Stella and Jesse

Day #273 Cont.

Oh my... had to continue with 2 things. #1 - I just found out Stella Bella Fitzgerald is a BOY. Huh... who knew?! Poor cat needs therapy. I've given her/him an identity crisis.

#2: Sister just told me one of my very favorite singers died. Jesse Dixon was just about one of my favorite all time Gaither groupies... other than the fabulous David Phelps of course. He was awesome. I will definitely miss him and his dancing shoes. :0)

Mule Day with Nick-Nack!

Days #270- #273:

Mule Day!!! That's been the excitement over this 4 day stretch. IT was the big day of the year that Skip and I look forward to. This year we took Nick. He was hilarious. We had lots of fun. It gave me an excuse to be 7 again. I bought us matching bandanas when we went to Wal Mart. Fun times! :0)

mmm...mmmm.... good!

Days #265- #269:

Just another week of work. Nothing really exciting to report. I worked 15 hours on Tuesday, so I've just now caught up on the rest and am ready for action. Action being MULE DAY is Saturday. So excited. To kickoff the fantastic weekend ahead, I made some of the most delicious smelling chocolate oatmeal cookies. Cousin, can you smell them up there? IT definitely makes me think of old times! Yum!! :0)

My Mom :0)

Days #263 & #264:

Yesterday was nothing exciting. Today, we're celebrating my mother. I LOVE this picture of her. Isn't she beautiful? I'm assuming we're at a baseball ballgame... probably Chad's if I had to guess. Either his or Todd's. She was the #1 fan of any team we or any of our cousins were ever on. She sat through countless hours of games when she didn't feel like it. She always cheered the loudest and was NEVER negative. We could be terrible, but to hear her tell it, we were better than the best. She was pure love. She loved every single member of our family, and tons of people that weren't our family. She was an encourager. She was a note writer and a picture taker. She was a prayer warrior. She was delicate, yet the strongest person I have ever known. She loved the smell of Warm Vanilla Sugar. I miss her. I wish she was here to give me advice. I could definitely use it. She was a friend, a daughter, a really great sister, and most of all, she was my mother. :0)

Happy Birthday, Cousin!!!

Days #261 & #262:

Forget yesterday ~ TODAY IS CUZ's BIRTHDAY!!!! OR in our family, birth week and month!!! Here's an old school shot of how we used to throw down back in the day. Yes, everyone was required to wear a hat. So, in honor of Cuz's 31, we're making a list of 31 things that I love about my cousin... in no particular order.

1.) She is an AMAZING artist.

2.) She can play absolutely any instrument set before her and play it WONDERFULLY!

3.) She has a fantastic imagination.

4.) She could make playing "Something" Fun. For those of you unfamiliar. Something is a game we invented when there was nothing to do.

5.) She "ran" a 10-K with me and by "ran" I mean she walked and didn't go off and leave me.

6.) She trained her dog better than most people train their kids.

7.) She makes me feel as I'm not completely insane and completely the black sheep of the family.

8.) She knows lots of stuff that I'll need to know about our family one day.

9.) She's probably one of the smartest people that I know.

10.) She's fearless.

11.) She's well-travelled.

12.) She married an amazing guy named Josephine who we absolutely adore!!!

13.) She will act crazy with me in public.

14.) She understands my utter distaste for "baby talk" and irresponsible parents.

15.) She was the mastermind behind all of our home-videoes which are great memories that I will cherish forever.

16.) She introduced me to the s'more.

17.) She holds up her end of a football conversation as well as I do.

18.) She has never found my vegetarianism as weird as the rest of the family does.

19.) She was a great 2nd half of the Twiddle-dee-dums. (Don't remember if she was Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee. Regardless, she as AWESOME.

20.) She brings lots of JOY to my Grandma. If you don't belive me, just mention "Little Jan-nelle" to her. She lights up!

21.) She's cool enough to be old-school at times, but defninitely realizes that we are living in 2011 and times are a changing.

22.) She is the only one that laughed at my Christmas Joke while seated around the breakfast table.

23.) She shares my love of wild and zany things.

24.) She appreciates the fact that I probably should have (and would have been) a really awesome hippie, given the chance.

25.) She makes getting snail mail FUN!

26.) She made our JUC club a flag. At 25, that's still one of the coolest things from my childhood. WE HAD A FLAG!

27.) She makes anyplace she is, a better place.

28.) She tells great stories.

29.) She inspires me... to be whatever, whenever, wherever.

30.) She's a direct link to my past that I am FOREVER grateful for.

31.) She is MY cousin and nothing can change that!

