Happy Easter Everyone. We All have given birth to a Baby Giraffe. Life is Back to Normal

Happy Resurrection Sunday to all my Christian readers.  Happy Easter to everyone else. 

Fresh Flowers (c) 2015
P.Lynne Designs

I normally do not write anything on a Sunday.  Sunday for me is a day of rest, going to church, and being with friends and family.  I am going to be honest about the reason behind writing in this moment. (Grammarly is going to have a field day with that last sentence.  I do not care at the moment, LOL)

Ladies, do you feel like you have just given birth to a 6-foot baby?  I do, and I will tell you why.  In case you have been living under a rock since February, April the giraffe finally had her baby.  It is a boy, and all the world can now say, “Awww, isn’t him cute”.  (Yes Grammarly, I meant to say that.  It is not proper English, but I meant it-It’s called baby talk). 

There have been plenty of, “when is she having that thing?” “I could have given birth to 4 kids by now.”  We were pacing more than Oliver, the father of said baby boy giraffe.  We were giving tips on how April should have her baby, April baby showers (after all, what would you get a giraffe who has everything), and tips on feeding.  

Folks, I have some news that will startle anyone …. wait for it…. still waiting?  It’s going to be good… Still waiting ….

ANIMALS THINK DIFFERENTLY THEN HUMANS!!!!

There I said it.  Think of it this way, you would not want someone to come into your home, be on baby watch, tell you how to have a baby, and then tell you how to take care of it.  Would you?  Animals are on that natural rhythm cycle that only God has given them.  God knew when this baby was to be born.  Yes, it is fascinating to watch.  I was watching myself for a while.  At the times I was watching, April was pacing back and forth.  Was she in pain?  You bet she was, and she said it through body language.  Oliver, the father was pacing back and forth, like human males do when they want to know what is going on with their child.  The difference between a human birth and a giraffe birth is a human female carry the baby for 9 months.  Giraffes, on the other hand, carries their baby for 15 MONTHS!!! Ladies, how would you like to be pregnant for that long?   My tummy hurts as I write this. Those of you who had kids, can you see yourself carrying a baby for that long?  I asked my mom two seconds ago, and all I heard at the other end of the phone were crickets, LOL. I can only imagine the look on her face when I asked that question.  So relax now, Oh wary one, you can go back to normal life as you know it to be.   

Easter Frantic-How not to take a picture and how to make a basket.

I already have it posted on Instagram, but this is what My Easter Saturday looked like….

Easter Saturday with the kids
(c) P.Lynne Designs

I decided about 20 years ago to make Easter baskets for the kids.  I started first with my baby sister and my oldest nephew (who are now 29 and 21), then it went to the niece and nephews from there.  I love doing it, but you will never see this practice in my shop, P. Lynne Designs, at least not yet.  It is worth every penny that I spend, and I love doing it.   I have scaled down the production, but for my sister and nephew, I had candy, something specific to them personally, and a stuffed animal.   This year, for the niece and nephews, no stuffed animal was included, something specific to their personally, a fire truck for the boys, and the girl got a mermaid doll and some candy.  We did not dye eggs this year.  This is the reason why I decided to make Easter baskets:

Have you seen the price of an Easter baskets lately?  No, seriously, you can pay a credit card bill for the month for the amount you pay for this stuff.  This year, everyone’s stuff came from Dollar Tree.  This is not a sponsored post, but man, I could kiss the person behind the “everything’s is $1” concept.  In recent years, I would go to Target and go for it, and I will admit that next year’s baskets will contain part Dollar Tree/part Target items (The Target Dollar spot is really legit).   

·        

Sorry for being a little with this picture...
(c) P.Lynne Designs

Get a basket, any basket (one was a Longaberger basket, one was a baseball fabric basket, and two pail buckets)

·         Go to the party store and get PAPER filler for grass, none of that plastic mess.  

o   Plop at the bottom of the basket. 

·         Fill with candy, a few eggs (make sure you boil and dye first), a couple toys they like (please do not put a whole basketball in there)

o   If they are older (pre-teen, teen, or adult), put something age appropriate for them.

·         Wrapping is optional (this is not a Christmas or birthday present), and let them enjoy. 

The best part is if you are a grandparent or aunt or uncle, you do not have to see them on a sugar high, send them home with parents.  Your job is done.

So, Happy Easter, everyone, you gave birth to a baby RAFFY, and you children are on a chocolate Easter Bunny sugar high.   You survived shopping for new Easter clothes (I will tell you about my bad Easter Dress hunting later), and now you can rest and enjoy your dinner that took only 14 hours to cook, but hey, it is all worth the effort, isn’t it?

