Root Canal

 So...

This morning I had to have a root canal.

She said "So this is your first root canal?"

"NO. This is my ONLY root canal."

(grin)

It went well.

I mean, it was a root canal.

So...

But as well as it could be expected, I suppose.

The dentist was kind.

His nurse was caring.

The numbing was complete.

The procedure was uncomfortable but not painful.

The OTHER side of my jaw was ready

for it to be over, for sure!

And now we wait.

I did ALL the things I know to do

in order to treat the infection naturally

and while it got better, it didn't

go away completely.

So eventually I had to capitulate.

I just hope this isn't the beginning of 

a long, dental trend.

Seems like you have one procedure,

which leads to another, and then another

and so on.

NOPE.

Next time we will just pull the offending

tooth and be done with it.

But for now, fingers crossed.

Oh,

and I can't feel my lips.

Which is wierd.

And a little annoying.

And I get to teach tonight, so we'll hope

it doesn't decide to be painful.

There is always Ibuprofen.

(And oil of clove...)

Early Morning BEACH

 We have been going to the beach

in the late afternoon.

And its wonderful.

Except there is an on-shore breeze

which you REALLY appreciate in the summer,

but in the winter it makes it quite chilly!

So yesterday we decided to switch it up

and went to the beach in the morning

before I had to work at the town.

And it was MARVELOUS!!!

The sun was shining.

The sand was wet because it was high tide overnight.

The ocean was basically flat.

And there was little to no breeze.

We had fishermen on both sides of us

and we watched them pull in multiple

baby hammerhead sharks!

(They threw them back, of course...)

But sheesh!

There's a reason we SIT ON THE SAND.

(Where there's a bunch of babies... there's a 

BUNCH OF MAMAS!)

We enjoyed it so much...

we are heading back again this morning.

WEEEEEEEEEE!

Florida Spring

 It doesn't FEEL like spring.

We are having a heat wave.

It's going to be 90 tomorrow.

But it LOOKS like spring!

I love this little bush by the front door!

It bloomed a bit a few weeks ago,

but now that its February, its doing its

"official" blooming.

Of course, the bougainvillea is always beautiful.

(On the other side of the front door...)

But the front yard oaks are WAAAAAY behind.

Still bare and dumping tons of pollen on everything.

The backyard oaks are finally back.

(they are a different kind)

YEA!

The garden looks a little ragged,

but we ate a BUNCH of fresh peas this evening, 

and even each had a yummy carrot!

We went to the beach for a little bit,

but the breeze off the water was pretty brisk.

It was nice though!

Another Trip to Tampa

 I'm doing my third weekend 4-day school

in Tampa this weekend.

The drive over was a typical, 4-hour drive.

Lots of traffic, but everything went smoothly.

This weekend I'm in a Nissan Altima.

And it let me connect my phone so I could

see my map without having to look at my phone!

YEA!!!

I'm re-listening to The Work and The Glory

book one this weekend. It's a LONG book,

so I won't get it finished, but it helps

the miles tick by.

I got to the school at 4:30, 

dropped off all my stuff,

and headed to my hotel.

I'm going to walk next door to Arbys

and grab some early dinner

and then back to my room to relax and

get ready for a full, busy weekend.

We might actually get a peach or two this year...

they are still tiny, but at least they are there!

(And shhhhhhh, so far there has been no major

frost this year... we might actually get some mangos!)

FINGERS CROSSED!

Frenchies Don't Like Water

 French Bulldogs don't like water.

So says my vet.

HA!!!!

I have posted LOTS of pictures of Beau

in the horse trough... often while the

horses are trying to drink.

But he also LOVES the lake!

This is the time of year when he can go for walks in the woods.

It has been a balmy 68-ish for the past 2 days.

And we had a few cooler days last week as well.

On those days, he can go for a walk and not

totally melt and take HOURS to cool off.

(Only did that once...)

He does get tired, but he doesn't overheat...

Yesterday we went next door to check out some mulching

Kyle did, and we just took Beau without a leash.

