Category Archives: Paroxysm of Giggles

April and Jack Night!

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Paroxysm of Giggles, , , ,

Ok, so I was too busy enjoying the company of my friends to take any photos. Sorry! You’ll just have to use your imagination here. 🙂

Last night, April and Jack came over with a surprise dinner. All I had to do was pre-heat the oven as they were leaving their house. We had a delightful lasagna, which was stuffed with all kinds of veggies. It was quite possibly the best veggie lasagna that I’ve had! 🙂 And a simple salad with yummy bread.

I regaled them with some of the many, many stories that I have, but some of the best times were between dinner and dessert, where we ventured into the backyard…

… and they discovered the trampoline!

We all took turns bouncing the others and as a grand finale, April jumped off the trampoline into Jack’s waiting arms! 🙂 Because we have the mad skillz and are wicked awesome like that.

Even though Spring has not yet fully arrived (or so it seems), we already are dreaming of Summer, where we can have sleepovers on the trampoline, play in the sprinkler and have bonfires in the backyard! It will be lovely!

We finished the night with April’s dessert: chocolate pudding, graham cracker and marshmallow-y goodness!

Jack was getting tired by the end of the night and ended up sprawled out on the futon at one point. Which just shows me that we are going to be excellent friends. 🙂

Alas, it was a work night and we had to say goodbye far, far too soon!

Come back, come back! As soon as you can! 🙂 Many more adventures to be had! 🙂

Cutest Little Pies Ever!

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Food, Paroxysm of Giggles, ,

Forgive me. I am eating as I type this. YUMMM!

A friend of mine posted on Facebook the March Menu for Sister Pie, which is run by Lisa. She makes breads, cookies and pies. I’ll show you what I saw:

Sister Pie

The honey buttermilk lemon pie and the leafy greens and goat cheese pies sounded great, so I ordered a 6-inch of each. We set a day and she even delivered them right to my work! How awesome is that! 🙂 She even gave me a hot cross bun to try! 🙂

Hot Cross Bun
I’m giving you big pictures so it will seem like it is closer to your tummy! 🙂

Next, the pies! They arrived in cute, little boxes:
Leafy Greens and Goat Cheese PieHoney Buttermilk Lemon Pie

And were even cuter on the inside!
Leafy Greens and Goat Cheese Pie
Leafy Greens and Goat Cheese

Honey Buttermilk Lemon Pie
Honey Buttermilk Lemon

[Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures, I have been leaving my camera at home lately!]

These little pies are quite substantial! I had the bun and about 1/4 of the leafy green pie for lunch and am stuffed! 🙂

If you want to get some deliciousness for yourself, contact:
Lisa Ludwinski
lisa.ludwinski at the Gmail
646-469-7539

And I’ll leave you with an image of the inside of my pie!
Leafy Greens and Goat Cheese Pie

Quick Quick Takes: SickieMonkey Edition

7 Quick Takes Friday, Paroxysm of Giggles

— 1 —

This has been the slowest. week. ever. I have been feeling particularly bad throughout the week and have been barely hanging on minute to minute.

— 2 —

On the plus side, I have been able to go to work, which is a blessing because I need the Benjamins to pay the bills.

— 3 —

And… I have had tons of suffering to use redemptively for the good of others. Which has also meant that I have been praying A LOT!!! 🙂

— 4 —

Although I feel miserable most of the time… God is with me through this, so I still have joy. I am still blessed and I still love my life. These things will not change. I am grateful for all that God has done for me.

— 5 —

I think I’ve been driving my priest crazy with all of my prayer requests. But really, he’s one of my best friends and gets the distinct honor of knowing these kinds of things. 🙂 Plus, I comfort myself by picturing a man-shaped depression being worn into the tiles in front of the tabernacle from the hours and hours per day that he spends laying prone in prayer on my behalf. This is what happens, right???

— 6 —

One last sickie-take… If you happen to have any intentions, feel free to send them my way! I will be sure to pray for them, especially when I am feeling crummy when, I am told, they are most efficacious. 🙂

— 7 —

And now for something fun!! I got the great (stolen) idea to do a podcast on various things/topics around the church, hosted by our young adult group: Firestarters. I roped Fr. Eric to do this for the first session, and I have to tell you… I am SO looking forward to the creation of the “gag reel”! Here’s a little taste, “These are votive candles. They are called votive candles because that’s what they are.” I can’t make this kind of stuff up, people!

In keeping with the theme of the week, I will leave you with a pouty-face picture. Keep the faith, peeps! 🙂

God Bless!

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For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary!

The Embarrassing Truth

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Paroxysm of Giggles

Here is the embarrassing truth:

Master Bedroom: Original State

My master bedroom is a disaster.

