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I got a package in the mail yesterday.

Rozann is an AWESOME packer.

And Mom always has everything under control. 

And now all is right with the world.

Pumpkin Rolls

We are having a Halloween Haunting potluck

today at work.

Somehow I became the "food woman".

Which is weird, cuz nothing on the

pot luck board is edible for me.

LOL

But...

(it's because nobody says ANYTHING

at our monthly "team meetings", so I 

decided to think of something to pipe up about...

FOOD!)

Anyhow.

Today the theme is Halloween food.

We are having all sorts of interesting things.

This is my contribution.

It's a Rhodes dough roll that is supposed

to look like a pumpkin.

I made a LOT of them.

Rod had the brilliant idea of sprinkling the tops

with the cheese powder from a box of

macaroni and cheese.

They were simple, and turned out cute!

(And, ssshhh, delicious, I just had one with

my breakfast smoothie...)

Instructions:

Thaw Rhodes dough rolls until thawed but not risen.

Flatten with a greased hand.

Cut five or so slits into the sides.

(I think my cuts were too big, they look like

flowers instead of pumpkins)

(I didn't cut as deep in my "test" run and they were better)

Let them rise for another hour or so.

Stick half a pretzel stick (or whatever you

have that looks "stem-ish") in the center.

Sprinkle with cheese or just spray with butter.

Bake @ 350 for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

So easy, even I could do it!

Fall?

We woke up to "fall" weather.

Well... fall in Florida.

It was 59 outside.

It wasn't that chilly inside.

But it WAS below 72.

As proven by my coconut oil.

That bottle has been full of LIQUID

coconut oil for months and months!

To celebrate fall, 

(ok, I was going to do it anyway)

I'm wearing my cute new Butte Copper Co

bracelet to work.

I can't typically wear bracelets, cuz they are

round or big or something and they get

in the way of my typing.

But this was perfect!

But my hand looks like it's attached to

an alien appendage!  (Hard to take a picture of myself

when my phone keeps turning off my camera!)

I love it though!

(the bracelet, not the phone... lol)

We Are Here!

It has been quite a trip.
When last we spoke, I was in Butte with Karen.
The Calgary group was dealing with blowing snow
and quarter mile visibility. Fun!
We, on the other hand, had beautiful blue skies,
so after a quick breakfast of a banana, Karen took
me to the Butte Copper Company (a store)
where we browsed and looked at all the amazing
things made of copper.  She ended up buying a
really cute necklace/pendant of the map of Montana
wrapped with a tiny little copper wire.
I found a fun bracelet with buffaloes on it
and a couple pair of earrings.
Off to Walmart for a few essentials and then
back to the house for a nap and sandwich.
Mom, Dad and Rod showed up in the
afternoon, the roads had cleared up
and the rest of the trip was uneventful.

We had a lovely dinner of beef stroganoff
Karen had made in her crockpot, visited for a bit,
and then noticed it was starting to snow!
Sure enough, after a good night's sleep in
the basement spare room, we woke to a
couple of inches of good, wet snow.

Karen and I made a breakfast of eggs, ham and cheese
and then we hit the road.
After learning I haven't driven in snow for
36 years, Dad decided he would prefer to drive
his car for the first bit until we got out of the snow,
(Wonder why???????? Lol)
But once it cleared up, we swapped drivers
and continued south.

We made it to Logan late in the afternoon, Kyle met us at
our hotel, it was Sooooo good to see him!
We had a good visit and then off to Olive Garden
for fettuccine alfredo (over broccoli for me).
While at dinner Kyle got a call asking him to
work that night.  So we finished dinner,
took Mom and Dad back to the hotel
and then went over to Kyles place to check
out the digs and visit before he had to work.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and clear.
The men went to get Kyle a replacement battery
for his truck (free!!!) and some oil changing stuff
across the street at Walmart.
Then it was off to Salt Lake to meet up with Sondra.
We had a fun afternoon with her and Matt!
We made sandwiches, visited in their awesome
back yard, went to Brian's shop and saw his
amazing cement work he is doing these days,
and then headed over to Taffy Town for 72 flavors
of salt water taffy!  It was fun to pick out flavors,
and after a couple of pieces we gave it to Mom. Hahaha

Back to Sondra's for a yummy chili dinner in beautiful
hand thrown ceramic bowls, delicious cheesecake,
and more visiting, then time for goodbyes
and off to the hotel.
Matt gave us each one of his incredible spoons!
I can't wait to use them!

