Good Friday

"Happy Good Friday" just doesn't seem appropriate.  So I'll wish you a Blessed Good Friday. 

We had an awesome Family Home Evening on Monday, courtesy of Rozann and Greg.  It really helped me focus and think more about the things that went on this week and what they mean to me and my life. 

Obviously, I've been on vacation.  Both me AND my blog.  But it's time to get back to work.  (I came back to the office to find a PILE of unposted $$$ so my blog had to continue its vacation while I pulled the rest of my life back into order...) 

I'm off this weekend!!!  No teaching - because of the Easter weekend.  I see much riding in my future.  Well, that and Andy MUST get clipped.  Traditionally I clip horses over the Easter weekend - starting way back years and years ago when we clipped Dobby each Easter.  This year CJ and Buddy are both about 90% slicked out naturally.  But poor Andy can still double as a Panda - he is SO furry.  So... bath tomorrow morning and then a clip in the late afternoon.  (And a blanket over night so it's not quite such a shock... poor hairless guy!)  Expect before/after pictures Sunday of my furry teddy bear transformed into a moth eaten naked guy.  LOL

So... speaking of pictures... here are a random smattering of photos from my vacation.  I intended to take a gazillion pictures.  LOL  I brought my camera and pulled it out ONCE - at FHE - but I haven't even taken my laptop out of it's carrying case since I got home LATE Tuesday night.  (And I can only download my camera pix on my laptop.)  Thanks again Mom and Dad for the iTouch - it saved my picture taking...

So here goes...

My cutie airport drivers... (S just woke up from a nap - such a good sport!)

What I do on the airplane.  AFTER they let you turn them back on.....



What I did UNTIL they let you turn it on...

We did a LOT of this during the week.  (Sorry Mom - it was better than the OTHER picture I took!  LOL)



An example of "just a little something I whipped up" at N's house.  And my FIRST pine nuts that were actually YUMMY!  (who knew!  And now that I like them, I find out they are EXPENSIVE!  Dang.)



Watching General Conference. 
We were all deeply into knitting - Nanc is making baby booties and bonnets.  SO cute!



Some of us switched off between knitting and note taking. 

Some of us just knit. 

 Some of us just listened. 

Some of us napped.  Briefly.



So.  Blessed Good Friday to you.

And to those of you in SNOW - BRRRRRRR!  (grin)

Ok, editing to add - HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!

(Just got this picture from my friend Trisch from the T-Tapp Forums...  Thanks Blessed Mama!)

Palm Sunday

It's a beautiful spring day here in Tucson.  We spent the morning drinking Dad's famous smoothies (sans spinach) and then watching General Conference.  There were some excellent talks with great, inspirational messages.  The new "watch word" will likely be "Stop It"...

Outside for a lunch of Mom's macaroni salad (previewing for dinner tonight) and apples with cheese.  And then a tour of Nancy's house and all the plans for the future renovations.  Of course, a tour isn't complete without a trip to the studio to drool over all the gems and stones and jewelry.  Nancy generously gave me a couple of gorgeous pieces so my students don't have to just look at ME while I teach.  (grin)

And now we are all set to watch the final session of Conference.

Travel

I'm sitting in the Albuqueqrue airport - waiting for my flight to board.  I took a picture, but then realised my chord is in my suitcase.  Darn.  Today's blog assignment was about "water" and there were some great pictures of it out the window of my plane, but my iPod was in my purse, locked away in the overhead bin.

My phone battery is dieing.  And my plug is in my suitcase.

Can you say POOR PLANNING?  LOL

But I'm have a good time.  Sat beside a really nice lady who got a new Kindle for Christmas and hadn't really used it yet.  Somebody loaded a book on it for her, and she was planning to read it on the flight from Orlando to ABQ.  But she couldn't figure out how to make it work.  It was quite comical, the two of us trying to figure it out...  (It's a different model than mine - more basic - with no clear indication of how to make it work...)  To make matters worse, she had long, fake fingernails and it appears not to recognize taps from those...

