An Amazing Blog (Not Mine)

I have a friend (internet) who lives in Calgary.

Her previous Stake President,

President Thomas

and his lovely wife have been called on a mission.

As Mission President to Africa.

Sister Thomas has started a blog.

They have been there for 3 weeks

and already she has had some

wonderful experiences.

This week's blog has some beautiful

pictures, but ends with a story that

will bring tears to your eyes

and warmth to your heart.

Enjoy!

24 Months in Lubumbashi

Florida Skies

Kyle loves the sky.

He loves to look at clouds.

He LOVES to look at stars.

But he really really loves sunsets.

It's a daily ritual for the 2 of us

to stand on the patio each evening

and oooh and aaaaah on the beauty up there.

He got a new phone.

And it takes really good pictures.

This was the sunset a couple of days ago.

He has figured out a way to "trick"

his phone's auto filters.

His biggest complaint is the picture never looks

anything like the REAL thing.

Although this is a pretty good example

of an afternoon Florida thunderstorm

getting ready to roll in.

We've had lots of those lately.

And with the activity in the ocean between

here and Africa - looks like

we are in for many many more.

This just might be a busy hurricane season...

He even caught a sun RISE the other day!

They are so completely different!

And then there's THIS.......

These are called banana spiders.

You don't want to know how big they are.

Thanks Kyle.

Best Husband in the World

This is Florida.

It is July.

It is HOT.

Not the same HOT as, say, Utah,

or Arizona.

My condolences to you girls.



It's only in the low 90s.

But the humidity.

Oh the humidity.

Is it possible for humidity to be 225,000%?

Cuz I'm pretty sure it is.

Right. Now.

But I don't care.

Why?

I'll tell you!

Because I have the best husband in the world.

That's why.

I drive a big black truck.

Yup.

Black.

So it's HOT HOT HOT in there.

And my A/C broke.

Several months ago.

But I didn't care.

Cuz I'm hypothyroid and I'm always cold.

(unless I'm hot...)

(figure THAT one out)

(I'm still working on it)

So I drive with my windows open.

A lot.

And keep a hair brush in the door pocket.

But when it's HOT HOT HOT and

HUMID HUMID HUMID

and I'm driving across the state

(think NO sea breeze)

it's not that great.

So.

Back to the world's best husband.

He went on Google, followed by YouTube.

And then he went to our local parts store.

And then he spent $5.29.

And came home and FIXED my A/C!

We have been putting off fixing it,

cuz it was like $500 the last time.

But he figured out what was wrong

and FIXED it!

And today, even though it was a glorious morning.

Only in the 70's.

And a beautiful sea breeze.

I drove all the way to work with my windows

CLOSED

and my A/C

ON

Because I COULD.

THANK YOU BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD!!!!!

I LOVE YOU!

My Garden

Pioneer Woman had a post today titled

My Garden.

So I thought I would echo that and tell

you all about My Garden.

I don't have one.

The End.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

In other news...

Finished up my inaugural class at

the new local location this weekend.

Our June class was cancelled

because we had ZERO students

registered for it.

I was mighty worried for July,

since the day before school I still

only had 3 registered

(and we have a historical 50% no show rate)

So imagine my surprise and delight

when I ended up with 5 students.

Bright, happy, intelligent, motivated students.

(It's always a bummer to have someone

there who REALLY doesn't want to be there.)

(Although, WHY you would attend if you

don't want to, I can't figure out...)

Anyhow.

They were there early every day,

never missed any time,

book keeping was EASY PEASY.

And all but one passed with flying colors.

And therein lies the problem.

We have a new motivational program going on.

They have us giving out those little rubber/plastic

wristband thingies.

(I hate wearing those - they don't make them

for scrawny wrists like mine...)

Red for going online to our study tools site.

White for scheduling your state exam.

Blue for recruiting another person.

Red/white/blue for passing my final exam.

Aaaaaaaaaaah.

And there you have it.

When you pass, you get a certificate of completion.

When you DON'T pass you just get told you didn't pass.

So EVERYBODY knows you didn't pass.

Which only makes you feel worse than you already do.

So I printed up a sheet with a spot for your score,

and some steps for what to do next to fix the issue.

That way, EVERYBODY gets a paper and

unless you start bawling (it happens) nobody

is any the wiser.

But NOW they've made it obvious (again)

if you DON'T pass!

