Category: Diary

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

Lily talks in the third person because she’s a silly-billy!  Silly-billy-Lily!  Hahaha!!!

Allison has a birthday coming up,.  I hear she has some big tests going on.  I’m sure she’ll do well.  I’ve been thinking of something to get her, but I have some ideas!!! Maybe I’ll make her something!  Haha!!!  Dave has a 3d printer and engraver sitting around that I’ve never really learned how to use, maybe now is a good time!!!

I’m feeling a little better today.  Not too much better, but some.  Sometimes it helps to just have a routine.  It’s Monday, so we went to classes, I dropped Beth off at her mentor’s, I got some chocolate (of course), then came home.  Just a normal day I guess.  Everyone wanted details of my date with Jack on the group chat.  Of course I didn’t tell anything important, and Jack was a gentleman too.  I told them about Grace though.  They love Grace.  Of course they do!  Everyone does!

This Saturday Golden Week starts in Japan!  Ai’s really existed!!! I told her about Adult Day and Ordinary Day and she laughed hard!  haha!!! I wish I could be there.  It seems like so much fun.  But I guess I can’t have everything, right?

Oh did I tell you Ai has a boyfriend?  Well… not really.  It’s kind of tame.  But he gave her a headpat and apparently she blushed so hard she started sweating!  Haha!!! I haven’t talked to him but he seems nice.  They’re a bit stricter about that kind of thing in Japan, but they’re still spending some time together, and they might even hold hands while watching the fireworks next week!

She really hopes.

She’s looking forward to coming back to Texas too.  Maybe she can come when the rodeo takes place and the waterparks are open!!!  But we’ll see.  She did like Christmas, so maybe she’ll come then again.  She had a pretty good time.

Her dog is quite the character too!  Haha!!!  So dog much happy!!!

Okay!!!  I guess that’s all for today!!!  It’ll be a week!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!.

And Lily isn’t very happy today.  Lily is pretty upset, actually.

Lily went to church this morning.

Church usually isn’t so bad.  We walk in, little old ladies hug me and pinch my cheeks and tell me how pretty I am, Little old men shake my hand and tell me how pretty I am but in a slightly less than grandfatherly way (but that’s how old men are so I don’t worry too much about it), we go to our pews, some people sing stuff and want us to sing too, and then we listsen to the pastor talk for a while.

Usually I don’t understand much he says.  he talks in platitudes.  “Love one another”, “love your neighbor”, all that kind of thing.  It’s not usually so bad.  But today he talked about God’s love, and how it meant he had to kill his son.

And, umm.

It sure seems like every time God loves someone they get hurt, doesn’t it?

God loved Jesus.  And Jesus died.  That just seems to be the story.  Whatever God loves, dies.

The pastor keeps saying God loves us.

And, well…  here I am.  Maybe I’m not dead.. .but my memories are.  He certainly took his price from me, didn’t he?

I didn’t really feel like doing much today.  We went to Harbor Freight and the auto parts store and bought some tools to put the engine back together, but my heart wasn’t really in it.  I just went up to my room and stared at the wall for a while.  I took a nap! I never take a nap!  Sabby gave me a bit of grief about it, you know how she always wants me to do useful stuff, but I just kind of shuffled some stuff around and went back to bed.  She didn’t try to stop me this time.

She just bought me a shake and I found it next to my bed when I woke up again.

Awww.

It helped a bit.  Chocolate fixes everything.  And chocolate bought by family because they care about you fixes even more.

But I’m still sad.

I go to church because they’re like family.  There’s the pastor, who’s kind of a silly-billy but his heart’s in the right place.  There’s Mrs. White, who just lost her husband and now the church is rallying around her to make sure she’s taken care of – she doesn’t have anyone.  There’s old Mr. Johnson, who comes to church every week without fail reeking of strong cologne, but you know the church is all he has and everyone treats him like their grandpa (he’s not one of the “slightly dirty” ones).  There’s the Miller family, where everyone always seems a bit stressed out, but that’s what happens when you have two young boys.  There’s Crystal and her parents, who come to church every week because the pastor was really helpful and they see him as kind of family too.  I don’t mention it but sometimes we go out to eat after (and sometimes we just get chocolate pancakes as a family).  You get to know everyone, and it’s like a little family.  Diana and her mother go too.  Sometimes when we have a sleepover on Saturday night Crystal and Diana come with us and then go home with their parents.  But we usually have Friday night sleepovers…

I don’t mention any of that because it’s boring!  But it happens!

