She's 19

It is nearly impossible to believe that Auntie is 19 years old today! And even harder to believe that she graduates in a few weeks and is headed out to Hillsdale in MI on a full scholarship. We're so proud of her! We'll be lost without her next school year since we were so lucky to have her over most every Thursday for dinner the past couple years. I guess we'll just have to head out her way to visit her!

Good Friday

As our family gets older, more and more traditions are being established. It is most certainly one of the greatest joys of parenthood to see our young, very young, kids learn about their faith and internalize it.

Today we spent a good amount of the day at church between morning prayers, confessions, and the Good Friday prayer service.

We also attended the prayer vigil at the new Planned Parenthood. It was a peaceful prayer vigil with meditations interspersed as people walked around praying and many many people praying the rosary. I was overjoyed at how many young people were there and involved, there were more young people than older people there.



Jude was tired by the end. He is not sleeping, he just wanted some quiet time. :)

Up north - in North Dakota

On Friday we headed up to North Dakota to visit my 91 year old Grandmother. First, we went to the Saunders' farm in Cayuga, ND. This is the farm that my Grandpa Chic bought and built a house on and then my Mom's brother Mark and his wife, Mary, bought it from them. It is the house that my Mom grew up in and I have many many memories of going there for family gatherings and spending lots of time with all my girl cousins when I was growing up.

As you can see - Jude was in tractor heaven. He really was obsessed. He couldn't stop talking about them, wanting to play on them, and giving us 'thumbs-up' while being around them.

I think, maybe, Jude was suppose to be born on a farm.

Mark took him on a motorcycle ride which Jude thoroughly enjoyed. He looks like a natural.

Mark told us that this calf was only 3 hours old. He has about 20 cows on the farm now. Many of them are currently pregnant.

Faustina quickly became very attached to Aunt Mary. Aunt Mary knows how to talk to little girls and she knows what they like! When Mary asked Faustina if she wanted to walk up to the playground, Faustina informed me that she was going alone with Mary and I could not come along. She wanted to talk to Mary alone.

When the sun went down, Uncle Mark made a huge bonfire for everyone to watch. The kids were a little freaked out when it blazed up, but they soon got over it.


Jude was so tired. It was pretty funny to watch the expressions on his face as he sat there alone. He kept getting up and moving his chair away from everyone. It looked like he should have had a 6 pack sitting next to him.

Jude was up early and Mary told me the only thing that would come out of his mouth as she fed him cereal was 'tractor and truck' probably hundreds of times. So Mark and Mary took him out in his pajamas to check things out again.



Faustina would not be left behind.


We had a great time with Great Grandma Saunders. She is as spunky as ever and was excited to see Mike and I, but especially her 'greats' (great grandchildren) as she calls them. She was quite proud to show them off to all the people she lived with. I don't think our three kids have ever received as must attention as when we went to Riverview this weekend! We had a lovely time chatting with Grandma, going swimming in her pool, eating meals with her, seeing her apartment, going to the St. Patty's day dance, and going to Mass in the morning with her. We had brunch with her friend 'Big Al' who is just about the nicest guy you'll ever meet. He has 13 children; Grandma calls him her 'prayer buddy'. Big Al has 2 sons who are priests and his oldest daughter is a Sister. Grandma seems to know just about everyone who lives in Riverview and she seems very happy.

I was mad at myself because I forgot the camera recharger. We didn't realize this until the battery was on empty, so we only were able to capture a few pictures with Grandma Saunders.
Here we are in Grandma's apartment filled with pictures and memories.

Here Grandma, Debbie, Cecelia Flood (my cousin's daughter) and Faustina are dancing up a storm. Debbie stopped by to say 'hi'; since Dorothy just had a little boy (Simon!) last week, Debbie was helping out by taking Cecelia for a bit. Grandma has still got her groove on. She was on the dance floor almost the whole time! She has always loved dancing so much.

Overall, it was a very fun weekend. One highlight for me was simply being with my Mom's family - people she looks like and sometimes could sound like, people who knew her well and appreciate talking about her, remembering her and honoring her. Seeing the farm, and spending time with relatives certainly gives a bigger picture of the family tree - where people came from and who people are now. We visited the Saunders about a year ago in February and I was shocked at all the memories I had of Cayuga, Grandma and Grandpa, the farm and all the relatives - all the memories flooded back. It is strange how that seems to be happening more and more as the years go on. I kind of like that.

"Exorcizo te, immunde spiritus, in nomine Patris + et Filii + et Spiritus + Sancti..."

