It's been "one of those days"!

It's a bad sign when you start out your day by waking up at 8:42 and you've got a 9 o'clock class. It certainly set the theme for the day when I woke up thus this morning!

I JUMPED out of bed (yes, literally! It's a wonder I didn't sprain anything in the process! :P) and rushed like I've never rushed before. :) I managed to make myself look tolerably decent before racing out the door. I arrived at the Science Lab just as they finished the prayer. *whew* 19 minutes from waking up to arriving at school!!!!! :D That's gotta be a new personal record. :)
Naturally, I was pretty bleary-minded at first but not too bad, all things considered! :D
After Physical Science, I went home again to get something to eat, pick up my lunch and run a few errands. Back again for Theology and then Latin (in which we had a vocab quiz that I had forgotten about :/). Lunch was really nice today, thanks to good company. :)
But after lunch, a friend of mine received bad news. The saga continued. I felt really bad for him. :(
Today was All Day Exposition though so I made a visit to the Blessed Sacrament which always helps. :)
Last hour of the day, I had Ethics which was typical. Made another visit after school and came home to wish Joe a long-distance farewell as he heads off to seminary. Even though he's been gone since May, I'm gonna miss him now that he'll be relatively so out of touch! :(
Anyhow, then it was heigh-ho, heigh-ho, and off to work I went. I had hoped to have Chris and Adam visit again tonight but it wasn't meant to be. :( So I had the evening to myself. I looked at pictures (in memory of them :P) by myself and did some homework. Then, thankfully, I got off early (a little before 10) so I came home!

That's my strange ol' day in a nutshell! Maybe it's because it's the feast of St. Michael the Archangel.


Yeah.

Kinda like that.

Points to Ponder

How can you tell when you run out of invisible ink?

Could someone ever get addicted to counseling? If so, how could you treat them?

Can you be a closet claustrophobic?

Does anyone ever vanish with a trace?

How does the guy who drives the snowplow get to work in the mornings?

If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

If Fed Ex and UPS merge, would they call it Fed UP?

If a chronic liar tells you he is a chronic liar do you believe him?

If a mute child swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to see it, do the other trees make fun of it?

If all those psychics know the winning lottery numbers, why are they all still working?

If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?

What would a chair look like if your knees bent the other way?

If pro is the opposite of con, is progress the opposite of congress?

If quitters never win, and winners never quit, who came up with, "Quit while you're still ahead?"

If the Energizer Bunny atttacks someone, is it charged with battery?

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

What did we do before the Law of Gravity was passed?

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

Why are we afraid of falling? Shouldn't we be afraid of the sudden stop?

Why do airlines call flights nonstop? Don't they all stop eventually?

Why is the alphabet in that order?

Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?

You know how most packages say "Open here" What is the protocol if the package says, "Open somewhere else?"

You know that little indestructible black box that is used on planes, why can't they make the whole plane with the same substance?

How do you know when it's time to tune your bagpipes?

Why are there Braille signs on drive-up ATM's?

*runs out of creative titles for blog entries* :P

Howdy, all!
How are you? (That would be rhetorical. :) I hope everyone is doing just great!! :D) I'm doing well.
I'm trying to catch up on my posting here, since I had a lot of trouble getting the pictures in the previous post to work and because I had to do it in my spare time, it took days... so here we go! :D

On Sunday, Rose and I went to the 9 am Mass and Joey went to the 11. Fr. Goettler said the 9 and gave a really good sermon on the meaning of St. Michael's name... beyond just the simple etymology of it. That afternoon, it was beautiful weather so we decided to try to get some people together to go to the park. Sadly, Adam and Christa and Dave all had studying to do and could not come. However, Nick, Jozef and Sarah Brown were up for the outing and so we went! Rose made YUMMY chocolate chip cookies (some of which we took to Christa since she couldn't come) and put some milk in a thermos-type jug. We picked up Nick, Jozef and Sarah at school and then we were off to Wamego! :) It was a lot of fun just acting like little kids again (although some were more reluctant than others to have fun). We played on the slide and swang on the swings and ate cookies with milk while sitting next to the pond. The weather was a little on the too-warm side but it was really nice in the shade. Afterwards, we went by Dyer's and picked up dinner supplies for a pre-volleyball picnic at Riverside Park. :D
Back at the house, Rose, Sarah and I worked simultaneously to fix as quickly as possible a supper of cheddarwurst sausages, potatoes with cheesy sause, scrambled eggs, French bread, and virgin piña coladas. 45 minutes later we were packed up and on the way to the park. There was something SO fun about preparing a picnic dinner spur of the moment like that!!!! I don't know why, but it felt like something of a festive occasion and good company was the icing on the cake!!! :) Then reality came back into play and we had to pack up and go home since it was 8 pm on a school night. But that was SO enjoyable and I hope we'll be able to do it again sometime!! It was really a pity Adam, Dave and Christa couldn't be there. :(

