Merry Christmas!

Well, we are off to the lake house for a fun Griner Christmas. I'll post again after the new year. Work is under control again for me so maybe I will even be clever!

10 years!

Dec 6 was our ten year anniversary. Normally we go somewhere for our anniversary, but the final Regions merger event was that weekend so we settled for a nice dinner st Standard Bistro. How we celebrate is really unimportant to me. I'm just so thrilled and happy that I love Jamey even more now than I did 10 years ago. I highly suggest everyone marry their best friend. I wasn't ambitious enough to scan in a wedding photo, but here is a 5 year anniversary picture from us in 2002 (the first year we had a digital camera).

The Palace

There's a reason I call my workplace the palace. At Christmastime they really go all out. They have the Alabama Symphony Orchestra play in the cafeteria one day. I often wonder if they built the cafeteria for that purpose because it sounds wonderful. I checked Ruby out from her company day care (see how much it rocks?) and took her to the show. In true baby style, you can never predict what a baby will like. She didn't mind the music, but she LOVED when everyone would clap at the end. She fell asleep before the end of the show which included a Christmas medley of sounds, my favorite of which was "Making Christmas" from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Next up was Breakfast with Santa. On Dec 8, they turned the building into the North Pole complete with fake snow. Ms Claus hung out in the cafeteria serving juice and muffins to kids. Meanwhile, the kids would go to the corporate conference center and wait for their picture with Santa. Ruby tried to eat his beard this year, but he was very gracious about it.

I also took this cute picture of her outside the building in front of a ridiculously large Christmas tree. She enjoyed pulling up the grass. Too bad kid. You don't have any grass in your backyard to play with!

LODO

Recently I was reading a paper about Enterprise Architecture (don't ask) and noticed an phrase I hadn't seen before. "LODO" LODO means effort and money spent on "Lights On, Doors Open" activities. Recently, I've noticed that we stink at LODO. Our trash can gets repossessed, our home insurance lapses and, to my great dismay I pulled up to an all dark house one night last week. So dark that our fun Christmas lights around the arbor to the courtyard were not on. I knew, even before I saw the disconnection notice on the door, what had happened. In Jamey and I's defense, we had a slight miscommunication about who was in charge of what. However, I would like to submit to the jury in defense of my side, who has the previous track record hmmm????? Anyhoo, the electronic payments did not work on the new house when we added it to our account. I did do the transfer and when they asked if I wanted it on one bill, I said Yes. I did assume it would keep deducting as we have setup. After Jamey's failure with paper bills, we had established a new procedure. I would handle paper bills and he would handle everything that gets paid electronically. I mentioned to him that he would need to check the paper bill to see if the electronic payments were still working and he said "Sure." I should have known that meant, "I'm not listening to you but I don't get picked on if I say the word 'Sure' after you are done talking." Well, I am now in charge of all bills. We'll see if I do any better. Power was pretty bad, but I would really hate to lose water!

BTW, we stayed at the old house (that was still paying electronically) for a few nights. Ah, I feel so rich having a back-up house! Too bad it really means I'm poor. Here is the first pic of the front of the new house dressed in its Christmas duds!

Falling into Christmas

I have to apologize for the somewhat lackluster posts lately. I cannot be creative in any two aspects of my life at once and work is getting all my intellectual effort this month. So I will continue with my series of pictures with brief descriptions and hope for a New Year of clever posts.

First of all, the new house is working out great! The short commute to work, the beautiful porch and landscaping (which really showed awesome this fall), the fantastic kitchen...total happiness.



If only the previous house didn't sit lonely waiting for an owner. A neighbor of my sister-in-law looked at our house for sale. This sounds like a good thing, but she really had no intention of buying (just wanted to look) and brought her highly destructible 2 year old with her. She told my sister-in-law "They need to get the guitars hanging in the music room down. My little girl was jumping up and down on one of the guitars when we walked in." Wha? Lots of people show their house when they still live in it lady. It is not a free for all playground for your little heathen. At least we moved the expensive guitars with us! The other fun item to transpire was a LARGE dead tree fell in the backyard of our previous house. Luckily it missed the fence, neighbor's house and our deck by inches. Still, I love that house and hold great hope that the right person will see it and enjoy it as much as we did.