Today we had baby Benedict baptized in the older form of the Latin rite liturgy. The Baptism begins in the narthex (entrance) of the church with an exorcism of unclean spirits. Next, the family processes down the nave of the church chanting the Creed followed by the Our Father. Throughout, the child is exorcized, blessed, anointed with oil, impressed with salt ("salt is the symbol of wisdom which gives a relish for the sweetness of divine nourishment") and finally baptized with water and words of the sign of the cross. Parents and godparents partake in "The Renunciation of Satan" (cf. the scene from Godfather Pt. II!) where they reject Satan and all of his evil works and promises. The baby's white garment (in olden days worn for 8 straight days by the newly baptized) symbolizing the purity of a soul cleansed from all sin. The godparents are given the baptismal candle as a sign to keep the new light of faith burning brightly for the child no matter what the circumstances.

A beautiful and symbolic liturgy administered by Fr. Ubel - our thanks to him. We had an open house with a few family and friends beforehand. Danish ebleskeevers (sp???) were feasted upon by all.

Good times. Deo gratias.

Welcome, Benedict Joseph!

Merry Christmas!
Benedict Joseph was born at 1:17 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
Specs: 8 lbs. 9 oz. / 21 in. long / 13 in. head circumference
Both mom and baby are well and we hope they'll be home this evening.
Jude and Faustina anxiously await their arrival! Deo gratias!
Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Blessings to you and yours on this Christmas day!

Two Easter bunnies

Clearly, I am into videos lately. These two girls are pretty stinkin' cute if I do say so myself. They love hanging out with each other. Both these gals can hold their own on the tramp, and with their feisty personalities, I think they will be able to hold their own in about any situation!

Easter 2011 in pictures

75 Years of marriage

I love this story. A year ago when our family was going through a lot of things in the house on Niles we came across this story; I just 'refound' it and it puts a big smile on my face.

This article was published in a local newspaper in Monticello, MN several years ago. It is about Ann (my Mother's aunt) and Otto Thielman who hit their 75th wedding anniversary. My Mom absolutely loved this particular aunt and uncle. They had a beautiful house (really, practically a victorian mansion) close to Grandma and Grandpa Saunders' farm. Ann was the type of woman who was wearing pearl earrings, a dress and high heels even if she didn't leave the house for the day and was only doing chores. Otto had a natural handyman and was often working on different projects with his nice tool collection.

Here are a few of my favorites from the article.

"We're together all the time." said Otto.
Do they ever, have they ever, got on each other's nerves?
"No," he replied without hesitation. "She asks a lot of questions, but I do the best I can."
"I have to keep house for him," said Ann. "We're in the same boat. The main thing is, we're together."
"We manage each other pretty good." said Otto.
Ann is a little exasperated when asked what their secret is. It's a questions that's been put to them more than once over the previous three quarters of a century.
"There's no secret, if anyone knows how to be good to each other," she said. "You just keep loving. Where one goes, the other goes too. We fall asleep holding hands, and when we wake up, we're still holding hands in the morning. And we're always kissing each other, letting people know we're still married."
Their long happy and happy marriage will be recognized during St. Henry's Catholic Church's 10:30am mass this Sunday.
"It's been a long journey, and a wonderful one," said Ann. "I wouldn't want it any other way."

They lived to be 95 and 96, dying within 6 months of each. I love the line, "Marriage is no secret if anyone knows how to be good to each other."! If only the rest of the world thought it was that easy!

Lenten reminders

Here is our Lenten crown of thorns. It is on our dinner table and every time Faustina or any children who are here do an act of kindness or obedience, we take a thorn out of Jesus' crown. The hope is that all the 'thorns' will be out by Easter, and then we can paint it.

I like having these reminders up around the house during this season. And this crown with the toothpicks is a good one - it really does look vicious! It certainly reminds me of how Jesus suffered for our sins.

Easy recipe:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
warm water
toothpicks

Braid the clay and bake at 350 for an hour.

Mary Frances' Mullet...

... is here to STAY!

You can read about the debate here.

God works in interesting ways...

The following is from my sister Kim's blog. Our mom died right after she turned 10, and she's beginning to reflect upon it (My Mom's father died when she was 9 too... hopefully not a pattern). Incidentally, Gail's death has helped her begin to work through things in a positive way.

As I mentioned in my last blog, the past week has been very overwhelming. I went into detail on one aspect, but not another. Let me start out by saying how thankful I am to have this blog. It’s a way for me to “vent” as some call it, however I prefer the term “express my feelings”. I know it sounds a bit weird, but after I blog I always feel this sense of freedom. Like everything that is bothering me I no longer have to worry about (for a little while) because it’s already been told.

