Sunflowers

 Sunflowers are so bright and happy!

Last month my students bought a vase

and they all signed it and filled it with

flowers.

This month I stopped at Walmart on my way

into town to buy some bottled water and a

little bunch of sunflowers.

They have been on my desk all weekend

and I have really enjoyed them.

This morning before the students show up I am sitting

quietly (well, with The Piano Guys playing loudly

on the YouTube...) enjoying the sun

streaming in through the windows and

my pretty little sunflowers on my desk.

Have a beautiful Monday!

Happy Fathers Day and other stuff

 Happy Fathers Day Dad!!!!!

I hope you are enjoying your day.

Our Ward is doing "Pies for Ties"

during 2nd hour.

The RS sisters took over all their classes

since this is a Sunday School week.

And the guys are meeting in the cultural hall

for pie and ice cream and some good old fashioned

male bonding time.

(The women did similar for Mothers Day and

the guys thought it was a great idea and 

wanted to do the same...)

Meanwhile.

I'm sitting here in my classroom in Tampa.

Waiting while my students do a 50 question

"mid-term" test.

This is a good sized class - 20 students,

but these people are QUIET!

Almost NO questions, which is unusual.

I'm having to pull out all my old time killer

skills and think of things to fill the hours.

Friday we ended over 3 hours early!

That was fun...

Meanwhile.

Rod is getting his "new" F250 he bought while

I was in Tucson, up and running, slowly.

There was a LOT more work that it needed.

He has practically rebuilt the entire front end.

And all new brakes.

Etc, etc etc. (I don't understand half of it,

so I nod encouragingly.... and Kyle laughs at me.)

Meanwhile.

Kyle is preparing to move to Kansas this fall.

He is building his house in our backyard.

Then he will take it apart and we strap the 

sections to his big trailer and drive it out there

and then put it back together.

He and Jim worked on the first section of the floor on Friday.

Got it all finished in a few hours.

With the help of the job foreman... (Beau)

They were rewarded with a glorious sunset.

Meanwhile I was having major thunder storms 

over here on the other coast.

All-in-all it has been a busy and productive week.

Kyle and I went to the Bishop's Storehouse on Wednesday.

On the way home a guy rear-ended us at a stop light,

but fortunately there was very little damage

and nobody was hurt, so we all went on our way.

And then a young girl was WRITING on a little pad

of paper while DRIVING and nearly swerved on top of us!

But she noticed before impact and swerved back.

Sheesh.

I'm looking forward to moving to the great WIDE OPEN Kansas.

Hope today is a lovely day for ALL the Dads in our family.

Love you all!

32 Trips Around the Sun

 Friday was Kyle's birthday.

We don't really "do" birthdays around here.

No big splashy parties,

lots of gifts,

and in Kyle's case, NO CAKE.

(He's not a big cake fan...)

So...

We went shopping.

Super exciting shopping.

WalMart.

For some stuff to re-do my bulletin board in

the Relief Society room.

And some groceries.

Hahahahahaha.

But we DID stand around and sniff

a zillion different candles.

And we both enjoy doing that.

Then, after coming home and putting stuff away,

we headed to our favorite burrito place

called Big Island Burrito in the same parking

lot where we park to walk to the beach.

We shared an Extreme Burrito (SO yum).

We get it to go and then walk over to the

beach to sit in our beach chairs and eat.

It was very enjoyable!

We watched the sun, the surf, the ghost crabs,

and a weird man who was harassing a crab,

kicking sand at it and trying to herd it into the ocean.

Kyle finally went over and had a word with him.

(grin)

Anyhow.

It was a lovely day.

A nice FLAT ocean.

And he even allowed me to take a 

ONCE A YEAR photo of him.

Thanks bud.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Bishop's Storehouse

 TODAY, since it's a new month and Lorna's

chemo / radiation is finished

(at least the part I'm driving her for...)

I had a Wednesday OFF!

So Kyle and I got up at 5:30 and drove over

to the Bishop's Storehouse.

