Farewell, Father Joel

{me with Father Joel-yay!}

The second Sunday of Easter, three months ago, Father Joel McNeil announced he would be leaving St. William's and moving closer to home - which is in Omaha, Nebraska. He hadn't gotten his appointment yet, but it wasn't long before we found out that he would be pastor over the Catholic Student Center {I'm guessing this is the official name like it is on the UT campus} at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Seeing that his folks and other family live in Nebraska, it made perfect sense that he would want to be home, or much closer than Texas is to Nebraska. No one could reasonably argue that much, though we all wanted him to stay. He's been with St. William's for ten years, longer than most pastor's assignments. Most stay for one assignment and then move on. Father Joel stayed long enough to encourage growth in the old parish and then created the push to find adequate space for all the new parishioners. He is the reason why we have the most beautiful church. It is not a building, it is a wonderful place of worship. Everywhere you look, you see history, the history of our Faith, the history of other churches in Europe who's stained glass is now a permanent fixture in ours. We have Father Joel to thank for getting the ball rolling and reminding us in his last homily that now that we have the spectacular place for worship, room enough for CCD, perpetual adoration, and many more exciting things to come that now more than ever is the time for us to continue growing in our Faith.

This afternoon, there was a farewell reception. There were so many familiar faces. In a parish of 16,000 and 18,000 unofficially it can be daunting to get out and meet folks. I took on a project of asking, collecting, dividing and presenting letters to Father Joel. These letters were glowing letters affirming his wonderful work for the Church. Copies were sent to our diocese to be placed in his file. All too often we hear of good and faithful priests who are persecuted for voicing the truth. At the advice of a mother of a priest, I thought it was appropriate to send this good and faithful priest with our heartfelt letters as well as give his file the necessary and accurate reflection of who he really is. A good and faithful priest who isn't afraid to voice the truth.

While he leaves us in good hands with our two new incoming priests, he will be missed more than words can say. How do you say goodbye to a father figure, a mentor, a friend and most importantly, someone who was willing to tell us what we needed to hear, not what we wanted to hear? It won't be easy, and our new priests will have some pretty big shoes to fill, but our parish family will grow because of his hard work.

{parishioners look at photocopies of the scrapbooks that were given to Father Joel}{Neil and Paige enjoying the reception}

{various ministries presented Father Joel with gifts, plaques, and even a special dance!}

OWWW! My butt bone!

Drew tested out a new skill today. It involves, well...you'll see.

*WHAT*, praytel, are you talking about?

As some of you may know, my first internet experience goes back to the mid '90s. I won't go into too many details, but back when the online dating world was total societal taboo, I was there front and center getting an article published about an experience that was featured in the Sunday paper insert, Parade Magazine insert.

Most people seemingly outgrow childish/juvenile phases, but oh no. Not me. I have fully embraced that aspect of my life. Even now, I feel like the rest of the world has caught onto the gem I found in the internet long ago. It's gotten a little bit better even now as social networking sites such as Facebook have made it incredibly easy to streamline friendships.

So, one of the things I eventually broke off and pursued was the world of online forums. Having been a part of a very large family website for almost nine years now, I have learned how to say what I want to say {thank you John Mayer - click on the iTunes link to listen } without really having to say it all. And all while typing out acronyms at the speed of light, other friends can enjoy my messages while quickly deciphering my codes.

LOL has been around quite a while. In fact, some might say it has become the ultimate in internet lingo cliche. I disagree. You *can* abuse it, but when used appropriately and sprinkled throughout, it has the ability to really emphasize your emotions; particularly if you are not prone to much laughter. A friend of mine and I started to debate theology {or the lack therof} quite a bit and in our exchanges we weren't able to do much for bolding, italicizing, underlining, etc. so she introduced the *xyz* asterisks as a way to bold without bolding. Funny, I have seen it catch on in the past year or so. Call it laziness if you will. I just kept on using it because it's *far* easier than to stop typing and grab the mouse to click on bold.