GEEZ.

(And I'm not one of those "everybody gets a

participation trophy" people.  You gotta EARN it folks.)

But we don't need to rub your face in it.

Am I right?

Sigh.

Luckily (for me) the one who didn't pass was

sitting on the back row, and happened to be

standing up by the window when I decided to

hand out their scores/wristbands.

So I was able to talk to her privately etc.

The rest of the class knew she didn't pass.

(It was obvious she wasn't going to...)

But at least she didn't have to come to the front

and suffer the indignity of not getting the prize

like everybody else.

Not sure how this will work with larger classes

where the non-passers are sprinkled in throughout.

But I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Any brilliant suggestions?

Suck it up Buttercup?

(Me, not the student...)

I LOVE My Truck

I have a big black truck.

An F250 diesel.

It is awesome.

Kyle has the same truck.

Except his is white.

He made some modifications.

His is now quite loud.

He loves it.

But mine is still FASTER.

I love it.

Case in point.

Yesterday morning

(I meant to write this yesterday)

I was running a little behind schedule.

(gasp)

Got to the end of my road.

I have to make a left turn onto a

county highway.

Sometimes I'm the only one on the road.

Sometimes it looks like downtown rush hour.

Usually when I'm running late.

So naturally it was pretty busy.

Ever since wrecking Dad's Honda Civic in 1979,

I've been kind of a chicken about driving.

A little old lady, if you will.

But I've been driving in South Florida for a couple of years now.

And the little old ladies down there are BRUTAL!

So...

I took a deep breath,

and PUNCHED it.

And then I giggled for the next mile.

I love the feeling of raw power in the morning.

A Lovely Morning

Thursday is Rod's plasma day.

So he gets up early and heads out.

(He normally doesn't go to work until 8:30

so he does all the morning chores

after I leave at 7...)

But on Thursdays...

I get up early with him.

Make our smoothies.

(Strawberry this morning...)

and then head out to the barn.

I kind of love Thursdays.

It's so nice and peaceful out there

in the mornings.  (if you ignore the girls)

The fodder is growing.

The new/old feed is fermenting.

(They like it SO MUCH BETTER!)

(We only got 25 eggs yesterday...

they are voting with their production)

(should get MORE today...)

(Ahem... ladies?)

Watching every day with baited breath

for the first colored egg from the new

Easter Eggers.

(Ahem... ladies?)

The sky was blue.

(We've been getting a LOT of rain

in the afternoons/evenings...)

(I'm thinking of borrowing Kyle's hip waders)

The river was gorgeous.

And then there was a Bald Eagle

majestically watching over it all.

Aaaaaaaaah.

Paradise.

Adventures!

We had an ADVENTURE!

It began with running out of feed.

We've been feeding this awesome new feed.

This stuff is DNA tested, non-GMO.

Which is nifty.

The girls LOVE it.

Which is awesome.

(I get more eggs when I feed it...)

But we ran out.

So we fed the other organic feed.

Instead of 60 eggs, yesterday I got 40.

Sigh.

BUT.

We got another load in.

It's in a little town called Live Oak in north Florida.

250 miles from us.

So we found somebody coming to Kissimmee

and willing to bring our feed that far.

(Kissimmee is next to Disney World

and only about 60 miles from us...)

But then that fell through.

So Sunday evening, while I was out of town,

it was decided we would go north.

We DID get the feed moved to

Citra (another little town)

but only about 180 miles instead of 250.
So that was good.

There are three of us together getting this stuff.

We are each getting a pallet.

20 bags or 1000# each.

Basically a month's worth.

I got up early Monday morning,

checked out of my hotel,

stopped at McD's and ordered a

(moment of weakness)

McGriddle.

(And my face immediately swelled all up.)

(sigh)

Headed out onto the highway.

Again the traffic was really light.

It was really nice!

I got home about 10:30,

we finished getting ready and headed out

at about 11:30.

Kyle was driving his truck and pulling his trailer.

(Brock was going to follow us in his truck

with the horse trailer to pick up their new

baby bull, but they've had a ton of rain,

and the bull was "stuck" in a corral in deep mud

and they can't get a truck / trailer in there

to load him... so that's on hold.)

We had a nice trip north.

Florida, especially north Florida,

is BEAUTIFUL!

There was a TON of traffic though.

(All the people in south FL must have gone north...)