Monday, the school week started anew. I don't recall anything particularly outstanding happening. I had Physical Science, Latin and History. That night, I worked from 6 to 11, babysitting.

Yesterday was a very busy day. I had a Physical Science lab, Theology, Latin, History and Ethics. After school, I took some pictures for a friend of mine (always enjoyable :D), came by the house for about an hour and then was on my way to babysit again. I had invited Chris and Adam to come out and visit if they wanted to since they didn't have homework and Adam didn't have to work. I was OVERJOYED to get a call from Chris about 6:45 asking if they could come out a little after 8!!!!!!! With only a couple of speed bumps, I got Anna and Dominic in bed by 8 and Adelaide laid down on the couch.
Adam and Chris arrived at 8:30 and we looked at pictures on my computer for a good 90 minutes or so. Doesn't sound THAT fun perhaps, but it completely made my evening!!!!!!!!! (Thanks SO much, both of you, for 'visiting the imprisoned.' :P) Two hours go by awfully fast when you're enjoying yourself! They left about 10:20. I was out there until 11:30 but it wasn't bad at all. Instead of 3 dark and quiet hours spent trying to stay awake and get some homework done, I only had one hour alone. God bless them for coming! :) Hopefully, it will be possible again sometime.

Then... today.... easy day as school goes. I only had Liturgy and we managed to get Father off on a tangent for 30 minutes! :D After that, I took pictures of a camera a friend is going to try to sell on eBay. Then I did some dishes and ate lunch. This afternoon is play practice for "Antigone." I'm planning on making "Mamie's" for dinner (YUMMMM!!!!) since it's a kind of chilly day. This evening, there's recording for St. Magnus.
There was a bit of out-of-the-ordinary-ness at school today. Jim went home today. :( He had been sick and just wanted to go home, I guess. Things'll sure be different without him. Rebecca left today, as well. Her mom got really sick suddenly and they're not sure if she'll live so Rebecca drove out this morning at 4:30 am (as I'm told). She won't be returning. So the class is getting smaller all the time. :/ We're down to 24 sophomores, I think.

As the cartoons used to always finish, "That's All, Folks!" :)
Until next time~
Take care and God bless. Thank you for reading and feel free to comment!! :D

Hockey Game

So Saturday night, I went to my first hockey game. It was a blast!! I wish it weren't a whole year until the next one (it was a pre-season game). It was in Kansas City, MO but the teams playing were the St. Louis Blues and the Nashville Predators. The Blues won 2 to 1. Sadly, no fights broke out... but it was a good game to watch all the same! :)

Here are some pictures from the outing:

We left St. Mary's between 4 and 4:30 pm. We went to dinner at Applebee's before the game for Jozef's 19th birthday. Andrea got the staff to sing Happy Birthday to him. They made a big deal of it and he was VERY embarrassed. ;)

The sunset on the way to the hockey game was stunning....

There were quite a few of us there - I think 31 in all.

We sat really high up, about 5 rows from the top of the arena. Thus, the game pictures were from far away.



Everyone was in good spirits and by the 3rd period, we were all into the spirit of the thing. :D

...except John. (Actually, that's not true. He was, in fact, the MOST into it. :D)

On the way home, we went by Walmart in Topeka where we met up with the busload of boarding boys who had gone to the game and the college guys who rode with them. It was too funny - it was like a rendez-vous of St. Marysians, at midnight on a Saturday night... in Walmart!! *lol*
After that, we stopped at Sonic for ice cream.

