Mom's "Horseneck" Lighthouse Painting

I thought I put this picture of Mom's painting on my blog but I had posted it on Facebook instead.  Here is my favorite painting by Mom- Claudette O'Malley.  She has such beautiful clouds and the dunes remind me of Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA.   I remember going to Horseneck with the family as a little kid.  We always went to the rear back parking lot and planted ourselves early in the morning.  We brought a picnic and sand shovels and buckets and had such a good time.  I remember because as a pale pukey redhead, I would have to either be slathered with sunblock or wear a shirt.  I thought there were only nine seagulls (Mom & Dad plus the seven children) but then I took this picture and counted more seagulls.  Doesn't matter...I still love this painting.

I hope my brothers and sisters post their paintings somewhere to show a portfolio of her work. 
Above is Maureen's painting by my Mom (C.O'Malley signed) that is in Van Gogh impressionistic way...short taps of paintbrush.

Mom's Central Park Painting

Mom also did this painting of Central Park and gave it to me.  It is not completed so she never signed it.  There is a Navy guy walking with a girl in yellow dress and a black lab (dog) in the middle of the painting.  Over to the right are three people holding balloons.  There are cherry blossoms out which is why Mom gave me this painting.  Her and I went to Washington DC in Spring of 1983 or 84 and were there for the cherry blossoms.  We went to see Donald while he was still in medical school so not sure of the year. I was her "co-pilot" and helped her navigate through DC with the help of our AAA triptik.
She knew this painting was unfinished when she gave it to me way back when Todd & I got married.  I love this painting because of the cherry blossoms and Navy guy.

Christmas Tree 2010

This is our first "real" Christmas tree in Moore.  It was $15 at Lowe's and I think it is a beautiful tree. 
The story is...
I have a crawl space in attic.  My Christmas bins were up there.  I pulled the stairs down and know that my weight capacity is probably the maximum that puney little ladder can hold.  I climbed the ladder shaking the whole way up there.  I shined my flashlight, hoping a mouse-squirrel-chipmunk-raccoon would not come charging at me. (another story for another day) I was upset that the Christmas stuff was up there, while bins that "we" don't use are in the garage.  I cursed and said a few choice words under my breathe to relieve "me Irish temper".
I was able to physcially reach only two bins.  One of them had all my party stuff in it, just like Mom use to keep her party supplies seperate.  The other bin had some JOMIII Irish ornaments and large balls. 
I started to decorate and became very sad, depressed and missing my Mom.  I only put a few balls on the tree and then used ribbon, instead of tinsle to decorate.
I love the tree stand.  It holds quite a bit of water and is very sturdy.  I mostly love the smell and look of a live tree.

Mom's Eulogy 10-4-2010

“It is not the breathe you take, but the moments that take your breathe away” -George Strait



I have the privilege to present the eulogy for my Mother-Claudette. I am Christine, the youngest of her seven children. As she would call me “her redheaded baby”


There are many wonderful gifts my mother possessed. I will touch upon a few of those gifts today and hopefully you can relate to one of those gifts either as her child, grandchild, friend, colleague or fellow parishioner.


I mention the word wonderful because for Mother’s Day, I would specifically looked for the word “WONDERFUL” on my Mother’s Day cards so she would know it was from me. Of course important key words inside the card would be underlined and if necessary underlined twice. It’s a family tradition. She always made sure each of us received cards with underlined words with love from Memere


My Mom was a wonderful mother. I don’t have children but often wonder how she could balance her schedule so well. It was with LISTS. She had lists for her lists. The organization and running our house like Staff Sergeant was what made our family run so smoothly. You came in when the street lights came on…out only after dinner and rosary was said. She would drive us to Pauline Parker’s Dance studio, while one of the brother’s was busy playing little league or in Boy Scouts while another one was sneaking out the window to attend a CYO dance.


She was always there for us… even while working full time at the St. Luke’s. Claudette had the gift of compassion. Not only for us… but for the thousands of patients she nursed on old Abbey stroke ward. She was the nurse who held patients hands to ease their pain and suffering. She also taught a few of her co-workers how to care for patients by doing or saying the simplest of things. A word, a prayer, a touch, a back massage that would help the suffering subside a little.


My Mom had a gift of music and singing. I remember her hands playing the piano while hearing her sing ragtime songs and making her voice like Louis Armstrong. Her favorite singer was Barbra Streisand and my last conversation with her was when I called she said, “You just wanted to hear my voice? I said “Yes” and she told me she would sing me a Barbra Streisand song. I asked for “People” but she said…”NO that is too depressing, how about “Second Hand Rose?” We laughed and that was my great lasting memory of Mom. Her laughing on the phone with me.


