Oh That Grandma!!

In search of some much needed Grandma time, I headed home this weekend to hang out with the coolest 85-year old
that I know. She didn't disappoint. Cynthia and I took her to see Aunt Wilma in the nursing home and then met the family for a little Mexican. It was delish. On the way back to her house, she mentioned going to Waldon Cemetary once with Skipper and it absolutely scared to two of them to death. So, curious, I decided to wheel in and see what it was all about. You have to go down this long, long, long dirt road that has thick trees on either side. Half-way down, Grandma locked her door. When you get to the end, there's a circle that goes around a tiny graveyard. There were some pretty old graves, so I snapped pics of the oldest and creepiest. We couldn't figure out why the half cracked one was out away from the rest of them, on the other side of the road, and completely unkept. We saw 6 little bitty tombstones that Grandma said all had the same name on them, so of course, I had to get out and look. "Leave it running! I'm staying here." Grandma instructed from the car. Turned out there were 5 infants that died from the same parents and then another died at 6 months old. How sad. Anyway, when we got back in the car, Grandma was chowing down on her leftovers from the Mexican restaurant. Now, we had just left the restaurant, so we looked at her, puzzled. "Well, ya'll have got us off down here. I'm not going to die hungry!" We cracked up. It was HILARIOUS! Oh that Grandma... :0)

Not a Green Thumb!!

Well, the time lapse photos would be amazing if I could get them in order, but I'm having some difficulty, so just connect the dots. This is the plant that Prissy gave me when she left. I'm convinced it's a resurrection plant because it absolutely refuses to die. Chef and I have unintentionally tried on MANY occasions, but it's still going strong. This, is how we garden. When the plant looks completely, then we know it's time to water it. I'm sure you are supposed to periodically water it so it doesn't get to this point, but I can never remember to do that, so we just wait until it dies and then give it some water. By the end of the day, it is back up to being perky. I thought I'd take some photos of it on Friday so that you could see how amazing this thing is. I took them every couple of hours as I'd see it getting a little stronger. Pretty cool, huh? I'm sure this is probably why he was so against me getting a dog after seeing my excellent job of taking care of the plant. :0)

Pumpkins

Today was the pumpkin carving contest at work. I didn't carve a pumpkin, but I did take pics of all of them. This guy was my favorite. He reminds me of that "Sorting Hat" on Harry Potter. I thought it was cool. :0)

Happy Happy Happy Birthday!!!

Today would have been my Mom's 53rd birthday. I can't even believe that!
I needed a good pic of her for the blog and BOY did my cousin

ever come through!!! Here are some pics of my Aunt De's wedding. They sewed all of the dresses themselves. I'm assuming they picked the flowers as well. But arent' they BEAUTIFUL?! Absolutley glowing. I've always thought expensive weddings were totally overrated. I'm without a doubt eloping. I'm pretty sure this wasn't an extravagant throw-down, but they got it right. I think they are the prettiest ladies I've ever seen. I don't know who the other bridesmaids are, but the one in blue is my mom. And today is her birthday.

It is also the birthday of Mrs. Tidwell, my third grade teacher. She is the one who taught me to write in cursive and be very patriotic. I think the patriotism stuck more than the cursive writing. She also nearly killed me with those times tables. I didn't think I was going to make it out of the third grade. I'm not truly convinced she thought I would either.

The fun doesn't stop there. It is also the birthday of the very first love of my life, Coach Finley. He was the cutest guy I'd ever seen when I was 5. He was my P.E. coach. We were buds all the way through school and he also ended up being my basketball coach and of course, history teacher. Great guy. We bake him a cake ever year.
Except for the sad part, October 27th is a pretty good day. :0)

Crafts for my Kids!

