Ceramics!

It's official.... I have turned into an old lady. I have joined a ceramics class with some of the ladies from my church. WiCKeD CoOL!!! Chef thinks I'm insane. I worked on a plate tonight. It's very therapeutic and very fun. My teacher's name is BUD. He's nice. OK, it's late. I've got to go. :0)

David Phelps: The Voice

Well, we took another little road trip this afternoon. What a good one it was. Sister and I went to Gardendale, AL to see David Phelps live and in concert. It was AWESOME!! Bowz and I were discussing it. He was going to a concert tonight as well , but not the David Phelps concert. I'm confident mine was better. David even said that it's always better when God shows up. And IT WAS GOOD. Here are a few pics from the night. In the group shot we have (l to r) David, his sister Sheri, the violin girl in the back... no clue who she is other than violin girl, and his wife's cousin, Jack. Jack is particularly funny because his last name is Daniels. David said one night when they were in AL, he had introduced Jack Daniels and he did a couple of songs or whatever and the crowd loved him. The pastor of the church was also there and loved him as well. But for the second show of the night, the pastor didn't come in so he had no idea that David had forgotten to introduce Jack Daniels so the second crowd didn't have a clue who he was. After they were finished the pastor reappeared on stage and yelled, "Wouldn't ya'll like some more Jack Daniels?! I love Jack Daniels!" You had to be there. Funny story.
The cross is what the curch had in it's front yard. Gardendale Baptist is HUGE. I heard an old

man in front of us telling that it seated up to 3,000 I believe. Crazy big. They even have a couple of baseball fields and soccer fields. The other is just poster/flyer thing. I liked it though. Hope your night was as fun as mine. :0)

Mule Day Pics

Oh the Mule Day...
These are just a few of the pics I took from our little shopping adventure.
The sign was obviously the first thing I spotted. They line the streets. Next, was Irene.. the Democratic Donkey. She is always there, so I finally asked the old man sitting beside her if it was the same Irene every year or if they changed every so often. He said that was the same Irene every year and that she is 34 years old!!! I had no idea donkeys lived that long. He also told me that she had been deemed the official National Democratic Donkey and had marched in both of President Clinton's Inaugural Parades. Here's a link if you need more info. It's kinda awesome. http://www.leftinalabama.com/diary/3062/ The peanut man is just a little thing I saw and thought it was kind of cool. While looking at it, Skip found the knives she'd been so desperately searching for. It's a little crazy that they just have these things just laying around for anybody to pick up. I tried to get Skip to pose as she was pretending to chop, but she wouldn't do it. Fun times. :0)

The Mule March

Yee Haw. It's MULE DAY! This age old tradition has been going on in Winfield, AL since long before I was around. BUT, ever since I was around 10 or 11 I have gone with my dear Aunt Skipper to the most redneck festival of the year and I love it! We have a blast. We have a routine. Around 8am we head to Winfield. We go to all of the booths on both sides of the street. Around 10:30am we line up for the big mule march. This is hysterical. It still cracks me up every single time. There is just something so funny about tens of thousands of people lining up on either side of the street to watch a bunch of mules parade down the road. ALSO, when it's election year, all of these hoity-toity politicians will be riding on a wagon behind a mule, smiling and waving like they are having a blast. Yeah, right. Anyway, after the march, Skip and I head to Subway, because it's tradition. We have lunch and then we go to Wal Mart. Most of the time it's to do some grocery shopping for Skip, but some years we just go because that's what we do. Then, we head over to the FoodLand, finish up the grocery shoppin and head home. That's the day. And we do it... every third Saturday in September. I'm having some difficulty with my new memory card, so I'll update all adventures of the weekend when I get that straightened out. Until then, enjoy a short video of the clumpity-clump of the Mule March. :0)

