Day 6: Makes Me Smile

I worked for 12 hours yesterday, so I could do something this morning that makes me smile.....

It was the perfect morning for it.  Lots of fog to the north and west of us, but clear as a bell in our neck of the woods...

We started out following a dolphin!  He was going a little faster than we were though, and he wasn't even trying!  Sheesh.....

Kyle spotted a small gater under the trees at the edge of the creek - he was pretty brave and didn't duck down under the water... (the gator, not Kyle...)

He also spotted a snake and of course there were lots and lots of turtles.  And a Great Herron who flew from tree to tree and stayed right ahead of us for most of the trip.

When we came around the final corner there was a LARGE (6'+) gator on the bank.  As soon as he saw us, he slid on down the bank and into the water.  Floated on the top for a moment and then dove down under the surface.  Coincidentally, it was the half-way point and we had to turn around. 
Because of time. 
Not because I was afraid of the gater. 
Right?

It was a wonderful 2 hour break from our regular work-a-day lives. 
(Kyle doesn't have to go into work until noon on Wednesdays - this might become a habit!)

Weekly Menu

Better late than never... here's what we'll be eating this week!

So far, so good...

Poor Sabrina can't eat much of it - the dentist said she needs her wisdom teeth extracted AND a root canal and crown on the tooth that is causing so much pain.  Even if she just has them all pulled, it looks like SlimFast on the horizon for awhile.  Certainly no steak!  (But we'll be sure to make yummm noises so she'll know what she's missing...)



Day 5: Something I Wore

Yesterday was not a great day.  I had to do some stuff I didn't want to do.  And it was raining.  So I didn't get to do some other stuff I did want to do.  And I was cranky.

So, this morning, determined to make it a GREAT day, I remembered some timeless wisdom from my own, dear Mother.

Get up.  Put on your face.  You'll feel better.

Sure enough!

So... this is something I wore today.

Thanks Mom!  (And Nanc - for some other timeless wisdom...)

Make this a GREAT day!

Day 4: My Letter Box

Huh.  When I read today's assignment, I realized I have several "letter boxes". 

Of course, I have my home mailbox - the vinyl buffalo is reflective, so you can see it glowing in the dark as you drive up the road...  I love my little old mailbox!

Then, of course, is the letter box where I get my mail at the office.  It's a 6' tall book shelf with individual cubbies for each of us.  Mine wasn't all that full today (it's usually much more stuffed on Monday) but they had some staff come in on Saturday, and everybody fights to post my stuff.  So... I didn't get as much today.  But that's ok...

(One of these days I'll figure out how to take pictures using my iPod that aren't blurry...)

And lastly I have a stack of mail (and my "fancy" phone) at my desk.  I hate posting Work Comp and Auto insurance claims, so it stacks on my desk for a couple of days until I talk myself into it.  LOL

(Yup, that's season 3 of Lois and Clark for my "viewing" pleasure while I'm posting $$$ today...)



In other news, I had the day off on Saturday.  YIPPEEEEEEE!  It was 79 when I went to bed Friday night, and never made it above 67 on Saturday.  I decided it was too cold for me (grin) so after feeding the horses, I snuggled up in my yoga pants, a sweat shirt, a blanket, and watched Food Channel all day!  Loved it!!!!

Once Sabrina got home from work, we planned our menu for the week and then did the grocery shopping.  I forgot to take a picture of our cool little menu board - I'll try to remember tomorrow.  Had to make a change to the plan though - her mouth is still really sore, so we are keeping it to "soft" food for the next few days.  (It was steak/taters/etc for Sunday... but did spaghetti with alfredo sauce instead.  Poor girl!)

Addendum to Day 3 - Things I Adore

I TOTALLY adore this man.  And I adore him when he's all bundled up in the cold.  Not something I get to see often - being here in Florida and all...  (But he was in Washington State...)

This was the first time they ever used their fancy new chains.  I wish we could have gotten a video of the two Florida guys trying to chain up.  They've never been taught how (officially) but since they are both mechanics by blood, I'm sure they figured it out!

Day 3: Something I Adore

I have been trying to do this post from the office for the last two days!  For some reason, it wouldn't let me... so I finally remembered to do it tonight.  The computer at the office has a really OLD browser, so lots of things don't work there...

Anyhow - this is a picture of something I adore.  For several reasons.  First it is symbolic of my darling husband who is out on the road, making a living and sacrificing for me and his family.  Second, it came from my Mom who is always on the lookout for neat things to show me how much she loves me and my family.

Who could ask for anything more?

