Blessed

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The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.

Pablo Casals

Sunday's

After posting the picture yesterday of whether I may or may not have been using the Luggable Loo, I figured it wasn't the opportune time to talk about my Sunday.

Sunday, the day we are supposed to rest .

Sunday, the day I would have to leave my Grandparents house when I was little.

Sunday, the day I get to pick up Kyle from his Dad.

Sunday, the day T would have to leave my College and head to his.

Sunday, the day when you prepare for the upcoming week.

It seems like Sunday's have always been full of weird emotions for me, ever since I can remember. Some great emotions and some not so good. And it's like I start to feel the emotions of Sunday on Saturday evening. It's like the day is shorter somehow too. I always think of Saturday as a full day and Sunday seems like half of one since you have to go to work the next day.

I have been having different feelings about Sundays lately.

I have also been visiting a new church.

Gulp

That was hard to write.

I bet that's even harder for my Grandmother to read.

And I have really enjoyed it. And so has T.

I have been Catholic all my life. There are many things I love about the Church. I love the history, the tradition, the beauty, the smell of burning incense, and the beautiful Christmas Masses we celebrate every year.

My grandparents worked hard so that I could attend a Catholic High School and I was a sophomore before I made my first confession. My children are Baptized in the Catholic faith, and I married in the Catholic Church.

I have many wonderful memories of the Catholic Church, and while I'm not sure where visiting this new Church will take me, I know this for certain.

My love for Jesus has gotten stronger but my growth and understanding of him is not.

I don't in any way want this post to seem as a bashing to the Catholic Church. I am still on my quest to finding a church that's right for me and my family and if that leads me back into another Catholic Church then that is fine with me. I take great pride and joy in all my years attending our Catholic Church, and all the traditions that have become part of our family. There is great beauty in receiving Holy Communion and participating in a Mass.

However, for the past year or so I have felt a change and pulling of my heart to explore other Church's to see what they can offer as far as my spiritual growth. As much as I talked about wanting to do it, I was nervous. The Catholic Church is all I've known. How can I walk into a new church full of strangers and participate in a service to which I have no understanding of? Where am I going to sit? What is the music like?

Easter arrived. What a perfect opportunity to try something new. Lot's of people will visit other church's at Easter. No one will ever know we are strangers?! No one except for the twenty six people from my work that attend regularly!

So we do as all new-comers do at any Church. We head for the back. WAIT! That's too obvious. Lets sit 3/4 of the way back. That will fool them. No one will know we are here.

Oh Look there's Karen! Hey Lori! Look, there's the Pastor's wife Beth, I've met a few times! What's going on, Jim? You want us to sit closer, Karen? Where do you sit? Way up there? Nah, we're okay here but thank you.

We were spotted. Like a thief in the night.

Now we meet and greet? No problem. The people here are very friendly. Okay we are back to our seats. Who is rocking out on the drums? Drums? In church?!

Awesome.

We were totally relaxed. We clapped. We sang. I now know the meaning of Praising Jesus. We did it. I did it. We listened to the Pastor. I caught myself nodding my head in agreement and understanding. I am understanding this?

You betcha.

It was time to go. More praising, more fellowship, more worshiping. All words I never fully comprehended until now.

And now I'm excited. I'm excited because I know that there will never be a perfect Church, but I know that you don't have to remain at one where you are not spiritually growing. I have no idea, if this is the Church where God wants us to become committed, but I do know that he calls each of us to be accountable and committed somewhere.

For now, I am happy. I have enjoyed myself the last few weeks and so has my family.
I am confident that God is leading me to great things and he has helped me step out of my comfort zone and into a place where people are overcome with joy to be sharing in Gods Love.

And they rock out on drums.

God is showing me that Sundays are all of the things I mentioned above. They are a time for rest. They are a day to anticipate the upcoming week. And, they will always be connected to me through various emotions.

More importantly, it is the day to Worship.

