June 10th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

It’s another rainy Monday in NJ. The weather was beautiful yesterday for my mom’s party, so I will NOT complain. My daughter made the most beautiful cake for her grandmother. It was an Italian sponge cake with cream filling and icing, decorated with cream puffs, chocolate covered strawberries and dark chocolate curls. The only thing she didn’t do from scratch was grow the strawberries.

It was yummy, but a little messy because it was so warm out last night, the cake started to melt a little.

After everyone left, my son and I had a bit of an adventure. We were sitting outside relaxing and talking when we heard a loud noise. I look over toward our dumpster and see some big fuzzy thing crawling on the side. It was dark so I could not make out what kind of animal it was, but it was big. My son and I both jump up. He flips on the flood lights so we could try to figure out what type of beast was now in our dumpster. We can’t see anything. Standing a good distance away, we start to toss some things in the general direction of the dumpster hoping to make some noise and scare the thing back out. Nothing. Then my son sets up a ladder in the driveway (still a good distance away from the dumpster) to see if he can see into it. Too dark. While he is rooting around in the garage for our mobile flood lamp, I climb up the ladder with a handful of pinecones and start tossing them gently into the dumpster. No movement. My son finds the flood lamp, plugs it in and hands it up to me so I can illuminate the dumpster, then he climbs in through the trunk of my van which is parked directly in front of the dumpster, opens the moon roof and climbs through so he can look into the dumpster yet still be a safe distance away. There is NOTHING in the dumpster. At this point we started laughing like loons at our impromptu adventure. The thing must have been climbing out, not in when we saw it.

So what do you and your fully-grown children do at midnight for a laugh?

Saturday’s challenge was:

 

Thank you very much…

 

“Thank you very much.” A simple phrase, but depending on your tone or emphasis, it could be either positive and sincere or negative and sarcastic. Some Bozo takes your parking spot after you have been patiently waiting for the previous occupant to vacate it – “Thank you very MUCH!” I’m sure other more colorful words would probably escape your mouth as well, I know they would from mine. You open a box on your birthday from your great-aunt Berta and inside you find a hand-knit orange sweater with frolicking green frogs on it – “Thank you VERY much!” you say with a broad smile so you don’t hurt the blue-haired dear’s feelings. You open a handmade Mother’s Day card your children work on together – “THANK YOU, very much!” you manage to choke out as you fight back tears because you are still amazed at the precious babies you were given, at which point you whisper to God, “Thank you very much!”

 

Sorry, proud mamma, but you already know that. Now I’m not saying my kids are perfect – FAR from it. Here’s a perfect example of what happened when the youngest annoyed the older two last night…

 

It took me a few minutes to get her out of there because I was laughing so hard.

 

 

 

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

I feel like I’m forgetting something…

 

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 9th

Hi, it's Christina -

Didn't get as much cleaning done yesterday as I should have, so I will be scrambling today cleaning and cooking. Unfortunately that also means, not time for the blog. Sorry, twice in one week. Have a great day and we'll chat tomorrow!

June 8th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Well I survived yesterday without having to get out a canoe and paddles, but just barely. The rain was incredible! It started raining hard early yesterday morning and it didn’t let up until sometime during the night. I haven’t heard any official weather reports this morning, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we got five inches. It was intense! I spent most of the day with soggy feet…YUCK!

Last night my daughters and I went to Verizon because all three of our phones were due for an upgrade, and I did it…I finally relented and upgraded to a smart phone. Not that I have it yet, mind you. As usual, they were not able to move my contacts over to my new phone, even after trying for almost two hours. I have no idea why this happens to me, but ever since my first phone, Verizon has never been able to transfer them and I end up typing them all in again manually. Needless to say, I have lost MANY of my contacts over the years because of typing them in incorrectly. Since this time I had over 200 contacts in my phone, I REFUSED to let it slide, so I left my old phone and my new phone with the guys at Verizon and asked them to figure it out. Hopefully I will have my phone back sometime today.

Today I will be spending the day cleaning and getting the house and some of the food ready for my mom’s birthday party tomorrow. We are just having the immediate family, but that still comes out to just under twenty people. Everyone, please say a little prayer that the weather holds out so I can have the party outside! Twenty people inside my house is a wee bit tight, although we have had many more on occasion.

So, what did you find?

