December 31, 1999, the eve of Y2K. I was at a party in Columbus, Ohio having the time of my life (or so I thought). The clock struck midnight, champaign was opened, hugs and kisses were exchanged and  the Y2K scare was found to be, well,  unfounded. Our checking accounts were safe, our electricity was still on, gas pumps still worked, all was right with the world.

I thought I had the world by the tail. I had a great job, a nice car, a wonderful  boyfriend and no rent because I still lived at home. Little did I know, most of that would be  gone by the end of the year.  My heart was broken first. From that heartbreak came a desire to just start a new, so I quit my job and moved to Columbus.  I still had my nice car though and I loaded it up with my few things and drove south. I found a job and lived with a friend and her husband for the first few months. By the time January 2001 rolling in, I had tried out 4 other jobs and moved in to a cute two bedroom apartment with a roommate in a great little area in Columbus.

The biggest event of 2000 has not been mentioned yet. That would be the opening of my heart to the callings of our dear Father in Heaven. Shortly after I moved to Columbus, I found my way back to the Church through the grace of God and have been back ever since. Praise God!

December 31, 2000, the ringing in of another new year. This was also celebrated with friends and  drinks in the same location as the prior year. While I was going to church, I thought it was still okay to get stupid drunk and totally crazy. I had so much more to learn back then. Continuing on, 2001 brought a more steady job for me and a deeper growth in my faith. I was also blessed with meeting other young Catholics who were trying to live their faith. I am able to call most of the people I met then, friends and am truly thankful for that.

December 31, 2001, would it be odd if I don’t remember that day? I either babysat or was kissed at midnight by someone who made me want to barf.  2002 was a year that I continued growing in my faith. That fall I started attending RCIA classes (A wonderful CCC based class by Fr. Stephen-Dominic Hayes) to prepare for the sacrament of Confirmation. It was over all a good year, I don’t think I could complain a lick!

December 31, 2002, either was babysitting or was kissed by a someone who made me want to barf. Leaning towards babysitting. 2003 was a year that ended in a way that I would have never guessed. February was amazing as I began to truly discern my vocation. I told the “wonderful boyfriend” whom I had been on and off with this entire time to take a hike. While it was very hard to do then, it was the opening of a beautiful new chapter in my life, and the letting go totally of the previous life. In February, I also became acquainted with Brother Joshua of the Fathers of Mercy.

The spring time found me contacting and visiting various religious orders. I also took a trip out west with my friend Jon. (Friends only!) We went to Arizona and rented a car, drove to San Diego then crossed the boarder to Mexico on a bus for 3 hours. The next day we drove up the coast of California to Los Angeles, then back to Phoenix. What a great time and a great memory.

The summer found me working and wondering what my calling in life was! I took a visit to an order of sisters in New England and there I heard the answer I was seeking. I wasn’t called to be a religious sister, I was to be a wife and mother. God blessed with the answer to “who” with Joshua just a few weeks later. Deo Gratias. So by the end of 2003, I was living in Indiana and planning a wedding!

December 31, 2003, celebrated with Joshua at the house on Beaumont.  We were supposed to go to something at the Church but I had a bit of breakdown and just couldn’t handle being around other people. I have since sorted that out and kick myself for getting so freaked out that day! 2004 found us planning our wedding and planning our life together. I found a nice job and we were blessed with a nice place to live after we were married. On October 4, we were united before God in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

December 31, 2004, Mass at St. Boniface at Midnight with a little party after. We celebrated by singing songs and serenading Fr. Tim from the sidewalk below his window at the rectory. One of the nicest New Year’s I have ever had. 2005 brought us sorrows and joy. We lost our first child through miscarriage. Our sorrow gave way to joy when we found out I was expecting again! We spent most of the year preparing for our little one. Of course, he gave us a few extra days to prepare for him, not arriving until after the first of the year….

December 31, 2005, I just wanted to go in to labor. I can’t even recall what we did, I just know I was huge and pregnant and ready to go! Come out baby!! 2006 came in with me still pregnant and we were blessed with a healthy and happy homebirth on January 3. We spent a good part of 2006 watching our son grow while I grew another little baby. This was also the year of the 7 weddings. SEVEN! It was a great time to visit with family and friends though and to show off our little guy.

