Haiku Texture Winner!!

 Picking texture I thought I was going to make things simple for me. In reality I've made them quite complicated. All day yesterday and today while I painted trim until my arms felt like falling off I thought about each entry. I just kept reciting them over and over in my mind brush stroke after brush stroke. Thankfully I had to write this post or I'd not even get a break tonight. So this is going to be short and sweet.

Thank you to each and everyone one of you for playing this week. Thank you to Becca & Jon for donating their expertise at writing haiku for our entertainment. (I really wish you two would let us judge you once in a while).  Each haiku was amazing in it's own right, all of them pleasing to the ear as I recited them aloud. Some made me laugh, some taught me a lesson, some made me horny, one made me cry and one even made me gag. It still amazes me on how different people see the same thing so differently. I loved each and everyone and have had much difficulty in deciding which to pick the winner. If I had more time I would write about each one, but since I have a tendency to be quite long winded I'll just give you my top three picks, in no particular order.



Rafa's:

Sheer liquidity
Glassy water's silken sheen
Masks what lies beneath


Makes me think of the unknown on the other side of the reflection. Is it the wonderful world of mermaids & mermen? Or is it the scary ghost of the lost and not yet found. I personally am very glad you decided on puting it with visuals, HOT HOT HOT!!



Fishy's:

Corrugated face
displays personal hist'ry
of frequent laughter

More times than not when a person's wrinkles are talked about it's assumed it's from stress and hard times. I love that Fishy associated them with laughter and good times.



Karl's:

Lost in deaths spiral
Smooth paddle hundred joule jolt
Life's gift returned

This one really touched home with me. So many times I've wished this were the ending for my Maggie Alice, but it is what it is. I think it's the wording that really has me loving it and of course I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

Without further ado the winner is
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FISHY!!

Congratulations! The moment I read your poem it just popped for me. It flowed so smoothly and made me think of happy times. You now have the honor of hosting and the privilege of picking the next topic.

Thank you everyone! See you next week!

Love ♥ Huggs
CoreyJo

Favorite Moments

Well it seems as though I've been given an award while I've been away on my latest hiatus. Thanks to Becca over at Everyday Life for awarding me with the Stylish Blogger Award.

I think this is the first time anyone has ever given me the compliment of being stylish. But then again we aren't talking about my wardrobe either. Along with this award I was told that I am supposed to link back to the blogger who awarded me this, and list 5 of my favorite moments in life. In no particular order here they are.

One

When I was 15 my family took a vacation to Ceder Point in Ohio. My older sister, Valisatie, and I were allowed to roam the entire park for two days alone with no parental eyes spying our every move.  This was the first time I was allowed to do something of that nature and it was also one of the best times I had with my sister growing up. We actually got along the entire time without one single cat fight!

Two

I'm going to lump together 3 things here because I love each one the same and of course that's the birth of all three of my girls, Lily, Kiera, and Maggie Alice. How can those not be some of my top favorite moments in life?

Three

I know that most people, who are married, would put their wedding on this list, however I'm not most people. As much as I loved my wedding in Las Vegas I have to admit the 6 hour drive back to our home, in California, on the Monday after our Saturday night wedding was one of the happiest moments in my entire life.  It was a very hot & long 6 hours. I was wearing funky neon socks, mens plaid boxer shorts, and my new husbands wife beater. Why that was important to tell you I don't know but it sticks out in my mind just as much as the laughter and smiles that came from my handsome husband I that day.

Four

This is another one from childhood involving my sister Valisatie. I'm not sure how old we were but I must have been in my early teens. Mom and Dad used to go up north camping for the weekend and leave us home alone under the condition that we don't leave the house and have no visitors outside of family & adult family friends. Usually there was one or another of our adult family members designated to do a random check on us. Anyhow we were extremely bored one time and decided to take an entire brand new packet of writing paper and ball up each piece individually. The purpose of this was to have a snowball fight when there was no snow. The living and dining area were basically separated by the couch. One on each side and the war was on!! I don't know how long this went on but the mess was huge!! Two hundred paper balls is a lot! Well Mom & Dad always came home at the same time, only this time they were 3 hours early!!! Apparently it was raining up north.... My sister and I hurry up ans stashed all of the paper wads where ever we could. Under the couch, behind the book case, under the chair, and even some in the blankets that were always on our couch. After our parents came in and chatted for a bit they decided to go to bed. We had to quickly and quietly get rid of all the evidence before mom found out we wasted a whole packet of precious paper. I remember laughing so hard during the war and then the panicked giddiness of hiding everything, and then the frantic fun of disposing the evidence.

