Just for Fun

Chloe: 3 Months, 3 Weeks

2008-07-02T15:45:00.000-05:00

I Got My Hair Cut Today!

2008-05-20T16:04:00.000-05:00

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

2008-05-14T10:07:00.001-05:00

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

Spring is Springing Creeping In

2008-05-07T09:52:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-26T10:46:00.001-05:00

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

2008-04-23T21:48:00.001-05:00

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

2008-04-20T18:03:00.001-05:00

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

Too Cute Not to Share

2008-04-16T08:41:00.000-05:00

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

Just Over One Month Old

2008-04-07T15:10:00.000-05:00

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

Cleaning, Cooking, and Company

2008-04-07T15:03:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-07T12:49:00.001-05:00

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

2008-04-04T14:00:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-26T15:09:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-18T15:46:00.000-05:00

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).

More Baby Pictures

2008-03-05T15:03:00.000-06:00

Before...

After...

The little sweetheart with Grandpa Doc...

With Mommy...

With Daddy...

With Aunt Monica... ;)

I Heart Daddy

2008-03-05T10:32:00.000-06:00

Daddy's Little Girl :)

Fast asleep on the couch

They Don't Stay Little for Long

2008-03-04T14:41:00.000-06:00

Chloe is enjoyably tiny. :) She's not so little that she's sick, but she's too small for most of her clothes. She's already matched her birthweight though (at five days old), at which rate, she will be outgrowing everything in short order. :)

For the time being, I'd like to share this clip with you. :D

Baby Video :)

2008-02-29T19:44:00.001-06:00

Here's the first video I've seen of Chloe. Aww! :)

Just about 36 hours old here...

More Pictures!

2008-02-29T15:30:00.000-06:00

I just received some more pictures from Lindsey!! (This time from a camera, not a cell phone. :))

Chloe is sooo precious!! (Okay, I know, I'm prejudiced, but isn't she?? :D)

Here she is with her parents, on her birthday. ;)

About an hour after birth...

Later that evening...

Chloe is Here!!!

2008-02-28T19:08:00.001-06:00

As of 4:22 this morning, I am an aunt! (We missed Leap Day by 20 hours, but that's life! ;))

Lindsey was blessed with a safe and speedy delivery (four hours total!) and a healthy little girl. Chloe Antonine Marie arrived two weeks early and measured 19 1/2 inches and weighed 6 lbs 8 oz.

I am told that she looks like a cross between me and Joe, her daddy. All I have to work from so far are cell phone pictures, but from what I can see, she's her daddy all over again! Until I get some crisper pictures (hopefully sometime tomorrow), I will leave you with these. :)

What a thought... my great-grandmother (who is still alive) is now a great-great-grandmother!!

Typing

2008-02-26T20:42:00.000-06:00

65 words

Speed test

Tea Party '07

2007-12-16T22:29:00.000-06:00

It has been a real nail-biting kind of day. At regular intervals, I have been impelled to come back to the WorldWideWeb and check the progress on Ron Paul's "Tea Party Money Bomb"! :) The goal was $10 million, with many hoping for at least $6 million realistically. With just 30 minutes left on today's donation clock (since it's based on the eastern time zone), the score is hovering right about six million dollars. In one day.

It's incredible!! How exciting!!! The last record (for funds raised online in a single 24-hour period) has already been broken, but we're hoping for more.

No matter how this day ends up, though, it's been just amazing to watch the ticker start at approximately 11,555,000 and - at the moment of writing - reach 17,687,933. Wow.

Thanks be to God!!

I'd like everyone to join me in a rosary novena from now until Christmas in thanksgiving to God that a man such as Ron Paul is even running for the Presidency at all... and in petition that things will go well for him. Please God, a good president!! Won't you please join me in one Rosary each day for the next nine days? The Rosary won the Battle of Lepanto. It enabled the most recent Motu Proprio to be released at long last. It can put a good man in office. It would take a miracle at this point to get a good man in the Presidential seat, but the Rosary is capable of it!

Oremus.

America's Last Chance?

2007-11-12T21:20:00.000-06:00

Not normally one to become involved in politics, since the Republic side (with a reputation for being "conservative") typically winds up having exactly the same agenda as their counterparts, the Democrats, worded just a little differently... I am nonetheless joining the "active ranks" as we head into the primaries for the next Presidential election.

Ron Paul is getting all too little airtime in the major media... and when he gets it, they are (naturally) antagonistic in their wording. This man has integrity. An OB/GYN and a former member of the Air Force, he has served for 20 years as a Congressman for the 14th district in Texas (that is, he's been elected TEN TIMES!) and his voting has been consistent. He says one thing... and votes the SAME thing. (Novel idea in politics!) He's anti-big-government, pro-Constitution, pro-freedom, pro-life, pro-stable-economy. What more could you want?! Lower taxes? He's pro-that too!
He is - allegorically - a lone voice crying out in the desert.

What price are we willing to pay for freedom? What will be the cost of failure?

Let's all get out there and spread the word! Most importantly, let's pray for the success of this campaign ("More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of...!") and lets put our money where our mouth is. (After all, in as capitalistic country as ours, Money Talks.)
Join us on December 16th for the modernday version of the Boston Tea Party!! With a little help from a lot of people, we'll be able to reach the goal of $10,000,000 in one day!!! (As of this writing, just over 9000 people have pledged to donate $100 each that day.) This 10 million dollars will make it possible for the campaign to be viable and could mean the difference between success and failure in the primaries.
For more information, please visit http://teaparty07.com.
To donate money on December 16, or at any time, visit http://ronpaul2008.com.
I also recommend http://ronpaulforpresident2008.com.

Spread the word! And remember -
All that evil needs in order to win is that the good do nothing.

More Pictures

2007-09-27T22:03:00.000-05:00

Here, for your review :), are some recent photos...

September 23... just off of K-99, north of Wamego.

September 26... the sunset coincided with the moonrise.

Just for the Life of this Poor, Suffering Blog

2007-09-04T21:54:00.000-05:00

Something to keep it alive. ;)

...What better than a few photos? LOL!

I am LOVIN' my new camera!! :D

...As for recent news items, my brother got back from his crazy 9-day roadtrip on Sunday night. In those nine days, he and his friends put more than 4600 miles on the car!!! But they made it to the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean, the Sequoia forest, Salt Lake City and Denver (all but Denver were firsts for my brother) and they had a blast doing it!

No sooner had he returned than my sister took off for France. This morning, to be exact. In fact, as I write, she is somewhere over the Arctic Circle, scheduled to land in Paris in approximately four hours! She'll be nannying a little ways outside Paris until Christmas.

And - more news :) - my other sister and her hubby are coming into town this weekend for his cousin's wedding! It'll be nice to see them again!

Many comings and goings here; and I have not been left out, for I made a weekend trip out to Syracuse, NY in mid-August and had a great time with friends out there!

So there you have it. Hang in there and don't forget to let me know that you stopped by.

Sole Deo!