Once we got to the farm

(with only one mistake - the turn wasn't what

Brock said it would look like)

we met Lee (a WONDERFUL lady)

and they started loading up the trailer.

Thankfully they have forks on their tractor,

cuz these were BIG pallets.

40 bags each.

6000# of feed!!!

(Luckily it was pre-paid, cuz I didn't bring

that much $$$!)

Unfortunately, it started raining while we

were tarping it, we were under a giant

oak tree, but still got pretty wet.

But it was warm rain, so it was ok.



Load of feed all tarped up



We made it through Ocala and were

just coming up on the little town of

The Villages, when Kyle felt the truck bog.

It wasn't the engine.

It was the trailer tire.

Blowing to bits all over the highway.

(There was still a TON of traffic.)

Thankfully we were right at an exit,

and there was a handy parking lot.

And it quit raining.

  

Load of feed with blown tire and sad men looking at it.

It was REALLY blown.

But at least they got it off.

(They only had a little jack... it was a challenge!)

Thankfully they didn't let that stop them.

And they got it changed.

However, the spare was the very nearly

bald one they had just taken off!

Rod jumped on his Google

and we limped a short 6 miles up the road

to a Super WalMart

with the NICEST people in the world.

They sold Kyle 2 tires (already mounted)

lent them a floor jack,

and checked and aired up all 4 tires for us.

All before the next band of rain.

And we were back on the road.

Still lots and lots of traffic,

but no more excitement!

Which was good.

And then we got home.

And Kyle unloaded 40 bags of feed into Brock's barn.

(Rod REALLY wanted to help, but his hand

is still not healed, Kyle accidentally dropped a

bag on Rod's hand, and he was done...)

Then they drove the truck/trailer to our house

and Kyle unloaded 40 MORE bags of feed

(50#'s each)

into our tack room.

That is a LOT of feed!

(That's the spare upright freezer in the background)

We should be good for about 3 months!

Just talked to Kyle.

He is not even sore.

But he DID sleep well!

What a fun day!!!!

(Luckily we spent the majority of it

laughing our heads off...)

Could certainly have been worse.



Happy 4th!

Today is the 4th of July.

A day to celebrate the birth of

an amazing Nation.

Even though our nation is having

some difficulties right now,

we are going to pull through.

But in the meantime,

we enjoying spending the morning together.

We all got to have the day off.

(Well, Kyle had to work next door...)

Rod and I started the day off

feeding all the critters.

We built a new fodder system.

(not this morning)

Notice the chicken wire to keep

Penny and her sisters (also named Penny)

OUT of there.

She is VERY interested in what's in there!

This is the tray we fed this morning.

Looks good!

Has a good root mat.

The girls love love love it.

Then we decided to take the horses for a ride in the preserve.

Andy has a boo boo.

A hematoma on his knee.

There is no heat

and it doesn't seem to hurt him.

Cj has some teeth marks.

I guess they were feeling their oats last night.

(They have been pasture mates for 10+ years

now and they STILL fight all the time...)

I gave him a little Bute (horse Tylenol)

in his breakfast to help with his arthritis in his

hip and any soreness he might have in his knee.

(Also tested, no lameness or anything else)

Cute, though.

So anyhow, we went riding.

It was pretty hot out there.

But we had a good time.

Andy was feeling silly,

he trotted nearly the entire ride.

(normally he ambles...)

(and eats)

He still ate, but then picked up a trot

again - didn't want to get far from Cj.

And then he tried to buck me off.

My hat fell off my head.

And I didn't LOOK very graceful,

hanging onto his neck,

but at least I didn't hit the ground.

Stinker!

Anyhow.

Then I got all packed up and headed

across the state to the west coast

to teach this weekend.

I wanted to leave early,

I was worried about long weekend traffic.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha

I drove for about 3 hours and for the majority of

the trip, this is what it looked like.

I was all alone.

It was nice!

Kyle downloaded a bunch of music to my iPod

for me, so I cranked up the tunes,

rolled down my windows,

and ROCKED.

And now I'm in my hotel bed.

Heading to sleep.

Hopefully I'll have a bunch of students

tomorrow, ready to finish up this class.

Happy 4th everybody!

Hurricane Update (Bonus Post for today)

We are not having a hurricane.

(Just putting that out there)

We had a little wind and some rain.

It was inconvenient.

