Kyle's Home

Kyle is home.

Along with all his stuff.

Luckily he isn't much of a collector

of stuff... because even this minimal

amount is quite a bit...

His couch and TV shelf are out in the tack room.

We will find places for all of it

until it moves to his next adventure.

But I'm not in a hurry.

(grin)

Toasty Toes

I had a good class this weekend.

We ended up with 12 students,

which is a good size.

But I was TIRED by the time 

yesterday was finished.

This morning I actually slept until

8:30! Which is unusual in a hotel bed...

and then it was up,

pack,

walk across the parking lot to my

favorite little Mel's Diner for some

breakfast and then drive to

Rural King to pick up my feed order.

They still didn't have any beet pulp pellets.

Darn it.

Maybe next week.....

And then it was, turn on the Kindle to

read the last of the Harry Potter books

to me as I drove across the state.

When I got home, I unloaded the feed

that I DID get into their barrels out

in the barn and then went inside to

open the mail.

And SURPRISE!

I got a present from Mom!!!!

It's chilly in my house tonight,

so I'm VERY EXCITED to have 

some brand new Toasty Toes!

Thanks Mom!!!!!

Glasses

I have a GAZILLION things to do today.

So what am I doing???

Deciding which glasses to wear 

this weekend while I'm teaching.

Hahahahahaha

Choice #1

I call these my Harry Potter glasses.

Brown and round.

Choice #2

Squarish and although it doesn't show up

well in the photo, they are blue.

Choice #3

Larger squarish and red.

I like the red color, but the small round shape...

I'll pack the all (like I usually do...)

but I'm thinking round / brown.

I haven't worn them in a LONG time.

This particular pair lives on my

dresser in my bedroom.

I also have a cute clear frame pair

in the bathroom, but they are scratched.

And a really DARK black/blue pair that

live on the end table next to my chair

in the living room.

And an ugly pair that lives on top of

the canisters in the kitchen.

The red ones live in my purse for when

I'm out and about.

The blue ones live in my teaching bag for

those awful times when I open my purse

and realize there are NO GLASSES in the case.

And I think I have another pair in the 

center console in my car for when I 

need a little extra help with my GPS screen.

How many pairs do YOU have?

*disclaimer - they are all WalMart cheaters...

**disclaimer #2 - IGNORE MY BANGS!

They are getting long AND I only wash my hair

once a week / Sat morning if I'm teaching,

Sun morning if I'm not...

They could use a wash / brush.

But that would require walking to the bathroom

and I'm not THAT interested in this project.

See above GAZILLION things to do today.

Grocery Trip

This is probably boring to you...

but it helps me remember what I bought

and what I was planning to cook this week.

This is $79.00 worth of food.

And yes, I'm still buying eggs.

Fresh spinach for a big pan of Lazy Lasagna.

Mandarin Oranges for snacking.

2 tubs of Fat Free Cottage Cheese.

1 box Instant Brown Rice

2 boxes reduced sodium chicken broth

1 carton of Heavy Whipping Cream

1 carton of Egg Whites

4 bags of frozen Cauliflower

1 package of Jalapeno Cheddar brats

1 big pkg baked ham deli meat

1 pkg thin sliced provolone cheese

1 pkg Joseph low carb Pita Bread

4 bananas

4 small cans tomato sauce

2 cans red kidney beans - Pearl's Chili

2 cans garbonzo beans - Air Fryer snack

2 dozen eggs (hard boiled / egg salad / cake etc)

2 jugs unsweetened almond milk

1 pkg celery sticks

1 bag BBQ flavored pork rinds (car snack this weekend)

Out of this I plan to make a big pan of Lazy Lasagna,

a pressure cooker full of Pearl's Chili,

a bunch of ham and cheese pita sandwiches

a big tub of egg salad (Rod loves it)

2 tubs of apple/celery waldorf salad

THM friendly pancakes...

Right now there is a rasher of bacon in the oven.

I just finished making 2 tubs of waldorf salad 

with just enough left over for a nice big bowl

for my lunch today...

When I'm done eating that... its back into the kitchen.

I'll make the lasagna, egg salad and chili so Rod

will have something to eat this weekend

while I'm out of town...

I'll probably make the pancakes tomorrow.

I like to make a BIG batch and then I

keep them in a bag in the fridge so Rod

can just grab a couple to heat up,

add a slice or two of bacon and

breakfast is done.

I made a chocolate cake earlier in the week

and cut it into snack sizes - they are in 

zippie bags in the fridge for us to grab

as a quick snack with our lunches.

(I've been working at the Town this

past couple of weeks... I'm back to

making bag lunches!)

The cans of tomato sauce and the whipping cream

makes an AMAZING bowl of 

"Just Like Campbell's Tomato Soup".

(Except I think its better...)

A good, quick lunch or dinner...

Anyhow.

I love doing a big cooking day

(or two).

It feels great to open the fridge/freezer

and see food ready for my family.

Oh yeah.

I also caught the Falcon 9 launch this morning.

I was out feeding the animals so had to

run back into the house to get my phone...

I LOVE living on the Space Coast!

Winter - No Summer - Nope Winter again...