The next leg of the journey was uneventful,
lots of driving, but the roads were great,
the weather was sunny and warm,
the company was enjoyable whether I was
riding in the Uhaul with Rod or
driving the car with Mom.
We drove all the way to Page, Az and found
a nice room at a hotel (I ran out of points for
Hampton Inn) had a nice dinner at Denny's
(with a horrible waitress)
and then to the room for a well earned sleep.

Breakfast in the hotel at 7ish and back
on the road for the last leg!
There were no scary mountains,
just lots of big wide sweeping turns,
big hills, but nothing twisty and turny.
I drove through Phoenix, but Rod knew
a route from his trucking days,
so even though it was Friday afternoon,
it wasn't any worse then Ft Lauderdale and
not as bad as Orlando.

Dad drove the final leg after we stopped
in Cassagrande for a Dairy Queen.
It was Great to pull on to Summer and see
all the familiar homes and family waiting
for us!

To be continued .....

Monday.

Monday, Star Date Oct 10

Columbus Day

Canadian Thanksgiving

Moving day 2

Day 1 ended with Mom, Dad and Rod

making it to Lethbridge to spend

the night, and with me making it to

Butte to spend the night with Aunt Karen.

I don't know much about th

Peeps, so I'll just update you on me.

'Cuz it's all about me, right?

Karen met me at the airport

and we went to her house

for a nice visit.

She took me out for a wonderful dinner

at a super cool old factory called

Cassagranda.  She had yummy salmon

and I ate the most delicious Thai chicken!

Then a drive around Butte to see some of

the old buildings in town they are

fixing up.  Great town!

We were both tired so after another chat

we went to bed were instantly asleep.

I slept like a rock in her sweet little

guest room.  Guess I needed it!

This morning the northern contingent woke

to snow on the vehicles, but powered through

and made it to and through the border.

There has been snow the whole way

so they have stopped in Shelby

to get fuel, maybe some cocoa and 

take a look at the radar

Meanwhile, Karen and I are enjoying a 

beautiful blue sky and a banana.

The Adventure Continues

The adventure continues...

I'm back on my iPad because my computer died.

My laptop's internal battery has been 

threatening for months.

Yesterday it said DONE.

So...

This morning we are tidying up the house

And then we are heading over to a member's

House where we were assigned to help out.

They are out of town, so we are checking

their home to make sure everything is ok.

Then it is back to the house to finishing

packing up and getting ready to leave.

The computer is not allowing us

to get our assigned seats and boarding passes.

I talked to the Delta agent and she confirmed

that we are checked in,

but we can't get our seats or boarding passes

until we arrive at the airport.

Since Rod is flying international,

he needs to check in 3 hours early.

Which means 3:10 a.m.

Hahahahahahahaha

Our plan is to drive over to the airport

this evening after dinner.

Traffic is still heavy with people

trying to come back to their homes

after evacuating.

We would rather deal with that when

we have hours and hours to get to our

final destination.

Once we get to the airport, we will

check our bags, get our seat assignments,

find a comfy couch (Orlando is a very comfy airport)

and settle in with our electronic devices.

What's one more night staying up with an iPad

on your lap?   LOL

We are leaving the house boarded up,

since Matthew is forecasted to circle around

and hit Florida again.

It is forecasted to hit well south of us,

but you never know.

And of course, Nicole is also coming.

And there is a disturbance behind Nicole.

Scott (Rod's big brother) is out of town,

but will be back here mid week,

don't want him to have to worry about 

taking care of the house.

Keeping the patio doors covered does

create a couple of problems though.

1.  Our neighbors are gathering our eggs and I told

her to just open the door and pile the buckets

inside the door.  Jim is coming over on Thurs to

wash and deliver the eggs for the week.  We will

need another plan for that.

2.  Scott will be staying here overnight once

he gets back from S. Carolina mid week.