So, while I try to be polite while blogging {because not everyone is "in the know" about internet lingo}, there may be times when I use it. For those reasons, I think it would be nice to share with you some common internet acronyms I use. And I know there are a *lot* more out there. For the purpose of this blog entry, I'll just keep it to the ones I am most likely to use in my online discussions, not all necessarily ones I would use here.

DH - dear husband
DC - dear child/ren
DS - dear son
DD - dear daughter
MIL - mother-in-law
FIL - father-in-law
BIL, SIL - you get the idea
IMO - in my opinion
IMHO - in my humble opinion
HTH - hope this helps
KWIM - know what I mean?
BTW - by the way
ROTFL{MAO} - rolling on the floor laughing {I'll let you fill in the last letters ;)}
IIRC - if I recall correctly
BTDT {GTTS} - been there, done that, got the t-shirt
FWIW - for what it's worth
IRL - in real life
ITA - in total agreement/I totally agree
JJ/JK - just joking
LO - little one
MYOB - mind your own business
OMG - oh my gosh
PP - previous poster
OP - original poster
SAHM/SAHP/SAHD - stay at home mom/parent/dad
TMI - too much information
TIA - thanks in advance
PITA - pain in the {well, you get the idea} ;-)

To learn more you can visit THIS or THIS {as recommended by Goofydaddy} website and dust off the old acronyms you used to use or hey, introduce a few more to your repertoire.

Third of July

On Friday, July 3rd, we took the kids to the Rock 'N River Family Aquatic Center. One of the nice things about this place is you can bring your own cooler, camp out at a picnic table that's nicely shaded, enjoy concessions and snow cones and piped in music.

Oh, and you can do lots of different water activities. They have two water slides - an open and closed tunnel - a shaded kiddie pool, a lazy river and a huge waterscape for kids.

We easily passed the day away, taking into account the time it took to get out the door and back.

Here are some pictures from our day out. Enjoy!

{Looking for tubes to lazy on}{Jonathan enjoying the lazy river}

{Neil and Paige}{Drew's head was firmly planted on my shoulder. He wasn't fearful of the water so much as he just didn't want to be away from me - that and he was afraid of the water. ;-)}

{Can you feel his tension??}

{Drew clutching for dear life - I think my kids have the gene for water paranoia}

{Paige and Ashley enjoying some sisterly bonding time}

{Quick. Call the NRA! - p90x joke}

Happy Fourth of July!

{Erica, Jonathan and Paige working on their flag project}

We spent the evening with friends Cynthia and Jesse and their three little ones. We had the All-American cookout feast of burgers, hot dogs, chips, drinks, s'mores, popsicles and a really good Riesling for the adults. YUMMY!

The kids participated in a flag-making project consisting of a whipped cream flag background and then they used blue berries and strawberries to make the stars and stripes of the flag. Afterward, they ate it all up and went back several times making it over and over again.

Then we headed out to the driveway to watch a few fireworks across the street. All in all, it was a fun-filled day for the kids!

{Anthony chowing down on a hot dog - he is only a couple of months older than Drew!}{Erica enjoying her hamburger}{Drew and baby Vincent, Cynthia and Jesse's youngest}

{the kids cooled off with the water toys in the backyard}

{Erica, Jonathan, Paige and part of Ashley working on their project}

{is she working to eat or eating to work? you decide...}

{TA DA!!!}

{Ashley's finished product}

{Erica's finished flag}

{Sparkler and fireworks time!!}

{Ashley looks a little unsure about all that}

{once she got the hang of it, Erica was all smiles with her sparkler!}

What a crafty start to the weekend!

{the kiddos with their pillows, minus the teen}

On Wednesday, I took the kids to Joann's to pick out some fabric for their very own 4th of July pillowcases. I had planned on starting them yesterday and finishing them today. Well, I never *did* start them on Thursday. And today, we were out nearly all day, first at the park and then to the Rockin' River Family Aquatic Center. We had a blast!!