But God?

He’s kind of a jerk, don’t you think?

I guess it’s time for bed.  Hope there’s no storms, lightning might strike me.

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi’! It’s me! Lily!!!

And it’s Friday night, so we didn’t work on the car tonight!!!

We had a mini pizza party!!!  Yum!!!

Everyone came over and we had pizza and soda and… chocolate!  Of course we had chocolate! It’s not a party without chocolate!  And Katie came over too!  She really likes chocolate right now!!!

After we ate, we watched a movie too!  But… it was a boring movie, so I don’t remember its name.  Aww.  It had… people, and things, I guess.

But most movies these days are boring, I’m not even really sure why we bother.

Anyway, we didn’t work on the car today.  Too much other stuff to do.  But this weekend we’re going to tear the block down and see how bad the piston damage is!  Aww!!!

Oh and Jack isn’t grounded as of tomorrow!  We’re going to go out!!!  Yaaayy!  I miss him!!!

Okay!  Everyone wants to sleep now!  Even Marie!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lilly!

And it boomed!  And rained!  And rained!  And boomed!!!

Lots of rain!!!

But we always need the rain.

So Dave and I got the heads off the engine tonight, and yeah.  We got some bent valves.  Bad!!!  The pushrods are a bit messed up too.  So Dave’s going to go ahead and order some remanufactured heads, and a gasket, and some bolts…  But when we looked at the pistons… they weren’t in very good shape.  Got pretty banged up.  Pretty sure there’s at least a bent rod, and it looks like one of the pistons is cracked.  But the good news is, the bores look alright, from what we can see.  Just the pistons got it.

So we have more to do!

I learned a lot, though.  I learned how dirty an engine is, and how tight the head bolts are!! I used a breaker bar as long as my arm!!!  And even then I had to put all my weight on it!  And I don’t weigh a lot!!!

But I’m a strong girl!!!

So more to do!!!

But otherwise a pretty quiet day.  Just hot and humid.  Awww.

Okay!  Gotta go!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

And the engine is out!!!

That was hard!!!

We had to attach the engine to a chain, and hoist it up, then disconnect it from the transmission and exhaust and all that stuff!!!  Then we very carefully lifted it ou!!!  That was hard because I had to go under the car to unbolt the transmission!  It’s dark and smelly under there!!! Awww!!!

But then we carefully wheeled the engine over to a stand and bolted it on, and, well… now it’s ready to work on!!!

Dave seems really excited. I guess he likes doing this kind of stuff.  Well, he is an engineer.  And it’s kinda fun to see how it all goes together.  I told Rebecca and crowd and they just said “eww!  I’d break a nail!”

Well…  I guess.  But that’s never really mattered too much to me.  And that’s why God made manicures, right? Haha!!!

So tomorrow we’re going to start ripping the heads off and see what all the damage is.  Dave’s already said if the heads are damaged we’re not going to try to remachine them or anything, because that’s something for highly skilled people to do that’s not us.  So we’ll just buy a remanufactured head.

They make those!!!

But Dave said there’s all sorts of machining and sanding and lapping and other words I didn’t really understand that need to be done, and he doesn’t know how to do it, and it should be done right.  So, I guess that makes sense.  Some things it’s just better to pay people to do.

Like when I had the accountant do our taxes!

Speaking of which, those got sent in a couple of days ago…  and we ended up owing some!  Aww!  But I guess it’s okay, it wasn’t too much.  That’s just part of doing business.

Speaking of which, even with taxes, it’s doing really well.  We’re getting close to being able to afford another baker!!!

Which would be nice.  Sabby and baker together are having a hard time keeping up with demand.

But for the most part everyone’s pretty happy.  Oh!  Katie’s starting to show pretty well now!  She’s a bit moody and gets sick often and likes to eat weird stuff, but…  she seems pretty happy about the whole situation all told.  I guess having a good support system helps.  … I should know, right?  I guess the guy is trying to get her to, umm… “take care of the problem”, but she’s refusing.  She says he ran away, he lost any right to tell her what to do.  Awww.  Besides, she wants it.

