Grandma's Calendars

Day #39:

This makes me so happy. Grandma told me to check out the pantry door when everyone left yesterday. This is what I found. Her "Sexiest Men of Hawaii" Calendar that I got her on vaca and her Chippendales calendar that I got her for her 86th birthday. That is a Chippendale promotional dvd that came with the calendar and her birthday card taped above them. I know, most of you are probably shocked, but this has become tradition for my Grandma and me. I ALWAYS get her a sexy calendar for her birthday. It's just funny. Even funnier, she puts them up in the pantry door so that when the preacher (Bro. JD) comes to visit, she can shut that door and he'll never know. Hil-arious! :0)

Birthday and the Fam

Day #38 (part II):

Cynthia turned 50!! What's that mean? Party at Grandma's!! It was awesome. We had such a good time. Birthdays mean DEFINITE family time. Brian brought Pax up. He has grown so much since Christmas. He's learning quickly too... in the pic with Selena, he was trying to sleep and the Tittle's are so loud, he had his little ears covered. So cute. Brian's such a good dad too. It still cracks me up, but he's the best father I've ever seen. So cute together as shown by the pic of them together. Grandma was as always in rare form. Fun day!!!

The Faith of Children

Day #38:

My kids were awesome today. We had a BIG group.. and it was an exciting day. Jonah has been our one and only boy all year. He HATES being the only boy and having to hear about the American Girl Doll factory week after week. Last week, he'd just about had enough and we told him we'd pray for another boy. This week, what walked through our door but ANOTHER BOY?! Becky and I were shocked. Jonah wasn't. He said, after all, we had prayed for one. Of COURSE God was going to give us another boy. Sometimes it takes the faith of a seven year old teach us a few things.

The balcony pic is my little angels in all their glory. They get to come sit in big church when we have a baptism and then go to children's church afterwards. They spotted me when they came in and were yelling and waving. I took a pic of them. They're awesome. :0)

Hockey Time!!!

Day #37:

It's that wonderful time of year!! HOckey season is in full swing and my pals and I were in attendance for the latest Huntsville Havoc Hockey Game. Mal and I met Buddy, Paige and Six at the game. We couldn't find seats ANYWHERE and ende dup sneaking into the press box in the rafters of the Von Braun Center. It was kinda awesome. Everyone was a little freaked out, but my response was, "What are they going to do... throw us in Hockey Jail?" No one bothered us and we had a blast. :0)

Troubling Tales of Tofu

Day #36:
I don't know what got into me, but I got the bright idea that I needed to learn to make Honey-Sesame Tofu. You know, that delicious dish that I scarf down EVERY time I go to Rice Box? Well, some people were born to cook and some people were not. I was not. Chef and I have been talking about this for 3 days. He was trying to stress the importance of the sauce. He told me if I didnt' get it right, the whole dish would be ruined. He knows me well enough to know when I smile and nod, my ADD has kicked in and I'm thinking of 12 things other than what he's rattling about. This conversation is the only time I thought he was going to throw his stapler at me. I told him I need specific measurements. "Salt to taste" does not work for me. I need to know if that's a teaspoon or a cup. He replied, "CAN YOU TASTE?" Obviously not. I came home yesterday and began this treacherous journey. I had on my apron aka my superhero cape that is supposed to give me special cooking powers, and I proceeded to make the MOST DISGUSTING Fried Rice and Honey Sesame Tofu ever created. Half way through the sauce, I realized it was never going to thicken. Being the prideful one that I am, I wasn't ABOUT to call Chef and tell him it wasn't working, so I called Josh Quick, chef of 360. After a while, we finally got it straightened out, but I ended up getting it too thick and it looked like the congealed fat on top of a Thanksgiving turkey. Dreadful. The rice was mushy and bland. The sauce made me throw up in my mouth a little. It tasted DREADFUL. It was the sesame oil. That stuff is nasty. I put one bite in my mouth and couldn't even swallow. Sister ate a few bites. I don't know how. I asked her if her taste buds and nose were working. I even suggested that she lift one arm and say her ABCs in case she was suffering from a stroke. I sent a message to Chef that I it was a disaster and I had a story. About 2 minutes later he replied with, "According to Josh, you didn't listen to a word I said. Happy Eating!!" Josh Quick busted me! SO, not to be outdone, I replied with, "Well get ready buddy becuase YOU will be eating it tomorrow." So I took him my tofu today. He suffered through a few bites... then decided to critique. Keely told him he should've come and helped me. "ARE YOU CRAZY?" I asked. "I don't want him to come help me. I wanted him to come and cook it for me." If nothing else, we kept everyone laughing today becuase we fought ALL DAY over it. He said I didn't listen or something to that effect. I said... I don't remember what my argument was but we went back and forth all day. And I left the sesame oil on his desk. I refuse to bring that stuff back with me. He kept sending me recipes today for different honey-sesame sauces. I asked if I could leave the sesame oil out. Exasperated, he said, "NOT IF YOU ARE MAKING HONEY SESAME TOFU." I told him no worries, I'd never try again.