December 31, 2006, my my my, my memory is kinda wonky. Where was I? What did we do? We were awaiting word to see if we would be moving for a job in Illinois. 2007 was the year of the big move. We did get that job in Illinois and headed north on February with a one year old and a six week old baby girl. We spent the year working with at risk teens and pretty much enjoyed our jobs. We also watched our little ones grow and learn new things. We bravely took them on an airplane to Reno for a conference and survived.

December 31, 2007 was celebrated in Illinois, probably watching a movie or something in our quarters. 2008 was a year  of lots of changes for us. We found out that we were expecting a new little Facekid and were thrilled to death! We also decided that it was our time to move on from our job Illinois. We prayed and searched and prayed and searched and tada, we ended up back in Ohio. In December, we welcomed our next little girl!

December 31, 2008 was celebrated in front of the Blessed Sacrament at St. Mary Parish with friends. My inlaws were in town and had the older two kids and we had the baby. After our Holy Hour, we went back to our tiny apartment and celebrated with a bit of wine and food. 2009 brought another change, a change of address.  We bought a house just a block over from our apartment and set to work on fixing things up. We put a new roof on, got a new hot water tank, new windows, new doors, new locks, the list seems endless! It was a good year indeed!

December 31, 2009, sitting here watching X-Files with my wonderful husband. I am thankful for all that God had allowed us to have in spite of our wretchedness. Looking back on the decade, I have realized how far I have come by the Grace of God and I am looking forward to seeing where he leads us in the future!

Happy New Year’s and Happy Feast of the Mother of God!

As our tradition, we don’t decorate the tree until Christmas Eve. Yesterday afternoon, we ate an early dinner then started decorating the tree. Karol had so much fun, he was such a joy to watch. This is the first year that he really gets what is going on.  When we were done, we let the kids lay on the floor in the dining room and take naps there, looking at the lights.

After naps were over, we got ready for Mass at Holy Family in Columbus.  I was very thankful we decided to go there this year for a few reasons but I will only share one here. They use the St. Michael Hymnal. When we sang to opening hymn, I thought at St. Boniface, right now, they are probably singing the same hymns. I am very thankful for those wonderful people who put together the hymnal! Thank you Fr. Lutz for purchasing it for your parish!

The wee ones were pretty well behaved at the Mass and while I stood in the back with our baby chatterbox, I cannot complain. The Mass offered last night was the Extraordinary Form and wonderful. We headed back home after mass, around 145 am. When we got home, we ate cookies and drank milk. C seemed confused about what was going on. Of course she didn’t complain, she just stuffed cookies in her mouth. She was so tired, she would burst in to tears, then would see a cookie in her hand and away the tears went, until she forgot about the cookie in her hand again. We laughed at her for a few minutes then realized we were mean, so we all headed up to bed at 330.

The kids slept until 9 this morning. Joshua was up before all of us and put breakfast in the oven then let me sleep until almost 10. I am sure you wonder, what about presents. Well, we wait until the Epiphany for gifts to be given and opened. Today is spent eating and playing together as a family and eating some more. I see that the two older kids just cleared off a plate of cookies. Now they are in their sugar comas and watching a movie.

Merry Christmas to you all!

This was on Wednesday. C started crawling in to a cubbyhole so we stuck the rest of them in for a nice picture. Of course, this was the day after we ordered the pictures for our Christmas cards.

Karol was so very excited about putting decorations on the tree.

Karol holding an ornament. He loved this picture, so I had to put it in!

The finished tree. I was playing with camera settings and came up with this!

Before we left for Midnight Mass we had the kids pose in front of the tree. This was probably the best of the five I took, C just looks like she would rather be anywhere but here.

K and M begged to sing this song. I had to post it for you all. Yes, chaos reigns at our house and this video is just more proof of that.

Happy Advent

Edited to add more:

From the CNA:

Vatican City, Dec 19, 2009 / 12:12 pm (CNA).- In a recent round of authorizations by Benedict XVI on Saturday, Pope Pius XII was proclaimed as having displayed exemplary and “heroic virtue” in his life. The Holy Father’s decision to move ahead with the declaration rebuffs claims that Pius XII did nothing to help the Jews during World War II.  He now needs two miracles to be officially attributed to him to become a saint.

Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli, is most remembered for being the Pontiff during World War II.  While some say he did little to protest the deportation of Jews and the Holocaust, written records and witnesses tell another story.  They testify to his actions in defense of the Jews.  Accounts of his intervention to save 4,000 Jews from a ghetto in Rome and place them in convents and Catholic schools refute claims of his passiveness.

In May of 2009, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, former president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, a seminarian during the War, said that he couldn’t remember anyone saying anything but good things about the Pope during that time.  No one, he said, would have described the Pope’s reaction as “silent,” as would be said of him later.

In an article published in L’Osservatore Romano on May 28, 2008, Cardinal Ruini wrote, “it was obvious, in the atmosphere and ecclesial praxis of the time,” that if many “priests and religious communities, and the Vatican itself, had taken in and saved many persecuted Jews  … it could not have been done without the encouragement and consent of the Pope.”

Ruini called the claims of inaction nothing more than a “black legend.”

Today’s declaration on Pius XII was not the only news-making announcement.

Pope Benedict XVI also declared Pope John Paul II and eight others as having lived lives of “heroic virtue.” With the signature of the Pope and the support of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, they have all taken another step towards sainthood.

My mom made it back last night safe and sound. When she got home, she found me on the couch with K and M by me. K was running a fever and M was just laying there. My mom sent me to bed and said she would wake me up if one of the kids needed me. About an hour later, she woke me up to tell me K was running a fever. Bah!  She stripped him and put a teeshirt on him and gave him son medicine and put him in bed with me. He slept there very nicely after that. When I woke up in the morning, she said M didn’t go to bed until 230! Ah, crazy travel and crazy things it does to the body clock. M ended up sleeping on grandpa’s chair until about 9 this morning. Grandpa’s chair is in the living room, the room everyone has to go through multiple times while getting ready for school and work. M slept through all of that!

The car was ready at 834 this morning. I got the kids ready and packed our stuff then my dad drove me up to the repair shop and I picked up the car. By 1115, I was gassed up and heading home, with the kids, of course.

The drive home was pretty uneventful. I planned on stopping to get lunch for us and the BK Lounge sounded pretty good. I have a rule that we either stop before getting on to 696 or we stop in Monroe. No stops in between. I ended up taking a detoured way to find one, but we did!  I probably should have waited, BK in MI is more expensive than it is south of the border. AND my Whopper Jr was pitiful, really pitiful. It was not filling either. Blah. Oh well, we are supposed to be meatless during Advent, so I shouldn’t complain.

The traffic wasn’t too bad on the way back, just lots of wind. In Ohio, there were lots of trucks, so I decided to take a back road home and found the drive quite pleasant.It was during that part that Karol insisted that we go camping. He even went so far as to tell me “I will talk to Papa about this when we get home”. Cute kid.

We got home, put things away, did some laundry, started bread for tomorrow then started getting achy. Urg. I am probably getting sick and not thrilled about it. After dinner, I showered and smeared on the Vicks Vapo-rub. I smell great

Now we are probably going to watch a show and I will hopefully fall in to peaceful slumber here on the couch.

I am writing from the back room at the Martin Homestead. I have a quiet house with just the sound of at Nickelodeon show in the back ground. The kids are watching a lame-o show that Karol is protesting. I just put on NCIS and that is being met with tremendous revolt. So now, Cartoon Network is on.

My kids have NO idea how to watch regular TV. At home, the few shows they watch are “on demand”. That means, they demand and I put on. K doesn’t realize that he isn’t able to just watch “George” anytime he wants. I rather like it that way.

Of course, you are probably wondering, why are they still there? Weren’t they supposed to take a quick trip for the family party and be back on Sunday? Well, that was the plan, until the trusty car died. So we have been camping out at the Martin Homestead since Friday night. We didn’t even get to go to the Kress party because we were the last to head out that morning and everyone had left hours before us. Sad face.

So we had the car towed up to a shop in the town north of here. Fortunately they were open until 4 pm. Sadly, they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the car. So, we did laundry and dug in. We were able to go to Mass on Saturday evening, using my Dad’s car. We spent yesterday hanging out. I made dinner for the family, meatloaf and baked potatoes. I made a sponge cake with egg white icing, a new thing for me. We then anxiously awaited a phone call from the shop today.

