A most inspiring foster care story

Ok, I think I fixed it, please look again!

Omigoodness, what a tear jerker. I have so much hope for the foster kids I know, and those who have been adopted since they were foster kids. I hope some will make these choices. I know someone who already did, and you know who you are, so get out the kleenex, honey.

Sacia's Promise

Very sweet

Again, from the Common Room:

http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/2009/08/sweetness.html

The reason this is so sweet to me, is that we have so many kids who know each other right now, and are good friends, as are their parents. This kind of thing could happen to us, and while we are already blessed and don't deserve it, I truly look forward to seeing this kind of thing happen at least once to someone. With nearly 60 kids involved in our Rosary Group, well, it's sure to happen at least once.

God bless them. The girl you see in the picture with glasses on is having the first baby in September. I can't wait for the joy on their blog then!

Uploading and downloading at last

Some highlights from July are now available! And here they are!

Here we are again

We came back from a glorious time on Whidbey Island at a wonderful B and B, and enjoyed the town very much. We drove a lot, and we also ended the weekend with a trip to Lowe's to decide on paint samples. Yay us!

I will download pics, really. I know I always say that. I'll do it fairly soon. This week is kinda busy, but believe it or not, we pulled this all off from this weekend! We even introduced our child-swapping friends to the idea of doing this every six months, and they were more than a little excited at the prospect. Overnights twice a year?? Wow. We have ARRIVED!

Let's see... Oh, we did have the ultrasound. Currently I am waiting for more guesses on Facebook before I tell everyone. Then I will tell you all, too. It's very exciting!

:)

Here I am

I know it's been a while again. I had lots of things to write about and post. LOTS. I mean, the news is so very interesting all the time! But I'd be here all day, and well, summer is a good time to Get. Stuff. Done. And I'm attempting to do that.

First of all: HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY TO US!

That said, today my husband is sleeping, because he works nights. He will sleep tomorrow also, and part of the next day. I've decided one of the best presents he can get is to stay asleep as much as possible before we go anywhere fun, so we will have. fun. Not fight or something stupid. So I haven't seen him today. I will see him for about two hours before he goes to work tonight.
I'm very glad we are still happily married. Score for us!

Wanna see our schedule til Wednesday? Wanna? You know you do.

Today, Friday, July 10th: The Pope and Obama met, and I'm glad to hear it went pretty darned well. I also read that the Pope "fired" the guys who screwed things up royally as he was trying welcome some traditionalists back into the Catholic Church, and it turned into a horrible fiasco, and everyone blamed the Pope. I certainly hope they found the right culprits. I think this was a good thing?

In our own lives, I got all the stuff Rikki and I have been collecting for two months and piling in her garage, and drove it to another home, which will be part of a neighborhood yard sale this weekend. We are very, very glad to purge our homes, especially in the case of Rikki, who has a little too much Mary Kay in her closet for her own good. Now she has a closet back, and some people can pick up some very good gifts for people at low prices tomorrow. I managed to get all that stuff out, with only one stuffed animal making it back in the car. Not bad.

Now they are sleeping, and I am putting off doing anything useful. That's what blogging is for. A to do list is good, so I will do that at the end here.
This evening we might go to the splash park since it's hot, and we ran out of time today before nap.

Tomorrow: Bring treats to yard sale by 9am, maybe help set up unless other people already did. Leave with my kids to go get the oldest, one hour away, at scout camp. He should be dog tired. Hopefully not too cranky after three nights away.
Then come back and help at yard sale til it's over. Help kids sell lemonade and other treats. Go home, collapse. Be glad the word "anniversary" resulted in not having in laws over yet again this weekend. I'm sure some day they will actually see us, but this wasn't necessarily the right weekend.

Sunday: Church. Pack like mad for kids to spend night at friends so we can go on anniversary overnight, which is a surprise for my husband. He knows the when, but not the where. Leave them at said house by 4pm or so. Go enjoy selves and complete sentences.

