Summer Wrap Up: Part Two

It wouldn't be summer without the annual Sexy Six Sleepover.  This is a night in August when my five childhood friends and I get together.  To read more about our history click here. 

In short, we've been friends for over 30 years, named ourselves the Sexy Six, and get together a few times a year -- one of those times is our sleepover.  We take turns hosting and kick out the husbands and kids.

This year, it was my turn to host.  Bill graciously took the kids to his parents' house for the weekend and in turn, Bill's parents graciously took them all in.  Going to spend the weekend at Gran and Gramps' house isn't exactly a hardship for my kids.  See those happy faces?

The girls starting arriving late afternoon.  We hit the 5 o'clock mass...a must due to the "up all night" nature of our festivities.

So basically the night consists of the 6 of us sitting around a table, eating all the food we each contributed, some festive drinks, and lots of catching up.  There's laughter, there's tears, there's total awesomeness....because I love these girls.

We started fading around midnight but then someone had the brilliant idea to turn on '80's music.

Oh, yeah....

We've been doing this pose since 1985

We were fast asleep by 3am but then up again by 8:30.  More food and Mimosas!

It's always sad when it's time to say goodbye.  I'm already looking forward to next year.

Summer Wrap Up, Part One

This post is about Jenny.

My "little" sister in law who was in a serious car accident on July 7th.  I want to thank you all for your prayers for her.  She has made a miraculous recovery.

We had gotten the call that night around 10pm saying we needed to get to the hospital.  We heard the words, "Medivac" and "head injury."  It felt like something out of a movie to be quite honest.  Even though each day brought marked improvements, we thought Jenny and the family were going to have a long road ahead.  We were told it could take years for the old Jenny to come back, if at all.

Prayer requests went out all over the place.  Two great blessings....Large families and email.  Talk about a prayer chain!  We even have a friend who lit a candle at the Vatican.

You probably already know this, but prayer works.  We were lucky in this case that our prayer was God's plan.  I know it doesn't always work out that way.  But when it does, Hallelujah!

Jenny was back home in a little over a month, released from medical care....even outpatient rehab. Can you even believe it??  God is good.

So thank you, fellow blog readers & prayer warriors.  You are in my prayers as well.

Wait, What?

I'm still here, even though it's been over a month since I last posted. Crazy, right?

I'm going to have to do a summer wrap up series to summarize all that's been happening over the last month or so.

I will also be working on our BVV.  ( that is, our Beach Vacation Video)  We just got back from Avalon, NJ today and it may have been one of the best vacation years yet!

But tonight, rather than working on all that, we will be kicking back with a movie, some egg rolls, and a Smirnoff Ice (or 2).  Last day of summer vacation, People.  School starts Monday.

Over and out.

Everyday Happenings

1.

Billy just returned from a Quo Vadis retreat.  It was a 5 day/4 night vocational camp.  Drop off was Sunday around noon,  but families were invited to stay for mass and lunch.  This was good because I was very anxious about Billy leaving our nest for such a long time.  Drawing out our goodbyes was a good idea.  I managed to leave the place without tears.

Sunday drop off

I sure was happy to see him on Thursday.

He gave the camp an 8 out of 10.  Does this mean he's got an 80% chance of becoming a priest??

2.

Did you happen to see Paula Abdul on the The Late Show with James Corden?  They reenacted her Opposites Attract video from back in the day.  Made my Big 80's-lovin' heart smile.

3.
Ann passed the swim test at the community center pool!  It was so sweet to see her go through the process.  She was all like "I can't do it," and Dad was all like, "Easy Day; Yes, you can,", while teaching her some swim tricks.  She passed with flying colors and was then allowed to use the slide there, which she proceeded to go down 1,202 times.

4.

Pope Francis is coming to our neck of the woods this September.  I'm thinking I need to buy one of these.

Makes me wish I liked football

5.

Bill took the boys to Army Day at Fort Dix.  I'm pretty sure this was their favorite part.

