No Life 'Till Leather

Doing some cleaning in the basement...

I found a bunch of my old stuff from high school and college.


The moment brought to the fore an opportunity to reflect upon the past. I did some some serious thinking about the great existential questions of life. For instance, I wonder if posters are "cool" anymore. I suppose teens put posters up on their stupid, fake Facebook "walls" now.

At any rate, the posters are amusing and are a reach back into the past when I had some different (and possibly cooler) priorities: metal, movies, soccer, alcoholic beverages, etc.

Here's a shot of some of the posters. Hmmm... I see some important faces and images of our modern times:


Bono of U2

er, um... some bottled beer

Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery

David Seaman (nice 'stash on the English 'keeper!)

Eddie Van Halen

some crazy Pink Floyd picture

the Led Zeppelin angel-looking-guy

Jimi Hendrix

Diego Maradona, Argentinian soccer star and cocaine addict

Jim Morrison of the Doors

Jason Newsted, formerly of the formerly great band, Metallica

The Super Fans

Vic Rattlehead (Megadeth's perennial mascot)... maybe I should hang this in Jude's room... maybe not.

a vodka shot????

Tony Meola, goalkeeper for '94 U.S. World Cup team

Manchester United's logo (British Premier League Soccer)

Kiss (just pause on this for a moment... chest hair and full make-up: Zen)

uhhh: The Stairway to Heaven (black-light edition)

The 1998 Apple Valley Eagles State Championship Soccer team... of which I was not the star goalkeeper because I broke my thumb (that idiot in the front row-his fault!)

And most importantly:

The great Ringo Starr

Some of the most important figures of our time, really. Hegel was right, was he not? We are truly living in the greatest age of man.

Back to deeper thoughts...
My priorities are different now and I ponder if maybe I can have a little of both worlds. For instance, could my Honda Odyssey minivan allow me to channel some of "the good ol' days"?????? Odyssey offers practical features, safety for the kids, and...

Buzzzzzzzzzzz

Wednesday night we did the deed. It was time! Jude's first golden locks came off. I am not one for boys with long hair, and Jude was beginning to have helmet hair, if you will. He is now affectionately known as Army Boy by Dad and Faustina. I like it!

Thankful for our Cloud of Witnesses

This Thanksgiving I am especially grateful for all the saints we have that give us a constant example of how to live a Christian life full of grace and perseverance. The saints truly are a gift in my life as there are so many men and women of God to learn about and be a model to me.

There are layers upon layers to dive into when it come to the saints. These men and women have lived through all the different time periods, face every difficulty imaginable plus more (!), and each one has a different story. I love learning about their lives, becoming acquainted with his or her person, and learning from them. Scripture is a wonderful tool to use to grow in holiness (of course!), but the saints provide concrete examples of sinful human beings (like us!) walking the hard Christian walk. And another wonderful thing is that the Pope is canonizing more saints all the time! Just a few short weeks ago, he canonized 5 more men and women. More holy men and women to learn about and be an example to me.

I have always considered myself 'lucky' or blessed to have my birthday fall on the Feast day of 'All Saints Day' in the Catholic Church. I vividly remember reading chapter books about St. Bernadette and St. Therese the Little Flower when I first was reading chapter books.

This past year I have been concentrating more specifically on a few saints, namely St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese the little flower. I have known their stories for some time, but as I read their autobiographies or other books they wrote, I learn more about them the insights they have in spiritual life.

This is what is new to me: I can actually have a sort of relationship with these women. I can ask for their intercession in daily prayer and novenas. I was spending some time with a friend a few weeks ago and she gave me the novena for St. Therese the Little Flower. She said several years ago as her family was going through some harder situations, she invited St. Therese into her home and asked her to be an 'older' sister to her.


Having a relationship with the saints makes more and more sense to me as I continue to miss my own earthly mother. And Mary has been right there for me through this journey. This relationship with Mary started in a more serious way in fall of '07 when I was pregnant with Faustina. When I felt terribly nauseous I would sit in the bathtub and say a rosary. Saying the rosary became a habit from this point on. Well, in January of '09 when I was pregnant with Jude, I was saying the rosary and I had an inspiration to especially pray for my Mom and her health concerning cancer. I was so struck by this because I never worried much about Mom's cancer returning and this was a scary new thought for me. 3 weeks later we found out that Mom's cancer was back and the hard year of '09 began. Mary, however, continued to sustain me with grace through this hard time. Thank you, Mary!

Self Discovery

It was hilarious to see Jude interact with a mirror he found that was on his level. He was fascinated with seeing himself! He kept walking away and then walking back to it, giggling, and making faces in it. He is a delightful little boy.

Wondering Faustina

Mike and I are not sure how much Faustina remembers of Grandma Lee, if any. But Faustina is making some connections; if I ever seem sad to her, she asks me if I am missing Grandma.

While we were in the car this afternoon, out of the blue, she initiated a conversation about Grandma Lee.

Faustina: Momma,I want to go to Grandma's house
Me: Do you mean Grandpa's? He is not there, he is gone deer hunting.
Faustina: Nooo! I want to go to Grandma's. (she made it very clear)
Me: Well, Faustina we all miss Grandma; but we trust and believe she is in Heaven now.
Faustina: Is heaven God's house? (what - did she really just ask that?)
Me: Yes, it is.
Faustina: I want to go to heaven to see Grandma and God.
Me: We can see God here on earth too. But if we serve and love God during our lives, someday we can go to heaven like Grandma.
Faustina: Oh.Okay.

Fascinating what our children are processing.