Mountain Pose

Driving through Salt Lake City, I was stunned, nay amazed at the monstrous snow capped mountians. Perhaps people living in the are get accustomed to the sights but what a beautiful sight it was.
Artists, writers and all the rest of us unskilled people, when we make something we put something of ourselves in the mix. The creation reflects essentially who we are. It can be on canvas, in metal through words but these intimately convey who we are. The creations never do the person justice because as captivating as Rembrant's paintings are to admire, they demonstrate but fail to fully capture the man himself.

As I stared into the massively beautiful snow capped wonders with contrasting blue sky above and green fields below, I just thought to myself that whoever made these must be just that more awesome then what he created.

Ship my pants!

What a clever ad!

A bit juvenile but clever. Clever isn't something you typically see in ads or movies anymore. Much like the Snickers commercial when the grounds keeper was chalking the KC Chief's endzone with "Chefs" instead of Chiefs, exclaiming "Great googly moogly" at his blunder, these acts of cleverness tend to stay with us. Enjoy!

Footprints

The interminable call to Holiness

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep"

Robert Frost

Husband reminded me this morning of the virtue of perseverance. Yes, in this second week of Lent I'm ready to call it quits. I am such an Easter person.
Once you've made a commitment in the fullness of free will and with a well formed conscience, you stick to it. Yes, enticements will come along, like the woods of our poem but those don't matter.

Remaining true to the commitments I made also means I will have "miles to go before I sleep".

I had a discussion this morning about marriage and vocations. Regardless what your vocation is, you will always be tested. There will come a time when it's not so fun anymore, when it's a chore, when you don't want to fulfill some of the vows you made. Keep your word, come what may. Persevere my brothers and sisters.

Pope resigns? OMGag

 OMGag - Oh, my get a grip! The idiots over at NY times, oh I'm sorry that's an insult to idiots everywhere, had an uh what do you call it but an scathingly opinionated piece of tripe masquerading as a news item on the resignation of the Pope. Am I surprised? No, not really.

Get a grip guys! Seriously. Get a grip.

It takes an extraordinary amount of humility to step aside from well, anything. The pope has demonstrated that humility yet again to do what is best for the Church. He is once again showing his gift as a shepherd. Sometimes I don't know what planet The Times are on because I suspect it's not earth. The grass is not green in their world or maybe they smoke too much of it. I don't know. I suspect they haven't exercised any form of religious devotion because if they had, they'd recognize a shepherd. A shepherd doesn't do what he wants or what the sheep wants (approving homosexual unions, abortions, etc). He does the job entrusted to him as is necessary.  Our pontiff has reached out in ecumenical zeal to find what unites us from Jewish, Atheists (yes atheists), Episcopalians, Anglicans and on and on... Honestly, what solar system are yous guys in?

You know it took family taking away keys, an accident, family strife, and a court order to get my 80+ year old father in law to stop driving. Honestly it was impossible. His whole life he was an arrogant man. I love him anyway. It was extraordinarily difficult to get him to stop driving. My own father, 83, still refuses to slow down and puts his life in jeopardy as a result and worries my family and my mother. He refuses to listen to his body or anyone for that matter.

The pope has painstakingly prayed over this and in a quite detached manner removed himself from ministry as he is no longer fit to carry out the duties of the office. Have you read Jesus of Nazareth? Wow, this man's intellectual capacity to ponder and pray over things is amazing. I learn about his spirituality from reading his works and it's astounding. If you want to understand him and his spirituality, read his works. He is bathed in Scripture.

The Pope has announced he's handing the keys back to the guardian of the keys and soon the Holy Spirit through the college of Cardinals will select a new Pontiff. And you know what? We Catholics will celebrate him with the same passion and joy with which we welcomed Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as The Holy Father back in 2005.

911, What's your Emergency?

When traveling I like to rent cars with XM Radio so that I can tune into ESPN radio and I also enjoy the Catholic Channel. This morning the Catholic Channel had their "Let's hope they're not Catholic" segment on today. As a whole Catholics aren't immune to doing stupid things as some of our bishops, priests and let's not forget the dumb anctics of the "Nuns on the bus". In fact just because we're Catholic doesn't mean we're holier, funnier or smarter than anyone else. It does mean we are a joyful people. Authentic Catholics aren't sullen. We are joyful. We endure pain and suffering like everyone else but we don't suffer alone and therein lies the joy.
This joyful morning they played some 911 calls and I nearly doubled over laughing while driving the boroughs of Chicago.

911 operator: "What's your emergency?"

caller: "Um, my wife got attacked by a warthog and we need help. She needs a doctor."
(I want to know, how does one get attacked by a warthog?)
911 operator: "What's your location?"

caller: "18 Eucalyptus"

911 operator: "Can you spell that?"

caller:" (silent pause) Um, I'll drag her over to Oak Street and you can pick her up there"

Oh dear. Really? Let's drag her over to a street you can spell.

