You know what I did this morning?!
I cut my thumb with a comb... that's right... with a regular ol' comb! I was brushing my hair and pulled pretty hard on the comb that was in my right hand... my left thumb just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and the comb landed squarely on the top of it, taking off a little layer of skin, slicing into my thumb a bit and getting under the nail. OUCH! It really smarted... but, all-in-all, it was just kind of bizarre that I managed to cut myself (and it did bleed) with a COMB.
Who knows - maybe that'll be the next item they confiscate at airport check-ins! Those lethal combs - they'll get ya everytime!!
You know it.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Merry Second-Day-of-Christmas!
Good afternoon! It's an unseasonably warm afternoon for us here. Feels more like Easter than Christmas!! Yesterday, we broke the record high by one degree - the new record high for December 26 is 61 degrees!!! :O Insane.
Well, I hope you all had very nice Christmas Days. We (all but Dad) went to Midnight Mass - although Rose and I had to get there at 10 in order to get decent seats! The church was - predictably - packed with about 3 people on every kneeler and people at least two rows deep standing the whole way round the church. I got to bed about 3-something in the morning and Joey woke me up a little after 9 for breakfast and to open presents. I got some very nice things this year - an iPod and an FM-transmitter-car-charger-combo to go with it, a 300-mm lens for my digital camera, a taple-top tripod, a silk lens cloth, a cool book on photography, a musical jewelry box ("Fur Elise"), Hayley Westenra's new CD, and clothes. (Thank you, everyone!!!) Lindsey arrived just as we had finished opening our presents to each other, so then we opened all the ones from her and she opened hers from us. After opening gifts, we spent a few hours just playing with all our new toys. ;) Mom and Rose had gotten digital cameras, so the flashes were going off like crazy everywhere one turned! ;) Sarah Brown called and I got to talk to her for about 20 minutes. Then chatted online with Jozef. We went to take a Christmas family picture and got really silly, resulting in many incriminating photos. :P After a casual dinner (everyone was too full of sweets and goodies to eat a real holiday dinner) of tamales, Lindsey headed back out to Kansas City and Mom, Rose, Joey and I went driving around for about 45 minutes to see some of the Christmas lights in the area. There was one house in Rossville that was ENTIRELY too extreme!! They had hundreds of lit-up things in their yard. Everything from a giant snowglobe (about a story tall) to nutcrackers to toy soldiers to giant candy canes which arched over their sidewalk to Santa Claus and his whole entourage - TONS of stuff! ......upon returning home, the rest of the evening was spent importing and uploading pictures and talking with Jozef and (mostly) Maddie.
Monday, I slept way in!!! (But yes, I did wake up while it was still "AM." ;)) I did laundry and put away Christmas presents. Then, Rose and I went to the car wash since it was nice weather and the van needed it desperately. Rose went Christmas caroling in the evening with her classmates and Mom and I sat down to watch "The Truman Show." We got interrupted about 15 minutes into it by a phone call from Christine! :D I talked to her for nearly two-and-a-half hours... was really good to catch up, as we hadn't talked since mid-September! :O Mom and I resumed the movie a little after 11 and got done with it about 1 am! When I got upstairs, I discovered that Jason was online and pretended I was shocked that he was online at one in the morning. ;) He claimed holiday privileges and then I really had no room to talk, ;) because I continued talking with him for a little bit and then Joe got on and, since it had been since September with him too, I chatted with him for a couple of hours! Finally went to bed very late.
Got up this morning at a relatively ;) decent hour (9:something) and haven't done too much very productive today yet (aside from typing out my History notes - I know... can you believe I did schoolwork today?!?!), but I plan on it! :P I'll probably do some cleaning and call Nick... tonight, Dad and I are going over to the Mooneys to talk with their daughter about Switzerland, because my latest plan in life is to spend the majority of 2007 over there! :D We'll see...
That about brings you up-to-date though! :) Here're a few pictures...