Frantic Friday: Lessons on Adulting, The Tax Edition

TAX TIME! (c) 2017 P.Lynne Designs

There May be Affiliate Links

Today, I am presenting to you, my reading audience, a double dose of pure adventure in my journey of learning new things in 2017: Lesson #3: adulting the tax way.

I am not claiming to be an expert on this topic because there is no right way of doing things.  This is Patricia’s way, the only way I know how to adult with this.

For those of you who read this blog from other countries, April is tax month in the States.  Now there are two ways you can go about this mandatory task in adulthood:  Deal with it, or cry, then deal with it.  Either way, you deal with it, like death (the whole non-avoidance thing of “Death and Taxes”).  My suggestion is to pull up your big girl/big boy pants and deal with it.  I tried the crying method.  It does not work.  You can avoid going to the dentist, avoid getting married, or even having a child, but you cannot avoid death and taxes.  I am not sure how your country deals with taxes, but something tells me that taxes, like death, is unavoidable. 

I have two types of taxes to file, as a person and as a business person.  Now I can avoid filing as a business person.  It is simply, to not have a business.  I can simply go to work like a normal employee, and file the personal portion for taxes.  I have done that since the age of 18.  It is only the last 16 years I have filed both personal and business taxes.   Thanks to the calendar this year, everyone has an extension to April 18^th to file their taxes, which is due to April 15^th being on a weekend and it is also Easter.

I thank God that I have an accountant, who takes care of the filing for me.  I had my tax “adulting” appointment today.  I know, procrastination at its finest.  This should have taken care of it the first of February.  Yes, February.  You have 3 months, 2 weeks to file your taxes.  Between me being sick, my mom being sick, and me pulling the covers over my head, screaming, “I do not want to adult today”. This lead to this procrastination.  I also thank God for my accountant taking me at the last minute.  I called her yesterday, LOL.  Oh, did I tell you that I and my dad have the same accountant?  Yes, that is how I got her in the first place, three years ago.  No, it is not my mom.

Lunch, the hard way.

So, I made my appointment on time, and after my accountant went over my information, discussed hair and her up and coming trip, as well as my up and coming trip (that how close we have gotten in the 3 years), I left and wanted to try something new for lunch.  I had heard about these Poke bowls that have swam ashore to the Mainland from Hawaii, and there was a place Downtown Columbus that sold them there. Since I like sushi, I thought I would give it a go.  OK, here is how I got a Poke bowl in Downtown Columbus:

Drove down Oak Street, ran into construction, made a left on Third, ran into a problem, and sat for a minute (downtown traffic is no joke around here), made my way to High Street.  Drove High Street to Gay Street, turned right.  Looked for the place (which was at 100 Gay Street). I saw that I had no place to park, so decided against it, decided to feed the car instead.  Drove back home (at least to a gas station near my home), filled up the car.  While waiting for the gas to go into the tank, I noticed that the people who fixed my car did not wash it, so after the car finished eating, I drove down to get the car washed.  After getting the car washed, I did not want to drive all the way back downtown, so I got Captain D’s instead.  While I was sitting in Captain D’s, I called the parents, found out my sister was there, so I forgo getting the Ipad checked out as well.  So that is how I got a poke bowl.

4 Easter Baskets of Goodness
(c) 2017 P.Lynne Designs

A tisket, a Tasket, a cute little Easter Basket

So, my brother came into town with his mini-me (Nephew, 6), and while he and my dad went to get dinner, I and mom decided to fix the children’s Easter baskets.  For 4 children (a niece (8), two nephews (6 and 9), and a great-nephew (2)), they will each receive:

·         3 eggs filled with chocolate

·         A Chocolate Cross (as opposed to a chocolate bunny)

·         2 two toys according to the age of the child

o   A firetruck for each boy; a mermaid doll for the girl

o   Rubik cube-like puzzle for the 9-year-old

o   Cars for the 6-year-old

o   Bunny sunglasses for the 2-year-old

o   I still need to find one thing for the 8-year-old

·         A twisty lollipop

All in a basket for each child

The 6-year-old said he saw what was in his basket so we will see.  The adults (their parents) will get in their Easter basket one hyped up child, LOL.