We made it home shortly after 1 am. What a trip! It was so much fun!!

Back Again :)

Hello, everyone!


Thanks for stopping by the ol’ blog. :) I hope you have all been well. I will now relate what has been going on in my life… for lack of something better to blab about! :D

Monday was the start of the second week of classes this school year. Time is already flying. It’s hard to believe it’s already two-thirds of the way through September (or more! :O)!!! I don’t remember anything too outstanding about Monday. It was pretty typical. I babysat that evening and got home about 11:30 pm…

Lindsey turned 21 on the 20th of this month!!!!!! I can’t believe she’s really and truly that magical age now!! ;) Twenty-one sounds kind of old and grown up. L And to think I’m less than two years away from it myself! :O ……so anyhow, Linds went out to eat at Skies in Kansas City the night of her birthday (Skies is a revolving restaurant – really nice!) with a group of friends. Sadly, I wasn’t able to make it because it was a school night and my immune system decided to give way sometime during Monday night (I woke up with a sinus infection on Tuesday). :( From what I have heard, it sounded like she had a good time there, nonetheless (how ANYONE can have fun when I’M not there is beyond me!!! :P Just kidding!).

On Wednesday, Mom and Dad and Linds left for Ireland!!!! It was a most extraordinarily long trip (especially for Mom and Dad who had an extra leg of the trip, compared to Lindsey)… they left home at 10 am Wednesday and did not arrive in Dublin until Thursday morning sometime! So they’ve been there about one day now. It’s chilly over there and mostly cloudy – typical of Ireland :) – but it sounds very pretty all-in-all. They will be there for another 8 or 9 days, before returning to the States on October 1.

As for my Wednesday, it was very hectic. I woke up, of course, with the irritating sinus infection. The day was very warm and humid and it started off with me running errands before Mom and Dad left. Then, after they left, I went up to the school, lugging camera baggage with me for the afternoon’s project. I went to Liturgy class and came home about 12:40. I had just enough time to grab a handful of wheat thins and scribble a note to the “little ones” (my! What a long time it’s been since I’ve heard them called that! :)) before I ran out the door again (this time, with Joey in tow). We set up cameras in the College Hall about 1 pm in order to record the presentation on the school’s new Mathematics program. Joey seemed to have everything under control and he told me that if I needed to be somewhere else to go ahead and go. So off I went about 1:30 to the first rehearsal for “Antigone”… I’m just a chorus member but still needed to be there. It was very hot in McCabe and the read-through took quite a while (or felt like it). It was finally done and I met up with Joey (who was annoyed because the recording had not gone very smoothly) and we got home right about 4 pm (so much for that Wednesday afternoon off). Rose got home from her singing lesson about 10 minutes later, then left for the library and was gone until shortly after 5. The bright note of the day was that I found out I didn’t have to babysit because of the sinus infection… so I was able to stay home and make pasta for dinner. We ate between 5:30 and 6, did dishes, put stuff away, and said Rosary. Recording for St. Magnus started at 7 o’clock and ran until 9.
So it was a long and hectic day. :/

Fortunately, today was not quite as harried. I had Physical Science, Theology and Latin in the morning and just Ethics in the afternoon. After school, I had about an hour breather before I headed out to babysit. I “kid sat” until about 10:45. When I got home, a thunderstorm was JUST about to get underway. So I grabbed my camera and ran out back. Using the (manual) bulb setting (which I now know how to use! :D Thanks, Will!!), I did manage to get one REALLY cool lightning picture and a few other neat ones!! I’ll be posting a few on my Pixies blog as soon as I can.

And that brings you up to speed on Monica’s life! :)
I have the first History quiz of this year tomorrow – pray for me! It’s from Pepin the Short to Charles the Fat. :D And then it will be the weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D (…well. After I get off work Friday, it will be.)
Saturday afternoon, I have rehearsal and Saturday evening, Joey and I are going to Kansas City with a bunch of friends and acquaintances for a hockey game (Nashville vs. St. Louis). I’ve never been to a hockey game before so this will be kind of cool! :)

ANYHOW, this update is terribly long so this will be the end. I’ll be back sooner or later. :) Cheerio, all! God bless~

Like Father, Like Son

There they are, intent on that baseball game! :D

Miscellaneous Photos

Just thought I'd post these:





*does a double take*

The Latest

Hello!

