More curly Sue-isms

The rundown on the kids' Halloween costumes:

I a tiguh ROAR! an' Bubba a wed Powah Waynjuh and Primo Angadanga Dones.

What, you don't recognize the name of the most famous archaeologist in movie history?
Angadanga? We named the dog Angadanga!

re-cap

We've hosted Thanksgiving almost every year since 2000 (we took '06 off since Scott's family was coming up from NC and his mom wanted to do the honors for her brother and fam. With a 3 month old at the time, I was most happy to pass the baton for a year.) I have to say that this was the least stressful Thanksgiving I have ever hosted. I even got to sit down and talk for a little while-even with not having an automatic dishwasher to help out! I was bummed out that no one stayed past six, though, especially since no one got to the house until 1:30. We ate around 2:30 and then it seemed like everyone just left. Which makes me wonder if my family nad I stay at other people's houses too long. Aimee, do we stay too long? You're the only one I know IRL whose house we may have overstayed at. Be honest.Tonight, we had Scott's friend D. over for supper. I made a ziti because we all have had enough turkey for now. D. works in Washington DC so we don't get to see him often, which is a shame 'cause he's a super guy. He got here at 4:30 and was gone by 7:30. Why do people only want to stay at my house for 4 hours? It's CLEAN (now). We're fun. At least we used to be fun. What's up?!

Also, I wanted to ask your prayers that God's will be done and made clear to us. Scott's applying for a new job and we just want to do God's will. Thanks!

Hope you all have a groovy weekend!

Now thank we all our God,
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom this world rejoices;
who from our mothers' arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us;
and keep us still in grace,
and guide us when perplexed;
and free us from all ills,
in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given;
the Son, and him who reigns
with them in highest heaven;
the one eternal God,
whom earth and heaven adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.

Song by Martin Rinkart

---

Just in time for Thanksgiving...

You Are Pumpkin Pie

You're the perfect combo of uniqueness and quality. You're able to relate to many types of people with many different tastes. But you're by no means generic or ordinary. In fact, you're one of the most original people around. Those who like you are looking for something (or someone) special. You tend confuse people when they first meet you. But you're not as complicated as you seem. Even though you have a lot of spice and flavor to you, you're never overpowering. You are a calm and comforting force in people's lives.

What Kind of Pie Are You?

I can't imagine where she heard that.

Scene: Mommy clapping her hands making a silly face.

CS: Stop doing dat!
M: Why?
CS: Be-cause doo is making me in-sane!

Mommy cackles, Curly Sue giggles, then turns quite serious.

CS: We is done laffin now.

Fight FOCA

Here's a great post by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf about our changing times and what we as Catholics have to do to stand up for what we believe in. President-elect Obama has promised to make the Freedom of Choice Act law. If you don't know, FOCA would strike down any state laws restricting abortion. This website, Fight FOCA, has a petition online that you can sign, but all of us must contact our representatives and senators in Washington to tell them that we do not want this bill to become law.

It's a sad fact that most American support abortion rights, but the majority of Americans want some restrictions on this evil practice. FOCA will wipe away any restrictions, even ones that the Supreme Court has found constitutional, including parental notification laws.

I'm not a great pray-er. I have a load of excuses for why I don't pray the rosary. But I watched the video in Fr. Z's post and I have to do something. I mean, how am I supposed to stand before the LORD at my judgment and justify my inaction about this? I can't. So tonight, I commit to praying the rosary (with my family) daily to pray for the president-elect's conversion on FOCA. You have to, also. Let's get together on this one, people, millions of lives are at stake.

Works for Me Wednesday: Laundry tips

This is my first Works for me Wednesday contribution. I haven't contributed anything before because I was never that excited about anything before. Now I am excited about my laundry. I know, I'm weird.

