Dominic Gerard - my new godson

Yesterday morning, in a flurry of unforgettable activity, I helped with the post-delivery hours of a friend of mine at the clinic. Her total labor time was about one hour!!! Things happened extremely quickly, but all's well that ends well... Her second-born child was her first-born son. He was born at 5:05 AM, 3 1/2 weeks early, and weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces. They asked me to be his godmother and I accepted with pleasure.

So little Dominic Gerard was baptized by Fr. Sulzen this evening, 36 hours after birth... He is my second godchild and first godson.

Fabulous Quote from C.S. Lewis' "Four Loves"

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.

(Emphasis added.)

Chloe's Genetics :)

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genalogy - Familytree

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[Courtesy of despair.com! :)]

A France Encore

Mom and I leave this Wednesday (July 30) for France!!
We're going over for the taking of the habit ceremony in Fanjeaux. My best friend will be taking the habit in the Dominican order on August 4. It'll be so good to see her again!

While we're over there for that, Mom and I are going to take advantage to visit some of the other towns in France. We're hoping to make a day trip out to Avignon one day before the ceremony. I'd also like to see a bit of Toulouse and/or Carcassone while we're in the area. After the Dominican ceremony, we're going over to Lourdes (especially meaningful since it's the 150th anniversary of the apparitions). We'll be able to spend two or three days there. Then it'll be back to Fanjeaux to spend the weekend with Brittany. Sunday, the 10th, I think we'll be driving up to Tours and spending the night there. After that, we'll be on to Mont St-Michel, Chartres, and then Paris. We will fly home from Paris on Saturday, the 16th.

I'm not looking forward to the traveling part and I'm sure I'll miss home, but the trip itself should be well-worth the pains required. It'll be wonderful to be back in Europe one more time! I promise to take pictures. :)

Chloe: 3 Months, 3 Weeks

I Got My Hair Cut Today!

And this was the result. Whaddya think?

Before:



After:




(I don't know how obvious the difference is. I got more obvious, higher-up layers around my faces and took just a little off the ends in the back.)

Chloe Update

Two months, one week old (at the time of the pictures)...

Spring is Springing Creeping In

It's May 7 and it feels like Spring has been FOREVER in coming!! We dipped down to 35 degrees a couple of nights ago. It would seem that winter would rather hang around a little longer, much to most people's everyone's disgust. ;) I remember May mornings that were 70 degrees at dawn and 90 or so by 3 PM. Not that I'm anxious for those hot days. All I'm asking for is a little Spring weather... you know, the beautiful days, sunny and about 70 degrees, with stormy nights. THAT's Spring. :)

But I must be fair and admit that Spring is crawling in, slowly but surely. And that's nice! Nothing like a long winter to make one appreciate the sunshine!

Visit from His Excellency

His Excellency Bishop Williamson is in town this weekend for Confirmations. Yesterday evening, he came by the house for nearly an hour. It was a great visit and such a privilege! We were able to kiss his ring twice (arriving and departing) and got his episcopal blessing. In addition, we were honored to be able to sit around the kitchen table with him, just visiting. (He even wrote a poem for my mom, since she could not be there with us. :))

Wow.

May God bless this incredible man for all that he is doing!!

Florality

This Spring, we have flowers in the yard! Thanks to embedding bulbs in God's green earth last Fall, we have - with minimal effort - beautiful blooms... which delight the females of this household to no end. :)

The daffodils had a cheerful season, but are now - so soon :( - past their prime. The tulips are now at their glorious peak. The bleeding hearts are prolific. The irises show great promise by their rapid growth. And the tiger lilies shouldn't be long after that.

Yay!! :)
So, of course, to complete this tale, I will share some pictures.

A sprig of bleeding hearts
This tulip seemed to be looking out curiously from where it was rooted in the garden bed to the great, green world beyond.
(Isn't it amazing the way the sunlight from beyond the flower makes it look almost as though the flower is illuminated from within?)
And this pretty little tulip brought the phrase "the belle of the ball" to my mind, because it was the only pink tulip among a company of several purple tulips, which were gathered 'round it in such a way as to suggest that they were so many admiring suitors.
(Please see the following picture.)
The "beaux" of the "belle" fade into the background.
(Maybe you just would have had to have been there! :))

Laughing

I can't wait to see my favorite niece :) again - in just ten days! She's changing so quickly!

Too Cute Not to Share

Six-and-a-half weeks old... Going on six months. ;)

Just Over One Month Old

Thanks to Chloe's mommy for the picture! ;)

Cleaning, Cooking, and Company

On Thursday, Rose and Joey and I cleaned house! Friday morning, I worked at the clinic. That night, Mom and I watched The Pelican Brief with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

On Saturday morning, we had nine seminarians (ten, counting my brother) over for breakfast after 7:30 Mass. Rose and I cooked almost all morning! We went through four dozen eggs, two loaves of bread, two packages of sausage, two packages of bacon (no doubt it would've been more if we had had more :)), three cans of orange juice concentrate, a can of apple juice, five pots of coffee, four jars of peach slices, and a quantity of chocolate.

I don't think they had eaten at all during Lent.
Suffice it to say, Mom thought it would be a good idea to write Fr. Le Roux a condolence letter on account of his food bill. :D We are not used to such a quantity of food here!! Especially since right now, there are only four people living here - three of us female and none of us growing! :)

Saturday afternoon, we cleaned up a bit again - swept the floors, put together a kind of guest room, prepared the chapel for Mass, etc.
Joey brought Fr. Abbet home with him after Compline that night.

Sunday morning, we had Mass at 8 am in our little chapel. Words cannot express how great that was!! We visited over coffee and then Father and Joey left for the 10 am Mass at the Auditorium (for Good Shepherd Sunday, all the seminarians were in town). Mom went up for the sermon and went to Confession. Shortly after she got home, she and Rose and I went up to the parish picnic.


It was a very enjoyable afternoon and we were blessed with beautiful weather. Five hours later, we returned home with mild sunburns to start dinner... We visited with Fr. Abbet over dinner and dessert.

This morning, Father said Mass for us at 7:15. We had waffles, eggs, and bacon for breakfast and then bid him and Joey adieu and au revoir as they left for Minnesota.

It was a very nice weekend.

More Than Words

Good Shepherd Sunday, April 6, 2008

Fr. Abbet stayed with us over the weekend and celebrated Mass for us in our oratory both Sunday and Monday. What a privilege to have the Blessed Sacrament in our home!!

Hand Shadows

This is great! How incredible! (And what a lot of practice it must have taken!)

What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong

Chloe in Action

One of my favorites from the Chloe Archives. ;) Chloe will be four weeks old tomorrow and a month old the day after that!

This video was when she was just under 3 weeks old.


And here's the most recent edition... :D

Some Favorite Pictures from Last Week

I spent this past calendar week in Minneapolis with Joe and Linds. It was great! A relaxing change of pace and break from work for me. I'm not sure it was as relaxing for them... But we had a good time. And I got to take a lot of pictures of my adorable niece and goddaughter. ;) So here are some favorites (not in any order).