Five

3 1/2 months after Lily was born Jason had to go on a 6 month cruise over seas (he was in the Navy). The year was 2001. He left at the beginning of August. On September 11th I was feeding Lily and watching the first plane crash into tower one. 'Oh my, that's horrible' I thought. Then I watched the second plane hit tower two and I knew with everything in my soul this was no coincident or accident. I had just talked to Jason the night before. He was in Singapore. I knew that all contact would be cut off from the boat and they wouldn't be docking in anymore ports. What I didn't kow was whether or not I was going to see my husband alive ever again. Just over 4 months later I remember standing on the dock in San Diego with thousands of other people watching our loved ones wave from the edge of the ships deck as they prepared to disembark. I remember the exact second I found Jason among the hundreds of people lining the deck all dressed in the exact same uniform. I remember watching him walk down the ramp searching for me again. Most of all I remember the taste of his lips as he kissed me and the strength of his arms as he embraced me for the first time in over six months. I also remember the look of love and wonderment as he picked his now 9 month old baby up and kissed and hugged her too. I had my Sailor Sam back, how could I not be happy?

I know that was probably a little bit more involved than what Becca was asking for, but hey, it's ME! And we all know how I can be. I hope you enjoyed this post. Now I'd like to pass this great award onto a blog that I think is not only stylish but classy & quite entertaining also, just like it's author.

And the award goes too!!!

Mistress Maddie

at

A Day with the Mistress Borghese

Now Mistress Maddie, should you choose to accept this award it would be mighty kind of you if you would also share with us 5 favorite moments from your life and award your favorite stylish blog with this honor.

Well that's it for today. Don't forget to check out yesterdays post and possible join in the fun of Haiku. This weeks theme is Texture, and yours truly is the host!!

Love ♥ Huggs

CoreyJo

Haiku Monday Theme

 Much to my surprise I was the winner of this weeks Haiku Monday contest and can FINALLY display the coveted badge of honor (Thank you Foam!!). Turns out you don't even have to publish a post to win. You just have to actually enter on time!! Who knew?!? 


Being the winner I get the privilege of hosting the next contest and choosing the next theme, which is....

TEXTURE!!

By choosing texture I was thinking that I was making it easy on myself for the judging (I'm a little nervous, it's my first time). Then I started to think about it...texture is EVERYWHERE!! CRAP!! It's in everything we touch, everything we see and even in everything we hear. 

So pick your source and tell us about it's texture using the basic format of 5-7-5.  Submit as many as you like designating only 2 for judging. Anyone is welcome to join and visuals are always welcome. Please leave a link to your Haiku post if possible. If you need a little bit of inspiration or the word your looking for is right there on the tip of your tongue and you just can't spit it out, try going to this LINK (opens in new window). Here you'll find 400 words used to describe texture.

I'd like to thank Rafa for graciously donating (code for saving my arse when I had no clue what to use) a Rafa Original for my opening visual. Now to start everyone out here's one from me:

A silky soft sigh

Faintly caresses my neck.

A baby makes three.

All entries for judging are due by 11:59 pm (EST) Monday June 25th. I look forward to reading everyone's haiku.

Love ♥ Huggs

CoreyJo

p.s. for those who didn't see my winning haiku for the theme sultry, here it is.

Heat radiating
Thick and heavy was his musk.
His essence sultry.

Haiku OZ

Kingdom

The Queen's what I am.

Ruling all that I can see.

Damn!! Alarms ringing!!

                                      ~CoreyJo

This weeks contest is being hosted by Rafa at Ramblings From My Typer. Be sure to pop on over and check out the rest of the competition. 

Love ♥ Huggs

CoreyJo

Haiku Hurricane...

I know I'm late for the actual contest, but I just had to post it anyways. I hope you enjoy it.

From out of no where,

A force to be reckoned with.

That was Margaret.