Her gift of humor got her through life. She had a book near her bed that I think Mother Miriam, one of her Sacred Heart alumni gave her after my Dad died in 1979. "Laughter of God” Right up until the very end she had us laughing in the hospital room. Dee, her nurse was giving her medicine smashed up in her favorite coffee ice cream. Dee said “Claudette don’t eat it too fast you’ll get a brain freeze” Mom said, “You need a brain” (for it to freeze) and Dee said “Your sitting on yours” at which Mom replied with her right index finger wagging at Dee. We all knew the unspoken words of her finger wagging.


Mom also had the gift of art and her paintings will be cherished for future generations. She loved her murder mystery novels and Jeopardy. You never called her between 7:30 to 8 o’clock because she would take Alex Trebek over your phone call.


Claudette had a gift of cooking special recipes such as Pistachio cake that cannot be duplicated, although we’ve tried. Her holiday Beatrice bundt cakes along with special candy will be missed. Claudette loved the holidays, even St. Patrick’s Day!!


She scared a few relatives at Halloween when they opened their doors and she pushed them aside and starting going through their fridge. No one knew that the woman with witch outfit… green face and fake warts was my mother until I giggled and gave it away.


If you were lucky enough to have received one of her Christmas gifts, you might of also seen one of her other talents. She could make her own bows for packages. By standing next to the lady at Star Store gift counter and watching how she did it, Claudette went home and perfected the art of bow making. Sometimes you didn’t even want to open the package because it was too pretty and you could tell she wrapped it all with love.


My Mom’s life was not easy but her love for God helped her through the troubles. Her strong faith is evident as we gather in this church to pray for her. She has plenty of angels that are guiding her to heaven including my father and Tyler. She taught all of us how to be caring and compassionate, that is a reflection of how much God loves us. God gave us three gifts…Faith Hope and Love and the greatest of these is love. I like to think He gave us four…Faith - Hope - Love and Mom.


Thank you….

Gastric?

I watched "The Biggest Loser" finale the other night.  Yes they all looked awesome with their 150+ pound weight loss.  I know it took them a long hard struggle to get healthy and look that good.  I don't know if I have it in me to push myself beyond my limits.  So there was a seminar for gastric bypass at the local hospital last night.  I had come home and first thing I always do, other than put Brier out, is whip the bra off and get comfy.  I then remembered the seminar and told Rick that I was going.  I mumbled to myself, "I have to do something about this".
The presentation was thorough and concise with explanations and options.  I think I am going to look into it further and try to see what my options are.  I was on Spark from January through March of this past year and lost 17 pounds.  A friend who was in the gym with me had said..."you didn't gain it all in three months so don't expect to loose it in three months."  I am lazy and don't want to work my butt off to get healthy.  I'm talking basic health such as blood pressure, cholesterol and sleep apnea that I have.  But I also have feminine issues and hygiene issues that frankly is too gross to even mention.
I opened my gmail account and found an email from "The Biggest Loser" about applying as a contestant.  I am going to try my best and see whatever path leads me to weight loss is the path I am going to take.

3rd Annual Bake-Off at work

Today was the 3rd Annual Bake-off at work.  I am not very creative but yet I always channel my inner "Claudette" and try to impress with my baking skills.  I bought a silicone pan from Avon that is used to make brownie lollipops.  It did not come with a recipe but I found out that you just follow the instructions on the brownie box.  I then "googled" to find out a few different ways to decorate the brownie pops.  These are the hottest thing going I guess because there were so many different ideas.  I used a big oreo and then a littler one for the hat.  Fruit roll-ups for the scarf and little sprinkle for the orange nose.  I then had snow garland that I wrapped around the bottom of the lollipops.  Maureen had sent me battery operated snowmen lights so I put those around the 8 pops also.  I won BEST PRESENTATION.  Wooo Hooo. 
Here is another picture:

I decorated one pop as a snowflake and on the piece of paper explaining my recipe, they had asked if there was anything special the judges needed to know.  I wrote "No Nuts on my Snowmen". LOL

So overall my inner baker was satisfied and now I know I can make different things like wedding bells, ghosts, santa, or even easter eggs for future blogs. 

