orange shoes

Hey all!

I am at my Grandma's house for the weekend, and we are having a good time together. Yesterday we went shopping for most of the day. First of all, we went to Wal Mart where I purchased six balls of yarn to make a baby blanket for my Goddaughter, Cecilia. Hopefully it will be done by or before her first birthday.

Then, my grandma wanted to buy me some "boating shoes," so we went to Payless and I got some tennis shoes. BUT... it was their BOGO (buy one get one half off) sale, so she also bought me some orange sandals that I love and have been wearing ever since. They were only $5! Super deal. :)

Today we went to 9am Mass and then we had brunch, which is a big deal where she lives. It was very fancy and everyone was dressed in their Sunday Best. Good food, too.

When I was at Mass, the song sheet said that Thomas Aquinas wrote Mass music for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. I was super excited because I thought that we were going to use that music, which is beautiful, but we didn't. We used some music that someone wrote in 1993. I was a bit dissappointed. But Jesus was still there, so it was ok.

Well, I'd better get back to my knitting! ;)

I'll send a picture of my shoes and the blanket along when I get a chance.

God bless you all! Have a wonderful Memorial day!

hammock

Today I dropped my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins off at the airport and then went to my Grandma's house for the weekend. I am teaching her how to make address labels on the computer, and she is doing a really good job. I also want to teach her how to open attachments on emails so she can see the pictures we send her. So I was going to save a picture onto her computer so I could send it in an email when I found this picture of my Grandfather who died in 2002...

I just thought it was a really neat picture so I decided to show you all.

Tomorrow I get to go to Mass in the morning and then I get to go shopping with my Grandma. (She wants to buy me boating shoes.)

:)

Happy 21st birthday to John Rigsby tomorrow!

God bless you!

midnight gardening

Two days ago I went to spend the night at my cousin Dave and his wife Lara's house. We went to see "Kung Fu Hustle." I thought it was a fairly good movie, aside from all of the violence. But it had a pretty good message. Lara and I were covering our eyes at the same times, though, which I thought was pretty funny!

Today when I woke up my uncle took me out in the sailboat and taught me how to sail! It was a lot of fun! At first I was kind of afraid when gusts of wind tried to tip the boat, but my uncle told me that it wouldn't tip over, so I became less afraid. It was very fun!

After lunch, I called a bunch of restaurants in the area to see if they were hiring waitresses for summer only and then went out to get some applications. I was going to try to work as a CNA, but apparently I have to get my Iowa license transfered over to Virginia. It is not that hard, but I am not sure if I want to be a CNA badly enough to go through all of that.

After dinner, my aunt and I planted some flowers in the backyard! (see above) It was fun to plant in the dark! I am excited to see all fo the flowers grow, but I am most excited about the cucumber and yellow squash that I planted! :) Yay for veggies!

Tomorrow I'll drop my aunt, uncle, and cousins off at the airport because they're going to a wedding in Santa Fe, NM, so I'll spend the weekend with my Grandma.

Have a lovely day! God bless you!

boating jobs

So the past few days have been a bit slower here in Virginia. I spent most of the weekend boating and hanging out with my family. I also went to Wal Mart with my aunt and got some flowers for her garden. I am pretty excited to help her plant them! We also got cucumber and yellow squash plants! I love those vegetables so much! I'm pretty excited about it all!

Yesterday my cousin David came over and we all went boating. Below is a picture of my aunt's dog, Bailey, sitting on my Grandma's lap. It was cute because after we left Baliey got shooed off of Grandma's lap, so she sat on me the whole ride. :)

After boating Dave, Chris, and I played ultimate frisbee. I wasn't super good at throwing the frisbee, so they were trying to teach me. I got a bit better, but not too much. Then we made ham and cheese crepes for dinner. It was pretty fun to help them cook! My Grandma, aunt and I also made a chocolate creme pie, but we left it on the stove when the crepes were in the oven, so the pie was very melty. I had mine drizzled over ice cream. :)

Today I woke up and called the hospital in Fredericksburg whereI had applied, but they said that they were not going to hirepeople just for the summer. So I looked in the paper andsaw a want-ad for CNAs at a long-term care facility. I calledover there and they told me to come over and fill out an application, so I did. The receptionist told me that she wouldgive it to the hiring people and they would call me "very soon,"so we'll have to see what that means.

Then I went to my Grandma's house for dinner to celebratemy Grandpa's birthday. Now I am spending the night at myGrandma's and am going to my aunt's school tomorrow.

AND I GET TO GO TO MASS TOMORROW!!!! I'm so happy about that! ;)

Well, dear and faithful readers, I am going to go talk to Jesus and "hit the hay!" I hope you all sleep well!

