Happy Birthday, Will!

Day #245:

Happy Birthday ~ Happy Birthday!

Once again, it is time to CELEBRATE! Will's birthday was last Thursday... this is the first time we've been able to celebrate. I brought the lovely yellow cake with chocolate icing and mms on top and we all dined on cake at 9am this morning. Big crowd on board for the party today! We have Josh Quick to the far left, Jessica Lamb in the glasses, Cathy peeking out behind her, Chef in the far back, Jim beside him in the white sports coat, Chancey in black with his arms crossed, Rhonda in the black beanie, Will in front with the big smile, (Don't remember the girl beside Jim/behind Rhonda and Will... she's new), Donnie in the sunglasses and Rhonda to the far right in white. Best way to start the morning! :0)

The kids...

Day #244:

Here's the newest 2nd Grade Class for Becky and I at Grace Life. This pic doesn't do justice to all the boys we have in class - they just weren't here this morning. From left to right we have Gabe, David, Anna, Kenzie, Mackenzy, Carley and Dalton (in front). Gabe is hilarious. His sister was in our class last year and I never heard the child speak until Halloween. Gabe has not stopped talking from the moment I met him. Even funnier - he's going to be a mime for Halloween. He was cracking me up showing me his moves. David, incredibly quiet. Anna is the 7th or 8th of 10 going on 11 children. I had most of these kids when they were 5, so I knew what I was getting into this year. Anna has grown the most. She's matured leaps and bounds in only 2 years. Kenzie, beside her, is the smartest and sweetest kid I've ever met. Even at 5 she was WISE beyond her years. My only prayer is to not mess her up in the year that I have her. That's why I'm glad Becky's teaching and is in charge. Mackenzy, don't know much about her other than she showed up at our door, didn't want to go into the class that she was supposed to go to and instead decided to stay with us. Carley, incredibly quiet. Never talks. Ever. Sweet kid though. Dalton, I also had when he was 5. At that time, I think he climbed walls. I'm pretty sure he still can. He was doing flips and walking on his hands this morning. Fun times. :0)

The PREZ

Days #242 & #243:

Yesterday? Prep for Hertiage. Tonight, Hertiage! The annual Heritage Christian Event took place tonight and the kicked it up a notch this year. 2 years ago, Tim Tebow's mom was the speaker. Last year, Mrs. Laura Bush. This year? A guy you might have heard of... Pres. George W. Bush. It was cool. I'm thankful for 2 things tonight. #1: We got to serve the President. Up close and Personal. I actually talked to the man who was Commander and Cheif of our great nation. How cool is that?! #2: I'm thankful no crazy rednecks blew us up BECAUSE we we serving the president. There were plenty of cops and secret service around, but I'm still thankful God didn't have any crazies out tonight. It was a fun night. :0)

Studley and the S&P

Days #239 - #241:

Well here you go. The long awaited picture of my salt and pepper shakers. Aren't they cute?! Chef said, "I GOT YOU THOSE TO HELP YOU COOK!" Pish posh. They are TOTALLY for decorating my desk. The little mouse in front is what I bought myself at the castle in Canada. I thought he was cute. The other cute little fella is Studley OR if you want the technical term, Joe Saling, our Area Director of Sales and Marketing. Funniest guy around. I made him pose for my pic of the day. It's always fun when he comes to town. :0)

Dinosaurs and Goldfish

Day #238:
Chef is home! He brought me back Sweden Salt and Pepper Shakers. I took a pic of them, but left my camera on my desk, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them. We had a wonderful conversation about oatmeal. I had some for lunch. He asked how I like it. My reply was somehting along the lines of it wasn't terrible. My thought is that it wouldn't be on my top 100 list of "Last Meal" dinners if I were ever on death row. "I love Cheerios though". You should've seen the look on his face. Priceless. "That's not even closely the same thing," he laughed. "That's like.... dinosaurs and goldfish." Hilarious. Sister and I just had Terakyaki Tofu. Delish. Fun day. :0)

Gran and the Kids - Fun Weekend!!