To give thanks to a gracious God from an undeserving sinner. Saved by the death of his Son Jesus.

Luggable Who?

Last weekend was probably the funnest weekend I've had in a long time. Friday through today's (Tuesday) weather has been sunny and in the high 80's-low 90's so there was plenty of time to be spent outside enjoying life.

Friday we cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill and prepped for our action packed Saturday.

Saturday, Lissy and I headed to some Yard Sales while T and Kyle got ready for Kyle's Soccer game.

The whole family came to cheer Kyle on! Katie and Landon came down with my Niece Amber. My grandparents were there, as well as T's Mom Lori! You guys have no idea how much it meant to him (and us) that you came.



After the game, we realized we had a few hours before heading to a birthday party so, remember that Pontoon Boat I talked about?
The day had finally arrived for us to test drive our new boat!

What a glorious day it was!

Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of my hubby to post! I guess that's what happens when you're too busy having fun and other people have to worry about less important things like driving boats safely across the Potomac River.

So I guess you are wondering what we did when we had to, ahem, go? Did I end up purchasing one of these? Did we just hold it?

Why of course not! We used a Luggable Loo!

The big question is, would I actually be brave enough to post a picture of me using the Luggable Loo?

I can neither confirm or deny.

But I can leave you a picture for you to decide, if you choose, if I would or would not be brave enough to actually post a picture of me using a Luggable Loo.

I think I'll talk about my Sunday on another post since this one has obviously gone down the toilet.

Resurrection

I get goosebumps every time I hear it. And I've listened to it a lot.

Her son died of SIDS when he was 3 months old.

I'm sure this song means a lot more to her now then it did before Luke died.

It sure means a lot to me.

I hope it touches you.

Fun with a little bit of cuteness

T said that I officially became a "Soccer Mom" this weekend, and I think he's right. Although, as condescending as that term has become, I really enjoyed and embraced my new role watching Kyle play his first soccer game this weekend. I said a few posts back, I wasn't sure if Kyle really understood the concept of soccer, but it really doesn't matter. As I went through my pictures from the weekend, I realized that Kyle was smiling in almost every single picture. He is really having fun and he has made new friends and that really is the point, isn't it?

Take a look.


Is that where I kick it coach?


I got it! I got it!


Hey, in 15 more minutes we can go to McDonald's okay?


Is that Optimus Prime?


I'll take this, thank you.


Everybody now, Y M C A!

I can't believe I am at this point in my life with Kyle. It is going by way too fast. I can remember rocking him when he was an infant dreaming of the day I would be able to get to do all these fun things with him, and the time is really here. This year is going to be so heartbreaking exciting for us! First it's team sports, then it's Kindergarten. The next thing I know, I will be labeling his towels and underwear before sending him off to College.

And what exactly was Alyssa doing during the game you ask?

Well being cute, of course!

Speaking of cute, you will never believe what I said to the nice lady at the Health Fair that we attended before the game!

Nice Lady: Aw, she looks just like you!

Me: Thank you!

Me: I mean, not thank you, but yeah she does look like me. I'm sorry I thought you said she was, er, nevermind.

Bit conceded eh?

How embarrassing.

Reunited

Have I mentioned that I love Coke Zero's? Well since the Lenten season ended Easter Sunday, I have been able to resume my daily consumption of Coke Zero's.

Being reunited with my Coke Zero was probably something similar to a contestant on the Biggest Loser getting kicked off the ranch and heading straight for the McDonald's drive through.

Anybody singing "Reunited and it Feels so Good" by Peaches and Herb?

Anybody?

And now I feel bad for typing that because I really like the Biggest Loser and I watch it EVERY week. I also like the contestants and I feel like there's nothing wrong with eating McDonald's in moderation.

Or whenever you want.

