A Little Lighter Than Usual

The more I delve into my manuscript the more I realize how precious life is. The other day I sat there in a coffee shop awe-struck that I’m alive. God has such a distinct purpose for our lives and its beautiful and astounding to ponder. My manuscript is going well and will be sent out for review on Dec. 1.

Someone asked me to describe what writing a book is like, well, it’s a tremendous amount of work. Imagine the longest paper you ever wrote, which was probably 20 pages. And then add-on 200 more pages . Yesterday I rewrote a sentence 17 times. I’m my own worse critic. A page that I think is captivating and well written might not appear that way to an editor, which sometimes can be frustrating. My desk right now has a printer on it, reams of crisp white blank paper, ink cartridges, legal papers, my ipod, countless drafts of my manuscript, a binder 5 inches thick of notes, my flash drive, Rosary beads and my favorite crucifix. That crucifix has seen the twists and turns of my life and will must definitely be in my pocket at my book release. It’s the most precious thing I own.

I’m really grateful for the wonderful support people have shown me. But I ask for your prayers because equal to the encouragement people who shown, there are many people who have discouraged me. I know it’s only God’s calling that matters, so I ask for prayers so I can hold that thought in my heart and mind always.

Do you want to see the cutest little boy ever?

That’s my nephew Sean! I love him to pieces and can’t wait to see him soon. A few weeks ago he told me he wanted to make “cupcakes with his Aunt Maura.”My heart melted.

The other night I was writing late and made hot chocolate because it was cold. I thought it looked pretty, so I took a picture.

Then I walk into the kitchen and what do I see?

My roommate, Tala doing her homework while sucking a scorpion lollipop. Yep, I kid you not. See.

I thought, how gross. And she said it was fine because it was dead. To which I respond, I do not like bugs – dead or alive in my lollipops. 

She said it was fine because it was covered in sugar. So I said, if I had saved the hopper, dried out his carcass and covered him in hot sugar you would lick around him?

Who is the hopper you might ask? Good question! My roommate CeeCee wrote the following to our other roommate Mariu in an email, because Mariu was on call that night at the hospital and CeeCee didn’t want her to miss out on all of the fun we have while she is away.

Dear Mariu,

Tonight I planned to go to bed early. Last night was a late night and today was a long day. I went to leave my room a little while before bed, probably to use the restroom and I saw a huge bug outside of my room. I tried to run from it. It hopped into my room. Cute, right? I thought, oh maybe this will be fine. I will be able to sleep with a hopper in my room. Then I could hear it hopping and doing other bug stuff that bugs do. Then I looked under my bed after pulling some shoes out and I saw it under my bed against the wall. I was afraid it was going to get me while I was sleeping so I made a wall of pillows around me.

Then I realized that a hopper can just jump over a pillow wall. By the way, did I say what a hopper was? Its mom is a spider and its dad is a grasshopper. This is just speculation, but the two mated, and formed a super-jumping-ugly bug. This is the hopper that decided to mess with me today.

By the way, I am also very afraid of bugs. I scream a lot, or rather, I squeal in terror at them. So, I was looking for a broom and Maura saw me and said she would kill it if she could get a napkin. She is not one to be afraid of bugs. Then she saw the ugly thing and decided it was too hoppy for her to try to kill. Then we got the vacuum cleaner and tried to suck it up.

Only it was faster than us. Maura thought it had gone left towards my night stand, because she had seen it jump left. Now I know the number one rule of bugs in the bedroom is that if you see it go to the left it actually has somehow jumped without your eyes detecting it, to the right! I know, I know, unbelievable! So then we cleared out all my shoes from under my bed, and we look a lot to the left. Then I stood there just perplexed hoping we would find it. Maura had kinda thought it wasn’t going to happen, but I couldn’t go to bed until we got it out.

Then Maura said, “It’s behind you!” and of course I screamed like a girl really high-pitched like. Then Maura suggested we name the hopper. I had been calling it a him up to this point so she decided to name him Chadwick. I don’t know why.

So, we had really had enough. He had last been seen behind me over by the dresser. So this was the moment. We knew we had to do something serious. Radical. Radically available, what? So, we moved some things underneath the dresser and there was the little hopper just waiting. This time Maura knew what to do. We got serious. She said, “We are going to pray a Hail Mary and then turn on the vacuum.” So we prayed a Hail Mary, positioned the vacuum in the right place, and she asked St. Francis to pray for us, and then Maura slowly moved the vacuum hose into the position.

Then she said, “Turn it on now.” And you wouldn’t believe what happened next!!!! We got it. We sucked it up. Just to make sure everything was fine we took the vacuum outside and then checked the vacuum. Maura saw it in there and dumped it out into the grass!!! We got the hopper! We got the hopper!

All glory and praise be to God who is almighty and gives us the strength and precision to suck up the hopper in the vacuum. God is so good!!! (And Maura is my hero).

I hope you have a great night. God is real and answers prayers. Amen.

Love, CeeCee

That was the hopper and I dare anyone to eat him on a stick.

Okay, moving right along…well, I’m falling asleep, so I’m going to wrap up for tonight. I hope to post something deep tomorrow. But, before I go, guess what I made?

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I came home and started vacuuming, taking out the trash and making cookies all at the same time. I am very much my mother’s daughter in that regard.

My mom would always make us fresh cookies at the weirdest times. For example the kitchen would be a mess or she would have a million other things to do and what does she do? Make cookies!

This week was also my brother James’ birthday. James is a very special brother and I love him very much!

Well my friends, sleep with the angels and raise with the saints! Thank you for reading my blog and please continue to pray for Made in His Image!