Joyful Mary

So a few weeks ago, I was saying a rosary, meditating on the joyful mysteries, when a thought popped into my head. Man. Some of these joyful mysteries don't seem so joyful.

Now, this rosary was not the first rosary I've ever said, nor was it the first time I meditated on the joyful mysteries. But I couldn't help but realize that some of the joyful mysteries overlap with the Seven Sorrows of Mary. I know that I am probably not the first person in the world to notice this overlap, but I was just surprised that it took me so long to REALLY think about what the joyful mysteries meant. When Joseph and Mary took Jesus to be presented at the temple, isn't that when Simeon told Mary that a sword would pierce her heart (referring to Christ's Passion)? All that Mary had to endure as a mother before her son was even born was exhausting, and now she had to hear about her pierced heart. What courage! And then some odd years later, LOSING your ONLY son who happened to be the Savior of the world...man! I mean, she and Joseph probably had to schlep all around Nazareth and who knows where else searching for Him, having no idea where to look. Just think of how difficult it would have been to find someone back then, with only word of mouth and your eyes to guide you. Yet, this, too, is part of the Joyful Mysteries. This is what really made me start to think. Obviously those responsible for compiling the different mysteries knew what they were doing. So, what can I derive from these mysteries, so sorrowful for Mary, being part of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.

A few thoughts: First off, the Rosary is a way to meditate on Jesus' life--both of which these mysteries ARE joyful. Being presented at the temple fulfilled Simeon's patient heart completely (see canticle of Simeon!) In addition to fulfilling His role as a faithful Jew. Also, the fifth mystery is the "FINDING of the boy Jesus in the temple", not the "frantic search of Joseph and Mary all over creation looking for lost Jesus." Plus, my personal favorite, Jesus' response to his worry stricken parents was that He was in His Father's house--His rightful place. They found Him exactly where He was supposed to be. There is a lot of comfort for me in that simplicity. I guess in all of this wondering, I basically just realized how complicated life was for the Holy Family, and people in general in Jesus' time. I mean, they were people, just like me, and they had these feelings, just like me, and life was not static, but complicated, multi-faceted, and evocative. Each mystery of the rosary isn't just a scene frozen in time, but something that happened that effected many people, in many different ways, and continues to do so some 2,000 years later.

And as for our Lady's sorrows overlapping with joy, well, I think that just speaks even more of her holiness. I'm sure that even through the sorrow, she saw it as a way to be joyful in entrusting herself completely to God's will, giving her annunciation "yes" over and over again.

These are just some of my thoughts. I'm sure there are many people who have thought them before, but it was the first time for me. So I just figured I would share.

Tan Hands?

Just a little FYI- If you see lotion that says it has a "Gentle Glow" BACK AWAY! Especially if you are pasty white!! Unfortunately the other day I felt the pain of ultra dry winter hands and reached for the nearest lotion next to the kitchen sink because I didn't want to make the trip upstairs to find lotion. A mistake I will never repeat. Ever. Much to my amazement, after several hearty applications of the lotion, I awoke the next day with, you guessed it, ULTRA TAN HANDS!! Given my complexion, my hands looked more orange than anything. Talk about a humility maker, because I had to work all day at the library.

Some may argue that if the lotion bottle is dark brown, one would understand that Gentle Glow implied tanning lotion.

IT COULD HAVE MEANT LITTLE SPARKLES, TOO! Gosh.

All of this begs the question, why on earth, in the house of the most pasty family ever, would there be lotion with tanning solution next to the sink?!

Answer: we are Polish and it was probably free in the mail or something. :)

true story.

Importing "Kitty"

So everyone should know that I work at a library. Part of my wonderful job in the circulation department is watching all of the different items the library has to offer circulate through the system. Why is this so great? I get FIRST PICKS on newly checked in items before they even hit the shelves. I.E. - Great books that I probably never would have discovered otherwise (see Stockett's The Help). CDs, DVDs, you name it! So, right now, I am downloading about 15CDs and 5 Audiobooks to my itunes library. So what else can I do while they download but go on here and ramble about nothing in true Sanguine form. Hey, you don't have to read it. You can choose to stop scolling right now. Not like I'm going to know, and even if I did, I would forget about it in 5 seconds because of my sanguinity (word?). So hey, joke's on you.