Whispered along the Sleeperbowl sidelines

Monkeyboy irritated me yesterday, again. He's a fan of the Crows (Ravens). I hate the stupid crows. I'm not a fan of Ray Lewis or that whole Atlanta incident. According to ESPN, the poor guy has had to endure talk of that incident all this week. Poor guy. Awww. Somehow it changed his whole life. This from the geniuses at ESPN. Idiots. The victims, well it might have impacted their life as well. But poor Ray Lewis. Nevertheless, I can't stand the stupid Crows.
Monkeyboy decided to rub it in that the Crows were winning yesterday in the 45 seconds of the game we watched . I just couldn't bring myself to give any of my time to that garbage - and I LOVE football. So I made him drop down and give me 20 push ups. Yep. I'm Mama. Don't taunt me in football, buddy!

We instead watched Big Bang and the Puppy Bowl - too cute btw. I loved the intentional growling penalty. It was fabulous! So last night after the stupid crows won - yes I had to watch the stupid game because I wanted to make sure Elementary was going to record - Stupid Crows, I went into Monkeyboy's room. He was FAST asleep. I mean he was out! As evidence of my Mommy Dearest streak and unlike Ray Lewis, here's my blatantly honest revelation: I woke him up and told him that his stupid Crows won and that he needed to give me 10 push ups.

Monkeyboy rubbed his eyes and said, "Ok". He starts climbing out of bed. I ask of course, "What are you doing?"
In a croaky sleep deprived voice he utters, "I'm getting out of bed to give you 10 push ups."

He is such a good boy, and I am so not worthy to be his mother. I made him get back in bed.

Animal prayers

What does Michelle Obama have in common with Star Trek?

A Romulan wardrobe worthy of presidential attire. Lovely.

The invisible statistic

It's amazing to me that more humans have been lost to abortion than people lost to the Holocaust, 9/11, Hiroshima, Chernobyl... combined.

Life. It's precious.

Quote of the day

"The joy which comes from living in gratitude for the gift of life -- and treating all life as gift -- effects change. When Christians begin to live with real regard for human dignity, our nation will awaken to the tragedy of abortion, and she will begin to change."
- Archbishop Aquila

Archbishop's chilling recollection of his personal interaction with abortion

Overheard at mass yesterday

We had a wedding during Sunday's mass. The toddler at one point said to her parents:
"When they gonna kiss?"
"When they gonna kiss?"

At the end of mass after the kiss, the toddler says:
"When's the baby coming?"

Notre Dame loses to Bama a

I can't stand Notre Dame. That being said, I was hoping they'd do better than they did last night against Bama. To say the game was dominated by Bama also discounts the mistakes and missteps by ND, Fourth and 5 so they try to go Fourth and fifty.

My absolute favorite thing though is the following standings:

Hee, hee, hee. Ohio State couldn't play in a bowl game but they still beat out ND.

Hand me down cake

We went to an impromptu party at  the house of one of Monkeyboy's friends. It turned out it we were celebrating someone's birthday. So dear Bea sat in the birthday seat and the lights were extinguished. The only thing ablaze were the lights on her cake. We sang Happy Birthday and after the candles were extinguished someone mentioned it was Art's birthday. The candles re-lighted as they were the unextinguishable ones. Our host unceremoniously kicked Bea out of her birthday seat and invited Art to sit down.

Again we sang happy Birthday and by the time the candles re-lit, Art was kicked out of his seat so that Chris could sit down in the birthday spot. I could barely sing happy birthday as I was doubled over laughing because I have experience with hand me down clothes, but hand me down birthday cakes was new for me.

Some of my proud 2012 moments

#1 Getting my professional doctor type lab coat - its really sweet!

#2 Trying to be social. I am interminable introvert but now I am an official "twit" although I still struggle to be social. @MRTherapyDr in case you're interested

#3 I saw Jeff Dunham perform live. He's hysterical but I have to admit I was shocked at how many parents brought their kids - are you people insane???? Yes. There should NOT have been kids in the audience because while he is funny, the language and sexual themes are way too explicit for kids. I have no problem explaining things to my kids any topic, but protecting their innocence is something that should be important to people. Sadly I think the only people who are interested in children's innocence are pedophiles.

Now this is not my proudest moment but I have let the kids watch part of his shows. I edit them or breeze through scenes I don't think they should see. They then repeat his performances, bleeping themselves as they go. My son actually rolls his tongue when he gets to words the dummies say that they know are not to be repeated.

#4 I have colorful language around the house, especially during football season. While we were visiting a museum, I let something slip that I shouldn't have. The peach tells me (in the crowded entry way), "Mama! 5 push ups! Right there in the corner!"

With the whole museum watching, she outs me! Dang it!

Are you noticing a pattern? My proudest moments tend to follow low moments.

#5 Well this one is no exception. My kids who while serving mass, were blabbing to the other servers during communion. Now this blabbing involved explaining the "First Noel" parody "No L" or "No Well" or "No Whale". I was less than impressed with their behavior so why is it my proudest moment? Well I explained to them (after mass) that their behavior was inappropriate for mass and that they needed to apologize. So they sat down and apologized....to God, which is what I hoped for.

What are some of your proudest 2012 moments?