Next of all, Jamey and I decided to be very careful about introducing Ruby to food. The doctor recommends starting with vegetables so they learn to like food that isn't sweet. Well, Ruby loves her vegetables, but observe her reaction to any and all fruit we put in front of her. She's a fruit hater.



On to other important events. Hoody Towel of November. I changed it up and took a picture of Ruby in one of my absolute favorite gifts (thanks Kellys!) the BABY BATHROBE. Oh awesome. She just looks hilarious in it in my opinion. No hood needed. I have no idea what's up with the off the shoulder look.





Finally catching up to last weekend! We put up our Christmas tree and instigated two new Xmas traditions.

1) Christmas Martini - Gin, Peppermint Schnapps, Vermouth While normally I detest Gin, I loved it in this drink. For some reason it just screamed Christmas. I used frozen cranberries as ice cubes.
2) Chicken and Dumplings on tree raising night. YUM!

We bought LED lights for our tree this year. Very bright but cute. I have no idea how to decorate the outside of my house. My mom is going to come help think of ideas next weekend. Maybe it will take a rocket scientist....

And finally, we partied like rock stars and played ROCK BAND, the new game for the XBOX that let's you pretend to play music without actually having to be talented (except for drums, wow that's hard!). Well, Ruby did not appreciate Jamey's rendition of Sabotage, but other than that we all had a great time and played till 1 AM. The next morning however, Jamey was not feeling so well. I watched Ruby till 10 AM then he took over. When I woke up from my nap, I walked into the living room to find Jamey entertaining Ruby as best he could.


So much more still to cover. I owe lots of pics of the new house. Maybe as I decorate it for Christmas I can take a few pictures. I love Christmas time! Buying gifts, making cookies, lots of lights yippeeee.

Ruby 5 Months

Although this post is late, I did take a picture of Ruby when she turned 5 months. Amazingly, she already sits up. I wouldn't have known except her Uncle and Aunt set her sitting on the floor with a toy and she stayed there. She also learned to eat lots of veggies (squash, green beans, and sweet potatoes). For the first time I realized she actually discerns me from everyone else. No, not by smiling sweetly or cooing in happiness when she sees me, but by making a terrible face when I picked up a baby boy at daycare and talked to him. Well, I'll take what I can get. She also likes to pretend to walk, but is abysmal at trying to crawl. Should get interesting in this next month!

Gobble Gobble

We had a great Thanksgiving! Ruby is sufficiently spoiled for all future Thanksgiving. While the food was good, if unremarkable, the setting was awesome. Thanks to Jamey's work with Beachguide we stayed with his family at a beautiful house in Destin Point. I highly recommend the Oasis for a great family trip.

The heated pool and spa made the cold weather no problem! Ruby loved getting in the pool. (I learned about swim diapers which are very cool.)

Playing with her cousins made her never want to sleep. The first two days, she was so afraid of missing something that she would strive to stay awake at all times.

She also got to have her first lemon which she loved and munched on contentedly.

Jamey was a hit with all the nieces and nephew as they played countless games. Bohnanza was a big hit and will probably be our Christmas gift to Taylor (the nephew, yeah it gets confusing. I also have a niece named Taylor on my side of the family.) Hope you guys all had nice Thanksgivings as well. Now if I could just find a few million to buy that house, we would be at the beach all the time. Ah well, I am all for temporarily renting a better way of life than I can actually afford to own.

First Food

I was out of town last weekend. Lots to catch up on!

We gave Ruby her first food other than cereal recently. I thought of starting with one of my favorite foods, but she seemed confused.

So we went with the doctor reccomendation of carrots. She wasn't sure at first...



Then she attacked them like Godzilla.

Curried Scallops Recipe

Recently, I had to throw together a dinner quickly. After a quick inventory, I decided on curried scallops. (this gives you an idea of my pantry staples) The result was delicious! I gave the recipe to Yvonne. She tried it with less successful results. Looking at it later, I realized I barely followed the recipe. So here is the altered Cooking Mama approved version.

