Women's Weekend Gone Bad

So last weekend I went to Winterlude, the women's retreat that is sponsored by my church. I have gone a few years and always loved it. There are over 500 women, from 136 churches in the New England area.

Anyway, this year was a whole different story. I was looking forward to being challenged, but that was not the case. Let me give you the reader's digest version:

First Session (Friday night) - Worship (good), speaker begins with a story about a naked man that snuck in her house...twice. Totally scary, and a good example of her struggle to deal with fear and forgiveness (though I dont' think that was the theme of the weekend). Then we were instructed to just "Love on Jesus" (she is southern, but still). Some random verses were mentioned, then she busted into song. End of session.

Second Session (Sat morning) - worship, fear story about her son (again still not what I think the theme is supposed to be), hands out pillowcases with fear verses on them to women with fearful kids, busts into song again...I leave early.

I had a migraine in the afternoon, so I opted to skip dinner and the last session (tough call), but I did get up and get ready, and eventually head over to the session for just in time to catch the tail end of the talk (yes the bust into song part of the talk). As this was the final session she was pulling out all the stops. So with her PMS Queen t-shirt, plastic tiara and feather boa, she proceed to sing a song she wrote herself about...PMS. But here is the clever part (note sarcasm), by the end of the song PMS didn't stand for prementrual syndrome, it now stands for "Pray More...Seriously". Brilliant (note more sarcasm).

So that was the Winterlude adventure this year. I am a little scared to try again. I mean there were women weeping, and loving this speaker, and I just don't get it. Maybe there is something wrong with me, but if so, I don't think I want to be right.

Would love to type some more, but I gotta go LOVE ON JESUS Y'ALL

Blind Dates in the tech age

My friend Kari has a blind date this week. As any self respecting single woman would, she stalked him on facebook just to get a first impression. As her best friend, I took it a step further and went to makemebabies.com to see what their kids would look like (hehe..). The kids are cute, so I gave her the green light to proceed!




What do you think about my little new baby Erri?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

Blind Date

What do you think about my little new baby Karic?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

MakeMeBabies.com

Check it out and see what your kids might look like. Pretty funny!

http://makemebabies.com/

If we had a girl

What do you think about my little new baby Sarah E II?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

If we had a boy

What do you think about my little new baby Christopher Joseph Jr.?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

2008 Highlights

1. Moved to Wakefield in February and have enjoyed living in a lovely condo that we could not normally afford if my aunt wasn't also our landlord :-)

2. The Wakefield Lake - Chris, Manny and I made the most of the beautiful walking path this summer, and tried to run/walk the 5K around every chance we got

3. Mother/Daughter weekend in Grand Lake. While the men of the family were in Florida on business (fishing), I was able to go out and spend a lovely lowkey weekend with my mom. We chatted, watched movies, ate yummy food :-)

4. July 4th at the Esplanade with Flip & Christie (MIT side). Christie whipped up some yummy Mojitos and we snagged the perfect spot to see the fireworks and listen to the Pops.

5. Vacation on Martha's Vineyard - Chris's dad gave us a week to ourselves down at their house on the vineyard. We went to the beach, went on a 40 mile bike ride (ouch!), and had as much seafood as humanly possible. Manny loved running around the big yard, and my parent's were able to come out and join us for a few days as well!

6. Long weekend up at the Balsam's Resort as an early 60th birthday celebration for Chris's dad. Beautiful setting, historic old resort, and first voting place in the nation (Dixville Notch).

7. Christmas with family/friends in Colorado! Got some quality days in Denver with best friend Kari, and got to have a great visit with Gretchen and her two adorable girls. Then off to Grand Lake to see the family, this year including Auntie B and Cousin Chris. Great Christmas Eve party, bonfires in the backyard (with hot cocoa or your choice of beverage), shopping around Grand Lake and movies and reading by the fire in my parent's new beautiful house.

8. Stephen and Tahnee are engaged! As of Sunday, December 21st. Wedding is set for June 26th and Tahnee will be an official member of the Penta family (though she really already seems like she is ;-).

Many blessings this year, and I am sure I could think of a lot more! Hope 2009 holds as much joy and happiness as 2008.

Annual Gingerbread House

Well as is tradition, we made our annual Gingerbread House a couple weekends ago. This year our friends, Christie and Flip, came over to help construct and decorate our little house. We had a lot of fun, and managed to get most of the candy on the house instead of in our mouths, so that was another triumph! Little sour patch kids ice skating on the lake behind the GB House.

Christie's tree masterpiece. Must say our landscaping is nice this year

Chris made this wagon for the yard. If only I had a real wagon in my yard that carried gigantic hershey kisses!

Flip constructed the beautiful garden in the front of the house

There is a Christmas tree inside, but it's hard to see in the pic

3rd & Final Cake Class Cake

I have officially graduated from Course 1 of Wilton Cake decorating. They even give you a little degree certificate haha.

Anyway, here is my 3rd cake. Obviously Christmas themed. The pics came out a little blurry but you get the idea. Chris took it to work to share with the English department, so I won't have an opportunity to get better shots. Course 2 starts in January and I can't wait!

Cake Week II - Tada!!!

Tada! Here is my second cake. Last night we learned how to make different types of flowers (see top rim of cake), and the shell pattern (see bottom rim of cake) and practiced an animal of our choice. As I started today with a blue cake, I went with penguins and practiced the flow technique to make their little iceberg home.

Christie and Flip are coming over to help eat cake tonight, so I won't do as much damage this weekend!

Cake Catastrophe

I ate 3 pieces this weekend. The rest ended up in the trash before I could do any more damage!

I was weak, and will likely see the negative results, but I have to say it was YUMMY!!!