Sister and I went to Hobby Lobby this afternoon and found lots of goodies for my kids to do for the next few weeks. We got a couple of Thanksgiving things... turkey necklaces and make your own turkeys... and a few Christmas things... all make your own ornaments. I figured we could make a few for them to take home and make a few and send them to whatever missionary or church plant family that we end up adopting for the year. We should know that within the next couple of weeks. Can't wait to tell the kids. They'll be so excited. Oh, and the pencils are for the kids, but mainly for Jonah. He never remembers to learn his verse so he never gets candy. Sister felt bad for him so she bought some pencils for me to give him. :0)

Mmmmm.....

The Girl Scouts have NOTHING on my sista. Check out this "Spook-tacular" s'more that she made for us tonight. It has halloween marshmellows, about 1000 chocoate morsels and a thin layer of peanut butter. Yep, 100 fat grams that were TOTALLY worth it. Yum! :0)

Kids Cards Cont...

And here are the rest! I love how they come up with Peace, Love, Rock for get well wishes. They are so good. :0)

Kids Cards...

We were attempting to finish up the 10 Commandments today, but once I told the kids that Miss Becky had had a bit of surgery and needed a Get Well Card, they took it upon themselves to make her one. I had brought one for them all to sign, but they all insisted they needed to make one as well. (Mostly because they were all fighting over who was going to draw the picture on the card.) Here's what they came up with. It was AWESOME! Such sweet kids.. :0)

The Boys...

Josh Quick rolled out the new Fall Menu in 360 tonight. With that, I had to print all the new menus. Now, somewhere
along the way before I arrived at the Hotel, someone

thought it would be a good idea to buy square menus. That's great if your printing is all done outside, but when you have to print them yourself, try getting cardstock to go through the printer at an 11x11 setting. Yeah... fun for me. Anyway, my fabulous friend and admin counter-part Leah have mastered the copy machine and had shockingly hardly any problems printing today. Afterward, I had to take the menus upstairs. I dropped them off, chatted with the kitchen and waited on the elevator to come up 300 feet in the air. Contrary to popular belief, this takes only 47 seconds, but it seems like FOREVER. So I'm waiting and it finally makes it's way up and out walks Brian (the one standing beside Chef) Cody (the one with the green tie) and Robbie (the one in the black shirt on the left). Love these three. I had to have some love from all of them and ended up missing my elevator. Sat down to wait on the next one. It goes down and finally makes it's way back upstairs and out pops Chris Fowler (the one in the black shirt on the right, beside Robbie). I always get a hug and a kiss from Chris so again I MISS THE ELEVATOR YET AGAIN. At that point it got rather funny. As for my Chef, we color coordinated again today and went to Hobby Lobby. Some little old lady was going out as we were coming in and said, "Oh your clothes match... isn't that cute?" It was rather funny as well. Fun day. :0)

Supper!!

Yum! We had a delightfully cheese pizza that needed a little kick tonight, so after Sister and I got back from our 2 mile walk, we went to visit my dear pal, Steve Carpenter at Jack-O-Lantern Farms and got us a couple of red peppers, green bell peppers, and a tomato. Holy cow, GREATEST decision of the night. It was delish!! :0)

LOST!

LOST: My dear old friend Buddy Mac, whom I have known since we were 5. Last seen... I think at Hollie's wedding ~ don't really remember. Last talked to... a week or so ago. Hasn't answered his phone ALL WEEK and we are supposed to be going to a hockey game THIS Saturday Night. His girlfriend, Paige, has confirmed she will be there, but no word from Buddy. She is officially in charge of the McDaniel men, but it would be nice to hear from my old pal. He is freakishly strong and answers to the name of Buddy. He's too smart for his own good and likes chili fries and cake. He's a little taller than me and from the pic you can tell he has brown hair and if I remember correctly, blue eyes. He won't be driving a blue truck because I blew up the motor in that thing the summer of our senior year. He likes to play 007 and has been known to toilet paper the potted plants in the Principal's office. He likes football and searching for the greatest deals in thrift stores. He's also a 90 year old driver who freaks out if you talk on the phone and take pictures while driving with your knee down the interstate. If you see him, please tell ET to phone home (or at least Kim's cellphone). That is all. Thank you!! :0)

Happy Anniversary to Meeee!