                                                                                  ~CoreyJo

Margaret, aka Maggie Alice, came into this world with a bang. A BIG bang. At the end of a normal pregnancy she was taken from my body during an emergency cesarean. I was having the normal monitors strapped on for child birth and ten minutes later I was knocked out cold. I didn't even get to tell the Sailor I loved him. The last thing I remember is the scalpel touching my lower abdomen and hearing the doctor lady say, "Tell me when, tell me when, tell me wh....". Then I was waking up in the O.R. waiting for ex-rays, to make sure nothing was left inside upon closing me up. This all happened at 8pm on a Sunday night.

During the night the medical staff realized something was wrong with Margaret. Her heart rate was only 49 b/min when it should have been closer to 110-120 b/min. Being in a small town they took EKG's and other readings of hers and sent them to the neighboring town which has a heart center. They called back and said it was too much for them and they were sending the readings to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital (an hour away). They called our doctor and said they would be there in 2 hours to get her and transfer her to their facility. They were here and gone in less than 3 hours with the Sailor in hot pursuit behind their ambulance, leaving me behind with my sister to check out and follow. Approximately 18 hours after a cesarean I stood up and walked out (more like hunched over and hobbled, but you get the point) of the hospital on my way to my baby. 

It turns out that Margaret had what was called Long QT syndrome. Basically the bottom of the heart, after squeezing closed, takes too long to open back up for the next heart beat therefore throwing off the rhythm of the heart. This is why Margaret's heart rate was so low. Her condition was the worst the world had ever seen and also was present in the youngest person on record (at the time). Is this curable? No. Is it manageable? Yes.

At Three days old Margaret had a pacemaker installed. Combined with a two heart medications, the pacemaker allowed Margaret to live a normal life only restricting her from physical contact sports. At 23 days old, after a few medical setbacks common with surgeries on newborns,  she was finally released from the hospital to come home. Once at home our lives settled into a normal family routine, only differing in that we had to give Margaret medicine every 8 hours. Life was good again. We had our baby and everyone was in love with her.

At 8 months old Margaret had a seizure which landed her back at DeVos for another surgery. This time to replace the pacemaker with a combination pacemaker/ICD. (which she was too small for at birth). After only 4 days this time we were able to bring Margaret home again. 

Life went on as normal as possible. Margaret was an outgoing busy body of a baby. Very independent and loving. Always causing mischief with her older sisters and truly believing that she was the queen of the house and ruled all that she could see, and all those she knew. She didn't understand that she was supposed to avoid physical impact and in turn was the most daring baby I knew. She would climb anything and jump from anywhere just to have fun. Instead of keeping up with the older girls they were having to keep up with her, constantly saving her from impact with one thing or another, usually the floor.

Margaret was the happiest baby ever. She always cooperated with the doctors and the many tests they preformed on a regular basis .Complaining about nothing outside of getting her way and wanting more food. 

Just like a true hurricane, Margaret came into our lives with such force and abandonment, rocking us all with her amazing self and bowling us over in her take no prisoners attitude, only to leave us just as quickly as she came.

Nine days after Margaret's second birthday her heart decided it had had enough and for whatever reason her ICD did not detect that she wasn't responding to her pacemaker. Again, just like a true hurricane Margaret left us quickly and in her wake she left irreparable destruction & devastation. Leaving us with memories that will last us all for more than a lifetime.

Two and a half years later the memory of her still lives vividly in my heart and my mind. The pain is still there and the love is too. Just like a hurricane she will be forever in our memories, not just the pain and destruction but also the beauty & sheer magnitude that was Margaret.

I didn't really want to write all this much but a friend told me I "MUST write the background story...it's part of YOUR healing." I took his advice and tried to keep it short and to the point. As you can tell I wasn't exactly successful at that. Oh well, to leave a part out of Margaret's story would be like not broadcasting the actual storm, and only reporting that it was coming and this is what it left behind.  I hope I didn't depress anyone (sorry Terri for another tear jerker). My intent was only to show how Margaret was like a hurricane in my life. I'm also sorry that I missed the deadline for the contest, but in my defense I have been swamped with this remodeling of our house and just lost track of which day it was. Oh well, such is life.

If you'd like to see those who DID make the dead line you can just follow this link to Karl's Korner and  check out everyone else's entry(ies). Good luck to all of you not late for the party, and thanks to everyone for making it this far in my post.

Love ♥ Huggs

CoreyJo

*** the photograph by Martin Kucera has been altered by me.