Kip's Blog!

Up in the woods....

Thanks to Jackflash, Jackie, who brought her computer and internet card, I'm blogging from the woods of North Florida!  I'm in the heated crop room so it's nice but it's going down to 27 here tonight and most of the ladies are in the open air cabins!  Linda took pity on us older ladies and we got a closed in cabin with an actual bathroom so we are thrilled!!  No heat but at least we can close the windowns and doors.  I slept under my down comforter last night and it was great.

We're having our usual terrific time here, thanks to Linda and Elle's cooking, classes by Diana and Michele today, and a terrific group of cropping ladies. 

I'll get off before I lose my connection but wanted to say hi!!

Oleno, here we come!

I had plans on sleeping in but Max had other ideas....but still might head back there for another hour as I have a raging sinus headache from sleeping with the window open which is under a big oak tree.

This morning, the girls will pick me up and we'll be off on another adventure!  We always have a blast.  This is the one where I found out I had asthma last  year so this time I'm equipped with my meds.

Woody got home around 6 last night and he brought with him the most delicious chicken pot pie I've ever had!  This man makes them in Marietta.  He called when he was on the bridge and told me to turn on the oven and we put it in for 45 minutes and voila- a masterpiece of pie! 

Okay, I'm going to read the news and then head back to bed for a bit.  By the way, did you hear where even other conservatives are blasting Rush Limbaugh for his idiotic remarks about Obama the other day? 

Good News all around!

Just talked to Barb and she sounds so much better!  She did eat some today and even had some PT.  They're talking about either home health care or up in Rehab again on the 7th floor but they're not pushing it.  She had a bunch of wonderful family phone calls and several visitors including Father Gibbons from her church.  She was watching Dr. Phil when I called!  I feel like I can leave and she'll be in good hands and on the road to recovery again.

Josh, her son, who is an attorney, won two cases today too!!  Big biscuit day for him.  The only poor thing was John who was feeling kind of blah today so he was taking it easy.

School was okay. Period.  I ended up scanning 83 class sets of assessments and I'm done with that thank God.  I got the big P to agree to have the teacher assistant to do the next batch of practice tests.  If she hadn't agreed, I'm afraid I would have thrown the scanner at her, lol!  I think she knew that!  I tried to get caught up on everything since I'll be out until Monday.  There's still laptops that need to be wiped but they can wait.  The county tech guy was there also to work on two stubborn problems and he was still working on them when I left.  I won't miss school :), just some people, lol!  Sometimes I wish they could sit in my shoes for one day and see what the job is like.  I've sat in their shoes and know it and it can be harsh too but at least you're not accountable to over 80 adults everyday.

Woody is on his way home from Atlanta with some pot pie he said this man made that is out of this world so he told me not to eat.  I've got to start packing as I'll need really warm clothes for this trip.  Two of the 3 nights we're up there are suppose to be in the 30's and the 20's and remember, no heat in the sleeping quarters!  I can't wait to see everyone though- over 50 women!  GA, Sonia and Barbara are driving up from Ft Myers tomorrow morning and picking up me, Jules and Jill and we'll be towing her brand new KNK trailer with all our stuff.  We always make a few pit stops along the way such as Hobby Lobby and Griffin's in Ocala and I'm sure we'll do it again.  GA has a big Tahoe and it fits all of us (3 rows of seats) so it's always a fun drive.  The crop actually starts about 4pm tomorrow night but we've never made it up the first night until after dark and believe me, it's dark in those woods.  This is the first year we've done it starting on Thursday as the big crop room is rented for Sunday afternoon and everyone wants to get home for Super Bowl anyway.  Lots of excitement in town with all the Super Bowl activities going on and big stars in town.  I'm pretty sure Brad and Angelina will give me a call....:)

Okay, off to get packing.  Not sure if I'll be able to report in from up there but doubt it so I'll see you on Sunday! I'll leave you with some pics from last year up there.

Is it really morning?

Damn, hardly no sleep last night thanks to Rock.  He kept walking around on those wood floors, tap-tap-tap, and waking me up.  I finally got up for the 5th time but he wouldn't go outside so of course, I wake up to him sound asleep in a chair and a nice BIG surprise for me on the floor!  I guess he was missing Woody last night.  At any rate, I feel like crap-po between no sleep and my sinuses.  If I wasn't going to be out for 2 days this week, I would call in sick today.

I've got a ton to do tonight as I'm being picked up in the morning.

Went to see Barb last night and she looked so much better!  She's out of ICU, off the tubes and was talking and even joking a bit.  She looked 100% better!  Now we need to just get her to eat some as her appetite is zero and the nutritionist is on her about it.  Her BP was looking good too as were her kidneys so I think she's on her way to recovery again if we could get that back straightened out of her and her bad hip.

At any rate, she looked good.  I took a pic of her meal last night which didh't look half bad actually...but she wouldn't eat it, nor the ice cream.  I told her I would put it up on the blog so she could be reminded later what she passed up, lol!

