Looking for Ghosts and Goblins...

p.s. Stay tuned for Halloween pics!

My heaven foods wish-list

Last year we bought some coupons from a fundraising door-to-door boy scout. Among them was an unlimited 'buy one blizzard, get one for 99 cents' DQ coupon good for a whole year. Genius. Naturally, we used it several times and got the largest possible size so that the $.99 one could also be ludicrously huge. Occasionally we even shared a few spoonfuls with the kids. Whenever I'd sink my teeth into that first bite of cookie dough w/M&M's blizzard, the Hallelujah chorus of Handel's Messiah burst forth from heaven. As I'd make my way through the deliciousness, I'd inevitably start philosophizing about the next life. How are souls in heaven truly happy without blizzards? Perhaps it's sacrilegious of me to even ponder this, but so be it. One of the orthodox Christian doctrines is that we'll be re-unified with our bodies at the end of time. There must be a reason for this - we were made to be both matter and spirit. The consensus seems to be that we'll be perfectly happy in heaven, but until we get our bodies back, will we ever think about the pleasures we enjoyed while in our corporal state? I've decided that if we do repine for our bodies, it must be in the happy way a child waits for Christmas day - the whole 'anticipation is half the fun' idea. This is sort of consoling.
I've been keeping track of a few succulent requirements that God in his goodness will surely supply me with, if heaven is all it's cracked up to be. Here, in no particular order, are a few of the foods I'd like to enjoy with my eternal taste buds.

• Leeann Chin Peking chicken and cheese puffs
• Mountain Dew
• M&M's and many other candies and chocolates, too numerous to count
• Pepperoni Pizza, preferably from B&B, Pizza Man, or Papa Murphy's
• French toast
• cookie dough w/Oreo or M&M's Blizzards or Concrete
• chocolate cake
• cheesecake
• pumpkin pie
• Cinnabons
• Godfather's dessert pizza
• Abdallah dark chocolates

There are others that I can't think of now. Maybe I'll add some in later. You may notice the lack of fruits and vegetables on my list, and that's because I only grudgingly eat anything remotely healthy. And although I'm pretty sure it won't be a concern there, I'd like to make note that for my heavenly dental hygiene I'll require regular Colgate, due to it's superior taste.

Little Piggy Destruct-o Boy

Here we will observe Zach, the savage ravenously hungry beast, house ripper-upper and terror of the cul-de-sac in his natural habitat during the 3rd week of October, 2008.

Our 1st YouTube video!

And possibly the last. 'Little Princess Bride on the Prairie' was directed by yours truly. Once again, Nate did all the behind-the-scenes work.

Hanging on my fridge...

...is this joke I cut out of a Reader's Digest a few years ago. I enjoyed it so much that I even 'laminated' it with packaging tape. I tried to scan it, but it's too small and hard to read. My lack of techno skills betrays me again.

"I promise. That bird is so well behaved, you can

take it anywhere," the pet-store owner assured

the woman. Delighted, she took her

parrot to church. Things were great until, halfway

through the sermon, the bird blurted, "It's damn

cold in here!" Embarrassed, the woman ran out

and went to the pet store. "This 'good bird'

swore in church today," she told the shop owner.

"I'm sorry. It sometimes does that in new

environments," he explained. "Next time,

grab its feet and swing it over your head a few times.

That should stop it." The next week the

woman and her parrot were in church when the

bird yelled, "It's damn cold in here!"

Quickly, the woman grabbed the bird and

swung it above her head six times. Then she put

the bird back on her shoulder and sat down.

"Damn," the bird said. "It's windy too."

Home Video Clips

Here are a couple clips from some recent home movies. A thank you to my hubby for handling the behind-the-scenes technogadgetry work so I could upload these (upload is the right word, no?).

The theme for these clips is the Psalmist's verse, 133:1 - "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers (and sisters) dwell together in unity!"

You may need to crank up the volume to hear my kids' sophisticated exchanges.

I am Mary and I approved this message.

Big Bro takes a Wife

My brother Andrew wed his lovely fiancee Monica yesterday (9/27) in an outdoor ceremony in Maple Grove. The weather was cool and the sky overcast but no rain fell, and everyone enjoyed the reception at the park. It was great to catch up with some friends and family that we've not seen in a while. And since my parents didn't provide me with a sister, this alliance pumps some much needed estrogen into my side of the family.

Congrats to the happy couple!

My baby is one!

We just celebrated Zachary's first birthday! He turned one on Saturday, September 20. Gentle readers (both of you), I suspect you will soon get used to my lamenting the speed of my children's growth and the frantic pace of time. Nowhere is the transformation that time brings more evident than within the first year of a child's life. Zach loves to crawl up the stairs when mommy's not looking. He eats like a little pig, just like his brothers and sister. They love to love on him. He tests the limits of our ear drums with piercing happy squeals. There's nothing like the magic of a new baby - a fresh whole new person who didn't exist before and will never be duplicated. Every curve of his face must be studied, every coo and goo marvelled at. And the magic continues, with every smile and milestone and big baby belch. We love you Zachy!

Phalange photo shoot

I offended some toes on my left foot last Friday when I whacked them into one of the baby gates at top speed. When the pain finally started to subside, it occurred to me that through my new blog I could force the world to share in this small tragedy. I rejoiced. Then, sadly, I could not properly capture the extent of the bruising with my camera. I despaired. But I decided to post the best one of the bad photos of my toes anyway. And I learned my lesson. I won't run around the house like a maniac without steel-toed boots.

A squandered week

The weather has been beautiful this week, but we haven't been out to enjoy it because of too much busyness. On Tuesday we kicked off a sacrament preparation period for Adrienne with a meeting at church. She will have her first reconciliation in late November and first holy communion in the spring. Though reception of these sacraments will be reason to celebrate, parents are expected to attend too many explanatory meetings in the meantime . In my not at all humble opinion on this subject, this is due to the wretched catechesis lay Catholics have received over the past several decades. Annoying though these meetings may be, I'm glad our parish is concerned enough to take the time to re-educate its members, and hopefully there will be fewer ignorant Catholics in the pews. Do I sound a little bitter? Alas, I am.
Switching gears - yesterday Adrienne had 3 teeth pulled at the dentist, poor kid. Her teeth are too crowded and the permanent ones are coming in a little wonky. I'm sure we'll be regulars at the orthodontist in a few years. The tooth fairy had pity on her and left her $5 instead of a quarter. Nicky also had an appointment yesterday - he'd been having eye pain and apparently has a small abrasion on his cornea. Some ointment 3x a day for 5 days should help it heal. Goodness, what kids won't do for a little attention! He is looking forward to a field trip to the apple orchard during preschool today, though mom and dad are still trying to figure out why it costs eight bucks to go. I have mentioned in a previous entry the &$#@ amount of homework my kids get assigned every night. *begin vent* This is a major time killer. I really think their teachers underestimate how long it takes to do. Michael typically has homework in multiple subjects - read 20 mins, write 20 minutes, study spelling, math worksheet, Word-A-Day (takes him forever to look up the word!) weekend geography homework etc., and he needs supervision to stay on task. It seems too close to the late high school/college model of instruction at school, and then do all the homework on your own time. The system needs an overhaul. Argh...I shouldn't even go there, as homework could be it's own blog entry. I'll leave it at that and try to think of something more positive to share next time. *end vent*