Happy New Year!

This is what New Year's Eve Day looks like at our house this year...  Jim and Sabrina hung out with us for most of the morning (Jim put the new toilet seat on and did a deep clean in the bathroom - he should come home more often!  LOL)  Sabrina and I did a mini-marathon or HoeDown Showdown.  She doubled her usuals and did FOUR sets.  I did a set of 10.  And am wearing my "I did it" HoeDown Showdown t-shirt I earned at Safety Harbor last year to celebrate.  

Rod went out and mowed the little pasture and now I think he's out mowing the front yard/pasture.

Pretty good pictures - taken with my iPad Touch.....  Not bad!

I'm researching alkalinity in the body.  

The fun just never ends around here!  I'm off to WalMart (with the rest of the hordes) to pick up the things I forgot last night so we can stay in and have some fun stuff to nibble on while watching some of the dvds Santa brought us.  Jim and Sabrina are going to a big party... Kyle might head over there too.  So it will probably just be us old people here...  LOL  That's ok, more fun stuff to munch on!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

My Little Patient

Tuesday morning I took Rod to the doctor to get a couple of skin cancers on his arm taken off.  Usually I stay out in the waiting room (cuz I'm a pansy, that's why!) but this time I got brave and came in.  (I brought my Kindle and my new iPod Touch just in case...) 

My brave boy did well.  Our doctor (he's a Nurse Practitioner) is such a great guy.  VERY personable and encouraging.  We've seen him now for about three years and have been very pleased.  He has taken several skin cancers and fatty tumors off Rod over the years and really cares about limiting the scarring etc. 

Anyhow - some before and afters.....  (no blood!)

Yes, after surgery I took my darling to Steak and Shake (and then to the mall to get a replacement part for his RC helicopter...) 

All pictures taken using my NEW iPOD TOUCH.  Thanks again Mom and Dad! 

There will be MORE blog posts in 2012 since I now have a way to take pictures and upload them right to my computer WAY easier than with my camera!  Woot!

Nearly Ready

We are nearly ready for Christmas!  Mostly we are just waiting for our elves to get here...

Tonight they are in Cincinnati, waiting to pick up a USPS load to bring south to Florida.  (several stops along the way...  you know, Santa never just comes straight somewhere... gotta stop and make lots of drops...)

Here's our tree!

Can't wait for our guys to get home!

Cookies!

It's so fun having a girl in the house!  The boys were never really into baking cookies and all the other little Christmas things....

When I got home from work today - this is what I found in the kitchen...

She was busy making sugar cookies and cutting them in cute Christmas shapes.

Then they decorated them!  (Kyle helped for a little with that one...  well, he decorated, and then he ate... LOL)

Aren't they cute???  

Evidence!  Flour!  She was working hard!

Oh, and here's the status of the Advent Calendar.......

Oh!  And we got a great little box full of Christmas presents today!  They are under the tree!

Thanks!!!  

(Sabrina was BEYOND excited to see one for her!!!  We have the BEST family!)

LET IT SNOW?

Maybe it was all the talk about snow and ice with Rod over the last few days.

Maybe it was the low grey clouds.

Maybe it was the Christmas music on the radio.  (Yea for 35 Days of Christmas!)

Maybe it was the fine mist of rain that looked for all the world like sleet.

I don't know.

But I DO know that driving home yesterday, those 12 lanes of grey highway, the fine mist on the windshield, the grey clouds, the Christmas music on the radio - all combined to make it possible for me to believe it was actually SNOWING!

If you ignored the palm trees and 80+ degrees out there in South Florida.

Day Two

SCORE!

1 T of "dirt" in my Calgary '88 Olympics glass.  Swirl with a mini wisk and slam it back.  AWESOME!  No dirt taste at all!  Yipppppeeeeeeee!

Update:

The guys are in Montana - just driving through Butte (according to Google Latitude) - but it's only 7:00 am. Rod is driving, but his headset broke, so we can't talk on the phone.  (Supposed to always use a hand-free device - makes sense!  My headset broke too - sent it in to the company for a free replacement - and I'm going NUTS without it!) 

They are FREEZING out there.  9 degrees.  Meanwhile, we here in Paradise (aka Florida) have gotten confused again.  Although the calendar says November, I opened the door to JULY this morning.  75 and humid.  (Yah, I was LOVING it!)  Kyle was asking to turn on the a/c last night.  LOL  (And the answer was NO!  It's November!)

EXPERIMENT

We are trying an experiment here at the Corey Connection.

