Stained Glass - El Salvador Mission Book

People might wonder why a person would want to blog about something.  Today, with all the instant communications available such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc., you might ask, "can't  you just say what you want to say in a sentence or two?"  After all, nobody wants to take the time to read all that stuff anyways.  To them I say, grab a chair.  Today I heard about another sad situation where a young man went on a stabbing spree at his high school.  Now, you may think I'm totally crazy here, but I really feel sorry for this kid.  Of course I feel more sorrow and unbelievable pain for the victims families, I can't help but really feel for this kid.  Every time I hear about these school sprees (and believe me I am awe struck at their frequency), I find myself heartbroken for the one who is so angry, so hurt, so misunderstood that he feels compelled to harm others.   I feel for his parents as well.  I wonder what must have happened in the child's life t

My son said to me last week after sleeping over a friends house, "thanks for ruining my night?"  Why did I ruin your night, I asked?  "Because I kept looking at my phone wondering why you weren't calling me every half-hour, I thought something was wrong," he said.  When I told him that dad and I were out all night he said, "well that explains it."   It was really kind of funny.  He would yell at me for calling him all the time when he was out with his friends, but when I didn't call him, he got mad at me because he was worried all night.  I told him that the time for him to worry is when I never call him anymore, than that means I just don't care.  But I do care.  I can't help it.  I'm not obsessive but I do want to know where my kids are...to the best I can figure it out.  It is sort of cute that they have been conditioned to know "mom cares."  That even when I am not there to call them they notice.   Of course, my k

Many of you already know that I lost my Mother Marian a few weeks ago.  I know that you know because I had the pleasure of seeing you at either the wake or the funeral. My mom would have been amazed at the number of people who showed up.  It was as if a great dignitary had passed. My mother was 82 years old...exactly!  You see she died on her 82nd birthday.  In the Catholic Church we celebrate Patron Saints Days, which is actually a celebration of the day of their death, not their birth.  The reason for this is because we are actually not celebrating death, but rather rebirth in heaven.  My mother was reborn into her eternal life on the same day she was born into her mortal life 82 years ago.   I have no idea what the chances of that happening really are, or if there is any hidden significance to it, but if you knew my mother you would say that it was so that we would always remember the day she died.  My mom was big on family, tradition, and her majestic role as a mother.  Need

You're probably wondering what's up with that title?  You may be asking, does she really not know how to spell?  Well I probably don't, but I did deliberately choose to misspell the word "you".  Did you ever notice that in many of the bible stories people are referred to as sheep?  Now for those of you who know me, you know that I am a lover of sheep.  They are cute, cuddly, and baaaa oh so sweetly.  I even have a small sheep collection, but I never liked how people were likened to sheep in the gospels.  After all, we are intelligent human beings who have great minds to reason and think with, we are supposed to use our intellect and not be led around by a prod or staff, right?   Why then did Jesus say that we are His sheep?  Are we not supposed to think?  Maybe He used sheep because hearding sheep was popular in those days and people could relate to His stories?  Still, it seemed a little degrading to me.  If we are sheep then that it implies that we are not gi

As most of you already know, I was blessed to be able to spend the past year and half at home being a mom to my teenage boys.  My whole life I have worked, and/or worked and gone to school, but the last year and half has been a very different experience for me.  Let me start off by saying that I was lucky to be offered a fantastic job opportunity with CC Hodgson Architectural Group (a partner of Dorsky, Hodgson, and Yue) located in Beachwood, OH.  It is more than I ever expected to get in this crazy economy and I truly feel lucky and super blessed!  My "official" title is, Focus Specialist, but we really don't use titles at our company.  The long and short of this unusual title is that I am basically CC Hodgson right-hand, go-to person.  The position involves wearing many different hats, from marketing, business development, to organizing business processes and Staff parties.  It's perfect!   That being said, I have made some interesting observations about my time

What in the world is going on in this country?  A few days ago my son Nick and I were sitting in the family room when a commercial came on promoting a new reality TV show.  The scenes were atrocious!  It was a show which exposes moms who try to live vicariously through their young daughters.  They apparently sign them up for "exclusive" dance lessons or something and then fight with the other moms who think their daughters are better.  Name calling, fist fights, everything in front of their young children.  After watching the hard-to-take snippet  Nick and I looked at each other and he said, "this is what's wrong with our country."   Who can argue with that?  Other TV shows like "Jerseylicious, Real Housewives, and Toddlers and Tiaras, portraying women like we are animals who can't think or act rationally.  I believe these kinds of shows are setting women back 100 years.  Gloria Steinem is probably drinking herself into a stooper as I type out these