June 11th

Hi, It’s Christina –

Happy, Happy Hump Day! I know I said today’s blog will be back to normal, but I guess I lied. It’s coming a lot later than normal because I needed to get Lys to the train station this morning, and we had the chaos of two teenage girls trying to get ready at the same time…with only one bathroom. It’s never a pretty sight.

Anyway, Lys is off to Long Island to spend a few days with Tyler and family. Depending on the weather forecast, they may be back on Friday. If it’s nice on Saturday, they will be going to the beach. If not, Lys will just stay in LI and come home on the train Saturday evening.

I’ve told you before how insane my sister in law’s life is, juggling her three kid’s crazy schedules. Well, Cindy was my photographer for both parties this past weekend, and I guess she has not had the time to send over the pictures yet, but I did not want to push off the recap for yet another day.

Saturday went extremely well. My husband was shocked, but that was not the only surprise we had that day. I had a suspicion it would happen, but because I wasn’t sure, I kept my mouth shut; well, almost. I did say something to Lys, but told her not to say anything because I really did not know. The little stinker didn’t let on that she knew all about it.

Kyle

The big surprise was when my nephew Kyle waltzed into the party. He really shocked his mom. Fran was in tears. I wished someone had videotaped it; it probably would have gone viral like all the other soldier’s surprise homecoming videos. We have not seen Kyle since the few days he had at home after graduation in January. He’ll be here until the twentieth, then it’s back to Mississippi for more training.

When he joined the Marines, he wanted to become an air traffic controller, but because he is slightly color blind, he is unable to pursue his first choice. Now the Marine Corp has him training in some type of intelligence field, but he can’t really talk about it. He seems okay with the change of plans, and still loves being a Marine, so I guess that’s all that really matters.

We managed to get everything broken down from Saturday’s party and transported over to Bri’s house for Sunday’s party before ten o’clock; thanks to Kyle and my “other son” Jason, who were my muscle men. The only things I needed to get over to Bri’s late Saturday was the beer and some food. All along, I thought we would be breaking down and hauling stuff into the wee hours of the morning, but as it turned out, we were all in bed by midnight.

Brianna & Dani Rose

Sunday was another perfect day weather wise, sunny and eighty-two with a refreshing breeze. The church service went well. Dani was funny. She said she looked out into the congregation and half the church was there for her. Well, she did exaggerate a bit, but there were twenty-eight people in church just to see her get confirmed.

I only have one photo to share with you from Dani’s Confirmation. Please excuse the quality, it was taken from my phone. Both her and Bri looked so beautiful, and so grown up!

As I said, this isn’t going to be a usual blog because I’m not going to give you a writing challenge today. Frankly I’m still whooped from this weekend and I don’t have enough time before I have to get ready for work. (I have the ten minutes to do the last prompt, it’s the coming up with a new prompt which would be too time consuming.)

So, until tomorrow, I hope you have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

May 31st Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! I can’t believe it is May 31^st! Where is the year going??

Today I have to bring Dani and Bri over to the church for nine. This was supposed to be their Confirmation retreat weekend, but the house where all the prior Confirmation classes went for the retreat was just sold. It is now a private residence and no longer owned by the church. This came as a big surprise to our minister, when he called two weeks ago to confirm their reservation.

Initially they attempted to find another venue, but then Dani suggested a sleep in at the church. Everyone was on board, but then they found out there was a wedding scheduled at the church this weekend (our minister wasn’t doing the service, so he didn’t know about it). With the rehearsal Friday and then the wedding at four o’clock today, the last thing the bride needed was a bunch of teenagers camping out at the church. So, the Confirmation class is having a meeting from nine to one instead of a weekend retreat.

The retreat was a time for them to work on their Confirmation Creeds and to bond with the other kids in their class. The Creeds will be printed in the bulletin next Sunday, and the minister also gives each participant a framed copy of their Creed. It’s sad Dani won’t be able to have the same experience as her brother and sister. I really think the weekend away helped them focus on what being a Christian and what being Confirmed really meant to them personally. I’m sure they’ll do fine with the five hours, but…

Sharon invited me to drive down to Avalon tomorrow with her and Nan, but unfortunately, I have to have Lys at the airport in Philly right smack in the middle of the day. I have to leave here at one so she can arrive an hour early for her four o’clock flight. She is going down to NC to stay with Tyler as he recuperates from minor surgery.

Even though the surgery is really no big deal, when I found out he was going to be there all by himself recovering, I kind of insisted Lys go down and play nurse. It didn’t take much to persuade her to go – just one, “He shouldn’t be by himself. Why don’t you go and stay with him?” and she mentioned it to Tyler’s parents. They were all over it. They felt bad that commitments at work were preventing them from being with him, so they were thrilled Lys wanted to go. They even bought her the plane ticket, which I thought was really sweet, and very generous, of them.

