Just Call Me Sleepy the Dwarf

I can’t seem to put two thoughts together this week, hence the almost complete lack of posts. Every time I try and think of a subject to talk about, my brain goes on scatter mode and refuses to stay on one thought for more than 7 seconds which makes it pretty hard to write about something without it sounding like this:

“I really need to think about the testimony I have to give for the kids tomorrow. What can I possibly have to talk about that they’d be interested in? Why do my eyes hurt so much? I’ve gotten 10 hours of sleep every night this week so there’s no way I can be tired. Is there such a thing as too much sleep? I really need to call H back but there’s no signal in my house. Why do we pay so much for our phones if we can’t even talk at home? I can hear Tubby snoring over the sound of the TV…she might want to get that checked out. Would a vet even do anything for a snoring animal? Wait, does anyone actually take their pet to the vet for that? I need to clean out that bowl from my pomegranates. How am I tired at 10:28…? I wonder if I could get out of sharing some sort of personal story at the retreat tomorrow. I really don’t like talking in front of groups. This Spongebob voice doesn’t sound like the normal one. What the heck am I going to write about?”

I’m sure you can guess why I wanted to spare you from that utter chaos. And since every problem needs to be blamed on something, I’ve chosen to attribute this particular conundrum to excess sleep. Last time I checked, I'm not an infant working on tripling my height and weight every few months, so my job shouldn't consist of alternating between sleeping and eating day in and day out, as much as I think I'd enjoy (and excel at!) that lifestyle. So why is it that all I want to do is sleep? I’m a little ashamed to say that I’ve been hopping into bed around 8 9 each night and catching some zzz’s until 7:24. Some days I’ve even napped… :/ I don’t feeeeeel sick, but this just doesn’t seem normal. Yesterday I finally made an effort to beat my 6^th grade bedtime by a full 2 hours and my eyes mutinied. They’ve been threatening to pop out of their sockets if I force them to stay open much longer. I can’t even blame the sleepiness on over-exerting myself throughout the day. If anything, I’m under-exerting myself. Maybe my body is just in Snorlax mode due to my embarrassingly long exercise fast. I don’t know what it is, but I just thought I owed you all an explanation for my absence. Fortunately none of you have disappointed so I’ve been able to get my blog fix by commenting on your lovely thoughts :) I’ll try and do better next week.

Challenge Accepted

I’ve always enjoyed a good challenge. When I was in 5^th grade, I competed in the Spelling Bee, even though I was up against 6^th graders, and I won! In high school, I broke the season rebounding record my junior year and had an article written about it in the newspaper. The journalist congratulated me and said I’d certainly end up in the top 5 for career rebounds but that I’d wind up well short of the all-time leader.  I worked hard all season and wound up not only beating the previous season record I had set the year before, but also seizing the career record. It was pretty amazing. So when I read my friend’s semi-recent post listing 100 things she’s thankful for and saw her challenge at the end of it, I knew I needed to sit down and do it, too. Oh, Thanksgiving was last week you say? Well, I guess I didn’t want to jump off the same bridge everyone else was ;)

