June 5th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Artwork by Chris Madden

Good Morning! After two really hot sunny days – LOVE IT – in Central Jersey, we are having a cool, rainy, day. It’s a gentle rain, the perfect rain for my garden. I like when Mother Nature waters for me. Not that I mind watering, but over the winter, our hose developed a small leak and my husband hasn’t fixed it yet. So, I have to turn off the hose at the house every time I use it. Again, not a big deal except to get to the shut off, I have to go through some brush, and inevitably, I come out with a tick on me. UGH!! Something else my hubby has to do – spray the yard for ticks!

I don’t have to go into work today until one, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some stuff done for the party beforehand. If I could get the chocolates finished – well, actually started – that would be good. I don’t know why I do stuff like this to myself. I

really don’t enjoy making chocolates. I complain every time I have to make them, and swear I will never do it again…but I do. I’m pretty sure this is a clear definition of insanity.

I forgot to tell you, I picked up Lys from the airport on Tuesday night. No, your memory is not faulty. She was supposed to be picked up on Friday. Tyler got sick, and his surgery was postponed, so they came home early. I feel so bad for him. You have to psyche yourself up for surgery, even minor surgery, and then for it to get cancelled is almost more traumatizing than having the surgery itself. The poor kid!

One thing they did manage to do before they left was to visit High Point University. Lys is in love with the school. They met with the admissions counselor and he took them on a tour of the school. Unfortunately, he did not know their transfer paperwork was in already, or he would have had their acceptance packages ready for them when they arrived.

High Point University

Did I mention Lys wants to transfer colleges? Between not feeling challenged with the classes at Champlain and having the worst winter in a hundred years, Lys wanted out. I can’t say I blame her. A plus for us is, before any grants or scholarships, High Point is almost $10K less than Champlain. On the negative side, it’s an eight and a half hour drive (ten with breaks) as opposed to the six hour drive to Vermont. There is no way I could do a round trip in a day, so that means when and if I go down, it would require an overnight stay.

Honestly though, I was surprised my daughter had picked a school in Vermont. She is not a fan of the cold, nor does she enjoy being bundle up. She does not do any winter sports. Other than the school’s curriculum, I’m really not sure why she picked Champlain.

crime house

High Point appears to be a good choice. They have both of Lys’ majors, and they have had numerous transfer students from Champlain, so the credits she has earned from the “non-conventional” classes should transfer as well, which was a main concern of mine. Their criminal justice degree does appear to be slightly more in depth than the one she was in at Champlain. High Point actually has a “crime house” on campus which they use for hands on experience in crime scene investigation, as well as various other aspects of police training (mock raids and busts, serving warrants, etc.). They also have a course which focuses solely on profiling, which Champlain did not.

We will probably hear in the next week or so if Lys has been accepted to High Point. Between her high school transcripts, her SAT scores, and her college transcripts, we are not anticipating an issue, but I don’t want to jinx it by being over confident. Tyler’s GPA wasn’t quite as high as Lys’, but he’s pretty confident he will get in as well.

Austen Peay

If Lys isn’t accepted to High Point, she will be transferring to her second choice, Austen Peay, which is in Clarksville, TN. (The drive there is over twenty hours and will require three hotel stays round trip.) This is where she was originally headed, but then at the last minute, she got her acceptance to Champlain. Because Lys qualifies for the honors program at Austen Peay, her remaining three years of college combined would cost the same as her one year at Champlain, so I’m not too broken up over how far away it is. A.P. is also an excellent school with excellent programs in my daughter’s majors. Either way, we will not be returning to Vermont.

Okay, I have avoided the chocolates as long as I should. I hope you have a marvelous day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Scenario: At the zoo. A young woman. There is music. Add surprise.

Janie loved the zoo, always had. Her childhood memories were filled with wonderful adventures she had had with her parents and siblings; her brother, her sister and she, mimicking the caged monkeys, and her parents watching, laughing and shaking their heads at their antics. During college, when Janie needed to get away for a little while to clear her head, she would walk to the zoo, sit, watch the animals, and feel her stress simply leave her body.

Janie blamed fate, or the stars, or perhaps destiny, that it was at a zoo where she first met Daniel. It was where they had their first date, and several subsequent dates over the past few years. Today, on the third year anniversary of that first date, they found themselves at the zoo again. Hand in hand, they strolled the paths, wandered from one habitat to the next, and allowed the nearly unnoticed, regional music wash over them.

Daniel had been unusually quiet, and when they reached the big cat section, a favorite for them both, Janie asked him if something was bothering him. He stopped her in front of Thor, the Bengal tiger’s cage, smiled, turned her toward him, and got down on one knee.

Your Next Challenge is (from the writing group):

Use the following: Strangle, Turtle, Soup (it can’t be turtle soup)

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

April 19th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. Oh what a glorious Spring day here in Central New Jersey. This is what Spring should be like, not too hot, not too cold, sunny with all the flowers and trees in bloom. I just love the Japanese cherry trees and the weeping cherry trees. The shock of pink against the lime green is so beautiful.I keep asking, but I still haven’t received one for our front yard.

