Goodbye 2020!

 I saw a cute meme on Facebook this morning.

For the first time ever,

at 12:01 tonight,

hindsight really WILL be 2020!

Hahaha.

And I'm sort of sad/happy to see it go.

Said goodbye to lots of things this year.

Andy.

Teaching in person.

Worshiping in person.

My VW.

But said hello to lots of new things this year too!

I've learned that learning new stuff is fun!

Teaching on Zoom.

(Coming to you LIVE from the Zoom Room!)

Creating effective power point presentations!

(They don't HAVE to be boring!)

Gardening.

I learned to drive a dump truck!

And actually DUMP the dirt!

(Scary and exhilarating all at the same time!)

I rescued and hand fed a baby bunny!

(And yes, he's still with us, I've tried to let

him loose, but he freaks out... and just wants

to get back into his house.)

Rod learned how to color my hair!

(It turned out really nice!)

I had a "little" skin cancer removed.

Guess I'm a "real" Floridian now...

Being organized is easier than I thought!

And kind of fun!

Just this week I learned how to install

a second monitor and how to put my

presentation on it so I can keep an

eye on my participants and the chat

box all while being able to write on my

presentation screen!

Love my screen saver! LOL

(And it makes sending my follow-up emails

SO much easier since I can have my 

student list open on one screen and my

email program open on the other...)

This morning I learned how to fix my printer!

And I made bagels!

With Everything Bagel topping!

KETO bagels!

With NO nut flour!

I've learned to COOK!

Who knew!!!

I can use a pressure cooker!

Yes, I now have EVERY kitchen gadget known to man.

Jim and Sabrina gave me a set of

electric salt and pepper mills!

They even have a LIGHT!

In case you need to season something in the dark.

Or you need a flashlight and don't mind leaving

a trail to follow on your way back.

(Hello Hansel and Gretel!)

And an air fryer.

But those are things I learned in 2019.

And maybe 2018.

I'm just getting better.

And more confident.

I did lots of walking.

On the beach.

In the woods.

In the mountains.

And SO much more...

But this is beyond long.

So...

Good bye 2020.

Thanks.

For the good, the bad, the ugly.

It was an experience.

Beautiful Barn!

 WOW!

Rod and Kyle spent the day yesterday

getting the barn finished!

They put up "half walls" on the horse

side of the barn.

This is Buddy's side.

And here is CJ's side.

Pre-clean up....

And here it is once it was cleaned up.

The white "stripe" is actually the other half

of the sheet they used for the triangle part

on the front of the barn.

It's just turned wrong-side out, so its white.

Doesn't it look great?

Love the trim around the window.

Rod did a TON of cleaning and

tossing and dragging things out

to the road for the trash guys...

What an excellent project!

It's so nice to have a giant feed room.

All organized and clean and bright.

Originally the other side was going

to be a garage for Kyle's Cat,

but there is some concern about rats

in the barn... They have eaten the wires

on Jim's 4-wheeler.

And Kyle lives in fear they will 

attack his Cat.

It will be pricey to fix the 4-wheeler.

But it would be EXPENSIVE to re-wire the Cat.

So it will stay outside.

For now.

THANKS GUYS!

EXCELLENT WORK!!!

Boxing Day

 The guys braved the cold and worked

on the barn most of the day.

They set up a table for sawing the steel

sheets to the correct size.

Measure twice,

cut once!

Getting the bottom ones up 

went quite quickly.

But then they needed to fill

up the triangular shaped top space.

That was a bit of a production.

Took a bit of teamwork.

Beau helped.

But they got it all in and

even got the trim piece on the alley side.

It looks GREAT!

All that is left is to frame out the window.

That is on the task list for Monday.

I'm excited!

Good job guys!!!

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas!

We have had a wonderfully relaxing

day with lots of food, fun, and family.

Sabrina took a couple of nice pictures of us.

Kyle almost smiled!

But hey, at least he didn't duck...

We've never had the chimney cleaned,

so we were nervous to use the fireplace.

Instead we played a Netflix fire on the TV.

(Although we could have used a real fire today!)

Cooking the turkey in the air fryer.

Rozann sends fun birthday presents!

Beau (ok, Kyle) couldn't wait this morning

so he opened his present early.

We had a great dinner,

exchanged fun and thoughtful gifts,

Jim brought over his new VR goggles

and we all took a turn shooting things

and punching things 

and wandering around in museums.

And now Rod is setting up my new weather

station, I'm blogging, Kyle is helping Rod,

Beau is snoring at my feet...

It was a wonderful Christmas day.

Happy Christmas Eve!

We had a fun Christmas Eve!

We spent a couple of hours at the beach.

It was a beautiful day today, 

and there is a cold front coming through

tonight - it's going to be COLD tomorrow.