I'm going to make a quilt. I was at JoAnn's the other day and they had some fat quarters on sale for $0.99! I bought them like they were hot and decided right there I would make something out of them like the Elm Creek Quilters (great book series by Jennifer Chiaverini about friends that quilt--my mom and sister and I read them like it's our job). So I picked out a few different colors that I really liked, mainly reds, browns, and deep greens, and now I just have to pick out the quilt pattern. My mom loves to quilt, so she has pretty much every quilt book in the universe. Each block is named something special and means something. Honestly, most of the time I can't understand why the blocks have the names they do, but regardless, there sure are a lot to choose from out there! I think I've narrowed it down to a simple pattern, but I'm not sure yet. I'm very indecisive. But this is something I want to accomplish. So decisions are coming soon! I'll try to put updates on here every now and again.

My CDs are almost done importing, and I will be moving on to audiobooks. Fantasia 2000- Firebird Suite just scared the crap out of me. If you haven't listened to it before, go listen to it and you'll figure out quickly what I'm talking about.

STUPID FISH DISEASE

I just spent a few moments trying to think up a great title for this post, but really, the only title that sums it up is the one I chose.  STUPID. FISH. DISEASE. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most know that I am an animal enthusiast.  Fish really have never been a big part of the equation before.  Sure, it was nice to have a little fish friend once and a while, but nothing more.  My preference was for the cuddly puppy of any variety, and even an occasional kitten.  I even brought a kitten home once when I was working at the vet.  It was one of the stupidest things I have ever done, but the kitten fooled me with its facade of fluffy fur and pink nose.  Regardless, never a fish fan.  

HOWEVER....

I got a fish in the summer.  I believe his picture is on the blog somewhere in my minimal posting. Most of you know that I have a very difficult time sleeping at night, and oftentimes, over the past few months, I would fall asleep watching my little friend swim around.  It was relaxing.  I loved my fish.

THEN HE DIED.

Why did he die?  

STUPID FISH DISEASE!!!

How did he contract such a horrible fate?

STUPID SCOTT'S PET SHOP IN LAGRANGE, IL!!!!!  

My brother wanted to get me a few more fish friends for Gimbly (yes, nerd alert I know, whatevsies).  So we got two fish that were smaller than Gimbly so he would be able to be top fish in the tank.  It was a meticulous decision.  I found two who fit the job.  They were cute.....AND VESSELS OF DISEASE AND DESTRUCTION!!!  The first one waited until it had five babies to kick it.  Yes, five fishy babies, four of which my brother saved, put into a tank, and ground up little fishy flakes for them.

Yeah, they're all dead now.

Then the other one got the fish disease.  No surprise there. 

Well, we all know the outcome. 

SCOTT'S PETSHOP=DISEASE INFESTED FISH MURDERERS. 

Moral of the story, don't eff with my fish.

Firefox Fun!

My computer almost took a crap today. It was a petrifying moment...waiting for my computer to start up again. Wondering if all my pictures that I have NEVER printed off (including ITALY) would still be there. THANKFULLY it started up fine. I am hoping it was a problem attributed to Internet Explorer, which has been causing me a lot of grief lately. So, I switched to Firefox--and I'm LOVING it! I just had to share! There's all these little ad-ons and appearance settings. I like to customize. It's not really that big a deal, I know, but hey, little things in life.

Not Dead Yet!

Just busy. It would be too long and boring to go into everything that's happened since July, so here's the quick facts. I'm working at a library by my house as a Circulation Clerk and I absolutely love it. The people I work with are all nice, I love the work I do, I get to work with a TON of awesome material (books, DVDs, CDs, etc.) AND I don't pay late fees!! Woo perk of the job! No insurance or anything, but hey, keep your dime, courtesy of the OPPL.