I have several laundry issues, besides having 2 boys and a husband, including stain removal and being allergic to a lot of different scented products. Here's what I have found:

1. Borax is my friend. Boy, has adding just a little bit of this stuff to my laundry really helped me get stuff clean while using less detergent and bleach. And it's cheap!!! Baking soda worked well, but not as well as the Borax. Your grandma used Borax. You need to also.
2. White vinegar is a good fabric softener. I learned this tip from Heloise. I put about a cup of vinegar in my washer while it fills and it softens my clothes well enough. And the vinegar smell washes out so you will not smell like a salad when you wear your clothes. It isn't going to get them Downy soft or do a lot to control static cling, but I have to tell you that the reason why your clothes get so soft is because the commercial fabric softener leaves a residue on your clothes. And you know you can't wash the kids' flame retardant clothes in the fabric softener anyway. And as if you needed another reason to try the vinegar instead of the fabric softeners is that a gallon of white vinegar is about $1.29. I don't even know how much a bottle of Downy is anymore, but I know it's way more than vinegar-even when you use a coupon. You can click here for more of Heloise's helpful hints to use vinegar and baking soda for stuff around the house.
3. You must pretreat those stains before they get nasty and set in!!! Take a minute at the end of the day when you get those clothes off and pretreat before it goes in the hamper. I have found that using a bit of my favorite laundry deterent and rubbing it into the stain helps. Also, I love Shout for this, especially the one with the scrubby brush built in. I keep a bottle of Shout and a small trial size bottle of Tide in my bathroom for these pre-treating sessions. Remember not to leave the pre-treater on your clothes for too long. You should wash the clothes within 5-7 days of putting the pre-treater on or else you're going to have to invest in some brooches or pieces of flair to pin over the stains that won't come out.

You're not wearing enough flair, Jennifer.

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, go to Rocks in My Dryer. And if anyone knows a good tip for getting Ovaltine out of clothes, please let me know! I can't find anything that works.

Look what I did!

I was reading one of Donna Boucher's guest posts on Pioneer Woman Photography one day and Miz Boo was talking about how in Photoshop you can take your photo and make it look like a painting. Well, we got Photoshop the other day and, well, see for yourself:

Here is my photo of the Empire State building at sunset:


(First, let me just say that prior to Sept. 11, 2001, all you would have seen from here is the twin towers. The ESB would have been hidden. )

I don't like this photo for a few reasons, one of which is that it is too blurry. That will teach me not to bring a tripod. But, if I turn it into an oil painting, it doesn't need to be tack sharp, does it?



You can tell the difference a little more if you click on it. Here comes a better example.

My photo of a lifeguard chair at sunset:



Same day, same blur. No tripod. I tried the oil painting effect on this one and I didn't like it so much. Scott suggested trying it as a watercolor and after some fiddling, I came up with this:



You sort of lose the sunset feel a bit, but I really like this one.

So, thanks Miz Boo, for teaching me something new and thanks to PW for her blog and having you guest post! Now I am off to use more time I don't have to spare to play with Pictures. Like owning Lightroom wasn't bad enough!

You say it's your birthday...

well, it's my birthday too, yeah!

Today I turn 33. And I'm doing a lot of thinking about things. Where I'm supposed to be, stuff like that. But I just want to share this with you: I told my kids on Sunday that my birthday was going to be on Thursday. Bub was brushing his teeth, Scott was standing next to him in the bathroom. Bub says (He's fit to burst), "We have to get Mom a present, but I don't know what to get her!!!!!!" He asked me, "Mom, what do you want for your birthday?" I told him, "I want 15 Bubba kisses and 15 Primo kisses and 15 Curly Sue kisses." He started planting them on me right there as I was tucking him in on Sunday night. He stopped himself at 7, giggling, because it wasn't my birthday yet and he was already giving me my gift.

The three of them have been very excited about my birthday, even more than I have been. Bub was severely disappointed when he found out I wasn't having a birthday party. "But who's going to come over?" he asked. I think his thinking was, who else is going to give Mom presents?

But I think I already have the best gifts: Primo, Bub, and Curly Sue (oh yeah, and Scott, too ;) ).

I can't wait to collect those kisses!

Charlie Brown sez...

...shake it like a Polaroid picture!



Thanks Fr. Jim Chern on Facebook!

madness!