Okay, it's high time that I updated with something of substance. :)
Fortunately, this week has been pretty light on the babysitting... only 11 hours in total, I think. Classes began in earnest on Monday (the 12th). I'm taking 17 credits (requiring 19 hours a week)... Physical Science, Theology, Latin, History, Ethics, and Liturgy. So far, so good. Most of the classes are reasonably interesting (it's amazing how much it helps to pay attention! :P) and we haven't gotten inundated with homework and tests and papers YET.

The Drama Club met for the first time this year on Wednesday afternoon. This fall, the college will be presenting Sophocles' "Antigone" .... McCabe Theater, the weekend before Thanksgiving. Be there. ;) On Wednesday, Mrs. Keith went over the plot with us and described the characters (how they should come across in the play) and discussed the theme. There was a pretty small turnout because I think a lot of people are holding out for the Spring play - Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." :) Those of us that were there took the sheets for auditions and promised to round up as many others as we could.
On Friday night, I felt like doing SOMETHING social, so I called up to the dorm and got Dave who handed me to Nick, so I talked to him to see if anything was in the offing. He said that there was volleyball at the park at 7 (I had called him about 7:10) and Dave was going to that. I don't typically play volleyball and said so and eventually, we decided on meeting at the park and going on a walk. I dragged Rose along with me ;) and we went on a nice long walk. I don't know how far it was mileage-wise but it was 30+ blocks. We had good company and good conversation. We walked for about 2 hours and took some pictures around campus in the dark. Rose and I got back to the park about 9:30. I sat and talked with Sarah and Desiree until they started playing volleyball too. I took a bunch of pictures. :) They played quite a few games. It was enjoyable to watch because quite a few of the players were really good and knew exactly what they were doing. That went on until about 10:30. We gave Marianne, Sarah and Desiree a ride back to the dorm and then headed home. . . .





Yesterday morning, Rose asked if I'd take some of her senior pictures. I already knew that she wanted me to but the day was so gorgeous and all that we decided to "carpe diem!" :) So after a few delays, we took some photos in the backyard, in the house and then headed down to Riverside Park to shoot some there. I took several poses in the Gazebo-performing-arts-thingie that's there and then on a park bench, next to a tree and in the sand. Happily, a number of them turned out really nicely. It will be hard to do the necessary process of elimination when the time comes!


...Saturday afternoon were the auditions for "Antigone." I didn't do as well as I would've liked on the Ismene and Antigone parts - I kind of froze up. :( But I did alright on the audition for Eurydice and I'd be decently satisfied with that part :) ...a lot less memorizing involved than in the other two parts!! We'll find out early this week who got cast for what. Annie, Ben and Dave all did really awesome acting jobs!! They'll probably get the main roles... at least, I think they should and hope they will. The first read-through/rehearsal is this Wednesday.

After auditions, I was home for a couple of hours and then Rose and I went and babysat from 6:30 pm til 12:15 am!! That went alright. After the kids went to bed, Rose and I had a good talk and I got some Physical Science homework done (yeah, try doing Physical Science at 11:45 pm!! :O ;))... I got to bed about 1 am. Consequently (and also because I'm a sound sleeper), I didn't hear one little bit of the tremendous storm that followed! If stories are to be believed, ;) we got practically torrential rain, lightning and thunder, hail, high winds, etc. When I left the house this morning, I was surprised to see the ground wet and figured it must've rained. Little did I know! ;) We lost the power about 4 am, I guess, and so my alarm did not go off at 7:20. I managed, however, to get to the 9 am Mass with 4 minutes to spare. ;)

That's all that has been up lately. Looking ahead, Mom and Dad and Lindsey are leaving for 10 days in Ireland on the 21st. The same day, I'll be recording a presentation of the new Math books for Fr. Harber. If I got a part in the play, that will be the day of the first read-through as well... even if I don't get a part, that will still be the day for the first read-through! ;)

And that, my friends, concludes this week's presentation of the news according to MaMoThCa! :D Thank you for reading and be sure to check back soon... or go look at my other blogs. :)

Until next,
Farewell~

New Blog

Yes.... it's true.... I have yet another blog! :D (I didn't have enough to do, right? I had to find something to keep me occupied. Uh huh. Sure.)