We needed to be there at 8:00 and its a 

2 hour drive - through rush hour traffic.

FUN. (not)

Anyhow.

We got to pick orders (which means we got to

grocery shop for other people... SO FUN!!!)

We are pretty good at it, so they wandered

off to do other tasks and left us to it.

We LOVE doing this!

There were lots of orders.

Some of them were actually mine.

(well, not MINE, but orders I put in the system...)

It was good experience for me to see how

other Relief Society Presidents handled the

orders and what I would consider 

EXCESSIVE amounts of food for a 2 week period.

(SEVEN packages of tortillas????? and NOTHING

to put in them? No beans, cheese, etc???)

That just seemed odd.

Anyhow.

It was interesting. And I got to visit with the

missionaries who are in charge over there and get

some guidance and information that will help me

going forward to know what to order and when

to maybe cut it back a little.

(One sister wanted THREE bottles of laundry detergent.

For 2 weeks????? You couldn't even use that if you

ran your machine every day all day... I modified it.)

Anyhow.

We both really love going over there.

The people are awesome and it is just FUN!

Then we headed home for a quick minute

and then back over to the chiropractor.

It seems to be helping...

and then to the dentist to get a copy of my

receipt for the insurance company,

and then to Tractor Supply to get horse feed,

and then to the house for a quick nap (40 minutes)

before I had to fire up the zoom.

So....

I'm done.

I didn't take a single picture!

Sheesh.

Here's a picture of Rod's guard frog.

He makes me laugh.

And who doesn't need a good laugh now and again.

Wedding Rings & Fat Fingers

 My hands have been swelling.

I don't know if its related to my

pinched nerve or summer or... 

well, I'm fat.

But, my beautiful wedding rings that

I LOVE are getting too small and I was

getting a little uncomfortable about how

tight they were on my finger.

So...

I hopped on the ever faithful Amazon and

found myself a pretty ring to wear while

I am waiting for my fingers to shrink

back to their normal size.

It's a little weird to be wearing silver...

but I like it.

It's a little tall, but so far I haven't knocked

it on anything.

Anyhow.

I think its pretty.

Not nearly as pretty as my REAL wedding rings,

but it will do for now.

And bonus..... it was $36.77.

HA!

By the way... this is post number 1,650!!!!!

Wow. I'm chatty.

You wouldn't know it lately though...

Sorry!

"The Blob"

 Kyle and I have been going to the beach

quite often lately.

Last week I didn't have to teach at all.

It was AWESOME!

I still had lots to do, but it felt

like I was on vacation...

However, the blob of seaweed is making

it's presence felt.

They say it is strung out all along the

east coast and doesn't look to be

going away anytime soon.

Estimated to be 5000 miles long and

13,000,000 tonnes of seaweed!

Look at all that seaweed!

The ocean is FULL of nasty seaweed.

And so is the beach!

This is north of where we usually sit,

but we went for a walk and had to stop

when it just got ridiculous.

That is a LOT of seaweed!

But.... Kyle just came running into my office to announce

there is a rocket launching in an hour.

So.... we are going to the beach!

Hahahahahaha.

(Just got home from the chiropractor... I have a 

pinched nerve or something going on and my

left arm has been tingling and going numb

for a couple of weeks so I thought I'd give this

a try and see if it helps... I'll keep you posted.)

Class

 This has been a challenging class.

Whew!!!

I have people who think they know it all.

I have people who want to know the WHY of it all.

I have people who want to ask a million 

hypothetical "what if" kind of questions.

And I have one who insists she is too stupid

but wants EVERYBODY to cater to her,

wait on her to slowly read everything

and then fuss loudly.

I just finally told her she has got to stop.

"Stop what???"

"Stop EVERYTHING. Stop fussing,

stop talking, just stop."

I'm on the verge of sending her home.

AAAAARGGGHHH!

But.

About the time I decided this is the WORST class

EVER....

They just presented me with flowers

and they all signed the vase with a bunch

of sweet notes.

I'm a horrible person.

LOL.