Party Planning...

Day #11:
Today, I noticed that it is always better to give than receive and I CAN'T WAIT until Saturday morning when Cynthia and I host a BIG BIRTHDAY for my Grandma. She's turning 86 on New Years Day and we're going to have a party for her. I have already baked the cake (as I will be working all day and night tomorrow and won't have time), bought the signs, ballons, plates, cups, party hats, mardi gras beads, tablecloth, and those little blower things that make noise. You can tell I love me some Dollar Tree. I'm fully loaded for an awesome party for only $16. I got her a funny card and our tradition... a racey calendar. This year I had considered going with the hot cowboys, but instead went with the Chippendale Dancers. There's just something awesome about buying my grandmother a sexy calendar every year and knowing that she's going to love it. That cracks me up. As I said, NYE is insane at the hotel, so there will probably be no post tomorrow. I'll be back with you all on Saturday. Enjoy your New Year. :0)

Dysfunction ~ Scents

Day #10:

Today, I noticed 2 things. The first was that, although my family may be wild, crazy, insane, full of whacko-s, weirdo-s, and freaks, we may punch each other in the face, be too close, not close enough, tell the truth to each other to our faces or behind your back... at the end of the day, we all truly love each other. We may be dysfunctional, but at the end of the day, I don't doubt for a second that at least one of them wouldn't step in and rescue me if i needed it and I know that I'd do the same for all of them. This grand revelation came about as I was talking to a guy that was telling me about HIS dysfunctional family. When I say dysfunctional, I mean these people are insane. And it's not just like it's his third cousin twice removed... I'm talking IMMEDIATE family. Crazy.

The second thing I noticed is that the old saying is true. The sense of smell is one of the greatest memory triggers there is. I grabbed the closest bottle of lotion I saw in my bathroom this evening and it just happened to be warm vanilla sugar. As soon as i smelled it, I thought of my mother. It was her favorite scent and EVERY TIME i smell it, I think of her.

:0)

This is it...

Day #9:
I guess I officially have to end birthday - week - month now. We are, after all, only about 3 days away from the new year. It's probably time to hang it up now. I've told you before, we are some birthday celebraters in this fam. We only give up the celebrating when we are good and ready. Tonight I wasn't ready. SO, when Leigh-Ann called and asked if I wanted to meet her at Rice Box to continue the celebration, my response was and I quote, "Heck to the Yeah!!" And it was worth it. Totally delicious. As always, I had Honey Sesame Tofu and Fried Rice. So so so so so good. She was wiggin out. She's never had Chinese other than in the mall. We did that once when she was pregnant with Chloe. Tofu and Miso Soup are foreign to her. She can't take that. It cracked me up. She's the one that told me to get out of my box. Now she's ready for me to get back in it. Safely nestled in mashed potatoes and macaroni... not tofu and seaweed. There's also a very funny story about an automatic car starter, but it's too much to type tonight. Just trust me... it was funny. We laughed until my sides hurt. It was fun. :0)

The Crazies...

Day #8:

Today, I noticed that you have to be absolutely INSANE to visit Wal-Mart a couple of days after Christmas. I wasn't there to return or to buy special deals. I just wanted some groceries so I wouldn't starve this week. I also had to get supplies to try once more to make soup. This time, I think I did much better. It was all in the apron, aka my super hero cape. It made all the difference. We'll see what Chef says about it tomorrow. :0)

LAZY Day...

Day #7:

Today I noticed that sometimes you are just forced to have a lazy day. I braved the snowy conditions last night in order to get back up here for church today. However, when I awoke this morning, I soon came to realize that it was a wee bit too icy and church had been cancelled. Bummer. So, I was forced to do a whole lot of nothing. I did some laundry. I put up a few things and tried to straighten up the house, but mostly, I did nothing. I didn't even get out of my jammies. It was too cold to go outside. It was too icy to drive anywhere. So I was stuck. The most excitement I had was when our neighbor's ever annoying dog continued to bark it's head off. It did this for most of the day. Finally, I got fed up and pulled out my trusty violin that I haven't tuned or played in over 10 years and let loose on my rendition of "Hunter's Chorus". All those years of lessons and I can only remember one song. It fascinates me that I can't remember "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" but I know just about every single note of "Hunter's Chorus". For some reason, that must've been my favorite. After all these years, my finger placement is off (I'm blaming that on the fact that my violin is only a half size... that's how young I was when I stopped playing) and it needs more tuning than one could possibly imagine, but it was fun. And I achieved my goal. I haven't heard that stupid dog since. I think there's a very good chance he committed suicide after hearing me play. This is going to be my goal for my 25th year. I want to revisit my classical training. Cuz, that means I need YOU to tune the darn thing and I've GOT to learn how to read music... or at least find my books that Mama wrote 1A, 2E and so on and so forth. Who knows, by Christmas next year I might just be blogging a video of me playing the Hallelujah Chorus - probably not, but stranger things have happened. :0)

Blizzard!!