Holy cow. I've officially been at the Marriott for the past 3 years of my life. Most people say, "Wow, it's already been three years?" I reply, "You mean it's ONLY been 3 years?!" Seems like much much much longer. So, in celebration of the day, Chef took me to lunch. We had Wok n Roll. It was rather funny. He asked where I wanted to go, I told him I didn't really care, we sat in the car thinking, then I told him I'd give him some choices and he could pick. "Either Wok-n-Roll or something close in town." He said that was only one choice, so that's where we'd go. I was glad because that's exactly what I wanted... Tofu Garden. Delish! Then, when we got back, Ryan came to visit and brought m&m cookies. He had no clue it was my anniversary, I've just been bugging him for cookies forever and he finally remembered. Luckily, he brought 3, so we said in honor of 3 years, we'd all eat one. Fun day! :0)

FAME Studios

ROAD TRIP! I got to go on an adventure today with my dear pal, Chef to the FAME Recording Studios. Now I don't claim to have much musicial knowledge, but HOLY COW was this place fun. We saw Rick Hall's office which is cool beyond cool. It's like being at Graceland. Time has stood still in that entire building. It was like walking into 1973. Nothing has changed. His office is exactly the same. There's an OLD barber's chair, green carpet, a turn table, and a victrola. Across from his office is a very old, very cool looking dining room table with chairs. It came from the old FAME ranch. Then we went downstairs. We got to see BOTH Studio A and Studio B. SO WICKED COOL!! I stood in the room where Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Mick Jagger and many many many more musicians recorded! It probably appeared as though I were hyperventilating, but really I was just trying to suck in all of the musical talent that I could. I didn't figure it could hurt anything. I told Chef I was going to sing to him all the way back to work. No matter how much old musican's air I breathed, he didn't think that would be a good idea. Fun Day!! :0)

A Much Better Ad Worth Watching

Check this out! Exactly what I was talking about the other day. Here is a feel-good POSITIVE campaign ad featuring Cory and Katie. If all of our politicans did this, campaign season might not be so bad. OH, and Sister said I should revise my earlier political post to say that it is not my old pharmicist running, it's my old pharmicist's son. Whatever. Same difference. You go, Richard Baughn!!

Family Day!

Had a fun morning with the kids and then took off to see my fam. It was lots of fun! My Gran is so cute... here, you can see her trying hard to hear what Skip was telling and the other pic is her laughing at something funny. Just about anything said at Gran's is funny. We had to discuss all the family, friends, politics and just about everything in between. The best part was hearing Gran tell about long-horned cows. My darling Aunt Skipper went to somebody's house warming today THAT SHE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW. Apparently everybody on their street got invited. Weird. :0)

10 Commandments

Guess what we're studying tomorrow? With Sister gone home for the weekend, I have enjoyed this BEAUTIFUL day by cleaning house, going for a walk, and working on my stuff for my kids in the morning. We'll be playing this game with the 10 commandments by filling in the blanks. Let's all hope that my competitive 7 year olds don't kill each other in the process. :0)

Boss's Day!!

Tomorrow is national Boss's Day ~ so today, we had to celebrate!!! I got my two guys all to myself for lunch today. That is a rare and very good gift, so it was a fun afternoon. We went to UMI, the new Japanese Steakhouse. It was pretty good. The Miso soup, AWESoME!! Rice Box still has them beat on the fried rice and spring rolls, but the Miso is delicious. We also had steamed soy beans. That's the great thing about these two... never in a million years would they order steamed soy beans as an app, but since they love me, they went vegetarian so that I would play along and enjoy the beans... and they were awesome! Cheers to the best 2 guys at the Hotel! :0)

Political MADNESS!! :0)

