Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You...

Thank you so much, Dear Friends, for sharing this event with us. Can't believe Frannie is 5. Pretty soon she will be going to Kindergarten and immediately getting married and next we will all die...
Frannie dressed up like a fairy, Grace was a ladybug and can you guess my costume?

I love a good miraculous coincidence

After reading a stranger's blog today I was reminded of one of my favorite things in life: receiving a "wink" from God (as my co-worker Sally put it) just for your amazement and as a reminder of who is really in charge around here.

About 4 years ago I was camping with my friend Noreen up in North Georgia, was it Tallulah Falls? I can't remember, but there were falls there. It was right around this time of year and the weather was perfect for camping, chilly, but not cold. We sat around the campfire drinking a few beers, staring at the night sky, watching the stars come out. I could not help but think of Psalm 8, which I then paraphrased to her:

O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth! You have set your majesty above the heavens! . . . When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place-- What is man that you are mindful of him, mere mortals that you care for them?

So we started talking about how incredible it is that God even CARES about what each of us is doing. About an hour later Noreen asked if I wanted to do her "Daily Reading" book with her. She opened the little pamphlet-like book and she said something like "You are not &*@$$^^ going to believe this -- guess what Today's reading is?" and I didn't even have to guess.

Tomorrow is Frannie's Birthday party and MAN is she pumped. I'm posting pictures of the girls dressed for daycare in anticipation of the Halloween weekend. Wish Kevin could attend, but every year we run into this same problem (football vs. Frannie's b-day party). Too bad.

My friend Brett

Brett is one of the strongest guys I know. He doesn't lift weights or help me move furniture and compared to our friend Johan, he's not exactly buff. He's endured more than all of us put together, and he keeps on plugging. Insteading of divulging confidential information about my buddy, let me just tell you that he has SUFFERED. Now his Mom has made the decision to get him a trach for his comfort and hopefully for his longevity. This is not an easy surgery so they need lots of prayers on Monday.

Thinking About ...

If you have never seen this movie, do not stop, GO to your local Netflix or Amazon or wherever you can find it. I watched it recently and the memories of my trip to the Holocaust Museum in DC was reawakened. My sister Peg was born in Germany in 1955. As I grew older, it dawned on me how incredibly soon after WWII that was -- a mere decade after the end of the war, my parents actually lived there. I'm planning a trip to the school depicted in this movie, it's only a couple hours from us and I want to see if or myself.

*phew* Frannie's birthday is fast approaching and her dreams are about to come true -- she is getting a treasure chest full of princess accessories and dresses and she doesn't know it so don't tell her! She is going to faint from the sheer excitement of it all.

Have I Scarred Them for Life?

We took a fun trip yesterday to our local Pumpkin Patch and I pray the girls do not suffer some life-long side effects from it. First it was the gi-normous blow up spider that greeted us the second we stepped through the gate that inexplicably moved its head in a random fashion that made him look alive. Secondly, like out of some Watsonian nightmare, the girls both about pooped their pants because of the guy in the gorilla mask lurking around all the kids (see Exhibit D above -- pictured just above Frannie's head)). The pictures of Grace, I hate to admit it, give me a nervous smile because she was petrified of the guy and spent the entire 34 minutes looking over her shoulder for the gorilla guy and begging to be held. We got the heck out of there after purchasing 3 tiny pumpkins and one positively reinforcing pony ride (at least I pray it served as a positive association with all things Fall/Halloween/Pumpkiny). Yikes.

Miss My Husband

Kevin is working baseball playoffs and I miss him a lot. He has traveled for work since the day I met him, but I don't think I will ever get used to it. I want you home now!

Just Us Girls

Frannie, Grace and I will be solo for the next week or so while Kevin stays at the RITZ CARLTON Philly. We promise to finish the leftover rice and beans you left us Honey, really. We don't have time to go out and eat or shop while you are gone anyway, we worked on sewing up the holes in our socks and the girls did a real nice job delivering the newspapers the other morning ... we are just so happy you are having fun eating cheesesteaks and drinking with your buddies between exciting ball games.

Grace has been improving by leaps and bounds this week. The hole (or fistula) in her palate looks smaller to me and she hasn't complained about any pain at all in days. She went back to daycare today for the first time in 3 weeks with no problems. Thank God for her buddy Miss Alicia.

One of my Favorites

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Therese of Lisieux, one of my favorites, mostly because of her book. She is a great example of someone very much in love with Jesus, but so human too. I loved reading how she was so annoyed by the noises one of the nuns made during rosary. I felt so close to her after hearing that! See below:

Patron of the Missions
1873 - 1897

Generations of Catholics have admired this young saint, called her the "Little Flower", and found in her short life more inspiration for own lives than in volumes by theologians.

Yet Therese died when she was 24, after having lived as cloistered Carmelite for less than ten years. She never went on missions, never founded a religious order, never performed great works. The only book of hers, published after her death, was an brief edited version of her journal called "Story of a Soul." (Collections of her letters and restored versions of her journals have been published recently.) But within 28 years of her death, the public demand was so great that she was canonized