I absolutly love this picture of Mena. She is 2 1/2 now and totally acting her age! Happy half birthday love! (Birthday- October 26)

Fantastic Catholic CD's

Dominic and I went to a Catholic Family conference in Chicago area last summer. We were inspired to join as representatives for a ministry called Lighthouse Catholic Media. It is an affiliate of St. Joseph Communications. This ministry produces and distributes inspiring talks by Catholic speakers on a variety of topics such as marriage and family, the sacraments, and other Church teachings. I am so impressed with the quality of these talks. Every month I get the new title in the mail and I think to myself, "this can't possibly be better than the previous talk I heard." I am always blown away.

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know about the program.
Each month you can receive a new title by subscribing to our CD of the Month Club for only $5. Try it for a month and see if you like it. You can cancel at any time! You can subscribe now at https://www.lighthousecatholicmedia.com/p/cdclub/?cmd=refer;promo_code=1740
A subscription also makes a great gift. (hint, hint!)

I also have the link in my sidebar.

Wordless Wednesday!

Can you tell we had a very long weekend? This was Sunday morning after she got out of bed herself. She only made it this far. We still had a ton of activities planned for this day including Dom's Graduation party! She was a trooper.

Crazy 8's Meme

Thanks Sharon and Bethany for tagging me to do my first Meme. What does that word mean anyway?

Here are the rules- Mention the person that tagged you. Check! Complete the list of 8's. Check! Tag 8 of your wonderful blogger friends. Go tell them you tagged them. Check!

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Family trip to Iowa in three weeks. We are going for my cousins wedding and to see my new nephew. I can't wait!!!
2. Going to Catholic conferences this summer as a vendor for Lighthouse Catholic Media. My husband and I are doing this together and I just love spending time with him and making money!
3. Visiting my family in Iowa again in July for a week. We are having a family reunion at the end of the trip and I am so excited about it. It has been a long time since we had one. It will be huge as I am the oldest grandchild of 30 some grand kids. There should be around 50 of us or so. We are staying at a place with an indoor water park! Awesome. Best part...we don't have to pay for it. Thanks Grandma so much!!!!!!
4. I am excited for my daughter to start the Catechises of the Good Shepard program at our parish this fall. It is only one day a week for 2 hours. I know she will love it and learn so much! It is a Catholic Montessori approach! It can't get any better than that.
5. I am so excited that the school year is almost over for Dominic. He will be home with me for the whole summer! Yeah!
6. I know this is a while away but I am so excited for my sister in laws wedding in October. Mena is going to be her flower girl! The wedding will be beautiful and the reception will be a blast!
7. I am excited to buy a new digital camera since ours decided to bust during Dom's graduation. New things are always so much fun.
8. I am looking forward to our family graduation/celebration dinner next weekend. There are many graduates this year in Dom's family so we are celebrating them all together. Should be good times.

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Watch cartoons
2. played with Mena
3. ate out at Red Robin (used a gift card)
4. called my mommy for 45 min.
5. Called my friend Sharon
6. Gave Mena a bath
7. Watched Bride Wars with my husband...he lasted half way through then played with Mena.
8. straightened the house up from the mess left after the party on Sunday.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Travel (without kids) with my husband to Italy or the Holy Land.
2. Fly to Iowa instead of drive
3. move to a new house in Saline, Ann Arbor area, or somewhere around Novi. Either closer to our parish or to Dom's work. Either would be nice.
4. get pregnant again!!!!!!
5. take a cruise
6. I wish I was a better cook!
7. go on a family vacation somewhere new.
8. I wish I could afford a new van

8 Shows I Watch:
1. Lie to Me
2. Lost
3. House
4. Monk
5. Psych
6. Law and Order
7. Without a Trace
8. 24 but not this season. We definitely need to rent it when it comes out!

8 People I Tag...
Kate
Maria
Sheila
Rob
Karen
Jesse
Alexis
Mary

Graduation pictures

This weekend was crazy busy! Dominic's graduation awards banquet was Friday night. It was very special to be there and support all his hard work. He graduated Summa Cum Laude and passed his Thesis defense with distinction. This is a high honor. The dinner was fantastic! The food is always really good at the seminary so I wasn't surprised. It did ruin all attempts I had at starting Weight watchers. Oh well there's always another day to start! Saturday morning was the Graduation ceremony. It was wonderful. Archbishop Vigneron had the Mass and then the ceremony followed. It was short and sweet. There were refreshments afterwards, which were delicious too! Sadly my digital camera broke during the ceremony. I have everything on video but am so disappointed that I couldn't get good pictures during or after. It is totally broken now and we are looking for a new one. Any ideas on good cameras? Do you like yours? The pictures I am posting are from before or during walking. We had a party for him on Sunday which was so nice. The weather actually cooperated and fun was had by all. The food was delicious. Thanks to everyone who brought something. It was so nice to see everyone and we all got some good visiting in. I hope to do this again soon, although I would like a break from my hubby studying at least for a while. He is already talking about going back! AHHHHH!

