Theme Thursday: Google Image

Well this was an easy Theme Thursday!  This week's theme is Google Image.  Since my last name is a bit on the more common side I googled myself using my name as I have it up on my personal FaceBook account, even though I go by my married last name and not a hyphenated version of my maiden and married last names.
The first image that shows up is this one of me and Bryan which happens to be my current FaceBook profile picture:

Here's a screen shot of what came up:
First two pictures are of me, followed by my Good Friday FB status the past couple of years and a nice surprised picture of Bryan on the far right.

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{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} VBS 2014

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life.

Last week was VBS week.  I switched VBS programs this year so the new changes and additions made my job as director a bit more challenging than years past, but it all came together nicely.  Our theme this year was Living in God's Kingdom from Loyola's Catholic Vacation Bible School book.  I was so pleased with the way the program turned out this year that I'm already looking forward to using the other two themes that are in that book for the next two years.

{Pretty}

One of the crafts the kids made at VBS was a prayer card holder.  Each day the kids received a new holy card to color and take home.  The color your own holy cards seemed to be a hit with the kids.  We laminated all of the cards each day which made them look really nice.

{Happy}

I have some amazing friends who help me out with VBS each year.  I'm convinced that the program wouldn't be as great as it is without their help and passion for teaching.

I think I also have some of the best student volunteers.  This year I was the only volunteer with kids young enough to need a nursery so I scrapped the nursery knowing that my little ones wouldn't stay in there and instead had two awesome assistants who not only helped me a ton with relaying messages for me and delivering things to classrooms, but they also spent most of their time holding Katie and Anthony while I ran around doing all the things that I needed to do to make sure everything was running smoothly.  

{Funny}

Ever since last year, I like to tease Deacon Al about what costume I'm going to have him dress up in for VBS.  Originally I wanted him to be a jester to go with the medieval kingdom theme, but I never got around to ordering him a jester costume.  I was delighted when a friend of mine came in with a monk costume.  We were all amused to meet "Chip Monk" as he went from class to class with his Italian accent talking to the kids.  I have to start thinking about who he will dress up as next year.  I think he secretly enjoys dressing up in these costumes.

{Real}

My main goal with VBS is to plant as many seeds of faith as possible hoping that some of what the kids learn will take root.  My approach is to infuse as much Catholic culture and prayer into the program as I can.  Most of our crafts include a prayer.  For the prayer card holders the kids made we included a prayer for vocations.  It was an idea that just came to me one day and the more I thought about it the more it made sense.  Our parish presently has a seminarian who is studying in Rome and we now have three more young men from our parish and/or young adult youth group who are entering the seminary this fall.  I had one of our new seminarians do a video on Divine Mercy for the campers and in his video he explained what a vocation was and what a seminarian is to help this prayer make even more sense to the kids.  Who knows, maybe our parish will see even more vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the coming years.

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{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} and Theme Thursday on Friday

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life...

{Pretty}

When I saw that this week's Theme Thursday theme was dishes I knew I had to tell you about my new set of dishes. For years I debated whether or not we should replace our everyday Corolle dishes with a new set that was a bit prettier but every bit as durable as the ones we had.I'd play with the cart until I had everything just so for the twelve placing settings of pretty white dishes I wanted and then I'd decide not to spend the money on them.  I always came up with an excuse to keep using the dishes that I brought a couple of years before Bryan and I got married.  Yes, I was so looking forward to getting married and having my own dishes that I actually brought them before we were even engaged.  That's how you know a guy is a keeper, when he knows you've purchased dishes [with flowers] and he doesn't run away like he's been doused with gasoline and set ablaze.  Anyway...my mom and dad got us the pretty white dishes I've been wanting for the past two or three years for Christmas.  Ever since, I've been heard saying "I really like these dishes." and "Have I mentioned how much I like these dishes?" and "I don't know why I didn't just buy these dishes a long time ago.  I really like them!"  I think they're getting sick of hearing me talk about how much I like the dishes.