New Apartments
(c) 2017 P.Lynne Designs

So, as you see, my day has been very interesting in the way of food, driving in downtown Columbus is nothing to sneeze at (I took some photos of new apartments I have never seen before), but it was fun to play Easter Bunny for the evening.  (As opposed to playing Santa, LOL).  So, spring has finally sprung in Columbus, and I could not have been any happier.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!  HE HAS RISEN!!!! 

Story Time or Storyteller: Your worst vacation

Illustration photo by P. Lynne
Designs.  (c) 2017

Hello and welcome to Storytime. In this segment, to be determined when is the next time this will appear and depending on the response I get, I want to talk about my worst vacation.

Actually, it was not all bad, there were some pretty good and funny moments (read to the end), but the beginning and the end were bad.

I want to take you back to 2004, April, and my trip to Disney with my family.  I mentioned in the last post that at that time, I was a Disney Vacation Club member.  This was, and still is Disney’s way of owning a timeshare, based on in the point system.  I had gotten my first 150 points, and 2002’s points (150), and 2003’s (150) points as a way to say thank you for becoming a member.  For a family of 5 (me, my parents, my sister (age 15 at the time), and my nephew (age 8 at the time)), that was a very generous vacation week.  I had set the vacation for Easter week, which for Columbus, Ohio, USA Public Schools, this was the time when the children (and some college students) took a spring break (I still like the European system of vacation and hope one day we would adopt that system). The dates were for April 9-14, 2004.

After I book the stay at Disney’s Boardwalk Villas, I got dizzy one day after choir rehearsal, and I scheduled a doctor’s appointment.  My doctor sent me straight to the hospital, and I found out I had high blood pressure.  Not good for me, and I wondered if I had to cancel this vacation.  They put me on some medication, and it is under control today.  On with the trip.

They scheduled a follow-up for April 8, one day before the trip, which I was not happy about, but, OK.  That was not the only thing that was about to happen.

I was at my home, packing for our trip, and my sister called me.  She wanted me to pick her up from the church that was around the corner from my parents.  I refused, telling her that she can walk herself home.  My mother was packing, my nephew was playing with some friends, and dad was at work.  I also told her that I needed to get some sleep for my appointment the next day, so she got mad at me and hung up.

She got home, got into an argument with mom about staying out late, and stormed into her room.   She lit a candle for a minute.  Apparently, it was longer than a minute because she fell asleep and had knocked the candle, which was still burning.  She smelt the comforter burning and ran out the room to get something to put the fire out.  That woke up mom and my nephew, who tried to open the door to the room, but the door was stuck.  The alarm sounded, and the people from the alarm place called to see if everything was alright.  This company does a double calling.  They also called my aunt who lived on the next street over, and he called my dad to come home from work. 

In the meantime, no one called me.  I was still up, trying to pack some of the clothes I had washed for the trip. I was told later that had they called my house, I would have panicked, which I would have.  Thank God no one was hurt.

The next day, as I prepared to go to the doctor’s appointment, something told me that something was wrong, but I did not know what.  So, I got dressed, got in the car and started driving towards my parent’s house, which was on the way to my doctor’s appointment.  As I drove down the street, I noticed something strange about the house, but I could not put my finger on it.  I was pretty early for the appointment, so, I decided to stop in to see if everything was alright.

As I got closer, I noticed a big black hole where the windows of my sister and nephew’s rooms used to be, and on the side of the house on the right side was a burnt mattress.  I sped around the corner on in the driveway, got out, and ran to the front door.  There were people taking clothes out the front door and dad talking to an insurance person.  I went to the kitchen and asked mom what happened and she told me.  I am trying to make sense of everything and mom told me not to worry about it and go to my appointment. 

I got a clean bill of health to go on the trip and stopped by the house after the appointment.  Me and my parents were talking, and I had to address the elephant in the room, “were we still going on this trip?”  It would be a waste if we did not. 

So, that night, I packed my luggage in my car, locked up my house, and headed towards my parent’s house.  The plan was to pack up my car, stay the night at a hotel, which was the plan before the fire, then the next day, we drove down to the airport, parked my car, and got on the plane to go towards Disney World.

Getting lost and bad food…

We got off the plane and dad had rented a Jeep Grand Cherokee (do they make those anymore?).  Nice car for 5 people.  Roomy, I had the whole back seat to myself.  Score.  Now it is time for us to find Disney.  One of the things I like about Disney now is if you fly into Orlando Metropolitan airport and you are staying at a Disney Resort, they do have the magic Express Bus.  Not the case if you are flying from Rickenbacker Airport to Tampa International airport.  If that was the case, then three adults, a child, and a teen would not have been seen wondering through the streets of Tampa and Orlando, before reaching their destination.  The kids fell asleep, I fell asleep, and mom and dad were talking.  Nothing like a quick stop to Burger King to put us all in the mood of La-La Land. 