They called early and said it is blah blah blah and they would have it fixed this afternoon. Nope. At 430 we were informed that wasn’t going to happen. We had to come up with a B plan and that included renting a car to get back to Ohio so J could work. When we suggested that to the Martin Parental Units, that was met with, another suggestion.

So now, my mom is driving J down to Ohio (doing a round trip tonight, so say a prayer for her) and I am home with the kids. (I would have done the trip with J but Mom’s car is a stick and someone failed somewhere and I have never been taught how to drive a stick.)

Now I get to be in Michigan, enjoying cable tv until the car is fixed.  I hope it is fixed tomorrow, tv is pretty lame-o. Plus,  I miss J already.

I have started posts for the past few days and found them very hard to complete, so I just stuck them in the “draft” section. Today I will post an about our life!

What has happened this week? Well, on Monday, we celebrated Caecilia’s Baptism Day! Since we do not have daily mass at our parish on Monday’s we went down to Delaware for Mass.  On Monday, their daily Mass is at 530 pm, so we actually went to the Vigil Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Fr. Schalk was the celebrant, but that wasn’t a surprise this time because we know he always has the Monday Mass. We got to talk to him for 3.5 seconds after Mass, always a treat.

We then went home to enjoy some pasta with lemon sauce and salmon. Then for dessert, we had company and some Angel Food Cake with a strawberry/whip cream filling. Yummers.

Tuesday we were up early because we were being visited by the Amish. We had ordered windows a month or so ago and Tuesday was the day they came to install them. The crew that came were Amish. We do like the Amish folk and these guys were really wonderful. They didn’t seem to mind the kids and even asked questions about them. The one guy told me he and his wife had an 8 month old and I resisted asking if they home birthed and asking who their midwife was. When they spoke to each other they used a sort of German dialect (read more here). It sounded like German but I didn’t recognize any words. Anyway, they finished in about 3 hours and were on their way.

J was in and out that morning as the Bishop came to our Parish to celebrate Mass! What fun. I stayed back with the kids and that was probably better. Even though I heart Bishop Campbell, the kids were coughing a bit and it seemed only right to stay home. I started my Christmas present baking, six different kinds of biscotti and they are all very good.

Wednesday we an ordinary day. We had a visitor for a few hours in the afternoon then we spent the evening just relaxing. We finally finished, after only five years the Chronicles of Narnia.  FIVE YEARS!  We got the book the first Lent we were married.  I think we planned on reading most of during that Lent. Ha. So now we are done…wonder what to read next.

This morning started out at 830! The kids slept until 830. Normally the food begging begins at 725, sharp! It was nice to get that extra bit of sleep, even if I did feel like a slug for doing it.

I made soup for dinner. Well, I cheated, I made this then added some cabbage and a handful of noodles. I then made some croûtons and dinner was served. It was pretty good. After dinner, I went out to get my hair cut. I feel like I am 20 again! I love it. It is short and sassy but long enough to be feminine. The lady who cut my hair is from Illinois. Batavia to be exact. We spent the entire time talking about the “old neighborhood”, it was pretty neat.

When I got home, J had some bad news for me. My phone was dead. It had this nasty habit of hot syncing all the time. I have no idea what it means all I know is that my phone will not work unless it is plugged in to the computer. Crud. Well, he called the phone company and they had him do some stuff and when that didn’t work, they said they would send us a new phone. Of course, J will probably get it, if it has a better interface for scheduling and stuff. Oh, well, I will gladly share the phone with him. I am thankful that it was free for us too.

J then cut K’s hair and because he was so well behaved, J told K he could have two biscotti.  I set him up with a cup of milk and two cookies. No interest from K for the cookies. Hmmm. But he is enjoying the show I put on for him.

Tomorrow we  head to the Great Lake state for the annual Kress Family Christmas. I am looking forward to seeing family again and eating some of the yummy food my aunt and uncle are going to cook up. I am bringing the biscotti and a jalapeño popper dip that we are  creating.

Happy Advent, everyone!

Showing her “Birthday Shirt”