Playing Catch-up

I can't believe it's already Tuesday. This weekend flew by so quickly, and we were swamped. Friday night, we went to a wedding of my "little sis" from St. Anthony. We were paired up when she was in first grade and I was in sixth. We've stayed close ever since, and she was even in my wedding. Her wedding was beautiful, followed by a reception with a Derby theme at the Brown hotel - the bugler from Churchill Downs called us to dinner, and we had bread pudding, bourbon balls, and mint julep bars in lieu of dessert. Yum! After the reception, we went visiting (at 10:30 at night...) Fr. Paul was in town for a friend's ordination, and we stopped in to see he and Joe and have a nightcap.

Since Andrew passed testing in TKD, we had to order him sparring gear. Goodbye to a chunk of our tax refund. He's happy as can be, and thinks he's hot stuff now. He picked out a camo gear bag to be just like Papa. I'm just hoping it will work out some of his energy.

On Saturday, our baseball games were rained out. I was very glad, because it meant that both Tony and I could go to our friend Matt's ordination. Matt is on the track to being a priest, but has to first be ordained a deacon, which is what happened Saturday. Tony and I took Andrew with us, and he was tickled to get to meet the Archbishop - even if he's from the wrong Archdiocese and state. Here's Rev. Matt receiving the kiss of peace from the Archbishop. The ceremony was followed by reception, which was Andrew's favorite part. I wish I had taken a picture of him with Tony, Joe and I and four priests. Maybe something holy will rub off on him!

After the ordination, we came home and took rainy Saturday naps with baseball on TV. Then I ran to the store and Tony threw some porkchops on the grill. Yummy! By the evening, we'd had enough of being rained in and loaded everyone up in the pouring rain to go to Sam's club and stock up on some things. We are grateful for the rain, however, because between it and the unseasonably warm weather, my azaelas, roses, and peonies look better than they ever have!

On Sunday, we actually had nothing to do. We went to St. Martin's because Fr. Paul was celebrating the 12:30 Latin Mass. Then we went out to eat with Paul and his family and Joe. The kids were (mostly) well behaved. We came home and I set to work on my stats assignment and studying for my final.

I've been totally overwhelmed this semester, but I'm proud of all I've accomplished. Today I turned in my last computer assignment and took my statistics final exam. I also met with my independent study professor and turned in my literature review. I had mixed feelings about that - I was so glad to get the stupid thing out of my hands after killing myself on it all semester, but at the same time I hated to give it to anyone because I'd worked so hard on it. Now it's in my prof's hands - he's going to try to get it published, and we're hoping to present at a conference in Ohio next fall. Whew! I spent the rest of the night with a good library book (for the first time since December) and an adult beverage.

We also had some family pictures taken recently. We had to dodge everyone's injuries, but I thought they turned out pretty well!