6.
My Dad celebrated his 81st birthday.  For his present he wanted to take his kids and spouses out to dinner.  How can you pass that up?  What a treat.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

7.

I had three goals this summer.  June was to have a yard sale; July was to paint the upstairs hallway; and August was to paint the basement.  Well, my yard sale was mostly a rainout.  Bill even tried to sell this big ticket item, but there were no takers. 

The worst part is that here it is a month later and all the stuff is still in my garage. *sigh*

As for the upstairs hallway, it's been half-primed for almost 2 weeks now.  Must finish....have 5 days left.

It's not looking promising for the basement.

8.

Bill is getting transferred in his job to Philadelphia.  We are excited about this since we are both from the suburbs of Philly.  To get ourselves psyched up about it we started looking at promotional videos about the city and saw the famous one from...yep, the 80's... by Patti LaBelle.  Check this out and then you'll see why we were hysterically laughing at the end.

Ok, so wrong.  Not funny.  Just....untimely.

9.

The kids helped me babysit.  For some it was a play date; for others a labor of love.

 

 10.

 I will end with some random pictures. 

 

  Happy Weekend, Dudes.

The Gentle Mastery Of Christ

I have attempted to start a new blog post a bunch of times over these past two weeks only to come up empty.  There's so much to blog about but for some reason my mind goes totally blank when I try to write anything of substance.

Which, if you've read this blog for any period of time, that last sentence probably sounded like a joke because we all know I rarely post anything of substance here.

My mind has been occupied with some heavy stuff.  You see, my sister in law--Bill's "baby" sister-- was in a serious car accident.  We are so grateful Jenny's alive, but she has a long recovery ahead of her.

So many times over the last two weeks I've had a heavy heart.  When I think of my faith and remember that God is in charge I literally feel the burden taken off of my shoulders.

I feel a little funny saying that....obviously my burden doesn't quite compare to what Jenny's parents,  siblings, and even closest friends are feeling.  Most of my burden just comes from concern about all of them.  It can be so easy to let yourself be overwhelmed with worry.

Then last week at mass, the gospel was a familiar one.  Matthew 11:28

"Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest." 

Sounds good, doesn't it?  It does if we remember the most important part of that verse.

"Come to me."  

Because God always hears those who seek him.


So far I've witnessed blessings come out of Jenny's accident.....a family holding each other up, a relationship healed, more hugs as we walk out the door.  And that is just the stuff we can see.  Imagine all of the hidden work God is doing that we don't know about.

I know some of my blog readers are big time prayer warriors. If you could spare some prayers for Jenny and our family we would be so very grateful.

 

Ice Cream Cake Recipe

I really love ice cream cake. What I don't love is the high price when you buy them at the store.  The smallest of cakes can cost $15 and that won't be enough to feed our family of 7.

We made an ice cream cake for Matthew's birthday.  I looked online and took ingredient ideas from different websites and came up with the simplest recipe.

Ingredients:
-1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream
-1/2 gallon of chocolate ice cream
-1 package of Wegman's O's chocolate sandwich cookies (you can use Oreos, but I prefer Wegman's O's)
-1 jar of hot fudge topping.
-Spring-form pan

Let ice cream sit out for about 20 minutes to soften.  Crush cookies in food processor.
Place chocolate ice cream on the bottom half of your spring-form pan.

Microwave hot fudge and pour on top of chocolate ice cream.

Sprinkle a layer of cookie crumbs on top of the layer of fudge. (make the layer thick...we all know this is the best part)

Add the vanilla ice cream to the top and decorate with left over cookie crumbs.

Put in freezer.  I did this overnight, but I'm sure 4 hours would be sufficient.

When you're ready to eat, take it out of the freezer and let is sit for about 10 minutes to soften.
Open up the sides of the spring-form pan and lift up....and reveal your wonderful and delicious creation.     

This probably cost about $10 to make but it fed the 7 of us two times!! 

We're looking forward to trying this again using different flavors.  I think the spring-form pan is my new best friend.