God bless you!

un-lethal mowing

So I am having a great time in Virginia. Yesterday I went fishing and sailing with my family, which was a lot of fun. My Grandma kept telling me to put on sunscreen also. At first she told me to put some on my hands and face, then my feet, then my shoulders. So I did, but I got burned on my forearms because I didn't put any sunscreen on there. :)

Then last night we had a memorial dinner for my Grandpa who died August 12, 2002 (the day I left for NET). We made foods that he would have liked to eat, told fun Grandpa stories, and read about his life out of the family geneology. It was very nice. My Aunt said that they do something like this every year around his birthday to celebrate his life. I think my Grandma really appreciates it.

Today I woke up early to go fishing wiht my dad and uncle right off of the dock. When I first got there, my dad caught a 14"-16" large mouth bass named Jake. The above is a picture of my dad pretending that I caught it. I caught three little (3"-6" or so) fish, but nothing this morning. Oh well! But don't worry, we threw Jake back.

For lunch we went to a crab shack called Tim's II. It was really fun. We took the motor boat out there across the river.

Then my dad and Grandma left, starting my summer off with just me and my Aunt (Molly), Uncle (John), and Cousin (Chris).

After that my uncle taught me how to use a riding lawn mower. It was quite possibly one of the funnest things I've ever done in my entire life! :) Now, I've never mowed a lawn in my entire life because my dad was always afraid that I'd run my foot over or kill myself, but neither happened. *Praise God!*

So now I'm off to call the hospital to see if I can get myself a job as a CNA for the summer!

Have a wonderful day!

God bless you all!

how not to get drunk

So today I went to my aunt's school and helped her teach her ESL class. It was so amazing because as soon as I walked into the room all of the students just loved me. (I even had one proposal! But don't expect to get a wedding invitation anytime soon!) The only other time I've walked into a group of young people and felt so loved and accepted was the last time I came to her class four or five years ago. It was amazing and I think it has a great deal to do with their teacher. ;)

We discussed prejudice and went over some essays they had written on the subject. One of the girls wrote something about how prejudice is not just in America but is all over the world. That made me really think so I asked them if they could think about the prejudice in their home countries, even remembering times they discriminated and pre-judged other people. Then I had them reflect upon how they are discriminated against now and how prejudice is so situational and hurtful. It was a good day.

Now I am sitting in my Grandma's living room with my dad, aunt, and Grandma drinking a vodka and tonic with lemon (or cure for malaria, scurvy, and bacterial infections as my dad puts it). I am super greatful that Manuel told me that when you drink alcohol you should sip it so you don't get drunk. (Because if I didn't know that I probably would resort to to chugging like I do with every other kind of drink - e.g. milk, etc.) THAT would not be the best way to start my summer-long visit to Virginia.

Tonight we are all eating dinner in the cafeteria at my Grandma's home and tomorrow I'm going fishing with my dad, uncle, and cousin. Then we're going to have a memorial dinner for my late Grandfather on Wednesday night with all of his favorite foods and his favorite desert!

Have a great day!

in virginia: not dying

So I called the doctor today and he told me that the thyroid, liver, kidney, blood glucose, and blood count tests came out normal as well as the CT scan. So I'm not dying. I just have migranes.

Also I got to Virginia today. But...I am super tired now and will write more tomorrow.

God bless you!

Kat :)

let's hope this cathches on

You have to love is when politicians speak the truth (although he is more than a politician). Read this very interesting article from Renew America and EWTN.

Keyes on abortion and same-sex marriage

In an interview that was broadcast April 26 on the Global Catholic Network (EWTN), Alan Keyes said that abortion and same-sex marriage are natural extensions of society’s widespread acceptance of contraception.

By divorcing marital relations from the possibility of having children, Keyes said, society has spawned an ethic that not only sanctions abortion (because producing children is deemed undesirable and irrelevant to sexual relations), but supports same-sex marriage--which centers in sexual activity without the possibility of procreation.

The more that sexual activity has become deliberately separated from procreation, Keyes observed, “Homosexuals will step forward and say, ‘Well, if marriage is just about pleasure and personal fulfillment and the relationship of the persons involved, we can do that.’”

Same premise, same logic.

Keyes noted that the real cause of such absurdity is that God’s plan for marriage--which, according to scripture, centers in procreation--has been too-often removed from the sexual relationship.

Take the divine purpose from the relationship, he said, and you end up with a rationale that favors same-sex marriage:

“Once we start to turn our backs on the real meaning of sexual relations, we gut the real meaning of marriage. As a result, the institution is destroyed in its very concept, because we have turned our back on God’s plan.”

fire of God, undying flame

Today at Mass, the following was our offeratory hymn. I especially like verse three. If you click on the link, you can hear the music as well.

Fire of God, undying Flame

--1.Fire of God, undying Flame, Spirit who in splendor came,
----let your heat my soul refine, till it glows with love divine.

