Friday, November 07, 2008

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 38

This is week 38 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works.


Thanks for your patience everyone. Finally posting this at noon. My nephew arrived later than expected to a very clean house (my friends are SO good) we had a WONDERFUL visit. His girlfriend is wonderful and so is he. I wrote my wordzzles very fast and I'm not rereading them so I hope they make sense.



The words for this week's ten word challenge were: France, cold weather, backhoe, light and shadow, Humane society, ambivalent, “Happy Birthday, Sarah Jane,” Martians, Thanksgiving Day Parade, green eyes Mini Challenge: she’ll be comin' round the mountain when she comes, pumpkin pie, yellow jacket, short-changed, life after 50

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:


Happy Birthday, Sarah Jane, Louisa whispered gazing at the beautiful baby girl in her arms. At this moment, holding her brand new daughter in her arms, she couldn’t believe that she had been so ambivalent about her unexpected pregnancy. She wondered if Sarah Jane would grow up to have George’s green eyes. You look like your father little one. So naughty of you to arrive so early while your father is still in France. He’s so excited about you and he wanted to be here when you arrived, but you have beat the cold weather, which is good and this way next year your father can dress you up as a Martian for Halloween. You’ll love your father. He’s a very funny man. He has actually been planning your first Halloween since you were conceived if you can believe it. He loves Halloween that much. He loves life. You chose such a wonderful father. You’re a lucky girl. Your Daddy works for the Humane Society, but he also sometimes does road work and he can drive a back hoe like nobody’s business. And he loves parades. You will have to learn to love them too and you will probably get dragged to New York at some point to see Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade even though you could watch it all snug and warm at home on TV. He’s that crazy. But he’s sensitive too and he has an artist’s eye. That’s how we met. Admiring light and shadow. Isn’t that strange? And now we have you, sweet girl. And you are so beautiful. I was really scared about being a mother, but I think you’re going to make it easy because now that you’re in my arms I feel more love than fear and you’re so beautiful that I just can’t stop smiling except that I’m kind of tired. Welcome home to life. I love you, Sarah Jane. Happy Birthday.



And here's my mini challenge:


Life after 50 was turning out to be pretty good. She looked at the gathering around the lavish Thanksgiving table and smiled with contentment. Even Francis in his hideous yellow jacket couldn’t take from the beauty of the scene. She might have been short-changed in the realm of blood relatives, but this family of friends was the best anyone could wish for. She smiled at them standing around the piano singing “she’ll be comin round the mountain.” Martha couldn’t carry a tune but she sang with such joy that it didn’t matter. This was as good as a life could get. Anyone want pumpkin pie, she called out and was greeted with a chorus of happy “yeses.”



And the mega challenge:


Sarah Jane thought she might as well be living with Martians for all she had in common with her family. She and her brothers and sisters were as different as light and shadow. She loved France, French cooking, designer clothing. Her brother lived to drive his backhoe and do construction work. Her sister, who God had granted the gift of gorgeous green eyes and a body to die for, had no style and insisted on wearing blue jeans and that hideous yellow jacket everywhere, no matter what the occasion, year round, cold weather or warm. And she worked for the Humane Society of all things. It was so pedestrian and new age of her. Sarah Jane had been short-changed by fate. There the family stood, circled around the piano singing stupid songs like “She’ll be comin round the mountain when she comes,” completely oblivious to her suffering. She had been ambivalent about coming this year, and was feeling unseen and unloved. She could not believe that she would have to endure the stupid Thanksgiving Day Parade tomorrow on top of everything else. But then, just as she was working herself into a full depressive snit, out came her mother, carrying a huge pumpkin pie with a huge birthday candle glowing in its center. Happy Birthday, Sarah Jane, they all called out in unison and as if by magic a huge pile of gifts appeared as if from nowhere. Tears welled up in Sarah Jane’s eyes and she felt her heart bursting with love. They hadn’t forgotten after all. Perhaps her life wasn’t over after all. Perhaps there was life after 50. I love you all so much, she wept, completely forgetting her recent pity party. They had even remembered that her favorite was Pumpkin pie. How blessed could a woman be. It was a happy birthday indeed.




This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: snowdrop, palate, boomerang, soft, mushroom, tongue, belt, oblique, fortuitous, lounge


Rich tastes of mushroom and spices and gravy and tender meat rolled across her tongue and boomeranged off her soft palate, caressing her taste buds, but more than that, touching something deeper in her being. This meal had not been casually prepared, nor was it just some fortuitous mix of fine ingredients well prepared. It was a work of art, a work of divine inspiration. She cast an oblique, sidelong glance at Antonio. He seemed such a puffed up buffoon as he lounged idly across the loveseat, his overly simple clothes adorned only by the huge and ornate belt buckle, the little white kitten which he called SnowDrop nestled in his arms. She wanted to detest him - the arrogant fool - yet each bite of this glorious meal dragged her deeper under his spell, and by the time she had sipped the last drop of her coffee, she knew that she would follow him anywhere.



