Trip to MN... the Recap :)

So last night, Mom, Rose and I got home from a five-day trip to Minnesota. That trip marked the first time I'd seen my brother-in-law since the day after he married my sis... and it also marked the first (and last) time I saw their home in Small Town, MN! We went up to help them move to Minneapolis and had a wonderful, busy, fairly productive, really good visit! :) It was grand!

True to form, then, I must share my favorite pictures. :) Bear with me now...

Happy Independence Day!!

May God bless America!

Photos Update

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have begun the (long and arduous) process ;) of updating my Smugmug site (see side panel of this blog for the link)!!! :) It's long overdue and I imagine everyone has completely given up on it, so I just thought I'd tell you that there's hope. :D :D

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Food for Thought... The Devil is Very Real

Can you hear me, are you listening, has your program disappeared?
I can see you, I am watching you, I've been planning this for years.
I have blacked out your television, every station in the world is mine,
And there are millions who are just like you as you sit there, paralyzed!
I have some orders which you will follow, and there's nothing you can do,
'Cos as you're looking at your T.V. screen, I am looking back at you...

Oh side by side,
We will cross that great divide,
'Cos nothing's gonna save you now from the Devil's eye!
Oh nothing's gonna save you now from the Devil's eye...

Turn your dial to the number that is shining on your screen,
You will notice that everything is red, you won't need blue or green,
All around me, fire is burning, yes I'm calling you from Hell,
And all those people who haven't seen me yet, will soon be under my spell.

Something's happening, sounds like thunder, maybe the Lord is on His way,
He's still angry and He's after me since I cheated on the Spanish Train,
Oh yes He's coming, and He could stop me, but He'd better make it soon,
'Cos the last time that I won a world, I made it into a moon...

Oh side by side,
We will cross that great divide,
'Cos nothing's gonna save you now from the Devil's eye;

Oh side by side,
Forever we will ride,
'Cos nothing's gonna save you now from the Devil's eye!

I can see you,
I can see you, I can see you...

These are the lyrics from Chris de Burgh's song The Devil's Eye. Really thought-provoking and not a little scary. Satan is there... perhaps more "there" now than ever before. And his greatest trick is to convince us that he doesn't exist, that he is some scary nightmare at most, to be banished with the follies of our nightly dreams and imaginings. No worries, he breathes, salvation is universal. Have no fear. There is no hell.

He is not called the "Father of Lies" for nothing! Lying is his mightiest tool. Let us not be led into his trap!
If you've ever read the book Screwtape Letters, you will know that its theme is similar to that of this song. Lucifer lies in wait to damn us. He has damned himself and in his hatred (for that is all that remains in God's absence - God being Love itself), he desires nothing so much as the damnation of all other souls ever created. He will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal.
How can anyone deny his influence in the world? Everywhere, one finds demonic things... one need look no further than the very names of rock bands, the indecent and dehumanizing fashions, the modernistic ecumenism (perhaps the deadliest of all blows to souls). He uses many methods, ranging from incredibly subtle to unmistakable. And being an intelligent spirit, he knows exactly which traps will work the best for each and every one of us.

This would all be very frightening, terrifying if we did not have God's help. God loves us more than the devil hates us. He shed every drop of His Precious Blood for us. God is our Hope... our Way, the One and Only Truth, our Life. We have free will and can deny God's grace, but if we fall, it is not for lack of God's help. Should we fall, however, we must remember that God is all-merciful and, as long as our remorse is sincere, will forgive us. (It has been said that the present is the time of mercy. After our death, it will be the time of justice. "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6)) Let us not wait until it is too late to turn to Him! He has given us His own Mother that we may have an intercessor... She can refuse us nothing that is for our good and He can refuse Her nothing, since She refused Him nothing during her life. Let us, then, fly to the Mother of Mercy! We must beg Her to take pity on us and to shelter us from all evils, to crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3). We are Her children (John 19), and as our most-loving Mother, She seeks our happiness and our salvation. If we but call on Her, She will not let us down!

O Mary, conceived without Original Sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!









**As a side-note, I found it interesting that I heard this song for the first time a few days after our local "Sursum Corda Crusade" began this summer. Our parish is "going on crusade" for two months... we're striving to give up completely all TV, all movies, and internet as much as possible, between the Feasts of the Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart. TV is very little but what is evil and giving it up should be no loss for any Catholic. Movies, while not evil in themselves, are certainly frivolous, can be a waste of time, and open our homes and our hearts to the influence of the world. Internet, while not evil in itself either, easily becomes a waste of time, a worldly influence, and even an occasion of sin. Therefore, our parish is aiming to replace these sources of entertainment with more wholesome, societal interaction and has planned many kinds of activities to take their place: an embroidery guild, a walking club, a bocce ball league, fishing outings, drama productions, parish picnics, etc! My point being... this song REALLY struck home, following on the heels of the beginning of our crusade to free ourselves from the TV... and thereby "the Devil's Eye"!

A Meme

I was tagged by Linds to do a meme!
Seven things you probably don't know about me.

Hmm. Just how much DO you know about me?? LOL! Well, I'll see if I can't enlighten you a little further. ;)

1. I was in a motorcycle wreck two years ago.

2. The longest crush I ever had on someone lasted about four years (although, I have to admit, it was off-and-on).

3. I have been without a valid driver's license for 10 months.

4. I graduated high school at the "tender age" :) of 16. (Okay, maybe you knew that already.)

5. I was born in the same hospital - in fact, in the room NEXT DOOR to - where my sister had been born nearly 23 months before.

6. I have been in half of the fifty states and seven foreign countries (eight if you count catching connecting flights in London :P).

