Reformed Grits

Birmingham Blawgers aka I never claimed to take good pictures

Last night I had the privilege of meeting up with some area bloggers for a little tepanyaki and chat.  I was so excited to remember my camera, until pushing the power button and seeing the little battery light blink as if to say, "Shuttin' her down right now!"  So I rapidly and unexpectedly took some shots of our little group without stopping to see how they looked. 

My apologies. 

I tried to go 'round the table, but folks moved over and shuffled about and before I knew it I'd gotten some really random shots of people not paying attention, etc.  

I'm so sorry! 

But I'm posting for the whole world to see anyhow...

Because I can. 

That, and I only know one person in the world who has blackmail shots on me and they are not in a digital format.  And I think she still likes me because she's not in these photos. 

Well, besides the fact that someone may have a shot of me looking down my decolletage when the tepanyaki chef dared to flip the shrimp at the least orally coordinated girl at the table missed my mouth with the little shrimp.  

But we must never speak of that again because it's embarrassing and highly painful, in the emotional sense.  And folks who know me know I do not like emotional pain.

So without further ado, here's the pictures:

Trista, Lora, Robyn, and Sophie

Robyn, Sophie, and Stacey

Kristi, Gayle (SO sorry, Gayle!), Becca, Rhoda, and Leslie

We had a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again! 
Thanks, girls!

Hello, my name is Kim and I have a problem

I know you want me to write more HDWGH/SSWTR but I have to take a day or two (or five) to gather myself together, do laundry, cook, clean the kitchen, and catch up on school work.  My dear friend and work-partner  Distybug is out of town which makes me want to panic (not really.  I'm coping.  But I miss her!)  I've been given some new tasks on top of the normal ones which make me wish I was on some type of medication, but I will deal. 
In the mean time, I find my weakness in having a laptop with internet in my lap.  If I go online, I will waste tons of time here and at every other blog out there avoiding what I should be doing.  And I can't do that right now.  I REALLY can't.
Jojo is home sick today and he has State Cup this weekend, so we HAVE to get him well. 
I will try to update the ol' Twitter in the sidebar which I'm still learning about.  I will probably screw it up so bear with me. 
When I come back, I should have the next bits of the story for you so hang in there!!!

Hiding from the washer

This is random, but the washer and dryer are going, Dora is on, and I just planted some flowers with Sugie in the pots out front, watered our tomato plants out back, and cut some roses to take to Grandma today so I thought I'd come in, return phone calls and check email.... when I found out I'd been tagged. 
Ok, mental break.  I can do this. 
Distybug tagged me for this:

I am supposed to share 7 random things about myself and then tag 7 people to do the same. I'd like to change it up a little though. Let's share 7 random things about our childhoods.

Well, ok, if you really wanna know...

1.  I used to be involved in public speaking, even as early as 3rd grade when I entered speech contests.  I won first in the school 2 years in a row, and earned the highest possible rank numerous times at state. 

2.  I can even actually still do "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley by heart. 

3.  When I was little we lived in the projects.  Word.  We have a class picture of my sister in a Head Start type preschool class.  She's the, um, pale one. 

4.   As a child, my dad was convinced that getting his pilot license would be a smart thing.  We flew a few times to see grandparents, etc.  Until that one night he almost killed himself and my sister by flying in a storm where he couldn't see. And landing in an unattended airport.  In the dark.  In complete fog.    He was cured after that.

5.  I flew (in a REAL airplane with a REAL pilot) to California with my grandmother and sister visiting my aunt's family and spent about 2 weeks when I was about 7.  We visited all the touristy places.  That's a great memory. 

6.  I had horrible hair when I was a kid and frequently was called a boy.  My mother denies this, but that's ok, mom.  Therapy will make it all better.