Monday: Enjoy selves. Hope things go well. You see, I just found out today that soccer camp is THIS day, not next week. But I just signed them up for Vacation Bible School At. The. Same. Time. Dude, not fair. I had this planned at least a month ago. AAGH! I think it will work, and I'm glad our friends love us, because it may or may not take a few people to pull this off. I can't immediately get ahold of the people watching our kids, because they are out of town. I did call and email, so hopefully that will help. Honestly, this is such a huge screw up, but I dare not put off this overnight, or it will never happen. Besides, the family in question will get me back in August. Go right ahead, guys!
That night, we should come home in one piece, and again, collapse.

Tuesday: Soccer camp, not VBS. Oh crap. I have an ultrasound at 9:30. I just realized this. I think I can get someone to help me with this too, it's just a teensy bit more complicated than I anticipated, and I already moved the ultrasound. This is getting downright comical.
Then I will pay back said savior by watching her kids while they have a very important appt. having to do with fostering small beings. So she will get me back, too.

See? What comes around always goes around, doesn't it?
WHAT have I DONE?

Ok, new post for the to do list. Must call savior on Tuesday and chat now.
Have a super weekend everybody!

Last weekend, with pictures!

It's time for a camera download, isn't it?

I guess we could do a summary of May and June. Well, late May, anyway. This first one is Dominic's second birthday. Happy Birthday Dude!



This is what we did to our dining room floor. Our carpet was SO GROSS. We'll do the whole downstairs in pergo this summer sometime, but this dining room is the direct path between our front and back doors, as well as where kids drop all their food on the floor, and even my neighbor who cleans carpets said he wouldn't clean it again, just get rid of it.

So we did. Thanks Cathy!!




We went to Joe and Christina's wedding in Portland, OR a week ago. We got a much better picture of my husband and our friend Fr. Jeff Meeuwsen than we did of the bride and groom. He was concelebrating, since we all went to GU together, and it was super great to see him. He offered to hear our confessions, but do you know how weird that would be? I should have had him do our son's, but it was a wedding, and man, those are crazy days, don'tcha know.



Here is the bride and groom, for lack of better pics. We were hushing our children. Both older boys got to be greeters and I got to be a eucharistic minister. Yay us! Way easier than being a bridesmaid. Phew!





This is the inside of the dome, inside The Grotto, in Portland. This is where we went to Mass last Sunday. It is gorgeous, and if you want to see more pics, google it. It's just beautiful in real life. We took a picture of all the bronze statues of the Stations of the Cross which are outside on a trail. We said an Our Father in front of each one. The kids loved it, and the Mass was just gorgeous. I also found out that our Lola is not the only one who gives kids candy to shut them up at Mass. Apparently most Filipino grandmas do this without asking, even if you've never met them. Huh. Interesting.



We went to see my parents in Astoria, OR, and we also went to see the "down the driveway" neighbors, who always have the animals we didn't. We had horses and dogs and cats, and sometimes sheep or goats. These guys have goats and smaller. They are a fun, unschooling family whose kids sometimes go to school. One of them just graduated. Only one out of five to go! They are all doing just awesome. Did I ever mention the one who couldn't read til he was 13 is now working on a PhD in something to do with optical lasers in Florida? Well, he is.

Anyway, here is their trampoline, and this shows how enormously big this one goat is.



This is Flash. He's about 25 now, but I first met him when I was 13 and my friend who was the age I am now owned him and gave me English riding lessons in return for feeding him in the morning before I went to school. He is getting a bit rickety now, but he's happy. She couldn't take care of him anymore, so he's been at my folks' house for years now.



Here are videos of each of the kids on Flash. His registered name is "Chromed Perfection". That cracks me up. Most registered names of dogs and horses crack me up. My old horse, Sebastian, was "Mon Sebastian BD" Ha ha ha. My dad said the BD stood for Bad Dude. No doubt! :) His brains didn't fit in one horse body! Naughty, naughty horsie.

By the way, last November, Dominic wouldn't get on. Now, I can't get him off!

I don't know why I didn't get a Grace video, but I didn't. Here's her cute little self anyway.