We are in that time of year when Florida

can't pick a season!

It's going to be 80 degrees.

No its going to be 40 degrees.

But tomorrow it will be 80 degrees.

And the day after that we might hit 60.

Last week it was FREEEEZING!

Yes, we have established than I'm a pansy.

But at least I was WARM...

I had gloves too, but can't work my

camera / phone with them on.

It is once again in the 70's today.

But tomorrow they are saying rain and chilly.

And this weekend it will rain the whole time.

I'll be on the south west coast, but they

are going to get rain all weekend.

At least it (might) be a little warmer...

Kyle is finally almost over his cold.

I felt one coming on Friday so while

we were out running errands I stopped at

the health food store and bought some

more Oil of Oregano - took 3 of them

with my Subway sandwich and it

never went any further... 

Dodged THAT bullet!

But everyone at the Town Hall is sick.

I spent the day there today.

I told them I would come in for a bit

tomorrow, but I'm going to have a can of

Lysol following me around.

I only have 10 students registered for this

weekend's class, but anybody I meet at the

door who looks / sounds sick... OUT YOU GO!

(grin)

Bonfire

A couple of weeks ago, when Kyle

was in town, he cut down a bunch

of old dead trees, dug a BIG trench,

and filled it with the trees and

other random wood laying around

in the VERY back pasture.

Hmmmm.

No before pictures.

Anyhow.

This weekend he got to be here

for a day or two.

Rod and I drove up to the ranch on Saturday,

loaded up his furniture

and he loaded up his trailer with a

bunch of hay for the town farm

and we headed south.

(The ranch truck is having mechanical

issues - we brought up a new part

that he installed, but the other problem

requires a diagnostic computer...)

Sunday afternoon he decided

to light the wood on fire and

see what happened.

(The trench is half full of water, so

he wasn't confident anything would happen...)

Surprise!!! 

It burned really well!

It was smoky... but it burned.

(This is after a couple of hours...)

We pulled up some chairs and enjoyed it.

Tip your head to the right and look in the middle of the fire.
See the cat?

At the bottom of the pile

(or at least a couple of layers down...)

there was a PVC pipe.

Once that caught on fire, the flames

were really pretty!

Toxic... but pretty!

(So we made sure to stay up wind...)

Rod went out and poured water on it

and made sure it was out before

he went to bed.

This morning we checked it again 

before Kyle had to head back up north.

He will be home next Monday for a couple

of weeks... months... who knows...

and he'll put some more wood in there

for Bonfire 2.0

And then he'll push all the dirt back in the hole.

DONE.

LONG Tuesday!

I set an alarm clock this morning!

Woke up about an hour before it

went off, but it was chilly in my room,

so I stayed in bed all snuggled up

until it went off.

And then I got up.

It was 7:00.

It was 43 degrees outside.

BRRRRRR!

I pulled out my giant puffy coat,

hat, scarf, gloves, SOCKS and barn shoes.

Headed out into the great white north

(oh wait, that's not right...)

Headed out in the freezing green yard

(with a cold wind whistling down from ALASKA)

to feed the animals.

Done in RECORD TIME!

(no kidding!)

Back into the house to get the big green

trash can and drag it to the road.

Back into the house to let the dogs out.

Back into the house to cook my okra and eggs.

While that was cooking I did some email stuff.

When it was all done, I brought the dogs

back in, fed them and then walked outside

to let the horses out.

(While my breakfast cooled a bit...)

Ate my breakfast while doing my morning

reading and then headed in to take a shower.

While I was getting dressed I remembered

I didn't have a "name" so ran to print a card

and then jumped in the car to drive to Linda's

so we could head to Orlando to the Temple.

It was a really nice drive.

We always have a good time visiting on

the drive over and back again.

She has had a house full of family since

before the holidays.

Gina, Colton and their baby Lucy are 

still living with her until the end of the

month when they will move to the ranch.

They are moving into Kyle's house.

(He is moving home)

They are helping her go through the stuff

in her garage prior to her moving to her

new house she is building.

Whew!

Anyhow.

We had a nice visit.

And when we got to the Temple it was BUSY!

The session was FULL!

I haven't seen that in a long time!

It was a nice session.

Meanwhile... Rod is working on the ceiling in the

tack room in preparation for a home inspection.

(Possibly changing home owners insurance...)

It's been a JOB!

This tile split YEARS ago and then it looked like

it got moldy. But its in the tack room so we

didn't really worry about it much.

Last weekend while I was out of town,

he pulled it down, expecting to find the

ceiling full of black mold.

Much to our surprise (and delight)

this is what he found!

Not a speck of mold!!!!

YEA!!!

He went to the rental place and got a nifty tool.

He loves tools.

Especially THIS tool since it allowed him

to put up a 4x8 sheet of drywall in the ceiling

by himself!

(Kyle is still on Calf Duty at the ranch...)

Got it all screwed in.

The next day he started filling in the holes

around the sheet and then taped and mudded.

The next day (after work) he got the first 

coat of paint on it.

He just got home from work and is back out there

putting on another coat of paint.

This one is textured so it matches the rest of the ceiling.

I'm going to make him a nice big steak.

He has EARNED it!!!