Credit Security Freeze

I few things led to me request a credit security freeze with the two of major credit bureau's.  (I had already put one on it)
I got an offer from American Express Gold card today.  I laughed to myself since it was a little over a year and half ago that I was on a debt managment plan to pay off over $25K worth of bills.  Now American Express wants me to get a gold card?  How ironic! 
Just a note to my friends who wish to look into debt management plans...they work!  The only problem is you have to check them out to make sure they are legit. Do a check with the Better Business Bureau since there is a lot of bogus companies out there.  I used CCCS, Consumer Credit Counseling Service, which is the commercial that has Starsky & Hutch star Paul Michael Glazer in it.  It was worth the five years of my life to make sure my debt was paid off.  There was a light at the end of tunnel as I now own my own house.  I actually tried to go on it when I was getting a divorce years ago, but I was told my debt-income ratio was too high.  In otherwords, I didn't have enough to pay my bills.
So not only did I get an offer in the mail from AMEX, but I got a weird letter from HSBC (credit cards) saying I had changed my address.  I called on the account and confirmed no one charged anything and there were no changes made by me.  He said it was "their way of confirming my address".  Okay but close the account since I am very leery of identity theft.  So I hopped online and added security freezes (free if you live in SC) to the other two agencies.  Now no one can open an account, even me. 
True story...was in Best Buy opening a joint account and because I had security freeze on my account, a representative (on phone) from credit bureau had to prove it was me.  How weird is answering question about only something you know about your ex-husband, while new husband is standing right there.  Weird...but it worked!

Chili Master

I am married to one of the sweetest men I know. Rick came home on Saturday saying how cold it was to be outside all day. He is not use to working on a construction site during the winter months. He said remembered to dress in layers and that he knew would be warm, since that is what keeps him warm while he goes hunting this time of year in New England. I asked him if he could heat something up for lunch. He said he wished the roach coach had something hot to put in his belly around lunchtime. I suggested he make some chili. That started the whole idea. He wanted to bring a batch of chili to work for the guys. He only has about 7 guys working in the yard he is in.


We went to the local dollar store and found a 3 quart Protect Silex crock pot for $15. We could always use it after this chili trial idea. We then went to the grocery store and got all the ingredients. He bought Johnsville New Orleans Andouille sausage to add and to kick it up a notch. When we got home from grocery store last night, he started a huge batch of chili. He has this habit of starting out in this small pan and before it is over…he has to move his concoction to a bigger pan (thus making more dishes!)

It turned out delicious, as always. I had leftover Chinese food for supper but after I smelled the chili cooking, I had to try it. He was figuring out a way to carry a crockpot, the chili, bowls, spoons and his drink all in one backpack. He has to walk quite a way from his truck to the bus, which drops him off across the street from the site.
http://southeast.construction.com/slideshows/TopProject09/01.asp

Just sitting here wondering if the guys enjoyed a warm bowl of chili on a 20degree day in South Carolina

My Mom's bedside reading

My Imitation Of Christ by Thomas Kempis

This is a little book that was always near my Mom's bed or in her desk.  She had a elastic holding it closed.  It was one of the things I took of my Mom's last week from cleaning out her house.  It was also little enough that I could fit it in my purse to take home with me. 
I never read it, nor do I know what the book is about.  All I know is that it was always within reach of my Mom.  I would assume the book is about how to be more like Christ.
I opened the book this morning.  The old elastic broke as I removed it.  I opened the little book to find memorial cards inside.  Not just any memorial cards, but  Tyler from 2009, my Uncle Don from 1999, Dad's from 1979, my Memere from 1978, and even my Pepere from 1975.  All the people that she loved so dearly in her family were in the book.  I cried knowing that is why the elastic was holding it all together.  I took the elastic, and placed it in the book.  Then I thought....what better place for Mom's memorial card to be than to be inside the book with all her loved ones...my loved ones.
I found a page on Chapter 10 that says: "It Is Sweet to Serve God".  I figured that Mom was always serving God and wanted so much to be a missionary she once said. I just read the page that I picked and found this verse; "O service worthy to be embraced and always wished for, which leads to the supreme good and procures a joy that will never end!"  That definitely is my Mom.  She was always helping others and doing good.  She led by example and taught us to always be kind and caring towards others.  To live by the "Golden Rule".  I think this was the perfect spot to put her memorial card.  I will cherish this little book forever.

Last week was very tough.  I went back to Massachusetts to visit and to be there when we buried my Mom's ashes. Fr. Mike Racine came to Sacred Heart Cemetery to say prayers over the grave site.  He had the chalice and plate that Mom wanted to give as memorial to the missionaries.  We saw her name engraved on the bottom and I think Molly even took a picture.  He told us that we were invited to Mass the next day (Thanksgiving Day) when he blesses it. 
Maureen, David, Austin and I went to the Mass at St. Bernard's Church in Assonet.  Father blessed the chalice and plate during the Mass and said a few beautiful words about Mom.  After Mass was over, we walked over to thank him and he smiled and said to me, "you are the spitting image of your Mother".  I laughed thinking in the back of my head, I'm a redhead and Mom was a brunette. But then I realized that he just gave me the biggest compliment ever.  What a beautiful image to think that I am just like my Mom.  During her wake, I would say about six people had said the same thing that I look just like my Mother.  I know that there can never be a greater compliment.

This strikes home for me especially for all the Military and their families who protect and serve this country.
Love you Tyler!