Here we go! *in no particular order other than the order they came to mind*

1. God/Jesus/Holy Spirit (I thought it would be cheating to list them as 3 separate numbers…)

2. Friends.

3. Family.

4. My house.

5. Having enough food to eat.

6. My upcoming internship.

7. Access to medicine.

8. Snail mail.

9. Laughter.

10. Babies.

11. Catching up with good friends.

12. Travelling.

13. Having enough money to live comfortably.

14. Finding new friends via blogging.

15. Prayer.

16. Changing seasons.

17. My car.

18. Peace of mind.

19. Joy.

20. Hope.

21. Coffee.

22. Ice cream!

23. My health.

24. Daily mass.

25. The Bible.

26. Warm clothes.

27. The sound of the furnace turning on.

28. Bible study.

29. Good books.

30. Television.

31. Musicals.

32. Having friends who can sing!

33. Catholicism.

34. Email/Skype/Facebook/etc.

35. Library cards.

36. My glasses.

37. Courage

38. Others’ perspectives.

39. Free time.

40. Memories.

41. The mission trip to the Philippines.

42. Vacations I’ve taken to Europe.

43. The smell of homemade bread.

44. Beauty.

45. Truth.

46. My five senses.

47. Spending time with friends’ families.

48. Sunsets.

49. Trees during autumn.

50. Love.

51. Momma Mary.

52. Church traditions.

53. Recycling.

54. Blood donations.

55. Flowers.

56. The Sacraments.

57. TV show season premieres.

58. Music, live and on the radio.

59. My iPod.

60. Hot cocoa.

61. Silence.

62. Hair products.

63. Finding a good quote.

64. The saints!

65. Hugs.

66. Wine tasting.

67. Bringing joy to others.

68. Teeth.

69. Pita chips.

70. Pictures.

71. Popsicles.

72. Nature.

73. Jokes.

74. Disney movies.

75. Getting invited to things.

76. Easter Vigil.

77. GPS.

78. Fresh fruit.

79. Miracles.

80. Finding the good in the bad.

81. Learning new things.

82. Forgiveness.

83. Having the perfect example to follow.

84. Smiles.

85. Doctors and nurses.

86. Second chances.

87. Having wisdom imparted on me.

88. Christmas concerts.

89. Veterans.

90. People who chew with their mouths closed.

91. Low interest rates on loans.

92. Snow plows.

93. My phone.

94. Online banking.

95. Baby laughter.

96. Candles that smell like real Christmas trees.

97. Stars in the sky.

98. My laptop.

99. TV on DVD.

100. All of you wonderful people who read my extremely random blog.

That may quite possibly be the most random list of items I’ve ever compiled. Who knew I had so many things to be thankful for :) 

Quick Takes (7)

This is what's playing in my head right now. And now it's playing in yours :) So Happy Friday! Now for some quick takes a la me via Jen.

1. It feels a little odd to be up this early and not be participating in Black Friday. It's not for lack of trying. As much as I love being herded through stores like cattle, something about the fine print in the ads was holding me back. Perhaps it was the "only one in stock" asterisk. Or the "must get here between 2 and 3 am and be willing to stand on one foot while singing the ABCs backward" side note. Okay, maybe I'm making that one up, but I honestly couldn't find anything that I really needed for myself or others in any of the ads. I guess I just don't have the deal-finding bug in me.

2. My grandma, the typical Thanksgiving host, decided to haul off to Branson this year with one of my aunts and cousins, which meant the rest of us had to fend for ourselves or find alternate plans. Less than half the family ended up getting together as a result, so it just didn't feel the same as it usually does.

3. It can be a little uncomfortable being the only practicing Catholic in my family...especially when the topic of conversation turns to pro-life issues and Obamacare and no one else believes that life begins at conception. I just wish they would be more open to understanding the importance of protecting children in the womb, but it feels like I'm talking to a brick wall anytime I voice my beliefs. St. Monica, pray for us!

4. I love kids, and they typically love me, too. I don't remember the last time I met a baby/toddler/grade schooler who didn't eventually warm up to me. Well, I've finally met my match. There was a little 2.5 year old at my uncle's house for Thanksgiving and I instantly wanted to be best friends with her. She was the cutest little thing! Plus she had a turkey bow in her hair. Adorable. My first attempt at wooing her involved smiling as I entered the room she was in. She immediately ran away so she could find her mom. Then she buried her face in her mother's shoulder. Okay fine, maybe she doesn't like to be smiled at. So the next time, I just casually walked into the living room to take a seat on the couch. As soon as she saw me, she ran into her mom's arm and stared at me while clutching her mom. Strike two. This continued to happen for the rest of the night. It didn't matter whether I was looking at her or not; she refused to be in the same room as me. I eventually developed quite the complex and gave up on us ever being cordial, let alone besties. It was a sad, sad day in the kid department :(

5. I don't know what it is about our family get togethers, but there is ALWAYS way too much food. Now I have nothing against leftovers, especially since it means I won't have to eat crackers and cheese for lunch the next day, but when I can't even eat dinner because I'm stuffed from all the appetizers that have been put out throughout the day, I think we have a problem.

6. Did anyone else catch that Jets v. Patriots game? 3 touchdowns in 50-something seconds?? Seriously!? That was quite the way to end a whole day's worth of football watching, especially since I watched more games today than I have the past 3 years combined I think.

