Fun Morning!

I'm old now.

So I woke up early.

Because that's what old people do.

(but mostly because Kyle wanted to

walk on the beach before he headed 

back to the ranch - but it was only

49 outside, and high tide, so NO!)

And then Amazon dropped by to

confirm that I am, in fact, OLD.

Thank you Rozann!!!

These are perfect!

The TP says "Holy Stuff, you're 60!"

Luckily Kyle was still here to take

my portrait.

And, of course, Beau was under my feet.

As always.

*Speaking of feet, please note the cute

BLUE toenail polish.

I can't wait to wear my apron while

whipping up Thanksgiving dinner!

Linda and I are going to the temple

tomorrow to celebrate our birthdays.

And then Wednesday I think I'm going

to bake some more bread.

(While wearing my apron!)

I made it last week but I think my bread

machine yeast was old because it didn't

rise very well, so this time I'm going to

do it in my stand mixer and use regular yeast

and see if it works better.

******************************************

Kyle sang a birthday song for me yesterday.

"You've had a birthday, shout hooray,
You are OLD AS DIRT today!
One year older and WRINKLIER too!
Happy Birthday (clap) to YOU!

Hahahahahahahahaha

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy birthday to me,

Happy birthday dear meeeeeee...

Happy birthday to me!

Yesterday we had Jim and Sabrina over

for hamburgers and fixin's.

It was fun and yummy!

(No pictures of the humans cuz I'm a slug.)

(But I got one of my new Crisp Lid at work... lol)

Making tater tots. They were crispy and yummy!

Rod got me a beautiful new buffalo picture!

I hung it on the wall in the kitchen.

Getting quite the kitchen gadget collection!

This morning I opened my gift from Mom & Dad.

PIANO MUSIC! YEA!

(I found an old copy of Nola at the music store

a couple of weeks ago - I've been working on...

page 1.)

And their Herb book!

I remember when Mom got a mini herb garden on

the back porch and then learned to use them.

I'm excited to learn too!

My darling Rod also fixed the 

broken water spigot! YEA!

All the animals are happy again.

After church (and more burgers for lunch)

we went to the beach for a walk in the sand.

It was a beautiful day

but the ocean was FLAT!

Looked more like the Gulf of Mexico

than the Atlantic Ocean.

We had a lovely walk though.

All in all, it has been a nice birthday!

Welcome to the next decade!

And then it was Afternoon...

The morning started so well!

I was in SUCH a good mood!

And then it was the afternoon.

It started when I went out to feed the horses

around 4-ish.

See the hose connector thingie.

That shouldn't be there.

It should be up here!

Notice all the water...

Not sure who dunnit... but luckily all I had to do

was turn off the ball valve over by the chicken yard

and then this weekend Rod can fix it.

Fortunately it was spewing water into that

big blue water bucket right there...

so when that runs low I'll turn it back on for a bit

and we will be fine until Rod has some time.

(He's working his 2nd job this week - putting

numbers and decals on another plane.)

And then once that minor crisis was over.

I went in the house to make dinner.

Cut up some pork loin into "country style ribs".

(I read the other day that unless they are bone in...

that's all they are anyway and it's WAY cheaper

to buy a big ol' hunk of meat and cut it myself.)

Anyhow.

Those went into my pressure cooker for 4 minutes.

And then I covered them in BBQ sauce and

grabbed my fancy new crisp lid.

Plugged it in, put it on top of my IP and turned it on.

Ahem!

And Turned It On!

Nothing.

Not a light.

Not a beep.

Dead as a doornail.

Other air fryer to the rescue.

And they were still good...

Meanwhile, I hopped on a live chat with

an Amazon guy and he sent me a prepaid

label to ship this one back.

And I ordered another one.

(The original was $1 cheaper, come to find out

it was "renewed". HA! I said I would be happy

to pay the extra $1 for an ACTUALLY NEW.)

It should be here tomorrow.

So... I'll hold off on the lasagna casserole 

until then.

Meanwhile tonight is the meeting formerly known

as Homemaking. It's our annual pie night.

I'm going to make my

Guilt Gone Cranberry Pie.

Rod and I have been eating it for desert all week.

We both love it.

So I'll whip one up this afternoon and bring that.

And now I need to run to the UPS store

and drop off the "renewed" hunk o' junk.

But I'm still in a great mood!