I LOVE YOU COUSIN!!! Happy Birthday ~ I'll see you soon!!!!

Pies!

DAys #258 - #260:

Sorry peeps. We've been having some internet difficulties here. Hopefully we're back on track. Sunday, I noticed that no matter if I never have the job or family I want, I definitely have the church that I both want and need. IT truly has become one of my most favorite places to be in the world. Love my kids on Sunday mornings and all my brothers and sisters the rest of the time. Yesterday? I learned how to make whipped cream. Yep, just whip - cream. Simple as that. IT was fun. I spent the afternoon in the kitchen with Ryan making pies. So fun! Why were we making pies? Today, we had a "PUT A PIE IN A MANGERS FACE" event. It was a big, messy, crazy event.

Me Time! :0)

Days #256 & #257:

When Sister goes home, I go on an adventure. Stopped by the hotel today to see Steve Miller. My other favorite GM from Ross Bridge was up for our Cigar Event today. He's great! Afterard, took a trip to one of my favorite little towns, Lawrenceburg, TN. Love that place! Saw some fantastic sights including the Davy Crockett statue. Fun Times. :0)

Stella and the Baseball

Day #255:

As promised, here's the dingbat watching the Braves and Extreme Makeover Home Edition. She cracks us up. She can't figure out how to get into the tv. After an entire afternoon of being into everything, she's finally worn herself out. Hallelujah! :0)

King David

Days #253 and #254:

Not feeling particularly chatty tonight and I forgot my camera in my jacket pocket at work, so you'll have to wait a day to see pics of Stella watching baseball. However, this is what I realized tonight after reading in 2 Samuel... King David as obviously NOT Baptist. How did I come to this grand conclusion? It says that he DANCED before the Lord... and we all know a good Baptist would NEVER dance. He must've been Penocostal. :0)

Labor Day Weekend!!!

Days #250 - #252:

Labor Day Weekend!! How I do love me some 3 day weekends!! I've been kickin it in Muscle Shoals, so nothing much exciting. I did go see Carson play Football and Chole cheer. That was fun. They're so stinkin cute. I did feel that I needed to remind the coaches that the kids are only 7 and they weren't playing for the Super Bowl. That was Saturday. Yesterday, my kids cracked me up. I told them I couldn't think of a song for us to sing to remember our memory verse, so we'd just have to straight up remember it. One of them promptly told me that could be on our Praise List for the eek. "Miss Kim won't be singing today." IT was hilarious. It was also Meredith's 21st b'day. The Tittle family choir sang to her and then sent her a message as shown in the pic. That's how we roll. Today? Dad-o, Cynthia and Adam came up to try and help us fix our shower because it has cracked. YEs, this is officially the year that EVERYTHING breaks. Fun Times. :0)

And the final B'day of the week....

Day #249:

Today we had Chad's birthday. IT was fun! WE sang louder to him than I think we've ever sang to anyone. Then we had a hole punch cake. DELICIOUS! Chef was extremely impressed... which is always a good sign for my baking. In this pic we have of course, Chef on the left, Rhonda, Brandon, Lisha, Birthday boy Chad, Tonja, Jessica Lamb, Rhonda, and Mrs. Gail. Fun times! :0)

Baking like Betty

Day #246-#248:
In 3 days, this is what I have noticed. It only takes a Betty Crocker cake to make people really happy. Simple really. You can make somebody's day just by taking half an hour out of your life and about 5 bucks out of your pocket. Tomorrow is Chad's birthday. He's our new supervisor. We're having a delicious hole punch cake. Everyone has come to expect a cake in Swampers on their birthday. Hilariously enough, they always ask me for it. They never ask my Master Chef Roommate even though I'm confident his cake would be about a bazillion times better. Usually it's just a yellow cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles. But Chadley didn't specify what he liked, so Chef and I decided on a little bit of deliciousness. The Chocolate Delight. You know, the chococate with chocolate fudge and sweetened condensed milk inside, topped with Cool Whip and a Hershey bar. Chef's most excited. He said he guessed "WE" needed to cook that one. Then corrected with not so much "WE" as me, I needed to bake it and he was already in the land of happy ready to eat it. Speaking of the Icelandic wonder, he cracked me up today. We were all having some icelandic water when Jim told him he didn't even have to cool it last night, it was already cool enough to drink. "Of course," was Chef's reply. "It comes straight from the glacier. No need to cool it because it never gets above room temperature." I cracked up and assured Jim Chef was full of crap. "You don't believe me?!" ABSOLUTELY NOT. It was hilarious though. I guess you had to be there to fully catch the funny. :0)