When I woke up, dad was trying to find the entrance.  There are 50 ways to get into Disney, and we had to pick the one that was the less noticeable.  Well, we turned around in a parking lot of a church and went back in the other direction.  Soon, my nephew, who was the only one that was alert asked, “are we looking for the entrance back there?”  We had passed it again, so we turned around once more, this time in a parking lot for all things Disney souvenir.

We pulled in and started looking for the resort.  At Disney, there are plenty of signs, and it took a minute, but we found it.  Since the reservations were in my name, I had to check us in.  Once in the suite of three bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and our own private viewing of the pool with a clown for a waterslide, we began to rest for a moment, then prepared for our first dinner reservation of the trip, Boma.

Boma, which is located in the Animal Kingdom, is an African Buffet Restaurant.  I liked the food, the parents and kids did not.  I am the only one who is adventurous in my family, except now I can add my nephew to the mix (at least he will eat sushi with me).  When he was 8, he only ate hamburgers and French fries (now I see where my other nephew, his brother gets it from).  When that happens, I consider that a bad meal.  I cannot enjoy a meal when your family is sitting there complaining about it.  So, for future trips, we will not be going to this place.

The Rest of the Trip…

I realized this is a long story so I will tell you later.   I thought I had a copy of the posts from my Traveling to The Mouse’s House, which was a trip report (also another form of storytelling) of this trip, but when my computer had to be decluttered by Geek Squad last October), the blog file was not part of the files restored.

A couple of things to note about this trip of mine:

The last day at Disney (we had two more days before catching the flight home, which you can read about in the last post), we went to a restaurant called Ohana, which means “family” Polynesian, and if you have watched Lilo and Stitch, it also means “everyone is family and no one gets left behind”.  I do want to warn you, if you are vegan or vegetarian, this is not the place for you, although I think they have since added those options to the menu.

Anyway, we ran late (which was no surprise when you have a stubborn teen in the mix.  Our reservations were for 7 pm, and we got there at 7:15.  So we waited.  While waiting, the child and teen got into it, and dad had to issue a “no talking zone”, and to sit away from each other.  Mom got restless and started looking at the drink menu.  (Insert comic moment- things you don’t do when bored and not a drinker): Ask about the drinks.  She wanted to know what was a Backscratcher.  We told her that it would put her under the table.  Then she asked about what was in the other drinks.  Thank God, the hostess rescued us before we got into THAT conversation, LOL.

Next dad started calling everyone “cousin”, which is the proper way to greet family.  So, we had a cousin waiter, a cousin hostess, and so on.  My family is really humorous.

The other thing was once you leave Disney, it is best to go home.  We did not leave for the flight home until Friday.  Between the Wednesday, we checked out of Boardwalk Villas to our new home, a dilapidated hotel (or should I say motel, because you enter the rooms from the outside, not a lobby), and it was "Boring City" after that.  Me and my sister did not want to go visit one of Dad’s friends with them (nephew had to go because his friend was there), and I spent most of the day trying to find a place within walking distance to file my taxes, and she was in the pool. We had Domino’s pizza, and my parents came back after that.  We sleep a couple of hours before headed towards the airport. That was Thursday.  

Friday…

We dealt with a string of plane issues.  One pilot was sick so another one had to be called in.  Then, he forgot that he was called, so we had to wait on him to arrive.  Once we got up in the air, we were 5 mins from home, and the plane turned around.  Something fell off the plane while in the air, and then we had to get a replacement, so, back to Tampa, we go.   We sat a couple more hours in the terminal, then we switched planes.   Finally, we got home for my parents to deal with a home with two burnt rooms.

So, it is finally your turn:  What was your worst vacation, and write about it?  It does not have to be as long as mine, but it sometimes it may help.

It’s never been about the Easter Bunny…

Google Image

Happy Easter.  I know you are reading it late, but I have been busy today.  My schedule went like this:

12 Mid:  going with my mom to hunt for the nephew (18), who did not show up at the place of meeting. He called while we were in route to my house, and said come get him or he will walk.   Not good at midnight, when you are an African American young male, who is wonderful, but to the cops, you spell bad news when you are out this late.

1 am:  took bath, very relaxing, and very soothing.

2 am:  played Candy Crush.

