SOO Tired

 The guys got up "early"

(well, early for Kyle...)

and headed off to do an all day job in 

the next town south of us.

Kyle ran the mulcher and then swapped it

out for the tractor and did some bush hogging as well.

Jim made a guest appearance and ran the zero-turn 

lawn mower, and Rod ran the weed-whacker.

ALL DAY.

When they got home, they were give out!

Rod fell asleep with his phone in his hand.

That was about 8 when I came out of the zoom room

for a 10 minute break.

When I was done teaching, I made a box of mac & cheese

and it took him about 30 minutes to wake up enough 

to actually eat it.

Poor man!

Meanwhile....

we had our first baptism!

A sweet older lady the missionaries tracted out.

I had planned to go to welcome her into RS.

But just before I left I got a text asking if 

I could play the piano since theirs backed out

at the last minute.

So... sure.

I have played 2 hymns since we became

a new ward and I don't play the organ anymore.

(And I only played on Fast Sunday...)

I played some of the hymns for prelude while

people were arriving and visiting.

Then we did an opening hymn.

Then after the baptism, while Barbara was getting

dressed, instead of just playing, I asked for 

people's favorite hymns and we sang those.

Thank you Mom and Dad for piano lessons!

(And the angels for filling in the awful spots...)

It was really fun to be able to just play any hymn!

(I figured I was safe, most favorites are favorites

across the board so likely something I had played before...

people who really love Hie to Kolob are few and far between.

I'm not one of them...)

It was a lovely baptism.

And then I came home and cooked a bunch of food

for Rod's lunches for the next few weeks.

This week I'm doing the morning classes.

And we are (fingers crossed) getting our roof this week.

I'm not in a hurry, but I imagine our insurance

company won't wait forever...

Better to get it done before REAL hurricane season hits.

Since I'm teaching mornings, I'm a little more likely

to post blogs, since I'm sitting in front of my computer

and it's not the middle of the night.

So... I'll try!

We did the world-wide Love, Share, Invite 5th Sunday

meeting today in 2nd hour. I did the final section

and wrap-up. I think it went well.

And now we are RELAXING.

Taking some well earned naps.

No Roof....

 No new roof today.

There has been rain everywhere EXCEPT

our house, so they are running behind.

Which means they will start on Tuesday.

But that's ok!

Anyhow.....

I had another extremely busy day today.

No post worthy stuff... just busy.

Kyle and I went shopping to get

the week's groceries.

I pulled 5 trays of bananas out of the freeze dryer...

And the electrician came to wire the

house so we can run our generator 

and keep the freezers, etc running 

in case of a hurricane...

And then we walked on the beach for an hour

before we had to come home so I could teach.

It was a beautiful day.

And a MUCH NEEDED respite.

And now?

It's 10:40 and time for bed.

New Roof!

 And so it starts!

There was a big ol' truck in our driveway this morning.

We weren't expecting anything until Wednesday.

He was delivering the underlayment.

His big boom was too tall to get under our low hanging power lines,

so Kyle had to get out there with our fancy line lifter.

(Ok, its a pvc pipe with a "U" on the top...)

The roof already looks good.

Don't get me started.

Anyhow, there it is... all ready for the shingles,

roll-off dumpster, and ROOFERS!

Exciting.

(kind of... lol)

Beau thinks so... (He blends into the house color!)

Excitement on the High Seas

 Ok, not actually the high seas.....

So.

Looks like a boat, with a dingy on fire behind it

And that's pretty much what it is.

And here is the story.....

An older gentleman was on his nice little cabin cruiser

this morning out on the river east of our little town.

A dingy / john boat approached his boat.

It was PIRATES!!!!!

They boarded his boat, and were holding him hostage.

The older gentlemen fought with them and

took quite a beating, but still managed to get away

and somehow caught their little boat on fire.

The police were alerted by all the smoke.

Our little town fire fighters stood there on

the edge of the river trying to figure out what to do.

None of our departments have a boat.

Nor does the town next door.

Or the one in the other direction!

Anyhow...

eventually the gentleman was rescued

and taken to the hospital,

and the two pirates were arrested and taken to jail.

WHAT????????

This is not Miami!

This is our little town!

(And seriously pirates... you are on a RIVER!

Where were you going to "run" to? Sheesh.