I hope she can find someone to help her raise it.  She’s pretty and smart and cheerful, I’m sure she’ll find someone!!!

Anyway, that’s all the news!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

And I”m DIRTY!!!

Not like THAT, silly-billies!!!  GRRRR!!!!!

I worked on the car tonight!!!

Dave and I got all the tools out and we started disconnecting stuff and putting stuff to the side and saving bolts and… and doing all sorts of stuff!!!  We didn’t get the engine out, but we got a lot of the way there!!!  It’s at least mostly electrically disconnected!!!

We have this neat tool called an engine hoist that you connect to the engine and it just lifts the engine right out of the car!  Maybe we’ll use it soon!!!

Dave’s been really helpful.  He’d better be.  But he’s an engineer, and he seems to know what he’s doing, so that’s good.  David actually seems to want to help a bit!  So we’re letting him.  He’s not great with a wrench, but I guess that’s how you learn.

Beth is not jealous.

Hahah!!!

Anyway, I’ve got oil and grease and dirt all over me!  I need to shower!  Ewww!!!

Jack seems oddly, ummm… excited about it.

Silly-billy.

Umm… anyway.  That’s what we did today.  Other than that, it was classes.  Beth had a voice lesson tonight, and she also spent some time with her mentor.  She’s starting to learn how much she, well, has to learn..  but she seems to be enjoying the process.  They gave her her own lab coat!  She loves it!  She’d wear it to church if she could!

But Sabby would never allow that, lol.  We don’t have to really dress up most of the time, but jeans and that kind of thing isn’t allowed.

So, anyway, I guess that’s that for tonight.  I need to shower, Marie needs to walk, and I’m tired.

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

So… Ummm…  Yeah.  The car is kinda toast.

Looks like the timing belt jumped a couple of teeth and there was some piston-on-valve action.

I think I know what that means, but the mechanic said “You’re better off just swapping out the engine”.

Dave asked what the likelihood of the engine being actually rebuildable was.  The mechanic said pretty high, it had plenty of oil, just probably some bent valves and maybe rods.  The fact that the car got pulled over very quickly when it stopped meant that damage was probably limited.

Dave said “thanks,” and had the car towed back to the house.

Looks like…  I’m rebuilding an engine.

Well, that’s something.

Dave said I’m going to pull the engine out, take it apart, find all the stuff wrong with it, get whatever machining that needs to be done, done… and then put it back together again.

Not gonna lie, that sounds hard.

Like, really hard.

But Dave’s already busy getting all the tools we need, that we don’t already have.  He has the air compressor, but there are a few more specialized tools he’ll need.  Well… I’ll need.

And this is my project too.  Beth isn’t too interested, and besides she has her hands full with classes and spending time with her mentor.

So..  I guess I’ll be telling you how that’ll work out over the next few weeks.

In other news, David”s going to summer camp again in a couple of months.  So is one of his girlfriends.  The other one, well, her parents really kinda don’t want her and David hanging out.  And, well…  given what I learned when Ai visited, can’t blame them.  She’s pretty upset, but she’s ten, I guess she’ll deal.  The other one seems pretty smug.  Guess they learn fast.  Wouldn’t be surprised if it just becomes his one girlfriend.  Which is probably better for everyone, if we’re being honest.  Little player…

And I got the sheet music for the concerto, so I guess it’s time to really really practice.  It’s actually pretty fun to play, though.  Especially the finale.

Busy times for everyone, I guess.

I guess the most important thing is:  I need really short jean shorts!  At least that’s what Jack tells me.  Sigh.  Boy’s incorrigible.  And I love that about him.  But I am NOT working on a car in really short shorts.  That’s just asking for scars on my legs!

Okay!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

So I didn’t post last night!!! Ooops!!!  But there’s a story.  There’s always a story…

So on Saturday we decided to take a trip on the spur of the moment!  We went to San Antonio and went on the citywalk!

But on the way back the car broke down!!!  In New Braunfels!!!

Awww!!!!

So we had to get it towed!!!