Robbie, Birthday Cakes, and Chef

Monday was my dear friend, Robert Poole's birthday. I call him Robbie. He works up in 360 and has lived in Hawaii. We are kindred spirits. Absolute sweetest guy in the world. SO, I decided to bake him a birthday cake. He told me he liked chocolate and caramel. Now obviously Betty Crocker doesn't make a mix for that, so I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull that one off. Well, I found a recipe and wasn't quite up to fighting the crazies at Wal-Mart, so I went to Dollar General. Can you believe that they had Carrot Cake and Red Velvet Cake but no chocolate cake? What the blank?! So I found a brownie mix that said "For cakelike brownies, do blah blah blah". Perfect solution I thought. Oh was a wrong. I also bought Pet Milk instead of Sweetened Condensed so that was no good. In short, it was a DISASTER! I, of course, came in the next morning and had to tell Chef all about it. He knows to brace himself when I begin with... "I tried to cook last night". Well, Tuesday night I tried again. This time, I made an edible cake. It was even pretty. Gave it to Robbie on Wednesday. He loved it. Just told me he loved it. Success! Back to Chef, yesterday we were talking about someone we aren't very fond of. Everytime I suggest we get rid of somebody, I just say there's a big river out back of the Hotel. He told me to cook for them. Any cake I'd bake would be sure to kill them. He's wicked funny like that. Good day! :0)

Inventory...

Today was china, glass, silver and linen inventory. Working together, we all count every spoon, dish, glass, napkin, etc at the Hotel. BLAH! Count, count, count. In the spirit of the day... I chose a pic of everyone's favorite Count from Sesame Street! Fun times. :0)

2 Things...

Once more, turn your head to the right because I can't get the pic to sit up straight. Now, to my 2 bits of news. The pic is one of them. Sister returned from her venture into jury duty in Winston Co. tonight. She's been gone a week and a half. She brought back my Baylor Bears shirt that I ordered last week from Amazon. Super pumped about that. Love this shirt. The second thing, I forgot to take a picture of. Chef and I went to Wok and Roll for lunch today. I wasn't so excited becasue I didn't think it would be as good as Rice Box, but I was super excited to go out with Chef for lunch. I have always said that is the best part of working where I work - going to lunch with Chef. He's going on a diet starting Thursday, so this was our "last meal" so to speak. Hopefully, he'll get off this diet kick quick and we can return to our lunches and Kit Kats. And let me just say, Wok and Roll is all it's cracked up to be. I got the Tofu garden. FABULOUS!! And their fried rice wasn't that bad either. And this time, I actually got a fortune in my fortune cookie. Good day! :0)

It's Blood Giving Day!!

Today we rolled up our sleeves and saved a few lives. I always find it amusing to take pics of this event because it always freaks out my dear Lucas! In the spirit of day, I had camera in hand and got pics of Chef, J.Low, and my arm. We got a festive little water bottle and the satisfaction of knowing we did a good thing. I was somewhat shocked my iron was actually high enough... it never is, so I guess from now on, Chef has to be my good luck charm and go with me. That and we have to raid the kitchen and drink OJ before going down to give. While working on an article for the paper about blood donation, I read that you should take music to listen to to keep your mind occupied. I, of course, had my ipod in hand and cranked up David Phelps. It was delightful. His version of Unchained Melody is fantastic. YouTube couldn't do it justice, so I'm not attaching a link. You should just go to walmart.com and purchase it. Really. You won't regret it. Good day. :0)

My Kids...

Holy cow. 2nd graders have boundless energy and are persistent, but they sure are fun. These kids are crazy. I have them to myself for 9 weeks because my dear friend Becky had to go off and find herself a boyfriend. She is now in the pre-engagement class. What? Yes. Pre-engagement. Bro. Jeff says pre-marital counselling really doesn't do much good. By that time you are already pretty much headed in one direction and there's not much that's going to change your mind. We, instead, do pre-engagment classes... that way, I guess, you'll know if you're headed on the right track together. I'm obviously no expert because I've never been. I, instead, will be hanging out with my kids for the next 8 weeks. Now, turn to the person beside you and say, "Pray for Kim." :0)

Oh yeah, from left to right we have Maggie, Macon, Aubrey, Mallie, Anna and Jonah

Hollie's Night!

I officially feel old. Little Hollie Jane King got married today.

I'm fairly confident we've known each other since birth. My first memory though it somewhere around 4 years old. She was a beautiful bride. It was a fun night. Got to see a lot of peeps from Lynn that I haven't seen in a very long time. It also gave me a great excuse to go buy a new outfit and new shoes. Most exciting part of my day for sure. We did have lots of fun though at the reception. In the pics, we have Paige and Buddy. Cody and Mal. And the beautiful bride, Hollie. Fun times. :0)

Lover!

