Another Note to the Little Boy

Dear Little Boy,

I know that you are very excited about the new, huge 2-year molars that you have coming in at the moment. They open up entirley new vistas and avenues of culinary possibilities.

But could you please stop reaching back to feel them as they poke through? Because in all honesty, I'm kinda tired of cleaning up vomit.

Thanks for your consideration.

I love you,

Mamma

Happy Birthday!!!

Our little Therese is 12 today. She spent her birthday weekend babysitting so I could watch the Princess cheer at her last football home game, going to vounteer at a food pantry, attending another friend's party, (insisting that she did not want to have a party of her own, and would rather have dinner out at her favorite diner and be with "just the family" with a simple home-made cake) and is spending this birthday night attending her first training session for Youth Court.

She is a blessing each and every day.

THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE???

ARE YOU [EXPLETIVE] KIDDING ME?!?

Between this and Al Gore, my theory that a peace prize given in the name of the inventor of dynamite is no longer ironic...it's friggin' ridiculous.

Bono deserved it more than either of these two clowns.

Trying to "open up dialogue with the Muslim world?" Has that been helpful? That's up there with the dress Michelle Obama wore to the CMOH ceremony for Sgt. Jared Monti a few weeks back in the ridiculous, inappropriate, and farce categories.

Wow. Just.....wow.

One to tug at the heartstrings...

The photo is both priceless and heartbreaking....

Little Girl Can't Let go as Sergeant Daddy Leaves For Iraq - ParentDish

SANCTE PATER: THE Z-TEAM!

LOLOLOL!!!!! One of Vincenzo's finest!!!!!

SANCTE PATER: THE Z-TEAM!

Fall-ing...

I don't know about you, but around here in the middle of nowhere, NY we had a cool, rainy, cruddy summer and the fall isn't much better. Yesterday we had a wind advisory, and just as we were about to hit our leaf peak....lost a lot of leaves. And a few branches, one of which (from a massive 100-foot pine or spruce in our yard) narrowly missed a neighbor's car. Whew!

Inside the domestic church, aside from learning that I need a $2000 masonry repair in order to renew and increase my homeowners' insurance coverage, I have just discovered a leak inside a wall that has destroyed a number of boxes of holiday and other miscellaneous decorations by heading into the dreaded "room under the stairs" in our basement. GGGAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Years of craft fair prowling, kid-made treasures, and a few bags of clothes I never managed to drop off at the Salvation Army...mold spore city. That should be a fun weekend cleaning project, as should tearing into the wall somewhere between our recently redecorated and wallpapered powder room, freshly painted kitchen, and (newly dank and moldy) unfinished basement ceiling, pipes, and stone walls to see where the leak is. First, though, I have to get through tomorrow night's football game an hour and a half away in what's projected to be yet another loss in a cold, windy, downpour.

So yeah - it's been busy around here as usual. Just not our usual fun-busy.

I think it's time to start baking to warm things up, cover up the encroaching basement moldy smell, and start working on my winter layer of personal fat insulation! ;)

Feast of St. Francis

Well, it's a bit late in the evening, but I was reflecting with the girlies earlier about how it's been five years since we were climbing the hills and trudging the beautiful cobbled streets of Assissi, watching all the processions and even sneaking into the Basilica at the tail-end of Mass...getting lost but then gloriously found when we finally reached St. Clare's abbey...what an experience! Sadly, all of my pictures are still locked up in the scrambled brain of my dead laptop, waiting to be extracted, or I'd share a few.

Fast forward to 2009. I watched Mass and Benediction today on EWTN, and was glad to see that Mother Angelica and Deacon Bill Steltenmeier (sp?) received "Pro Ecclesia" medals from the Pope for their advancement of the Faith through the network. Say what you will about the individual personalities involved, the Fr. Francis debacle from a few years back...but I am a fan and a supporter. Not only have I learned a lot over the years, but I find a lot of comfort in knowing that I can watch Mass, have the Rosary on in the background as my "white noise" when I'm doing housework, and heck yeah - I'll take a "Mother Angelica Live" morning rerun over "The View" any day. So thanks to Mother Angelica and her Poor Clares, the good Franciscan priests and laypeople who serve there, and to Sts. Francis and Clare for their inspiration.