7.  Ok, this isn't about my childhood, but something about me that is pretty obvious.  I love to travel.  I would be in a different location every week if I could. I just like being in a hotel (well, without kids interrupting my sleep.  If they sleep I don't mind them.) or someone else's home and eating out and seeing new and different things and experiencing different places-- near and far.  Exotic or not.  I love it all.  I always wish Mr. Grits had a job where he had SOME traveling so I could occasionally go with him but actually it's best that he's home.  He really hates traveling for work so it's just as well.  He's a homebody, unless traveling for fun. 

Ok, now  you are ALL tagged.  Leave a comment telling me if you happen to do it so I can read yours.  I hate tagging specific folks who may not be interested.  If you want to, DO IT!  :-)  You too can avoid work.

Time to change the laundry.     

Trying a little widget thingie

Ok so you see the little widget box in the sidebar?  If anyone ever happens to be on this here blog, which is rare and doubtful, you can actually SEE them and where they are from.  Creeped out?  I thought it'd be kinda cool.  It doesn't show any info about you or anything personal other than relatively where you are from...
Plus it's likely no one will ever actually BE on here at the same time since only like 3 people come here.  Ever. Ok, well a couple more. 

So let's try something a little fun...

If you come by and someone else is on when you see this post, post a comment and tell me.  Trust me it will be like skinny-dipping in Alaska.  You'll have the place to yourself. 

But please keep your clothes on. 

It's blogworthy to me

***Pictures below are from my cellphone, so excuse the quality.  I was just happy to have it today! 

So I'm at a very muddy soccer field watching my pristine baby Bee mudbug Bee playing in puddles:

When all of a sudden, I noticed this lady walk by wearing "wedge flip flops" and "flared pants" carrying a "sassy handbag." 
THAT could only be one person.  When I went to go find the rest of my crew that had wandered off to another field, I saw the lady again and I noticed that she had roots as if she had visited the "hair wizard" on closer inspection.  So I took a deep breath,  got my guts together, and said, "Excuse me, but I happened to notice you are wearing some wedge flip-flops and I wondered if, perhaps, you would be Boomama." 
After looking stunned, and a little frightened, she laughed and said that indeed she was.  We had a lovely conversation about blog security and freaks and changing our names, then Sister took our picture and we said goodbye.
 
I'm sure she will be shutting down her blog soon, moving to Antartica and hiding under a rock, curled in the fetal position where she will suck her thumb all day long. 
And you all have me to thank for it. 
I'm the only freak in the world that can identify a person by their shoes.

Speaking of safety...

A few months I had put an "ad" thing on my blog thinking, hey maybe I'll make a buck or two from traffic... I looked around and went for a small, starter model.  I didn't really understand it all but it looked safe and ok. 
I just got a call that there was an ad for some, shall we say, blue material that I personally do NOT endorse. 
So I have deleted the ads and would like to apologize to anyone who had the misfortune of seeing it--  I'm very sorry; but thank you to the unfortunate friend who had the tragedy of discovering it yet letting me know.  I hope we don't have that problem again. 

I'm a safety girl

(Name that movie!!!)

Ok, well I just wanted to say a couple things I've been thinking about about blog safety.  I've heard some of my friends talking about this and I thought I'd express my thoughts on the subject.  Takem or leavem!

As much info as we put on blogs about our families, it would be easy for someone to start a database, if they were so sickly inclined, to find out about our lives.  If I put where my sons play soccer; what cities they would be playing in especially ahead of time; where we go to church; where my kids go to school; our specific hometown; their names; my husband's name; our last name.  All this information, even tidbits at a time, could be collected and compounded to find out much more about this family than I'm comfortable sharing publically.  So far, 100% of the folks I've "met" on the internet have seemed really nice... but I have only met in real life about 6 of the ones I have EVER met online.  Some of you are freaking out as I type that-- YOU HAVE MET PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE FROM THE INTERNET?  But, yes, I have.   So what if the young mom in another state who started emailing me from my blog wanting to know about raising toddlers one day wants more and more information... and next thing you know we are meeting, and it's a really a man for heaven's sake. 
Or what if I post pictures of my baby in her sweet birthday suit and find out in years to come that a pedophile has hacked them and has used them for his own sick, evil, twisted pleasures.   
Or what if I talk about my son's team and where we'll be playing and what we'll be doing and here's what he looks like and this is his name and this is his number... and next thing I know  "Uncle Joe" who he'd never heard of but knew everything about our  family when asked offered to give him a ride home and he's never seen again. 
I've gotton lenient about some things.  I'm taking down a picture or two that those that check frequently have seen and now can come down.  No biggie.