Cake Decorating 101

So I just had my first "hands on" cake decorating class. It is a 4 week Wilton cake decorating course at Michael's Craft Store, and it is lots of fun. Today we practiced dots, stars, hearts, squiggles, and the "Wilton Rose". So here is my first cake attempt with a rainbow made of stars and some roses at the bottom. Admittedly my roses need work, but they are really hard!

The only downside to this class is that fact that I am on a diet, so though the cake looks oh so yummy, I can't eat any of it. To top that, Chris is away for the weekend so it is just me, the dog and the cake. Might need to chuck it before I give in to the dark side!

Even a Great Husband Makes a Very Poor God

Iam cheating and posting one of my email devotionals. It is not a new message, but a good one to remember from time to time

Devotion:

I’ve often wished I could travel back 16 years ago and give my “young bride self” some advice. But since that’s not possible, I love sharing what I’ve learned with others. Recently, I had dinner with a 28 year-old friend who would love to one day be married. During our time together the conversation flowed freely about all sorts of things. Blogs. Writing. Leaving your comfort zone because God said so. Biscuits. You know, girl stuff. And then we moved on to the subject of relationships and marriage.

I shared with my friend that when I was single I thought marriage was all about finding the right partner. I thought if you find "the one," you'll be happy, secure, and fulfilled. I do think it's good to have a list of standards that you look for in a spouse. However, it can never be with the expectation that if you find that special someone, he'll right all your wrongs and fill up all your insecurities. The problem with this thinking is the pressure it will eventually put on your spouse.
To expect another person to make you feel happy, secure, and fulfilled will leave you disappointed at best and disillusioned at worst. Even a great husband makes a very poor God.
Only God can settle those deep heart-needs. A man can never do this. If a husband could meet every need his wife had, we'd have no need for God. Therefore, instead of just focusing on finding the right partner, let God work on your heart to help you become the right partner. The time to start working on becoming a wife is now. Before the white dress, delicate bouquets, unity candle, bacon wrapped shrimp, and reception punch, there is some heart stuff to consider:
Getting married doesn't instantly make you selfless... it makes you realize how very selfish you can be at times.
Getting married doesn't make you feel loved... it makes you realize love is more of a decision you make than a feeling you feel.
Getting married doesn't take away loneliness... it makes you realize true companionship comes not when you demand it but rather when you give it to another person.

So, what does marriage give?

A beautiful chance to make the choice to ...
Laugh whether or not the jokes are funny.
Love by folding his collar over his tie every morning.
Pretend like you don't need flowers, but delight when he buys them anyway.
Cheer him on through both failures and successes.
Tell him he's a great man everyday.
Thank God for the privilege of being his wife.

After our time together, my friend thanked me for our talk. She said it gave her a lot to think about. To be honest, it gave me a lot to think about as well.

Dear Lord, only You can fill my heart, right my wrongs, and make me feel loved. I pray that You would show me how to keep my expectations of my husband in check. Help me to be the wife he desires. And help me to remember that marriage was never meant to make me happy all the time. Marriage is a decision to honor You by honoring the one you’ve entrusted to me to be my husband. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Apple Picking here in New England

Chris tells me every day that Fall is his favorite time of year, and I have to agree, especially here in New England. Today we went apple picking and had a great time. We also managed to get some hot apple cider, cider donuts, and a caramel apple in :-)
The Group(from left): John with son Christian, Flip, Giovanna, Melanie, Aidan, Christie, me, and Melissa

The Group(from left): John with son Christian, Flip, Giovanna, Melanie, Aidan, Christie, me, and Melissa
Me climbing the tree for the perfect apple :-)
Yummy! The Ladies
The girls on the hay ride

Sisters Song on SNL

Haha...not quite as sweet as the one on White Christmas, but I love her tiny hands

Boat Ride

I have this song in my head all day long!!!

Favorite Comic Strip of All Time

My House (inspired by Gretch again)

My house is not my own, but has been generously provided by my Auntie B for a very generous rental fee. We intend to buy a house of our own some time this winter but this had provided a wonderful place for me and Chris (and Manny) while we save and I work in Massachusetts :-)

My house (like Gretchen's) is usually covered in a layer of dog fur. We vacuum/swiffer frequently but it just seems to never go away. Manny is like Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown cartoons with a cloud of fur flurrying around him at any given time

Most of the house is reasonably clean and tidy however our bedroom leaves a lot to be desired. I have had a life long habit of leaving clothes everywhere, and alas marriage has not changed this trait. I try and try to be better, but it is just my biggest struggle domestically speaking :-)

My house holds a wealth of exercise equipment that is rarely/never used. Chris started our marriage calling my exercise ball "in the corner ball" and will have conversations occasionally with it and how it is not used. When we moved to this new house he renamed it "in the basement ball" and has proceeded to tell me how occasionally he runs into "in the basement ball" in the kitchen at night when he goes to get a snack. Apparently "in the basement ball" would like to see some more action. Well "in the basement ball" can hope. Besides I don't know what he is complaining about he has "in the basement eliptical" and "in the basement yoga mat" to keep him company. Perhaps he is just jealous that "in the basement ab-rocket" graduated to "in the family room ab-rocket". Anyway I digress.

Hmm...this blog is getting a bit lengthy. Perhaps I will tell you more about my house tomorrow.

Need some inspiration...

Can't really think of anything particularly interesting to write today.

It's Monday. I am mourning the weekend.

Thinking about homeownership, and what I am really willing to pay...houses are expensive and I would really like to stay in Wakefield if possible.

Joke from Joseph

Joseph was offended I didn't include his joke in the earlier "joke" blog, so here it is.  It takes a minute to get it...at least it did for me :-) haha

Two goldfish are in a tank.  One says to the other, "you man the guns, I'll drive!"