Yesterday and today, there's been a guy driving around our ward with a loudspeaker attached to the roof of his car spouting the virtues of the Dem. nominee for city council. This is very annoying. First, really, who does this anymore? (I feel like Austin Powers: "Honestly? A shoe? Who throws a shoe?") I can't understand what the guys is saying when I'm in my house. All it is is street noise. But this is what REALLY gets me:

The license plates on the truck are from Connecticut.

Did you hear?

It's election day! You can thank me later for reminding you. I thought you might have forgotten.


It's also the feast of St. Charles Borromeo. I think that's it's pretty apt that Election day happened to fall on his feast this year. The only way it could have been better is if we had Election day on the feast of St. Thomas More.



St. Charles Borromeo

Charles was the son of Count Gilbert Borromeo and Margaret Medici, sister of Pope Pius IV. He was born at the family castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore, Italy on October 2. He received the clerical tonsure when he was twelve and was sent to the Benedictine abbey of SS. Gratian and Felinus at Arona for his education.

In 1559 his uncle was elected Pope Pius IV and the following year, named him his Secretary of State and created him a cardinal and administrator of the see of Milan. He served as Pius' legate on numerous diplomatic missions and in 1562, was instrumental in having Pius reconvene the Council of Trent, which had been suspended in 1552. Charles played a leading role in guiding and in fashioning the decrees of the third and last group of sessions. He refused the headship of the Borromeo family on the death of Count Frederick Borromeo, was ordained a priest in 1563, and was consecrated bishop of Milan the same year. Before being allowed to take possession of his see, he oversaw the catechism, missal, and breviary called for by the Council of Trent. When he finally did arrive at Trent (which had been without a resident bishop for eighty years) in 1556, he instituted radical reforms despite great opposition, with such effectiveness that it became a model see. He put into effect, measures to improve the morals and manners of the clergy and laity, raised the effectiveness of the diocesan operation, established seminaries for the education of the clergy, founded a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine for the religious instruction of children and encouraged the Jesuits in his see. He increased the systems to the poor and the needy, was most generous in his help to the English college at Douai, and during his bishopric held eleven diocesan synods and six provincial councils. He founded a society of secular priests, Oblates of St. Ambrose (now Oblates of St. Charles) in 1578, and was active in preaching, resisting the inroads of protestantism, and bringing back lapsed Catholics to the Church. He encountered opposition from many sources in his efforts to reform people and institutions.

He died at Milan on the night of November 3-4, and was canonized in 1610. He was one of the towering figures of the Catholic Reformation, a patron of learning and the arts, and though he achieved a position of great power, he used it with humility, personal sanctity, and unselfishness to reform the Church, of the evils and abuses so prevalent among the clergy and the nobles of the times. His feast day is November 4th. I wish I weren't too lazy to take out all of those weird hyperlinks. I'll bet you do, too.


So, as you can see, St. Charles was an instrumental figure in the Counter-Reformation. He re-convened the Council of Trent and was a reformer. One order he tried to reform (and was eventually supressed) had 4 members that tried to assassinate him!


He led the Church in times of uncertainty and controversy. How excellent for us to have our election day fall on his feast day, when our country is going through a time of uncertainty and controversy! This is what my Magnificat says about him: "As both a civil and a canon lawyer, as well as a bishop, St. Charles understood the pastoral work of law-giving according to the model of Christ. His unflagging efforts to promote a Christian life and Church reform were prompted by a profoundly self-sacrificing love of Christ living in the Church."


Please pray that the people who are elected today also understand "the pastoral work of law-giving according to the model of Christ."


O, Blessed Mother! The United States is entrusted to you in your Immaculate Conception. Please intercede for us at the feet of your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. May His Will be done in our elections today. May we as a nation be able to go forth walking in His Light. Heavenly Father, please send the Holy Spirit upon all of us who are voting that we may be inspired to vote according to Your Will. Please send the Spirit upon those who are elected that they may do Your Will while they hold office. Keep our nation in Your Protection. Amen.