The Adventures of St. Joseph

St. Joseph tends to be substituted as the third playmate around our house. He gets a lot of play time.  Sometimes, he just hangs out and plays:

He also has a lot of fun bouncing in the Princess Castle:

He even gets put in “time out”:

Ok, I think he has been taking some blame for Cecilia….just a hunch I that I have:

What a good sport!

Summer Hits of the 90’s

As I have mentioned before, I tend to listen to a lot of Pandora.  I have several different stations but I pretty much have it tuned to “Matt Maher Radio” all day, every day.  One day, a station suggestion appeared at the top of my screen that I couldn’t resist:  “Summer Hits of the 90’s.”  So, I tuned in.  It started out fun—a little Oasis, a little Dave Matthew’s Band—songs that reminded me of the second half of the 90’s i.e. my college days.  FUN TIMES!  But then it started shifting to the early 90’s and I realized something.  I realized that I really didn’t like high school.

Ok, it’s not that I have had great memories of high school.  Well, with the exception of my senior year which, for some reason, we spent an inordinary amount of time at Waffle House and rolling down the sled riding hill in the park—hey, nobody ever said that I was “cool.”.  But outside of the total creep I dated most of high school, I didn’t have particularly bad memories either.  It was weird how hearing those songs could stir up emotions that I haven’t felt since those vulnerable teenage years.  Then I realized that it really wasn’t high school that I didn’t like, it was being a teenager. 

I had a nun for religion my freshman year that said something to the effect of “I know that everybody says that this is the time of your life but it’s not.  Being a teenager is hard and not fun.”  I thought that she was a little crazy at the time but it turns out that she was right—for me, anyhow.  (I know people who look back on their high school days like I do my college days….crazy people.)  So, I figure that I have approximately 12 years to prepare my girls to deal with the emotional rollercoasters of not being good enough, smart enough, skinny enough, athletic enough, pretty enough, rich enough….the list goes on.  I just hope that I can give them a healthy enough outlook on themselves and life that, someday, when they listen to Summer Hits of the 20’s (2020’s that is), they can listen and smile.

Who knew that Pandora could be so inspiring? 

My Husband's Post

So, Joe decided that I needed to update my blog to which I said, “I know, but I don’t know what to write about.”  He then proceeded to tell me what to write about so here we go!

1.      The Basement:    

For whatever reason, recently, our house decided to fall apart all at once.  And, being a home, it is never what you anticipate.  It’s the things that you don’t think you will have any problem with that start falling apart.  Last April, we had a small backup from our storm drain that had me spending much of the night with the shop-vac.  Since this had never happened before, we hoped it was a fluke and would not happen again….ha, ha.  Joke was on us.  This is a picture of our basement about a month after that:

Note:  Not near the drain.

                                             

We had to have somebody come in and remove drywall, carpeting, etc. to ensure that we didn’t get any mold.  The good news—it’s finally rebuilt.  Hurray!  So, the good—it looks better than it did before the flood and we found an efficient, reasonably priced contractor.

Oh, and our air conditioner is working which is fantastic since it is so hot outside….

2.      Our Awesome Girls:

Yeah, they’re cute and growing.  And nothing says cute like some pictures, or in this case, small collages of pictures:

3.      My Awesome Husband:

Like, I said, it was his idea.  J  He is great though and I love him more every day.  I remember praying for the man that I would marry when I was single.  Have you ever noticed how God blindsides you with the unexpected?  Joe has completely blown away everything that I ever could have asked for in a husband.  And he is a FANTASTIC father.  Our girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him!  It is so adorable and I love to watch it.  What’s he doing while I write this blog?  He’s at the grocery store…rest my case.  J

4.      My 5K:

Ok, so now I take over.  I ran a 5K on the 4^th of July with some friends.  It was fun and I actually ran it is 24 minutes which is better than I anticipated.  I am aiming to do a 10K next at the end of August.  If I can motivate myself, I may even try the Detroit ½ marathon in October.  You know, before I go into hibernation for the winter.  I hate running in the cold, ice, snow, etc. 

5.      I thought that this was a good post from one of the blogs I read regularly.  Check it out:

http://badcatholicblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/pictures-of-naked-women.html