It was just next door, after all...

But we ended up in the back pasture, checking out the

flag lot he did the perimeter of. It was a nice walk.

Until his cows noticed us.

And came to check us out.

And Beau decided to play with them like he plays with ours.

And they weren't playing.

They were out for his BLOOD!

So we had to sneak through the fence and then

finish our walk through the woods.

And then come home down the road.

Which meant Kyle had to take off his belt to use as a "leash".

It was a little short,

and a little inconvenient...

but he still got to take a quick dip.

So everyone was happy.

(Except, perhaps, the cows...)

Garden Gnomes Abound

 Kyle has a new hobby.

He loves drawing garden gnomes!

He decorated most of his Christmas gifts with them.

And last night he added COLOR.

Pretty cute, eh?

He's having lots of fun with them.

Tonight we went to WalMart and bought him a 

new sketch book so he doesn't have to draw

in his lined note books.

Fun hobby!

Teaching and Other Stuff

 It's been a busy week with lots of diversity.

I've traveled.

I've taught.

I've shopped.

I've gone to the beach.

I've helped a sister in the ward get her house

ready for sale so she can down-size.

I've worked at the town.

It has been a busy week!

But I'm enjoying life these days.

The weather has been glorious.

Although both times we went to the beach

this week it was CHILLY!

(A nice breeze coming off the ocean,

but the ocean temp is only in the 60's!)

(And then the sun goes behind a cloud

and we start to SHIVER....)

(Yes, we are pansies...)

Kyle pulled a random carrot and it was really good!

(And then he felt bad that he pulled it...)

It's not like he doesn't have LOTS though... this is the skimpiest

bed and I think he has 3.5 beds of carrots...

The peas are doing well.

Unfortunately this is a different kind of pea and they

are only yummy when they are EARLY.

Like way too small to pick.

By the time they are the right size, they 

don't have much flavor...

Oh well. Live and learn.

I'm finished zoom teaching for the next two weeks.

YEA!

I'm teaching in Tampa next weekend, so I can't be

in both places.

I teach the zoom class the first two weeks each month

and then the other coach takes the last two weeks.

Works well.

I'm looking forward to the little break.

Oh What Fun My Life Is!!!

I got to my hotel room after driving through some

minor rain storms.

(The folks going south were PARKED on the highway

because of a wreck, but we were pretty steady...)

I have to say, I was / am not a big fan of a

Chevrolet Trax. It's a compact SUV

and not a terrible vehicle, but this particular

vehicle has NO blindspot thingie and 

LOTS of blindspots. I was a nervous wreck

the entire drive. 

When I arrived at 4:30, the front desk computer crashed.

So I went next door to Steak N Shake for a burger

to eat in my room (once I got one...)

When I got back, she was up and running and checked

me into my room. I got settled in, got all my computers

set up and ready to teach the evening zoom,

and while eating my burger, the fire alarm went off!

HOLY MOLY that is LOUD!

It was just in my room.

You could still hear it all the way at the other end of the hall.

I was just getting ready to lean over the balcony into the

lobby and ask the front desk lady if there was something

she could do, when I heard it quit.

So I went back to my room.

10 minutes before class started, it went off AGAIN!

So I headed to the front desk.

She came up with me, climbed up on a chair and 

just took the thing down. (We decided it was the battery...)

Just as she left my room, the clock ticked over to

6:00 and it was time to start my zoom.

Class went well.

No more craziness, thank goodness!

And then I headed off to bed for a good night's sleep.

Whew!

 

Another weekend AWAY

 Heading back to Ormond Beach this weekend.

2nd half of the class, and 2nd half of 

training their new site instructor.

So I have brought lots of "busy" work.

I have a big box of birthday cards for RS.

I brought February's cards to our Pres meeting

on Wednesday and we all signed them,

so I'll bring them, get them addressed, stamped,

and the date penciled on, so I can mail them.

I need to call a new birthday card person though.

(My original one broke her arm and can't write...)