Another of the family pictures (I already posted a different one in the previous post...)
One of those incriminating photos I was talking about! ;)
The completely overdone yard... the picture doesn't do it justice.
My Christmas outfit... that's the grey skirt I referred to making in an earlier post.
Well, I hope you all had very nice Christmas Days. We (all but Dad) went to Midnight Mass - although Rose and I had to get there at 10 in order to get decent seats! The church was - predictably - packed with about 3 people on every kneeler and people at least two rows deep standing the whole way round the church. I got to bed about 3-something in the morning and Joey woke me up a little after 9 for breakfast and to open presents. I got some very nice things this year - an iPod and an FM-transmitter-car-charger-combo to go with it, a 300-mm lens for my digital camera, a taple-top tripod, a silk lens cloth, a cool book on photography, a musical jewelry box ("Fur Elise"), Hayley Westenra's new CD, and clothes. (Thank you, everyone!!!) Lindsey arrived just as we had finished opening our presents to each other, so then we opened all the ones from her and she opened hers from us. After opening gifts, we spent a few hours just playing with all our new toys. ;) Mom and Rose had gotten digital cameras, so the flashes were going off like crazy everywhere one turned! ;) Sarah Brown called and I got to talk to her for about 20 minutes. Then chatted online with Jozef. We went to take a Christmas family picture and got really silly, resulting in many incriminating photos. :P After a casual dinner (everyone was too full of sweets and goodies to eat a real holiday dinner) of tamales, Lindsey headed back out to Kansas City and Mom, Rose, Joey and I went driving around for about 45 minutes to see some of the Christmas lights in the area. There was one house in Rossville that was ENTIRELY too extreme!! They had hundreds of lit-up things in their yard. Everything from a giant snowglobe (about a story tall) to nutcrackers to toy soldiers to giant candy canes which arched over their sidewalk to Santa Claus and his whole entourage - TONS of stuff! ......upon returning home, the rest of the evening was spent importing and uploading pictures and talking with Jozef and (mostly) Maddie.
Monday, I slept way in!!! (But yes, I did wake up while it was still "AM." ;)) I did laundry and put away Christmas presents. Then, Rose and I went to the car wash since it was nice weather and the van needed it desperately. Rose went Christmas caroling in the evening with her classmates and Mom and I sat down to watch "The Truman Show." We got interrupted about 15 minutes into it by a phone call from Christine! :D I talked to her for nearly two-and-a-half hours... was really good to catch up, as we hadn't talked since mid-September! :O Mom and I resumed the movie a little after 11 and got done with it about 1 am! When I got upstairs, I discovered that Jason was online and pretended I was shocked that he was online at one in the morning. ;) He claimed holiday privileges and then I really had no room to talk, ;) because I continued talking with him for a little bit and then Joe got on and, since it had been since September with him too, I chatted with him for a couple of hours! Finally went to bed very late.
Got up this morning at a relatively ;) decent hour (9:something) and haven't done too much very productive today yet (aside from typing out my History notes - I know... can you believe I did schoolwork today?!?!), but I plan on it! :P I'll probably do some cleaning and call Nick... tonight, Dad and I are going over to the Mooneys to talk with their daughter about Switzerland, because my latest plan in life is to spend the majority of 2007 over there! :D We'll see...
That about brings you up-to-date though! :) Here're a few pictures...
Another of the family pictures (I already posted a different one in the previous post...)
One of those incriminating photos I was talking about! ;)
The completely overdone yard... the picture doesn't do it justice.
My Christmas outfit... that's the grey skirt I referred to making in an earlier post.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Preparation for the Nativity
Presents, wrapped and ready under the Christmas tree - December 23
Decorating the tree... 
Joey did a lot of it, but these are all pictures of him, partly because Rose was uncooperative ;) and partly because I just didn't get good pictures of everyone else working on decorating... 
