There’s Something About Mary

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On Day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas challenge, my sister suggested I ponder what it would be like to be Mary. A not-so-simple task, I jumped on it and below I wax poetic. Enjoy…

Anyone who knows me personally might find it laughable that I could compare myself to Mary, mother of Jesus, but I propose we have a few things in common. Though I’ll be the first to admit Mary’s devotion to God and steadfast womanly innocence are wildly different from my own, we both have gone through the rigors of childbirth—and we both made treks of quite some distance prior to bringing life into this world. Continue reading →

Songs of Good Cheer

To my loyal readers:

I am currently participating in a writing challenge prompted by my sister, with whom I occasionally keep a blog over at crossingthestreams.net. For the next 10 days, I will be posting every day on a Christmas related theme. I do not mean to inundate your mailbox, I just ask you to stay with me until I return back to my regular rhythm of 1-2 times per week. If you’d like to see both of our responses to the challenge, I encourage you to check out crossingthestreams. In the meantime, read on for a quick discussion on Christmas music and my favorite Christmas song…please comment with your own favorites if you are so inclined! Continue reading →

Dear Santa: My 2014 Letter to Santa

Lacey, Destiny, Santa 1981 Lacey, Destiny, Santa 1981

Dear Santa:

As I sit down to compose my 2014 letter to you, I wonder why I haven’t thought to do so in years past. I also find myself feeling incredibly greedy, as this has been a year of granted wishes. In spite of a pretty horrific start to the year, Christmas came early on July 31 when the man of my dreams entered my life. From then on, 2014 has been one big amusement park ride of excitement and thrills. From road trips to buying my own home, I have been walking the yellow brick road of good fortune. Continue reading →

Seven Sentences for Sunday: The Parenting Lessons for Myself Edition

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  1. When the kids are in public and behave so well that I just can’t believe it, I will never again rehash the experience with Adam (or anyone, for that matter), for that will only cement a meltdown at the nearest possible future moment.
  2. Having the Mayor around as a partner during Christmas time has countless benefits, not the least of which is his uncanny ability to remember to move Dobby the Elf into his daily hiding place—something I failed miserably at last year as he stayed in the same spot for 5 days straight and I blamed the children’s obvious misbehavior on his inability to take his eyes off them.
  3. 8 is a super cool age. It was for J and it’s working out so far for R. Just don’t tease her about having a pretend crush on Carrie Underwood or point out if she might be crying…No. Seriously. Don’t.
  4. R and I were exchanging favorites in her family journal. She asked me about my favorite book and when I wrote her, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” she responded with concern, “Your favorite book sounds sad…” Must. Remember. Their. P.O.V.
  5. This is the last year for Santa for J—she refused to tell me what she wants the big guy to bring her. She even went so far as to whisper in his ear when we went to see him this afternoon. Just a little test to see if he’s real.
  6. Lesson for The Mayor: No matter how solid your grounds are, never, I mean never, say Elsa is a brat and Anna is the one who everyone should like.
  7. Backup my pictures. I seem to have lost a ton of pictures that I had earmarked to scrapbook later—including all of J’s pictures that I took of her crossing the borders of the 37 states she’s visited. I see many more road trips in our future.

I love you all, some more than others.

Seven Sentences for Sunday: The Special Ornaments Edition

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For this edition of SSFS, I undecorated my Christmas tree for a brief moment to bring you my seven favorite Christmas ornaments. Of course, each has a back story, otherwise they wouldn’t be special…This was a difficult process, as many of the ornaments on my tree are personal gifts or are handmade by loving children’s hands. However, I managed to narrow it down to seven, even if I did have to leave out my favorite silver bells that belong to each member of the family. With that, I invite you to enjoy this little trip down memory lane in Destiny! town… Continue reading →

Flash (Non)Fiction Friday: The Birthday Edition

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In honor of my baby brother’s 25th birthday today, I’m posting something that I wrote about him 17 years ago that I’m pretty sure he has never read. I was studying in England at the time and missed my little partner in crime terribly, so I penned some words about him.  It’s amazing how far we both have come in 17 years…he a doting husband and graphic designer, I a writer/editor and mother of 3…Here’s to you, P.C. Happy 25th…I love you!