{more pics on that adventure later!}

Back to my point, though. I got home and was so exhausted that I fell asleep - with loud kids and machine guns firing everywhere. Cacophony. That's tired for ya. I was actually starting to think to myself {as I woke up all groggy headed} that I would just make some dinner and shoot for getting it mostly tackled tomorrow. And then I found myself pulling out the sewing machine and all my sewing related things and I got down to business. How incredibly simple! I {probably to the gasp and horrors of sewing enthusiasts out there} don't use patterns. And I have a really bad habit of "eyeballing it". It seemed to work, though. The pillow cases look great and the kids have something unique to celebrate the holiday with. Now...if I could convince myself to finish my bedroom curtains I'd be set. Nah. I'll save that for another day.

{pinning the fabric}

{sewing the opening}

{the finished product!}

{Paige's pillow}

{Jonathan's fifty states}
{Drew's baseball and flags}
{Ashley's patchwork quilt style pillowcase}

My FACEBOOK account was hacked last night - if you are on my friend list, please do the following...

...this is my last ditch attempt at sending an SOS to friends. Someone, who I suspect is a current member on FB hacked my account late last night. I haven't been able to log in or change my password because they changed my e-mail login. This is where I need your help friends.

I am relying on my RSS feed to go through to my FB page and that you will see it. I need for all my friends to send this form to FB: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=friend_compromised

On this form, it will ask you to fill in some information. You can look on my info page for my e-mail, and then on my main page copy and past the URL.

I suspect three different people, one of whom is actually registered at Facebook, Miracela Iceheart - owner of the website below. An e-mail that is suspicious is msn@hagiwhat.com - if you have any information on how to track these people down, please let me know - and I realize that more often than not this is just like searching for the needle in the haystack.
The websites under my own personal suspicion are:

http://www.iceheart-design.dk/
http://www.crea.web.tr/
http://www.warezbul.com/

And lastly, if you receive any weird e-mail via FB, especially with incorrect spellings and use of grammar, you can rest assured it is NOT from me.

Thank you all. Hopefully, my account issue will be resolved soon. I miss all of you!

Summer Treats-part II

A few years ago, we purchased a Vitamix, a super duper handy dandy blender that can crush concrete - ya know, if that's what you're into. I loaned it out to a friend because it had been a while since we had used it and they were thinking of getting one also. They love making fruit smoothies, so when we got it back, I decided to pick up some bags of frozen fruit and a few other choice ingredients so we could enjoy our own concoctions.

In college, I used to get Metro's famous blueberry, banana, strawberry smoothie. For years after they closed I wanted to figure out how to make them for myself. I think there's been enough time that I don't recall *exactly* how they taste {at least not the way Marshall from How I Met Your Mother remembered exactly the way that missing burger joint's burgers tasted}. This works out because I have come up with something that comes awfully close to what I loved. If you're like me, you'll appreciate this haphazard approach to cooking/baking/experimenting.

So, you'll need your blender ready to go and go ahead and dump in the following:

1-2 cups whole milk {can substitute water}
one whole banana in two pieces
1/4-1/3 cup of frozen blueberries
2 TBLS honey

**BLEND** lowest setting, gradually going up to the highest setting until thoroughly blended, then turn it off.

1 cup of frozen strawberries 1 cup of frozen papaya, mango and pineapple

**BLEND** lowest setting again, moving speed up gradually and then let it sit on high for 45 sec.-1 minute. Enjoy!

Summer treats - part I

I found this at the store today and thought I would share how it turned out!

One tip I saw in an episode of Unwrapped that I'll share is to put the stick in the banana *BEFORE* you peel the skin. This will help keep the banana from breaking. What's nice about this treat is you don't have to worry about drips, so it's the perfect summer snack!

{the kids enjoy them as we watch Bedtime Stories}

Lunch with an old friend

{at The Cheesecake Factory}

A couple of months ago, I had lunch with Holly, a childhood friend who came through town on business. Holly and I have been friends since 8th grade. I think I've known Chris just as long. He just finished up his MBA and will be taking a sabbatical of sorts for the next six weeks. I've always been bad at calling friends up and going out to lunch, so I thought it would be fun to take advantage of grabbing some lunch before he leaves next week.

18 months - just under the wire!