And finally, my new facebook picture:

Please pray for this mom

Facebook sure does get the news out quick. Someone I knew in high school, Melissa Westley, posted that her son "was killed" the night before Mother's Day. She said no more about it except how much pain she was in. She is a single mom with two other kids, both girls. I can't imagine her pain. Today there was finally an article in the local paper.

http://www.dailyastorian.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=398&ArticleID=60827

That he died right in front of her is impossible to fathom as a mom. Please pray for healing and hope on the other end of the darkness she is in right now, and for all those affected.

And thank God if your family is alive and well.

Jeff's ok!

Yay! Jeff's ok!!

From his website:

Thank you all for your prayers. Jeff is coming home tomorrow. It appeared that he didn’t have a heart attack. The cause of all this excitement may be traced back to an old ailment recurring now after over two decades.

Deo gratias!

LeXuan

Babysitting fiesta!

Yesterday was crazeee!

I knew I was babysitting for one family from 5:30 til possibly 8 or so, and then I remembered it was a Holy Day of Obligation, and we wanted to go to Mass at 7pm, so I called back and mentioned that part, which worked out fine.

Then it was remembered to me that I was supposed to take certain children during a parent-teacher conference, around 2.

Then my very, very pregnant friend called and asked if I could watch theirs while they walked around and tried to get that baby moving, in the hopes that they could get going before an imminent induction today. I don't think it worked, and am eagerly awaiting news this morning.

So, at 2pm, four children from one family arrived, closely followed by two from another. Don't forget, I have four, too. So for a couple of hours, there were 10 kids and me, but the adults did continue to check in. A movie was called for and cookies were made.

Then I figured it was a good time to go get the car from the shop, since I had other adults with me. So two of us went to do that. When we pulled in, in two separate cars, my husband also pulled in. Another parent was pulling out at the same time. Three cars in, one car out. Another car had arrived while we were gone, containing four more children, so at that point, six kids left, four kids came, and we still had eight, plus now my husband.

Welcome home from your first day at your new job, honey, we now have eight children instead of four. :)

I did point out that we always wanted to be the kind of family that had the swinging door of people coming in and out. You know, the kind all the kids in the neighborhood come to. Really, we like that. We would just like to do it in a house double the size! That's ok, though. The kids are still too young to notice.

At 6:30 pm, the last parent returned, off to a scout meeting we were missing to go to Mass.

At 6:35, there was one lonely car in the driveway, back from the shop, and no people in the house at all.

The kids did behave at Mass, except the "baby", who is having a serious jump in brain development, and learned to crawl to the top of the bunkbed yesterday and is not even slightly interested in sitting through Mass, after a month of having done so. But otherwise, really, the day went amazingly well!

The moms and dads in this situation laugh because we know this will only get more ridiculous, as two of those moms are having their fifth baby soon, and it's getting to the point where, if we have three families in particular over, our four families will equal 19 children, and that's only because we don't have a fifth. Yet.

My husband did ask about a girl's name as we walked out of church. I asked if he had plans for a girl. Maybe we should call Leah, the Stork. That's what I call our former social worker, because one day, she just sort of delivered Brandon. And he never went back. Honestly, I still expect her to call me and say Brandon has a new baby sister, but it hasn't happened. Yet. Mom being in her early forties, I'm hoping that's that.

But this time I'm ordering a girl.

NOT YET!! Don't any of you hold me to it. Gimme at least another year before we get serious about that. Francis has the van right now, and I don't have enough seats in the car!

Babies, Babies, Everywhere

Congratulations to all the people I know having babies. We shall proceed herewith the roll call:

One baby was born in October, and her name is Rosie. She is #8 in her family.

Baby Clara was born about six weeks ago, and she is a tiny lil thing with very big, interested eyes, and she can already smile! I swear, I saw it with my own eyes! She is #5.

Baby Emily was born two days after Thanksgiving, and I haven't seen her yet. She is #4. I do believe big brother ordered a boy, but God gives us what we need, not what we want... :)

Another baby is due Any Minute. I saw Mommy yesterday, and she was due that very day. And what was she doing? Fetching a Christmas tree with lots of tromping about in boots! I have not heard of labor yet. She figures it will be another week. I'm dyin' to know the name of that one. They are somewhat creative over there. That will be #5.