Worst possible part of my job - saying goodbye. Today was Lover's last day. He's moving to Huntsville. :( So sad. I no longer have someone to color coordinate with, decorate the bar, wrap presents at Christmas, check to make sure I have it all together on a daily basis, laugh uncontrollably with, or just genuinely share a really good time. I couldn't find my camera to get a going away shot of us, so instead I searched far and wide to find this one. Terrible shot of me. It was about 6:30am on a SATURDAY and just before we embarked on our 10K Run. Probably one of the funniest weeks ever. It's a LONG LONG story, but we up and decided to do a 10K and we did it. Not very well, but we did it. We got the bright idea to practice 2 days before so Lover and I ended up running 12 miles in 3 days. I don't think we've run a lick since. Oh the memories... Miss you already!!! :0)

Happy Birthday to my COUSIN!!!

Today is my cousin's birthday!!! Sheri Jannell Canerday, THIS is your day! Birthday, Birthweek, Birthmonth! September is yours! In honor of the special day, I was trying to find a fun birthday pic, but all of the photo albums are in Nauvoo.

Luckily, I have a couple of Granny pics up here. In the teddy bear shot, we have (from left to right) me, Sister, Grandma, and Cuz. I can only assume these were the gifts we had gotten Granny for Christmas. I really can't figure out any other reason she'd have a huge teddy bear and a frog dish sponge holder. Anyway, in the other pic, we have Chris, Cuz, Sister, me and Aunt Jo, Brian and George. It was my first birthday party. Every grandchild has always had a birthday on that bench from the time you are 1-13 and then again when you are 16 and 18. I don't know who made up the stupid age rules. WE grandkids would still be having birthdays in those odd years if they'd let us. I think if I survive 25 years, that's reason enough to celebrate! But enough about that. This, this is Cuz's day, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUZ! :0)

Lunch...

So this is what happens when Chef leaves me for lunch. EC went off property today, so I was stuck in the office by myself and decided to go find something to eat. I got tickled on the way back. I was thinking... When Chef and I go to lunch, we do it right. We go to a nice restaurant. We sit down, have delightful conversation and eat "real" food. It's never fried, fast food, or greasy. He has introduced me to portabello mushrooms, avacodos, cous cous, hummus, etc. When Ryan's Catering Shop was open, we'd take our specialty sandwiches and go sit in the park and enjoy the day. I have said it before, lunch with Chef has been the best part of my entire Marriott experience. However, on days like today when I'm left alone, it's drive-thru Taco Bell brought back to the cold office where I crank up the radio and sit by myself. All of that work he has done culturalizing me goes out the window. Oh well.... there's always tomorrow. And we did have chocolate cake together this afternoon. Scrumptious. :0)