Very rarely do I get political. In fact, I think I've only gotten into this once in an entire year. However, the battle going on for the House of Representatives District 14 going on in my hometown has gotten ugly, and since I am an adult and I vote, I think I deserve an opinion. This guy is Richard Baughn. He's been my UPS man forever. I grew up with his kids, Cory and Katie, and know have known him and his now ex-wife Lisa for as long as I can remember. He's running against the guy that used to be my pharmacist. Now I couldn't care less about politics, but it would be nice for all of us in the free world to get to watch tv and not be bombarded with crazy political ads. It would also be nice if the canidates actually said WHY we should vote for them instead of why we shouldn't vote for the other person. Think about it, if they spent half the time telling us good things instead of saying bad things about everybody else, we might actually like politicians. Richard's only and always been a great guy to me. I hope he wins. Lisa's always been nice to me as well. But tonight, my phone has been blowing up to see if I'd seen the most recent campaign ad on tv put out by Richard's opponent, Ken Guin and Richard's now aforementioned ex-wife, Lisa. I was at ceramics like an old lady, so of course, I had not. However, through my awesome connections, I got it when I got home and HOLY COW. Now lots of people are split over who's side they are on, and it all seems to be people still living in the town. Those of us who are now considered outsiders, seem to be coming to the same consensus... Some people are just nuts! If you know the whole backstory to the drama going on in Lynn, this pretty much proves it. This, my friends, is why I stay out of politics. But come November 2nd, I will be driving down to vote. After all, it's my right. And if I get a VOTE RICHARD t-shirt before then, I might just wear it. :0)

My PI

So apparently the newest "THING" to do when trying to hire someone is to make them take a PI (Predictive Index) Survey. It's a big list of words and you click the ones that you think you are. After that, you get the exact same list of words (I think) and you click the ones that you think you are supposed to be in your job. Apparently from all that, you get all these analytical results about yourself. It tells how you work, how you are supposed to be managed and all this nonsense. I just did it becasue they told me to do it when our Exec. Committee was getting trained to be PI experts. Well, I asked them how it went (this was a year ago) and they said it nailed me dead-on as soon as the guy started talking about it. They also said Bowser and I were almost exactly the same. I've asked a million times to see it, but for one reason or another, I've never gotten it. Well, today, Chef owed me one (more on that at a later date) and he printed it off for me. Turns out he and I are alot alike as well... and after reading it, I decided we'd both have made REALLY good hippies. The first two things it says under the behaviors I most strongly express are very relaxed and laid back. It also says I am fairly easygoing, I get "the lay of the land" before I take action, I'm non-threatening, and my all time favorite which I'm sure all of my coaches would agree on, "I work at a relatively unhurried pace." HAHA. I didn't get the nickname "Speedy" for nothing. Speed kills and I'm still not hurting anybody. Hippie or not, I TOTALLY dig this Volkswagon! :0)

Congrats, Chef!!!

My Icelandic roomie just received his certification for a Certified Executive Chef! Yeah, he's special. He's been working on it for YEARS and now that he's finally out of the white coat, he got the certification. Of course, that meant we had to party. It was my job to plan the event and get him into our boardroom to surprise him. He's not hard to trick but I am a terrible liar so it was a bit of a challenge. We pulled it off though and he was shocked. Fun times. Here we have Chris Brown, Chef of Swampers, me and my Chef. :0)

Look Out Martha Stewart!

