February Winds Down

The second month of 2006 is almost gone already!!! It seems like Christmas was just last week.

This month sure has been eventful. Ice-skating, dancing lessons, Rose's 18th birthday, the acquisition of my new job, Fr. Harber being gone for a week... to name the more major happenings.
As for this past week... it's been up to par with the month. Eventful and very busy. On Monday, I started work... spent an hour and a half picking up toys, folding blankets, feeding the baby and doing laundry. Tuesday, we had two fewer classes thanks to Fr. Harber's absence and I worked again, this time doing dishes and feeding the baby. Tuesday evening was my fourth in a series of ten ballroom dancing lessons. We learned the "basket" or "cuddle" step in the swing, reviewed our waltz steps and learned the basic cha cha step. It's getting to be a lot of fun! ...It always is more fun to do something when you're good at it...
Wednesday, I had no classes at all!! :D That was nice! I still went up to the college though, and read the Ottaviani Intervention (part of my Liturgy assignment). When Joe got out of classes, we went to Topeka to see a traveling art show (called South Winds, I believe)... out of 2400 entries, the 100 best paintings in the country had been chosen and were on display. We weren't sure what to expect but they were actually really good!! This was one of my favorites:

I got back from Topeka in time for 3 pm play practice, only to find that, our directress being sick, there was no practice!! So I made the best of it and went to Sarah's house to raid her closet for the square dance. ;) I had a little bit of time at home before I went to work at 6... work that night was absolutely crazy! The kids were possessed by some fiendish spirit and simply would not calm down. One crisis after another. ;) However, we got them put to bed in time to clean up the kitchen and get the house under control before I left at 9:20...
Thursday was a pretty easy day as classes go. :) With Fr. Harber's continued absence, I had only Physical Science and Latin and was finished by lunch time. That afternoon I started my Liturgy paper... which is still coming along, slowly but surely. That evening, I worked from 5 to 8:30. The kids were pretty good until bedtime and then things once again got maniacal. One's jumping on the bed, another's tripping over the 18-month-old causing her (the six-year-old's) tooth to bleed, a third is getting into trouble in the kitchen, yet another is busy letting the cat in the house (one MORE thing to step on and trip over! ;))... and so on like that! The peace that falls once the kids are in bed is an amazing silence indeed. :P
Friday.... I had Physical Science, Spiritual Conference and History. I worked in the afternoon, just doing dishes and kitchen work. It was a beautiful day so we shoo'ed the kids outside. :) Friday evening was the square dance! I was fortunate enough to, once again, dance every dance. (I think that adds up to ten or so.) Actually, there were more guys than girls (a rare occurrence!!) so that was really fortunate. ;) I had a very good time.
Saturday, I slept in. :D Joe came over and made bread (really good bread!) and I made butterscotch brownies (for Caity's shower). In the afternoon, Rose got home from fundraising, Dad got home from Colorado, and Lindsey came in from Kansas City! :) The Children of Mary concert was at 7 pm. Rose "directed" the C.O.M. in singing three songs (but you couldn't actually see Rose as she was standing behind them). And Joey performed "Classical Gas" on his guitar - his first concert performance. They both did a good job... and you couldn't even tell that Joey had skipped a whole section. ;) Afterwards, we ran over to Gambino's and got pizza. Back at home, we ate a late dinner... pizza, ice cream and brownies. (Sound fattening??! :P) Then we watched an episode of Jeeves and Wooster. *lol* Those are great!
....This morning, I went to the 7:30 Mass with Dad and Joey. It's shaping up to be another beautiful day for February! This afternoon, I'll probably try to get homework done and some Jog-a-thon letters written (not fun, but necessary :/).

On the horizon... Mardi Gras this Tuesday and Ash Wednesday immediately following. And next week, St. Thomas Aquinas Day. (Yay! A day off of classes!! :P) The college men's retreat starts March 12 and ends March 17... my retreat begins the 19th.

And that concludes the report from "My Little World!" More to follow, all things being equal... God bless!

I's a Workin' Gal ;)

Well, folks, it looks like I just landed myself a job. :) What's really awesome is that it has flexible hours.

I'll be helping a mom of six (the oldest is six) with housework, childcare and just things. Mostly, it'll be during the day... so I'll be spending my free hours between classes over there. And some evenings. The kids are cute and seem pretty good. I'm looking forward to it - it'll be a rather refreshing change from my student life. :) (We'll see how long I think that! :P) Plus, I can probably use the practice with little kids. :)

So... after 19 hours of school a week, 10 or 15 hours of work, dancing lessons, play practices, papers and other homework... well, I'll resurface in early June! :P

God is good.