It's nearly 30 miles down the river to the ocean!)

(dumb, dumb, dumb...)

(The local Sheriff's deputy called Town Hall

today to tell the town manager the back story...)

Made for some fun lunch chatter.

Yup.

It's great to live and work in our sleepy little town.

CRAZY!

Weeeeeeeee!

 My company (Primerica) had their

annual convention in Atlanta last week.

And to celebrate, they lowered the price

to get started with the company by half!

Which means our classes are FULL!

I had over 30 students tonight.

But they come in and go out and come in and go out,..

their phone dies, or the wifi blinks, 

or ... who knows what is going on out there.

I just looked at my report for this evening.

I had ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN

people log in / out.

Hahahahaha,

(It was all the same people, but good grief!)

No wonder I was distracted!

Anyhow.

I got a hair cut today. 

I have six-year-old bangs.

Here's a terrible selfie to prove it!

Remember, its 10:00 at night.

And I'm old.

But there you go!

A current photo.

And now?

BED!!!!!

Night Launch!

 They launched a rocket at 8:44 pm!

We love those evening launches.

They are so much fun!

AND

Rod was home to watch it with us!

He had a zoom meeting at 7, so he came

home from work early.

After his meeting, we all jumped in

his pretty little truck and headed to the beach.

It was a little cloudy,

but we still got a good show!

My camera isn't great in low light situations.

But it was SO pretty to see the rocket

reflected in the ocean!

And of course, it was exactly the right time to see the

"jelly fish" when the humidity and the evening sun

make that big jelly fish blob around the rocket.

Our favorite thing!

Even after the rocket was gone,

the sky was still putting on a beautiful show.

It was a wonderful evening!

(And then home for some ham/pineapple pizza...

what's not to love?????)

Quick Update

 Just popping in quick to say HI!

Yesterday was a teaching day.

And then I had an RS Presidency meeting.

We went through a good percentage of

the sisters in the ward and tried to

figure out ministering companionships

and also assignments.

It went better than I thought it might,

but it is still not done.

Quite a daunting task!

We used the map that shows all the members.

Blew it up big on the big screen TV in the

Relief Society room.

But we kind of bounced around, so I'm sure we

missed some people...

Next we are going to take our list,

print it twice and cut them out.

Pink for companionships

and green for those being visited.

(I think... lol)

Anyhow.

We are meeting again tomorrow to see if we

can get this wrapped up.

And of course, there is also all the other stuff

to be done - a family had a car accident.

A sister got fired.

Flat tires (not mine... a member)

you know, the usual....

Oh!

And I made some cinnamon raisin bread.

It tasted good, but a little flat.

I think it needed more salt?

It's ok if you toast it and put butter on it.

The roses are doing well

and the banana tree is going CRAZY!!!!!

Another Beautiful Beach Day

 We sat on the beach for an hour or so

yesterday in the late afternoon.

There was NOBODY there.

It was awesome!

In fact, it was so good, we went again today!

I had to work at the Town until nearly 4:00.

As soon as I got home, we changed into

shorts and beach shirts and shoes and

headed east!

There was a cool big boat on the horizon.

Clearly not a cruise ship...

we squinted and squinted and then remembered

Kyle has an AWESOME camera on his phone.

Good picture, eh?

Looks like a tug boat?

Pushing a barge?

There is a name on the barge, but even his camera

wasn't good enough to be able to read it.

Looks like cranes on top, maybe,

Anyhow.

It was a beautiful and relaxing couple of hours.

And now we are home to let the cows into the back pasture

and the chickens out into the yard

and the dogs out to wherever they want to go.

And I'm making some "artisan cinnamon raisin bread". 

We'll see how it turns out... I'm kind of excited!

The tide was coming in.

My teeny tiny beach buddy.

I was experimenting with MY zoom lens.

Another Week in the books

 I'm going to get a handle on this one of these days.

But time is FLYING!

I'm now writing LISTS!

I'm not really a list kind of person.

This is our front yard "before".

Rod and Kyle were outside, looking things over and

decided the front and side fences needed a little attention.

But before we can get to them, some of that 

overgrown stuff needs some attention.

If you look carefully, you can see Kyle and his big

yellow Cat just to the left and behind the oak tree.