We finally got it working and she spent a happy hour reading.  (the flight started out rough - she had minor surgery on her foot this morning, just hours before her flight, and the meds they gave her made her really sick! So her flight started with a trip to the upchuck room.....  poor lady!)

I'll try to keep updating while I'm out of town.  But you know us jetsetters... hard to pin us down!

Day 16: Morning

Yup, it's morning.  And here is the aftermath.

A little "vet wrap" that was on my arm earlier, but it was too hard to type.  (Couldn't bend my elbow...)  I got to start the morning with a stab with a sharp instrument and despite even getting up in the middle of the night to drink more water, I was still on the dehydrated side and my veins were not cooperating.

Kudos to the phlebotomist though - she took it all in stride and, if she hadn't said something, I wouldn't have known she was digging around looking for a source of blood.  (Normally I'm cringing and squinting and doing my best not to slug somebody - usually the guy digging around in my arm!)

I'm going to be out of thyroid pills in a couple of days, so have an appointment with my doctor on Monday to check my blood levels and get a new prescription.  However, I don't have high hopes for this one.  I switched to the generic this month and haven't really felt "right" for most of the month.  So... this will be interesting.

Meanwhile, I'm getting excited (and a little punchy) about my trip next week.  It's been forever since I've seen most of the members of my family.  Not everybody will be there, but the vast majority will be - and maybe we can toss in a Skype session on the big screen and pretend we're all together...  a la

Meanwhile - Rod is enjoying his new job - learning lots and gearing up for being on his own pretty soon.  He is having a little trouble with the TINY writing on the form he has to use - but I gave him a little magnifying thingie last night and we'll see if that helps. 

I'm working.  I sort of have some of tomorrow off - need to put in about 3 hours tomorrow - but I'm also planning to ride my horse with my husband.  (If the weather will cooperate - they are predicting afternoon showers - he has to run to Orlando to pick up a 4-wheeler and is taking his Dad with him so they can get in some visiting time...)  And then I'm teaching another review class on Sunday - my trainee from last week is joining me, along with her Mom.  It will be neat to get together with them!

And then Monday is PACKING!!!!!  (And a doctor's appointment, and an 8 hour day at the office... whatever...)

And that's all the news that's fit to print.

Hiding?

You'd think I was hiding - but really, I was just busy.  (And my extended family is out of town, so I didn't think they were looking... LOL)

This past weekend was my 4-day school up in Orlando.  I got to train another new instructor, which is always fun!  I love teaching new teachers... (and it's awesome that they do all my admin stuff for me... lol)

Anyhow - when I got to school on Friday morning (which was an adventure in and of itself...)  I had to stay at a different hotel since my usual place was booked solid.  (Spring Break in Florida...)  Since this is only the third time I've ever taught at this location, I wasn't really familiar with the area or where I was going.  (Yah yah yah, we all know I'm directionally challenged, which is why my Darling Husband bought me a GPS several years ago... unfortunately, Dorothy {GPS} also sometimes suffers from the same malady!)  This was one of those mornings.  She suggested (she's "so polite") I turn RIGHT out of the parking lot (the school is to the left...) but I followed her suggestion.  Next you know she has me on a toll road going AROUND the school, past it and doubling back!  Sheesh!  ETA - 18 minutes. 

Now, the school and the hotel are ON THE SAME ROAD.  But she actually had me on TWO DIFFERENT toll roads!  (And my Epass transponder battery died on the way up, so I was having to go through the cash lanes... sigh.)  So.....  I was late.

Anyhow (again) when I finally arrived (I called the other instructor to let her know so she didn't panic - I wasn't VERY late - only about 4 minutes, but I wanted to be EARLY...)  and we got to meet for the first time, she looked VERY familiar.  It only took a few minutes, but I realized she was the daughter of an RVP (Regional Vice President) I substitute taught for several times several years ago!  In addition - when she originally got her license (10 years ago) she went through MY class!  (I remember her and actually talk about her in my lecture!  LOL)  She made an impression because she was NOT enthused about being there (she was with her brother who was much more on point...) as she was "in the fashion industry".  She was only there because her parents told her to.  (As an RVP you are a business owner and can actually "will" your business to your heirs, but they must be licensed...) 

