New Nephew

Pascal Johannes was born to my brother Liam and his wife Katie on February 9th in New Orleans. The bad news is that he arrived 7 weeks early and is in the NICU. Katie went in to the hospital Sat night with what she thought was false labor and instead she was 7 cm dialated and had the baby a couple hours later. The baby weighed in at 6 lbs 1 oz (amazingly big) but since he’s not breathing on his own so he’s intubated and in the NICU. Thankfully, as far as they can tell, his breathing is the only trouble and they have a highly renowned pediatrician taking care of him. Say a prayer for all of them.

Current Count:
Nephews: 4
Nieces: 3
...and the race continues...

Two weeks...

Its been two weeks since I started the laundry room project... yeah... worked diligently for 1.5 weeks with a lot of interruptions, but I was plugging away at it. Since I've been a social butterfly the last few days, little to nothing has changed.

This morning I installed the second curtain rod and shower curtain behind the washer and dryer, it looks great and hides all the unsightly pipes quite well. Then I put up the hanging clothes shelf, cleaned out the painting bin and moved the painting stuff to a bin that fits under the new under-stairs shelves, and began cleaning up. I was going to paint the understairs shelves purple to match everything else, but since I'm losing my umpf, they might stay unpainted for the time being. Maybe tomorrow I can work on putting away the rest of my tools and put the room back together... in the meantime, I'm too busy enjoying my friends to actually getting something done :D Pictures of the finished project will be taken in the next couple days so you can see the finished project, stay tuned.

Girl Time

There are a lot of times in life I feel like I never see my friends, like life is too busy just going through the motions of the everyday stuff and there's not time to catch up, hang out, enjoy each other's company. This week, I'm catching up for all those other weeks when I can't remember the last time I hung out with people my own age, just hanging out...

Weds night I had dinner and enjoyed just hanging out with Jen and Sarah. Nick is in FL for 2 weeks so it was just us ladies and Chance the dog. I am so blessed with great friends I can just chill out with. Sarah is a blast- she's getting so big. She babbles a lot with a real word or two thrown in. Jen and I compared notes on all our winter plans- rooms to paint, shelves to build, things we want to get done... its fun to be on the same wavelength and be able to compare projects and comiserate on always having more brilliant ideas than time and money to carry them out :D We watched the Holiday after Sarah went to bed and then I braved the snowy roads and headed home.

Thurs night was girls night again, with different girls. Anne, Alexis, Cora and I try to get out about every other week to catch up and hang out. Although the every other week thing was thrown off by Christmas and this was our first time doing it since then. It was great to just catch up and hang out with all of them. Again, I marvel at how God has blessed me with amazing friends.

Friday night... wait for it... another girls night, with a totally different crowd. This crowd is friends from my high school era through the present. We all live busy lives and its hard to get together, but we do make a point to get together once or twice a year with as many of us that can make it. We all live rather different lives but try to keep in touch (at least somewhat) and treasure the friendships that have lasted through many many years and many changes in our lives. It was awesome to hang out and especially to see Sarah who lives in CA and I haven't seen in forever!! My favorite moment was the discussion about breast pumping... yeah, 3 moms all talking about it and it didn't even really strike me as odd since most of my friends have small kids so these discussions are quite commonplace and sometimes almost convince me that I myself have experience pumping... anyway, i look across the room and see Sarah's comical and rather blank expression and mouth to her "I'm not pumping." We laughed hysterically and luckily our mommy friends have a good sense of humor and didn't even know how we got on that conversation anyway. Life is funny. I am blessed with many friends in various stages of their lives, God is good... and Ella B is soooo cuddly and sweet- newborns are so great like that... oh yeah, and I think she looks like her Grandma Ann sometimes. To end the night, Angelique showed up and we talked for a couple hours before going to sleep.

Today, Saturday, I got up, had breakfast and hung out with Angelique. Then worked on the basement for a bit, then met Sarah for coffee. YAY! Its so much fun catching up- Sarah is one of those great friends where we may not keep in touch very well, but its always easy to pick up where we left off and just enjoy each other. Its also great to have another doggie friend to swap stories with :D Besides the fact that we are both fanatical list makers... yeah, its great to catch up! Sarah- you're terrific. Now start a blog so I know what you're up to more often :D Tonight I'm hanging out with Betsy Pink... yay!! That's my week of girl time and catching up with a bunch of my friends... but don't get too excited, I'll slip back into hermit mode for another month or two before seeing anyone again.

Lent

This morning I went to 6.30 Mass at St Andrews. I know I've probably mentioned it before, but it bears reapeating- I love Fr Gordon!! Seriously I've never seen a man (or priest) who wears his joy so visibly every single time i see him, even at 6.30 AM Mass on a rainy / freezing rainy morning! His homily this morning focused on the two aspects of lent, first "Remember O man that you are dust and to dust we shall return"... how its a reminder of our human frailty, our sinfulness, our nothingness. And secondly, "Repent and believe in the Gospel" how in our frailty, our sinfulness, our nothingness, God Himself calls us to repentance and calls us to life Eternal through His Son Jesus.

I remember when I was younger how much I hated lent and I still can't say I actually look forward to it (although I certainly don't dread it either). However, there is something so beautiful about this season of purification, a season to focus... to slow down for a minute and really reflect on our own sinfulness and utilimately on the greatness of God's love for us in "that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

As I went forward to receive the ashes, Fr Gordon was (as usual) smiling joyfully at each person- and it was such a concrete example for me of how Jesus must view lent- smiling joyfully at each of us, and His joyful anticipation of each of us taking time for Him, giving Him 5 extra minutes of our day, reading more Scripture, giving up sin, drawing nearer to Him to receive His love... wow!! This morning's Mass has really given me a new insight into this season- so let us rejoice in this season of grace! Let us truly turn from sin and believe in the Gospel, live the Gospel.

Today's second reading has that same joyful note:
Brothers and sisters: We are ambassadors for Christ,as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ,be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Working together, then,we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Cor 5:20—6:2

Happy Lent!!

Closer...

Not my most productive evening by a long shot. Wasn't feeling great, so I laid in bed with a heating pad for an hour or so before starting on the project, still not working at 100% productivity. Anyway, I got the understairs shelves in... lots of strange complications but they are finally in after a few design modifications. Now I need to paint them and touch up a few other things, and I still need to install the second curtain rod. and then I need to do all the project clean up so I can put stuff back into the laundry room. I'm getting so close... but I also have plans for the next several evenings, so not much will be happening on the project front until the weekend.

Happiness is...

Sweet Jane

Ellie

Lucy and a really big block tower... nice boots Babe

Uncle Owen on his birthday and Geno wearing my t-shirt as an alb

Jane and Aunt Nona - soooo beautiful

Grandma Rose and Grandpa Gene - two of the greatest people I know (even if they are wearing their new matching sweaters... i guess at 80 and 85 thats pretty cute)




watching one Veggie Tales silly song once everyone is in jammies and ready to go home

Crazy Lu and Favorite Aunt


Grandpa Geno and little Geno

Hello beautiful baby