Bread Pudding...

Day #188:

I had absolutely no intentions of working 12 hours when I went to work this morning; however, of all the long shifts I've worked, this was one of the better ones. The Sweet Taste of the Shoals was held at the Regency Square Mall tonight benefitting Big Brothers Big Sisters. We do it every year - dish up some delightful treats to area Shaolians who are getting fatter and fatter. This year, it was Bread Pudding with Whiskey Caramel Sauce. Best part about it? We didn't have to take anybody else (actually we couldn't recruit anybody else). IT was just me and Chef. He dished up the bread pudding, I topped it off with caramel sauce. In the meantime, we laughed hysterically at everybody there. They kept coming by and saying it looks delicious. No it doesn't. Bread pudding never looks delicious. In fact, Chef said it looked like somebody threw-up in the cup. Sure made me want to try some. We had a great debate about how to pronounce caramel (car-mul, care-a-mell, care-mel). Finally we agreed to just start saying it in Icelandic. It was a fun night. :0)

CHEESE!

Day #187:

Katie Boggus is in the house! We had a surprise visit from our favorite Shoalian this week! Katie came up to do... I don't know what she was doing.... lots of very important IT stuff. Upgrades and such. It never fails. There's always fanfare when Katie comes to town, whoever's with her better step aside. So New-Katie, aka Phillip, got to be the jealous one this time around. Phillip's in Orange. The other Goofball is Noah. He's the one guy at work that I'm confident will tackle me one day. We go back and forth all the time about who would be the older of the two in our brother-sister relationship. I totaly win. I can take him. :0)

Catching Up...

Days #182 - #186:
Friday: Hmmm..... Yeah. Too many days ago. Don't remember what I did Friday.
Saturday: Oh My. HAd the day to myself. Decided to visit the brand new HUGE Goodwill Store in Lawrenceburg, TN. I love Lawrenceburg. The Amish people live just outside there. They are awesome. So, I decided to go up and visit them. It was a beautifully, glorious day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing. I had a wonderful time. And then I got back to Florence. There are many ways to get back across the river. I decided on the rather long way just so I wouldn't have to go by work. Well, as I was sitting at the red light, enjoying life, I hear tires begin to screech. Now there are like 20 of us waiting in line at this red light so the space aliens can see that the light is red becasue traffic is so backed up. Well, I look in the rearview mirror and obviously the guy behind me didn't get the memo. Tires screech and I have enough time to think, "He's going to hit me. He's going to hit me." Guess what happened? WHAM! Runs RIGHT INTO THE BACK OF ME. And then I thought, "Seriously?!" So happens I was in Sister's car because she was driving mine last weekend, so not only did I total my car at the beginning of the year, but I got in hers and got hit. Any faithful blog readers need a new car? Let me drive yours and you'll be SURE to be getting a new car in about 2 days. Joey Boteler (my wonderful insurance man) is about to lose all love for me. Anyway, long story short, the guy gets out along with a girl, a baby and 3 women and says, "Our breaks don't work". Really? I had NO idea.
Sunday: It was my last class with my little angels. They were anything but. However, we had moments where they were sweet. Sunday night was awesome. Our teens just got back from Super Camp. We had 39 kids give their life to Christ last week. Sunday night they spent telling us about it. One after one they came up and gave a testimony. It was amazing to see their excitement. Great service.
Monday: Ugh. It's that awful time of the quarter known as China/Glass/Silver/Linen Inventory. Chef and I can make about anything fun, but sometimes we struggle with this one. Although it is so incredibly fun to count with him because he'll count half in English, half in Icelandic, have to translate and by the end I'm so confused I can't even speak English.
I have also noticed that some people obviously just flaunt their power to prove they have it. I don't care how much power you think you have. It doesn't make you a nice person. Also, if you mess with Chef, the dukes come off. He's the one person I care enough about to have a throw down. That's all I've got to say about that. Oh, I also made a surprise visit to Grandma last night. I didn't see her last week. Won't see her this week, so I had to stop by. She was sound asleep when I drove up, so I got the key, ran in, jumped in bed beside her and she still didn't wake up until I hollered. It was hilarious. I nearly gave her a heart attack.
Today: The reason for me being at Gran's last night? I had a visit with my FAVORITE eye doc today. People think I'm insane because there are a billion up here, but I still drive to Jasper to see my Dr. Wesley. He's the cutest fellow and I've known him since I was 9 or 10. We go way back. Great great guy. Fun times. :0)

*My camera will be returned tomorrow, so we'll start having some fun pics again.*