We haven't even been able to get a lawn mower

more than a third of the way down the fence.

And now its all nice and clear!!

AND we can get to the side yard fence!

(the neighbors were totally ok with this,

their front yard is total woods. So they can't even

see any of this... even if they LOOKED.)

Of course, it wasn't without its challenges.

Thank you previous owner!

When you take down an old fence, you aren't

supposed to just LEAVE it there!!!!

To be sucked into the drum of Kyle's machine!!!

That's who knows how many feet of old, rusty field fence.

Sheesh.

But of course, that's nothing.

He has run into BOATS.

Tires are real common.

Concrete slabs....

you name it.

But now, it's all done, looking lots better

and ready for the next thing.

Good job guys!

Happy Independence Day... and other stuff.

 Happy Independence Day!

(That's SO yesterday... well, actually the day before...)

I had to teach Monday morning and Rod

had to work at the airport.

But Monday evening we went outside to

watch the fireworks. EVERYBODY around us

was shooting off the big fancy kind!

(Not us...)

Kyle sent up his drone so we could watch them,

but the mosquitoes AND the bats were out

in full force, so between the mosquitoes

trying to suck us dry and the bats dive bombing

trying to get the mosquitoes... that was short lived.

But then Kyle discovered how to hook his drone

to the living room TV! So he sent the drone up

above the house (until the battery drained) and

we watched it from the comfort of the living room!

This was before he zoomed in, it is surprisingly hard to

capture a picture of a picture of fireworks!

Like the new carpet?????

It really lightens up the living room.

And it is SOFT!

(And washable!!!!)

We picked it up on Friday from Sam's.

Yesterday after working at the town all day,

I headed out back to move the cows.

They are now happily munching on the new sun hemp

for about an hour each evening.

And then we lure them out with their grain.

We are hoping if we limit them to an hour a day,

we can make it last for a week or two.

They are LOVING IT!

Speaking of Sam's.

Check out my cool new RS Pres stuff bag!

I got this great burlap bag with a zipper closure at the top.

AND

it came with 20 pounds of rice for free!

(hahahahahahahahaha)

It's my Basmati bag.

Almost sounds like a fancy designer....

Hoping to start a new trend.

Dinner tonight?

London broil and basmati / cranberry pilaf.

YUM!

And it's FRIDAY (Already?????)

 Wow!

What a week!

I'm getting my first real taste of being 

a Relief Society President and all that

it entails... Whew!

Thank goodness for brief visits to the beach

for some "down time" to just relax and 

listen to the surf.

Yesterday Kyle and I went to watch a rocket.

It got scrubbed, but we enjoyed our time anyway.

There was a crazy plane making HUGE ovals in the sky.

We had a great time arguing over the shape.

Was it an oval?

Was it a letter D?

We decided it was a hurricane hunter doing practice runs.

He did them over and over and over!

You can see his latest, and two previous!

My neck is a little stiff from looking at the 

top of the oval - it was directly over our heads (and 

a little behind...)

But it was fun!

There was NOBODY on the beach when we got there

because there was a big storm cloud out to the west.

But as it got closer to launch, folks started to show up.

One was a young couple, probably taking engagement

photos. We had a good time watching them.

He was supposed to be lifting her with his legs.

But it didn't ever really work.

His legs weren't strong enough to hold her.

AND the photographer had them on an

air mattress (not really stable) down 

IN THE SURF!

So they kept getting wet.

(They picked a day the sky was overcast

AND the beach was COVERED in sea weed!

Should have waited for a few days until 

conditions were better....)

It was actually pretty funny.

Eventually they moved up to the dunes

about the time we packed up and left.

In other news....

We have been slicing peaches and putting them in

zippie bags in the freezer so when the machine 

finishes a load, we are ready with another one.

This is our next to last load.

Yesterday morning I sliced up three more

trays to add to what was in the freezer.

We only have one of these boxes left.

There's enough in one box to do a little over 2 trays.

And then we will be DONE with the peaches.

They are SOOOOOO delicious!

I'm glad we only got 100 pounds,

but I'm going to be wishing we got 200.

Their 2nd crop was really good,

so I might consider a 2nd delivery.

We'll see...

Last night I made a really delicious meatloaf

in the pressure cooker! It was yummy!

And now I'm heading off to get my 

list of "to do" done.