I seriously have moments when I open up the cabinet and I feel like squealing because I'm so happy to see my new dishes sitting in the cabinet.

{Happy}

My newphew came for a visit on Sunday.  We were all happy to see him.  Isn't he adorable?  

Katie couldn't wait to hold him.  She's so cute with the baby.  She holds him and says "aww, baby" over and over again.  She was so upset when I let Ellie have a turn holding him.  She wants the baby all to herself.  She's going to be a handful once our baby is born.

{Funny, Real}

This is life with a two year old.  Minnie Mouse ears and shoes, Dyson handle for pony rides, or pretending to be Gandalf (or so it seems, although she has no clue who he is) and a pair of sunglasses because it's what all the fashionable two year old girls are sporting today.

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Theme Thursday: Hearts

Madeline started this water color painting yesterday.  She wanted a heart that looked like it was part of a stained glass window.  I'm looking forward to seeing the finished project.

I drew this sidewalk chalk Sacred Heart many years ago when I was doing chalk drawings in the driveway with Ellie.  I liked the way it turned out so I snapped a picture and it's been the background on my past three phones.  I imagine most people have no idea what it is since it's covered with apps, but it's there.

I asked Ellie to take a picture for me and then I noticed that she had a heart on her shirt so I figured I needed a picture of her to include in this post.

I'm totally copycatting a friend of mine who is about nine weeks ahead of me.  She posted some pictures last night and I loved that she made a little heart with her hands over the baby.  I'm 27 weeks 6 days along today.  I feel like I'm getting closer to the end.  It's crazy to think that in 12 weeks or so I'm going to have a baby boy in the house.  I have no idea what to do with a little boy.  I guess I'll be doing a lot of learning on the job!

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Theme Thursday on Friday

Yeah, yeah, I know it's called Theme Thursday becuase it's a Thursday thing but I was too busy wasting time on Facebook doing other things like cleaning my kitchen countertops and wasting time on Facebook to upload pictures from my camera and then go through them.  It's all about priorities, and yesterday my priorites were staying warm during polar vortex #2, getting the house to look somewhat clean, and eating half a pint of delicious ice cream in one sitting.

So the theme for this Thursday Friday is Catching People Unawares.  When I was going through the pictures I found a bunch of pictures of Bryan tackling the kids in the snow.  After the first one went down the others were expecting it, but this one of Bryan about to knock Madeline to the ground works nicely.  She didn't see it coming since she was too focused on the snowball Ellie was about to hurl at her.

Oh and do you like my awesome vantage point from inside the house?  Nothing like taking pictures through double paned windows and a screen!

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Theme Thursday on Friday: Secret

I think I mentioned last week or the week before how someone spilled the beans about a big surprise that was supposed to be a secret until late October.  So now that the secret is out, the kids know that we're going to Disney World.  Madeline has figured out when we will be going but Ellie isn't sure when we're going.

I've been noticing some friends posting pictures of these "Magic Bands" lately and didn't know what they were.  What I did know was we weren't offered them.  Boo!  Then we got the mail on Wednesday and there was an envelope with Me Mou (That's Katie for Mickey Mouse.) that told us we were selected to be part of the Magic Bands trial.  Woot!

These bands will be our tickets, our room key, and our fast passes.  Pretty cool.  I'm excited to see how it all works.

We couldn't believe it when the bands we selected just two days ago wound up on our porch this morning.

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Theme Thursday: Text

Since today we celebrate The Most Holy Name of Mary, I decided that I'd use some Marian prayers from Mother Love as my subject for Theme Thursday.  Look at me getting all fancy with coordinating my Theme Thursday post to the liturgical year.

f/16, 1/60, ISO-800

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Theme Thursday: Statues

I realized as I went through some of my older pictures that I still haven't gotten around to blogging about Ellie's first reconciliation.  It's hard to believe that it's been over six months since that day.  Maybe I'll get to it soon so I can stop feeling like I dropped the ball.  So here's a picture of her just before the first reconciliation service began.  The statue of Mary behind Ellie that you can't see all that well because I brought the wrong lens with me to the church is very pretty.  I wish I could get a small version of it for my house.

