Long time no hear from, sorry

Hi all,
Well life has been ticking along here. Now Rachelle is settled and is that much closer to completing her high school. She has been doing it in her own time, but getting it done and with decent grades. This brings me to the philosophy of schooling and kids. Why do we are many parents do, want them to hurry up and get that schooling done? If they do it fast and sloppy, without a care except to get it done, then neither is the schooling learned, appreciated or given full effort, what is the point? So there she is, that much closer to finishing school and she added a job into the mix. So happily, she works hard in a restaurant, serving, cleaning, preparing and generally learning and she is doing it all in near fluent spanish. Her life lessons are big and exciting and that education is incredibly valuable. Dane is still amazing me, he is still so very creative and figuring out electronics and mechanics. I now have a Mr. Potatoe head speaker for my Ipod. Woooohooo. I prefer in life that everything is fun, especially when I am in the studio. I think that when everything around me is fun, fun can change your perspective and help to lighten you up. I have found a new lease on life in music. We finally got all the Ipod's repaired and I now have my own. I LOVE It. It is like..... my favorite friend. So having a huge Darth Tater Mr. Potatoe head speaker has given my Ipod a character and personality. Its great fun. So Dane easily made this for me and I am in awe that he could even do it without any project classes about electronics.
Dane has kind of become an only child now that Rachelle is working and out of the house most of the time. I think he rather loves it. There are no more boyfriends as there is no time for them and no stress. We are all a lot calmer. The cultural differences and in the machismo crap is really difficult for her to deal with, it is all rather immature and child like in many ways. Anyway, that is not the way that she was raised and it rubs her the wrong way, thankfully.
So, back to the music thing.... I have found a lot of the old songs and many new ones that I find inspiring and fun. I feel that life should be fun and that everything around it should try to encourage it. Life is so heavy already that just adding more is just adding more. I think that zipping up the mountain on a hike inspired by heel kicking music, powerful, propelling you up the mountain, is just a wonderful thing to do on a day that requires going up the mountain. I have had fun looking into "You Tube" and see the videos to music, some old, some new is awesome. I love that the one song will bring you into other songs and so on. I found all kinds of music, stuff for dancing, some for meditating, some for cooking in the kitchen, etc. Yipee. I do however limit the wanwan depressing maudlin sounds of the depressed and suicidal, in fact I avoid them. I even have found the Kodo drummers, I will allow the path to drop and try and find other music that would be cool. Here in town there are some Italian people running their restaurant and they have fabulous European music too. I can go there to find a name to give me a thread to follow in the you tube maze. The journey is fun. The endless music is awe inspiring. I am very thankful for my Ipod and my Darth Tater Mr. Potato head speakers, they are adding a new dimension in my life, and well exercise.
Rob is doing good too, we both had a bout of ill health and after that it always makes you feel like life needs to be embraced and danced with. So happily, we made chocolates and truffles and general chocolate naughtiness for our friends and family. The house reeked of sugar and chocolate and I couldn't even eat any of it other than taste. At about 9 at night we could finally even eat again. The chocolate can be good for diets, really. This year we will be in Banos and then we will see. There may be further adventures yet, maybe more mountains to climb.
Talk with you all later.... I won't make it so long this time....
Live well and love well,
Robin