Day #6:

Christmas morning. I spent Christmas Eve at Gran's becuase she didn't want to be alone and I love kicking it with her so we woke up EARLY as usual on Christmas morning and what to our wondering eyes should appear but SNOW in Alabama. Crazy thought I know. We didn't know what to think either. I soon had to make the voyage back over to Dad's to do Christmas with Cynthia and her kids. We ate a delicious breakfast, did the Christmas thing, and it was still snowing. Now Alabama winter weather usually consists of a few flakes and then by lunch the sun is out and it's all gone. Not this time. We got out and played in the snow, built two of the ugliest snowmen ever created, and did a little redneck sledding. Oh what fun it is to ride on a tire, being pulled by a tractor. Actually, it was more fun watching Cynthia. We laughed until we cried. She yelled the whole way up the hillside and back down. Most fun I've had on Christmas day in a long time. There will be more pics to come from this day, but this is all I have so far. :0)

Christmas at Gran's

Day #5:

Some memories and traditions may have to change, but I know one that never will - the fun had on Christmas Eve at Grandma's house. I'm sure it was going on long before I made my grand
entrance into the world. I have known no different. The 24th of December is my grandmother's holiday. It is the one day a year that you are required to be at her house... and why would you want to be anywhere else? Here we have a few of my favorite people. Obviously Grandma is #1. She's the best. The very cute fella in a white t-shirt is only dressed as such because his baby boy just spit up all over him. That's Brian. My senior by only 18 months. Love him to death. The girls are some of the cousins.
We had a lot of boys born in a row and then it switched and the girls began. We're probably about half of them, but I'm closer to these girls than the other half. We have (from left to right) Kimberly, Melanie, Meredith, Me and Sister. Fun times. :0)

Going Home for Christmas

Day #4:

Today I noticed that sometimes it is okay to go home again. I'm a firm believer in that saying that "You can't go home again". You know, once you grow up, no matter how much you want things to stay the same and you want to stay home... you can't. I'd go insane if I had to live here ALL the time. However, the more I thought about the holidays, the more excited I got to get to come back to my fam. It was well worth it. Christmas is different now from when we grew up. Lots has changed, thus we open our gifts from each other on the 23rd. I felt like Santa as they tracked my every move from the Hotel tonight. I was the only one that had to work, then I had to go pack up my stuff, go to Wal Mart for some last minute items, and finally made it here in time for the big opening. It was well worth it. My sister kept saying she had the greatest most wonderful gift under the tree for me. I had no idea. She normally goes all out. This time, she was RIGHT. I had a book, one of those Hallmark books that you record yourself reading and send to someone, and GRANDMA was the narrator. It is the most precious gift EVER. My Grandma, in her own way, reads Frosty the Snowman. Priceless doesn't begin to describe it. We've all had fun. Cynthia was most comical in her Sock Monkey Pajamas. She told me she wanted warm pjs for Christmas and this is what I picked. She loved them and said you are never too old for fun pajamas. I agree. What a great start to the holiday season. :0)

Good Friends ~ Good Lunch

Day #3:

Today, I noticed (with the help of Joe Saling aka Studley) that I am very blessed to work with the people I work with. Really. Most people probably don't genuinely enjoy hanging out with their co-workers, but I have a blast with mine. Back in the day, we had Girl's Night each week... we'd spend all day together and then go out and spend half the night together. Some work associates are just associates (and no, it's not all fairy tale land at the Hotel. I also have those co-workers that I wouldn't hang out with if they were the last people on the planet) but I do have a lot of genuinely good friends. Today, I was reminded of that. I got a call from Stud who asked if I wanted to go to lunch with him and the Sales team. I was somewhat excited but would've been perfectly fine spending the day with my Chef. I made my way across the street and we took off. We went to Crocodile Ed's where I had a delightful bowl of French Onion Soup... I have recently acquired a taste for French Onion Soup and this one sure was good. We had a ton of fun. Studley was telling us about the Christmas party they'd just had at Ross Bridge and was talking about how it's almost a shame that we really only take a moment to really think how blessed we are that we work with great people that we enjoy spending time with. We agreed. Stud is the one on the right in the picture. I love that guy. The one on the left is Jonathan McKinney or JMac as I call him. We have a very fun relationship. It's kind of a big brother-little sister relationship. For example, I almost took out running full speed down the hall the other day to tackle him. Had I not been wearing a dress, I would have. Selena Miller was there too. I didn't get a pic of her, but she was much fun as well. And then after much food, fun and laughter, we went back to the Hotel and I rejoined my buddy Chef. Good Friends ~ Good Lunch ~ Good Times. :0)

Good Friends are the BEST!