Days #234 - #237:
Thursday and Friday were spent eagerly anticipating the return of Chef. He's back in place tomorrow morning. I'm so glad. I've missed that guy. And I'm slightly excited about the fact that he will have an Icelandic chocolate bar and an Icelandic newspaper. But let's talk about yesterday and today. They are more exciting. YEsterday, I spent the entire day with my Gran. What fun we had! We went to see Aunt Flora in the hospital where I had to do some smooth talking to get her back since we had missed visiting hours for ICU. When we got done there, we took off and went to St. Vincent's to see Aunt Wilma. This was a blast. For one thing, neither one of us know anything about Birmingham. When we got there, I fed Aunt Wilma her lunch. It was funny. When Gran was in the hospital and I fed her, I just kinda randomly gave her a bite of everything. Aunt Wilma would point to what she wanted a bite of. It was like she was directing an orchestra. Hilarious. IT wasn't long before Aunt Faye showed up. She's the youngest of all Gran's sisters. I love this woman. She cracks me up! She always has blue eye shadow on (my sister says this is where I get it from) and bright lipstick. She has a wicked sense of humor. Today, my kids taught me more than I taught them. I am loving this new small group class already. We were talking about creation and I told them I was so glad God created the sunshine because I hate the dark. One of them said, "Miss Kim, God is with you all the time. You shouldn't be afraid of the dark." Rebuked by a 2nd grader 2 weeks in. It didnt' stop there. They are SMART! I asked them for an attribute of God and one said, "He's incomprehensible." Another said, "He's Holy," (which is what Bro. Matt had preached on Wednesday night). They are amazing. So glad I'm at a church with such rich doctrine given to the kids! I'm fully expecting them to teach me more than I teach them. :0)

The Boys (and Girl) of Summer

Day #233:

Didn't have much to say about today other than Chef's still gone and Jim and I had lunch. That was the highlight. So I looked for an old pic for fun. This one made me laugh. This is probably one of the reasons that I have always had more boy friends than girl friends and the reason that I get along with boys so much better than girls. They're the people I grew up with. Here, we have one of my teeball teams. Hilariously, I still keep up with most of these guys. Kiah, the cute little blonde headed guy on the left, went on to play basketball at Ole Miss. Clark, the one with the bat, is in some branch of the service... ARMY I think. Heath, the one in front of me, is TERRIFIED of snakes. I dont' know wy but that's always cracked me up. He's so sweet. Jacob is the smiley guy with the cup. 'm closest to him. He's living in Kentucky and getting his Master's in Geology. Cody, the one all the way on the left has the cutest baby and married the girl that used to absolutely kick our butts in basketball. Yep. This is the reason all boys would rather hang out with me than date me. This is the reason I still can't master how to put eyeliner on my eyes. This is the reason that I was all-state in softball instead of being a cheerleader. Would I change it? Not at all. It was a blast. And if you look at it from my point of view, I had all the boys. It was those cheerleaders that should have been jealous. :0)

Not Too Bright...

Day #232:

Poor Stella. Did I mention yesterday that she isn't very bright? Well, she's not. Instead of playing with the $20 Scratch Post I bought her, she chased her tail. No worries though, she did eventually figure that scratch post out and she has worn it out! Hilarious. The pic of her reminds me of some of my baby pics. We used to have a junk drawer in the kitchen just high enough for me to reach when I was toddler age - however old that is wen you toddle. Anyway, there are various pics of me, making a mess. It was always the same place, just different stuff scattered each time. Once it was Papa's important papers. One time, it was flour. Another time, it was just junk. Fun times. :0)

Stella Bella Fitzgerald.

Day #231:
I have a new addition to the family. Stella Bella Fitzgerald has officially joined the Trailer Park Family. I rescued her from death row, aka a trip to the pound. She's not very bright, but she looks a lot like my precious Ko-Ko when she was a baby 19 years ago, only Ko-Ko has beautiful blue eyes and Stella has a hazy green. She is currently rolling around in my lap. I'm confident she is the cleanest cat in town as I bathed her for nearly an hour of better, making sure we rid her of fleas. I have puncture wounds and ended up as wet as she was, but I think I won the battle. I should've named her Helen Keller as she insists on getting right in my face and touching it with her paw. Not quite sure what she's trying to accomplish there. I'm sure Chef isn't going to be impressed (because I don't NEED a cat), but she's so sweet! :0)

Fun, Football, Celebration and Church!