--2.Breath of God, that swept in power in the Pentecostal hour,
----holy Breath, be now in me source of vital energy.

--3.Strength of God, your might within conquers sorrow, pain and sin.
----Fortify from evil's art all the gateways of my heart.

--4.Truth of God, your piercing rays penetrate my secret ways.
----May the light that shames my sin guide me holier paths to win.

--5.Love of God, your grace profound knows not either age or bound.
----Come, my heart's own guest to be; dwell forevermore in me.

no cape

When I was on NET, we went to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, and I kept seeing billboards like this one:

Be A Superhero!

I thought they were super funny. If you click on the link above you'll see three more of them.

Today the vocations director for my diocese (Diocese of Des Moines) spoke at Mass and told us about his discernment journey and encouraged us to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, both for ourselves and for others. He also handed out cards similar to the ones above that say "Good guys wear black." It reminded me of these bumper stickers, so I decided to show you all.

Have a wonderful day and pray for vocations to serve God's holy Church!

redirected

Today at Mass when I was in line for Communion, there were two 3-year-old twin girls holding hands next to me. They kept looking all around the church and getting distracted and talking to each other and their father. Their dad kept having to redirect their attention to walking straight ahead in the Communion line.

I feel like those little girls. I am so often distracted by the unimportant things in life, and God has to continually redirect my attention to walking towards Him. Seeing the father's gentleness, however, reassured me of the Father's tender compassion for me. I know I shall never be abandoned to wander off on my own, but He will keep pointing me back to the true goal.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12: 1-2

have to get me one of these

So I just went to the grocery store to fill my prescription and I was definately shocked. The pharmacist handed me a really fat prescription bottle and I was thinking Great! I get migranes almost every day, or at least once a week, so there should be a lot of pills in there since they're super little.

Yeah...so it definately had SIX individually wrapped pills in it. And the best part? It cost $100.72! :-/ Hence my need for this little guy:

Large Funny Money Bank

Actually, it isn't that bad, and God bless our health insurance, because I only had to pay $15 for it and the insurance covered the rest. But Jesus help whoever doesn't have health insurance and suffers from chronic migranes.

God bless America! Oye!

now that's love

My mom and dad just left in my dad's 1953 XK120 Jaguar to go on a garage tour with their British car club. When my mom went to get in the car I saw that she was carrying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with her. (Let's just think for a moment about how messy those kinds of sandwiches can be.) I saw an apprehensive look on my dad's face, but he didn't say anything. He loves her more than he loves the car! :)

The above is a picture of my neighbor's father in my dad's car.

When I saw that, I thought, Now that's love.

beautiful morning

I went to Confession this morning at St. Theresa's and went into their little Eucharistic chapel behind the altar to do my penanace. I had never actually been back there since they remodeled it, and it was so beautiful! It was very simple and peaceful. Then I was outside and saw a little grotto with a statue of the Holy Family and realized that there are so many beautiful little corners in churches, we just seem to be too busy to appreciate them most of the time.

On my way home I drove by my friend Angel's house and saw her and her boyfriend Greg carrying Angel's college stuff inside. So I parked on the street and ran up and sat in the back of the van to surprize them when they came back outside. It was fun. :)

I also got to meet Lampshade, Angel's rat who can do tricks. :)

And last night I went to the Mahler's house with Dana and we hung out with Paul and his family until we were all too tired to stay up anymore.

Now I'm off to the store to get my prescription filled!

Have a lovely day!

God bless you all!

extremely uneventful

Today I had to get a CT scan because I've been experiencing chronic migranes for several years now. I went to the doctor thinking that I may have allergies or something as the headaches are much worse/frequent in the summer, but instead I got a prescription to Maxalt, some blood work, and an appointment for a CT scan.

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CT Scan

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So I went down to the hospital for my appointment. I was kind of really excited to get the dye injected into me (I've never had an IV before) and then to see all of the equiptment that was going to be used for the proceedure as I really had no idea what a CT scan was like. But when I got there, the CT technition told me that she would not be injecting the dye, even though my doctor ordered it, and the entire proceedure took less than five minutes with no explaination of anything.

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Needless to say, I was dissappointed.

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I was actually pretty upset by it, but then Jesus helped calm me down in Adoration (as usual), so I am alright now.

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Oh yes, by the way...there is probably no need to worry about the fact that I had a CT scan as it was just done to rule out the possibility of brain cancer. (Just like the blood work was done to rule out the possibility of other things like fatigue, anemia, diabetes, etc.)

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So once again, I'm probably not going to die. :)

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martyrdom

Wednesday night I had a dream that I was in a dark building with some people and that if I stood in front of a window I was going to be shot. Somehow in my dream I knew that I was supposed to be a martyr and that this was how God wanted me to go. Yet I was so afraid of the pain of being shot that I refused to let it happen to me.

Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence

It made me sad to realize that I wanted more to avoid pain than to become a martyr for God. I want to be able to love God so much that I would gladly die for him. After all, this is what Jesus did for us. He loved us more than He wanted to avoid pain. And love is painful - if we look at the Cross - sometimes we have to sacrifice ourselves, our will, our desires for those we love.

Yet there still seems to be so much to loose.

But there is so much to gain.

smart women

I saw this picture and it made me super happy. It makes me so sad when women (as well as men) gripe and complain about how they want women's ordination and how they are dissapointed in the election of Pope Benedict XVI because he will not even consider "options" like this.

Very Smart Women

God bless America and all defenders of the Truth!

constructive criticism

Today during his homily, Fr. Emmanuel was talking about how Paul, in today's first reading, was being persecuted for doing what was right and how the world is full of darkness. This darkness is also in each one of us because of our tendancy to sin, and when someone shines light into the darkness, we often feel exposed and humiliated, so we may try to stop the light.

He spoke of how we are so bad at taking constructive criticism, even though we know the other is right and that we do need to change.

Change, after all, can be very frightening. It seems much more comfortable to sit in sin, participating in the defliement of our souls than to come into the light and be cleansed.

Well, this spoke to my heart, because Manuel and I were having a conversation very similar to this yesterday. And I know that I really stink at admiting when I am wrong. Blaming others - anyone but myself - seems much easier than admiting that I am wrong and imperfect.

It's funny how God works.

Lord, please humble be to be able to accept that I am not always right. Help me to realize that the criticism of others touches me so strongly because I need to change. Give me the grace to follow You to perfection more and more every day.

Accept whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient; For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation. Sirach 2: 4-5

locks of love

So Manuel and I look a bit different now. We both just got our hair cut for locks of love on Tuesday...see below....

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Manuel cut 13" off and I cut off 12"! It was super funny to see Manuel looking so horrified the whole time that they were cutting my hair only to realize that it was not terrible at the end. :) And he especially looked frightened when they cut his hair!

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God bless whoever gets our hair! Help him/her to get better soon!

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short and skinny

Today I was checking my email and a couple of links to articles caught my attention. One was called Am I too short to date women? and the other was called Is my guy too skinny? Of course I wanted to read them as I seem to have a trend for dating skinny, sometimes short guys. (See photo below of one of my best friends Paul and I when we were dating in high school. Just ignore the fact that we're matching. It was not intentional.)

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So I read the articles and they kinda made me laugh. The first one actually was kind of sad because this 5'4" guy said, "I’m a great catch: I’m thirtysomething, I make a six-figure income, I’m well-educated, outgoing, and have a wide range of interests." I love how after his age he put his income. And while all of this has to do with him, it doesn't really tell us too much about who he is. But this is what the world thinks is important.

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In the second article, a woman was saying that her friend who wants to date her is too short (when she has heels on) and too skinny for her.

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Basically, both of the people who replied to them said "looks aren't everything," although the woman from the second article basically yelled at the girl and told her she was being selfish, superficial, and stupid not to date a guy just because he's skinny.

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So while it is important to find the person you are dating attractive, it is not the most important part by any means. Take a look at the above photo again...if I had not wanted to date Paul because he was skinnier than me or shorter than me (at least the same height, but probably shorter), I would not have gotten to know him as well as I did and we would not be good friends now. He's a really great guy and I'm grateful for the time I spent getting to know him in high school. Again, looks aren't everything. But don't take my word for it...

Let's see what our good friend Karol Wojtyla has to say about this in Love and Responsibility.

In the section called "Love as Attraction," Wojtyla writes mostly of attraction to the person's soul, not to qualities about them. But he also mentions physical attraction...

"The appreciation of beauty goes together with the appreciation of values, as though there was in each of them a 'supplementary' aesthetic value... Beauty finds its prober place in the context of attraction... We should, however, recall here that a human being is a person, a being whose nature is determined by his or her 'inwardness'. It is therefore necessary to discover and to be attracted by the inner as well as the outer beauty, and perhaps indeed to be more attracted by the former than by the latter... This attraction on which this love is based must originate not just in a reaction to visible and physical beauty, but also in a full and deep appreciation of the beauty of the person." (pp. 79-80, emphasis added.)

So there you have it, straight from the mouth of our beloved Pope John Paul II (when he was still Auxiliary Bishop of Cracow)...looks aren't everything.

silly family

I found this picture of my family when I was a baby and thought it was super funny. We all look weird...or at least the women do! :) It's so amazing how people start out as little babies and then grow up into adults. I wonder if my parents had any idea what I was going to look like, because I sure don't think that baby me looks too much like adult me.

But I'm very grateful for my family and for being able to grow up in such a happy environment.

Jesus, please bless each one of my family members today and always. May we love you more and more with every breath.