One thing I have to be careful of, because everyone that knows me knows I'm an open book-- be careful that you never write something about your spouse or child that would hurt or embarrass or degrade them.  I've thought that I need to review mine and be sure there's nothing here that I've put that I don't have permission to put out there.  My kids know where my blog is; they just think it's boring.  :-) 

I just want to encourage you to think about what you blog about.  If you want to do a personal blog, great!  Make it private, and by invitation or password only.  By golly, I have one but you will never find it.  And be careful about linking to the blogs of others who have private blogs if you have a public blog.  I'm taking down the links to all blogs of my friends, just in case.  We don't need to unwittingly expose each other.  Some people don't want their stuff to be read by anyone other than who they send a link to.  Don't post it if you don't have permission. 

And lastly, be real careful about putting specific words, especially your city, church, school, daycare, or work name in your blog.  Unsavory people can google this information and find your blog and use your information in ways you would not dream of.

Can you tell that the other night I had a dream that someone posted the name "Reformed Grits" in their post and linked it to my church website??  I was horrified!  I'm feeling a little paranoid!

Because I want you to come here and be informed

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34

Granted, this one would have been better had I known how to SPELL half of them.  I wasn't willing to cheat for my pride. 

And you will be happy to know:

35%

And last but not least...

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I've seen it all...

Well, now I have. 

Because I need an excuse to not be productive

So have you seen where everyone is taking pictures of their dishes and posting them? Great fun.  Well, only if you just are avoiding important things.  But anyhow, I'm doing that today (avoiding important things) so here for your green-eyed monster's pleasure are
The Grits Family Dishes! 

Our everyday wear:
From the finest plastic known to China brought to you from your local dollar store, and Tupperware cups that are older than I am. 
Be jealous. 
But know that I lock these in my gun safe and you will never get to them. 

Next you have our fine dinner dishes.   Yes, we actually eat on these for dinner.  Wait, make that just Mr. Grits and I as there aren't enough for our whole family.  The kids eat on the above dishes.  But then, we are just fancy that way.  Notice the mismatched silverware.  Our kids didn't realize early in their lives that when you eat yogurt that you don't throw the spoon away with the yogurt container. 

Note the complementary salad bowl in the well known but very rare "Shrek" pattern:

Seriously got those and some Tony The Tiger ones free from the produce man at Publix, and since they are really big we use them a lot.  Sad, we are.   

Lastly, we do have a set of dishes that sit in the Holy of Holies china cabinet.  These were my great-grandmother's dishes.  We do use them maybe once or twice a year.  They are handwash because the gold does come off.  I really do love these beautiful, classic dishes.  I wanted to register for more (I have eight) for my wedding but at $200 a place setting at the time, I couldn't.  So the "brilliant" minimum-wage cashier bridal consultant told me to register for something that looked close.  Then when people bought them, I could cash them in and "go shopping for things I really wanted."  Being the epitome of maturity at 18, I shared my evil plan with a friend of mine at a bridal tea.  Bad idea.  She had just brought, with her mom, a portion of a place setting of the china I was going to cash in. 
Still reeling from that one. 
Anyway, here's my "Big Granny's" dishes.  Remind me to share her amazing chicken salad recipe sometime.  You will thank me.  And remind me to tell you how she and her husband had a small part in mentoring Billy Graham early in his ministry around the dining room table I know have. 
Never mind.  I just did. 
Here's her dishes: