Say What?

I found this test on Deb's site. Evidently the two of us have nothing in common except that we do not necessarily agree with the results of this test!

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Fun Monday - Happy Birthday!

This week’s hostess is Deborah from The Humble Housewife. Her request?

“I want to hear about or see a holiday tradition, recipe or event. It can be any holiday you like or that is special to your family. With Thanksgiving and the Winter holidays coming up, those would be especially apt, but anything that is special for your family is fine. If you have pictures - it's a bonus! Whether it's your Mom's famous stuffing recipe, going caroling on Christmas Eve, Diwali dances, or even the inevitability of Great Aunt Polly having one too many brandies and knocking over the Christmas tree - I want to hear about it!!!”

My very favorite Christmas tradition is one that I started when my girls were little.

At my mom’s, on Christmas, we always had 3 desserts - pumpkin pie, rhubarb pie, and prune cake. The prune cake was my sister’s favorite and since it was her birthday, Mom always made prune cake.

When my oldest daughter was 3 and my youngest daughter was 2 months old, I started serving Baby Jesus’ birthday cake for Christmas dessert. It is His birthday, after all.

By that point, my mom and I were splitting the Christmas Eve/Christmas Day dinner so, whichever one I was cooking, we had birthday cake, not for my sister, but for Baby Jesus, for dessert.

When I was a mom with a house, this is the cake I made.

It's a two layer Jello poke cake, 1 layer red and 1 layer green.

I was unaware how much of an impression Jesus' birthday party was making on my kids till someone asked my daughter, when she was in 4th grade, what her favorite Christmas carol was. Her answer? “Happy Birthday to You”.

When the girls were older, my husband and I drove truck cross-country for a living. That’s when I discovered this wonderful cake. I had it delivered to whoever was hosting dinner that year and, in good years, to everyone on my gift list, with “Happy Birthday, Jesus” written on the card and the cake.

So, there you have it - my most favorite Christmas tradition. My kids and grandkids are sure of two things at Christmastime - they will receive a hardback book as their Christmas gift and dessert will be birthday cake for Baby Jesus.

On a side note: last year our Church was providing dessert for the inmates at the county jail. I ordered a birthday cake from our local bakery to be decorated with “Happy Birthday, Jesus” and delivered. One of the jailers called me and asked if I had any clue how many “Jesus”’ there were currently incarcerated. I didn’t. He told me. I drove down to the jail with my frosting tube and changed the cake to “Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus”. One of the jailers got the piece with Jesus' name on it to avoid a Christmas riot!

Pumpkin Carving

Ouch

My grandson was standing in front of my desk, reading a library book. His mom (that would be my daughter) was in the adjoining office.

I stretched my arms up, noticed a bruise and asked her why she hurt me. She maintained her innocence.

I asked lil man, "Did you hurt me?"

"No."

"How can you be sure?"

"I don't hurt old people."


PS: His mom did make him apologize for being rude.

7 random things

I have been tagged by Maria of Jubilee on Earth to reveal 7 random things about myself.

I seriously thought about letting y'all know that I love kids and dogs but I thought you might already have figured that out. So, without revealing enough to let the phishers steal me, here goes:

1. I could, at one time, shoot Jose Cuervo like you would NOT believe (27 in one night was the record and no, I did not get sick). Practice does make perfect.

2. I love to drive REALLY fast. I know it's not safe, etc. I don't do it as often as I used to. I just love to drive REALLY fast!

3. My most embarassing moment? Sophomore year of high school, hiding behind the curtains on the stage in the gym/auditorium with some friends watching the guys practice basketball. Does anybody else remember when basketball shorts were short? The stage lights were at the front of the stage with some sort of wooden, hinged covers. Yep, fell through the stage lights, got stuck, and the team coach, with all of the team standing around, had to help me out.

4. My nickname as a child was "faucet face". Go figure.

5. I am scared to death of fire.

6. My natural hair color is actually pretty close to the color I used to dye it all the time. For years, I tried to get the color I already had. What a dingdong. Maybe it was looking in the mirror with those Jose Cuervo eyes.