This time it's devoted to pictures...... but a sub-category of pictures. This blog is for pictures I take of college activities here at SMC. Click here! :)

More latah!!

500 HITS

As of today, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, I have surpassed 500 hits on my blog... since I got the counter from Bravenet on July 27 of this year. Thank you, everyone who visits!!! I appreciate it. :) As long as people keep visiting (and commenting ;)), I'll keep updating. :D

*raises glass* Here's to the next 500!

Cheers~

Sisters

This is we. :D

To Keep You Occupied in My Absence... :P

you are paleturquoise #AFEEEE

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is low - You stay out of stressful situations and advise others to do the same. You may not be the go-to person when something really needs done, but you know never to blow things out of proportion. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Patience is a Virtue

Hello, dear reader,

Thank you for visiting my blog. I have been most extraordinarily busy lately and the horizon in my appointment book doesn't look promising, but I'll try to update this page with something of consequence before too much time slips past. :) Basically, I've been going to school full-time (and I do mean full-time! ...I'm taking 19 hours this semester in college) in addition to working close to 20 hours a week and trying to squeeze sleep somewhere into the equation! :P So for now, the blog doth rest.

Hope to get back to this soon. In the meantime, I leave you with a picture of college life... :)

Update

My goodness! Where to start?!

The days of recollection this week had some very boring points as well as some very enjoyable points. It was a lot of fun to sit and talk with friends over coffee or under the college steps. It was also nice to have some of the social life of the school year without the homework yet! ;) The recollection ended at lunch time yesterday... shortly after 1 pm, I went over to see Brittany. We went to Wamego, did some shopping for her trip to Idaho, ate a late lunch at a Chinese buffet, got some grocery-type items and filled up on gas. It was really nice, even though most of the stuff was just boring necessities. It's the company that makes the difference. :) We also had a really good conversation en route... I'm gonna miss those now that Britt's gone. *sob* ...but I'm getting to that!
Okay, so we got back - I guess it was about 3 or 3:30. We were going to stop by "the Q" and see how Adam was doing his first day on the job but decided Christa might like to join us. So we went to get her and then Britt ended up staying home to get some desperately needed packing done. So Chris and I walked down there and just got bottled water :) and sat and talked. More enjoyable than it sounds. ;) The after school crowd came and we left. I watched Britt pack (very helpful, amn't I?) and hung around as long as possible. ;) Then it was home for quiche and I took some pictures which I will soon put on my Pixies blog... I got kinda lucky and had the opportunity to take macro shots of both a cicada exoskeleton and a living cicada.
After that, Rose and I went to Mionis' house for Brittany's going-away party. (She left today for a year in Idaho.) We were practically the only non-family members there! We ate and talked and walked and all that sort of get-together stuff. We stayed and stayed... I didn't want to have to say goodbye to Britt... :( but we finally left about 1:30 am when it was decided that I'd come over again after a few hours of sleep ;) to say the real farewell.
I got to bed about 2:15 in the morning.....

I woke up this morning at 8:30 and dragged myself out of bed. Showered and ran over to the Mionis to say goodbye to "Brett" (age-old nickname my sister's ex-b/f gave Britt)... stayed for about 30 minutes and would've stayed longer but for the obligation to babysit at 10. We managed to smile through the farewells and then I departed.
Out at the Johnsons, I started my first letter to her before she'd even left St. Mary's! :P It's 8 (KIND of small) pages right now and growing. :) Babysitting was sorta rough today. I was there for 7 hours, as planned, but the kids are getting VERY TIRED (and understandably so) of their parents being gone soooo much. I've babysat them 30+ hours these past 10 days, mostly at bedtime which is hard for them. So they were pretty bad today and all 3 of them just dissolved into tears throughout the afternoon when frictions arose. :/
(This is Adelaide:)

But I got home at 5 and that's where I'm at now! :) I'm heading off to a get-together at the Maddefords and, from there, to the football game...