My myopathy means that I get tired super quick. Okay, not “tired”, but exhausted to the point that I can only lay supine on some flat surface. I also get short of breath a lot. And have cardiac arrhythmias. And build up lactic acid like a fiend.

So simple household chores are really difficult for me to stay on top of. Especially considering that I still work full-time and have other obligations that take me outside of the house. The general rule is that I don’t get home until about 9:30 pm or so. And then, I’m lucky if I have enough energy left to make dinner.

Forget about doing the dishes.

And laundry? It’s exhausting just to bring the hamper to the laundry room and then move the clothes from the washer to the dryer. Usually the dryer is running while I sleep. Then, in the morning, I grab the clothes onto the bed and find whatever I need to wear for work that day. I don’t have time then to put them away or fold them. When I get home, I’m too tired to deal with them. So, I shove them to one side of the bed and sleep on the other side. Eventually, they fall off onto the far side of the bed and lay there in a heap of clean laundry.

I also don’t have a good organization system for things. And I’m terrible with flat surfaces. It’s just so easy to plop something down on the nearest available surface and forget about it. Things pile up with alarming frequency. I need real help in this area.

I recently took a Project Management course where we had to come up with a project charter and plan. I did mine on a bedroom make-over.

See, for about a year now, I have wanted to replace my dressers (which I don’t really use for clothes) with a shelving system from IKEA that I can use to organize books and pictures and things.

And I also wanted to repaint my bedroom a more exciting color. Like aquamarine. It’ll be like a beach theme.

Eventually, I also want to buy a chair for the one corner so I can read by the window, replace the light with a light/ceiling fan combo, and finish upgrading the outlet to 3-prong receptacles.

My goal is to get all of this done by this fall. (Hopefully, much sooner, but I’m giving myself time.)

I’ll be creating a new tag for this project, so that you can follow along as I go (and find the thread of post among all the other stuff I put up here).

Thanks for your support! 🙂

Waking Up

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Health & Medicine, Paroxysm of Giggles
Sick Jennie

Wake up. Arrhythmia. Hard to breathe.

Exhausted.

Check phone which is lying next to me. Read text; pray for friend.

Thirsty, but exhausted. Don’t want to get out of bed, but there’s no one else to grab me something to drink.

Lay there for a few minutes… Finally, get out of bed and get some juice. Starting to think in longer phrases.

Then.

Dizziness. Nausea.

Drink 3 ounces. Go back to bed. Flop down.

Get back up.

After all, this is my life. Usually, I have to go in to work or have something else planned for my day. This morning, I don’t have anything pressing. So, I’ll blog about it. Not to get sympathy, but because this is my experience right now. I don’t feel sorry for myself; it’s true that I have difficult times, but everyone has difficulties, right? It’s important to remember other people, particularly when you are not doing well yourself.

This is usually the time when I pray for others the most. Frequently, I’ll ask my priest for names of people who are in particular need of prayer, whom I’ve never met and probably never will. They say that offering your suffering for others is redemptive for them in some way, and I cling to that. Also, just the fact of focusing on someone else, instead of myself, distracts me from what I’m going through and helps my to learn to love others better.

Later today, I’m going to surprise a friend with a gift. Because she’s not feeling well. 🙂 It involves a bit of shopping, so hopefully I’ll feel just a little bit better and be able to drag myself out of the house.

Until then, do you think it’s okay to wish for minions who can run errands for you? 🙂

[My mom says this photo is the only one she’s ever seen of me in which I don’t look good. And that’s why she kept it. Thanks, Mom!]

Sometimes It’s the Small Things

Neat Things I Didn't Author, Paroxysm of Giggles
Agony in the Garden

I can study the Catechism or Scripture, but sometimes it’s just a phrase or sentence in random places that I reflect upon the most. A friend regularly sends out different reflections throughout the week and, to be honest, I don’t read through them all. Today, however, I did read (skim) through it and this stood out for me:

God the Son, in your eyes, I am like a poor, helpless sheep whom you gently pick up and carry when I’m worn out from my sins…. I am completely unworthy of your love, but so grateful to find rest and a true home in you. Lord, grant me a generous heart.

Yes. Please.

Words

Jennspeak, Paroxysm of Giggles

Have you ever stopped to reflect on how you’ve learned words? Certainly, a lot of our knowledge is from our parents and from school, but what about those words that we learned on our own, by reading in context and things like this?

Do we *really* know what they mean? Precisely?

Maybe not. I know there are quite a few words that I only know the meaning of in a general sense. There are probably a lot of words that I’ve only read and never heard, so I’m not certain of the correct way to pronounce them.