3 Important Lessons from Wal Mart

Day #181:
Yesterday was incredibly busy. After work, had to run to church, then the tanning bed, then to the Wal Mart to get stuff to bake Studley a 50th birthday cake. This is when I noticed 3 important things at Wal Mart.
#1: Whereas I don't think we should be discussing the day's stock trades with babies, I also REALLY don't think baby talk is necessary. Especially when the kid can't even talk and doesn't care that you are going on and on and on and on. I was ready to punch the lady in line behind me right in the face.
#2: Why in the WORLD do people find it necessary to scream at whoever is working at the time? Really now. This guy came in at 8:30pm and was mad that Tire and LUbe wasn't open. Apparently somebody either gave him the wrong time or the wrong days and he was yelling at the night manager. I also wanted to punch him in the face. I'm sure when that poor Wal Mart man went to work, he really didn't want to be yelled at for something he didn't do. Besides that, you shouldn't wait until 8:30pm to go to Tire and LUbe anyway.
#3: I will ALWAyS enjoy running full speed through the parking lot and jumping on the back of the buggy before flying down a hill. That's just fun no matter who you are.

Today? I bought new shoes. :0)

I need a foot rub...

Day #180:
My feet hurt. We're 2 days into a photo shoot. There are also 2 other things that need to be done that are equally as important. As I am not triplets, it is quite difficult to be in 3 places at one time. I finally made Chef choose for me today. I've had enough. I'm tired. In a completely unrelated topic. My family is insane. They are all wonderful loving people (for the most part) but they are nuts. We're hoping the crazy skips a generation and me and the cousins turn out normal. I guess that's yet to be determined. Oh well... I guess when you get that old, you forget to remember you are insane. :0)

Who said the pic had to match the blog? :0)

Day #179:

Nothing exciting today. I didn't get my morning cup of happy with Chef, so that threw us both off. We were so incredibly busy we literally only spent about 2 minutes together today. Lucky for the rest of the world that Matt Lauer was working today or I might have gone postal. Kristy currently has my camera for the "Homegrown Alabama" event tonight, so you'll just have to look at the cute little Jeff Hawes. He actually has absolutley nothing to do with my post today, but I did notice that he was kinda cute so I thought you would enjoy. :0)

Decoration

Day #178:

Oh Deocration Day... one of those Southern traditions that people not from here will NEVER understand. HUGE lunch at Grandma's, then half an hour of "Do we actually need to go and see the flowers that have been sitting on Gran's bed for 3 weeks? Is it really necessary to go out now that we are all fat and old... who really wants to sweat to see flowers? Then again, it can't truly be Decoration Day if we don't go to the graveyard and look around. Oh fine. We'll all go. Let's see how many Tittle's we can fit in a car..." My favorite part of the tradition? Skip taking a picture of the flowers EVERY YEAR. This cracks me up. I find it morbidly hilarious. Instead of taking pics of the flowers, I took a pic of Skip taking her pic. Or at least trying. She struggles with digital cameras. I've told her on many occasions that she's going to single-handedly keep the 35mm roll people in business. Only Skip still had a camera with film in it. Auntie Jo was the resident diva. I kept calling her Michael Jackson. She arrived with an enteroge, huge sunglasses and an umbrella. Aunt Minnie was showing us where she wanted to be buried. "NOT BY THE WOODS! Put me up there where people can see me. Stick Skipper in the woods!" Mason kept telling Mere how he wanted his burial plot to look and what type of flowers he wanted. See, I'm not the only crazy one. Our whole family is nuts. People think I'm insane when I tell them how I've planned my funeral. Today, we found out my 14 year old cousin has done the same thing. Mere said she'd dump him in the ocean. I told him we'd save our money, have him cremated and FLUSH. Burial at sea. Yes, we're all a little crazy, but we genuinely love each other. The other pics are Uncle Kin, asleep, which he always is, and Gran telling a story. Fun Day! :0)

Books!

Day #177:

Went shopping today. What do I like best of all? SALES! I found 4 books for $25. I went with the intentions of just doing some intellectual shoplifting. I wanted to read Prairie Tale, Melissa Gilbert's bio, and read a bunch of it, then I got a call from Jess and began mindlessly wandering around and what to my wandering eyes should appear but the same book I'd been reading, only this time it was ON CLEARANCE for $6.97. That's exciting. Then I found the John Ritter book, I'd also been wantingand 2 Pres. Kennedy books on Clearance! My night is now complete. :0)

The Ritz, The Kids, and The WHAT?!