7. I'm headed to my first Vegan Thanksgiving this afternoon. I have no idea what to expect, but I'll be spending time with an amazing friend so I'm excited! I'm sure I'll never have eaten any of the dishes before, so my highly unrefined palate will be in for quite the surprise. I'll be sure to let you know if I discover anything extra yummy :)

And there you have it. Seven points that all revolve around things that happened in a 24-hour period. Guess that's what happens when family comes around. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and survived any shopping you may have taken part in! Head on over to Jen's for more fun :)

Did someone say miracles?

Originally this post was going to be a response to a challenge one of my friend’s gave me the other day, but after the afternoon I had, I decided I would save that topic for tomorrow and hit you with some MIRACLES!

I discovered a perpetual adoration chapel about 20 minutes away from my house about a month ago. Well, that’s not exactly true…my friend told me about it so I guess she technically discovered it. Haha but that’s not important. What IS important is that we went today. We probably got there around 2:30 and at 3, the priest came in and asked us if we wanted to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet with him. Then he invited us over for cookies and coffee whenever we were done praying. So when we were both finished, we walked over to the rectory and walked into a Catholic goldmine! Honestly, there’s no other way to describe it. This man had more prayer cards, relics, statues, pictures, and dishes for his cat (unrelated? Possibly) than most gift shops do. It was amazing. I wish I had had my phone with me so that I could have taken pictures of some of them. He had a first class relic of Blessed John Paul II (a piece from the inside of the little white beanie he was wearing on the day he was shot), a hair from Mother Teresa’s head, a piece from the crown of thorns, aaaand something from each member of the Holy Family (I wish I could remember what they all were…but I don’t). Plus a ton of others but I can’t seem to recall them all…next time I’ll be more prepared!

But that wasn’t even the coolest thing! After we had our fill of relics (as if that’s even possible…), he brought out some rose petals, some oil, and a stack of pictures. He proceeded to tell us a story of aFilipino layman who he’s friends with. Apparently this man takes 3 white roses and puts the petals into a container of water. Then he tells someone to put their rosary into the water and all of the sudden it starts foaming up, and he takes the mixture and pours it into bottles. And it becomes rose-scented OIL! It smells soooo good. But it gets better! Because then he tells everyone to take a rose petal and put it on their shoulder. Once again I can’t remember what exactly happens next but then he tells them to look at their petals AND THEY ALL HAVE IMAGES ON THEM!!! The priest had like 15 of them with images of the kids at Fatima, JPII, Mary’s Immaculate Heart, Padre Pio, and St. Francis with the church he rebuilt.  They were so amazing and so detailed. Looks like I need to plan another trip to the Philippines!

You’re not going to believe this, but there’s more! This priest was just full of stories. The next one involved a little girl from Massachusetts, Audrey Santo. You can read her full story here, but essentially she was in a near drowning accident and wound up in a semi-vegetative state due to some complications. According to the priest, her mother took her to Medugorje where she recovered slightly. When they got back, they turned their garage into a small chapel. When a few priests came to bless the area, blood appeared on 4 of the Hosts. Whoa!

And there’s one more :) I didn’t quite follow the story in the beginning so I’m going to move along to the middle and hope you can catch up. Basically, there was this crucifix in Mexico that a boy had been dreaming about his whole life. They ended up making 3 replicas of it, and the priest I met has one and knows the other two priests who have the others. Apparently they were all together blessing items in what looked like someone’s basement according to the pictures he had, when all of the sudden, two of the replica crosses started weeping. He has pictures of the oil dripping down from all around the cross. Then! They took tissues and wiped Jesus’ legs. When they pulled them back, the tissues had red marks all over them like they had wiped away blood. And then salt started forming on the head of the crucifix! And he’s got pictures of all of this!

There’s just something about stories like these that really set my heart on fire. Yeah we don’t need these miracles, but they sure are nice. They get people talking and thinking and wondering what’s up with those crazy Catholics ;) They remind us that we really do have the fullness of Truth. They let us know that something important is going on and we need to pay attention. It’s like the Marian apparitions. Of course Mary doesn’t have to appear to us, but when she does, we need to listen to the messages she’s bringing. She’s doing it for our benefit, not her own.  Because without us, God’s plan cannot be realized.