Hello All! Thanks for taking the time to read this, Anne and Laura. 🙂 I may have more time to update in the future as I get to become a full time stay at home mom in just two weeks! Joshua accepted a job in Ohio and we are relocating there. I get to stay at home with the wee ones and hang out all day long eating bon bons and reading books. Okay not really, more like finger paint and chase the kids.

So this week we drove to Ohio to find a place and we found a cute little place to rent for the time being. Our hope is to, God Willing, buy a home next summer, and with the inexpensive cost  of living in Ohio, we should be able to.

Our trip to Ohio was pretty fun, we stayed with Becky, whom Karol called “Aunt Becky” and adores. Jaime hosted us for dinner and we also made some new friends in our new town. I even got the numbers for some midwives, praise God.

On our way there, we stopped in Lafayette to say hello to Nan and ended up getting to see Laura, Linda H and Linda S along with Claire and Grant and baby Helen. Oh, Gwen was there and that was a nice surprise. We also got to see the Newcomb crew with some Weeks kids. Did I miss anyone? I love the Catholic world.

That is my quick update. Wish us luck on our move!

Bonjour! We are in Paris. Please permit me to tell you about our trip so far. It started out (I will spare you the airplane/airport details) with our plane landing at Charles de Gaulle airport. We did not have a gate but were taken off the plane and put on a bus then taken to the terminal. That seemed to be pretty normal as no one was concerned.

We got off the bus and went through customs and showed the nice guy our passport. I have no idea what he told me or asked me but I did get into the country. We then were met by Elisa’s husband, Cedric. Elisa is one of the people working on the project. They were nice enough to host us for the day and night in their home in a little town outside of Paris called Epernon.

Epernon could have been a wonderful experience, had I not had morning sickness return with a vengence. How embarrassing. When I finally felt better, JF and I walked around and I ate a crossaint from a pastrie shop. We went back to Paris and took our things to our flat. Our flat is smaller then our bedroom. It has a bathroom the size of our closet, if not smaller. I can’t hardly shower at all. We do have a kitchenette, which is nice.

Still on Saturday, we went to the flat of the other people who are working on the project with JF. There I met more Frenchmen, a Russian and a New Zealander who currently lives in Amsterdam. We celebrated the beginning of the project with some Champagne. (Just a little.)

I will post more later…..stay tuned!

My co-worker suggested that we take the girls into the city today, via the Metra train. The Metra has unlimited $5 weekends. (You can ride all you want for $5!) What a fun time. A relaxing ride, no worries about traffic, seeing parts of the city that you don’t see on the freeways and well people watching.

We got off the train and walked to Millennim Park. Did you know that have a big water fountain that you can play in? Yep, so we are going to beat the heat tomorrow by using our day off and taking our kids to the fountain! Fun Fun!

I hope they like it just as much.

Oh, quotes from Karol:

I am reading “Witness to Hope” right now. Karol calls is the “Pope Book”. So I told Karol he was named after JPII and opened the book to find “Karol”.

I spelled Karol out for him, then asked him what that spelled, Karol replied “Pope”.

Later we were looking at the picture on the cover of the  book, and I said “Give Pope a kiss”. Karol replied “No”. When I asked why, he said “He has funny lips”.

I was wondering…do I have any readers besides the people trying to sell me pills? I have so much fun reading other people’s blogs (Anne, Laura, Annie Schap (who I don’t even really know)) that I forget to write in my own!!

Karol and Margaret are in the bath right now. Fear not, I can see and hear them from my spot on the computer. Karol is splashing and Margaret is laughing like he is the funniest thing ever. She is a very big follower of what ever her big brother does. I love when they are in cahoots about something and laugh together! My kids are great.

I just opened an email Joshua received from a very good friend. It appears that God is amazing, as if I needed proof of that. Karol’s Godfather will be in Ohio for Margaret’s Godfather’s Ordination. God is so good. J is at Mass right now and I cannot wait for him to get home. He will be so happy as he has not seen his friend in about 4 years. Karol’s Godfather has never actually met Karol, we had a proxy stand in for him the night of his baptism, I am excited for Karol to be meeting him. If I calculate correctly, all but one of the Godparents will be at the Ordination, what a fun time this should prove to be.