But entertaining watching the neighbor

taking her horse for a ride

and getting soaked.

Twice.

(Evil grin)

(Kyle and I have great memories of

getting caught in many a flash storm

both on horseback and walking.

It's FUN!)

Anyhow.

We have a new toy.

www.OrlandoHurricane.com

It's through our local Fox channel

and keeps everybody up to date on

what's going on with the latest storm.

Figured Mom would enjoy it.

Love you Mom!

New Neigh-bors

The CSA next door

(Community Supported Agriculture)

is slowly turning itself into a petting zoo.

(I've offered them some rabbits, no takers yet...)

(grin)

Anyhow,

these are their latest additions.

There is a little male and female.

They are Nubian goats.

(currently nameless...)



The buck is "meeting" his neighbor, Slider.

(Slider is saying PLEASE SHUT UP!)

These little guys are cute cute cute.

But oh my goodness are they noisy!

Last night was their first night away from Mommy.

And they weren't very happy about it.

This morning there was no noise coming from the barn

next door, so they either wore themselves out

last night, or they are getting more comfortable.

They certainly are darling though!

Good Heavens Its July!

Hard to believe, but the year is half over!

Where on earth does it all go...

Oh well.

Summer is in full swing here.

This morning we have a Tropical Depression

that is likely to become a Tropical Storm

by the end of the day.

It's breezy out there.

The good news (for us) is that it is

chugging on up the Eastern Seaboard

and will be out of our hair before

this weekend.

Not that I care...

I'll be on the other coast this weekend.

Hopefully my students will join me in class.

(I wouldn't go to an insurance class

over the July 4th weekend... but that's just me!)

We had a great Sunday.

A newer member gave an EXCELLENT talk.

The topic was the difference between

Self-Reliance and Self-Sufficiency.

An excellent reminder that being self reliant

means that we rely on self and the ability

to either do something for ourselves

OR to know where to get things done.

As members, we seem to think that there is

some sort of shame in accepting help

whether it's spiritual, temporal, financial,

physical, whatever...

He said that it surprises him that in a church

that espouses service, that there is so little

service going on between the members.

(Granted, as a newly married young man,

he doesn't see the workings of the Relief Society,

we tend to work quietly in the background...)

His comments stemmed from 4 years of

Home Teaching with not one request for help

from any of his families.

Even in situations where they could clearly

use some help!

He started out by talking about our understanding

of words and concepts as compared to their

actual meanings.

Did an excellent breakdown of the Word of Wisdom,

reminding us of what it actually says, and that while

most of us focus on the "shall nots", that makes up

less than 1/3 of the actual scripture.

The majority of it is the "shalls" and the blessings

that will follow.

Then he reminded us that none of us are truly

self-sufficient.  We all NEED to be reliant on others,

most noteably Heavenly Father, but also family,

friends, community, etc.

It was a really good talk about service and

the blessings not only of giving, but also of

allowing it to be received.

Got me thinking...

And that's always good.

And then we had a "substitute" chorister.

I LOVED watching her lead the singing!

She sang with her whole body!

She did more than just beat out the tempo.

It was like she was leading a choir,

giving us direction as to how to

sing the words to milk the most meaning

out of the message.

(We were singing The Spirit of God)

It was wonderful!

(And yes, I have sent her an email, since

she was dashing off to teach a class as soon

as the meeting was over...)

We rounded out the day with a run up to

visit George.  He is doing well in his new

"digs".   He is fitting in with the other

residents well, they are all really nice folks.

His dementia ebbs and flows.

He is sharp as a tack and then his mind

wanders and he rambles about something

that even HE admits he has no idea what he is talking about.

Like when you suddenly wake up and continue

to talk, but like you are still in the dream.

But all in all, he is doing well.

And, of course,

Jim got all moved to his new place and job

over in Tampa.

Yesterday was his first day at work.

He is working EARLY in the morning

(ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha)

(Jim hasn't seen a sunrise in, a decade?)

There are about 200+ miles of paved bike paths

in Tampa (VERY bike friendly city) so

he rode 13+ miles on Saturday and Sunday.

The job seems to be as challenging as he was

promised and he is excited to rise to that challenge.

He'll be home this weekend.

Hopefully we can get together Friday

in the early afternoon before I have to head out.

Can't wait to hear his news...

Ok.

Now you know everything.

Back to work!