(Bonus:  The little purple guy with the green hat?  Kyle made that in school in something like Grade 2... he's been sitting on my desk for about 12 years!  And of course, the picture of my guys and their one and only horse show... Circa 2002)

Day 2 - Already Messed UP

Well darn.  I forgot what was on the list for today... so I already ate it!  But here's what's left...

It was a SUPER yummy breakfast burrito with eggs, sausage, tomato, onion and jalapeno pepper.  I didn't eat the tots, but that's all that was left in the sleeve when I fished them back out of my trash can.

Day 1

I hate taking pictures of myself.  I still haven't quite figured out how to make it work...  but here goes nothing!


Kidding...

Yes, I have pink earbuds in... I'm at work, posting $$$ and "watching" Lois & Clark.

Looks like fun!

So...  I'm going to try to follow through with this.  Hopefully I can do it while I'm out teaching too - we'll see.

I'll start tomorrow. 

Very Productive Evening

Of course I forgot to take pictures until it was too late... 

Kyle and I had a very productive evening! 

First he showed me how to make homemade laundry soap.  We prefer the dry kind, instead of the wet.  (The wet is sort of messy and kind of gross...)

It is SUPER easy!  (Especially when you are WATCHING and letting Kyle do it...)

He grated one bar of Ivory Soap into nice fine flakes.  Then he measured it to see how much he had.  It worked out to 2.5 cups of soap flakes.  Then he measured out an equal amount of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT baking soda) and Borax.  Mixed all three together and then poured them into a tupperware tub.  You add between 1 and 3 tablespoons, depending on your load size.  Kyle made a bunch before the Arizona trip and we used it til it was all gone and then sort of got lazy.  Don't know why!  It does a great job - especially with the whites - and it's CHEAP!!!!

Then, I went out to the barn and got my big bucket of MSM I bought for Andy's arthritic joints.  And broke out my new little capsule maker.  It took two tries, but we ended up with 23 capsules of MSM for Kyle to take each day to help with his ankles and knees.  I take 1/4 tsp each morning, but I mix it with D-Ribose and Emergen-C.  Kyle can't take that mix - says it just tastes too gross!  So he takes a couple Vitamin C pills and one of his new little capsules.  Here's hoping it helps...

And then I made a BIG batch of smoothies in my new Ninja Blender (thanks Nanc - used some of the WalMart gift cards from last Christmas!) and poured them into plastic cups, covered them with plastic wrap, and stuck them in the freezer!  Now I can have my smoothie in the morning without waking the dead!  It was nice and convenient this morning - I made them with Chia seeds, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, 1/2 an avacado, and some milk.  YUM!

OH!  And before all that, we went for a nice hour long walk in the woods.  We LOVE spring!

So... that was OUR evening, how was yours?

Kyle's New Toy

First things First... the sesame oil hot oil hair treatment?  FAIL!  (Sesame oil STINKS and does not make any appreciable difference to my hair...)  New hair thing coming soon.  (Oh, and for those who care, and need a little time to prepare - I got it cut last week...  FAIL!)

So... 

On to the actual point of this post.

Kyle is the MASTER of working hard and saving piles and piles of money.  And then he does lots of research.  And then he SPENDS a pile of money.  (Hmmm remind you of anybody?  NOPE!  Definitely NOT me!  It's Rod!  LOL)

So... (again) here is what he worked for, saved for, researched the living daylights out of, and then PURCHASED!

It's HUGE! 

It's FIFTY-FIVE INCHES!

And it's in MY living room (cuz it's bigger than his whole bedroom... lol)

The artistic wire sculpture to the left is actually the MESSY wires leading to the dvr and direct tv box.  But I am cancelling Direct TV this week (we are going Netflix and Roku for a savings of $90/month) so those will be gone soon.  And yes, that IS a fish tank only half full of water.  We can't seem to ever be at WalMart at the same time as a person who works in the fish department, so after cleaning and refilling it several times in anticipation of new fish... I've given up.

(And yes, we are currently on a Bones kick...  Our new favorite show...)

Breakfast

I am NOT a food blogger.  (Thank goodness, eh?)  But this is a quick look at what I brought with me for breakfast here at the hotel.

This is some oatmeal flour (oatmeal ground in the food processor - easier to mix up when you aren't home...), chia seeds, chopped walnuts and chopped dates.  Oh, and a nice big glob of virgin coconut oil.  A good amount of hot water (thank you hotel) melts the oil and turns it all into a yummy mush.

There was a story on the news this morning about a recall on hard cooked eggs delivered to commercial sites (ie: hotel breakfast bars) so the hard boiled egg I was planning on eating wasn't available.

Instead I had some of their scrambled eggs, and just couldn't resist a little bacon...