Initiated and a REWARD

I have lived in Florida for over 38 years.

(wow!)

And it took this long to finally be initiated.

I'm a "true Floridian" now.

Before - tiny red mark on my nose.

After. The bandaid is bigger than my head! Yes, I got Grandma Stoddard's skin.

I have had my first skin biopsy.

This dot thing has been on my nose for....

I honestly can't remember when it wasn't

there - I assumed it was from my glasses.

But the doc last week said it needed a punch.

So I went in this morning,

had a couple of dots scraped on my arm,

a couple pre-C frozen off my chest,

and a tiny little punch biopsy on my nose.

It was no big deal.

He said the freezing would hurt,

I guess he's never had a bee sting.

Anyhow.

I figured I deserved a reward.

And I had some Amazon rewards from my

hotel stays in 2018 that needed to be used.

Introducing the

Meathly Crisp Lid.

My latest addition to my 

kitchen gadget shelf.

(And it was FREE!!!!! Yippeee!!!)

If you haven't seen one of these things yet,

they were MADE for me.

It's the answer to the Ninja Foodi.

Which is a pressure cooker with an air fryer

lid on the top. But it looks really

unwieldy and tippy and top heavy.

The idea is...

you cook something in your Instant Pot.

And then you take the lid off and

put the Crisp Lid on and you can broil.

Or you can just air fry right in your IP.

I'll keep my current air fryer, because

nobody makes better okra than my 

rotisserie basket in my air fryer oven

and I eat it for breakfast nearly every morning.

But it's not a very successful air fryer.

My drawer air fryer (egg shaped like Mom's)

does a MUCH better job of everything else.

(ie: steak, ribs, roasted veggies... etc)

I've been watching lots of YouTube videos

including a couple of girls I've been following

for several years so I trust them....

and Friday I decided to pull the trigger.

And it ARRIVED this morning before I

was heading out to the doctor.

So I'm faithfully going to read all the 

instruction manuals, etc... and THEN...

Let the cooking begin!

We bought some county style pork ribs

over the weekend, so that will probably be

my first thing... except my friend makes a

killer lasagna casserole in her Instant Pot

and then uses her Crisp Lid to melt and bubble

the cheese on the top.

I made it in my IP and just stirred in the cheese

and called it dinner... I'm excited to do it "right"...  

Decisions, decisions...

Expect more blogs.

Well That’s a FIRST!

I got a new calling this weekend.

It’s my first STAKE calling.

I am now the 1st Counselor in the 

Stake Primary Presidency.

(And still the Self Reliance Specialist)

The Bishop said they could extend the call

as long as I don’t be thinking I’m getting

out of my other calling.

I’m not sure what all it entails.

But they were ok with me being

out of town at least 2 weekends each month.

So...  we’ll see how it goes!

In other news, Rod is now the ONLY high councilor 

left from the originals called nearly 4 years

ago when they formed the stake.

He was chatting with the SP this morning and

“Are you going to release me too” came up.

But all he got was a grin.

Which means no.

Good thing he loves his calling.

Weekend!

It's the WEEKEND!

And for the first time in 4 weeks,

I don't have anywhere to go!

I get to stay HOME!

That is awesome.

I have lots of typing to do for the Town.

I did some today.

But I don't have a deadline.

So this weekend I plan to spend with my family.

Just doing whatever.

(And cooking them healthy meals...)

YEA FOR WEEKENDS!

Gratuitous pictures of the feed in my 

back seat / truck in my Jetta that I picked

up LAST weekend.

I can get a LOT of bags in there!

Love my car!

Bougainvillea

While I was gone for the weekend,

Kyle gave our Bougainvillea its

"winter trim".

Notice the LARGE patch of dead grass in front.

It was a BIG plant!

And that is Kyle's bedroom window to the left.

It was covering half his window.

And more importantly, banging against the glass

during the night.

Ugh.

But he cut it all back.

It will look better in a week or two.

This stuff is a WEED!

(As you know!)

However, he left it in a pile in the yard.

I started to haul it off in this.

Hahahahahaha.

I graduated to this.

One1 load in the wheelbarrow and one load in the truck

and I was done.

Doesn't look nearly as impressive out there.

And the yard trash guys coming later today

might not be happy about it.

But I figure if a little old lady can load it up

into her truck and haul it out there,

they can load it up into their truck and haul it away.