Off and running...

It's all about dogs...

The only thing that has really made me laugh today..the dogs.

Woody left very early today and for some unknown reason, he left a big bag of dog food in a plastic bag, on top of a basket on the floor that I keep all my cloth bags in for grocery shopping.  I come home and Mudgy and Rock had a good time, munching while I was gone...meanwhile, pieces of dog food had fallen in the cloth basket.  I clean it up, admonish the dogs and let Max out.  He sees the basket and heads right for it, digging in the middle of it to find food pieces that had fallen to the bottom.  I tell him no and clean up any pieces I see left.  Later, I hear all this noise and Max is the only one missing so I know he's up to something.  All of a sudden, he comes out of the kitchen looking like this!!!  He's wearing, literally, a Publix grocery bag, lol!!!  It had wrapped around his body and he's just walking along with this bag.  He is such a funny dog.  Made my day!

Second dog story of the day...I'm on the computer this morning and look over and there's Max, munching away on Rock's big nylabone and Mudgy is sound asleep with his head on Max's body!!  Too cute.

Another yucky day at work, I'll spare you the details.  I'm over it and over some teachers, that's all I'll say.  I scanned a little overr 12,000 pieces of paper so I'm over that too.

Now I'm going to head up to the hospital and go see Barb.

Tuesday morning..

I went to bed early last night and it was a good thing as I was exhausted.  Woody left early this morning to drive up to Atlanta to see my brother and will be back tomorrow so I have the house to myself today! He did leave behind Rock because he was afraid it would get too cold for him, lol!

I better have a much smoother day at work today or I'll be leaving early.  I also sure hope Barb's fever is down and that she is feeling much better.

Off I go...

Home ...

Just got back from the hospital and Barb's having a very rough night though she is off the tubes thank goodness.  They have her on a mask though.  Her kidneys are doing much better and her stats were better but she now has a fever so that, along with her back pain made her very weary and tired.  She's just so tired of all of this and I can't say that I blame her.  I told her I have 84 more days before retiring and I needed her better so we could play.  I left when she finally fell asleep and I hope she has a restful night for a change.

Rough day at school too.  Too damn much scanning to do and meanwhile, broken laptops, etc. are piling up and teachers are getting demanding and want their stuff done first.  I was ready to throw a couple of computers at people today.

Okay, I'm off to eat dinner and try and get some down time here and get in a better mood.  Hope your Monday was better than mine and poor Barb's.

A laugh for the afternoon...

Take one woman, who not only doesn't watch or read the news but BRAGS about it and put her on a blog and what does she do?  She actually puts up a video of the idiot Rush Limbaugh as an icon of Knowledge (that alone is enough to make anyone burst out in giggles) and tells the millions of people who voted for Obama, that they voted their emotions instead of voting for the facts!!!  I guess she and Rush are paradigmns of political genius in action!  Did I mention that this idiot woman doesn't even VOTE!!    

 Now if that doesn't give you a laugh for the afternoon, nothing will!  It sure made my day, lol!!  What a moron.

Good Monday morning..

Man, am I t-i-r-e-d but I knew I would be.  I even went to bed early but the accumlation of hardly no sleep this weekend plus lots of activities just wears you out but oh what fun we had!
Gerri Anne raised overr $1000 for Robert's school so that alone was worth it!
I'm heading to work today and CAR DUTY, my so-not fave as you know. 
I'll leave you with an  early peek at my KNK Feb.project!

I'm home....

Just pulled in a bit ago and was glad Woody was here to help me unload Jules' car which was filled to the brim, literally.  We had a funny couple of moments as Rock climbed into her car and wouldn't get out!  Jules got some pics and I can't wait to see them!

We had a nice leisurely morning with Barb in Ft. Myers in her lovely home and then we headed to Gerri Anne's to have her dh check the car fluids and to pick up some things.  Then we finally headed out of FM and went up the road an hour or so to Anna Maria Island to meet Janet and Bob for lunch at the Sandbar.   AMI was very crowded as they had some kind of Wedding show going on for potential brides but Janet and Bob got to the restaurant first and got us nice table.  I had a delicious lunch of pecan crusted salmon salad with a delish pina colada!  Was so hungry, forgot to take a pic of it!  We had a great lunch (Thanks Bob!!) and then headed to their georgous home to check out the newly marked out pool that will be coming and to check out new things they have added to the house.  They have this whole turtle theme going and have many lovely things but this was new on the wall and was so cool. A HUGE tortoise shell and lovely table under it. Here's the girls out on Janet's 2nd floor patio.

We visited awhile and then finally headed over the bridge and to my house.  It was up in the 80's today so normal weather which felt mighty good.  It's cooling down a bit now and my windows are open which is so nice.

Fun, Fun weekend once again with my wonderful friends who I love dearly.  We will be taking off again on Thursday morning for Winter Retreat up in the woods!

Okay, I need to do some things around the house and get ready to kaboodle at 7pm. 

Hope you've had a good weekend too.