However, there is something about me that made me think I'd try one more time tonight. The pic is how it turned out. The rice was much better. The tofu was a little better... the sauce (with no sesame oil) still wasn't good. So now, I can retire from this, content that I tried and failed twice... but at least I tried. :0)

Chef, Me, and Play-Dough...

Day #35:

Most days aren't as fabulous of work days as this one turned out to be. Chef called me on his way in as he usually does and asked how I felt about Play-Dough. "LOVE IT" was my reply. So he said we were going to play when he got there. I was very intrigued by this. We got coffee and headed over to the pastry kitchen. We had an army group coming in for a site tour and we were going to make them some really awesome desserts. Someone had already made some... but they weren't exciting and only had those green plastic soldiers that little boys play with stuck on top. So Chef and I made chocolate molds out of Anja's Play-Dough and made pure chocolate toy soldiers to go on top. Then, I talked him into re-doing the cakes. We spent the entire morning baking. It was SO fun. There was nobody in the Conference Center kitchen, so we had a blast. I rolled fondant and cleaned up the soldiers while he fixed the cakes and put on the ganache. It was awesome. This is how our little adventure turned out. Good times. :0)

I'm joining the circus...

Day #34:

Today I noticed that age, doesn't make you any more mature than it makes you nice. My 2nd graders may fight over the same red marker every week, but they don't drive me near as crazy as the complete morons (aka the general public) that I have to deal with on a daily basis. Everyone wants something for FREE and just gripe and complain and carry on worse than little kids when they don't get what they want. They obviously don't know me. It takes a lot to make me mad, but if they insist on achieving that goal, they will get nothing. No happy hand-outs from Kim when you INSIST on getting on my nerves. I also noticed this isn't just a problem in Florence, AL. It took a shooting, near assassanation, and a couple of deaths for our Congress-people to all sit together during the State-of-the-Union. This has been the greatest coverage since Paris Hilton went to jail. Like it's some big deal that Democrats and Republicans decided to get along for one night. They should get along EVERY DAY and then maybe we'd get something accomplished around here. I'm just saying...

On the upside of things, Josh Quick made me a cookie today. It's a little blurry, but here's the pic I took of it on my camera. Delish! :0)

Mark and the Kids..

Days #32 & 33:

Went and heard Mark on Saturday night. He was funny as always. Valleydale Church is HUGE. They have basketball courts, weightrooms... all the good stuff... and a Biscuit Ministry. This intrigued me (partially becuase I LOVE biscuits). So when I got home, I had to do a little more research on this. Apparently the Biscuit Ministry is where Highschool Kids plus some adults I'm sure, meet at Valleydale at 6:45am on Sunday mornings, load up their vans with biscuits, bottles of water, and Bibles and head out in search of the homeless and hungry to feed... then they invite them to go to church with them. How awesome is that?! I'm all about feeding the hungry these day. If I had unlimited funds, I'd start my own soup kitchen. Chef would cook it, and I'd feed people. Let's all pray Kim marries uber rich.