Two babies are due in April, and they are #2 and #5, respectively. Then we got a cool announcement on Thanksgiving, mentioning that the turkey in THEIR oven isn't coming out til July. That really cracked me up. That one will be #3.

Oh, and my friend Mary had a baby, but I was told third-hand. I really should send a card. Her second was born not long ago, in CA.

No, I am not getting on the wagon, but thank you for asking. We sometimes think about another adoption, but I think we'll take a year to just relax with what we have currently. With an adoption, we can get what we ordered, since we have one girl and three boys. Otherwise, the two bedrooms will be so tipped to one side, the house will fall over.

:)

Alexander

Once upon a time, I did not live in the town I live in, in Western Washington. I have, in fact, lived in at least five towns in W. WA. Once upon a time, when I lived in Renton, and my 8 year old was really 1-2, and I had been married for three years, not nine, I used to nanny. Most of my current friends that I see on a weekly or monthly basis never knew me as a working mom. I worked 40 hours a week from when I graduated college until 3.5 years ago. I will fondly remember April Fools Day, 2005, as the day I gained freedom. And that is why I never get bored with being at home with my kids. Tired and cranky, yes, but never, ever, do I think the grass is greener on the other side of that fence. It is one of those gifts God gave me.
I am not putting down those who have to work. I'm simply giving thanks to God for my own personal situation, and I am saying that many of my friends did not work after they had children. But I did. They just didn't know me back then. I didn't have time to make friends or keep them, at the time. I was trying to survive.

Before actual crisis mode hit, though, I was a nanny at two homes. One was in Mill Creek, and when they didn't need me anymore, I found a job about five miles down the road. Robert and Elizabeth needed a nanny for their son, Alexander, who was born very, very early and had multiple disabilities, even without being born early. He was such a skinny little chicken, and about my son's age, had he been born on time.

I spent the next year with them, and it was a rough year, because that was the year they found out he had something wrong with his immune system. Eventually the closest diagnosis they had was aplastic anemia. Not Good. They tried two adult stem cell transplants, after finding an exact donor in Germany. No luck. The doctors actually said to take him home and let him die, because with all his problems, he was a "waste of resources". Rallying their strength, they called around, and they found out he could still get a real bone marrow transplant from the same donor. He got one, and it worked.

Here is the whole story.
I think I'm mentioned in "the first 22 months". The boy you see is the one I remember. I was around when those pics were taken.

Alexander has continued to have problems, but he's cheerful and alive. His parents had twins afterwards, and they are normal and happy, a boy and a girl. I got a change of address note from their mom and wrote to ask how things were going. Today I learned that Alexander lost his sight last year, but he's doing ok. It was very sad for me to hear, but I'm glad he is still alive and doing relatively well.

I should add that the stress of being in the hospital with Alexander and my own healthy son took a toll after a couple of months, and I had to quit. God was with me on that one, because their old, beloved nanny came back to them, having gotten very tired of the position she'd left them for when I was hired. I am so happy to hear that she is still with them. She was perfect for them, and I'm sure she still is. She probably saved Alexander's life numerous times, and has no children, so she was truly devoted to him. That's what he needed.

I have never forgotten him or his family, so I thought I'd write about it. I always felt a bit guilty for leaving right then, but I do know it was for the best. That was when my two year stint in daycare began, and the next two years were stressful enough!

God bless and keep that family. I love them dearly.

Parental rights and a UN problem

This is going to be a problem, to say the least. Please read, reflect, and check the website www.parentalrights.org for more information.

I know people think they are helping us by creating utopia, but what it really will be is a lot of fear of doing the "wrong thing". Please stand up for families before it is too late by writing to any congresspeople you can think of. Our president-to-be is already involved in this project, along with at least one congresswoman from my own state.

What’s Wrong with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?
Posted by: admin on February 12th, 2008
Tag(s): Constitutional Amendment • Convention on the Rights of the Child • Danger to Parental Rights • international law • parental rights

It’s usually looked upon as a positive means of holding countries accountable to protect children. But the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is so much more than that.