Recovering Fundamentalists, The Weak and The Nazarite Vow

This is Mark Lowry and Me. We have a lot in common. He's a clown, I'm normally called in when things are getting too serious or people just need to be cheered up. We both have a wacky sense-of-humor. We both grew up Independant Fundamental Baptists. We are both now "recovering fundamentalists". Don't get me wrong, like Mark, I am very thankful that I grew up in the church that I did, but also like Mark, looking back now, I feel like I was more of a Pharisee than anything. Independant Baptists are definitely law keepers. I'm thankful for all of the verses that we had to memorize. It was much easier then than it is now. But there were also those things I never quite understood, but did them, just because we thought we were sinners if we didn't. Those dreaded coulotts. No mixed bathing. Of course, I had it good. I had a mother who didn't quite share the same preferences as others in the church, so I got to keep my jeans and I could jump in the pool with my cousins - no big deal. Bro. Matt preached on The Weak from Romans 14:1-4, last Wednesday night. These people were so stuck on what rules they had to keep to be pleasing to God that they completely miss God half the time. Of course, these people were coming out of lifetimes of the Jewish culture, so eating a porkchop was probably hard for them at first. But as Matt was preaching it made me think of something Mark had said, which led to our upbringing. Yes, my ADD is that bad. I recently heard Mark say that a conviction is something you would die for. SO, for instance, if a lady chooses to wear pants, who cares?! Who's going to die over a pair of pants? We were always taught that was a CONVICTION and that always made me feel like I was somewhat less of a Christian than everybody else in our Independant Baptist circle because I just didn't think it was a big deal so long as I was decent about it. It's much more lady like to play basketball and softball in shorts than it is in a skirt. Needless to say, I no longer feel bad. I have broken free of that. We can't do anything to please God or pay Him back for all He's done for us. Even if we could, it's all of grace so we're just more indebted to Him. So just love Jesus and give Him the glory. That's what it all about anyway. It was just their preference all these years, becasue I seriously doubt any of the people in our circle would've died over a pair of pants.... well.... maybe one lady would. (Jess, just think camp and you'll know who I'm talking about. Howdy Doody's mom. She thought we were going to Hell because we went to public school.) Lastly is the Nazarite Vow. You know, the one that John the Baptist took. I learned Sunday morning that that isn't necessarily a lifetime commitment and it has 4 points. No liquor, No Cutting of the Hair, No Touching Dead Bodies (this wigged me out), and No Eating Unclean Foods. Interesting stuff. We will end with Bro Jeff's best quote of the day, "I know there are a lot of young preacher guys out there that will hear this on tv or the radio and I want you to remember this. There was and forever shall be only one John the Baptist. Cut your hair. Wear regular clothes. AND Love Jesus. Oh, and don't drink liquor. As a Christian, that's just not a good idea anyway." I love my church. :0)

Happy Grandparent's Day!!!

Happy Grandparent's Day to the Greatest, Most Wondeful, Grandmother EVER!!!

I am a bit biased, but I do have the coolest 85 year old grandmother on the planet and of course of all the grandkids and great-grandkids, I am the favorite. Sorry Mason, it's true. I've lived with the old woman. She taught me how to drive. I gave her a tattoo. We're tight. In the spirit of the weekend, I went down on Friday night and spent the night with her. I told her I'd take her to see Aunt Wilma in the nursing home. Yeah, not quite as sweet as it sounds... I KNEW if I stayed the night with her, I'd get a fabulously delightful YUMMY breakfast Saturday morning. I was right. Homemade biscuits that are the best anywhere, scrambled eggs and gravy. This, my friends, is why gluttony is a sin. It was sooooo good. I didn't get a pic of the two of us together, but I found this one from the two of us at the beach. Fun times! :0)

LAUGH!

Today, I decided something.

Every day is a gift and I don't intend to waste any more of them. I will find the funny in each and every day ~ starting with my first trek across the street this morning. I saw a completely grown man, peddling his bike through the parking lot and he was wearing a bicycle helmet. Now I know helmets are important and all that business, but grown men in bike helmets make me laugh. He had on cargo shorts, with his shirt completely tucked in and a helmet. It maynot sound funny, but it cracked me up. Then as I continued my walk, I saw our yard crew out blowing off the sidewalks. The little guy had a big blower bag on his back. The Ghostbusters theme song immediately popped into my head. This also made me laugh. There is a very good possibility that I have reached my limit and am slowly losing my mind. :0)

Little Kid Baseball...

Oh what a night! Carson had a big Fall Ball Ballgame tonight. It began with a little girl being stung by a wasp, then some guy getting a can of spray out of his truck and hosing down the bleachers. Hilarious sight. The longest baseball game known to man. Vomit. Tears. Mass Confusion. A riveting score of 3-0. And finally, Brent yelling, "There's no crying in baseball. If you want to cry, go play softball with the girls." I said as a representative of the girl's softball team, I took offense to that remark. Then I proceeded to call him Jimmy Dugan for the rest of the night. If you've ever seen "A League of Their Own" you will get that Tom Hanks reference. If not, just trust me. It was funny. :0)

Labor Day Eve!