He generally comes in through the patio doors.

The front door is unable to open from outside.

It works fine from inside!  LOL

Guess he will have to come in through the tack room.

It's turned into a catch-all room for all the 

things we had to get off the patio, etc.

There IS a path from the door through

the room, but it's pretty full.

The only light is on the ceiling fan which

is in the middle of the room, and of course,

it's VERY dark in there when he arrives after midnight.

He will need to carry a flashlight.

It opens into our bedroom,

and there is no light switch on that side

of the room, so he'll just have to keep his

flashlight on to be able to get through

our room and across the hall into his room.

Meanwhile, I'd better get busy making us

some breakfast.  Rod is outside feeding the animals,

I'd better get busy feeding the humans.

I'll stay in touch!

Thursday Afternoon Update

Ok.

We are done preparing.

The patio doors are covered

and we even have sand bags!

The windows on the front of the house

are all boarded up and secure.

The vehicles are parked in the middle

of the yard away from any trees

or anything else that might damage them.

We are watching the news.

But not finding it particularly helpful.

Rod is taking a shower.

I'm finishing the laundry in preparation

for having no power soon.

The power company learned that if

they turn the power off,

then they don't blow transformers.

That way when the storm is over

they can just turn the power back on

and unless your wires are down,

you get power back.

We are anticipating being without power

for a good long time.

Likely long after we return from Arizona.

That's ok.

We have 2 Yamaha generators.

They are still predicting dire conditions

for those on the barrier islands.

Anticipating storm surge coming all the way

to US Highway 1.

We are WEST of that.

That's good.

This is the absolute latest.

Looks like heavy winds from 5am

To around noonish.

So we will finally have a hurricane

During the daylight hours.

 Maybe.

It changes all the time.
We will likely know what is going on
Just about the time it is going on.

So anyway...
That's my latest update.

Thursday am Update

Howdy!

So here is the latest.

I'm on my iPad so I don't know
how to do the cool things I can do
on my computer.
Like save photos to post.

I'll fire up my laptop in awhile.
Since I have nothing else to do.
LOL

My office is closed today and tomorrow.
They are telling us we need to be
where we are going to be by 5 pm today.

The weather will start to deteriorate around 10.
The eye of the hurricane should pass
right over us about 3 am.
It's such a bummer they always do this at night!

We have everything we need.
Food, water, fuel, tarps,
Insurance,
Prayer.

I talked to a helpful Delta agent this morning
and she helped me cancel our flights out
since the airport will likely be closed anyway
and rescheduled us for the same flights
on Sunday morning.

The storm will be gone by Saturday afternoon
and we will know our status by then.
If we need to stick around to fix damage
or whatever, we can call again and change
our flight information again.
(Free)
But I imagine we will be on those flights.

The highways are full of people.
The gas stations are running out of fuel.
I would much prefer to ride this out
in our well constructed concrete block home
(as opposed to the tin foil house we were
living in back in 2004)
than sitting in our truck out on the highway.

This house did well in the 2004 triple
Hurricanes of Charlie, Francis and Jeanne.
There was some roof damage, but it was
because there was a sky light in the
spare bathroom.  (WHO puts a skylight
In a bathroom????)

Anyhow.  The skylight failed,
Bill (previous owner) heard water coming in, so he went
Through the house and ripped down all the
ceilings to minimize the attic damage.
Since then we have put a new roof on,
fixed the leaking we had earlier,
we are confident the roof is sound.

Stay tuned.
I'll post throughout the day.

Wednesday Afternoon Update

Matthew seems determined to knock on our door.

It is shifting a little more to the west.

More purple.

Just staying on top of the latest...

Check back.

I'll try to keep updating.

I'm at work, but probably only for another

hour or two.

Rod has already headed home.

Prayers are always a good thing...

And MUCH appreciated.

Matthew Updates - Cantore

The saying around here goes...

It's nothin' to worry about.

Unless Jim Cantore (Weather Channel)

comes to town.

He checked into a local hotel here 

in Melbourne yesterday.

*Cue scary music...

Yup, that's us.

Under the purple stuff.

We expect the airport will be closed Friday.