In other realms...
Mom and Dad went to Denver this weekend for the first perpetual vows ceremony in the traditional Benedictine order. Pretty fantastic, eh? Mom's flight gets in about 9 tonight and I'll be picking her up in Kansas City. Dad will be staying in the Rockies for a medical conference this week... at a ski lodge! ... Life's rough. (I'm just kidding - he more than earns the breaks he gets!!)
Fr. Harber, Fr. Gallagher and Fr. Asher will be out of town this week for the priests' meeting in Winona... which is cool because it means seven fewer classes this week!! :D And maybe we'll get Fr. Griego for Spiritual Conference Friday. That'd be fun. ;)

Have you ever heard the song "I Just Want to Dance with You"? It's a really cute song. I like it. :)
"I wanna dance with you,
Hold you in my arms once more -
That's what they invented dancin' for...
I just wanna dance with you.
............
I wanna dance with you,
Twirl you all around the floor -
That's what they intended dancin' for...
I just wanna dance with you."

Awww. :P

Okey doke... well, I've gotta get my Theology notes finished and study for a Latin test, so I'll be headin' out now. Take care, all, and let me know what you're up to too! :) (It's not fair for all this keeping-in-touch business to be one-sided. ;)) Adios~

St. Valentine's Day

Today was Rose's 18th birthday!!!!!! :O
I can't believe she's 18!! It seems like I was just 18... in fact, I WAS 18 only six months ago! ;) (Just on the opposite end of 18. :)) Poor thing - she had 3 tests and a long, long day at school for her birthday! :( But I think the evening went pretty well... at least, she seemed to be in a good mood for most of it. :)
We started the day off by all going to the 6 am Mass. Fr. Harber said it at the main altar and he said the Mass for Rose on her birthday! That was sooo good of him!! Then I studied Science for a bit, ran an errand for a friend, went to school, had a Physical Science test, studied Theology, had Metaphysics and Latin... lunch and the discovery of a dozen yellow roses!! ...History class and finally my Theology test.
After school, I wrapped Rose's present, wrote her birthday card, did some homework, said the Rosary, picked Joe up, helped Mom with part of dinner, etc. Dinner was really good - chicken breasts, honeyed carrots, broccoli with hollandaise sauce, and French bread. Following that was chocolate cake and mead from Ireland. Rose opened her presents and we finished the evening with some dancing.
My day started off horrendously, but ended well!! :D I hope you all had a very happy St. Valentine's Day! I'm off to bed... God bless~

M.D. ~ Musical Doctor

A few days ago, at a ballroom dancing lesson, we had learned another variation on the waltz and had practiced it "dry" for a few minutes. Our instructor (instructress?) asked us if we'd like to have some "medicine" to practice to... *lol* ...she meant MUSIC. :D

It was such a perfect slip of the lip. :) Music IS medicinal. She couldn't have said it better, had she tried. :)

Eve of February

*sigh*

Today was a very long, rather difficult day. Very long. (And actually it should've been even longer, except that I accidentally overslept an hour and a half!) I woke up at 6:50, got ready for school, dashed off a couple of e-mails, ate breakfast, gathered my books and was off to school. The boys had a conference with Fr. Schmidberger this morning at 9, so there were only girls in Physical Science - reminded me uncannily of the ol' girls' school days! - and we couldn't do the lab that we've been trying to fit in since before Christmas. I worked on Metaphysics all throughout the following free hour. Then we had Theology and after that Latin. It wasn't a BAD morning - it just wasn't an easy one. Mentally wearing.

Jozef called right as I got out of Latin. I called him back ten minutes later and he said he'd call me back 30 minutes after that. So I went and ate lunch. Just as I finished with that, he called back and I talked to him for an hour. That wasn't the most stress-free conversation - so no mental break. I talked right up until the bell and then ran to History class... the notes were coming thick and fast but my mind was wandering, which made it doubly hard. But I managed. Last hour was Metaphysics. I had read ahead in the book, but it was still a struggle to keep up and try to assimilate information of that nature. A slight incident in that class - wherein Father got momentarily upset - didn't help and, for some reason (maybe because my nerves were already a little raw), it shattered whatever mental capabilities had been remaining. ;) My brain was toast by 4 o'clock.