On another note, I am waiting for spring. It is March 8th and the high for today is somewhere in the high 20’s. Shouldn’t we be in shorts right now? I really want to just sit outside with a sweater on and enjoy the spring air. I want to start riding my bike again. I want to see if my rose plant can be revived from the winter in doors. I want to plan trips where we can save money by camping instead of paying for a hotel room.

I must get the monkeys out of the tub. By the way, J’s family calls it “taking a tub” when one takes a bath, is that strange or it just me? Karol said, “take a tub?” this morning and well, it was all I could do not to tell him to quit speaking hoosier.

I got a phone call tonight from a girl I used to be very good friends with. She called me because she had a friend who was pregnant and lost that baby at 23 weeks. I wasn’t able to talk as work was getting in the way, however, I knew I had answers for her when she said she was having a really hard time holding on to her faith in God. I was going to tell her that that baby, while away from her loving mother and father, is in the hands of our Lord now. She will never have to worry about the pains of this world because is in heaven with Him tonight. She is also in heaven with my little girl, Gianna Maria. My friend doesn’t know that. She doesn’t know that I lost a little baby who would have been two this past month.

Many women bare the pains of mis-carriages alone. Society doesn’t support much the woman who mis-carries. Often times the pain is pushed to the side or swept under the rug because there is no one to talk to. While I had my wonderful husband and some close friends to talk to and get support from, the pain is very much within me to this day. To this day, I can’t talk about Gianna with out my tears welling up (as they are now). I remember the day I found out I was pregnant with her, how happy Joshua and I were. How happy we were were to be realizing the dream of starting our own family. I remember driving to work and talking to her and telling her all the things we would do together, most of all, I remember singing to her. The day I started spotting was one of the hardest days of my life. The hardest was the day I found out I lost her. My first baby. The one I had prayed for. I felt that I had let Joshua down. I didn’t understand why God had taken her. I didn’t want to rely on Him at that time. I wanted to be angry. Then I realized that He was the one who created Gianna, and it was His plan that she not experience the pains of this world.

Now Gianna gets to spend all of her life in the arms of our Heavenly Father and with His son and Our Blessed Mother, Mary. Joshua and I often joke that Jesus is holding her down to tickle her right this moment. Thank you, God, for your wisdom and knowledge to know what we don’t.

Well, this has been a busy month for us. We travelled to Reno for the Northern Nevada Eucharist and Marian Conference at the beginning of the month. (www.adoregod.org) It was a wonderful experience. I love the west. I love the desert landscape and the mountains. After the conference was over, we drove down to Lake Tahoe and then in to California. We then headed back over the mountains to see Carson City and Virginia City (of Bonanza fame).

Our son was a big hit on the airplane, scoring a cookie from the flight attendant. I consider that a good thing since they go for $3 each! In the Reno airport, the awesome people at Quizno’s gave him a cookie too. Ah, it pays to have a good and cute kid. Okay, he got the cookie on the flight there because he was a little crabby and she thought that would help. Sorry lady it didn’t.

Today I talked to my sister in law. She is due in February to have her 4th baby. Given the size of her back side, she thinks she is having a girl. We are going to see her next weekend when we go back to visit for the feast of Christ the King.

As for me, I have been busy updating my look. I had my hair cut at the Regis Salon in Fox Valley Mall by Elaine. I LOVE my hair. Elaine is amazing and cut my hair perfectly. I now have hair that is easy to do something nice to and will wash and go wonderfully. After my haircut, I went to thank my pal Kelly for the referral to Elaine. Kelly is so awesome!

What else? The kids are getting big. K is so fun and just a good kid. He likes to talk and he tells us letters that he sees. The other day, he read to me the letters on the bag from JC Penny. Tonight he pointed to the exit sign and told me there was an “x” a “c” and an “e” in it. Close. He has sadly learned about chicken nuggets. He likes them and asks for them. Oh well, that trip to Reno may not have been so good after all.