Yesterday, my wonderful children were so good. We told them we finally learned which missionary we got that we adopted. We were telling them that ours will be going to a Level 3 Security place that we won't even know of because it is so dangerous. Becky told them that our missionary person loved Jesus so much that she was willing to go to a dangerous country where she might even die just to tell people. In true form, one of them replied, "Blah blah blah." It was hilarious. Laugh or cry. I chose to laugh. The little sinners. :0)

Today, I spent with Chef. Doesn't get any better than that. We're soon going to learn how to make honey sesame tofu. I'll let you know how that one goes.

Skida and the Soup Kitchen

Days #29-31:

Yeah yeah... I'm behind again... but for good reason. Lately I've gotten to notice a lot of cool things. For instance, Friday was Skida's birthday. I noticed that it only takes a random act of kindness, a picture of Chef and a $2.00 Betty Crocker Cake Mix to really make somebody's day. Skida LOVES Chef. So, since I get him all the time, I thought I'd share the wealth on her birthday. I baked her cake and printed out a picture of him and taped it to the inside of the cake cover. Then we all got together and charged the server station singing Happy Birthday. She cried. She was so happy.

Today, I got a whole other wonderful experience. Chef, Anja, Ryan and I went to the Local Soup Kitchen at the local Cumberland Presbyterian Church and fed the Homeless people in the Shoals. It was awesome. We served up Hearty Brunswick Stew, Chicken Salad Sandwiches, and Fruit Cocktail. Humbling? Yes. Something I could do every day? Absolutely. Did you know there are over 925 MILLION hungry people in the world? That is insane to me. There are over 30 million hungry people in the USA alone. I realize at any given moment I am one meal away from being in that line; however, I am so grateful that I got to be on the other side of the buffet serving the people. It was truly the best experience I've had in a while and I hope we get to do it again and again. :0)

My Guys...

Day #28:

Today, Chef and I once again noticed that we work wonders together. We've always said if we had one of those red phones like the Commissioner had on Batman, we could help the President fix this country in about 2 seconds. We were on a roll today. He absolutley cracked me up. He also had me working on our new menu layout... which isn't difficult unless the only tools you have are "PAINT" and "Publisher". No Photoshop to be found. When I got exactly what he wanted, he was ecstatic. I told him that he owed me an Icelandic phrase for all that work. He taught me "Go Away". Thomas (the guy in green) had no idea what we were talking about. Chef tells me over and over until I get it and once I get it, I've got it. Icelandic is HARD though. We've got much more to do tomorrow though... so I'm sure I'll get another great phrase. Fun times. :0)

OH, and he totally used the redneck coozie today. Hil-arious!

The Redneck Icelander...

Day #27:

This absolutely made my day. Today, I noticed it takes very little to crack me up. We've got a huge Food and Beverage Party coming up in February. Chef has named it the effinbeeextravaganza. We're super pumped. Our parties are the best. Other departments only wish that theirs were as cool. We have the best food, the best music and the best prizes. Our vendors are so good to hook us up with all sorts of good junk. This is an example. Sammy, the SBC guy, brought us a box full of stuff, including this EXTREMELY redneck coozie. Chef pulled it out and thought it was great. You had to be there to fully grasp how incredibly funny it was. He told me he was going to put his coffee in it in the morning. I told him he couldn't be a redneck Icelander because there was no such thing. This sparked some very funny conversation. If only you could hear his Billy Bob accent... :0)

Happy MLK Jr. Day!