3 am:  bed

7:30 am- Mom called to wake me up (I cannot never remember to get a new alarm clock)

9:30 am – enjoying breakfast at church

10 am:  Services.  Three people joined the family of Clair UMC (United Methodist Church), including a visitor from last Sunday.  The pastor preached a good sermon about what happened after Jesus rose.  Sermon text Matthew 28:1-10; 16-20.  Her title:  Because He lives.

1 pm: meeting with youth/young adult leader.  We are planning a youth rally for next weekend.  Wish that more people would have stayed for the meeting.   At least they know when to be present next weekend.

2 pm:  at the parent’s home eating dinner.  I never cook on Sunday, so Easter Sunday is just ordinary eat at the parent’s house for me. 

I can go on, and on about my day, such as we went to see my brother and his family after dinner,   gave youngest nephew (3) his Easter Basket, which was a cute, light blue, Longaberger Spring Basket sold as this year’s Easter basket (great call to the Longaberger decision team, love selling for this company).  Mommy filled it full of goodies:  Chocolate bunny and cross, lollipops (his favorite), an ambulance, two books, and two outfits.   His cousin got the same thing, except she got a pink basket, and some socks in the place of the outfits (I do not think that you can fit a 5 year old’s dress in an Easter basket.)

Yesterday, there were egg hunts throughout the city, and just like Christmas, it is not about the candy, the eggs, the gifts in the baskets, although nice, the holiday is about family and the one who rose from the dead to save us from our sins…Jesus.  I know there are believers who will be reading this, as well as non-believers, but I am speaking to everyone, and I am glad that there is one who saved me from my sins.  There is no other to me.

That shows me how much Jesus cares for me.  Yes, he could have come down from the cross to save himself, but he did not, and that to me is a great Easter present.     

Easter Blessings

I am very sorry I am late with this post.  Easter is almost gone and I do not have a thing to write.   That is not true.  I was busy.  My day went just like most Christians on this day.   It was a day of reflection.  Not self-reflection of sorts, but a reflection on one person named Jesus, and what he did for you and for me.

In case you do not know the Easter story, let me explain to you in a few sentences, if you do not mind.  First of all, the story is told in the following text of the Bible:  Matthew 28: 1-20, Mark 16:1-19, Luke 24:1-53, and John 20: 1-22;25.   I will go over highlights.   Jesus was considered a prophet by all accounts.  He healed the sick, raised the dead, and perform miracles such as feeding the 5000 with only 2 fish and 3 loaves of bread.   Well, it did not set well with the high priests of the area, so they plotted to have Jesus killed.   So they contacted Pilate to have Jesus arrested and bring him to trial.  Jesus knew of this, because this was foretold according to the scriptures.  In fact, He spoke of this during the last supper.  After He had the last meal with his disciples, He told them that Peter will deny Jesus three times before the rooster crows, and Judas will betray Him.  Jesus prayed in the garden for God to take this burden off of Him, but at the end of the prayer, Jesus said to God, “not my will, but thy will be done.”  At that time, Roman soldiers along with Judas came to take Jesus to Pilate.

At the trial, Pilate asked crowd to release Jesus and have a man named Barabbas crucified, because he found no fault in the things Jesus did, but the crowd wanted Jesus dead.  So Pilate pleased the crowd, and a crown of thorns was placed on His head, and he was given a purple robe.  Jesus was given a cross to carry, but the weight had gotten too much for Him, so a man volunteered to carried it for Him.  Once they got to the place to put the cross, Jesus was placed between two thieves.   During that time, soldiers tormented Jesus, and even asked at one point,” If you are the Son of God, why don’t you save yourself?” Jesus did not say anything to them.   At the end, Jesus hung His head, and died.   This is only the beginning.  The rest of the story is what happened after He died.  The curtain in temple was torn into two; there was thunder, lighting, and an earthquake.  Only then did people believed that Jesus was the Son of God. Three days later, Jesus rose again.    

The stone of the tomb he was in was rolled away.  Now Jesus did not have to do this, but He fulfilled a promise according to the Old Testaments.  For that alone, I am glad that Jesus died for all of our sins.  It is a wonderful feeling to know that he cared so much.

Well, after church service, I ate at my parent’s house and we sat around.  I was sleepy, but perked up when my brother came by with his youngest child.  My brother and fiancee was expecting their second, and now it is not going to happen.   My prayers go out to them.  They had only found out two weeks ago that she was pregnant.  After he and the baby left to go home, we ate some dessert, watched the Amazing Race and The Good Wife.

Well th at was my Easter and my lesson.   I will talk to you later.