And speaking of Biggest Loser, T and I watched last night and I wanted to share some of the conversation we had regarding the "makeovers" the contestants received. If you have never watched the show, it's basically a reward for the contestants making it this long on the show and a way for them to see how much weight they have lost while sporting pretty clothes and new hair styles. We had just watched Helen walk down these grand ballroom stairs looking all fancy, and being reunited with her husband whom she hasn't seen since losing 88 lbs.

Me: "Aw, that's really sweet that he's crying and giving her lots of kisses."

T: (laughing)"Yeah, it must be nice to drop your old fat wife off at the ranch and come back to a nice new skinny one."

Me: (not laughing)"I meant it's sweet that he loves her so much and he's proud of her."

T: "Yeah, that's what I meant to."


I blogged yesterday about the fun Easter weekend we had with our families, and when we finally came home to clothes laying all over the living room, hair rollers in the kitchen, Easter baskets in disarray, only one thing was for certain. We realized we were going to have to fire the maid.

And then I realized that was me.

So instead of starting on the massive pile of Laundry that has taken over our household, I took a picture of it.

I blogged about it.


And then I laid on the couch.


Being reunited with this pile of laundry does not feel so good.

Easter

We had such a lovely Easter weekend filled with lots of family togetherness from all sides of the family. We spent Friday night at Pancho Villas hanging with the Grandpaw/Janet/Shelia/Amber Weedon's and before dinner, Kay Kay and Landon came for a little visit.

I-LOVE-THIS-KID

My kids were all over this kid. As much as I love this little guy, and as much as my ovaries hurt a little when he's around, this weekend definitely confirmed the fact that T and I are finished having children.



Maybe

Ahem

Saturday morning, Kyle headed to his other set of grandparents for the rest of the weekend, and Alyssa and I headed to a baby shower. That evening, Grandma, Tab, Kay Kay, Landon and us Weedon's went to Robertsons for dinner. Which was nice, except that Robertsons was closed.

Possibly for good.

So we headed next door to Billy's where the steamer was broken so we couldn't get crabs or king crab legs.

But they had beer so all wasn't lost after all.

Sunday we found our way to Nan and Pops after church where we got to spend time with the Nan/Pop/Maw/Frank/Jaime/Leo/Lisa/Josh Peter's. We had a delicious lunch and hid Easter eggs!

Here are some of our Easter highlights!









Alyssa is a little fuzzy in this picture but I still think it's a sweet shot of her and her Daddy.

And just to add a little comic relief, I just want to share this picture properly titled, "I told you so."

Can you hear me now?

I found this on another bloggers website and it had me very curious. This blogger couldn't hear it and I'm assuming she is over 25. So I decided to try it to see if it was a hoax or something, like maybe there really is no sound, but I really can hear it. And I'm over 25. So give this a whirl and leave me a comment letting me know if you can hear it or not.

And don't LIE

Created by Train Horns

Williamsburg

This past weekend we sent the kids to their respective places and T and I headed to Williamsburg. It was very relaxing weekend filled with shopping and lots of sight seeing.

The weather was beautiful so we grabbed some Starbucks and sat at a bench across from the William and Mary Bookstore. As cheesy as this sounds, I could have set at this bench with T for hours.

This picture makes me laugh because I think of stress (kids, work, life) as making you feel "shackled down" sometimes and this truly represents us. We may be shackled, but we're shackled together.
I love you honey and I'm so thankful we were able to get away for a few days. We are so grateful to my Mom and Jaime for watching Lissy for us. I know Lissy had a great time because she was still wrapped in her towel from getting out of the bath and she fell asleep while I was picking out her pajamas!

I'm only sorry we didn't get to spend more time with Kay Kay and Nick. Those young bucks were living it up at Busch Gardens while T and I were sight seeing. We did meet up for dinner and headed back to their place to hang out for a while, but by 10pm were were SO TIRED that we decided to take our geriatric butts back home for some sleep!

And maybe for our next weekend getaway we can play all day at the local BINGO hall before comming home to clean our dentures.