I am a proud Godmommy... again. :)

Today was a wonderful and enjoyable day! Today is the day my youngest nephew was baptized, and I officially became his Godmother. I have two goddaughters right now, but he is my first godson...:) I was so proud of the little guy. I am used to babies cry when the holy water is poured over them, but this kid did not make one sound. He also had a nice number of people come to watch him become part of the Catholic faith. He is one popular little guy. :)

After the baptism there was a nice meal at my family's house... Since it is also Mother's Day today, both my sisters and I did not want our mom to do anything, but enjoy the company. Us three went in together to buy the food needed for today, and I was the one to put it all together. I am quite proud of myself for that. I am used to cooking for just my family, but not so much for a larger gathering like this. I also cleaned the house a little bit yesterday to. My sisters were in charge of cleaning up since I did the cooking, and between us, I would prefer to cook then the clean-up part, so it suited me just fine.

All in all I think that today was a very nice and blessed day. :)

The bottom picture on the right happens to be one of Keegan and the statue which his Godfather, and very close friend, gave to him for his baptism. Keegan loved that statue. He held a nice conversation with Mary and baby Jesus. He was just mesmerized. It was so cute, I just had to put a picture of him with the statue up here.

Change.... I Certainly Do Not Like It...

This past week has been finals week here in Bloomington, for the college students. I have learned to kind of dread this week because it is always a week of good-byes. My friends who are seniors are done with IU and Bloomington once graduation is over and I know that for a large number of them it will probably be the last time I will ever get to see them. I will be keeping in touch with them via facebook and texting and what have you, but it will not be the same as seeing them even once a month or so. Even now as I sit here and type this out, the whole goodbye process does not seem totally real to me yet. I still feel as though I will be able to call up these
friends and make a time to hang-out... It is hard to let go of something you want to hold on to.
Anyway so I was kinda down last night thinking about all this good-bye stuff. I decided to pick up the Bible, without really having any idea what I was wanting to read. I decided to just randomly open it up, and what page did I open it up to???

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace."

Yeah... I needed to read that.

"Change...
we don't like it, we fear it, but we can't stop it from coming. We either adapt to change or we get left behind.
And it hurts to grow, anybody who tells you it doesn't is lying.
But heres the truth: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
And sometimes, oh, sometimes change is good.
Oh, sometimes, change is... everything."
~Grey's Anatomy~

"And the rain came falling down..."

Yesterday a couple of my friends and I went on a little road trip to The Mother of the Redeemer Farm. We ended up making it there in time for evening vespers... really we had no idea there would be evening vespers, so it was kind of cool. Impromtu Eucharistic adoration holy hour for us. After vespers we decided to take a walk down the huge hill. As soon as we made it to the bottom, what do you think happened to us? Lightning struck! Now, if you have been to the farm you would understand how frustrating it would be to make it back up this hill with the fear of being caught in a thunderstorm. My friends and I went huffing and puffing up that hill in record time. As soon as we made it to the top we were all pretty much dying. My calves were killing me and I just wanted to drop and not move. We made it inside my car right before it started raining, so it was some pretty perfect timing. Once we made it to the IU campus, one of the girls looked out and saw the rainbows that are in the photos above. I was so excited because I happened to have my family's camera with me. Since I was the driver I asked one of the girls if they would take the pictures for me. It was so beautiful to look at! It was a fun and adventurous trip up to the farm, if I do say so myself. :)

"Veni Sancte Spiritus"

Today was the Confirmation celebration for the parishes in my town. There were four parishes that came at were confirmed at the Mass held at my home parish. All together there were I believe sixty-nine confirmation candidates. My younger brother happened to be a part of this group.

This was a neat Confirmation for me to attend because not only was my brother confirmed, but I knew a good third of the kids of the sixty-nine very well. I taught a good portion of them ccd classes when they were in sixth grade. It was so nice to be able to watch them grow up and then see them all get confirmed.

After the Mass there was a nice reception that followed. You could hardly walk with all the people that were downstairs. It was great!!!

The middle picture I put up here is one of my brother and his sponsor, a good family friend, Kyle Field. :)

Moving on up to the "adult" table

Yesterday I spent the day up in Indy. My little second cousin/goddaughter received her first communion. She was asked to bring up a rose to Mary's statue during the Mass. She was so excited to have that role. She knew how important that day was and acted so well-behaved. It was an exciting moment watching her go up and receive Jesus for the first time.

After first communion we went over my cousin's house where we all ate a delicious Italian meal. We talked and joked around. It was a nice time with my family. I am so happy that I have some of my LARGE extended family so close by. :)

I scream! You scream! We all scream for ice cream!

I feel so bad the past few months about how random my blog posts are. I cannot believe how many week-end this year have been so packed with trips or outings or visitors and so forth and so on.

Thursday was spent with work and house cleaning. I spent about four or so hours cleaning the house for my guests I was having on Friday. I cranked up my radio as I cleaned and even though it was a lot of work, I did not feel as though it was an annoyance. Knowing that it was for my party the next night actually made it a little more fun, as strange as that sounds.

Friday night was such a fun night for me. I had a nice get-together with some of my good friends I met at St. Paul. We had ice cream sundaes and other kinds of junk food. We talked, played games, danced, broke out into a disney sing along. It was just a good clean fun night. I found out that pretty much all of my friends are just as competitive as I am when it comes to games... Scattergories was incredibly picky and spoons got pretty darn violent.

I will miss these people over the Summer, and I will REALLY miss those who are graduating this year or transferring for next.

Random story about my dad here... He is a funny guy. He came downstairs to see who all was here. He looked in the room and saw a few of my guy friends and said really loudly to me, "Teresa! You never mentioned boys would be in my house!" I seriously looked at him and even though I could tell he was joking, not everyone else knew him enough to know that. I rolled my eyes and then introduced him to my friends in the room. My friends were all asking me if he was really that strict about boys after he left, and I told him his bark is way more worse then his bite. He talks a big game, and I am sure to an extent he does mean it a little bit, but he would never really scare a guy I was dating...Oh, I love my dad!

I Am So Proud To Be A Catholic! :)

I found this off of a note on facebook. It makes me happy! :)

Jewish Sam Miller on Catholics Excerpts of an article written by non-Catholic Sam Miller - a prominent Cleveland Jewish businessman:



"Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States , namely the Catholic Church?

Do you know - the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to that Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. The graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%.

The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students.

The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people - not just Catholics - in the United States today

But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.

Let me give you some figures that Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church , 41.8% of clergy women reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed.

Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic Problem.

A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.

The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now.

Walk with your shoulders high and you head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States . Then remember what Jeremiah said: 'Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and find rest for your souls'. Be proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions.

Be proud that you're a Catholic."