When the UNCRC was brought up for ratification in 1995, the core group of Senators in opposition concluded that this treaty marked a significant departure from the originally constituted relationship between state and child. They found, in fact, that it was literally incompatible with the right of parents to raise their children as well as a wholesale giveaway of U.S. sovereignty.

But why?

Widespread concerns about the UNCRC stem from the treaty’s repeated emphasis on one key principle used to guide all decisions affecting children: consideration of the “best interests of the child.” This principle underlies all of the rights found in the Convention.

Article 3 of the CRC provides that “in all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”

In other words, policies affecting children at all levels of society and government should have the child’s best interest as the primary concern.

The trouble occurs when this principle appears as a guiding principle for parents in article 18(1), which states that “Parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child. The best interests of the child will be their basic concern.”

Who knows best?

The Convention’s emphasis on the “best interests” principle is a sharp break from American law.

In the 1993 case of Reno v. Flores, the U.S. Supreme Court held that “the ‘best interests of the child’ is not the legal standard that governs parents’ or guardians’ exercise of their custody.” In the 2000 case of Troxel v. Granville, the Court struck down a grandparent visitation statute because decisions about the child were made “solely on the judge’s determination of the child’s best interests,” without regard to the wishes of the parent.

The Court’s decisions in Reno and Troxel reflect a fundamental tenet of American family law, which recognizes that parents typically act in the best interests of their children. Indeed, “United States case law is replete with examples of parents fighting for the best interests of their children,” ranging from a child’s right to an education to the right of personal injury compensation. Except in cases where a parent has been proven to be “unfit,” American law presumes that the parent is acting in the best interests of the child, and defers to that parent’s decision.

The UNCRC’s Brave New World

But the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child changes all of that. The treaty supplants this traditional presumption in favor of parents with a new presumption in favor of the state.

According to Geraldine van Bueren, an international scholar who assisted in the drafting of the CRC, the language of “best interests provides decision and policy makers with the authority to substitute their own decisions for either the child’s or the parents’, providing it is based on considerations of the best interests of the child.”

So instead of placing the burden of proof on the government to prove that a parent is unfit, the Convention places the burden of proof on – yes, parents. Any parent who claims that other interests might just be more important than the state’s characterization of the “best interest” of the child could end up battling the state to protect their rights as a parent.

Where do we go from here?

There is a solution to this dilemma. The strongest, most effective way of protecting children and parents from an alarming state-based agenda is to amend the Constitution to protect parental rights. This can only take place through the concerted efforts of millions of dedicated parents across the United States.

Two immediate action items

Maybe you’ve already signed the petition to protect parental rights. If so, we encourage you to take the next step of telling your friends about this important issue. And if you haven’t yet joined the campaign, consider joining today. For a gift of $25 or more, you and your family can take a firm stand in the battle to protect and preserve parental rights.

a class reunion

Here's a picture of how many people showed up to the class of 1998 GU reunion. It's kinda fuzzy and dark, but apparently we were the biggest returning class yet. DH and I are in the upper right. It's really hard to tell, though.
Yay, us!
Go Gonzaga, class of 1998. And many happy thoughts for Fr. Spitzer, who hopes to be somewhere else by next year.

got food!

I thought you'd be interested to know that the big white bucket of food from Costco only arrived three days after it was shipped, which means it only took 6 days total to get here, including the weekend. Isn't that great? It smells kind of like maple syrup or brown sugar. It seems pretty hypoallergenic as far as food goes, too.

In other news, one of those babies in our group was born two days ago, and we got to see her. She was just gorgeous. I went with Rikki, so imagine the eyeballs when we showed up. Five kids already in the hospital room, followed by me and four kids, followed by Rikki and 3 kids. I'm glad those maternity suites have cable, because our kids got to watch junk tv with ... commercials! Our kids often forget whether a program is the show or the commercial because we only watch videos these days, and when we had cable, we usually watched PBS, which has only PBS commercials. Hilarious.