After adding some 2% milk (it was that or fat free... ick) this is what breakfast looked like.

With The Hunger Games on my Kindle, it was a GREAT breakfast!  

And now I'm back in my room to do a hot sesame oil hair thing - then once I have a plastic bag and hot towel on my head, I'm going to do a workout.  (There will be NO pictures! LOL)

The coffee pot is heating water as we speak... so here we go!  (This is my first hot oil treatment... wish me LUCK!)

RIP BSY

It was a long run. 

There have been good times, and not so good times.  But through it all, there has been family.
And loyalty.
  And hard work.
And family.

We announced, formally, on February 1, that Beach Sportcycles, Inc. is no more. 

Wow - surprisingly I just teared up writing that sentence.  Surprisingly, because it's been some tough times lately, and it's a little bit, a relief that it's over.
 But last night I was looking at old photos and there were about a gazillion of the boys and their cousins - whooping it up on their summer vacations at "the shop". 

Oh, my goodness!  They are so LITTLE!

The shop has provided for my family in many more ways than financially.  It was so much more than a job.  It was an institution. 

It started as little more than an idea.  It grew to a dream, then a little shop in Melbourne.  And then to an even bigger shop 30 miles away in Cocoa.  When it began, it was Tim and George.  Alone in a little building.  It became the Number 1 YZ Dealer in the entire South Eastern United States.  An accomplishment to be proud of.  But more importantly, it became the number one place for people who loved bikes to come and hang out.  To learn more about bikes and riding and racing.  It was where friendships were formed, where people were so much more than customers. 

I've been reading some of the comments and tributes on the Facebook page. 

There were years and years (and years and years) of going to races, of putting on races, of racing in races, of supporting others in races...  There were races including everything from go-carts to 3-wheelers to dirt bikes to pit bikes to pocket bikes. 

Through it all, there was loyalty.  Word in the pits was, if you needed a part, whether you were a team rider, a privateer, or just a guy with a bike, Tim could set you up.  If you needed help, Scott was your guy. If they didn't have what you needed, Rod was back in Cocoa holding down the fort and he would get it to you.   Didn't matter who you were, what you rode, you could always go to the big blue Yamaha truck and somebody from BSY would take care of it.

There was chili.  There were laughs.  There were often "stars" hanging around.  There were always kids.  But through it all, you didn't, really, you didn't, take on a Buffaloe.  Cuz there was never just one.  And beware the little, sweet, innocent looking lady.  She was the toughest of all of 'em!

It's been a long run.

It's been a good run.

We will miss it.

Welcome February!

Oh those mornings I remember standing on the side of Elbow Drive waiting for a break in the traffic so I could run across to Woodman Jr. High School.  Those mornings in February when it was -40 degrees F!  Those mornings when I promised myself, once I was an adult, I would NEVER AGAIN be found in Calgary in February.

Well, this morning I was most definitely NOT in Calgary.  Instead, I was in my backyard, here in Paradise.  (Otherwise known as Florida...) 

It was a GLORIOUS morning - just enough "crisp" to the air that I didn't get too hot feeding the horses.

My sweet next door neighbor did some clearing on his property yesterday and gifted us with a GIANT pile of freshly cut grass!  This pile is about half of what there was last night... but since I didn't get home until after dark, I couldn't take a picture of it then. 

The horses were SUPER happy to help get rid of it!  (Even what you see there is only about half of what was left... there were two more piles on the other side of the pasture!)  Of course, I had already done my workout for the day, so my arms were TIRED after hauling all that using our pitchfork... 

The flock of sandhill cranes came back while I was finishing up spreading the grass...  They are tough to miss - each has a wingspan of probably 8 feet and when they fly they make this SUPER loud call.  They flew into the neighbor's yard, so I grabbed the iPod and headed back to snap a picture.  I took 8 or 9 of them, but since I don't wear my glasses out to the barn, only one of them actually turned out!  (sigh... it's tough getting old...) 

Sorry, it's not as good as I was hoping for - but you get a good idea of what a beautiful morning it was!  LOL

Here's a stock picture from Wikipedia - in case you've never had the pleasure of meeting a Sandhill Crane in person.   The neighbor's son showed up to feed the horses and chickens.  As soon as his truck pulled in the yard, they started walking up to the barn, honking the entire time.  He said they eat right out of his hand!  (They "clean up" any spilled chicken feed...)  They have 4 "chicken tractors" (coops on skids so they can be moved around the property as the chickens eat down the grass/bugs in one area) so whenever they move one, the birds flock over to tidy up anything that might be left.

Here's hoping February continues to be this lovely!  (And I hope yours is lovely as well - with or without snow and freezing temperatures...)