Oops - Time Got Away Again!

What with Thanksgiving and all,

I got busy and forgot to blog.

This week I'm busy again...

but I'll try to stay in better touch.

Today I started a 30 day challenge

with T-Tapp.

I know.

A challenge over Christmas???

Yup.

It's no big deal.

Just remembering to do 15 minutes in the

morning throughout the month.

But accountability really helps!

I also forgot to renew the tags on my car

on my birthday, so I have an appointment

in an hour to run to the DMV and get all

the tags that are going to be due this month.

(Both the big trucks and over the weekend

when we were at Rural King in Lake Wales

someone "borrowed" the tag off our trailer.

So I get to buy a new one for that as well...)

Fun.

Anyhow.

Then tomorrow I have my first

Stake Primary Pres meeting down in

Vero Beach at the Chick Fil A (since

none of us have a key to the Stake Center)

at 9:45! In the MORNING!

Since it's a 45 minute drive I'll need to be

pulling out of the gate no later than 9.

Which means I'm going to need to be up

much earlier than normal to get all the

animals fed before I leave.

And we had a cold front blow through so

it's supposed to be high 30's in the morning.

If you don't hear from me again.

I froze to death.

LOL.

Then Tuesday night we have an Empty Nester

activity at the church.

I need to get a small gift under $5 and a 

snack-y thing for us all to eat.

Then Wednesday morning my farrier is coming

to do the horse's pedicures.

I'm not going to have Andy's done.

And Wednesday evening we are having the

elders over for dinner.

And then Kyle is coming home from the 

ranch so he can work at the local farm

for the rest of the week.

But mostly because there is a night rocket

launch Wed night at 12:51 and we want

to watch it from the beach.

(BRRRRRR but if there aren't clouds, 

it is worth it!)

Thursday Rod has High Council but I think

my calendar is clear... so far.

And Friday I head down to Bonita Springs

for the weekend.

I already have 24 people registered!

That's good!

And somewhere in there I need to finish the

typing for the Town that I've been putting

off the the last couple of weeks.

I did 2 hours today.

That's about as much as my shoulders can do.

(Especially since the workout I chose this morning

was VERY shoulder concentrated...)

Meanwhile, I'd better get ready to hit the road.

DMV - here I come!

Yippeeeee!

Yesterday at the beach.

Notice the Christmas earrings!

It's DECEMBER!

(Kyle wasn't feeling well, so we headed down there

in the late afternoon to see if that would help.)

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!