In the years between, she married, moved to Portland, started her own fashion business, sold her business, divorced and recently moved back to Orlando.  Full circle.  And now she is teaching the class!  She was equally unenthused about teaching - but her Mom insisted she should at least give it a try...  By the end of the first five hours, she was much more excited.  Class has changed A LOT (and so has she...) and we are able to be much more flexible and fun.  (And I like to think I've improved as a teacher over the years.)

Anyhow (some more) when school was over for the day, I turned OFF the GPS and just headed up the road.  I pulled into my hotel parking lot in 8 minutes FLAT.  Woot woot!  (And no tolls...)  There was a Logans Steakhouse in the parking lot, so I just walked over and helped myself to a 6 oz filet mignon with bleu cheese crumbles, a baked sweet potato and some of the best grilled mushrooms of my entire life!  (I only ate 3 oz of the steak - too much meat for me...)

The rest of the weekend passed pretty uneventfully.  We only had 15 students (last month we had 27) but they were quality folks and all passed but the one gentleman who speaks Dutch as his first language and was having a real challenge with the English.  (And he only missed by 4 questions...) 

On the way back to the hotel Saturday evening, I stopped at Lowe's and got the battery changed in my transponder so I could get home.  And stopped at a WalMart to get some batteries for my wireless mouse and a new Wite-Out for all those little boo boos in life. 

Sunday evening I realized I was passing over the same road the temple is located on, so I gave Dorothy a second chance, turned her on, and had her guide me over there.  It was SO nice to just be in the neighborhood.  Naturally it was closed and all the gates were shut, but I pulled over for a few minutes and just basked in the Spirit that resides there.  I tried to take a couple of pictures, but the trees were blocking the view. 

 

Monday I spent the day teaching with one part of my brain, but thinking about Rod with the other half.  (Luckily I've been teaching the same stuff for 12+ years now, so I can do stuff like that... lol)  It was his first day on his new job - out training with his trainer John.  (Same name as his trainer when he started with KLLM - a good omen...)  For the first day, John just had him "watch" - Tuesday John stood back and let Rod take over.  There are a gazillion steps, and they have to be done in the exact order - so there's lots to learn - but Rod is excited to be doing something a little different.

For the next two weeks he is driving from 5 am to 5 pm (although it's been closer to 6 by the time they are done) so between going to bed by 8:30 and up at 4, I haven't seen a lot of him.  But then he'll get his own truck/route and will be working 4pm to 4am.  But he will get TWO WHOLE DAYS OFF each week!  That's pretty exciting!  I still work 29 days out of each month, but at least I'll be able to stay home in the morning and spend some time with him - or go in early and get home early and spend the afternoon/evening with him.  Either way...

So... in a nut shell.  Life continues to be wonderful here in Paradise.  Hope it's going well for you too!

Day 15: Happiness

Happiness is having a husband with a JOB!

He starts orientation tomorrow and training with his trainer, John (recent winner of the 1,000,000 Mile Award) on Monday!

Thank you for taking such good care of us DARLING!



What I'm Reading

What am I reading? 

Right now... I'm reading a book called Without Any Warning by Peggy Edelheit.  I just finished The Puzzle by the same author.  Both were free through Amazon. 

Most of the books on my Kindle are free downloads. 

I'm cheap.

I originally borrowed The Hunger Games for free through Amazon Prime, but enjoyed it so much and wanted to read it to Rod, that I went back and bought it.  (And then the rest of the series as well...)

I'm also reading my daily scriptures - The Book of Mormon  on my computer at work every morning. 

http://www.readthescriptures.com/ sends me 1 chapter each day to my inbox.  It's a great way to begin the day...