Like “banal”. I always thought the emphasis was on the first syllable, which had a long A sound. But, I have heard many people on the radio pronounce it with a short A, and emphasis on the second syllable. And what exactly does it mean?

Merriam-Webster says it means, “lacking originality, freshness,” where I always thought it meant something like, “boring” or “meaningless”.

Maybe I should work harder to look up these words I don’t really know. Instead of tending to skip past them and remaining ignorant. 🙂

Here’s another one: Ineffable = “incapable of being expressed in words; unspeakable; not to be uttered”

Perhaps some day, I’ll master the English language…. Some day a long time from now…. 🙂

Detroit Pistons Game!

Paroxysm of Giggles, Sporting Events, , , , , ,

I impulsively jumped on a contest sponsored by my friend and dentist, Dr. Greg Elliott and won tickets to a basketball game on Friday, Jan. 4th. The Detroit Pistons were playing the Atlanta Hawks.

I invited along my friend, Sandra, and we headed to the Palace after work from Ann Arbor. We got pretty good parking and the door that we entered was *right by* our section! We couldn’t have asked for anything better! Our seats were right on the aisle, too! 4th row in the second tier. 🙂 We could see everything.

Even more impressive, to Sandra, was the fact that it was Star Wars night, and we got to see Storm Troopers everywhere! 🙂 She even had her picture taken with one:

DSCN8432
I don’t like the way this guy is pointing his gun at me…

We arrived in time to get snacks: popcorn, pretzels and soda. The popcorn and soda were bottomless, but, alas, we did not make it past the first serving.

R2D2 looks on as one of the Hawks stretches out in the middle of the court:
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When our guys were announced, they got the cool lighting! 🙂
DSCN8486

On the back of the program, there were different things that you could text in to try and win things throughout the game — to make it a little more interactive. The first one was to predict who would win the tip off:

DSCN8496
I didn’t get an entry in this one. The wrong team got the ball.

I was pretty surprised with how many times the game was interrupted when it was not a time-out or break in the game. Perhaps they were for commercial breaks…? The plus side, was that we got to see a lot of side acts and dance routines.

At one point, they showed a video of one of the players light-saber dueling with Hooper in the locker room:
DSCN8516

At one end of the court, there was a board displaying tweets sent to @detroitpistons. I tried all night to get my tweet up there. FAILED. Not sure why; I used all the right hashtags and stuff.
DSCN8521

Some action shots:

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DSCN8532

“Detroit Basketball” in Star Wars font:
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Okay, I think we both know that this post is already a glut of photos. Why not add to it? 🙂

DSCN8575

DSCN8582

SWOOSH! 2 points for Detroit!
DSCN8599

DSCN8605

It was so funny… This Atlanta player looks either scared or bewildered in every picture I took of him. 🙂
DSCN8628

DEFENSE! DEFENSE!
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DSCN8674

YES!
DSCN8676

We must have brought our luck to the game, as Detroit won! 🙂

Safe!

Holidays, Mass, Paroxysm of Giggles, , , , ,

Earlier this evening, I went out with a friend to see Les Miserables again. I still love it! Afterwards, we went to Chili’s for dinner. Towards the end of the meal, I was starting to not feel well, so when I got home, I decided to take a nap before Midnight Mass.

I set my alarm, but when it went off, I still wasn’t feeling better, so I kept hitting snooze.

Finally, I decided to get up and go. Because I really do love going to Midnight Mass to start off the new year. And because I was concerned that if I let myself just sleep, I might miss the 10 am Mass tomorrow morning. 🙂

Week 1: The New Year

I really need about 20 minutes to make it to Ss. Cyril and Methodius on time, but left about a quarter to midnight. Traffic and lights were cooperative and I made it to a seat in the church just as the last bells of midnight were ringing and they were announcing the hymn for the processional. 🙂 SAFE! I thought. Sliding in to home plate, just before the priest greets us all with a loud “Happy New Year!”

Christmas Season Header

Holidays, Paroxysm of Giggles, , , , , , ,

Why do a whole blog post about a header? Well, why not! 🙂

Christmas 2012

I — surprisingly — did not take a ton of pictures this Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. I did get to enjoy time with friends and family, at a more relaxed pace than usual.

From left to right:

Me on Christmas Eve.

My friend John, newly returned on break from a missionary adventure in Minnesota.

Katie and Lori, super kind and incredibly talented friends from high school.

Decorations from Katie’s Holiday Get-Together. (See what I mean about talented?)

Kenzie, my cousin’s daughter, who is about the cutest thing ever.

So, while New Year’s is right around the corner, Christmas season still goes on for a few more days. So snuggle up with your loved ones and enjoy them!