But it took a long time for the driver to come, and the tow truck could only take one of us, so Liz had to come down and get us!!!

Awww!!!

Liz didn’t mind, though.  She’s nice that way.  And Sabby promised her cookies.  And we all know Sabby’s fully capable of delivering on that promise.

Dave went in the tow truck and the rest of us went with Liz.

Luckily it broke down near the Buc-ees in New Braunfels so we had lots of snacks and a nice bathroom.

But by the time we actually dropped the car off at the mechanic and got home it was really late!  So we just went to bed.

It’s a good thing we have four cars!!!  Well… three right now.

Dave doesn’t think it’s going to be anything horrible, but it certainly wouldn’t have made it back to Round Rock!!!

So this morning we went to church.  Sabby was a little anxious about what people would say, but I just…  I dunno.  It’s not that I didn’t care, but I kinda didn’t care.  I think I like church now.  It’s not because I like everything they teach and stuff…  I don’t understand it. But the pastor proved last week he puts his money where his mouth is.  And that counts for a lot, right?

His sermon today was “be as little children” and he talked about how children just say what they think and don’t have all of the baggage that adults do.  I think I inspired his sermon.  Which wasn’t helped by how he stared me in the eye and winked when he was giving it.  Hahaha!!!  But I got him!!!  As he was concluding, I stood up and bowed!  Then I sat back down primly, and he laughed!

But I didn’t say anything.  I didn’t want Sabby to get too mad at me.  But she just gave me a bit of a stink-eye and said no more.  I think she knew he deserved that.  After all, he kinda actually asked for it!

Truth is that Jesus guy did have a lot of good things to say.  We could do worse than to listen to him.

Jack’s still grounded but he’s not too upset about it.  We still get to talk a lot and we patched it up.  He knows where I stand and I know where he stands and he knows where the line is.  I made sure he understands:  you get to be immature if you want, just not at church.

I’m looking forward to seeing him again.

But on the bright side, it was a really really nice day, and we went out for chocolate pancakes!!!

Marie loves days like this.  She could go for hours walking around and sniffing stuff.

Okay.  I posted tonight!!! And Golden Week is coming up!  Ai’s looking forward to it!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

I’m spending the night with Liz tonight.  Beth has Crystal over, but I don’t spend enough time with Liz.  It’s been a busy week!  She kinda wants to smack Jack, but he’s getting it bad enough from his mother.  She’s really, really not happy with him.  Cousin-scolding just doesn’t have the same zing to it.

Golden week is coming up!  That’s a week where Japanese people have all sorts of different holidays!  There’s Showa day, Constitution day, Greenery day, and Children’s day.  And of course if you listen to some of those idols, there’s ordinary day and adult day too.  Don’t forget to buy Babymetal DeLoreans!  Hahaha!!!

Long story behind that one, let’s just say Suzuka Nakamoto’s mind is a little odd.

Anyway, other than that, Liz and I are playing board games and watching YouTube.  We found this really weird group called the “Caramella Girls”, they have this song where they swish their hips so hard that it looks like they’ll get spine problems!!!  But it’s a fun song!  They did a couple more too!!  Apparently they were a meme a few years ago…

The Japanese people think it’s about balsamic vinegar!  That’s another long story…

Anyway, Liz and I doing all that, eating chocolate, and, you know, being our normal giggly selves.  Well, I’m being giggly.  Liz usually isn’t all that giggly.  She’s a bit serious sometimes.  But that’s okay!  Liz is Liz, and I’m Lily!!!

Oh!  I forgot to tell you!!!  My piano teacher wants me to do another recital!  But this time she wants me to do a concerto!  With an orchestra!  She wants me to be the soloist at a high school orchestra concert!

That might be fun!  But I’m a little nervous.  At least I have the gown for it!  Hahah!!!

I think I’m going to do the Schumann concerto!  It’s not as hard as some of them, and I think I can learn it!!!

Well, I’d better!

Haha!!!

Okay!  Liz is sleepy and wants to go to bed.  Truthfully, I think I’m like her big breathing teddy bear sometimes.  But I don’t mind!  She’s my little Chinese anime doll, so we’re even!

OW!  She smacked me for that!!!  Hahaha!!!!!

Love you all!!! ❤