In other news, my DH is applying for a job with Microsoft, and I'm hoping very much he'll get it. He made it past the initial phone interview, and another one will be scheduled either today or Monday. A friend from his current work who went over asked him to apply on his good word, so we hope that is a good sign. We know several people who work there, but none except this one person work in anything related to what DH does. It would be lovely if he got in. Just the lack of insurance premiums would be a raise, and there is tons of room to grow professionally at a company that large that seems to treat its employees right.

Prayin' hard, honey!

Fifty-seven

As has been mentioned before, we live where we live mostly because of something our college friends started, which we simply call "The Rosary Group". It never got a cooler name than that, and now it's so entrenched in our minds that it's not likely to change. The idea is that we are forming community, starting with people inviting other fairly like-minded people to bring their family and pray the Rosary on Wed. nights in each other's homes, snacks usually included, potluck style. About two years ago, we got too big to fit anymore, so now there are three rotating groups and a fourth stationary group which is in the north end of town. We keep inviting families and it is really fun. Praying is very important, and a way to support each other, but there are side benefits we never anticipated. One of them is that these people are often more like family than our own families are. Our kids don't have many cousins, and they all live in CA. But these kids are like cousins. If anyone has a baby, and emergency, loses a job, etc, we are all there to help and often good things happen. We bring food, we find work, we babysit each other's kids like crazy. Our family's chiropractor shares four of the families, and he thinks we're all going to form a commune. He's sort of a leftover hippie, not Catholic, but he thinks it's great what we do, which is very open-minded of him, considering that we invade his very small office and take up a lot of time.

Anyway, today one of our members updated the list, in order to reflect all the pregnancies and newborns. There are 57 children, outside and inside the womb. Three are in foster care, so that could change the numbers, but otherwise, as of the holiday season, that's how many kids there are. That's not counting adults.
I'll be posting at least one Halloween picture, and one All Saint's Day picture, because we'll be dressing up for both. We have the coolest families!

Talk about Catholic Community Services... :)

Yay US!

Buying emergency food

I decided to buy the Costco tub of emergency dehydrated food today, only to be told they only sell those in the summer in stores.
However, online, it is still available.

Get this: Due to overwhelming response, this item will be delivered in 10-15 business days.



Can I just say I'm not the only one who thinks social unrest is around the corner?
I bought water, beans and rice, and we know where we're going at each stage of an emergency. If you are wondering, it's a friends' house, then my parents' OR house, then my parents' CA house in case of serious long term depression-like conditions.

Yes, I know I sound like a nut job to some people. But I will feel much better even in an earthquake than a lot of people, and we do get those around here. If we got a major one, no one could go anywhere because of the bridges, and Seattle would be in serious shape. Let's see, 3 million hungry people. Maybe we should have emergency plans after all.

Go to www.3days3ways.org.

DH surgery went well

Today was a really long day.

DH needed surgery for his deviated septum. He neglected to tell me the doctor had commented that this is a "day surgery", but "just barely". Meaning this is major surgery. We arrived at 9:30, he went in around 10:20, I guess they started late, and then I finally got to take him home around 4:30. Egad. All this time Rikki-san was babysitting our kids, but she did have help from Grandma, so I think it was relatively ok. On the other hand, I think she was trying pretty hard not to kill me when I finally showed up. But tonight's girls night will probably take care of any hard feelings. A little tiramisu will go a long way.

DH is feeling ok, if you consider a he had a big fight with a roto-rooter and lost. He is bleeding from the nose and will continue to do so for a while. We get to squirt saline up there and give him lots of drugs, mostly oxycodone, and he has to sleep sitting up so it drains out his nose. I am glad I don't have too much planned for the next several days.

Thanks to anyone who was praying for him. The surgery should be a success, and he says he can already tell there is room in his nose where there wasn't before, even though there is lots of swelling. On Wed. they take out some sort of stilts, and we'll see how he feels after that. I hear it will feel a lot better. I got some cute pictures of the kids feeling sorry for him. Poor Daddy.

