Nuns Join In

This picture has been circulating around Facebook.  For all you non-Facebookers (like me), I thought you might enjoy this:

Beautiful Maine

Thanks to Flickr, I now have a few pictures from our trip to Maine.  Check out that beautiful sunset!

Maine has nice looking seagulls, a refreshing change from NC and CA.

Spectacular view!

This should be made into a postcard.

Does this remind you of Minas Tirith (minus the water)?

The Margaret Todd 4-masted Schooner sailing in the thick New England fog

The Captain and his first mate, Maggy

Return from Maine and Other News

We had a most wonderful vacation in Maine two weeks ago.  It was as beautiful and peaceful as I expected.  Since we were flying, we took Dad's compact camera and, of course, forgot to bring the SD card with us to get the pictures off.  In that case, I will postpone the narration of our trip for when I have the pics to illustrate it.  :)

I did buy the Helm's Deep LEGO set when I was with Fidelio and it is sitting, almost complete, on our coffee table.  Speaking of Fidelio, I spent a few days with her painting, eating, painting, sleeping, painting, eating, and loafing before the mover truck came with all her furniture.  It was great!  We watched Cinderella Man which I loved (and which I hesitate to recommend due to language) and she took me to the Fredericksburg Battlefield which I had not seen before (and which she and I agree should be called a "battletown").  It looked totally different from what was portrayed in Gods and Generals.  All the bodies of the men (such as those from the Maine regiment) that were buried in haste on the field were disinterred and removed to the National Cemetery and houses were built all the way up to the stone wall!  So, its basically a stone wall, a cemetery, and a few old houses. But, I can say that I've been to another place where Chamberlain was!

The other, and more important, news is that my entrance date has been moved to September 8th.  It was a bit of a shock for us, but the sisters reassured Mom and I that it is actually quite common.  At least the wait is an opportunity to be thankful for the gift of being accepted at all.  And, there will be two months more that Mom doesn't have to be lonely. 

Most of my readers probably already know about Mike, but I'll go ahead and fill you in...  He is a seminarian again!  He was accepted back by our diocese and is in the process of being "adopted" by the Military Archdiocese.  The plan is for him to study at Mundelein Seminary, get commissioned next Summer (or the Summer after that), be ordained in four years, and immediately get stationed with a Navy or Marine unit.  Please pray it all sticks. 

So, if all goes as planned, (with God's Grace) Big Bro will be ordained the same year I will take First Vows!  I choose to be optimistic.  :)

Pictures

Here are the CSTHEA graduation pictures after a lengthy delay and enjoy these pictures from Casa Maria, Rock City, the Seton graduation and the Seton dance!

CSTHEA hat toss

V glad its all done

Friends came to watch!

Becket with one of my Sisters

me with my soon-to-be sister

Uncle M. and Becket

V and Fidelio looking at rocks

Becket's got the "Sleepies"

Me shaking hands with Dr. Clark, President of Seton (with Johnette Benkovic)

Seton hat toss

O Happy Day!

O Happy Parents

Goofing off

My teacher and I (Sshh!  She's undercover...)

Dancing with 'my' Marine  (I LOVE that uniform!!) 

Thanks, Joba!

I Can't Believe It

I'm done.  Finé

The final for Religion 12 is a 99.  My GPA is a 4.0.  And I am graduating in 2 1/2 weeks.

I envy myself.

NO MORE SCHOOL!!!!!!

Dollywood!

First off, let me just give you the answer to last week's TTT: #1

Absolutely, Mrs. Haus Frau, you are more than welcome to come watch LOTR with me!  But, sorry to dissapoint you, my extended edition is the same as your in-laws'.  :)

I haven't gotten any new legos recently, but I did update LEGO as i can.

And - what we've all been waiting for - I do have a fellow postulant!!  Praise be God! 

Big Bro is now deep into four hours or so of Navy OCS.  (Hence the LEGO as i can picture.)  For a last hurrah/goodbye/party/vacation/thingy, we went to Dollywood!  Here's my total of rides:

• Wild Eagle: 4
• Tornado: 2
• Mystey Mine: 1
• Thunderhead: 6

Can you guess which one was my favorite?  :)

Oh!  Funny story: near the end of the Mystery Mine ride, a pigeon made a dare-devil flight right in front of our car and lost by a few feet as it smacked into Big Bro's face.  Thankfully, at the next upsidedown turn, he just flew out of the car.  I wouldn't have believed Big Bro's testimony that a pigeon flew into his head if I hadn't been hit in the face with a plume of whitish feathers and if the people in front of us hadn't asked if we saw a pigeon, too.  Crazy, huh? 