And I might as well toss in a picture of the lovely little statue that sits on my dining room table.  I really like the detail on it.  And surprisingly a certain toddler leaves it alone although she will sit and look at it.  

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Theme Thursday: Knots

This week's theme is Knots.  I instantly thought back to the days when Ellie used to knot up shoe laces and hang her Barbie doll.  Yes, I said hang, as in my four year old was pretty good at making shoelace nooses.  So I dug up a couple of pictures from those days.

Her eyes are so mischievous in this picture.  Just before she posed for this picture she had been on the couch peeking over and all you could see were those cute little knots on her hair and her eyes above the handiwork of her freshly hung Barbie.  Never being much of a fan of Barbie I saw no reason to tell her not to be a one person lynch mob for the plastic broad.

Sure, it might have been a little disturbing that she kept happily rounding up Barbies and hanging them, but look at how happy it made her.  And if you look at Barbie, it appears that she didn't mind.  

When I went through the pictures from 2009 I realized that knots were one of those hairstyles that I did all the time on Ellie.  I had started calling this style knot-sies.  But then I realized one day that it sounded an awful lot like I was saying Nazis.  Yeah, it really doesn't sound good when someone compliments your daughter's hair and she responds that she likes having knot-sies in her hair.  Far better to just call them knots.

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Theme Thursday: Bright

You know how flies and moths are attracted to bright lights at night?  Well so are little tree frogs.  Two nights ago Bryan and I decided to go for a swim after we put the girls to bed.  In the super bright light of the pool I spotted a frog on the coping, but he looked like he had blue stripes.  Bryan was convinced that it was poisonous and didn't want me to touch it.  I love to pick up frogs when I find them.  So it took a lot for me not to grab the little frog.

On our way into the house I noticed we had a few more frogs on the sliding glass door.  But because of the blinding spot light we have right next to the door they still looked like they had blue stripes.  Once we got in the house I turned off the lights and grabbed my camera so I could get a few pictures of the cute frogs.  Turns out that you can see them much better when you shine a bright flashlight on them from below.  And the added benefit of shining a light on them is you get to see them eat the little bugs that are attracted to the light.  I felt like I had my own personal nature documentary playing out on my sliding glass door.  

I think this is my favorite frog picture from that night.  If I had my camera with me when I laid down on the couch about 30 minutes later I would have taken some pictures of the frog who snuck into our house!  I thought we had a cricket on the floor (I'm terrified of them!) and then I realized after I screamed that it was a frog.  At that point Bryan was freaking out and asking me to pick it up and get it out of the house.  Of course, I was still worried that he was poisonous since Bryan had made such a big deal about the frogs earlier.  I ended up trapping the frog in a cup and sent Bryan to release him into the front yard.  These little frogs are super tiny.  They're about the size of my thumbnail.

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Theme Thursday: Black and White

Last Friday Madeline had a friend sleep over and the kids went swimming.  Katie decided that the pool wasn't for her.  Perhaps it was too cold for her.  I know I find 80 degree water to feel downright chilly.  Maybe she does, too.  Once she got out of the pool she had a lot of fun playing with the beach ball.  

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Theme Thursday: Water

This is one of my favorite pictures of Ellie jumping into the pool last summer.  I love getting pictures of the girls in mid-air.  Doesn't Ellie look like she's flying?

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Theme Thursday: Dad

This week's theme for Theme Thursday is Dad.  So I went digging through some pictures on my laptop to find a few of my favorite pictures of Bryan with the girls.

These pictures of Bryan and Katie from last summer were part of a series where he was doing his best to make the same exact face as Katie in each of the pictures with the exception of the first one.  Many of them were hilarious, but I liked these two pictures the best.

I love this picture of Madeline gazing at Bryan.