December 24 - painting a stable for this year's creche 
Decorating the tree... 
Joey did a lot of it, but these are all pictures of him, partly because Rose was uncooperative ;) and partly because I just didn't get good pictures of everyone else working on decorating... 
December 24 - painting a stable for this year's creche 
Saturday, December 24, 2005
The Hands That First Held Mary's Child
This is a beautiful, Phillipino (if my sources serve me well) poem dwelling on St. Joseph at Christmas time. He's so often overlooked! So here is a poem (also a song) which considers St. Joseph...
The hands that first held Mary's child
Were hard from working wood
From boards they sawed and nailed and filed
And splinters they withstood
This day they gripped no tool of steel
They drove no iron nail
But cradled from the head to heel
Our Lord, newborn and frail
When Joseph marvelled at the size
Of that small breathing frame
And gazed upon those bright new eyes
And spoke the infant's name
The angel's voice he once had dreamed
Poured out from heaven's height
And like the host of stars that gleamed
Blessed earth with welcome light
This Child will be Emmanuel
Not God upon a throne
But God-with-us, Emmanuel
As close as blood and bone
The tools which Joseph laid aside
A mob would later lift
And use with anger, fear and pride
To crucify God's gift
Let us, O Lord, not only hold
The Child who's born today
But charged with faith, may we behold
To follow in His way
The tiny form in Joseph's palms
Confirmed what he had heard
And from his heart rose hymns and psalms
For heaven's human Word.
The hands that first held Mary's child
Were hard from working wood
From boards they sawed and nailed and filed
And splinters they withstood
This day they gripped no tool of steel
They drove no iron nail
But cradled from the head to heel
Our Lord, newborn and frail
When Joseph marvelled at the size
Of that small breathing frame
And gazed upon those bright new eyes
And spoke the infant's name
The angel's voice he once had dreamed
Poured out from heaven's height
And like the host of stars that gleamed
Blessed earth with welcome light
This Child will be Emmanuel
Not God upon a throne
But God-with-us, Emmanuel
As close as blood and bone
The tools which Joseph laid aside
A mob would later lift
And use with anger, fear and pride
To crucify God's gift
Let us, O Lord, not only hold
The Child who's born today
But charged with faith, may we behold
To follow in His way
The tiny form in Joseph's palms
Confirmed what he had heard
And from his heart rose hymns and psalms
For heaven's human Word.
Friday, December 23, 2005
In Hopes for a White Christmas
This snowfall from December 17 and 18 was so pretty! We were (or at least, I was) really hoping for a beautiful white Christmas. But it doesn't appear as though we'll have any such luck. :( Presently, the forecast for Sunday/Christmas Day is a high of 47!!!! *weeps* Isn't that SAD?!?! Well, I spent alllll of yesterday (9 am to 7 pm) shopping with Mom in Manhattan. And then I spent from about 8:30 to midnight wrapping presents. I'm pretty nearly done now! :) This morning, my main project is to sew my Christmas skirt - it's a dark charcoally grey material - 82% polyester and 18% wool. I got a pink sweater at Kohl's to go with it. Should be really cute, if it turns out! :D But I haven't even opened up the pattern envelope yet, so I'd best get started! Talk to you later!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Christmas Neareth!
There's snow on the ground. All white and beautiful. We went and saw the Nutcracker on Sunday. And I spent all day yesterday shopping. Christmas is in the air!! :)
We're getting our Christmas tree today and will decorate it tomorrow. I've been wrapping presents and writing Christmas cards since 7:30 this morning. We're going to Midnight Mass here because Joey is serving for it. We were thinking about going into Kansas City for it this year, because theirs is completely candlelit and not nearly as packed as ours... but we're gonna stay home for it after all.... Christmas has to be my favorite liturgical season!! It's disappointing that they don't have a Nativity Scene in the chapel this year. I wish they did. :(
I hope to find the time to do some Christmas baking this year. The past few years, I haven't had time to do any sort of goodies like that... if I'm efficient, though, maybe I can this week.