DAys #174 - #176:

Wednesday, Bro David prayed that we would find where we were going on visitation. He forgot to pray we'd also get back before getting lost. Guess what. We got lost. Becky and I have decided it's our spiritual gift.

Yesterday, sister and I went to the Ritz and watched Steel Magnolias. Community Theater has quickly become one of my most favorite things. IT was AWESOME.

Today, Leigh-Ann and I had Girl's Night and went to Rice Box, then Wal-Mart where we saw a girl with a furry raccoon tail. Quite possibly the funniest thing ever... that is until we went to Burger King and saw 2 cops in the parking lot playing with a prosthetic leg. Random things happen when we're together. Then Carson and Chloe entertained us with their Dancing With the Stars routine and Chloe's Funky Monkey Dance Routine. It was awesome. :0)

The Duggars and My FIRST Flower! :0)

Day #173:

2 Wonderful bits of news today. I grew a flower. I've been working on this project for an entire year. FINALLY, I got a flower. I'm so excited. Chef can grow a bouquet out of thin air. I've done everything known to man and have never seen so much as a weed grow but FINALLY, it happened. Today, we had a beautiful yellow sunflower blossom. I feel as though I just taught Helen Keller to read.

Speaking of reading, Nancy Byrd got me a Collector's Edition (#5 of 250) SIGNED copy of the Duggars new book, A Love That Multiplies. How awesome is that?! I am super excited. It is GREAT!!! I have been captivated all day. I love those Duggars! :0)

Til hamingju með afmælið, Chef!!!

Day #173:

Couldn't post this yesterday because I didn't have my camera. Yesterday was AWESOME. It was my favorite guy's birthday!!! I've been telling him for 3 years that I was going to string black crows in the office when he turned 40.... well..... he turned 40! I decorated with 40 black crows. It was great. He loved the shirt. I made him a licorice cake which Ryan and I have been trying to find for 3 years. I finally found a recipe and made it for him. He was even more impressed that it actually was made from scratch and not a box. The crows were everywhere. It was hilarious. One of our walls is all window. I had crows attached to the shade over it, so with the lights off, it was very Alfred Hitchcock. We both sat and looked at each other for the first few minutes and just agreed that it was really creepy. Fun times. :0)

party... Party... PARTY!!!

Day #172:

The weekend that never ends... still going strong! Party at Cheffers? Absolutely! My favorite Icelandic sidekick has a very big birthday tomorrow and Jim's birthday was today, so we had to have a bash! It was FUN. Chef grilled veggie-ka-bobs. He also made hummus and the most delectable mexican cornbread ever. Good pals - good times. :0)

Gran's Socks. :0)

Day #171:

Went to see my Grandma this afternoon. I had to show her the bag full of goodies that I purchased at the Thrift Store. Got 3 shirts, 1 pair of jeans, and 2 dresses for $20. Pumped about that. Anyway, as I was showing Gran my finds, she went and found a bag of socks someone had given her. She said she couldn't wear them and I just HAD to take them with me. She cracks me up. Sometimes she gets stuff and has no need for it, so she doesn't rest until I load it up in the car with me. Today, it was the socks. Got to love my Granny! :0)

Mal's Night!

Day #170:

Oh my goodness. If we'd have known Mal's Bachelorette Party would've been so fun, she would've gotten married years ago. Yesterday was a whirlwind. It began with a 5am workout with Jillian and didn't end until 4 something this morning. I took off from work just before 1pm so I could go shopping with Jenn Cockrell for an outfit for the Bachelorett Party. Shopping with Jenn = HILARIOUS. Nothing about our tastes is even remotely similar. I thought there would be a knock down drag out... so did everyone around us in the store. It was comical. Then she fussed about my driving all the way to B'ham. She's just jealous Grandma didnt teach her how to drive. We met Mal and Company and ate at the Mellow Mushroom. DELICIOUS. I had a Portabello and Cheese Hoagie on Pita Bread. Oh my. Best decision of the day! Afterward, we had the lingerie shower and then went out on the town. It was SO FUN. Mal's cousins are hilarious. I grew up with all boys, so we've never had these coming-of-age experiences. Mal grew up with all girls so those chicks have had practice. It was amazing. That's why it didn't end until 4 this morning. :0)

Cheers!

Day #169:

Ho hum. GOod things come to those who work in F&B. Well, maybe not all those.... we'll go with good things come to those who share an office with Chef. He waltzed in the office this afternoon with a frozen Strawberry Daiquari. That was a delightful little pick-me-up. Can't really think of anything else fun or exciting. That pretty much describes our day. We talk about the TODAY show, we get coffee/water, we work, we sing, we laugh hysterically, we eat and drink delicious stuff, we make people happy, we do it all again the next day. Love that Icelander. :0)

Runaways, Lingerie, & Leefus... WINNING!