Day #26:

Taaa--Daaaa!!! Today I once again noticed, I am a creature of habit. I do not handle change well at ALL. I should work on that. Chef has no problem with it. We have many debates on this subject. He's all about changing things up. I am not. Today was an example. We had the MLK Jr. Annual Breakfast this morning. I had to get up and go into work EXTREMELY too early. I was up before the sun. That's just a problem in itself. Nobody should be up, going to work BEFORE the sun gets up. That's just unnatural. I didn't get to sit and ease myself into the morning as I normally do. I didn't get to watch the TODAY show and we all know that my day doesn't start until I've seen Matt Lauer. Chef and I didn't get to get our normal cup of coffee and love from our peeps in the restaurant. I was supposed to have the easy job this morning, instead, we had a call-out and a girl who didn't want to serve because it was her first time, so I got stuck with 3 tables, furthest away from the kitchen, right in front of the AV stage so there was no tray jacks. After the breakfast service, I had to go rent a car. When I got back, Chef had to go out of the office to a photo shoot so we really didn't get our time until around 3:30pm. It threw me off my routine. My mojo was completely messed up. Crazy? Absolutely. I realize this. Yet, no matter how hard I try, there is just nothing in me that can embrace the need (or want) to fully jump into the unknown. That's why this evening when I got home and I saw HONEYBELL oranges waiting on me in the livingroom, I knew all would be right again in Kim World. These things have magically shown up at our house every year since I can remember. Such good memories and something that without a doubt happens each and every January. They are real live oranges from Florida and they are the sweetest, juciest oranges you could ever imagine. Grandma and I battle it out to see who can eat the most. SO, as I unwind tonight and get everything back in perfect order (just as God intended it) I will be dining on a delicious honeybell. Thank you Aunt Ila Vee and Uncle Bert! :0)

Let's LAUGH!

Day #25:

I love these people. Today, I noticed you are only as old feel. Went to Grandma's to lunch and she was SO proud. She'd just gotten her license in the mail (she recently had to go and get them renewed). When the lady asked her if she wanted to change anything, she said "Nope." I kid you not her license reads, BLONDE HAIR, BLUE EYES (which is correct) and WEIGHT: 120lbs. Oh, Grandma. She's awesome. :0)

My Snow Peeps!

Day #24:

I have noticed today that my ADD has continued to worsen as I get older. For instance, I got up this morning with the full intention of cleaning my house. I started in one room, got distracted by laundry, sat down and checked my email, decided I need to do something with all of my books which led to the thought that I need a bookshelf, decided to go and shovel the snow off the front porch in case I decide to go anywhere today (Sister and I have just been walking in our footprints all week) began shovelling snow and decided to make a family of snow people. Have I accomplished anything this morning? Nope. Nothing other than making a snow family of my 2nd grade small group. I thought they were so stinking cute! And now I'm blogging about it. Not a step closer to a cleaner house. Oh well.... we'll try again later. :0)

Lunch Date!

Day #23:

Today I noticed once again that lunch is a beautiful thing. We haven't been OUT to lunch since my anniversary back in October... at least I don't think we have. So yesterday, in the midst of some crazy, Chef and I declared today to be lunch day. We always tell Jim (the other guy in the pic) about lunch when we get back, making him somewhat hilariously jealous. Today, in the spirit of good fun, we decided to take him with us. I had to drive them around in Moby Regolith aka my new wheels. Jim's a former car man so he knew all about it. Chef's just my best guy ever so he was as proud of it as I was. We went for Mexican today, which Chef and I have never done. We only and always eat Chinese... or a nice classy sandwich somewhere... but we've never done Mexican. It was delightful. And he taught me how to say both rubarb and banana in Icelandic. Fun times. :0)

Rallying the Troops...

Day #23:

Outrage! I received an email from my dear friend, Katie Boggus today telling me of the

snowman killers in Guntersville. It went like this:

“Monday night Ryan and I built a snow family…sweet huh? I’m sure you can tell this was Ryan’s idea!
Last night while watching TV, I hear car doors slam and people laughing. Not usually a big deal since we live downtown on the main street, but quite odd when it’s 15 degrees and icy roads. I go look out and see a car full of people speeding away….
Ahhhhh, I can’t believe they knocked “Ryan’s” head off!!! BUT those &^%$ *&^ will NOT win, so I faithfully go rebuild my husband. I stand back, admire my family, feel good that I have not let the bad guys win and go back to sipping my hot chocolate. I’m about get in bed and I peek out the window to check on my “family”….
OMG!!!!!! I immediately start planning a McCauley Culkin\Home Alone attack for when the snow killers return; complete with marbles, tar and Michael Jordan on the record player!! This is when my level headed, always sensible husband steps in and reminds me that, after all, they are just snowmen, on what is technically a public sidewalk and my Home Alone traps might land me a night in the city jail.
Just wait. The next snow storm, I’ll be ready.”