Special thanks to Melli for next week’s 10 word challenge and to Chatty for the mini challenge words.



Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: palace, hypocrite, canned air, telephone, biscuit, pinball, acorn, customary, fruit juice, waterfall


Mini Challenge: buyer's remorse, lava, haphazard, mildew, soup to nuts


Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.



Enjoy! See you next week.



DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

15 comments:

Lu' said...

:) Don't forget to breathe. Thank you.

Jeff B said...

You sound busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs!

Thanks for putting up the link box in the interim.

Akelamalu said...

I've been really busy this week too Raven and only just posted my wordzzles, without doodles this week unfortunately! You take your time hon and don't forget to breathe! x

Richard said...

If it makes you feel any better, we were up at 4:45 AM this morning to prepare my in-law's place for the bi-annual yardsale held in their community. We had a couple show up around 5:30 with a flashlight to look at stuff.

They bought a pair of handcuffs. (My father-in-law is ex-law enforcement)

Rich

Anonymous said...

Hi Raven, glad to be back. I loved the choice of words! This one was fun!

Great stories, as always. :-)

Dianne said...

and yet you create masterpiece works!! :)

love the overall sense of family, guess your nephew inspired you.

I wonder what Rich's customers wanted to do with handcuffs at 5:30 in the morning!! hehehehehe

Melli said...

Ohhhhh my goodness! Your nephew oughta come around and bring you keyboards more often! What HAPPY positive stories you wrote today my dear!!! LOL! You can REALLY tell you're having a goooooooood day!

And I'm so GLAD Dianne said that - about Rich's daybreak customers... cuz I was thinking the saaaame thing - but didn't wanna SAY it! LOL!

bettygram said...

Baby Sarah Jane is lucky to have such a loving family. Grown up Sarah Jane learned the love of family. I liked the happy feel of the stories.

I have green eyes of you for the key board. How wonderful.

Dr.John said...

I really liked the first story best of all. You just felt that here was one lucky child with two great parents.
Great writing making us care for the characters.
The Sarah Jane story also touched me.
But I liked all four. They had your usual good writing.

Finding Pam said...

I would like to participate in wordzzle #38. Thank you and I love your blog. Peace and Love...

Carletta said...

Melli beat me to it but I thought you must really be in a good spot too because all of them were such happy stories.
It makes me happy to think you are - hugs and more hugs!!!!

I'm glad I didn't attempt this after my overwhelming day this week - I had the wrong list of words. I looked at the words late Friday and couldn't get my mind around them - it's a good thing!!

Akelamalu said...

Oh Raven the first one was just beautiful! Of course you did a fantastic job on all of them as usual. :)

Unknown said...

Okay, here's mine: In France They Kiss On Min Street. I always wanted to do that with Joni Mitchell. She lives in Canada where they have cold weather, and for all I know a neighbor or two with a backhoe parked in the back yard with a tarpaulin. You mentioned light and shadow. Isn't that fascinating? Joni's live CD is called "Shadows and Light". The Humane society rang me up and yes, I was ambivalent because (as I explained to them) my thing is ASPCA and well, I don't hae tons of money. “Happy Birthday, Sarah Jane,” and may Martians deliver a bouquet of fireflies to you! But I digress here on Raven's Blog. What would a Thanksgiving Day Parade be without the now-retired Bob Barker. I'm also reminded that I need to see if Michelle Pfeiffer has green eyes! TA-DA!!!!:)

Raven said...

Hi, everybody! Thanks as always for your kind words and for playing the wordzzle game.

Melli, Carletta - this was a cheeful batch, wasn't it.... Hmmm. Probably partly the words but it was really glorious to see my nephew again... and to get a piano on top of it, so I am feeling pretty happy. Wow.

Michael! It's so good to see you again. I was thinking about you just yesterday and thinking I should drop by your place and here you are doing your instant wordzzling brilliantly as always and saying nice things to me. Hope all is well with you.

Lu' said...

I'm so glad no harm came to the newborn's Father, I was waiting for that shoe to drop. Yippie for Sarah Jane and her pumpkin pie suprise. Love the name of the kitten, Snowdrop.

I posted a mega since I forgot it and I also posted a vanity since I did n't have the words before :)