Anyways, to continue what I originally had to write: The wake and funeral for Gail was very moving and brought back many memories for me. For those of you who don’t know what I mean, 6 years ago my own mom passed away of lymphoma cancer. I was ten years old and at this age, it’s a total shock for a kid. You don’t exactly know what to think and therefore I never expressed how I felt- because I didn’t feel anything. However, the last year or so (escaladed this past week) I can’t stop thinking about how much I miss my mom and how much different my life would be if she was around. As a teenager this is especially hard because I’ve just “hit reality” (as some say) of her loss and feel like I have no one to be a “mom” to me. As a girl, our mothers are the ones who comfort you on your first date, take you out shopping or for “mother daughter day”, talk with you when you’re having problems and just plainly help you get through life.

Continue reading her thoughts here.

Remembering Gail & Giving Thanks

First of all, I would like to direct you to Carmen's blog. He has kept this since March after Gail was diagnosed with cancer in early February. There are a lot of wonderful memories on here, especially what he has written this past week in honor of Gail. I want to honor Carmen for his powerful witness to love and service of his wife these past seven and a half months.

Since my own mother's death, Gail has been like a 2nd mother to me. I will miss her greatly: the profound friendship she had with Cynthia, her love for Faustina & Jude, her model of motherly goodness, the fun she and Carmen had together, and her kindness to me (among many other things). As I reflected yesterday, she treated me as if we had a special relationship; certainly we did, but she treated everyone that way. I am grateful to God for having Gail in my life.

Although I have faith that Gail is now with the Lord and I perhaps will earn the privilege to see her again in Eternity, it was still somewhat frustrating to go over to their place tonight and not see her; I had a hard time not talking about or thinking about her. The thoughts and feelings are the same as they were in 2003 (and I suspect will be for some time as then), and I don't think I can say much better than I did here.

Deo gratias. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and help these past days. The following is from the beautiful ending of Dante's Paradiso (XXXI, 1-42):

Then in the pattern of a pure white rose
Was shown to me the saintly soldiery
Whom Christ has made his bride with his own blood.

But the other host — who, flying, see and sing
The glory of him who fills them with his love
And the goodness that made them magnificent—

Just like a swarm of bees, alight in flowers
At one instant and in the next returning
To where their toil attains its fragrant taste—

Flew downward into that vast flower, fringed
With myriad petals, and rising up from it
Sped back to where their love forever rests.

Their faces all glowed with a living flame;
Their wings were gold, and their whole form so white
That no snow ever rivaled such pure whiteness.

When they dove to the flower, row on row,
They spread some portion of the love and peace
Which they won when they waved their wings on high.

Nor did the flight of such a multitude
Coming between the upper light and flower
Block out the vision and the sea of splendor.

For the divine light through the universe
So penetrates in measure to its worth
That there is nothing to stand in the way.

This jubilant and ever-restful kingdom,
Thronging with people of old and modern times,
Kept gaze and love all focused on one goal.

O threefold Light which, in a single star
Sparkling upon their sight, so pleases them,
Look down here on our storms that rage on earth!

If the barbarians, come from the North
Which day by day is spanned by Helice,
Rotating with her son on whom she dotes,

Were struck with wonder when they sighted Rome
And her high-towering buildings, at the time
The Lateran surpassed all mortal works,

I, who had come out of our human life
To the divine, from time to the eternal,
From Florence to a just and wholesome people —

What was the wonder which welled up in me!
In truth, what with my stupor and my joy,
I happily heard nothing and stood silent.

Jude works wonders

For some reason, the cameras do not often get a smile out of Uncle Travis....but Jude got one out of him!

Michigan Trip

It is hard to believe our trip has already come and gone and the first week of July is gone! We had a terrific 8 day road trip out to Michigan - I wouldn't change anything about it. We came back a bit early since the weather was not cooperating 100%. I, however, must be in a 'nesting mode' since I was perfectly fine with coming home a few days earlier. Our first adventure with Faustina proved to be both relaxing and fun. Faustina was wonderful and she seems to already have a great love of the outdoors! ;) Here are a few of our highlights:


Seeing Grandma Mary. We stayed 3 nights at her home in Allen Park. She made her famous mostacolli and meatballs, had many stories to share, and Faustina met her great grandmother for the first time!


Spending a day at the Serge household. We were able to spend time with Uncle Bob, Aunt Loretta and Molly. Molly showed us her college campus and we had a relaxing day hanging out with family.

Visiting cute small towns and walking around. We spent time in Charlevoix, Traverse City, Petoskey, Mackinaw City and other places. Seeing these cities was especially fun since Mike and I did the Michigander Bike trip in 2006 and saw these towns for the first time on our 350 mile tour. We kept remembering our previous trip and all the things we had done and seen.

Here in Frankenmuth we had an authentic German 8 course dinner. Num!


Charlevoix



Here in Mackinaw City we actually stayed in a nice hotel for the night since all our camping gear was soaked from the previous nights' downpour. We discovered fudge is a main attraction here and we did not hold back!





And of course all the camping fun of sleeping in tents, campfires, camp food and enjoying the outdoors.