1 pound frozen sea scallops (I also used some frozen shrimp)
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup salt
3 tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon curry powder (use your favorite, I LOVE Penzy's Hot Curry Powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup coconut milk

Put some warm water in a bowl. Add sugar and salt. Dissolve. Add cold water to the bowl. Add scallops. Let scallops defrost in bowl. Drain.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until melted.
Throw in the scallops and saute 4 to 5 minutes [until white]. Remove scallops.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the same pan. Cook garlic, flour, curry powder and salt over medium-high [medium] heat, stirring constantly, until bubbly.

Remove from heat. Stir in chicken broth and coconut milk. Put back on the medium-high setting. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute.

Stir in scallops. Heat about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice. I served with risotto rice that I had cooked in the microwave with some chicken broth.

Happy Halloween!

What do Ruby and a cup of Starbucks coffee have in common?
1. They can keep me awake at night.
2. They perk me up early in the morning.
3. They both could be yours for $1.79




The way I see it #614
I get my black feet from mommy.
Daddy takes me to motorcycle rides.
I manage monkeys all day.
I am a happy baby except when I am not.
Brains...not that I can say that yet.
-Ruby
The Princess of Cake

Kudos to Yvonne and Evan for making the awesome costume! Maybe I'll devote a blog entry to each sentence. I already have the brains down.

Hoody Towel of October!

Pumpkin Carving Party

In our ongoing Halloween celebrations this year, we also attended some friends annual pumpkin carving party. I carved the scary baby pumpkin.


Jamey faced his greatest fear and carved a clown.


Here is the entire group.

Boo!

We celebrated Halloween as hard as we could over the weekend. Friday night we went to Boo, a party in town for the Leukemia Society. I got out my sewing machine and did a two tailed Starbucks mermaid. I don't think anyone got it all evening, but I feel it also doubled as a disco queen. Our entire group did a theme of Advertising Icons.

From left to right we have Shoney's Big Boy, Travelocity Gnome, Starbucks Mermaid, Sunmaid Raisin girl, Jolly Green Giant, Absiunthe Fairy, Count Chocula, Chef Boy Ardee, Gordon Fisherman. Not pictured are Chick-fil-a cow, Morton Salt Girl and Brawny man (sorry ladies)

Surprising chick magnet costume of the year goes to...



But the competition was FIERCE!

Ruby wants Brains!

A few weeks ago we watched Flight of the Living Dead. Not the best zombie movie ever but surprisingly not bad. Unfortunately, Ruby's room even though it is two floors above were we watch movies, gets the sound. Since we watched that movie, she has switched from the sweet "a-goo" noises to hisses and grunts that can only be described as zombie like. You can see for yourself.



I had a better video but it was too big. Maybe this will give you a sample. Testing.

What's a seven letter word for family gathering?

The annual Griner reunion was Oct 16th. It is always strange to see how few of Dad's relatives actually left their hometown. Grandma's house has not physically changed much since I was a kid, but it is definitely odder. Other houses used to surround my grandmother's house, but a large church bought all of them so now it is surrounded by a parking lot. My uncle cares for my grandmother and his son (30) lives there with them as well. My uncle was always very quiet when we were growing up so he is quite hard to get to know. I know he likes Conan novels, music and can't hear very well. That's about it. When we went to visit this time I was impressed with
1) The decor. My uncle enjoys watching HGTV. I'm not sure which show caught his interest but his interpretation of good design is, uh, interesting, to say the least. Four shades of green decorate the walls (where you can see walls). What's that you ask? Why can't you see the walls? I'm glad you asked. There are logs and bows covering them up. No not fabric bows although there is some of that too. I mean bow and arrow bows.
2) The lifestyle. The kitchen and living room are now separated by plywood. You might wonder why. Well, it's so they only have to run one air unit to cool the house. Makes sense you think. Until you find out a bit more. It's not just an unairconditioned kitchen. It's an unused kitchen. My uncle spends his day shooting his bow outside and then cooks outside before retiring in for the evening. I wonder what the churchgoers think of that as they walk to and from their cars? Well, he can live however he wants if he takes care of my grandmother.