My choice for 2nd counselor also changed her mind

about accepting the calling - her daughter-in-law 

gave birth to twins yesterday and she is going to

be BUSY BUSY BUSY helping that little family.

(Also they moved here from Maine last year to

open a new Crumble cookie store and have opened,

I think, 3 or 4 franchises in the area this year...

so they are also busy with that,

AND she teaches english lit at the local

private Catholic high school.)

Anyhow. That means I need to focus on a new

2nd counselor. So that will be the area of fasting this week.

Let's see... what else?

We learned a new process at work this week.

We have boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes

of every building permit issued in the past 10 years.

We sent HALF of them to a company to professionally

scan them, and then we hired a company to manage

all those scans. What they DIDN'T tell me is that

I have to manually MOVE each scanned document 

from the scanned folder into the permanent folder

and assign each one identifiable "tags" like the permit

number, the street address, the parcel ID #, the start and

close date of each permit... so they are searchable, and

also so we know when they are 10 years old and can be

destroyed. (YEA!)

So... that's going to be my project for.... oh, the rest

of my life. (Because they are now sending the OTHER

HALF of the boxes to the scanners... so when / if I get this

batch done, there will be MORE! WEEEE!)

Anyhow.

On top of that, they just announced the new 

2023 Coaches Contest for the first half of this year.

The goal is to get MORE people licensed than

during the same period last year.

Most coaches got between 10 and 30 in

that time period.

I got 61. (And won the #1 Licensing Coach award...)

I'm pretty sure it was a fluke.

I was teaching FOUR classes each month.

And I think my Tues and Thursday orientation classes

were also being counted.

So... no way I'll beat it.

But that's ok. It would be fun if I did. Good prize money.

Anyhow.

A new cold sore popped out on my top lip during training

on Tuesday or Wednesday, I don't remember which...

and that's my body's EARLY WARNING SYSTEM.

SLOW DOWN!

So between work, and then a trip to WalMart and a meeting with the

Bishopric last night, Kyle and I went and sat on the beach

for a little bit. It was nice and relaxing, although a bit chilly.

The sky was blue in front of us, but VERY cloudy overhead,

so there was no sun and a nice breeze coming in off the ocean.

(Temp only 65!)

BUT....

we saw a dolphin playing in the waves!

And he/she actually did one of those leaps you only

see at Sea World! It was so cool!!!

So today, I am going to pick up my rental car

before Kyle heads off to work at Linda's.

(He officially quit FIT this week and is helping

Linda get her property here in Melbourne ready for sale...

she is moving to the ranch permanently... she moved into

Kyle's mobile home up there last month...)

And then I have to drive to Ormond - but it's only 

an hour and a half - straight shot up I-95.

My hotel is RIGHT at the corner of I-95.

And then I have to teach tonight from 6-10 so I'll

just teach from my hotel.

Easy day.

And then the rest of the weekend I'm just observing 

(and addressing birthday cards and making a new set

of flashcards because mine are getting REALLY old

and kind of nasty looking... lol.)

Taking it easy.

I promise.

Little Robin Red Breast

 Guess what I saw today?????

The first of the GIANT flocks of

robins that fly through our neighborhood

in late January and early February.

I zoomed in as much as I could without scaring her away.

Her sisters will show up here shortly.

There are often 50-100 robins in the front yard at a time!

And when we go walking in the woods, 

it feels like you are in the movie "The Birds".

They are LOUD!

But so pretty, it's ok.

It took me many years of living in Florida to

recognize that just because you saw a robin

it doesn't mean it is spring.

(Although today it was 85!!!)

We have another "cold" front coming through

this weekend and it will be in the low 70's.

Oh no! So cold! (grin)

This weekend I'll be teaching in Ormond Beach

again - well, not teaching, but observing 

my newest instructor, Tyrone.

I have to teach the Friday night zoom, but I also

have to be in Ormond Beach, so I guess I'll

either teach it from my hotel room or

maybe I'll go to the school and teach from there.

Neither one has very good wifi though.

Happy Fake Spring!