But, if I'm to be efficient, I'd best go! :) Merry Christmas to you all!!! I'll be back as soon as I can to relate how things progress. :)
We're getting our Christmas tree today and will decorate it tomorrow. I've been wrapping presents and writing Christmas cards since 7:30 this morning. We're going to Midnight Mass here because Joey is serving for it. We were thinking about going into Kansas City for it this year, because theirs is completely candlelit and not nearly as packed as ours... but we're gonna stay home for it after all.... Christmas has to be my favorite liturgical season!! It's disappointing that they don't have a Nativity Scene in the chapel this year. I wish they did. :(
I hope to find the time to do some Christmas baking this year. The past few years, I haven't had time to do any sort of goodies like that... if I'm efficient, though, maybe I can this week.
But, if I'm to be efficient, I'd best go! :) Merry Christmas to you all!!! I'll be back as soon as I can to relate how things progress. :)
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Gaudete Sunday and the Struggle for Christmas
"Rejoice in the Lord" -- Gaudete Sunday -- two weeks until the coming of Our Lord and Savior!
The world is in darkness, awaiting the birth of the Christ Child... well, the world is most certainly in darkness... I can't say how many people actually realize the full meaning of Christmas itself. It is already celebrating Christmas... er... "the holidays" - whatever that means! - weeks in advance.
What of the debate over whether to call it a Christmas tree or not? I suppose it was inevitable that it would come to this. It's not just an argument over a word... it's an argument of ideals. And when the meaning of Christmas had already been successfully and thoroughly secularized and materialized, it was a logical conclusion to take the word "Christmas" out of Christmas itself... at least they're not being hypocritical about it now, right?! :/
From USA TODAY:"We want to be sensitive to all ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs," said Marc Steczyk, a town spokesman (of Fishers, Indiana). "We're in the business of treating all people how they should be treated."
And yet, they're showing a marked intolerance of the religious beliefs of the Catholics (and Christians).
From a different source: "Bobby Jackson, who runs a tree lot, says they have a large variety.
"We got Frayser, Douglas, Blue Spruce and pines, but no Holiday Trees. No Holiday Trees," said Jackson."
Congratulations to Donnie Hatt, the Nova Scotia tree grower who is willing to stand up in the spirit of REAL ecumenism: "Donnie Hatt, of Beech Hill, says he wouldn't have sent his 36-year-old, 16-metre white spruce this year if he knew it would be called a "holiday" tree. In fact, he'd rather see it run through the wood chipper in his backyard." (The article here.)
And Christmas carols are banned as well. "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" can't be played on the radio in Canada, because it ought to be "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlepeople"!! :O Ridiculous.
And there's the school in Wisconsin that changed the words to Silent Night into a witch song! The first verse now goes:
"Cold in the night, no one in sight
Winter winds, whirl and bite
How I wish I were happy and warm
Safe with my family out of the storm."
It's frightening to think of what this world deserves and yet ANY punishment at this point would not only be just, but also merciful! I think it would be a good idea to offer this year's Christmas Mass in sincere reparation for the sins and blasphemies against God Himself and His Holy Mother. It is said that the Divine Son will forgive any offence against Himself, but will punish those who offend His Mother. Let's ask her to help us make this Christmas our best yet. God bless and Mary keep you!
The world is in darkness, awaiting the birth of the Christ Child... well, the world is most certainly in darkness... I can't say how many people actually realize the full meaning of Christmas itself. It is already celebrating Christmas... er... "the holidays" - whatever that means! - weeks in advance.
What of the debate over whether to call it a Christmas tree or not? I suppose it was inevitable that it would come to this. It's not just an argument over a word... it's an argument of ideals. And when the meaning of Christmas had already been successfully and thoroughly secularized and materialized, it was a logical conclusion to take the word "Christmas" out of Christmas itself... at least they're not being hypocritical about it now, right?! :/
From USA TODAY:"We want to be sensitive to all ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs," said Marc Steczyk, a town spokesman (of Fishers, Indiana). "We're in the business of treating all people how they should be treated."
