can pick up a conversation mid-sentence.  I love having to skip the formalities!

C- Cake or Pie.
Cake (GF, of course).

D- Drink of Choice.
Black coffee in the morning.  Room temp water otherwise.

E- Essential Item.
Hmmm, a pen?

F- Favorite Color.
Blue.

G- Gummi Bears or Worms.
Neither.

H- Hometown.
San Antonio, TX

I- Indulgence.
Blogging.

J – January or February.
February.

K- Kids.
Four —10 year old girl, 7 year old boy, 5 year old girl, and 2 year old girl.

L- Life is incomplete without…
Jesus.

M- Marriage Date.
December 30, 1993

N- Number of Siblings?
Two…an older sister by 6 years, and older brother by 3 years.

O- Oranges or Apples?
Oranges.

P- Phobias/Fears.
I used to be a hypochondriac until I realized one day, “So what am I afraid of?…If I die, I’ll be with Jesus.”  The only other fear I have is of flying, ironic for a pilot’s wife.  I still fly though.  For the same reason as above.

Q- Favorite Quote.

Do I have to choose one?  My new favorite to chew and digest is this one, from Dan Allender’s Bold Love:  Love is a sacrifice for the undeserving that opens the door to restoration of relationship with the Father, with others, and with ourselves.

R- Reasons to smile.
Sunshine, blue sky, birds singing, a soft bed, a warm shower, good music, my husband, my children, books, friends, beauty in all its forms.

S- Season(ing).
Spring (Cinnamon)

T- Tag Three.

Denise, Southern Girl , and (he’s going to kill me…) dpc+.

U- Unknown Fact About Me.
I can sing the French national anthem, the Marseilles (but I’m not sure I can spell it).

V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals.
Omnivore.

W- Worst Habit.
Not putting things away after I get them out.

X- X-rays or Ultrasounds.
Ultrasounds first, please.

Y- Your Favorite Foods.
Homemade salsa and chips.  Fish tacos.  Chocolate.  Appetizers.

Z- Zodiac.
You’ve got to be kidding.

Appliances…Grrrr!

I am so frustrated right now. Technology comes with so many “side benefits.” We are getting ready for a trip and I was busily washing clothes. I threw a load into my 2 year old Kenmore dryer, turned it on, walked away, and few moments later heard a loud thump and the dryer shut off. I’m sure the belt broke. It’s very convenient for the company that my warranty expired 3 months ago almost to the day. I swear they must time it that way!

This wouldn’t be so frustrating to me except that I have had so many problems with my brand new appliances. None have been cheap, off-brands either. I have gone round and round with Maytag over my “Quiet Series 300” dishwasher. What a lemon!! The folding tines collapse at the slightest touch, the plastic pieces that hold the tines snap from constantly having to readjust the tines. The pulley that opens the door has broken. The plastic latch that opens the door literally crumbled to pieces in my hand just the other day! It doesn’t clean as stated, i.e. “never rinse your dishes again!” Baloney. And the parts center has been horrible. They have spent so much money sending me the wrong parts. I have an entire dishrack sitting in my garage that they didn’t even want me to send back. I have lodged numerous complaints both in paper, email, and telephone and I have just gotten the standard, “We are sorry for your dissatisfaction, but…” reply. I have finally resigned myself to NEVER buying anything Maytag again.

My also very expensive Kenmore Elite bottom freezer refridgerator also makes me crazy. The doors don’t close easily and because there are two, you have to conscientiously make sure one of them is not hung up on the other. The deli pull out tray broke when a friend who was unaware of the delicate nature of my fridge, shut the doors too vigorously. I will never buy a bottom freezer again, at least one with a drawer. Bad idea in a big family with lots of small children. If one child doesn’t shut the drawer extremely tight, ice forms in the track and then you can hardly open or shut it without great force. Also, one of my children shut the door hard, thinking that it was just ice in the track, and inadvertently broke the arm of the ice maker, so we had to disconnected the ice maker because the durn thing didn’t know when to stop making ice! What fun!

Ironically, my hot water dispenser, the one I won with my kitchen makeover broke after a few months. That was fun…the lever broke and the water shot out full blast. We had to shut the water off to the entire sink for about a week and a half before they could send us a new one for us to install. I have now installed two, due to a finish problem with the replacement, so I feel like I could be a qualified Insinkerator installer!

I’m sure I could avoid some of these expensive problems if I purchased the extended warranties but I refuse!! You mean I have to pay them hundreds of dollars on top of hundreds of dollars already spent because they refuse to stand behind the quality of their products? Do they knowingly make junk so they can make money off of extended warranties and repairs?

Hey, I might need a second job to help pay for all of these appliance woes…anyone need a hot water dispenser? I’d only charge you $40 dollars an hour. How ’bout it?

UPDATE:  Okay, okay, I confess.  In a moment of frustration I was unfair to my Kenmore dryer.  After my husband took it apart, and, finding nothing wrong with it, we called in the repairman.  He fiddled with it and finally handed me a wad of fabric that had lodged into the fan blade.  This had somehow gotten shoved down the lint cleaner.  Serves me right for not keeping the top of the dryer clean.  Bah!

And, not to ungrateful, I wanted to note that although my Insinkerator hot water dispenser broke, the company very quickly and nicely replaced it with a new one.  We had to install it ourselves only because we live in a “remote” area.

There, now I feel better.

In our weakness…

…His strength is made perfect. How I know this now. And I also know how painful it is to be weak and let His strength be perfect.

I was reminded of this as I was visiting Owlhaven’s site and ran across this plea to pray for Lucas, a fellow blogger’s little boy who was burned last night. Many of you know that our own son was burned about a year and a half ago. My heart goes out to this family and Lucas. It brings back the feeling of my heart breaking in two for my little boy. Please read his story and PRAY, PRAY, PRAY for him.

Also, scroll down and look at the you-tube video the family made of their adoption story. Keep a kleenex ready! They brought their two new children home only a few months ago.

I was thinking about how right now the family’s souls feel as raw as their son’s flesh. I was also thinking how God showed Himself over and over through our ordeal, mostly through the prayers we felt that were coming literally from around the world. Now, as I told my son of little Lucas, his earnest face lit up when I asked him to pray for him. Can you imagine? He actually felt joy that he could pray for another little boy in need. What a blessing. I think of how many people come away from a painful tragedy bitter. I know our son’s injuries could have been worse, but I believe his belief in God’s goodness would still have been the same.

Now our son is healed and stronger in his faith than he was before he was burned. Please pray the same for Lucas.