After school, I started typing out History notes... then got a text message from Rose saying to come home soon because our package from the O'Farrells had arrived! I got home at 4:45 and we opened the package immediately. That lifted my spirits more than I thought they could be lifted at that point! :) Dinner helped as well, fortunately. And I was actually feeling like almost new by 6:15, when I left to carpool to Topeka for a ballroom dancing lesson (2nd week of 10).

The lesson went well and was actually somewhat encouraging (it is actually possible for me to learn to dance! ;)) - but by the end of the hour, I was VERY tired!! We stopped at Spangles on the way back for refreshment... and I got back home about 9:30 pm.

Just one of those days that leave no time for mental relaxation. The kind of day that proves you're only too human. ;) But God knows what each of us can take, and so the day wasn't entirely miserable. :P In fact, I complain far too much!! There were quite a number of little highlights throughout the day - people being friendly and courteous helps a ton and just makes the day go so much more smoothly!
Anyway, that's my vent for the evening! It's now nearly midnight and I must be on my 8th wind by now!! :) Actually, I'm sorta zombie-ish at the moment. So I'm going to bed. Thanks for braving another post of mine! God bless~




..............oh, by the way! Just a matter of statistics - this is my 150th post!!

Cartoon

This was posted on the Computer Lab door by Fr. Griego!! *lol*

Hiatus Between Semesters

[Disclaimer: This is a LONG post. Be forewarned. ;)]

*whew*
This past weekend was the three-day weekend we have between semesters at school. It was PACKED full with sociality. ;) (Well, except today, but anyway...)

Friday, I finished my last exam at 11 am. Over the lunch hour, Sarah and I went to MJ's and she was kind enough to treat me to a cappucino and we split a cinnamon roll. When we got back to the school, we went over her Latin before her oral. Meanwhile, there was dancing going on in the reading room, springing from the pure joy of being finished with finals! :D That afternoon, at home, Mom, Rose, Joey and I played some MadGab and watched the beautiful snow fall. Friday evening, I went to the square dance which was soooo much fun!!

I had a GREAT time! It was the best time I've had at a square dance yet (and this was my seventh). I danced all the dances... something like 10 or 11 in all. :) Very sore feet afterwards, which is a very good sign! ;) I got to bed a little after 2 am.

Saturday, I slept in and then went to Froggy's for a couple of hours. In the afternoon, Rose and I cleaned the basement.

At 4 o'clock, Nick, Jozef, Sarah and Mariann came over. Dave and Matt joined us closer to 5. We played MadGab in the basement until dinner time. Dinner was very yummy! It consisted of pulled-pork sandwiches, chips, okra, pickled baby corn, and black olives. It was followed up with after dinner mints.

After dinner, we played/sang/listened to music...


Then we played Taboo. That got pretty funny!

Finally, there were "goodbye" pictures with Jozef...


That night, it was to bed about midnight.

Up Sunday in time for the 6 o'clock Mass. *yawn* Rose and I had a rather hilarious saga later in the morning. We went to get a car wash (automatic, since it was Sunday)... Mom gave us the money for it and we went and got the Blazer washed and dried. Then we were going to go for a ride. Well, I didn't realize that Rose was going to go on the gravel roads... muddy roads, no less, since the snow was melting! By the time we got back into town, the car looked worse than before the car wash!!! :/ :O We decided we'd go back and get it washed again. The cheapest wash there was cost $4 and required exact change. We had $3.75. By this time, it was about 11:40 and we were supposed to meet some people up at the school at noon to go ice-skating. We looked for the necessary quarter everywhere. In vain. We even got out at the car wash and I scoured the ground in the area looking for quarters. No luck. It was extremely funny, at least to me. We called Jozef, but got no answer. So then I called Dave and asked if we could borrow a quarter. He was confused, I think, why a quarter would be so important on such short notice, :P but I explained to him in brief and he's getting cookies for his pains anyway. ;) So then Rose and I very quickly went back over to the car wash and accomplished what we had originally set out to do, i.e. get the car clean. :) We got home at something like 11:59 am. :D
We met Joe, Sarah, Nick, Kevin, Larry, Will and Will up at the college. Joe and Sarah rode with us in the Blazer - actually, Joe did the driving. The peanut gallery in the backseat (i.e. Rose, Joey and Sarah) was in fine form and there were lots of laughs!! :D


Skating was VERY fun. The rink was really small (rinky dink... haha), but there weren't many people there, so we were about one-third to one-half of the "population." Thus we were able to have a lot of fun. Of course, the Canadians were really good. Actually, all the guys were good. Joe and Larry were FAST!! Wow. It's so much fun to watch someone who's good at something! They played tag (too fast for me to compete with! ;)) and we played crack the whip... until we were told to stop (about half an hour later). :D

Joe, Larry and Sarah took turns with the hockey jersey in favor of Canada. :D

Daisy-chaining...