7. I was raised Catholic, deserted the Church for 28 years (of course I thought they had deserted me) and when I reverted, went to confession. The church did not explode, Father's head did not spin around, and he still looks at me when he talks to me. Life is good.

OK, I am now supposed to tag 7 people. So check your comments, folks. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Fun Monday! Don't leave home without it!

Today’s Fun Monday hostess is the very lovely and candid Karina. Karina wants to see our security blanket. She wants to know just what it is that we can’t leave home without.

I always carry a purse. It contains the usual junk – a wallet, 2 checkbooks, a nail file, 3 sets of keys, 2 phones, old receipts, numerous pens, none of which I can find when I need to write something, letters, stamps, rosary beads, and often a paperback book.

I work in an office but a lot of my work is done outside. I am in and out for the better part of the day. I leave my purse either in my office or locked in my car. I carry the absolute necessities in my pants pockets. My, how feminine that sounds!

Anyway, my left rear pocket is empty. My right rear pocket has money in it. My right front pocket has 2 sets of keys (1 for the office building and 1 for the exterior padlocks on the fences). My left front pocket has these:

They are sacrifice beads. I received them when I started the

“Light Weigh”.

It’s a Catholic scripture study which, if done properly, results not only in a closer relationship with God, but in weight loss. It’s like the popular “Weigh Down” program but with a Catholic bent. Hence the beads. There should be a crucifix at the end opposite the St. Therese medal but my beads need a little serious reconstruction.

These beads were first made popular by St. Therese of Lisieux (the Little Flower). St. Therese believed that there is no act that is small if it is offered to God and joined with the sacrifice of our Lord. Before she made her First Communion, her older sister gave her beads such as these so that she could keep track of all of her little sacrifices.

It is not really scorekeeping; it just brings me to a greater awareness of and union with God. These beads, which, since there are ten of them, can also double as a rosary in a pinch, are what I always have with me.

They are my touchstone during a busy day and a reminder of who I truly am.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl

A few years back (OK, a few more than a few), I was in the middle of a divorce, my oldest child was staying with my sister because my head had come temporarily unglued and I was 10 1/2 months pregnant, living with my parents. Oh yeah, life was grand.

I woke up in the middle of the night in labor. My mom worked graveyard shift at the local hospital and my dad was at home. The hospital I needed to go to (insurance issues, don't you know?) was 60 miles away in the BIG CITY. There was NO way I was waking my Dad, the functioning alcoholic, horrible, terrible driver with the dirty, nasty, used for construction, reeking of beer and cigarette smoke pickup truck to drive me to the hospital.

It was a little after 6. Mom got off at 7. All would be fine.

I forgot that it was the day Mom got her hair done.

Mom got home between 10 and 11 and asked how long I'd been up. I told her since 6:34. She asked how long I'd been in labor. I told her a while longer than that.

Did I mention that I was in labor with my first child for 4 hours?

We got in the car - the 3 day old Ford Grenada. If you do not remember the Grenada, it is because God loves you. This car was SO underpowered it was unbelievable. My mother had always driven big Fords - big gas-guzzling Ford V8s that could GO! Then my first husband was killed in a car accident, we all lost our minds temporarily and went for safety and conservatism and really crappy cars. Anyway, as we were driving to the Big City, me with very little sleep and Mom with no sleep, she kept telling me that if I ruined her upholstery, she would kill me and I kept telling her to put her foot in it then and it wouldn't be a problem and a Volkswagen Beetle, a friggin' VW Bug, passed us. It was mortifying.

We got to the hospital. They checked me over, told me I was not in labor and to go home. I told them I was in labor and that, since home was 60 miles away, I was not going home. They very snottily decided to put me in a labor room and said that they would check on me in a few hours.

Mom made sure that I was settled and went to lay down for just a bit in the waiting room. This, obviously, in the days before "birthing suites". Well, long story short, 3 hours later they came back to check on me and barely had time to wake Mom up.

They wheeled me into delivery and the same rocket scientist who had decreed that I was not in labor was exhorting me to "Wait till I get my gloves on!" He got his gloves on and my mother got there just in time to welcome the child of my heart.

Happy Birthday, Baby. Know that you are loved.