Also, I got new glasses.



That sums up about the past few months. Really.

But I am doing really well otherwise--better than I have been in a long time.

Oh, and I also redecorated my bedroom, so that is pretty sweet. Here's how it looks now.

My fish. His name is Gimly.

And that concludes the tour of my room. So goons can back off now... COUGH sissy COUGH.

Second Annual Steed Thanksgiving on Halloween

This past weekend I went to Urbana to visit with my absolute favorite family of Steeds! On Saturday we participated in the Second Annual Steed Family Thanksgiving (plus me) on Halloween! It was delicious, and a ton of fun. We cooked a turkey (and by "we" I mean Drake) even without the instructions, made a ton of tasty sides and then rounded out the night watching some quality Zac Efron cinema genius (17 Again, really good--I'm totally serious) and played some Vietnamese card games. Sunday we had Fall Fun Time outside at one of the many thousands of parks in the Champaign-Urbana area. All in all, it was a WONDERFUL weekend, and as usual, it was such a blessing to spend time with Lauren, Drake, and the one and only adorable cushy-handed Lil' T. I miss them all tremendously. Just about all the time.

T was a calf for Halloween. Look at the little ears on top of the hood. Adorable!

We tried to get him to walk like a cow on all fours....he wasn't so into it.

coloring at the library

I love that he is trying to eat his shoe.

Our "Young Turkey"

Drake carving

First piece!

Lauren very thoughtfully cutting pears.

The rest of the feast.

I love Fall! So much!

T wasn't feelin the leaves pictures so much. But he still looks cute!!

Steeds!

Token senior picture leaning on a fence.

Later on, we carved an All Saints Day Jack-O-Lantern. His name was Harold.

Having some T and Auntie Steph time!

We are making the same face in this photo. Love it.

What a handsome gentleman! (Earlier that day he held to door open for me...with some help from Mom, of course).

"Gosh, I know I'm cute." -T

I'm a blog tease

I would say I'm sorry for my recent lack of blog activity, but really, I'm not.  It's been a pretty crazy time these past few weeks.  My mom, dad, and some of Carly and Matt's friends arrived in FL for Miriam's baptism, so that took a lot of time.  We had a blast, going to GATORLAND, spending the day cruising the Banana River on a fast boat, sewing an ENTIRE quilt, trips to the pool and beach, and to cap it off, that damn space shuttle finally took off.  All TOTALLY fun things, but busy nonetheless.  Also, I learned these busy weeks would be my last in FL.  

In the beginning of July end of June my grandma got really sick.  She starting having these pseudo strokes (that's the best way I know how to describe them).  Basically, whatever independence she had left is now gone, and she needs round the clock care.  For several reasons, one being that I was not finding work in FL, and the bigger reason being that I LOVE my grandma because she is the GREATEST grandma in the world, I decided to come back to Chicago and be her caretaker so she wouldn't be spending this difficult time with some Polish lady stranger who could give a crap less about her.  

SO, that being said, it's been busy and writing on some blog hasn't been top priority (PATRICK!). I flew home from FL on the 16th of July, went to a pair of my best friends' wedding (sorry if that possessive was incorrect), got back to Chicago on Monday where Lizard dropped me off at my grandma's house and I have basically spent all my time there since then.  I've learned a lot about what it is going to take in order to care for grandma.  It's been really overwhelming, but so far, I don't feel like it is not doable. I love my grandma so much, I know I am helping out my family, and I have been given a beautiful gift to be able to serve our Lord. 

I enjoy writing on this because I know it's nice to let the people you care about know what you're doing with your life.  It's also kinda fun. So I am going to try and keep up as much as I can.  I have totally awesome pictures from some of the events listed above (GATORLAND pics are AAHHHHHmaaaaaaaaazing) and as soon as I can figure out how to get them off my mom and dad's cameras, they will be on here.  Until then hold tight, don't lose faith in my blogging capabilities, and I will do my best to not go all wakkie nu nu on you. 

peace

Hot as dump!