*Note: This is in its original form with no editing, so please excuse its roughness, as I had just turned 20 when I wrote it. Continue reading →

Ingratitudes

So I had planned to post this over on my sister’s and my blog, crossingthestreams.net, but we are having some technical difficulties. Therefore, I am availing myself to the functionality of my current blog and am posting it here, with the intention of cross-posting once crossingthestreams gets up and running again. Please enjoy in the spirit it was written…

When discussing a possible Thanksgiving blog topic with my sister, she said, “Save the touchy feely stuff for your own blog. Be ungrateful on crossingthestreams.” As someone who is keenly aware of how good begets good, I was hesitant to unleash such negativity into the Universe, but then the humor in the exercise struck me. Sure, why not be snarky on the one day of the year you are supposed to be filled with gratitude? I am grateful for the tiniest things throughout the year, so how perfectly appropriate to flip that on its ass on Thanksgiving and be ungrateful. What follows is my list of 5 Ingratitudes. Now I just pray I have enough time to write my touchy-feely blog before karma bites me. Continue reading →

Championing Destiny!

I was challenged by my sister over on our blog crossingthestreams.net to take a moment to list the top 5 things for which I am most ungrateful. Snarky? Perhaps. But I chose to see the humor in the situation and went for it full force. However, after unleashing such negativity into the Universe, I feel compelled to provide some checks and balances and take a positive spin on justdestiny.com.

It seems the holidays bring out our most altruistic selves. From those feeding the homeless to the PETA folks looking out for the turkeys and pigs destined to become dinner, everyone has a cause to champion. In no way am I trying to undermine the work of my activist counterparts. However, this holiday, I am going to be completely selfish and champion my own cause…for today I am going to meet The Mayor’s family for Thanksgiving dinner. Continue reading →

Seven Sentences for Sunday: The Battle of Wits Edition

  1. I think I’m going to start asking my children to respond with “as you wish” to my requests. And if they don’t I’ll remind them “I’m no one to be trifled with…” Yes, I introduced them to The Princess Bride this weekend.
  2. I’d forgotten how many great lines are in The Princess Bride…perhaps my favorite line of all time is when Westley says, “Death cannot stop true love…all it can do is delay it for a while,” something I firmly believe.
  3. “Oh no! She didn’t stop, drop, and roll.”—Ez, upon watching Princess Buttercup’s skirt catch on fire in the Fire Swamp.
  4. With Christmas coming up, my schedule feels like Prince Humperdinck’s of late. “I’ve got my country’s 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I’m swamped.”
  5. “Wuv. Twue wuv…will follow you forever.”—the Impressive Clergyman has only an inkling of the truth as I have traveled the galaxies through time with mine.
  6. “Since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses that have been rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.”—quite possibly the best ending line of a book.
  7. “I didn’t like all the sword fighting…”—Ez; “It was really good,”—R; “Not at all what I expected. I can’t believe Westley was alive the whole time!”—J

I love you all, some more than others.

5 Movies My Boyfriend Made Me Watch

What happens when you find your true love at 36 and he just happens to be a movie critic? All that you thought you knew about movies goes by the wayside and a new world opens up to you. I thought I was pretty well versed in the film universe, but as The Mayor pointed out to me, I had some major gaps. He got the brilliant idea for each of us to come up with five films that the other had not seen and we would learn more about each other through our choices. I was ready at the get go for this challenge…the only stipulation was he couldn’t make me sit through a horror film. Thankfully none of those ranked on his list of five, so off we went. (For his review of my five movies, and you know you want to know what I picked, click here…) Continue reading →