I've been reading and learning about Diatomaceous Earth.  (One of these days I might even learn how to spell it!)  There are lots of websites that teach about it.  But I heard about it from the fascinating women from the T-Tapp forums.  In fact here's what Teresa said when she discovered we were talking about it...

FYI, I just discovered DE last month and I have to be honest, it has done wonders for my skin....especially for accelerated healing of an eczema outbreak on my hands due to stress. I learned about DE while in California from T-Tapp Trainer Jane Heinrich and I am forever grateful. Since she sells it, I told her she should call it "Diva Dirt" because it works so well and it sounds more enticing to take (ha)  ...I put one teaspoon in 4 oz of water, stir and swallow quick before it settles. I also soaked my hands in it during outbreak when skin was "oozing". Within a week there was a remarkable difference! Now I'm taking it twice a week for "maintenance".

Seems that it has some amazing properties and can sweep the heavy metals from your body - cleaning you of any parasites you might have in the meantime.  Lowering blood pressure.  Cleaning the toxins out of your body (and helping clear up skin and make it softer).  Strengthening nails and helping hair to grow stronger and faster.  Besides all the traditional uses - keeping ants, spiders and other creepy crawlies out of your house and gardens. 

So... 

I bought some.

It came yesterday, (thankfully) in 2 five pound bags.  (One for the house and one for the barn.) 

We gave it our first try this morning.  The dogs got some with their breakfast.  So did the horses.  And so did all the people!  Sabrina and I had some in our morning smoothie - Kyle doesn't do smoothies (and was still in bed) so he just had his in some water.

The animals seemed fine with it - everybody cleaned their bowl.

The people...  well, it was a little gritty.  Kyle said it was "gross".  But if it helps his joints - he's decided it's worth it to at least give it a couple of weeks. 

We are going to try it in a shot of orange juice tomorrow morning. 

Some of the ladies on the forum said they didn't find it gritty at all - maybe there are different "grinds"?  A couple of the other ladies bought the same brand I did and should be getting it today or tomorrow, so we'll compare notes and see what they think.  There is another brand I can buy that seems less sand-like.  (And it's really NOT like sand, just a little tiny bit gritty...) 

Anyhow - stay tuned.  I'm interested to see what this brings!  It would be great if it could help Jim's back pain.  (Lots of testimonials of people whose lower back pain improved greatly!)  And Sabrina's insomnia.  And Kyle's creaky joints and popping ankles.  And my... well, I'm already perfect - so I'm just hoping for gorgeous nails.  LOL  (Ok, not really!)

Grass

Ok, here is proof there is grass growing out in the back pasture.  It's not really grass, it's rye.  A fancy kind I can say, but I can't spell...  But the horses are going to LOVE it!  Once I finally let them back there.  I am going to make them wait another couple of weeks.  Want to make sure it's got a good root system...

Kyle has really worked hard getting the property looking nice!  But now he's riding his 4-wheeler in the front yard!  (Since I won't let him in the back...)  But at least he's just riding around the edges - so that's ok.  I told him he gave up his entire track - I could give up a little of my front yard.  I think that's fair!

Oh, and he built a nifty track for his RC truck on the old pool spot.  Boys - they never grow too old for their toys!

Rainbow

It was a GLORIOUS morning!

A little cooler than yesterday, with a light breeze. 

As I walked out to feed the horses, I realized there was a tiny sprinkle of rain, but not enough to even mess up your glasses (if you were wearing any...)

It was so nice, that while the horses were in their stalls, munching on their breakfast oats, I took the dogs and walked to the back of the property.  Just turned around and looked.

Kyle has been doing LOTS of work on our place lately.  He and Rod gathered up all the junk Bill left - they got nearly $300 from the recycle place for all the steel and aluminum!  Then Kyle attacked his dirtbike track and moved the dirt from the jumps to the various holes the dogs have dug in the property.  Then he brought up the dirt levels in some of the low spots at the back of the barn where the rain likes to pond.  Then he dragged the entire pasture over and over and over and over with the metal drag turned upside down so the little fingers dug into the dirt and got it all good and fluffed up.

Then he spread 100 pounds of winter rye seed, and ran over it again with the drag (right side up this time) to cover all the seeds and give them a good start.  (without just turning into "free" bird seed!)

We have had some nightly rain every night since, so now the back pasture is all lovely green!  The new grass is about 3 inches tall - all soldier straight and in perfect little rows.  (Yes, I know, I should REALLY take a picture!) 

It was wonderful just standing there at the back of the property, looking over all the growth and improvement.  We don't look like the Clampets anymore!  Really nice!  (And I'm sure the neighbors appreciate it as well...)

Anyhow - on my way to work - the icing on the cake was a gorgeous wall-to-wall rainbow out over the river.  Beautiful. 