Yesterday’s challenge was:

 

Look what I found…

 

The other day I went down to the basement hunting for something. I was poking around the shelves, peaking in crates and boxes, because God forbid I label anything, and I came across an old box I did not recognize. I thought this was very strange because a few years ago our basement flooded during a storm and we lost a whole lot of stuff. Anyway, I pulled the box out, brought it under some light, sat down and opened the box. It was filled with papers, old papers. On top were some essays I had written while I was in college. Beneath them were some tattered, spiral bound notebooks with short stories and the beginning of a novel I had written in my younger years. They made me chuckle. My writing style had changed dramatically over the years. Finally, at the bottom of the box were dozens of old letters. Letters my friend had written me while he was in boot camp and from the various places he was stationed. Letters from my boyfriend, now husband, he had written me while I was vacationing in Maine with a friend and when I was in Europe for three weeks after graduation. At that point, I had completely forgotten what I had initially gone to the basement to find. I gathered up the letters, climbed back upstairs and said to my husband, “Look what I found.”

 

I only wish this story was true. During hurricane Irene, our basement did flood, and we did lose a ton of stuff, and there was a box which contained exactly what I said it contained in the story above, but unfortunately all of it was destroyed. I couldn’t read old stories I had written. I have no more copies of the letters from so long ago, and I also lost the only copy of the very first story I had published. It was items like those and the photos we lost which made Irene so devastating to us. The rest of the stuff lost was all replaceable, and in the end, it was just “stuff”.

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Thank you very much…

 

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 7th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

First thing, I want to say Happy 68^th Birthday to my mom! Love you!

Well, I did it again, not as bad as yesterday, but still. I can’t seem to put this book down! The last time that happened to me was when I read the Hunger Games series, and the time before that was Angels & Demons. The book I’m reading is The Bench by Linda Rawlins and it’s wonderful and if you like – dang, I don’t know how to classify this book. Perhaps if I tell you a little bit about it, you can classify it for yourself.

One of the main characters is Amy. Amy is a doctor who worked in a big Boston hospital; but after a home invasion leaves her sister dead and her niece in a coma, Amy finds she can no longer deals with the pressure of Boston, so she moves to a more quiet hospital in Vermont.

Next is Father Michael, a fairly young priest and psychologist who presides over the local parish and a retreat for priests who are having trouble dealing with the various stressors of their job.

Then you have Willow, a fifteen year old, who was raised by her grandmother because her mother, Marty, was an alcoholic and her father Bobby, didn’t want anything to do with either of them. After the grandmother dies under questionable circumstances, Willow is left a very rich little girl, and now suddenly her parents are back in her life. Marty goes to rehab so she can finally get sober and try to protect her daughter from Bobby, who basically is threatening Willow’s life so he can get his hands on the inheritance.

Rounding out the cast of characters are Tony, ex NYPD now bartender, three visiting priests, several doctors and nurses from the hospital and a local or two thrown in for good measure. The story weaves their lives together in a Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman meets Father Dowling sort of way. I have no idea what genre to stick this story in, but I know I am loving it! Another reason I’m excited, and I probably shouldn’t admit it, is I already have Linda Rawlins second book in the series, Fatal Breach, which I can start the second I finish The Bench. Here is the link to The Bench if you are interested (click on the link not the photo - sorry, you know me and technology). Hope you love it as much as I do!

 

The Bench by Linda Rawlins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday’s challenge was:

 

Ronald McDonald and the Burger King

 

Two weeks after King Bartholomew Burger died in a polo accident, his son Roland Burger was born, literally becoming king of Hamburgernia moments after his birth. Two years later, his mother, the queen, married Sir Edmund McDonald, and through that union, Roland was given a half-brother named Ronald. The two were typical siblings, playing together, laughing together, fighting together and with each other as siblings do; but as they grew their stations in life became more and more apparent. Roland was being groomed to become a true king, not just one in name only, and Ronald knew he would never be able to become king, for he had not been sired from royal bloodlines. By the time Ronald had completed his schooling, Roland had stepped fully into his role of ruling Hamburgernia and had very little time for his younger brother. Ronald understood this, and surprisingly did not resent his big brother, though he did vow that even though he could be not be a king of his beloved home, he would be a king in life and he set forth to build his own empire.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Look what I found…

 

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.