Oh this is just funny. Phillip Gillispie is our new IT Manager since our dear Katie Boggus went corporate. He's been bugging me to decorate his office because, let's face it, Chef and I have the COOLEST office at the Shoals. I told him we'd wait until his 90 days were up to see if he'd actually be around becasue I didn't want to put all of the time, money and effort into it if he wasn't going to be around. I was just giving him a hard time, but I finally decided it was about time. We went back and forth all week last week.. especially after he found out that I made Katie a cake. SO, I visited the thrift store this weekend to see what crap I could come up with. This is what I found. There was a dairy creamer jar (that I forgot to take a pic of) and after finding it, I had to find cows. Sister found these two gosh-awful, demon possessed looking, Little House on the Prairie dress wearing, crazy big cows. They were about $3 each. OF COURSE, I had to have them. After all, they matched my dairy jar. I also got these two little hangy basket things that looked something like lampshades. They once had potential of being cute in a 3 yr old girl's room. Maybe not so much now. I hung them up in either side of the office. I also got a random wicker hamper. It was going to be the cow's seat, but they looked better in the window seal, so he just ended up with a hamper in front of his desk.
It was HYSTERICAL. I also painted him a pic. I had some canvas and thought I should at least "Shoals" him a little love. He has since hidden them in the hamper. He thinks the dresses are a bit much to be in a manly office. No fear, I WILL have those cows back out when he comes back to town next week. Possibly even more. I have a feeling those scary looking things are going to be around for a while... Love to all!! :0)

The Kids

Here they are in all their glory. Contrary to the looks of these devilish faces, they were actually really good today. We had fun. They are much smarter than people give them credit for. To only be 7 years old, they amaze me. From left to right we have Jonah, Maggie, Mallie, Santana, Aubrey, Macon and Anna. 5 more weeks until Becky's back!!! :0)

Grandma and the Car Wash!

Had a FUN weekend! I spent my entire Saturday with Grandma. We went and saw Aunt Wilma in the nursing home and then spent some time with Aunt Flora at her house. However, we started the morning (after a delicious homemade breakfast) with a trip to the carwash. Grandma once went to a drive through carwash by herself and she did just that. Drove straight through and never stopped... then couldn't figure out why her car didn't get cleaned. Today, though, we went and I taught her how to go through. I am now a tad bit nervous that she'll be driving through again. Here she is saying "Cheese" and the car gets a bath. Fun times. :0)

Santa - Get Well Soon

Oh this is just funny. Sister and I received Christmas With David Phelps in the mail about a week or so ago and we have listened to this song over and over. It's hysterical. I think this is only part of it, unfortunately the whole thing hasn't been uploaded yet. I'm trying to convince Chef that we need to put it on our Christmas Song rotation in the Hotel. Fun times! :0)

Welcome Home, Katie Boggus!!

Our favorite Girl from Girl's Night FINALLY returned to the Shoals last night!! It's the first time we've seen our Katie Boggus in AGES!! She as definitely been missed as was evident by the bazillions of Shoalians squeeling as she walked through the Hotel. Poor Sean, I almost felt bad for him. He's corporate and only comes up in the case of a TERRIBLE disaster and he's never been to girl's night, so we aren't quite as close with him, at least not enough to squeel and greet him with a hug and a cake. It was all good though. No disaster this time. They were just swinging through and thought they'd stop by for a visit. Great surprise!! :0)

Elvira

I now have a new favorite song. THIS CRACKS ME UP! Apparently I'm the only one who's never heard Elvira before, but Sister kept insisting when EHSS sings it, it's hysterical. She was right. I heard it the other night as oddly enough, she was streaming the audio from Tony Greene's funeral. Yeah... terrible and weird all at the same time, but he had requested Elvira be sung and she just had to tune in to see if they'd do it. Sure enough, they did. I have now downloaded it to my ipod so Chef and I can sing it at work. I even had Bowz singing the mmmbop part today.

(We also had a visit from Katie Boggus today. Our Prodigal IT Genius has returned to the Shoals!!! But more on that tomorrow because I forgot my camera today.)

Good night to all! :0)

My hero!