Reminds us to take a moment to be thankful for all the little things!

Sun Spot

Remember CKXL AM 1140?

Can you sing the jingle?

Do you "Drive Decent"?

Do you remember all the controversy about Drive Decent(ly)?  Sheesh.

Priorities

This was an "interesting" weekend.

Saturday morning I was off, so did MORE Instructional in my hotel.  It was a KILLER!

Then after teaching all afternoon, I went to Longhorn Steakhouse for a delish steak, baked sweet potato and a green salad.  YUM.  Back to the hotel, fell asleep planning to take full advantage of the time change, get up at my usual time (6:30 - which would then be 5:30) and do another round of MORE Instructional. 

However, at 11:40, the fire alarm went off. 

 

 I was in that "dead to the world" state so I honestly didn't know what was happening.  I woke up, thought, great, the fire alarm.  Got out of bed - luckily I had folded all my clothes neatly and put them on the other side of the bed - I was NOT going out in my undies!!!!!  As I was trying to dress, I thought "maybe this is that tinitis thing people talk about - maybe this is just MY ears!"  There were no lights blinking, nothing to indicate it was an alarm, just this high pitched squealing that felt like it was originating in my skull!  I honestly thought it was ME!  I was in a total panic wondering how I would survive and be able to teach with this mind-numbing shreak going on in my head!

Then I walked into the living room and noticed it was a little quieter... so decided it was the fire alarm.  (And the closer I got to the door, I realized I could hear the claxon going off in the hall...)

Went back into the bedroom and grabbed my laptop and chords and stuffed it all back into it's case.  I decided if the hotel burned down, I could get new clothes, but I was NOT going to replace my laptop (and all my pictures on there...)  Oh yah, and I took the time to pick out and put on a different sweater, cuz if the hotel burned down, I would still have to teach on Sunday and didn't want to wear the same thing two days in a row.  See?  I really was NOT thinking straight! 

Grabbed the laptop case, my purse, my room key and my leather jacket, cuz earlier it was raining and CHILLY, and headed to the door.

Then I remembered.  I brought my CD case with all my T-Tapp dvds in it!  NO WAY I WAS LETTING THOSE BURN!  So back into my room to rescue those! 

Finally I left the room, hit the stairs next to my room - down and out.

Now - here's the kicker.

I'm was a firefighter.  I know better.  I know you GET OUT immediately!  It's not the fire that kills you, it's the smoke!  And the invisible gases from the carpet, upholstery, etc...  But I was 1) half asleep and the shrill alarm honestly made it imposssible to think and 2) protecting my MOST IMPORTANT stuff.  My life, my laptop and my T-Tapp!  LOL 

When I got to the parking lot, I called Rod (in Flagstaff - having a snowball fight with my Jimbo... first snow of the year) and said "you remember when we were firemen and got called to Holiday Inn Oceanfront all the time and had to rouste people from their rooms and make them go stand in the parking lot while we checked out the hotel?   Yah, now I know how they felt..."  I guess what goes around really does come around, eh?  But now I understand why they all acted like complete idiots.  And I feel badly for wanting to bash them over the head...  (just kidding... about the head bashing, not about the feeling bad...)

Anyhow.  It was a false alarm.  So finally, back up to bed.  At least it wasn't snowing in South Florida!  (And it had stopped raining... it was actually kind of nice out there!)

At 1:30 my "neighbors" woke me up - yelling obscenities and slamming doors.  (I don't stay at Motel 6 for crying out loud!)  And then at 1:40 - the fire alarm went off AGAIN!!!!!  I got up and was half dressed (I already left my computer & dvds in the truck) when it turned off - so back to bed.

Needless to say - there was no workout Sunday morning.  I was GRATEFUL for that extra hour to sleep!

Hope YOUR weekend was GREAT!

CUTE SAYINGS

One of the blogs I follow was talking about cute things little kids say.  And it reminded me.....

Every day when the kids and I were driving into town, we would drive over the overpass above I-95.  As we drove over it, I would point north and say "that way is Daddy's Shop".  Then I would point south and say "that way is Miami".  This went on for weeks.

Then one day I decided to see if they were paying attention. 

I pointed north and said "what's that way?"  A chorus of "Daddy's Shop" filled the van.

Then I pointed south and asked again "what's that way?" 

"MOMMY'S AMMY!"

Happy Halloween!

Darn.  You can hardly see it.

It is a picture of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Says:

The ultimate Chick Flick.

2 Women.

Trying to kill each other over shoes.