I totally forgot to mention it, but yesterday marked the one year anniversary of this blog. What originally started as a two week project, has turned into a daily “must” for me. If I can’t blog first thing in the morning, my day just doesn’t seem to ever get into sync. Over the past year, you have been with me through me winning my first award for writing. You talked me down from a panic attack over going into NYC to accept the award. You cheered with me when my daughter got into her first choice college, and you cried with me when my son moved out and my daughter left for college. You rooted me on during the insanity of NaNoWriMo. We have celebrated every holiday together. You’ve sent prayers when requested. You’ve laughed with me, and I’m sure a few times at me. All in all, this has been one of the most wonderful years of my life, and in part, I have all of you to thank for it. I appreciate all of you, and may God bless you as much as you have me.

I did manage to get some writing done yesterday, again mostly from a horizontal position. Yesterday was better than Thursday, and so far today has been better than yesterday, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow won’t be too terrible. It took me a little over three hours, but I also managed to get the Easter baskets finished. (This photo is from a previous year.)

That still leaves, the eggs – both dying the real ones and filling and hiding the plastic ones, the letter from T.E.B., the cleaning, the baking, the cooking, and the grocery shopping. My hubby’s not going to be happy, but I’m sending him to the grocery store. We qualified for the free ham or turkey at out ShopRite, and it has to be picked up by today, the dog is out of his morning chew sticks, and I want juice, danishes, bagels and muffins for tomorrow’s breakfast. It’s less than ten items, I think he can handle it.

I had a nice surprise yesterday. At around quarter to six last night, my dog started fussing, so I thought he needed to go out. I open the garage door, Colby goes rushing out, I follow at a much slower pace; and there it was, a box, just sitting in my garage. I walk over and check out the label. It's addressed to me. To the best of my knowledge, I hadn't ordered anything. Curiosity piqued, I abandoned the dog, who was perfectly secure by our invisible fence, and brought the box inside.

Dani asked, "What's that?"

"I don't know." I reply.

"Who's it addressed to?"

"Me."

"Who's it from?"

"I have no idea."

"So open it!"

"That's what I had planned on doing before you started asking all your questions."

"Can I open it?"

"Sure, why not?"

I hand the box to my daughter, and with painstaking care, she opens the box. After a few minutes, she gets the box opened, reaches inside and pulls out a beautiful gold box, adorned with a royal purple ribbon and bow. Thankfully, tucked inside the ribbon is a note.

It seems the Easter Bunny is a bit of a detective, and he managed to track down my address so he could leave a box of incredibly yummy chocolate truffles, as a thank you for editing his book.

It was a wonderful and totally unexpected surprise, and I had never heard of the chocolatier. Being a confirmed and admitted chocoholic, I thought I knew (and probably sampled) most of the chocolates the world has to offer. Between friends traveling, me traveling, and a brother-in-law who sets up candy store all over the world, I thought I had them all covered. Happily, I was wrong, and missed a chocolatier who has been around since the mid-17^th century.

Bissinger’s started in Paris, sometime in the early 1600s. Then in 1668, King Louis XIV, bestowed the title of “Confiseur Imperial” on the Bissinger family for their confectionary excellence. Their name and reputation grew throughout Europe, and in 1845 they found their way to America, when Karl Bissinger settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the past 169 years, Bissinger has received many Sofi awards, been featured in Food magazine, and has caught the eye of numerous celebrities including Lauren Bacall and Oprah.

See, this is what happens when you have a historical romance writer do a blog. A tiny thing sparks my curiosity, and I need to seek out its history. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much. If you have a chance to try Bissinger’s chocolate truffles, do so. So far I have tried an espresso flavored one and a raspberry flavored one, and they were delicious. The only complaint I have is, there was no key in the box, so I have no clue what the flavors are before I try them.

Okay, enough already. I have tons to do today, and one of them needs to be some work on FTQ. I hope y’all have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story about Easter eggs…

I love Easter eggs, all kinds of Easter eggs.

When I was a little girl, I used to go over to my neighbor, and best friend, Nadia’s house. Her and her family made Pisanke, aka Ukrainian Easter eggs. We would use these strange sticks with a medal nail pushed through the end, we’d heat the nail up with a candle flame, dip the hot nail into pure beeswax, then draw on the raw egg. After we drew everything we wanted kept white, we would submerge our egg in yellow dye. After the egg absorbed enough of the dye to be a deep rich yellow, we would take it out, add beeswax to everything we wanted to stay yellow, then dip the egg into the orange dye. We’d repeat the process with the red, then purple and finally the black dye.

When the egg came out of the final dye bath, it looked hideous. It had lumps of grey beeswax all over it, and the only part of actual egg showing was black as pitch. Ah, but that’s when Nadia’s mom would bring our eggs over to the stove. She would warm a towel by rubbing it on the inside of a hot pan, then she would take the hot towel and start to rub our egg with it. That’s when the magic happened. As she rubbed, the ugly grey wax began to melt away, and all our colored designs started to appear.

Right from the start, Nadia’s eggs were beautiful, and mine were a disaster. My lines were shaky and incomplete. I’d miss covering portions of the design in beeswax, so the color scheme was off. I guess I just don’t have enough Ukrainian blood in me. 

I haven’t given up though, every few years I get out my Pisanke kit and give it a whirl. Although they are better than when I was young, I could never make the pieces of art that Nadia can, but that’s okay. I kinda like the silly face eggs my daughters have been making the past few years.

Your Next Challenge is:

To spend tomorrow enjoying your family, whether you celebrate Easter or not.

You have 24 hours. There is no right or wrong, just enjoy. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize how someone else chose to spend their day. Go