Can you believe that?! I suggested that we skip the marbles and paint cans and go straight to "Cutting off their cahoonies and boiling them in motor oil". Today, we all noticed that some people are just plain mean. I also noticed that these kids (Chef insists they had to be 16... not sure why but he is sure) obviously didn't know what they were getting into. You DO NOT mess with our Katie Boggus and get away with it. We have rallied the troops and these creatures must be caught and given a proper snow wedgie. I now have wheels and I'm confident a car full of Marriott Crazies can take on the world if necessary. We love you (and your snow family) Katie Boggus!!! :0)

GRANDMA!!

Day #22:

Today, I once again reaffirmed the fact that I want to be just like my Grandma when I grow up. She is awesome beyond awesome. The funniest and sweetest old lady I know. She never ceases to crack me up and has more love than you could ever imagine. Here she is, 4 hours into the New Year (and her birthday) just after I had totaled my car. She had breakfast ready when we got to her house... went and got a biscuit and told us to sing. I had botched her most wonderful birthday I had planned, but she made the best of it. Later on that afternoon, we made our way to a gas station and I found some chocolate cupcakes. We put her some candles in and sang again for her second birthday. She's a hoot. :0)

HOLY SNOW!

Days #20-21:

I live in Alabama for a reason. That reason is to AVOID all winter weather... this week, winter weather let me down. Holy cow - we got 10 inches of snow! I don't know that I've EVER seen 10 inches of snow. I am NOT cut out to live in the north... apparently no Alabamaians are. The Quad cities completely shut down. EVERYBODY stayed home... everybody that is except for the wonderful world of hospitality workers. Unfortunately, we don't get snow days. So after hitching a ride to work, we ended up in the portico, shoveling snow. Here are pics of me and Chef. I wore the cute hat and took pics. I did shovel a lot, but he's from Iceland and has lived in New York ~ Bowser's from Pennsylvania ~ and Ron the Bellman is from Minnesota.. obviously these guys were a little more experienced than me. The one good thing about getting snowed in where I work is that there's a 4-Diamond room for you to sleep in at the end of the night. Now if all this darn snow will melt, we can get back to normal around here! :0)

Back on 4 Wheels...

Days #17-19:
Spent the past 2 days acquiring a new vehicle since the "Green Bean" officially died. I am now a proud driver (not officially an owner because it will take me a few years to pay this thing off) of a Silver car... also known as a 2010 Hyundai Elantra. Cuz has given me a few suggestions for names and I believe I will now and forever be referring to him as "Moby". It's dark in the trailer park and what have we learned? Yes. We don't go out after dark in the trailer park. SO, I'm keeping you all in anticipation until tomorrow when I can snap a pic of my new wheels.
Adios, Peeps! :0)

My Treehouse

Day #16:

Today, I noticed that not only do I screw-up with everything else in my life I can't even pick a pretend place to run away to that is right! Holy Cow. I declared yesterday that I would be packing up and moving to Cambodia to live in a treehouse. Why Cambodia? Because that just sounds like a place that you would live in a treehouse. Bowz informed me that THE KILLING FIELDS the movie was all about Cambodia and a genocide that took place there. Apparently they cut off all these people's heads and built a wall out of the heads and so on and so forth. Geeze Louise. I just wanted to go somewhere where there were no cars and I could live in a treehouse. He told me I should've just picked Pakistan if I wanted a safer vacation spot. It was rather funny. :0)

Let's Learn Icelandic, Shall We?