Third Culture Kids

Yes, I did steal this from my favorite blog again. My husband was so thrilled with this website.

http://www.tckid.com/what-is-a-tck.html

When I started reading the "you know you are a TKC when" I immediately recognized the list as a list of things he's said, like "I don't know where 'home' is.". I thought that was interesting. I think military kids, foster kids, or anyone who has moved a lot for whatever reason would benefit from talking to each other. I'm not one of these, but sometimes I do share one thing. I often say I have a "split personality" when it comes to where I'm from and a physical location (not people) that I call home. I love Mendocino, and I spent most of my childhood in Astoria, but I do not love Astoria. Sorry, Astoria. I never did like it when it was near impossible to make friends, and all the fun parts of my childhood, like raising sheep and bring a ranch kid, mostly ended. I still had horses, and that's huge, but it was never the same after the move, when I was eight, nearly nine. In my mind, we have before Astoria, and after Astoria. BA and AA? Ha ha. So in that sense, I do understand the "I don't know where I'm from" thing. I do know where I'm from physically, and it's Mendocino, but my family is in Oregon, and when I see them, I'm also home.
Enjoy the site! Comments and reflections welcome!

40 Days for Life pics

See this blog for pics from all around WA. I'm in the Everett picture, with almost all people I know from our Rosary Group up here.
The testimonials are worth reading, too.
:)

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=145

Class of 1998 Rocks!

I was gone all weekend and did not have access to the internetz til now. Four days with no email! Francis could pick up an unsecured wi fi connection most places on his PDA, but apparently yahoo mobile does not translate well, and I could not check email. Oh, the withdrawals. They were awful. Ha.
The only bad thing is that there are 160 emails to go through. But I did most of that already.

A good thing was that DH put on his good suit for the first time since May, and guess where my pink cell phone has been all that time??? YES! I have my favorite cell phone back! I can now enjoy it again. The one I got to replace it was awful.

My 10 year reunion at Gonzaga University was awesome. There were lots of people I knew from all kinds of clubs and activities and the halls I once lived in. Honestly, my first hall and my freshmen year is where I met most of the people I saw, with a few I met over the course of four years added in for fun. Most of them I lived with, rowed with, or did service projects with. We also added to our scholarship fund, so now our class has a $25,000 endowment with which to fund a $1000 scholarship every year for someone who needs it. Not too shabby.

Also, 17 buildings have been built since I left. No kidding. The place is nearly unrecognizeable. Some of us were worried that maybe the spirit of the place had been diminished by the huge growth in the last 10 years, but no... I can tell it is possibly even a better place than before. Amazing. The friendly, giving, loving spirit of the place is still palpable, and not just because they'd like me to donate money. Fr. Spitzer was also helpful in allaying our fears that we'd never ever be able to afford the place for our kids, so I'm hopeful that if they want to go, they might be able to. Maybe without owing a zillion dollars, if we're lucky. We're still holding out for that soccer scholarship, though.
We enjoyed very much staying with the parents of our family friends. Their hospitality is unbelievable. It made the visit very nice because we could really relax between events and not be expected to do much. We stopped in Leavenworth on the way there to get fancy wine and cheese for our hosts, because we had three nights for free and were so incredibly grateful.
The kids are now all sick, of course, because we drove 700 miles in a weekend and kept them up til 10 pm. Of course, their parents weren't as sick as some parents were, who decided that the call of Jack and Dan's was too much to resist, and so the bar crawling went on til 2 am or so for two nights. I would like to have joined folks, and unbelievably, I've never been to Jack and Dan's or the Bulldog for drinks, but maybe it will have to wait til Francis' 20th, when we can leave kids because they are big kids and don't need babysitters.
We had the best time. It was nice to know so many people. The funniest part to me is to see people become parents when you know what they did in college when they were drunk, and now they are all responsible and stuff. I'm glad we all were happy to see each other. Apparently this was the largest turn out from one class for a reunion ever, so we must be a pretty awesome class. I had a good class in high school, too. Must be something special about the year 1975-76. Something in the water that year.
Time to go unpack. I'll be back to blogging like usual soon.