{this is about all you get with this guy - a few quick shots and he's ready to look for trouble}

Tomorrow Drew will be 19 months, so I'm using today to post his 18 month pictures. I thought having him sit/stand on the coffee table for these pictures was completely appropriate given that he is always on the go and will climb anything.

Enjoy!

Marble Madness - the changes

A few months ago, I blogged about our current reward system. If you missed that entry, you can click here to read through it and adopt it for your family.

Well, after talking to a few friends recently and cleaning out a drawer, we have made some modifications and additions. The kids are now able to "pool" their marbles together to enjoy some of their purchases.

On Saturday, I was cleaning out a drawer and came across this book of neat little things you can do for your kids. They came in the form of note card sized rewards and I thought we will make this our Mystery Jar, available for the marble purchase of {TBD - to be determined; maybe 20 marbles}. The kids know the various cards, but won't be able to pick, but rather will get to choose blindly and enjoy whatever card they draw.

I should mention/ask if you have any ideas, suggestions of your own that you'd like to share, please feel free to do so. I'm always up for new ideas!

Here are pictures of the cards we'll be putting in our Mystery Jar -

SHOUTmix.com - let's chat!

So, I found this cool little gadget on another blog and thought I'd give it a whirl! Check the box to the right of the posts and leave your name/website/message and let's chat it up!

Tell me what you're up to today. Chores, errands, trips, anything you've got going on!

Carpet to concrete - who knew?

When we {I} decided we wanted to remove the carpet, we {I} wanted to go with hardwood floors. We had the guy come out and give an estimate - two years ago. I really wanted to do dark, matte/semi gloss finish and 4-5 inch width hardwood planks vs. the standard 1.5 - 2 inch boards that are typically used.

In few words: I just wanted something different.

As we got more and more motivated to finish the project, we realized that simply pulling up the carpet and staining the concrete underneath might be our best bang for the buck {i.e. best results with the least amount of money given our other options}. Neil sees this finish in higher end homes.

I'll be honest. I had my doubts. Initially. But the more we researched the project, the more I came to the conclusion that this was the route we should take.

And the results were exactly what I was hoping for.

{Before}

{the start of the project - prepping the floor}

{the first layer of stain}

{first layer of stain, three more to go!}{literally watching paint dry}

{the waiting game - the sealant dries}

{the finished product!}
{It looks great and we can't wait to use it...or just walk on it.}

Make up and construction: the making of an interior designer...

I think my kids must be feeling the pressure of finding their talents and cultivating them into marketable skills at an early age.

I say this because how else can I explain my four year old taking her artwork and nailing them to the walls of our bathroom during what should have been her afternoon nap?

That'll teach me to take away her cartoon time during nap time, I suppose.

Usually, I put her down for a nap at the same time as Drew so the house is "less loud" for a couple of hours. In order to placate her, normally I put on some cartoons in my room. Except I changed that on Tuesday.

Neil and I had put up a few things in our bathroom and left the tools out. She decided she would take a project she was working on {and housed in my room at the time} and nail them up all over the bathroom walls. I still don't know how she managed to do this without our hearing it because we were all in the living room and didn't hear anything out of the ordinary.

{the tools - though, I'm not sure what the spoon had to do with anything...}{look at how beautiful that nail went in!!}

And get this. She decided to put on big sis' makeup too - I guess she decided she must look pretty while 1) being naughty and 2) being resourceful.

She did a good job with both. And she did get a much deserved scolding, but I had to grab the camera and showcase what she did. It's definitely a story worth telling as she gets older.

{this was next to my sink}

What impressed me most is that she managed to do a better job than some grown men. I don't know how she did it either. It's not like she stands over us the five minutes it takes us to nail various things around the house. And how did she manage to hold the paper in place along with the nail...while hammering?

{she even climbed up over the bathtub to nail more artwork!}

Far be it for me to hold back praise where it's due {or so Rachel from Anne of Green Gables says}, but it'll be tucked away in this blog entry where she can read about it years from now.

**My only regret is that I didn't take a picture of her wearing Ashley's makeup. She actually did a good job with that too.**