The absolute best thing, though, was when Joe jumped over Will!! Oh my gosh!! That was either brave, trusting or stupid on Will's part. :P (j/k) It was very impressive on Joe's part. :D The other Will got this fantastic photo of it!!!

Group photo...

We had a lot of fun on the way home, as we did on the way there. Back in St. Mary's - or rather, on the other side of St. Mary's - we took the Blazer out and tested its "zero to sixty" capabilities. It clocked out at 12.10 seconds... with five people in the car.
At home, we ate the dinner Dad had prepared... with courses and wine in true Italian style. :) Immediately thereafter, I left for Annie's going-away party. I went with Sarah and we stayed until about 8:15. They were playing Psychiatrist which was a lot of fun, but we had also been invited to the Freds' for dessert and games, so we went there as well. We stayed 'til 10 o'clock, playing Cranium. By that point, I was QUITE tired... although, as always, when I got home, I got a second wind and didn't go to bed until after one.

Today, I slept in 'til 9:15, made cookies with Rose, did some laundry, watched a movie, and unsuccessfully tried to finish several other things. Will came over and he and Joey did work on Algebra and computer generation all afternoon and evening, taking a break to watch a movie. :P Not the most eventful day in the world, but pretty good nonetheless. It has been so awesome not to have schoolwork this weekend!!! I keep having a guilty conscience about not doing schoolwork, but there's none to do!! :D Too bad we only get three days off....

Anyway, this post is now VERY long and it's late... I need to go to bed because the daily grind begins again tomorrow...
If you made it this far, you have my sincere congratulations! If not, I understand completely. ;)
For now, though, I wish you a good night and may God bless you~

So Very Different...

I never dreamt HOW different this school year would be from last year!!! Sooooo different. And next semester will be different even from this one, with a dozen people leaving and one new girl coming... I must have a phlegmatic streak, because I don't like change like that. *sigh*
Ah well. Change will come whether Monica likes it or not.
Looking back though, here are some pictures of what we were up to a year ago today. :D It was the last day of exams and we went to Red Lobster in Topeka, after going to Sam's and Churchill's. We had a GREAT time, with finals finished and everything. :)

Matt and Joe...
Yours truly...
Ben...
the "SPUoF's" (inside joke ;))
Okay, the smile looks just a little out of place. :P

Exams'll do that to you!! :D


It's all good. :)

3 Down!!

Physical Science, Theology and History are DONE!!!!! For better or for worse.

Physical Science.... welll... that went oookay. I kinda went blank on the formulas I needed and all these formulas I didn't need kept popping into my head! *aaaarrrrrgggghhhh* So we'll see...

Theology went pretty well. It's a little hard to tell how Father's gonna grade the last essay question, so I'm not too sure about that one. But other than that, I think I did well on it.

History turned out similarly. I missed a bit of information on 3 or 4 of the 10 identifications, but nothing major. There were four essay questions and I think I did well on those. I came away from History feeling pretty good. So that was good! :D

Most of all, it's just great to be through with those three!!! *whew* On the books for tomorrow: Latin at 8 am and Ethics at 10:30.

The bad news of the day was that our Latin orals are going to be Thursday. :( I wasn't going to have any exams Thursday and was fully planning on being a bum that day. :P But now I have to get ready for school and go in for ten measly minutes. Kind of a bummer. :/ Oh well! Could be worse!

Dinner time! That's all for now! Thanks for the prayers, any of y'all that prayed!!! I felt their effect in History today - that was surely the result of prayer! :) Please keep them coming, too. :D

TTFN~

Weird Weather

We set a new record high temperature for today. With a high of 65*F, we surpassed the 1990 record by one degree. It was absolutely gorgeous today!!!! We opened up the house and thoroughly enjoyed it... even though that did make it rather difficult to take the studies seriously. ;)

I made a WHOLE BUNCH of chocolate chip cookies this afternoon - with Rose's help. :) ...Brain food for exam week, ya know. :D Veddy important!! Of course, making cookies didn't help the studying progress any either... nor is taking the time to post helping either! :/
Therefore, y'all'd better wish me luck and keep me in your fervent prayers! I'm gonna need 'em!! Okay?? Thanks! :)

And with that, I'm off to tackle History... once more into the breach, my friends, once more! :P
B'bye~