(grin)

Right?

And it does look MUCH better.

Thank you Kyle!

*But next time, what about cutting it INTO the truck...

Brrr

Kyle headed up to the ranch yesterday.

He has an electrician coming today

to put electricity (lights!) in his shop.

However...

We had a "cold" front blow through last night.

It's overcast, windy and chilly here.

The dogs are all wrestling each other in the yard.

The horses and cows were "bouncy" when

I went out to feed them.

However...

Up north where Kyle is?

He sent me this text.

BRRRRR!

(The guy on the news just said the wind chill 

up there is THIRTY THREE!)

It's a short cold front though.

It should be back in the 70s again tomorrow.

Kyle needs to take down a bunch of fence today

so they can bring in a guy who is going to lease

that 40 acre pasture and plant it in peanuts.

So he's kind of happy that it cooled off.

Less fun doing stuff like that when it's in the 90s.

What is THAT?

We were walking down the beach.

And there was a nice breeze blowing.

There was a fine mist.

Or maybe it was sand or salt or something.

But as you looked down the beach

it was hard to see clearly.

What is THAT???

Cuz I'm pretty sure its a Starbucks cup.

*************************************************************

Heading back down to Bonita Springs today.

I'll be finishing up my first class there 

this weekend.

Enjoy YOUR weekend!

Habits

While my focus has been "elsewhere"

I have fallen OUT of some of my

good habits and falling INTO some bad.

Why is it so hard to make a good habit

and so easy to break it?

Things like sitting on the couch all day.

Going to bed with a messy kitchen.

Not eating lunch.

This morning, upon waking up to a MESS

in the kitchen - made a sirloin tip roast

IN THE OVEN last night...

I resolved to pull up my socks and fly right.

(mixed metaphor alert!)

The time change has made it easier to

get up earlier in the morning.

The animals don't understand

"fall back".

So its motivating to get up and out to 

the barn by 8:00 instead of 9.

Once I came in from the barn,

I cleaned the kitchen and got my okra

cooking, all at the same time!

While the air fryer was doing its thing,

I swept and mopped the kitchen floor.

Whew! It needed it!

I have a MESSY dog!

(yes I'm blaming it on Beau... why?)

Once the floor was dry, the okra was done.

Cracked 2 eggs in the pan and fried those up.

Now I am sitting in my least favorite chair

(which means I'm not tempted to STAY here)

typing my blog while letting my breakfast cool.

Ta Da!

I have lots of other things to get done today,

but it seems to go better when I start in

right away.

Next up, BoM study and then we're OFF to the races.

(Not really... hahaha)

However, I have ADDED some good habits.

BoM reading, for one.

Kyle and I sit together and read our scriptures

in the mornings now.

And, of course, BEACH WALKS!

Taking pictures of the ocean.

Are you taking MY picture?

Sunset over the condos.

Beautiful, eh?

Huge Improvements

The BIG news is...

Kyle went back to work on Monday!

He is splitting his time between the

farm in town and the ranch up north.

The farm here in town has been

terribly neglected since he quit working 

on it regularly. There were 3 part time

guys working over there during the summer,

but there is very little evidence of it.

Which has added to Kyle's stress levels.

However, he has learned some great 

things through this period in his life.

And one of them is he can't be 

EVERYTHING to EVERYONE.

That's a tough one.

But he's got it.

I hope.

(grin)

Meanwhile, we have been continuing

our "beach therapy".

It's so helpful for BOTH of us!

Yesterday we went down after he

worked for a couple of hours.

We made a new friend.

Maybe friend is too strong a word.

He didn't seem too happy with us.

His defenses were UP.

He was ready to fight if necessary.

And as we walked away, he kept his beady

little eyes on us until we were lost 

behind a dune.

He was pretty cool though!

There have been lots of visitors on our beaches

this season. And some of them leave things behind.

Can you picture the little girl who made this

sand unicorn?

There was something else nearby, but the

waves had already smoothed it out.

(See the difference in the sand above and below

the sculpture... the waves were coming ever

closer to this little guy!)

I am so happy to see the improvements

Kyle has made over the past week.

He is back to eating normally.

He lost a LOT of weight.

Close to 20 pounds.

But is looking much better than before.

He is able to laugh and joke.

And he is at peace.

I know he will continue to improve.

And I'm grateful.