Days #228-#230:

Friday? Truly the funniest thing ever happened at work, futher illustrating the point that I will never be able to describe exactly what I do because nobody will ever believe me. Suffice it to say it was a WILD day. Saturday? BUSY. Had to go to Gasden to Karen and Rog's 25th Wedding Anniversary. That was fun. It was a day with the Tittle's and that's always good times. Let me explain the pic of Rog, Karen and the two guys beside them. These are the only 2 from the wedding party that showed up. Shannon was the ring bearer. Not sure who the other guy is but I'm sure he was a groomsman. Jodie is the one coming down the stairs. I told her do a princess walk. She's a great poser. That's Rog and Karen's house. IT IS AS BEAUTIFUL AS IT LOOKS! When I got back, I FLEW to LHS for the Old Timer's Football game. Oh my, was that fun! I don't know if you know, but the Lynn/Addison Rival is much like that of Alabama vs. Auburn. It doesn't get much uglier than that. SO, all these Old Timer's decide it'd be fun to get together and play a game. It was great. I spent the first half chatting with Coach Finley. He's awesome. Then went down and sat with Jenn for a while. Caught up with her and her babies. Then made my way over and sat with Todd. He's hilarious. What'd I notice? Yep. Still hate football. Still haven't ever watched a game. I go to socialize. At Lynn games, that's easy. I've grown up either with or in front of all of these people, so it's never hard to find somebody to chat with. I saw Coach who told me he's coming up to stay at the Hotel this weekend. That should be fun. I also got to see Phil. I miss that guy. OH and the boys playing! Tyler King, Tyler Baughn and Drew were so cute in their little uniforms. They haven't changed a bit. It was a great night. Today? EXCELLENT! We got our new group of kids. This year Becky and I have more boys than girls. It should be an interesting year. There was a buzz around Grace Life today. It was like the first day of school (only this time, I was actually excited). Everybody was excited actually. We were all eager to get to our new classes. Bro. Jeff was back from his study break. AND we sang Happy Day. Doesn't get much better than that! :0)

Poor Sister & the Town Hall

Day #227:

Sister got her wisdom teeth removed this morning. Pretty sure she doesn't want her pic taken this evening. She did good. I made stewed potatoes. Not sure that they were as good as Grandma's, but I tried. In the midst of nurse/taxi driver/South Central Bell Receptionist (on top of Sister being on the injured reserved list, Dad-o is currently on night #2 of his hospital stay due to cellulitis - he's hoping to be home Saturday, so of course, my phone is blowing up), I also had to go to work, thus the pie pics. We are going to be raising money beginning next month for the Shoals Scholar Dollars. This is a REALLY cool program that if basically everyone in Colber/Lauderdale County gave $5, we could pay for every single kid (beginning with the class of 2014) in Colbert/Lauderdale County to go to college. Of course there are stipulations.
You have to have 95% attendance, a clean record, be an American Citizen, and a Solid C Average. Do those things, and you'll get free tuition to Northwest Shoals and then they are working to get those hours to transfer to UNA and then get tuition to UNA to finish up their degree. How awesome is that?! To kick things off, we're doing a "Cream Your Manager" day. For $2 you can throw a pie in your manager's face. For $3, they can counter-offer and pass the pie in the face on to another manager. We rolled all this out today in the meeting and of course needed pics, so me and Bowz proudly posed for these shots. It was hilarious.

(Theme Song to Taps)...

Day #226:

I just made a delicious dinner of fried egg sandwiches and hasbrowns. I asked sister if we needed to bust out the grape juice and oyster crackers, considering it's her last meal. Tomorrow, she joins the rest of us in the land of the dumb as at 8am I will be taking her in to have 2 wisdom teeth removed. I've had a thousand of these jokes tonight. I think she's enjoyed them as much as I have... maybe. In celebration of her last night of eating solid foods, I bought the most deliciously fattening cookies. Have you seen these things? Oh my goodness, it's almost like "And God created the Triple Double Oreo... and it was good." Pretty soon we'll be going to Wal-Mart and they'll just have fat that you can just line up and glue onto your hips, or sugar that you can pump intraveneously straight into your veins. Getting fatter has never been so fun my friends. :0)

The gift of life... :0)

Days #222-#225:

And we finally made it back to the great state of Alabama. I was SO happy to see Grandma and yesterday I was reunited with my favorite Chef. Pretty good return. Short lived however as Chef left today for budget meetings in Montgomery and then from there, he's going to Sweden. Since he's in the Icelandic neighborhood, of course he'll have to stop off at home. So no Chef for 10 days. I did send him an email today with this pic attached. He's always my blood-giving partner. 9 times out of 10 I end up watching since my iron is never high enough, but I think eating nothing but oranges for a week must have boosted it right up because I was able to pump out a pint. Fun times. :0)