I can't think of a better way to end Labor Day than this way.. It started with the fam and ended with my friends, who are basically the family I got to pick for myself. Buddy and I met at Al's to see the cutest little baby in town, Brylie Kate. We sat around and swapped stories and reminisced. We sound like a bunch of old people, but it was great memories and I haven't laughed that hard in a while. I always find myself hanging with the boys, and if Jacob Haley had been there, the night would've been complete. However, I had Al and Buddy, so all was good. They are 2 of the best. And Al is SUCH A good dad. I think it's pretty obvious by this pic. He is so happy and their baby is just precious. Then as I drove back to Muscle Shoals, I called the girls and caught up with them. Mal and I had a great conversation about God's plan vs. our plan because both of us seem to keep running into brick walls. Jenn always just makes me laugh. What a great family of friends I have. I am blessed! :0)

Labor Day Morning with the FAM!

I cannot think of a better way to start my Labor Day morning!

I drove down to Gran's after church last night and spent the night with her. If that wasn't fun enough, we got up this morning and had the GREATEST, MOST WONDERFUL homemade breakfast. Uncle Earl and Mason brought up some of their friends from Pelham to plant a greenfield so we all ate breakfast together and played around afterward. It was awesome. We definitely missed the rest of the fam, but hanging with all of the guys was fun. Gran also told me one of her famous stories. It went something like this...

"Once upon a time there was 3 bears and Goldielocks. Goldielocks was going to cook them some supper. There was Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear. Goldielocks met Little Red Robin Hood in the woods. She was going to Grandma's house to take her some honey. Then they ran upon a fox.... that's it. That's all I know." At this point, I was laughing hysterically. Even funnier than her crazy fairy tale, was that is EXACTLY how I remember her telling it 20 years ago! She's the best. :0)

Sunday Mornings!!

Sunday mornings are the BEST! This truly is the highlight to my week. I very much look forward to the 9 o'clock hour when I get to spend an hour with my 2nd graders. These kids are awesome. You NEVER know what is going to come out of thier mouthes. Here, we have Becky and me. Becky's great. We are pretty much polar opposites, but we get along so well. She is so funny and definitely the only person I'd want to teach a class with. Good times. :0)

Our First Big Adventure

We must get caught up... It's been quite a busy holiday. Friday, Sister and I took our first big adventure together. First big adventure as in it's the first time we've gone to another state and stayed at a hotel and all that business all by ourselves. Pathetic, I know. Nevertheless, it was a GREAT trip. We left out after work and drove to Bowling Green, KY. One perk of having to work where I work is that you get great deals on hotel rooms. So, we checked into a Fairfield Inn and had a fantastic night. The bed was the greatest, most wondeful bed. Our only drama was that we couldn't figure out how to turn on the shower head. All I wanted after a day of work and a 5 hour car ride was a nice, hot shower and I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. Sister came in and tinkered with it.... nothing. So finally, I went out and called the front desk and apparently they've had that question before because that lady immediately knew the answer. Funny. Anyway, we got up the following morning and went to see the KY cousins. Such a good time. We sat all afternoon with Buddy, Lee Alice, Lisa and Erin. It was so much fun. We must do it more often. Then it was 5 hours back to Muscle Shoals. Good kickoff to the weekend. :0)

Luke!

I have been very excited about this. I thought I'd missed the first two weeks being in Hawaii, but alas, Bro. Jeff isn't starting Luke until THIS Sunday. So exciting. It's always been my favorite Gospel and now we'll go DEEP into it. Bro. Jeff always preaches verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, so you always know where you're going to be each week. I love that. No guessing. We spent a couple of years in Hebrews, a couple of years in Ephesians and we just got finished with a few years in Hosea. There's no telling how long Luke will take but it's sure to be good. Fun times! :0)

My 3 yr old peeps!

I got decked by a three year old! Tonight was the end of our Fall Outreach at church and I volunteered for nursery... I thought I was going to leave with a black eye. It was actually lots of fun though, other than getting hit. The cute little guy in this pic is my buddy Ezra. He is the sweetest little kid. We played lots of ring-around-the-rosy. His sister was in my 5 year old class. She's truly the smartest little kid I've ever met. We had over 10 kids in the room in our room tonight. My other adult helper had to stay in the hall, battling a little autistic boy so it was me and her two children in the room with all the rest of them. 3 year olds are fun. They're chatter boxes and can pretty much go to the bathroom by themselves so I like that age. I offered to fight with the autistic kid for a while and when I got him, he decked me. Needless to say, I gave him back. I'll take 10 good kids any day. :0)