What A Cutie!

My daughter is such a cutie! She will be two and a half on the 26 of this month. I can't believe how fast time flies! I love her so much!

I know I look fat in this picture. No need to tell me to start Weight Watchers, I already have. The dress is really cute though. My mother in law saw it at Target and thought that it was totally me, so she bought it for me. I love it! It fits me perfectly. She did a great job knowing her daughter in law. Thanks Mom!

Mena wanted me to pick her up.

Mena Eats

Mena finally ate what Dad and I were eating today. This is huge! It took so much work to get her to eat the meatloaf muffins that I almost gave in several times. Perseverance prevails! Mena wouldn't eat with us at the table so I let her go but told her that if she got hungry later she would have to try the Meatloaf Muffins I had made. I made her look at me and agree! She then played for about an hour. When she got hungry she immediately asked for apple sauce and yogurt, her two staples. I told her about the meatloaf and she proceeded to throw about a 30 min. fit! It was rough. Eventually I got her to take a bite and she loved it! I knew she would. I usually say take a dinosaur bite instead of a little bite so Mena took that to mean that we need to name every bite! Dora bite, Diego Bite, Boots bite, Computer bite, stroller bite...the list goes on and on. It was too funny! At least she ate for me and it was all worth it. Hopefully she will eat meatloaf muffins now. She is the pickiest child I know!

Hubby is Graduating!

SO my husband is graduating with his Masters in Theology on Saturday! I can hardly believe that the time is finally here. He has worked so hard and studied his butt off for seven years (one year off when Mena was born). He just defended his Masters Thesis on Thursday and passed with distinction. This is a very high honor. His advisor has only ever "passed with distinction" one other person so that says a lot. I am so proud of him! He will be walking on Saturday morning with his family there cheering him on! I am throwing him a party on Sunday with about 40 or so people coming. This is a big undertaking seeing as I have a lot of cleaning and prep to do in just a few short days. Pray that the weather is nice so we can be in the yard. Our house is not that big!

Good job beloved! I love you so much and am so proud of you. Way to go!

Slideshow of FUS Campus

Franciscan University

Friends

Philomena and Bella after Mass at CTK chapel

Mena loved to give her hugs, Bella doesn't look so sure about it though!

Philomena and Bella

Kate and I after Mass at CTK Chapel

Rosemary and I at the reception. Isn't she a beautiful bride?!

A few more...

My Dancing Queen

The wedding was just beautiful and the reception was so much fun. There were a ton of little ones for Mena to dance with and, oh, did she dance! She especially ejoyed the company of her new friend, Bella. Bella's parents and I went to college together and were good friends. It was so much fun to reconnect and see our children getting along sooooo well. (Our husbands got along real well too!!!) Lets just say the food was good, the dancing fun, and the company great!

Rosemary and Josh looked so happy and everything turned out so well. I don't know Josh much but I know his sister. If they are anything alike than Rosemary is getting a gem! (I have a feeling he is just awesome!) Anyway, Congrats to the bride and groom. May God bless you today and always!

Pictures of us on Campus

It was so much fun visiting campus with our little daughter for the first time. We have so many great memories here and we wanted Mena to experience some with us! It felt great walking around on campus again and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was gorgeous!

First of Many

I am back from my weekend trip to Franciscan University of Steubenville. It was wonderful to be back on campus. There are so many new buildings and changes but is still the same Steubie U! I am going to have to post a few different times about this trip because there were so many different aspects to it. We went for my household sister Rosemary's wedding at Holy Family Church in Steubenville. We also walked around campus Saturday morning and went to the bookstore. We had car trouble which is another post entirely! We reconnected with old friends! It was a great time and totaly worth the car headache!

Here are some pictures of campus. I have a ton to post but I don't know how to make a slideshow. I will try to figure that out when I have more time. For now enjoy these!

This is a picture of Finnigan Fieldhouse with dorms in the background. The JC is on the righthand side of the picture. The inside is awesome. I will show those pictures later.

This is the new face of the JC Williams Center taken from the Circle. Inside is gorgeous!

This is a shot from outside the JC Williams Center looking to the left. You can see the newly remodeled St. Thomas More Hall on the right side. Kolbe/Clare Hall is in the middle and the brand new Loius and Elizabeth Hall is on the Left hand side of the picture. They have an awesome courtyard with tables and chairs and even grills for hanging out. This is where the Tennis courts used to be.

This is the new Louis and Elizabeth Dorm. Very nice and definitly needed!

This is the friary that is being built up on the hill by the Steel Cross. The Friars are in desparate need of a new friairy!I will post more pictures in my next post.

Newest Nephew: Baby Egan Matthew

Here is a picture of my nephew baby Egan!

My Little Nun

Yesterday I was changing Mena's outfit. As I pulled her shirt over her head she insisted that I leave it on part way. She looked like a little nun! We had to go grocery shopping and she wanted to keep it on. I let her wear it in the car but was able to get her to take it off before going into Randazzo's! I think the veil suits her well, don't you?