Wow, I haven't posted for a very long time... First, I was sick with bronchitis and strep throat for a week, and then it was Holy week, and I was extremely busy with RCIA and the beautiful church liturgies for that time of the liturgical year. Then, after Easter, Laurie's sister, Christy and her husband and three boys came to stay with us for the second week of Laurie's spring break, which was lots of fun :). And after that, I've been busy fretting over Ella, who is very sick right now and being head over heels in fiber projects, especially the woven towel and washcloths that I made for Camelot's Hooves and Heroes fundraiser. Just no time to post and then it began to seem like there was so much to post about that I could never catch up...
Being sick was no fun, but luckily I had a Dr.'s appt about a week after I began to feel sick, I was surprised that the doctor (one of Dr. Skinner's residents) wanted to do a strep test. Lo and behold, it came back positive though and as soon as I started taking the antibiotics, I began to feel much better. Unfortunately, I was still contagious when Laurie and Marc were planning on going to the chrism mass at the cathedral in Phoenix, so I wasn't able to attend that mass. I did attend liturgies Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and of course Holy Saturday, the vigil mass. It was very wonderful to be a sponsor and to watch my catechumen be baptized and then enter into full communion to the church. The director of RCIA was very sweet and sat me and my catechumen very close to Laurie and Marc, which was awesome, because I was also there supporting Marc as he was confirmed and received first Eucharist. Easter vigil is so lovely, and it was a joy to be so involved in it this year. I would like to be a sponsor in the future, but it is a big time commitment - we still aren't done meeting for RCIA for this year yet. Something to keep in mind.
We celebrated Easter sunday dinner at Marc's house. There was roasted lamb and twice baked potatoes and salad and deviled eggs and two yummy cakes and the list goes on... It was all very good and we ate out on Marc's back patio, the weather was beautiful and the noise from the church next door was only slightly annoying. I was bummed, neither my mom or my grandparents made it to the party, but most of our church friends did come and it was absolutely lovely.
Our visit with Laurie's sister, brother-in-law and her nephews was also very nice. We live very close to a park, and every morning, Laurie walked the boys over there to play while the rest of us got a little bit more sleep. Laurie is a super Auntie and it was a lot of fun to have her family here, and not us traveling out to CA for a whirlwind trip to see them all. Our guests had not seen our new house, we ended up giving them the master bedroom to spread out in and Bennett was extremely excited to have Mama and Auntie Laurie in his bedroom all night. After the first night, Laurie decided she'd get more sleep sleeping on the couch because Bennett took to licking us from head to foot all night. Silly bunny. I had to keep ejecting him from the bed so I could get any sleep! He just wants to play, play, play. William was really good with the bunnies this visit, he petted Bennett and had no problem going into the bunny room. JP, however, wasn't to happy to be in the bunny room with the rabbits, which is a change from the way it used to be - William afraid and JP ok. It was William's birthday and Laurie made him a very yummy brownie cake, instead of frosting, she used marshmallow cream and melted chocolate into it. It was very rich and very good! I wouldn't have thought to use marshmallow to top brownies, but it ended up being delicious! Laurie, Christy, Marc and I also went to a graduate school production of "Into the Woods" at ASU during the week. Laurie's whole family can sing the songs from the play and the students to put it on did a really good job. It was a lot of fun and the wheelchair seats were really good, or at least I was comfortable, after the intermission, everyone else went to go sit in the row of seats in front of the wheelchair section, as the chairs were not very comfortable.
After the Laurie's family headed home, we spent a couple of days recuperating. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this yet on the blog, but Laurie does not have a job for next year and she's working hard to find one. Her school is closing and we are hoping she might be able to get an administrative job in the Catholic schools for next year. We are hoping and praying that a job comes, which is making our vacation plans really up in the air, we do not know if she will be working in July or what's going to happen. Originally, we were going to be on vacation for 6 weeks, the whole month of June and part of July, but that's not really looking feasible right now with the job situation. We'll see...
I worked frantically on the towels for Hooves and Heroes, and finished them in the nick of time! The whole event was a lot of fun - live music, good food and lots of nice people. I volunteer by helping man the table raising money for hay and the retirement village that Camelot is building to comfortably house the retiring horses from the program. Once a horse is chosen for the program and gives his or her life to helping students, they spend the rest of their lives at Camelot, retired. Camelot is building a pasture for retired horses, so I helped out with that. When the time came for the raffle of the student baskets, Michelle, my instructor, who had been lusting after my hand towels and washcloths, came over to see who would win my basket. Funnily enough, it ended up that Laurie won my basket! With the one ticket she put in, she won! Graciously, Laurie gave Michelle the towels and all was well. (I hear that the towels match Michelle's bathroom perfectly and are lovely - although I will never weave with that yarn again!) I won a raffle basket as well, one with horse things in it - some magnets, a puzzle, some jewelry, and horse treats! The only little cloud over the day was a bit of a mix up with the raffle baskets, someone else thought they won my basket and her husband was rather nasty to me, Marc and Laurie when we tried to collect my basket to go home. He didn't want to work it out and was rude, which was unfortunate. It ended up that I was correct and the basket was mine. We even managed to make it to church that night, albeit dressing in Renaissance clothes :).
We had a nice Mother's day with my mom, we had brunch with her and my grandparent - french toast made of Challah bread and fruit salad and a blueberry cheese. It was simple but really good and my mom and grandmother enjoyed themselves.
I think I've pretty much caught up... Looking forward to a fibery post!