We found some fun beach art!

Somebody stuck it in the sand.

Then I colored my hair.

While Rod took a nap and Kyle

fertilized his garden.

And then it was time for the annual

Santa Claus on the Fire Truck.

We found Melbourne Beach's Santa first.

Santa was riding on a golf cart!

And then, after much driving around,

we FINALLY caught up with Indialantic's.

And then home to eat the lasagna that was baking

in the toaster oven.

(And garlic and cheese bread in the air fryer...)

After a yummy dinner, we made tiny 

ginger bread houses!

It was Rod's first ever gingerbread house!

He had a fun!

Jim's creative juices were flowing.

Sabrina has obviously done this before!

Kyle.

2021.

Coming in hot!

Complete with army men and snipers on the roof.

He had a BLAST!

He took the award for most ... specifically themed?

And the most laughing while building it?

And the gory-est?

Also, then he ate all the little men.

(Sour patch kids)

Dipped in frosting.

And he now has a belly-ache.

Rod took the award for most traditional.

With his little family outside,

candy on the roof,

and gum drop chimney.

Jim got "Most Creative" for his

melted snowman and

beautiful roof frosting work.

He added a chimney later...

Sabrina was "most colorful".

She had people hanging out of her windows

and a picket fence with snow on

the flat part of her roof!

SO CUTE!

We had a really good time!

In fact the boys voted to do it again

next year!

Now Kyle is in the Zoom Room,

wrapping presents.

(The best flat surface)

Rod is napping on the couch.

(Well, sleeping, not napping since it's nearly

11:00 pm! WAAAY past his bedtime...)

I'm watching a Hallmark Christmas Movie

and blogging.

Hope you also had a fun, laugh filled,

family full Christmas Eve!

No Students

 Happy Birthday Sammie!

I suppose it's no surprise I didn't have

any students this evening.

After all, it IS 2 days before Christmas.

And Sammie's birthday...

LOL

Kyle was just saying last night that he was

going to cancel the phone he bought for

his business. He's been paying for it for nearly

2 months now and it hasn't rung yet for

anything other than sales calls.

And this morning as I was getting ready 

for work, I heard it ring.

(It has a VERY distinctive ring...)

I knew he was still sleeping so was waiting

to hear him YELL at whatever telemarketer who was stupid

enough to call him and wake him up.

But he actually said civil words.

Turns out someone in the neighborhood up

the street from us had seen his signs

and wanted him to come clear the back

part of his new house's yard.

He's getting a pool put in next month

and the woods were a little close...

He expected it would take a couple of days

so was pleasantly surprised when Kyle came over

to walk it and quoted him an hour and $450!

COOL!

Kyle came in to my office a bit later

and we got him registered as a contractor

with the Town and he got to apply for his

first permit!

(Under brushing is a zero fee permit,

but it helps to have one so if the busy body

neighbor calls the town to complain about

his clearing out there, we can tell them its

all permitted and legal and mind your business!)

Anyhow.

That was neat!

(And he put his Go-Pro on the roof of 

his Cat - made for some fun video!)

Kyle was happy and so was the 

home owner - successful day all around!

(And another neighbor caught him on

his way out of the neighborhood and wants

a quote to clear his extra lot next to him

next month!)

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off and we 

are driving to Deland (north of here and just

west of where we go to get our feed)

to pick up some steel to finish up the barn.

No pictures today.

There were clouds over the stars so

we didn't get to see them this evening.

But since I'm shutting down my class early,

we are going to run to the grocery store to get

the Cool Whip (fruit salad), and potatoes I

forgot to get earlier in the week.

Oh, and a big giant bag of ice because Rod

is going to be home for the next 10 days

and he likes LOTS of ice in his lemonade.

And the ice maker in the fridge is broken.

Fun times all around!

First Day of Winter

 It's the first day of Winter.

It was 71 when we left the house to go for

a walk in the woods with the dogs.

(4:00 in the afternoon)

The bicycle guys have decorated their

tree out in the woods again this year...

And then we headed into the garden.

Hope these sunflowers etc last - I want them 

for our Christmas table.

New beans in the foreground.

Nearly ready to eat!!!

These Brads Atomic Black grape tomatoes are fun!

We didn't get LOTS of anything...

but what we did get is good!

This is a banana pepper...

Look Dad!

CARROTS!!!

The marker bleached in the sun.

I have NO idea what kind of pepper this is.

We have a garden map, but I was too lazy to look at it.

QUEEN OF THE GARDEN!

PEAS!!!!!

I'm so excited!!!!!!!

Kyle is out there now harvesting Black Eyed Peas.

We are hoping to have enough for New Year's Day.

Southern tradition.