And, our sixth time on the Thunderhead proved a dissapointment as the little 8-year-old sitting beside Dad threw up before (thankfully) the ride started.  It took - no kidding - 15 minutes for the four employees to clean it up.  It was a typical Tennessee greeting card joke: four employees with one to do the work and three to supervise.  When we were finally cleared for take-off, the people stilll in line gave the workers a standing ovation.  It was priceless.

Mom and I went to the zoo on the way back home and I got some cute pics:

Answers

What?  No one voted for #3?! 

Well, you'd be right.  I am losing my knack at lying...  You're guessing all the right answers!

1.  We had one teenager at the game night aside from myself, the rest were 18 and over.  We did not play card games, but Apples to Apples, Scategories, the Story Game, and Signs.  I actually don't care for Hearts.  And, Tony B. actually went berserk, chasing the girls' hair and boucing off the walls (literally).  The laser pointer was a really big hit, too.  

2.  Big Bro is coming tonight to watch the Two Towers and The Return of the King. I have never seen past Helm's Deep, so I'm kind of excited. 

3.  I guess this was SO creative that you didn't guess #3.  It is a true story and he has many more such miraculous stories.  Big Bro has a friend who was the head trauma doctor and has many similar tales of strange inguries and impossible healings. 

Two Truths Tuesday

Wow, deja vu!  I thought I just did this.  At least its Wednesday and not Thursday.

1.  We had a teenager game night this weekend.  We played lots of card games including Hearts, my personal favorite.  Mr. B. was incredibly odd as he decided to shun the company and retreat to the protection of the pocket between my bed and the floor, much following in the footsteps of Miss Pickles, the Energizer Kitty.   

2.  Big Bro brought the special extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring to Casa Imaculata (my house) last night.  The beginning is very cool as Bilbo explains the life and culture of a hobbit.  I have to admit, after not seeing the movie for a long time, I could not tell which scenes were added and which I just forgot about.  I am reaffirmed in my former belief that the scene where the Nazguls stab Frodo and Strider comes with the torch is the best part of the movie. 

3.  My uncle is the head of the x-ray department at one of the major local hospitals.  He said that he x-rayed a man who survived being shot between the eyes!  Apparently, his brother went literally crazy, pinned him with his car, and shot him between the eyes.  The bullet miraculously lodged itself in a cavity of bone and cartilage right in that area of the human skull.  The man suffered a concussion and obvious mental trauma, but was able to return to a normal life.  I guess God had further need of him on Earth!

Answer and Surprise!

No, I'm afraid number one is true.  I don't think I'm creative enough to make that one up.  ;)

Number two is also true.  Fr. Doug had to give a lady Last Rites who had a mild heat stroke at his reception.

Number three was the lie.  Our Memorial day was spent in the yard doing hard labor with dirt.  It looks really nice now.  Maybe I'll have some pictures.  I also spent the day composing my next newsletter.  (This one is really good!)  Our only relief was a little PS3 and a little ice cream at 9pm. 

As for the surprise!  I rescued this at a thrift store:

Big Bro took my picture with it so you can see how big it is.  The lady at the store was charging $15 for it!  I couldn't believe it  So I spent my hard-earned cat-sitting money and bought it  Its all my own!  I'll be taking it to Casa Maria to get it blessed and show it to the nuns.  I'm so excited!

(Oh, and please ignore my "dinosaur hair," as Fidelio calls it. :P)

Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul

I've quite a surprise for you!  Unfortunately blogger has been down, so I've had to keep this under my hat for three days.  The suspense is killing me!  (Well, sort of.)

Well, my city parish that has been my home for my entire life was greeted with a very unusual surprise.  The Bishop came to Sts. Peter and Paul and spoke about being present in Rome at the Beatification of Pope John Paul II.  After a long speech about the sense of community there was at St. Peter's Square, the bishop said, "And so it is at the Minor Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul."

Whoops and cheers proceeded for a few seconds until it hit me that he was talking about my church!   My church that has been standing for over 120 years was designated a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI on May 3rd!

Read more about it here.

We are SO excited and thankful!  My only hope is that nothing will change.  The title is an honor for the parishioners that have so long supported our beautiful church!

Holy Cow

Uh... Literally!

We just heard again from our neighbors.  Two people in our neighborhood told our next-door neighbor that a tornado went right over MY house!!!  They said that they heard the wind tunnel sound and turned on their outside lights and watched the funnel cross over my house and down the street.  Thank God, it stayed in the tree tops!!!  That's why we only have half a tree in our backyard...

Wow.  Thank you, Guardian Angels!!!