Some may be thinking, "of course it's as hot as dump outside...its Florida...in the SUMMER...of course it's going to be hot." While I understand this line of thought, when I arrived in May, the temperatures actually weren't that bad. It was actually very tolerable. However, the days of semi-nice looking hair and not feeling perpetually sweaty have passed on, and the ravaging beast known as humidity has arrived with a b-slap to my face. In order to combat the humidity, we've gone to the beach a couple times....not too shabby. It was nice to park my chair right in the waves and read. I guess it's a nice trade off for the completely wakkie nu nu weather.

This little crab kept going in and out of his little hole in the sand right by all our stuff. He was pretty big, and as you can see, pretty creepy!

I wanted to make the ocean do something cool like Percy Jackson.

I did Cecilia's hair in these little pigtails....adorable! Moments later, she hit me in the face with the kazoo. When my sister told her, "We do NOT hit Auntie Steph with our kazoo!!" I laughed really hard and totally negated any disciplining. It was real funny.

Space Shuttle, we have a problem...you suck!

One of the cool things about having a brother in law in the Air Force is access to Cape Canaveral. This past Saturday there was supposed to be a space shuttle launch, so my brother in law, Matt, his sister, Katherine, and I wanted to go and see it, considering this will be one of the last launches since the shuttle is being discontinued soon. Anyway, the launch was scheduled for 7AM, meaning we had to wake up at 4:45 in order to leave by 5:30 to make it to base an hour early to get our premo seats at the Cape. Well, after dragging myself out of bed and the BC of D, we found out the launch was "scrubbed" because of a leak. So since we were all awake already, we went to the Cape anyway and Matt gave us an awesome tour. We got to climb through some cool stuff and explore an abandoned launch building (I forgot the technical term for it). However, as a history nerd, it was especially rewarding to see the launch pads for the very first space flight missions, and the place where the Challenger is buried (or at least its speculated location). What really shocked me though was that some of these really historically important places were totally dilapidated. When I asked Matt why none of these places were preserved better, he told me that one of the first things to get cut in the AF budget was funding for, "historical crap". Nice. We rounded out the day on Matt's friend's sailboat on the Bananna River. I saw at least 5 manatee's in the docks at the Marina, and by the end of the sailing trip, my face had morphed into one giant freckle. It was fun though....I love boats!

Yesterday, we heard the launch had been rescheduled for today at 5:40 AM. Being the dedicated nerds we are, we decided to wake up at 3:30 to make it to base to see the launch. And, after I went to bed at 9:45 PM ( probably for the first time since 3rd grade) and woke up, got dressed, and was all ready for the launch, we found out the launch was scrubbed AGAIN. Complete wakkie nu nu! I mean, don't get me wrong, I am glad that the astronauts won't get hurt from whatever keeps malfunctioning, but come on! That's why you suck, space shuttle.

Here's some pictures from our Cape tour:

The lighthouse

Inside one of the giant old launch sites

Me and Matt on the other side of the launch thingy. It was gross becuase there was a dead vulture down below us that ran into some powerlines...sick!

Launch place where the Apollo I fire happened, killing all three astronauts.

An underground escape hatch in case you got sealed inside the launch building. It was pitch black inside of this place, and all we had were 3 flashlights to look around.

1970 called...they want their launch computer back. After a while of being in this room, my lungs started to hurt. I probably inhaled asbestos. Oh well!

Yelling into the void

Pile of suck! (aka unlaunched shuttle)

Gator Land

So although FL can make you hate yourself becuase of the constant thick cloud of humidity resulting in constant sweatiness and horrible hair, it fully redeems itself though awesome one of a kind experiences, such as....witnessing a man pull/wrestle a gator in your backyard. This gator man, on the job for only six weeks, pulled out a 5 foot 6 inch gator from the lake behind the house. GATORS=AWESOME. the end.

fishing for the gator

there he is!

he sat on him. Ironically, the gator man was wearing crocs...

he brought the gator closer for my sister and the kiddos to see.

close up of his teeth. I was about 3 inches from his face!

gator!