August 24th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Well I survived…barely. Yesterday was difficult to say the least. It took us about three hours from unloading the car to having her whole room organized, so I guess it wasn’t too bad. Then we had lunch, listened to the welcome speech from the college president, said goodbye to my daughter, then listened to a few more speeches, and it was all over.

I will be breaking the rules this morning. I am going to see my daughter one last time to pick up some of the empty bins she has so they are not taking up space, but it is only going to be a five minute visit. (I couldn’t take the bins yesterday because after we unloaded, our car had to go to off-site parking, and I wasn’t about to carry bins on the shuttle bus back to the car.) The ride back to the hotel afterwards may just be harder for me than yesterday was.

The three musketeers were reunited again, and they all seemed happy, so that does give me some comfort, but not much. It is going to be so weird leaving for home without my daughter with us.

 

 

 

We won’t be going straight home today. We will be taking a detour to Lanconia, New Hampshire to see friends of ours. Years ago we used to go to Wildwood for vacation and we stayed at the same hotel every year. Because of that we became friends with the owners, Anthony & Tillie, as well as some of the guests, Red & Rose; so much so, we started coordinating our vacations so we would all be at the hotel at the same time. Well, the Marianne Motel closed down a few years ago, so none of us have seen each other in a while.

When my daughter and I made our first trip to VT, we met Red and Rose for lunch on our way home, but it has been years since my husband and youngest daughter have seen them. With them only being two hours away from the college, how could we not swing by for a visit? At least I have something to look forward to today or I may have been a total wreck driving home.

I guess I should be going. I need to leave in a few minutes to meet my daughter. So, until tomorrow… hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

Write a story containing: Hot Fudge, Mustard and a Bottle of Wine.

 

“These two, three and four week business trips are going to be the death of me”, Carrie grumbled as she dropped her luggage in the front hall of her apartment and tossed her keys and her mail on the table. She shimmied out of her coat and hung it on the hook, “Food, shower, then bed, in that order.” She eyed her discarded bags and the stack of mail. “Ugh. Alright, put the luggage in the room, go through the mail for anything important, food, shower then bed. I’ll unpack tomorrow.”

Carrie hauled her bags into her bedroom and deposited them in the corner, retrieved her mail, then sorted it over the kitchen garbage decreasing the pile by eighty percent. Satisfied with the more manageable stack sitting on the counter, she turned to the refrigerator to tackle the third thing on her “To Do” list, food. She opened the door to find nothing more than a container of hot fudge, a jar of mustard and a bottle of wine. “Well what did you expect stupid, you’ve been gone for three weeks?” Deciding eating was overrated, she headed for the shower.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

There’s a nip in the air…

 

 

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.

June 30th Writing Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

We had a fun time at our town’s fireworks last night. It is amazing to see how much the town has grown since I moved here thirty five years ago. There are SO many people now!

 

Got to sleep in a little today, which was nice. At 7:30 this morning I went to let the dog out and it was like walking into a bowl of hot soup. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t an air advisory today. YUCK! Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to hibernate in the air conditioning all day. We need to run to Kohl’s to take advantage of our 30% off coupon and get the sheets for vacation (of course we need sheets for the one size bed we do not own), then to WalMart for coffee, and finally to Costco to pick up the graduation thank you cards.

After all that, we will be spending the remainder of the day moving my daughter into my son’s old room, after it gets a thorough cleaning of course. Again YUCK!! There is even dust on the walls. This will be the first time since she was three that she had her own room. Although it will only be for a few weeks (she’s leaving for college), she’s still excited.

My neat and organized daughter has been sharing a room with her slob of a sister for the past fourteen years. Now, for the first time, they will each be able to have their own room. The youngest one says the room is always so messy because there was no room for everything with two of them in there. Let’s see if having the room to herself will have a positive effect. I’m not holding my breath. LOL. I wonder how, come end of August, my youngest one is going to react. For the first time in her life, she is going to be an only child.

Since this is the last day of June, that means camp NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, so for the next 31 days, this blog is going to be short and sweet. PLEASE have pity on me during this next month and email me ideas for writing challenges so I don’t have to come up with them. christinapaulbooks@yahoo.com any and all suggestions are welcome and I am even temporarily lifting the “you need to post” requirement to have your challenge featured. PRETTY PLEASE…with sugar on top. J

 

Your last challenge was:

I’m going to miss…

 

Five days shy of my son’s twenty-third birthday he moved out. Not far, only a half hour away, but I’m going to miss his not living at home. We’re moving my middle daughter into his room, but in seven short weeks, she’ll be moving away to college, and I’m going to miss her too.

Every parent comes to this point in their life, and although we know it’s coming, the emotions still take us by surprise. As much as I complained about the noise and insanity that comes from having a house full of kids, mine and the inevitable add-ons of the “adopted” sons and daughters who come with them, I’m going to miss the constant stream of kids through the house. Luckily I have one more daughter still at home, along with her gaggle of friends, but what am I going to do in four years when she flies the nest as well?

 

You probably guessed that was coming, huh?

 

Your Next Challenge is (an oldie but goody):

 

If you can have lunch with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

 

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.

June 29th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

It’s Saturday, and apparently moving day. Not like it was completely unexpected, but a little notice would have been nice. Now my entire house is in a frenzy and I’m not feeling all that great. I was moving tables, chairs and stuff yesterday in the heat and I started feeling really sick. I guess I overheated myself even though I was only working for an hour or so and I was drinking the whole time. I felt so rotten, I even had to cancel a girls’ night at a friend’s house, which stunk because I was looking forward to it.

A pack of boys should be descending upon my house shortly – “the muscle”, therefore there will be no peace for several hours, so I thought I should get the blog done now.

Your Last Challenge was:

 

At last I reach my secret spot. The trek was more grueling today than usual because of all the rain we’ve had, but it was so worth it. I pulled my shirt over my head, shimmied out of my shorts, adjusted my bathing suit, and slowly glided into the heavenly water.  I waded out waist deep before I dove into the deeper pool, swam under the waterfall and climbed onto the ledge at the base of the falls. This was my favorite place, standing behind the falls. There was something almost magical being protected and dry in the cave as the rushing water hid my existence from the world. Cautiously I step out onto a flat rock and let the smaller fall pour down over me and let the water wash away my stress.  

 

Too many distractions and noise to write! I’ll start early tomorrow morning before anyone is awake. Have a great day!

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

 I’m going to miss…

 

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.

June 6th

Hi it's Christina -

 

Sorry folks, no challenge today. I was naughty and stayed up until the wee hours reading a book another author sent me. I couldn't put it down! So, I only got a few hours of sleep and I have to get over to my son's place today to HOPEFULLY finish the bathroom so he can FINALLY move out. Not that I want him to leave, but we have been working on getting the house ready for him for MONTHS and I am just ready for it to be done already.

 

Tomorrow we'll get to see what's going on between Ronald and the King. Until then, have a wonderful day!