7. I took English riding lessons for a time and absolutely loved it... but it killed my knees and I had to quit. :(

...Whew! That was harder than I thought it would be!! I must be an awfully open person, if there are so few things you didn't know about me! ;) ...And now, even those are out!!! :O

I am passing the baton along, so I hope that Seby, Rose, Maiella, and Sara will accept the invitation to participate. :) Anyone else who'd like to join is More Than Welcome to leave their contribution in my comments! Thanks and I look forward to reading your responses. :)

A Glance at Yesteryear

I was just looking through some old scanned-in photographs... it's amazing how things have changed and yet they have hardly changed at all! I believe these "oldies" are from about 1990.

Dad and Lindsey
Some 16 years later...
Joey and I
August 22, 2006...
The four of us kids (I love the expressions on each of our faces :))
October 7, 2006...

**Credit goes to Mike and Bunny Cerny for the wedding photos.**

Taking Stock of the Summer, Thus Far

Well, here it is, the ninth of June, and it feels like summer is well under way. The more "settled back in" I become, the busier I become!

Joey partied his grad weekend away... until he was GLAD to stop partying and get to work! I don't think he'll forget his graduation for a long time to come. ;) He started work for maintenance, up at the school, the Wednesday after Memorial Day.

Meanwhile, at the clinic, there were disasters going on. The scheduled mud-jacking (on account of the buiilding having been constructed sans proper footings) had become a real-life nightmare, with a buckled floor, thunderous jack-hammering, unforeseen concrete-pouring, and unimagined headaches (both real and figurative!). NIGHT. MARE. That sums it up.

Thereafter, I started work at the clinic... on June 4, to be precise. I'm doing some clerical work down there a few days a week. So far, I really enjoy it. I like the work and the atmosphere, both, although the amount of material to learn is somewhat daunting. But I like that kind of a challenge! :)

Today was Miss Rolón's wedding... so, of course, she is no longer "Miss Rolón," but now "Mrs. Escalara." She was a BEAUTIFUL bride and it was a gorgeous, classy, tasteful wedding... small wonder, really! :) Rose and several of her classmates/friends (whom the bride had taught when they were in eighth grade) sang in the wedding. As I write, Rose is still at the reception.

Tomorrow, Mom, Dad, and Joey leave for NYC!! They'll be spending ten days there as Joey's grad present. It sounds like they've got EVERYTHING on their agenda, lol!, so I expect to see lots of pictures and hear many stories. :D In the meantime, Rose and I will be manning the homefront and keeping plenty busy.

So, summer is off to a rapid, but good, start. Before the summer has passed, I will be 21! :) At that point, I will renew my driver's license which expired last summer!! (It's a pain not being able to drive, but I want to wait 'til I'm 21 to renew it just so that it won't have that irritating little phrase on it: "Not 21 until..." ;) Silly of me...)


Well, my brain is really not in blog-mode at the moment. It's not really in any kind of communication mode right now! So I'm going to stop while I'm (hopefully :)) ahead, and say à la prochaine!

Bonne journée à tous!

Joey's Grad

My "baby brother" - the youngest in our family - graduated from high school this past Saturday! It was a great day, although the weather was humid and a little rainy. Joey looked so nice and I was so proud of him! Here are a few pics for your perusal. :)

entering the Auditorium in procession

newly-graduated

processing out

making his way down the gauntlet... er... uh... the receiving line! ;)

These are most (I think four were missing) of the graduates who had been in kindergarten here thirteen years earlier, with the kindergarten teacher (who is going on 26 years of teaching kindergarten here!!).

Moms and Sons

Dads and Grads

Brother and Sisters

Graduates...

...Having a good time :D

Joey, with Mom and Dad

most of the family... (We were thinking of you, Joegi and Linds!!)

Ascension Thursday

So a few days ago it was the feast of the Ascension. After going to Mass, we had brunch at home and then packed up the vehicles and headed to Echo Cliff Park for an all-day type of picnic. :) It was gorgeous weather and a great day!! We lounged and skipped rocks and read and got our feet wet and caught tadpoles. Rose and Joey threw baseball and frisbee. And we finished the evening with a bratwurst roast over an open fire. :D It doesn't get much better than that!!

I'd like to share a few pictures with you. :)

I'm Home!!

Hello, hello!

Long time, no write!
I reached American soil this past Friday after four weeks of traveling in Spain and Poland (and a little time in France) - that, of course, after having spent about seven months in France. To be honest with you, I have mixed feelings about being home... it's great to be home again and to see my friends and family again, but I'm feeling really homesick for Europe! :(
This past month has been amazing. Especially Poland. I can't tell you how incredible my visit to Poland was!! I was a little apprehensive going into it, since it's a really different country and a really different language from anything I had previously experienced, but by the end of my time there, I did not want to leave. I hope, someday, to go back and to stay longer than a week.

I'll share a few pictures from this past month here, but after this I'm not sure when I'll be writing again next. I have so much to organize and reorganize in my life right now, that I might not be blogging too often. (Now don't say I didn't warn you. :)) I hope that you are all doing marvelously and I would love to hear from you! :)

Take care and à la prochaine!

On the way up the inside of the tower at the Giralda in Seville... very cool!

Enjoying a little Sangria in Seville... sunny Spain! (April 16)

Rose and I standing on some Roman ruins, on the road to Guadalupe, April 19

the "original" statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, said to have been carved by St. Luke and blackened by the smoke of burning votives

spending my name-day in the City of the Immaculata, St. Maximilian's Niepokalanow!

Rosary and Benediction for the month of Our Lady

pausing for a picture, halfway to the top of the tower on the basilica in Czestochowa, May 5

Fr. Stehlin gives the sermon during the Mass for the Fourth Sunday after Easter

with a friend of mine in front of a monument in Warsaw... and the Polish colors :) (May 7)

the day I left Poland/saying goodbye (May 10)