Day #2:

Today I noticed a few things. I can be one of those annoying "Glass Half Full" people, because I surround myself with "Glass Half Full" people. Chef is the most optomistic person I've ever met in my entire life. Hands down. Last night, I got the bright idea to cook for him. He bought me a book entitled The Vegetarian Bible for my birthday. This is a very educational book/cookbook. Bless his heart. He tries so hard to get me to be a healthy eater and someone capable of cooking a delicious meal... so far that's not working out so well. However, I told him I'd make something out of the book and bring it for lunch today. Everytime I cook, it's an adventure. Normally I have to call him from Wal Mart to find my ingredients but it just so happened I left my phone at home, so I had no life line. I thought all was good until I went looking for Swiss Chard. I thought that was cheese. Obviously I was wrong. Did you know it's a green vegetable?! Who knew! So I stood in the cheese aisle FOREVER searching for Swiss Chard Cheese. I finally gave up and decided Swiss Cheese would work. I almost didn't find it and was going to substitute Italian Blends. Swiss... Italian... it made sense at the time. Luckily, I found the Swiss. So I came home, made this Chickpea Soup which really turned out to be tomato hummus because it wasn't soupy at all. It was more of a paste. I told him it's because I forgot to put on my "I Heart Iceland" apron. It's like my superhero cape that is supposed to help me cook better. Anyway, it was a hilarious experience. He called me on his way in this morning and that was the first question out of his mouth...

Actual Conversation Follows:

Chef: "How'd the cooking go? Did you make something delicious?"

Me: HA! Did you know Swiss Chard and Swiss Cheese are two completely different things?

Chef: (silence and then hysterical laughing) What did you do?

So I relay all the mishaps of the cooking adventure. Too many to list here.

Chef: That's good! See you're learning.

Me: No. It's AWFUL! I tried to think of a worse soup I've had in my life and I can't really think of one. This is it.

We are both cracking up at this point.

Chef: Well, did you bring it?

Me: Of course! Oh, you'll be trying it. No worries. There's a big bowl with your name on it. This is all your fault. You inspired this.

Chef: Oh boy. You're going to master cooking before we are finished here.

Me: That could take YEARS!

We did inventory all morning and then landed back in the office around 1pm. Josh Quick, my 4-Diamond chef from 360 Grille shortly joined us. I instructed them not to move as I went to heat up the soup. I returned and Josh looked somewhat scared. Chef will try just about anything that's not moving, so he dug right in. Unfortunately I got a phone call and didn't get to see his face when he took the first bite. I wanted so badly to get a picture of that. He did however say it was good. Now I know good and well it wasn't GOOD, but you would've thought it. "A little more salt (that's always his suggestion) and a little more liquid," he said. "Remember with soup, you want it to actually be a liquid consistency, not paste." Hil-arious. What I thought was an epic failure, he found so many good things to say about it. I think it's true that we are our own biggest critics. I'm glad I didn't throw it out in the front yard. I'm even more glad that I have the most patient teacher in the world. Good Day! :0)

Old Friends ~ New Friends

Day 1:

Today I noticed that I love old friends just as much as new friends and BIRTHDAY CARDS are fun no matter how old you get! Today I received a birthday card from my Aunt Ila Vee. She's a link to my past... mainly my mother. She's my mom's aunt. I can always look forward to her cards every year. Lately, it's been such a nice surprise to get them at work. A little bit of home while I'm away. I also received a card from my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Tidwell. What a nice surprise! She remembered my birthday! It's such a cool thing. Some people may not even remember their teacher, yet mine remembers my birthday and thought enough to send me a card. That is so neat. She taught me to be a good patriot. She also taught me to write in cursive. She was adament that I be in church every week. She was very old-school and is still a hoot. The sideways pic of my newest book, I Wish. It's full of wishes that the author has for the reader. Some are thought provoking ~ some are just really funny. It's from my very good friend and Spa Director, Jennifer McFall, or Jennifer Case as she's now known since she just married a nice man named Tim. I've always called her Jennifer McFall though so it's been a bit of an adjustment trying to call her Jennifer Case or McCase as Bowz and I have named her.... but that's more than you care to know. She's great. She's definitely one of those people God has chosen to put in my life for a reason. If for nothing more than just to have a good friend and fellow believer while I'm at work... and someone to give me pointers on hair, make-up, and fashion. What a good day. :0)