Okay, I have to go and figure something out for these girls for breakfast, so I should run. I hope you have a fabulous day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

It’s a mystery…

As you have probably come to realize, I am never quite satisfied by just visiting a historic site, I need to learn the history and the legends about the site. One such place was the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Legend has it, that when the chapel was built, there was no way for the nuns to get up to the choir loft. A conventional staircase would have taken up too much space in the chapel itself, so it wasn’t feasible, and therefore, if the sisters wanted to get up to the choir loft they would have to do so by using a ladder. For nine days, the sisters prayed to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, to send someone to help them with their problem. On the ninth day, a stranger named Joad arrived at the chapel and began construction on the staircase. When it was completed, he left without saying goodbye or taking any payment for the work he had done.

Several mysteries surround the staircase other than the unknown and vanishing carpenter. First was the staircase appears to defy all laws of physics because it has no central support. Even though sources now debunk this by saying it does have a central support, I don’t think they are taking into consideration the railings were not added to the staircase until almost a decade after it had been built. (Picture what it looked like without all the black ironwork.)

Second, the wood used was not indigenous to the region. Although, it has been determined the wood is pine, since it cannot be tested, experts cannot confirm or deny this claim. The final mystery, is not really a mystery at all. The staircase was originally constructed without using any nails. Any carpenter worth a pound of salt can construct something without using nails.

 

The sisters believed the mysterious carpenter was St. Joseph who came to help them; and although there are many naysayers out there who want to disprove their claim, I think the nuns’ prayers were answered, even if it wasn’t St. Joseph himself.

I managed to get a whole lot of information down in the ten minutes because I was telling RV about this the other day.

Your Next Challenge is:

Either start or end your story with the following (random line from a random book off my bookshelf):

“She raced up the steps to the entrance of the church.”

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 27th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Happy Sunday Morning! First order of business, I want to wish my wonderful husband a very Happy 50^th Birthday! 

At 8:12 this morning, he officially turns fifty years old. We told him we were all going to come in and wake him up, at exactly that time, to wish him a happy birthday, but I think I’ll just let him sleep in. He is getting older now, and needs his rest. LOL.

My Niece Grace’s Confirmation went really well yesterday. It was a nice surprise NOT to have Communion at church. Please don’t get me wrong, Communion is a wonderful thing, but when the church is packed to the gills, as it is during Confirmations or First Holy Communions, it’s an hour long process. Without Communion, we were in and out, in just over an hour, and that’s with over fifty kids being Confirmed.

Me, Dani, Grace, Lys, Hubby

The weather actually held out for us too. We did get some rain in the early evening, but for the most part, we were able to spend the day outside. How good it feels, to be able to say that, after the winter we had!

The Baker is in the house… which means my kitchen will be a war zone right when I have a house full of guest coming. My husband loves beer, so Lys got it into that pretty little head of hers that Daddy has to have a chocolate stout cake for his birthday. For the most part, my husband doesn’t do sweets, and usually only takes a bite or two of his birthday cake, which means, the rest of us will be eating this cake. I, for one, am not a great fan of beer; and the thought of beer and chocolate together holds zero appeal. Why would anyone want to ruin chocolate that way?

Since I have the whole house to clean (around all the bins that were Lys’ dorm room), grocery shopping to do, and basically a Thanksgiving dinner to make, I should really get going. By the time everyone gets here at six, I’ll be ready to go to bed! Okay, let me run. I hope you have a terrific day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Use the following three in a story – Lamppost, Fedora, and Banana

A few years back, I surprised my husband with a long weekend in New Orleans. It was well after Marti Gras, so I thought things would be a little calmer, and I guess they were, marginally. The town was still hopping. During the day, we would walk through the outskirts of town or through the French Quarter, admiring the ironwork or learning about the history of the town.

However, when the sun set, Bourbon Street was our destination. We’d walk among the throngs of people, stop and watch street performers, listen to jazz at Musical Legends Park. We would grab a po’boy from Rick’s, and a ‘hurricane to go’ from the Calico Cat, and we would continue to meander, because the street was where everything was happening, and we didn’t want to miss a second of it.

Late Friday night, or maybe I should say Saturday morning, we were walking back to our hotel. The night had turned a little foggy and misty, so the streetlight were casting strange images, and playing tricks on our eyes. As we climbed, an image began to form under the lamp near the top of the hill. The closer we got, the more we began to realize, there was an actual figure under the lamppost, and not just a play of light on the mist. It was a man, a man wearing a fedora. We slowed our steps, and seriously debated over crossing to the other side of the street.

 

Then the shadowy figure belted out, “Day O. Daaaay Ohhh. Daylight comes and I wanna go home.” The last thing we had expected was Harry Belafonte’s Banana Boat song. We laughed. It was just another street performer. We tossed a few bucks into his jar, and continued to our hotel.

Your Next Challenge is:

You come home to find a “Dear John” letter … from your pet.

You have 10 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.