Oh, going back to Reno. The first hotel we stayed at was the pits. P I T S pits. We checked out of it and spent the next two nights at another hotel. It was better, much better. The other hotel refused us a refund and were extremely rude to me on the phone when I called Expedia to file a complaint, Expedia gave us a $75 coupon at that point. When I arrived home, I posted on Expedia’s web page how awful the hotel was and guess what? They gave us another $100 coupon. Saweeeet. I really do like Expedia and they did do their best. The Hotel lied to them about us and said we just checked out with out  complaint and I think the man who helped me out via Expedia realized they were lying and that was when he issued the voucher. However, I did file a complaint via the Better Business Bureau regarding the hotel. They responded to the compliant saying that we never made any complaint about noise and what not. I replied back that we were told they couldn’t take a complaint, they haven’t replied back yet. It has been a week.

What else? I think that is about it. Tonight I went with two of our girls to Chipotle. Yummers. I LOVE CHIPOTLE! CHIPOTLE is wonderful. I broke out of the usual chicken burrito or burrito bol and got the barbecoa  (sp?). It was quite a nice surprise and really hot without out being painful!

Well, laundry calls and I need to get it folded to get to bed.

So we have this CD for Karol called Dog Train. I want to say that Sandra Bouynton is a genius! She has composed some of the best kid songs on the planet. Karol loves the song “Dog Train” and will stand in front of the computer and point to it saying something that sounds like “I need to listen to Dog Train”. He just walked in and said “Dog Train”. I sincerely think that these CDs are part of the reason that Karol has such an awesome vocabulary at his young age.

Last night we went to a pizza party and a sock hop for the Moose kids. I’d like to say it was pretty enjoyable. We had a nice time. The DJ did not play “Soulja Boy” aka the Superman Song. Of course some other totally lame songs were played but at least that one wasn’t. Over all, it was a good time had by all.

Today we had the pep rally for the game tomorrow. Is it just me or is it totally bizarre that people get so wrapped up in sports? I can understand wanting to comeback to your Alma Mater, especially when your Alma Mater was also your home for years. However, must we get so absorbed in sports?

Tomorrow is the big game. I am not sure the teams record, they haven’t won a game that we have been to yet. Well, perhaps one. My time at the games is spent making sure kids aren’t misbehaving. However, living in the northern US, one would think that a midday game on a Saturday in October would involve jeans and sweaters, right? No.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be 85 degrees. I plan on wearing shorts and a polo.

On a positive note, our home won second place in the home decorating contest. Yippee.

There is a song out there that seems to be very popular amongst the teen population. The girls in our home love to sing it and do the dance that goes along with it. The song makes many references to women being “hoes” and other derogatory things. However, the worst part is that the song is about a violent sexual act of aggression on a woman.

The other night we decided to tell the girls the song was banned in our home. Of course, you would think we were taking away their oxygen.  AFTER telling them what the song was about we were told that they don’t listen to the words, they just like the beat. AFTER I told them the song was about rape, they still said that they liked the beat and the song didn’t mean anything. Of course, that took us to a different direction, that sometimes what a woman does makes a man think she is a certain way and may try to take advantage of her or even worse, attack her. The response to that? “I would never let that happen.” or my favorite “If a man ever tried to do that to me, I wouldn’t let him, I would defend myself.” Oh yeah, all 100 pounds of you.

So the song is banned in our home as well as in other homes on campus. All the girls hate us because they think we started it all. Fine by me, I don’t care. What I do care about is the fact that the song “Soulja Boy” is one of the most popular songs going today and it is a song about knocking a woman out and attacking her while she is passed out. I can’t believe that feminist groups aren’t out there raising the biggest stink ever over this. I can’t believe that parents are buying this music for their kids.

So let me leave this entry with this note: “Soulja Boy”, the song is about rape. It is about committing a violent act against a woman just because she won’t “put out”.  It denies a woman the dignity that she deserves. It says that woman are for one thing and one thing only and if they do not care to do that one thing, it says that it is okay to knock them out, perform a sex act, then leave the evidence so as to humiliate them.