And yet, they're showing a marked intolerance of the religious beliefs of the Catholics (and Christians).
From a different source: "Bobby Jackson, who runs a tree lot, says they have a large variety.
"We got Frayser, Douglas, Blue Spruce and pines, but no Holiday Trees. No Holiday Trees," said Jackson."
Congratulations to Donnie Hatt, the Nova Scotia tree grower who is willing to stand up in the spirit of REAL ecumenism: "Donnie Hatt, of Beech Hill, says he wouldn't have sent his 36-year-old, 16-metre white spruce this year if he knew it would be called a "holiday" tree. In fact, he'd rather see it run through the wood chipper in his backyard." (The article here.)
And Christmas carols are banned as well. "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" can't be played on the radio in Canada, because it ought to be "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlepeople"!! :O Ridiculous.
And there's the school in Wisconsin that changed the words to Silent Night into a witch song! The first verse now goes:
"Cold in the night, no one in sight
Winter winds, whirl and bite
How I wish I were happy and warm
Safe with my family out of the storm."
It's frightening to think of what this world deserves and yet ANY punishment at this point would not only be just, but also merciful! I think it would be a good idea to offer this year's Christmas Mass in sincere reparation for the sins and blasphemies against God Himself and His Holy Mother. It is said that the Divine Son will forgive any offence against Himself, but will punish those who offend His Mother. Let's ask her to help us make this Christmas our best yet. God bless and Mary keep you!
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Pictures!! :D
Here, at last!, are the pictures I promised over a week ago... a lot of them are on my smugmug site... you might've seen 'em there, but whatever. :P Here they are on my blog... Enjoy~
Before Sunday's performance of Antigone... Dave and I...
the Sarahs!
The cameras were ubiquitous the whole weekend!!
Emilie, upon letting her hair down! ;)
Mom and Rose, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving
Dad
Before the Wednesday morning show... Dave, Nick and I...
Being silly with Linds late that night...
Thanksgiving dinner
Receiving a tae kwon do lesson from Joey :D
Thanksgiving day... while working on my History paper...
Rosie
A DELICIOUS caramel-pecan refrigerator pie... YUMMMMMM
Linds and I
At the square dance the day after Thanksgiving... a good way to work off some of that turkey and pie!
Sara and I, after the dance
Linds, in her new 2003 Chevy Monte Carlo LS
At Mary's party, the Sunday after Thanksgiving
First snowfall of the season!! November 28...
Before Sunday's performance of Antigone... Dave and I...
the Sarahs!
The cameras were ubiquitous the whole weekend!!
Emilie, upon letting her hair down! ;)
Mom and Rose, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving
Dad
Before the Wednesday morning show... Dave, Nick and I...
Being silly with Linds late that night...
Thanksgiving dinner
Receiving a tae kwon do lesson from Joey :D
Thanksgiving day... while working on my History paper...
Rosie
A DELICIOUS caramel-pecan refrigerator pie... YUMMMMMM
Linds and I
At the square dance the day after Thanksgiving... a good way to work off some of that turkey and pie!
Sara and I, after the dance
Linds, in her new 2003 Chevy Monte Carlo LS
At Mary's party, the Sunday after Thanksgiving
First snowfall of the season!! November 28...
Friday, December 02, 2005
Life is a Blur
This is kinda what life looks like sometimes. ;) Like it's moving at TOP speed!
I took this picture but the 'special effects' are thanks to Joey! :D To check out more of his Photoshop and Blender stuff, check out his blog! :)
I took this picture but the 'special effects' are thanks to Joey! :D To check out more of his Photoshop and Blender stuff, check out his blog! :)
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