"Kid's Say The Darndest Things" #8

Miss Marva: So Connor, what do you want to have? A baby sister, or a baby brother?

Connor: I want a brother.

Miss Marva: But, what if you get a baby sister?

Conner (while hiding his face in his hands): I just don't wanna talk about it!!!
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Miss Silvia: Alright, boys. You need to eat up.
Josh N: I'm a man!
Maddy: No, I'm a man.
Josh N: (yelling really loudly with a very frustrated look on his face) No, I'm the man!!!!

Josh had us laughing so hard during lunch.
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Me: Grady, what in the world happened to your chin, babe?
Grady: Oh, I fell of my bike and then I landed on my face and I hurt my chin.
Me: Oh, baby! Did it hurt? Did you cry a lot.
Grady: Yeah, it hurt... but Miss Teresas, my chin looks so cool now, so it was a good hurt. It was real good.

(Boys and their scars...)
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TJ (age 11): Teresa, I fell of my bike once and scraped my leg.
Kevin(age 5, and with hand motions pointing down his leg): Teresa, it looked like this. It went blub blub blub blub all the way down his his leg.
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Wren: Where is my mommy?
Ellie: She's at work.
Wren: Why is she at work?
Ellie: Well, why do you think she is at work, Wren?
Wren: uh uh uh uh ummmm ummm ummm money????

"We Weren't Born To Follow"

I have been a Bon Jovi fan since I was probably 12 or so when the song "It's My Life" came out. I remember I would replay that song over and over and over again. For whatever reason, I could not get enough of that song. To this day it is one of my all-time favorite songs. The reason I am talking about this particular band is because I was listening to their newest song they released, entitled, "We Weren't Born To Follow." I like the message in this song, but more specifically the chorus when it says, "We weren't born to follow. Come on and get up off your knees. When life is a bitter pill to swallow. You gotta hold on to what you believe." As a Catholic, I am called to not follow the crowd into whatever the "cool" thing is, but to strike out on a very different path of life, but in a way that will help to inspire others to want to go and follow God's path too. Even if my life gets a little stressful, I need to remember there are people everywhere who I might either encourage or discourage from doing so through the actions I choose to make whether under pressure or not. I need to always remind myself that we never really will know how many people we have affected in our day to day lives...

"We Weren't Born To Follow"
by Bon Jovi

This one goes out to the man who mines for miracles
This one goes out to the ones in need
This one goes out to the sinner and the cynical
This ain't about no apology

This road was paved by the hopeless and the hungry
This road was paved by the winds of change
Walking beside the guilty and the innocent
How will you raise your hand when they call your name?

Yeah, yeah, yeah

We weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

This one's about anyone who does it differently
This one's about the one who cusses and spits
This ain't about our livin' in a fantasy
This ain't about givin' up or givin' in

Yeah, yeah, yeah

We weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah
Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

We weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah
Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

We weren't born to follow, oh yeah
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah)
We weren't born to follow, oh yeah
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah)

Participating in Sacraments of Initiation

I had yet another pretty busy week-end to say the least. Yesterday happened to be my second oldest nephew's first communion. It was so adorable watching the kids in their outfits. Sadly, I was not able to pay attention to the whole entire Mass. My older sister asked me if I would take care of my baby nephew so she could be fully present and attentive for her son's first communion, and as if I would say no to holding the baby. I guess though it is appropriate too since I will be officially his Godmother in two weeks. :) I missed out on a good fourth of the Mass though. When I was able to fully pay attention I noticed how much work the the teachers and the children did in preparation for their big day. I am pretty sure each child was able to participate whether it was through reading or bringing up the gifts or singing for it. It was really sweet.

Being the good hopeless romantic person that I am I enjoyed Father's last thing he mentioned before closing the Mass. He told the fathers to keep in mind that the next time they walked their daughters down a church aisle dressed like they were would be when they give them away in marriage. I knew that priest is a softy underneath. It was cute. I am pretty sure all the girls in the church "ahh"ed after he said that.

Today was a bitter-sweet day. It was the last confirmation class of the year. The topic was all about prayer and personal holiness and the speaker did very well. He kept the kids attention which is always a great thing. I was a little sad to know that the next time I see some of the kids will probably not be until the fall. I really have enjoyed my small group this year. I've got some good kids. :) After class was my brother's confirmation rehearsal, and I was his stand-in sponsor. I believe the rehearsal lasted a little over an hour... and that seemed like a very long hour to me. Please keep my brother in your prayers as he will be Confirmed next Sunday. :)

All in all I suppose my week-end was spent in a very cool way... participating in the three different Sacraments of Initiation - Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation, in one way or another.

Success Is Most Definitly About The Journey

“Success. We read books about it, watch infomercials, work really hard to get it, and keep it, and maybe show it off a little. But what is it exactly? The world tells us it’s getting a good job. Making a lot of money. Driving a new car. It’s getting somewhere fast. Knowing someone important. Making something happen. It’s being stylish. Being popular. Being in charge. Or is it something else altogether? Something you can’t quite put your finger on. Something almost impossible to describe. Something different for everyone, depending on who you are, where you are, and when. Poet Matthew Arnold said, ‘Life is not a having and a giving, but a being and becoming.’ This is no secret, but it’s something we’re likely to forget from time to time, especially when the going gets rough, tough, or tiresome. One thing they say is true: Success is a journey. You are on your way.”
~The Secrets of Success~

I like the above quote. For the most part it is very well written... Here in America we all seem to be out for our own personal gain... but if there was something I would add to the above quote it would be that if we want true success then it cannot be found in material things. We have to look to God to point us in the direction that He wants us to take. We have to surrender ourselves to His will, because only through His will, will we ever feel successful and full. Service to God in every way, no matter how great or small, is always fulfilling in the end. Thinking about this makes me remember how when in second grade my mom would teach me religion from the Baltimore Catechism. One of the questions that were really ingrained into my mind was this one. "Why did God make us?" The answer... simple enough to remember. To know, and love, and serve God in this world so that we can be happy with Him in heaven.