Arson!

Sign on the fence surrounding the remainder of our local grocery store...

News Blurb

Rumor has it that Gockel's has been declared a crime scene for arson!

...oh, and the first day of "school" (really, a day of pseudo-recollection) went pretty well. :)


~ ~ ~

Academic Act and the Start of Another School Year!

We had a Solemn High Mass this morning to start the school year out on the right foot. That was at 8 am and just packed with students even though only 7th through 12th and the college were required to attend. Afterwards, there were still about 40 minutes before the Academic Act began at 10:30 so a group of us just stood outside and talked for awhile...
Fr. Griego gave a good talk during the Academic Act - all about how we are Crusaders and we must fight for Christ the King. We must wage war on the spiritual enemy and always stand guard so he doesn't sneak in and catch us unawares. Viva Christo Rey!
Then there were the awards from last year's Spring Semester to be handed out. I got a 3.59 GPA which landed me on the Dean's List, plus I got perfect attendance. I was the only person to get both! :O Rose got on the Honor Roll to her surprise. ;)
It was all over by about 11:30...

In the afternoon, I ran some errands and went by the school to put my notebooks in my locker - about 2:30. That's when I noticed that I was supposed to have seen Dr. Berfanger at 1:45! So I went up to her office and met Johnny Mac up there. We talked for a few minutes until she showed up. She had to take care of an emergency involving the ordering of more Latin books *lol* and then was able to see us. I'll be taking 17 credits this semester but they'll take 19 hours a week. Tuesdays will be my worst day but Mondays should be pretty nice. Wednesdays, too - I only have one class on Wednesdays!! :D

This evening, I babysat from 6 to 8... the kids were fairly good; a little tired but all things considered, they were good.

So long for now!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My Piggy Bank...

...After I filled up on gas...

Labor Day Weekend

Good morning!
Today is Labor Day and I have had quite an active weekend so far. Read on! :D

On Friday afternoon, I went up to the school to take the retreat group picture at the end of the Girls' Retreat with Fr. Tague. Then I kinda helped Rose pack up and brought her home with me (much talking ensued! :D). Immediately thereafter, I had to rush out to babysit - I was late. I babysat 3 kids (ages 1, 3 and 5) from 6 until midnight. I got home about 12:15 but didn't get to bed until 1:30...

Saturday morning, I rose at 7:45 and got ready to leave for the Irish Fest in Kansas City at 8:40. Well, as things went, we didn't leave until a quarter to 10!! Mom, Rose and Joey had gone to 7:30 Mass which turned out being a Solemn High Mass with a sermon for the feast of St. Pius X! So that got out later than they thought it would. Afterwards, they learned that Gockel's had burned down so, on the way to get the mail, they were among the many curious passers-by who stopped to watch for a bit. Then Rose had to eat breakfast and we had to gather the things that we were taking to Lindsey. We went by and picked up Brittany and Christa, went by Gockel's one more time and were finally on our way out of town! *whew*
In Topeka, we picked up Lisa - a penpal of Rose's whom we'd never met. We reached the Festival a few minutes after noon. It was a lot of fun, thanks to the good company we were in. :D
We walked around the tents selling things for a little bit, got some (expensive!) lunch and then headed over to watch the Feis that was going on in the hotel next store. That was pretty neat even though we couldn't see the dancers' feet too well. We had to guess what was being done down there! ;) We walked through "the Link" - a glass-covered sidewalk which crosses at least two streets to connect Crown Center with Union Station. It was really hot in there (green-house effect and all) but FUN!! We wandered aimlessly for a little while after that until we came upon Ellis Island playing inside Crown Center. It was very crowded because of the air-conditioning so our view was soon obstructed. Britt and I went to check out a 75% off sale at Casual Corner which was very nearby and were soon joined by Rose and Lindsey (whom we had met there), shortly followed by Christa and Lisa. Linds left and we got really goofy and forgot all about human respect!! :P We went to get something to drink and met up with Linds and Mike. Rose left with them to help take the bike we'd brought to KC for Linds to the Angelus.
Sadly, on the way, they saw a car accident occur in which a little girl of about 7 years got hit by a flying tire. She was rushed off to the trauma center and, on their return, Rose and Mike gave eye-witness accounts to the police. Meanwhile, the rest of us were unaware of what had happened so we were watching the Cottars (VERY good performance! What talent!!) and wondering all the while what was taking Rose so long to join us. It was all rather bizarre - the day starting with the fire at Gockel's and ending with the witnessing of this car wreck.
We said our rosary on the way home, dropped Lisa off in Topeka, Britt and Chris at their home and arrived home by 9:30 pm.