The house has always been a bit weird (sorry Dad). My dad and grandfather built it over the course of seven years. My grandmother got so fed up with waiting for the new house, she moved the family one day while Papa was asleep. There were only two problems with her plan. First of all, the house wasn't finished so there was a large pit walled with cement blocks we always had to avoid as kids. (That is still there, but they put a wood platform over 1/5th of it and my uncle cooks there now.) The second problem was that my dad was away at college and no one notified him of the move. This must be a common occurance in the late 60s since the same thing happened to my mother. Thanks for not moving without telling me mom and dad!

Well, I love my dad's colorful family. The family farm is always interesting to me. My grandfather's story is that his great grandfather (or some such, I'm sure my dad has the details) was migrating south (a really long story as to why) and the wagon broke down. Obviously, it was ideal place to settle. Forget the fact that they decided to farm....and it was sandy land... Well, hardship can make the most of some people. I'm very proud of my dad for growing up immersed in all this and deciding to throw it all behind him and go to college and major in Physics. It certainly took no thinking outside the box for me to decide to go to college and I never had to worry about paying for it.

Another thing we learned. How do you entertain a large group if kids for awhile? Two bales of hay and some candy. Other activities included beach time. Ruby seemed ambivilant about her first beach experience. The red tide was bad and actually made us all cough. I didn't realize it could do that.

Four Months

Ruby hit the four month mark his month. As you can see, she continues to grow LONGER. Her pajamas are 9-12 month sizes these days to fit her long legs and big feet. Her four month doctor's appointment was great. They weighed her 3 times because they couldn't believe how big she was. They also keep measuring her head. I think they think it is too small for her weight, but they don't tell new parents that. Jamey's mom pointed out that she doesn't have a small head, she just has a very oddly shaped one.

The doctor asked if Ruby is rolling over yet. I said "No." He said she would start very soon and I should never turn away from her while she is on an elevated surface. As he says this he mimics turning away and Ruby rolls over! The doctor and I both laughed and praised Ruby her grand feat. Jamey is very disappointed that she rolled to the wall instead of off the table. There are probably big bucks in having a baby roll off the table while the doctor demonstrates how NOT to turn away.

After the doctor visit, we experimented with giving Ruby cereal. She did not appreciate it at first even though it was so watered down with formula I wondered how she knew the difference. She stuck her tongue out of her mouth and wouldn't put it back in. Once she finally did, she seemed to decide it was OK. In her defense, the only other taste she had ever had was Dom Perignon (her pacifier dipped in it) celebrating the night we bought the new house.

Cooking Dada?

Is there anything sexier than a man cooking and taking care of a baby at the same time? Of course, this was before we moved when we had time for such niceties like cooking. Now we eat sandwiches and struggle to empty boxes.

I still promise more on the new house. For now, I can tell you about the move (which I didn't take any pictures of). The move was far worse than I expected. It sounds small, we are just moving some furniture and leaving most of it to sell the old house. However, there is no such thing as a small move! Luckily my great friends jumped in and helped out. Evan and Yvonne particularly so as they spent 4 nights with us after the initial move getting the old house ready to sell. At one point (trip 3, I think) Jamey turned to Yvonne and said "Does it comfort you to know that the person who is in charge of your schedules so badly underestimated the move?" Why that may, indeed, petrify my coworkers, I would like to point out that it cost the same (which will please upper management to hear no doubt).

Pics of the new house, Ruby's new language, beach and reunion stories all to come!

Robbed!

Yes! This was important enough to go back in time and post (Actually, I don't have time to download the backlog of pictures from my camera tonight but have the urge to blog.)

I was robbed. My Kit Kat was missing the cookie on one side, which begs the question, which part is the Kit?

Hoody Towel of September

So many old blogs to catch up on! Here is September's hoody towel.

Same Great Taste

Due to difficulties with my old account, I've started this new one. Please reference http://www.cooking-mama.blogspot.com/ for earlier posts.