Day #15:
I've officially used the phrase "This sucks" so many times in English that's it's lost all meaning. SO, today, I got my Icelandic counterpart to teach it to me in Icelandic. It is written as follows, "Þetta sýgur". This one took some practice, "You are driving me crazy" was easy. He taught me that one about 2 1/2 years ago and I got it right off. "Stupid Accountant" took no time at all. However, it seems the shorter the phrase, the harder it is. I think he gets a bigger kick out of me trying to say it than I do trying to tell other people what it means. Love that guy. :0)

Thanks a lot, Ghandi!

Day #14:
I noticed today, it's a lot easier to live by quotes when you are telling someone else. It's a completely different thing when you yourself are supposed to be living it. For example, my dear Chef told me yesterday, "Remember, bad things happen, but it's how we respond to them that matters" or some cheesy quote like that that he came up with last week while we were walking through the conference center. I told him at the time that he sounded like Ghandi and I'd put that quote in the paper, which I did and we both got a good laugh out of it. When he told me that today, I turned around, and responded, "I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR THAT. I'll live it when I DON'T have problems." He laughed and said, "Do you need a hug?" "NO." I replied. "I don't need a hug - I need a car!" Again, we laughed. What else are you going to do? I'm at least glad that he's here to make it better. :0)

Happy Birthday Anyway...

Day #13:
Grandma can make lemons out of lemonade. Even though every decoration I bought for her party is in my car, locked up on a car lot, she still managed to try and have a happy birthday. Can't find my camera to show you her picture, but she took a candle, put it in a biscut and told us to sing to her. After we did a little "retail therapy" (shopping) at the Thrift Store, we bought some of those Hostess chocoalte cupcakes and went back, had the traditional New Year lunch with her complete with black-eyed peas and collards, and then put an 8 and a 6 on them and sang to her again. When I find my pics, I'll post. She's the best. :0)

A Not So Jolly New Year...

Day #12:
Never drive a car in a flash flood. We'll start with I worked from 8am until 12:15am on NYE. Got to see Lucas which was good and had a genuinely good night in the 360. Exhausting, but good. Then I went over to the 360, got roped into doing a little work over there and was there for the countdown and the balloon drop. Fun times. Then, I hit the road for Gran's party. This is when the wheels fell off the wagon. Long story short, was driving through Haleyville which I now know received the MOST rain in AL this weekend at 5.5inches, and saw a cop on the side of the road with his lights flashing. I thought, #1 this is either a roadblock or #2 he wants me to slow down because of the water on the road. Since he was in his car, I decided it was option 2. About 20 feet in, my car died. Water had overtaken me. I sat there for a few minutes thinking he would get out and help me. He never did, so I got out (so stupidly I was in short and it was raining and COLD) and waded the waters and got to his car. He rolled down his window enough to never ask how I was... he just said. "You should've known not to drive through there. Sorry. You'll have to get a record but you should've know better." I was speechless. Whatever happened to cops like Andy Griffith helping you out?! So I went and sat down, on the ground, under what little cover I could find, wet and freezing and called Cynthia. After about 5 or 10 minutes, he rolled back to where I was and rolled down his passenger window and said, "Do you need to call someone?" "I already did." I replied coldly (literally and figureatively). Then he mumbled something else and I think he asked me if I wanted to sit in his back seat. At that point, I'd have rather taken a cot on death row. What a jerk. I just rolled my eyes, shook my head "NO" and waded back through the water to my car to apply my emergency break and grab my stuff out. Then, I braved the chilly waters again and went to the other end of the block to sit under another roof until Cynthia arrived. Another moron, obviously a buddy of the cops, eventually pulled up with the same attitude and said the cop didn't see where I went and was trying to figure out where I was. I let him know real quick that the cop was a jerk, wasn't very nice, and I would rather sit by myself than with him. He quickly sped off. Cynthia eventually arrived, we had an encounter with the cop from the other end of town who was just as big a jerk as the other one and we ended up waiting on the record until 4am. The record guy was really nice. He loaded up my beautiful car, packed full of Grandma's birthday decorations and hauled it off. We went back to Gran's wet, cold, and miserable. She cooked breakfast. I had a thought. When bad things happen, it's always good to go to Grandma's. She is love and there's nothing quite like it. What a day. :0/