Days #167 & #168:

These will be quite possibly my two funniest stories to date. We'll start with Day #167. Got a call from my uncle "the Source" last night. The conversation went as follows.

Him: "Have you HEARD the news?!" (He was laughing hysterically.)

Me: "Nope. What's up?"

Him: "You mean, YOU HAVEN'T HEARD?!"

Me: "NO! Tell me what's the news!"

Him: "I can't believe nobody's called and told you yet!"

Me: "DENNIS!"

Finally, he told me. Long story short, my ingenius little cousin decided to run away with his girlfriend yesterday. He's 11. The best part of the story... they went to Gran's and she loaded them up with snacks before they took off. It was hilarious. Of course the family was freaked out when they realized he'd gone missing, but he was eventually found, so it's all good. My favorite part when relaying the events to Chef was that it must be awesome to be 11 years old. Think about it. Those kids thought nothing in the world was going to happen to them and all they needed to survive was orange soda and cookies from Grandma. Oh to be a little kid again...

Today, we spent the afternoon shopping. I found the PERFECT birthday present for Chef. You know how we love us some Charlie Sheen up in our office? Well, I went to Spencers and found him a WINNING t-shirt. He'll love it. Then I went in search of the perfect "going out" outfit for the bachelorette party. Couldn't find one, but that wasn't going to ruin my spirit because of the aforementioned t-shirt. SO, then I remembered that I had to also get a lingerie gift. OH my. Tha'ts all I have to say about that. I was struggling with that. Even my sister was making fun of me. It was even worse when some old grandma looking woman waltzed in and was able to pick out lingerie with no problem before me. If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times. I will elope. There will be none of this wedding nonsense for me. One day I'll call you all from Vegas and tell you that I just went through the drive through and some Elvis impersonator prounced us man and wife. It's just better that way. :0)

OH, and the pic of the day is my good friend Lee Taylor. He won the YoungFree Alabama Spokesperson this year. So proud of this guy. Here's his face on a billboard.

Bali Bronze

Day #166:

Went shopping with my pal Jennifer Case today. She's Spa Director and we needed to go buy some pillows for the Spa and a few beauty products. We just happened upon some really fun tanning lotion, so guess who decided to buy a present for herself?! Meeeee. :0) It smells like baby powder and it has a tiki man on front. I'm already a fan. I also found that my old lady "Tanning Coach" as I've come to call her, is quite a fan of HLN as well. I love Nancy Grace! She cracks me up. So me and my Tanning Coach had a lengthy conversation regarding the Casey Anthony Trial. We've got it all figured out and can save the g'ment a whole lot of money. She filled me in on everything that's gone on in the trial since I've been at work. She's awesome.

Charlie's Angels

Day #161- #165:

Just suffice it to say that nothing earth shattering has happened since last Thursday. Today, we began the wedding festivities. How fun. Seriously. Mal's Bridal Tea was today. I saw all the peeps from Lynn that I haven't seen in years. It was great. And Mal's family is hilarious. I love those people. Here's me, Mal, and Jenn, striking our Charlie's Angels pose. Coach Finley affectionately nicknamed us his angels back in 8th or 9th grade. It was a good day. Now on to the work week and into the Bachelorette Party on Friday night. It's about to get fun... :0)

No Exciting Title Today...

Days #157 - #160:

Trying to recover from the vaca. Let's see if we can recap quickly. Sunday, I spent mostly by myself in Muscle Shoals... except of course for church. The kids were so-so. We made birdhouses. Drove down to Nauvoo and spent the night. Had a full blown cookout Monday. That was fun. Grandmother brought the kids over to swim. It was funny to see Todd and Kevin, who used to be sister's and my playmates, in the pool with kids of their own. Very surreal. Yesterday.. work of course and then TOFU TUESDAY. We missed Monday, so we made it Tuesday and it was delicious. Definitely worth the wait. WE had tereyaki (no idea how to spell that). Kinda cracked me up. We ordered extra fried rice because Sister doesn't like the tereyaki sauce that they put on top of it, and when we got home, they had given us 3 fortune cookies. Normally they only put one in the bag because we share our order of tofu. So some Chinese guy named "Bo" had to stop and seriously consider that that amount of food must be for 3 people. Nothing like feeling like a cow before you eat supper. Thanks, Bo. Then today, well, got another Strawberry Pina Colada Concoction from Brian Lovejoy. Great guy, he is! :0)