We have hotel reservations in Orlando

for Thursday night,

but I'll probably let those go so 

somebody else can use them.

We will stay in touch with the airlines

and probably drive over on Saturday

and try to catch a flight out.

That is, if they are flying.

They are saying 0% chance of rain

by Saturday.

Hurricanes come slow but leave quick.

Usually.

Meanwhile...

Rod is at work this morning.

They are flying all the planes to the

west side of the state.

(Or to Alabama - TBD this morning...)

And then once everything is buttoned up

they are sending everybody home.

My company has been evacuating all our

hospitals (we have 3 in town) since last night.

Just got an email.

If you are scheduled to work (hospital)

on Wednesday, expect to stay until Saturday.

They are evaluating all the support offices

*where I work

by 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Which means I should hear pretty soon

what we are doing here.

I anticipate we will work through today.

They already closed all the offices / facilities

on the barrier island (where we used to live)

but mainland is hanging in there.

(Barrier islands are under mandatory evacuation

orders this morning. They will be closing the

bridges / causeways to all except

emergency vehicles, so get out, or stay put

but you are ON YOUR OWN.)

Our home is a solid concrete block house.

Kyle took down the big (nearly dead) 

pine trees near the house this summer.

We still have a clump of 3 HUGE oak trees

in the front yard, but if they come down they will

only impact the garage.  

The only thing in the garage is tools,

the pool table,

and the dogs.

Jim, Sabrina and their dog, Charlotte

will likely move into our house

(MUCH better construction than the

"cardboard" home they are renting...)

The animals will all be ok.

The rabbit hutch might lose it's roof.

But they are rabbits.

They can be let loose in the chicken yard and be fine.

The chickens "should" go in their coops

and hunker down.

This is when I appreciate Rod's tendency to 

OVERBUILD everything he makes.

The coops are more sturdy than Jim's house.

(grin)

We will open the pasture gates and let the 

horses and cows use the house to shield them.

They didn't even stop grazing the last hurricane.

*of course it wasn't a category 4...

The front of the house is boarded up.

The north east side only has the window in the garage door.

The back of the house (see yesterday's post)

is probably fine, but I imagine we will board up the

laundry and kitchen windows this afternoon.

And the south east side only has my bathroom window.

A quick piece of plywood and that's all good.

We'll leave the patio doors uncovered.

You have to be able to get in/out.

The front door is SOLID.

But it's also unable to be opened from

the outside.

(We NEVER use it, so we never fixed it...)

We will take the kayaks down from inside

the rafters of the barn.  If they fill with water

Rod is afraid they will pull the barn down.

So those will go into the shed.

Hope for the best.

Plan for the worst.

Welcome to our town Jim!

Hurricane Matthew

Prepare, prepare, prepare.

It helps when you are already living in a state of readiness.

We have food.

We have water.

(Not as much as we did when we had a

30,000 gallon pool in the yard...)

We have generators.

We have insurance.

And we have our sense of humor firmly intact.

Last night we installed the hurricane shutters

(ok, plywood we store in the barn)

on all the front windows.

(They face East and get the brunt)

We have a weird house.

There are actually almost NO windows

on the west side of the house.

Terrible picture, but it shows the back of our house.

See... not many windows.

We have the french patio doors.

They are already cracked.

The old owner's grandkid hit them with a golf ball.

13 years ago.

LOL

They have already survived several hurricanes

and umpteen really good wind storms.

We have the double kitchen windows.

(behind the ladder)

We have a small laundry room window.

(not seen)

And we have the window on the door

going into the tack room.

(behind the bed of the truck)

There are NO windows in our bedroom.

Just a tiny bathroom window around the

corner on the right side of the picture.

Why all the fuss?

Remember, we are in the "nostril" of the Florida nose.

So RED.

70 - 80 mph sustained winds.

Friday morning at 2 a.m.

We SHOULD be on an airplane in Orlando

on Friday morning at 6 a.m.

Unless they close the airport..

(Orlando is under the L in FL)

All eyes on the skies.

(And alerts activated on our cell phones...)

We won't know anything until Thursday.

Probably.

But...

It will all work out fine.