Yesterday, we all went to the 9 am Mass which Joey was thurifer for... Mass was said by Fr. Griego and there was a very good sermon on pride and obedience to superiors and things like that. There was recording in the afternoon for St. Magnus, RMP's next production. Rose and I went up to the Fall Festival about 2:45, staying until 6. There were a fair number of people there and I got to see a couple of old friends again who are back for the school year.
At home again, I changed clothes, fixed my hair, ate dinner and was off again to the square dance. I do believe this square dance marks an historic first!! At the beginning, there were ACTUALLY more guys than girls!!!! :O :O That just NEVER happens... and of course, it didn't last too long because by the end, it was quite the opposite once again. Happily though, a lot of people showed up. My estimate is that there were 85-90 people there. It was the biggest turn-out I've seen in the four dances I've been to. I danced 8 out of 9 dances (which, since there are 2 songs per dance, is really more like 16 out of 18 dances). Oooo, were my feet sore afterwards!! But I had a very good time so it was worth it! :D

I think today will be spent catching up at home, cleaning my room and preparing for the school year which begins tomorrow! I'll try to keep updating but often it happens that when there's news, I'm too busy to write and when I have the time, there's nothing to relate! We'll see....

Thanks for reading and come back soon! :D

Further pictures of Gockel's (or what was...)

From the front...

Addendum to the News

So Gockel's burned down... and last night it was still smoldering so they had fire hoses on it all day (water pressure was really bad this morning! :/) Yesterday, they started bulldozing the place so here are a couple of pictures we got of the place:

From the back, in the morning


From the back, in the evening


From the front, in the evening

The News!

The local news on this fine First Saturday is that there was a fire at Gockel's during the night!!!!!!!! :O :O :O Bertrand is blocked off and firetrucks are all over down there.... I haven't seen it myself yet but apparently the roof and windows are all missing though the stone edifice remains standing. According to the source, none of the adjacent buildings were thought to be harmed.

But WOW!! It never ever occurred to me that Gockel's would burn down...... I think this is good news. :P

(By way of explanation, I mean absolutely NOTHING malicious in saying that it's good news! I realize that a significant loss of property is involved, but thankfully - as far as I know - no one was heard. The problem with Gockel's was that it was never improved. It was often dirty and its frozen goods were almost always freezer-burned. In addition, it had a somewhat immoral atmosphere and some of the help was less than helpful. Hopefully, a new grocery store will be cleaner, in more ways than one. I'm sorry if I scandalized anyone by saying the fire was good news! :/)



~M~

Thunderstorm

We had a pretty cool thunderstorm last night. :) The power went out about 2 - I wasn't up for that - but I did see some pretty good lightning out there about 12:30 am... I was able to capture this shot:



I think it was worth the 25 tries it requried to photograph the bolt! :)

Welcome, September!!

Wow, can September be here so soon?! Doesn't seem possible.
September is good news and bad news. It's good news because it means cooler weather and the return of friends. It's (semi-)bad news because it heralds the return of classrooms, books, papers, and tests. Of course, if we didn't go back to school, we'd probably get bored out of our wits... I know I would. So, all in all, September is a symbol of good things.

This first day of September is beautiful here in NE Kansas. The temperature is in the 70's. It's mild and sunny. Aaaahh.
We have a new month ahead of us and a new school year... what shall come is known only by God. May He give us the graces we need to use this time He has given fruitfully and in such a way that we draw ever more near Him.