Bryan's a fun dad.  He's happy to dress up the dog to make his little girls happy.

He cleans up nicely, too!

I laugh every time I see this picture of Bryan with his dad in his never-nude pants.

And here's a picture of my dad at our birthday last month.

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Theme Thursday: Girls

Here's a theme that I've got covered with three very lovely girls.  Oh no, that sounds a bit like I'm echoing the Brady Bunch theme song.  I guess all we need is three boys and maybe I can get a housekeeper.  I suppose I would probably need one.

Anyway, back to the theme which is not the Brady Bunch. 

I'm blessed with these three beautiful girls.  Having never had a sister growing up it's interesting for me to watch my girls interact. One minute they're best friends and the next minute they can't stand each other.  Both of the older girls are in love with their baby sister, and I have to say that she certainly seems to think the world of them.

I love having these girls and I wouldn't trade them for anything.  Sure they can drive me crazy and like that Thank Heaven for Little Girls song send me crashing through the ceiling with their antics, but it's worth it to have the loveliness that is little girls in our lives.

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Theme Thursday: Self Portrait

I wasn't sure if I was going to have anything current for this week when I saw the theme.  The house is a mess and I was hesitant to attempt a self portrait.  I contemplated using my iPhone to snap a picture but I'm so awful at using that camera that I decided against it.  So I dug out my cool remoteso I could snap a picture of my "I just went for a long walk out in the way-too-hot heat" self.   Katie decided to get in the picture, too.  I have to say I think the picture turned out pretty good considering I took it by tossing the camera on my purse and sticking my Magnificat under the lens to prop it up a smidge. I fully expected the camera to fall.

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Theme Thursday: Bodies

Forgive me for saying this but I found this week's theme to be a bit odd.  My first thought when I saw this theme was "Dead bodies?"  Nice, I know.  That's just where my mind went.  But I don't have any bodies hidden in a basement or storage locker so you'll just have to deal with pictures of live bodies this week.  Besides, you don't really want pictures of corpses, do you?  I hope not.

So I thought about what kinds of pictures I could post.  Temper tantrum bodies, grumpy I didn't do it bodies, getting into trouble bodies, bodies sitting around doing nothing, and active bodies.  So I decided  to go with active bodies.  Might as well since they're a bit more fun to capture.

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Theme Thursday: Animals

Well look at that, Mr. Furkins is getting a post all about him since this week's theme for Theme Thursday is animals.

Oscar isn't always original.  Sometimes he steals costume ideas from the people and then gets yelled at for copying.

He's notorious for photobombing.  I'm convinced he knows what he's doing.

He thinks he's sophisticated, but when you can't fancy yourself as such when you chase your own tail and gnaw on your hind quarters.

He'll happily wear anything that he perceives to be people clothes.

Oh, and he likes to play on the slide.  He races up the ladder and then slides and prances down the slide.

Oh and in case you're wondering why Oscar has two names, there's a perfectly logical reason.  He thinks he's dignified, but if you look at him you can tell he's anything but.  Of course, I humored him and decided that this goofy dog needed a nick name that reflected his distorted self perception.  Since he has furry skin I decided to call him Mr. Furkins.  I think the name suits him.

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Theme Thursday: Mom

The theme for this weeks Theme Thursday is Mom.  I don't have any pictures from this past week of me or my mom, so I went digging through some pictures from the past year.

One day I'll be able to get a picture where all of us look at the camera at the same time.  I don't know when that will be, but I'm sure it will happen some day.

Sitting and reading a book to a little one is one of the best parts of being a mom.

My girls are so blessed to have such a devoted MomMom.  You can tell that she just loves every minute that she gets to spend with her granddaughters.  

Look, two moms in one picture!  My parents (and my brother--not pictured) went to Disney World with us last November.  Someday I hope Bryan and I will be able to go to Disney World with our grandkids.  I never went on any vacations with my grandparents so I think it's a great that my girls have had the opportunity to build vacation memories with their grandparents.

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