Seattle - Pike Place

Day #221

And back in America, we hit up Pike Place Market in Seattle. Wicked cool little place. They throw fish, have the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen and sale tons and tons of produce and handmade arts. GIGANTIC bouquets that would cost us well over $100 here were only $10. It was amazing. The pig's name is Rachel. She is the most famous resident and raises money for the place. :0)

Victoria, BC

Day #220:

Canada was cold and very pretty!! The fam got the bright idea to catch a limo ride with David. I don't do tour busses well at all. I hate riding for one thing. I'll fly any day but I hate to ride. Add with that the nauseating smell of gasoline, guides thinking they need to ride every back, curvy road withing 9000 miles and the need to talk and talk and talk over a loudspeaker... to most people this is fun. To me, it is worse than a cot on death row. Needless to say, after about 5 minutes, I was curled up in the fetal position in the bottom of the limo, attempting not to vomit on anyone inside. I did manage to hear David rattling on and on about the "Left Handed Governor" of Canada. Sounding like a moron, I asked if he was really left handed. David cracked up and informed me that "Left Handed Governor" basically means the Queen's right hand man. You know, Queen Elizabeth owns Canada, but obviously doesn't rule there since she's in London. It was funny. Oh, and the lighted up house is Parliment. :0)

A little Canada action happened on this day. We had to sail most of the day and finally docked at 7:40ish pm.

Ketchikan

Day #219:

Guess what we did in Ketchikan? It was zip day. 7 lines, one killer suspension bridge, a little rapelling and one gigantic slide. IT was a little more hard core this year, so I wasn't able to record while flying through the air, but I got some shots of Sister as she came in. Fun times! :0)

Sitka

Day #218:

Sitka. All of us explored Sitka, for the most part. We walked up to the National Park and wandered through the Totum Pole Trail. It was nearly a mile up there and then another mile through the trail. Unnervingly, there wer signs that warned of BEAR ATTACKS. We were a little nervous at that point. Dad-o and Marge sat that trip out. They preferred to watch the guys fish for Salmon. Afterward, we walked through the city. Sister and I then decided to hike back up 1 mile plus to go to the Raptor Rehab Center. I thought I heard somewhere that there were Bears there. After walking this MARATHON, we saw the sign that said RAPTOR CENTER. Home for Eagles, Birds, Etc. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! We walked forever for birds?! I feel the same way about birds that I feel about fish. Not paying $12 to see birds! So we hiked it back to town. Got to hear the church bells though, so that was fun. :0)

MY Day...

Day #217:

We finally docked at Juneau and got to get off the boat. Hallelujah! Cabin fever had set in. The family all decided to go Whale Watching and Dog Sledding. I don't really care anything about looking at fish, so I wasn't sad to turn down the whale watching trip. I also coudn't justify spending all of my money on the Dog Trip either. There was much shopping to be done, so I declined the invitation and decided to explore Juneau on my own. After they told me of the dog sled conditions, I'm GLAD I skipped that trip. Those dog sled people have no running water and only bathe maybe once a week. Definitley NOT the life for me. So I set out, SO PROUD to be on my own in this beautiful city. It rained of course, but not before I got to see some of these sights. Cuz, the houses made me think of you. They were beautiful little antiquey looking places COVERED in the most gorgeous flowers. I couldn't get over how Alaska could have such BEAUTIFUL flowers. I managed myself very well and even found the State Capitol Building. I was very shocked to notice that there were homeless people in Alaska. I know it happens everywhere. Hawaii is a good place to be homeless, if that's possible, because it stays warm year-round. Folks, it gets COLD in Alaska. I don't know how they do it. However, most homeless people congregrate down at the Warf, just in case you ever need to know.

The Kim and the Sea...

Days #215-#216:

There were two very big differences in this cruise and the Hawaii Cruise. In Hawaii, we only sailed at night. Each day we woke up at a different island, practically spending no time on the boat. On this cruise, we spent the first 2 1/2 days ON THE WATER. The first day, Grandmother and I chose to eat plenty of Finnergin pills. We were in the the choppiest waters I've ever been in. We rocked and rocked and rocked and not in a good way. However, on Saturday, the seas finally calmed down and we entered Glacier Bay. Breathtakingly cold and BEAUTIFUL. Titanic Iceburgs for sure. Absolutely no way to take a bad pic here. I know I said it about Hawaii, but the landscapes of Alaska shorelines are GORGEOUS!