"Will you come and follow Me if I but call your name?"

In my hometown, this week-end happens to be known as "the best college week" thanks to the famous Little 500 week. It is the biggest "party" week of the year. Everyone seems to just use it as an excuse to get totally wasted. The students go a little crazy. That is why I was even more excited when the IU Catholic S.L.T. decided to put on another Eucharistic procession during this particular week. In the midst of partying we were able to bring Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament to those on campus. We took him through the heart of it pretty much... down "frat row" is a nick name for it. There were some who were totally freaked-out by us... As we were praying the rosary, the Divine Mercy
Chaplet, and singing songs I noticed lots and lots of people pull out their cell phones to call their friends about what they were seeing. I glanced in some of the campus windows and saw people just staring out as we were passing. The Franciscan friars were passing out cards which explained what the procession was all about to the people we passed by. Some people took them, some looked at us like we were crazy, a few people would roll up their car windows when the friars were walking by their cars so that they would not have to talk to us. I am sure it was an interesting site to see for a lot of people... especially those who really had no clue about what we were doing and why we were doing it... I think my most memorable moment that made me laugh was when one of the servers went to hand a few guys one of the cards... the server walked up to the fraternity house and this incredibly drunk guy gave him a bear hug... and as the server walked away, he yelled out "So are you like Jewish or something?"

I have to say I am used to walking in March for Life walks. I am used to getting made fun of for standing up for the unborn, but as I walked in the Eucharistic procession it was so much more personal to me when I saw people who did not understand and kind of joked about it to the people around them. It was a humbling experience... I can honestly say I am so happy I was able to be a part of this.

If you look through the pictures below this paragraph I am in the second one. I am the girl with the bright pink shirt with the number 14 on the back... :)

"Just Keep Swimming..."

"Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense."

How true is the above quote. Really there is nothing like the rush you receive after you have finally achieved the goal... after all the stress, hard work, concentration, focus, frustration, and then when you finally reach that goal the feeling of accomplishing it is amazing. You can't really get what you want until you go through the hard work to get there... Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.

What A Perfect Week-end! :)

"Life is not measured by the amount of breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath away."

Hey Ya'll! Sorry about the lack of posting, yet again. It seems that this whole past week I have just been a very busy girl. It has been a really busy and fun week-end for me too. I can say I honestly enjoyed every minute of it. :)

Thursday evening my sister and I went out to dinner together. We went to Texas Roadhouse. I received a gift card for there this past Christmas and finally used it. It was delicious. Afterwords she and I rented "The Princess and the Frog," and I really enjoyed it. It was a very cute movie. It was like she and I went back to when we were eight and six and would fight over who got to be the princess in the movie we were watching... I would always win Belle, and she would get Pocahontas... anyway it was a nice night.

Friday I took the day off of work and had some more girl time with my sister. We went out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then headed up to Greenwood and Indy for a shopping day. I had a lot of fun and found a number of good deals, so I consider that shopping trip a success. After shopping my sister and I met up with her fiancee and some of his friends for an Indianapolis Indians game. Since my sister works at the hospital she was able to get us free tickets. The hospital had their own pavilion suite thing for the game and so we had free food and drinks to our hearts content while watching the game. I have to say though, I MUCH prefer playing baseball over watching it.... even live. I enjoy football way more.

Saturday morning I went and had my driver's license renewed because it would be my only free Saturday morning left before my birthday a little less than a month away. I can easily say that was my least favorite part of the week-end, but even that was not so bad. After that I headed downtown to spend some time with both my sisters and my baby nephew at the Farmer's Market. It was nice to be with them... just us sisters. I love it when we are able to do things like that together. I was not able to stay too long, however, because I went to meet another group of friends for lunch. My good friend flew into Indy to spend the week-end with us. There were about eight of us that had lunch together and it was so nice to spend time with them. I am relishing these times because very soon I will have to say good-bye to some people I have become incredibly close too. I went home after that and spent my afternoon working-out and laying outside while reading a book. A very relaxing afternoon. Later that night I met back up with some of the same people for a drink at Nick's. A nice way to end a pretty perfect day.

Sunday started off with Mass. My brother and I went out to lunch after and we had a pretty good talk. He can frustrate me so much, but at the same time he is my brother and I have a lot of fun with him when it is just the two of us. We goof-off and it is nice. Later Sunday night I met up with my small group from my Kairos retreat. It was a bitter-sweet night because it is probably the last time we will be able to come together as a small group get-together thing. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with this group of people, and I plan on keeping them in my life for a long while... they are pretty much stuck with me. They just don't know it yet.

I love week-ends that go so smoothly like this one. I think this will make it into my top favorite memories of this spring semester. :)