Behind the scenes: We've been bbbbbbuuuuussssyyyy! Usually, except for the Tomball Christmas Market, December is a more laid back time for us with private party performances, gift baking, watching our favorite Christmas movies, enjoying the decorations, connecting with friends who have holiday, and relaxing. Not so much this year. Things around the house kept breaking. First the lawnmower just died. No reason or rhyme, it just died. Ross took it apart, figured out what might be wrong with it, bought the parts he thought he'd need, and got it up and running again. Then the fridge stopped freezing. Freezer items were beginning to melt. We took everything out of the freezer and fridge, relegating them to the drink fridges (thank God we have those!) and he began trial and error. Finding that it most likely was low on coolant, he got the parts necessary to make that repair. We have ice cubes again, and our drink fridges are drink fridges again! He also made a few trips out to his parents to help them with some repairs, did an oil change on the work van, and then bam, a big freeze was coming just before Christmas. We spent 2 days prepping the yard for the worst. We also had a few small repairs to do at our house where our Pastor lives. I tried to keep the gift baking on time. Christmas cooking prep was a bit of a challenge with not enough room to store refrigerated items. But we made it through. The day after Christmas, we finally got to sit around to watch the movies and look at the pretty decorations. The next day, we decided it was safe to move most of the rest of our refrigerated stuff back to the repaired fridge, and put the drinks back in the drink fridges. Whenever we have family or friends over for a holiday celebration, all of our music stuff goes from the rehearsal space in our living room into our bedroom. So, while the house looks nice and clean, and too big for two people, we barely can get around in our bedroom for all the equipment. New Year's Eve and day came and went with lots of time together with friends and music. Jan 2, Valina hit the ground running with all the paperwork for the 4th quarter taxes, Texas sales tax paperwork, 1099's, and post office runs. Lots of time spent on the schedule for the Tomball festival coming in March and lots of time spent on beginning the planning for the 2024 tour. Then around Jan 10, Ross and Valina both began going to their respective parents' houses to do repairs and chores. Ross was finished with the repairs they needed after about a week, so he began a culling job in his office and the garage. Valina has spent 6 weeks culling through 3 closets at her parents' house. She and her mom are designating things for family, things for sale, things for donations, and throwing out items that are no longer of use to anyone. It's been nice to spend the time going through all the old memories together. The other news is, Valina's Mom was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in early January. She asked it be kept quiet for a while until she had time to process it and know the full diagnosis. If you thought she was a bit distant at the Christmas market in Tomball, that's why. She was getting tested in December and it was a scary unknown. Now, she's in pretty decent spirits, taking the whole thing in stride for the most part. She's not a happy camper with the way the treatments make her feel, and how they make things taste funny, but hopefully the treatments are doing what they're designed to do. She gets tired easily some days, which is frustrating for her, because she's typically pretty hyper. Would you keep her, her Dr's and my Dad in your prayers?
All that culling at Mom and Dad's called for some culling around here too, to make room and better organize. 4 car loads of donations, and one ready to go now. 6 really large bags of trash. 2 bags of shredding. 5 large storage boxes emptied and ready for future storage. Two months with just 4 days off has been time well spent. Averaging about 6 hours of sleep a night, Valina's office, the guest bedroom, and storage area all dusted and vacuumed. Finally, ready for normal use again! There's quite a bit of progress at Mom and Dad's too. Ross is still busy in the garage. He dismantled and rebuilt the very corroded shelving over the utility sink, and added a cabinet for paint storage. He rebuilt a small generator, including fashioning a filter for it. It runs smooth now! His office is still quite messy, but it's still a work in progress. Hopefully he can stand putting that on hold for a while. Rehearsals to be ready for this weekend and the upcoming gigs in March start in earnest this week. It has indeed been a very long stretch of controlled off stage chaos for us! We're so excited to get back out there, see you, and play music!