Happy Candy Collecting!  (Or giving out)  (or hiding in your bedroom and eating the entire stash by yourself since nobody ever comes all the way out to the country anyway... ahem)

No More Pool

You remember what our yard looked like...

Ok, it was a little frosty in this picture - but this is our yard.    Well, this WAS our yard...


And then Rod and Kyle got busy.

And that's all that is left of our pool.  The end of an era.  (And a money sucker...)

It's Fall - which means POOL!

Our pool table is in the "Dog Room" (ok, it's the old 2-car garage the previous owner closed in...)  In the summertime it is HOT and smells like dog.  In the wintertime it is COLD and smells like dog.  Enticing, eh?  LOL  But at least in the winter you can plug in a heater (or put on a sweat shirt) and spray a little Febreeze...  In the summer, it's just miserable. 

So... we only clear all the junk off in the fall. 

Yesterday Kyle did the honors.  (And bleached the floor so it smells like BLEACH flavored dog...)  We played our first few games last night.  Now, mind you, we didn't even play once last winter, so it's been awhile.  Rod and Jim are SHARKS.  While Kyle and I are newbs who just play for the fun of it.  And by the end of the season we are pretty evenly matched.  (although he tends to be better than me, but sometimes I amaze us all with a FANTASTIC (accidental) shot...)

He won the first game.  Easily.  (Like all my balls were still on the table except the 2 he accidentally hit in FOR me...)  He won the 2nd game.  Then he lost the 3rd game (I didn't "win" he hit the 8 ball in accidentally...)  Then I WON the 4th game!!!!!  I hit my last ball in the pocket!  Then I hit the 8 ball in the pocket!  On PURPOSE!  And then the (stupid) white ball bounced off the wall, careened across the table, and plopped right in the opposite pocket.  And I lost the game.  Sheesh.

Let the season begin!

UPDATE:
The guys dropped their load of HAND GRANADES and ROCKET LAUNCHERS, picked up a  much more innocent load in Chicago, and are heading HOME!  Should be in Orlando between 2 and 4 tomorrow morning and then it's MALABAR!  Can't wait to see them!

New Pasture

Rod has been super busy this week...  He's "on vacation" which means he's busy fixing everything he can think of.  Amazing what he can accomplish in a week!

CJ

Andy

Buddy

Trimming the tops off some of the posts

The boys are SUPER happy!

Home

The guys are back home for a week!  They did such an awesome job running special loads out there on the roads for 7 weeks, they earned 7 days at home.  Hit town around 2:00 Friday afternoon and they get to stay until next Monday!  A nice long break - that will be good for them - and us!


So Friday afternoon we just sort of relaxed and did some grocery shopping.  But Saturday morning we hit the ground running.  (And spending $$$)


Here's what we are going to be doing for the next couple of days.  (remember, you can always click on the pictures to make them full screen...)

I took this picture AFTER Kyle the beast had the trailer mostly unloaded.


It's time for us to fence in the front yard so we can rotate the horses through three different pastures.  We'll let them hang out front for a couple hours several times a week, giving the back pasture a little bit of a rest.  Maybe we can get better grass growth back there...


So here is the "before" picture...  this is what the front yard looks like now.

First we cleaned up the length of existing fence between our property and Rick & Chris' property.  It's been there for years and is pretty grown over and rusted.  During the hurricanes of '04 Bill took his big front-end loaded and knocked a hole in the middle of the fence so he could go back and dig out Rick's pond so the property didn't flood.  But they never got around to fixing it.  So that's our first job.

First hole

The one to the right was already there - no need to replace it...

They ran a string and started measuring for holes.  They measured.  I marked.

This is what happens when you let Mom use the spray paint...

Then they poked holes and dropped the poles.  A good system - until you hit a root.  But luckily Kyle bought a really nice manual post hole digger that made short work of them.  Oh to be young and have nearly limitless energy...

Trying to dig a hole right by the tree - gotta use the PHD and young muscles.

Kyle's first hole.  Good job!

I DID help, but didn't want my picture taken.  Rod snuck one in though... I look awful - plaid and stripes.  But in my defense, I started the day with the striped shirt and some cute black capris.  But you might notice all the sunshine.  It was HOT out there - so I changed into some shorts (plaid are all I have) but didn't want to change my shirt...  this one was already nice and dirty and sweaty.  LOL  So no judging, k???  

Kyle wanted to keep going - he still had lots of energy, but we decided to call it good for the day.  Went in and showered and drove up to Cocoa to take Pops and Zach out for dinner at the Alamo.  Jim and Sabrina were at her friend's wedding... (Sabrina was a bride's maid).  

Today we are relaxing and getting ready to head off to church. 

Have a great day!