This lovely old man is my Uncle Earl. Chef always cracks up at the name Earl, but I always introduce him as the most educated of the Tittles. He is very smart in all things related to the heart. Some sort of cardiologist guru at Princeton. He works with Dr. Wilinksky who is THE Dr. Andrews of hearts. Dr. Andrews being the most sought after orthopedic surgeon on the planet. Anyway, back to Uncle Earl, I had to call in a favor to my dear uncle because my BF Buddy was in need of an arteriogram today. As always, he made sure all was good and Buddy got a clean bill of health. It's always good to know he's there when we need him. Love you, Uncle Earl!! :0)

Mountain Dew!!

"Drink..... Mountain Dew and you'll discover what's inside quenches like no other... a blend of citrus just for you... and smooth it goes down easy too. WOWIE!" Does anybody remember that commercial? I think of it every time I see a Mtn. Dew now. Normally I only and always drink water, but occasionally I treat myself to this unhealthy delight. And like this afternoon, sometimes all it takes to make your day happy again is a sip of this liquid bubbly. :0)

Family Day!!

Sundays have always been the best days for the Tittle Fam. I know it's Grandma's favorite day of the week because for as long as I can remember, her house has been THE place to be

at the beginning of the week. Grandma would cook a HUGE lunch. All the kids and grandkids and great-grandkids would come and sit around, chatting and eventually play some sort of sport. Volleyball, football, baseball, basketball, horseshoes, dind't matter... we'd play. This is partly why my family reminds me so much of the Kennedy clan. Fast forward 20 years. Now they are all too old and fat to go out and play sports. There are so many hips, knee, and joint replacements that we'd spend too much time in the hospital if they tried to get out and get active. However, Grandma still cooks enough to feed an army each and every week and everyone still engages in the family gossip.
It's a little harder to get everyone together now. All of us grandkids and some of the great-grandkids have grown up and moved off which makes it a little harder to show up, but there's

always a place at Grandma's and always someone to have fun with. Here are a few of the oldie and goodie pics from Family Day! The volleyball was from Labor Day in 1984. How a ball fell on either side is beyond me. I have no idea how anyone ever scored. I've never seen so many players in my life.

The next pic is my Aunt Jo and me. She's the coolest. SO funny. I love this pic. We both look so happy. The dancing shot is my Uncle Terry or "Uncle Turtle" as we have always called him, and sister. It was one Christmas. NO clue why they are dancing, but I thought it was an awesome shot as well. The final pic is Grandma of course. She's showing me her muscle. I think candid pics are the best. You get the person in the moment, and judging by these photos, we've had a lot of great moments at Grandma's house. :0)

Part 2 to my day...

Got to go see Jeff Hawes tonight!

Haven't seen him since Hawaii, so of course when he comes to Warrior, AL, I MUST make that road trip. Sweetest guy ever. Great night. And I got to see Becky who was as always Hil-arious! Obviously, Jeff is the guy in the picture. The other pic is my GPS which absolutely cracked me up. If you notice the part in RED that is the current speed/speed limit. After you get so far over the speed limit, it gets all red and angry. I was fully expecting it to start yelling at me at any minute. Cracked me up so I had to take a pic. Buddy Mc, please don't freak out that I was taking pictures of my GPS, in the dark, driving 75mph. It was all safe I assure you ~ I was on the interstate. Love to all! :0)

Ave Maria Grotto

Took myself a little road trip today. I went to the Ave Maria Grotto probably 10 years ago. Can't believe it's been THAT long.

Me, Sister, Jannellie, Mom and Aunt De took one of our last outings to this place so it's rather special. I didn't really get it then, so it was good to go back and check it out again. It was SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY TOO!! The weather was perfect. I was by myself so I had plenty of time to wander around without being rushed. I took over 40 pics, but here are a few. One self portrait to check the hair and makeup. Two (the lizard condo and chipmunk crossing) make me laugh hysterically. I think they just show that the monks actually DO have a sense of humor. The other pic is a statue. I think it's a staute of Jesus.. not really sure. I just like to think that it is. Something about him standing there with arms stretched open welcoming his child...
just makes you long for home. Fun day. :0)