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)

It's Still Registering

I'm going to Poland.

*rereads that sentence*

I'm going to POLAND?!!???

Yes, I am. I'm going to Poland! I'm going from May 2 to May 10. And I still can't quite believe it. It has all fallen into place VERY quickly - as in, within a week. This is an amazing and wonderful opportunity for me. I would appreciate it if you would join your prayers to mine in thanksgiving for this gift from God and in petition that it will go smoothly and be grace-filled (or are those two-things mutually exclusive?? LOL!).

God bless and the Immaculate Heart guide you all.

Further Evidence of Spring

Taken this morning. Aren't they cheerful-looking? :)

February in France

Winter passed Paris by this year.
Unless it's this mild every year!

We had 2 or 3 days TOTAL where the temperature dropped below freezing (all the way down to 29 ;)).

And now, things are in bloom!!! Oh la la!


UPDATED to add that I was told we're about 15 days ahead of schedule this year. I guess the blooms all begin about mid-March. Not so this year. :)

Welcome, February!

It's a new month!! :)

Tout se passe très bien pour moi. J'ai eu un rendez-vous chez le dentiste ce matin. Je le redoutais, mais tout s'est très bien passé!! Je suis contente.
Cet après-midi, il y a beaucoup de choses à faire... faire le repassage, passer le balai et le serpillière dans la cuisine, mettre les draps sur les lits, faire une lessive, étendre le linge, etc! Mais ça va... c'est bien.

Tout va bien... :)

Je vous souhaite une bonne journée! A la prochaine~

New Look

You may have noticed that the other template is gone and I'm back to one of the 'standard' blogger templates. This is because I switched over to the new Blogger. So far, I like most of its features, although I miss that template! :/
However, they promise greater tweaking ability with the templates, so maybe I'll be able to pull something even better out of the magic hat. ;) Stay tuned!

Today Has Been a Good Day

No reason in particular... things have just gone well.

Starting with the fact that I actually *felt* like getting up and out of bed this morning when the alarm rang at 7... I haven't *felt* like getting up in the mornings in who-knows-HOW-long (probably because I haven't been getting enough sleep... story of my life!)!!! So, that was a good start to the day.

Then, everything seemed to go not only in a timely fashion, but AHEAD of schedule! That was a first! So, I actually finished up lunch with the kids by 12:30 pm and they were down for naps before 1... that was at least 30 minutes ahead of the usual time. So then I started a letter, wrote a few e-mails, went to the post office... all by 2 pm, which is when my 'free time' is usually just beginning. So, instead of using free time until 4 pm, like I usually do, I went downstairs to iron about 3:20. The plus to that was that I actually got all the ironing caught up (something that rarely happens!) and things went very tranquilly, with goûter, etc. It helped that the younger boys had piano and flute lessons today, because with fewer people (i.e. children) under foot, more is able to be accomplished. I even got an extra 45 minutes of 'free time' between 5:15 and 6, because of being ahead of schedule. Sure, there were things that could've been done, but Mme S. offered me the extra time and I couldn't refuse. ;)

Now, though, I'm just as tired as on any other night. Not much energy left!
But at least the day STARTED OUT with more energy than usual. That's something in itself.

The Year in Review

I saw this idea on another blog and thought I'd steal it. They suggested taking the first post of every month in the past year and from each 'first post of the month,' take the last sentence. Apparently, in this way, one can get a cross-section of the year. I don't know how informative mine will be! You can be the judge of that...

January
Well! it's back to cleaning and organizing and all that good stuff. :D God bless!

February
She couldn't have said it better, had she tried. :)

March
Step by step we CAN restore society!

April
I wish you all the best of this brand new month! God bless~

May
But speaking of lessons learned, I'm supposed to be learning my history for the quiz day after tomorrow! ;) So it's adieu for now... God bless!

June
And now my coach is about to turn back into a pumpkin, so I must be off! I hope to be back with you sooner than later... God bless!

July
Here's a picture from Friday, of Mom, Rose and I at St. Joseph's Shrine, and I'm on my way to bed! :D
'Night!

August
This is it for now.... thank you for visiting my blog! :)

September
I've just updated my year-in-France blog, so if you'd like to see pictures of Cluny and an old chateau in the south of France and stuff like that, head on over to An American in Paris! :D See you there! :)

October (This one isn't actually my FIRST post of the month, because the first post of the month was only a graphic...)
It is 12:15 am on Thursday, October 5 and there are now fewer than 63 HOURS until Lindsey's wedding!!

November
I hope to be back to relate a few of the highlights in the near future.
Until then, tout de bon!

December
Hope your Advents are off to a good start! God bless!
~Until the next time~

Kinda funny to see them all next to each other like that, when those things were written over a period of twelve months! :)
...It's always interesting to see how much can change in the space of a single year (this past year certainly brought some big changes, perhaps the biggest of which was my sister's marriage)!!!

So, this being my first post of the new Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Seven, I would like to wish you all a Very Happy New Year!! Or, to borrow the words of a friend of mine, I would like to wish you: "Bonne Année, bonne santé pour toute l'année!" (Somehow, the French just seems more eloquent, but it loses in translation.)

Here's to 2007! May it be a good year according to God's Holy Will!!

Christmas Vacation!!

Well, we're off! (Almost! :)) We're finishing up on our packing and planning on leaving in about three hours... our train should be pulling out of the station in just under seven hours. And twelve hours from now, we'll be THERE!

So, I hope you all have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!!

I will be back. :)



MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Two Hundred!!

Wow!!

This is the 200th post on this blog!! Hard to believe...


And here's the current number of hits (that is, since the counter was 'installed' which wasn't until awhile after the blog was begun), just for kicks. :)


Thanks for reading! Stay tuned!