Life is busy, Life is good

Last week was terribly busy, but I hesitate to use that word "terribly", because it was a wonderful week.  So maybe it was wonderfully busy.  Hmmm....

So I'll start with Sunday- Evelyn's family drove in and surprised her as a late birthday gift.  I was the "on campus contact", so I was in charge of getting her back to the dorm after brunch so that the family could come in to the dorm without her seeing.  Of course, that was the day Ev decided it would be a wonderful idea to eat a grapefruit before heading back.  My encouragement of grabbing an orange to go was fruitless (no pun intended).  It all worked out, and there was a lovely surprise, so it was all worth it.

Monday, Ev's parents were kind enough to drive us to a Rick Santorum rally downtown.  It was a wonderful experience and definitely worth missing class for.  After we returned to campus, I went to Mass, and the Santorum family was there, too!  How awesome to see a public figure witnessing to his faith in that way!

My brother and niece came into town for Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had a very nice dinner, and I was able to spend Wednesday afternoon with my niece.  She helped my friend and I shop for groceries and make dinner (which was quite delicious, if I do say so myself!).

But none of that was the highlight of my week.  I attended a Lenten retreat on Friday and Saturday that far surpassed any retreat I had ever been on.  There were talks such as "What is the Meaning of Life?", "Knowing the Love of Christ Crucified", and "The Confraternity of Angelic Warfare".  Best part?  5 1/2 hours of adoration.  *happy sigh*  Saturday evening, a large group of us were enrolled in the Angelic Warfare Confraternity.  If you don't know anything about the confraternity, I encourage you to look it up.  It's extremely powerful!  It comes from St. Thomas Aquinas who was given a cord of purity by two angels and therefore was able to resist temptations.  There are many graces associated with being a member of the confraternity, including the ability to "draw on the treasure chest of graces from the Dominican Order".  Members names will also be inscribed in the enrollment book, the same book that Blessed Pier Georgio Frassati's name is written in from when he was enrolled.  Dominic Savio was also a member.  Needless to say, I was pretty excited to able to be a part of this.

I'm going into an absolutely crazy week, full of tests, papers, and projects.  Prayers would be muchly appreciated!

xoxo,

Catching Up With Myself

Greetings. long lost friends!  I haven't posted in a very, very long time, and I apologize for that!  My life has sort of run away from me..... Some of the things that have occurred over the past couple weeks:

• Women's night retreat: BeLoved 2012: UnTangled by Truth, with speaker and author Katrina Zeno.... wonderful evening!
• Brahms' Requiem in Pittsburgh.  It was a great experience, and I'm so glad I went, but the ending was a bit of a let-down
• STUDENTS FOR LIFE MEETING!!  I'm going to be on the Core team this semester, so I have a meeting every Monday.  I'm so blessed to work with these wonderful people.  I've been put in the Events group, so I'll be planning things for both on and off campus.
• Tests.  Oh tests.  Both went better than I expected, which is always a nice thing.  
• 1Flesh Rebellion info night!  Basically, a group of us are starting a "rebellion" of sorts... (no worries Mom and Dad, its peaceful :D ) We're going to begin an online protest of contraception, since it's a problem that effects the whole country.  We haven't divided up tasks yet, but I'm guessing that I'm going to be involved in the online design aspect..... super pumped about this!!
• CATECHETICS IMMERSION DAY!!  This was a whole day dedicated to learning more about various areas of Catechetics.  I was able to attend talks by a Campus Ministry director, a Catholic high school teacher, and a director of youth ministry.  I think I've now pretty much decided that I want to go into youth ministry.  Happy Day!!
• Movie night with friends- we watched There Be Dragons, which was an absolutely amazing movie about St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei.  Although the movie was partly fiction, I still really enjoyed it.  Definitely recommend!

Other various shtuff:

• I'm taking 18 credits this semester, so I've got a larger amount of reading than last semester.
• I LOVE EMBRYOLOGY!!!!  (something tells me that I've mentioned this before)
• Media and Society is fascinating!  We're currently going over the 1st amendment, which is bringing up a lot of interesting points about free speech, like, what we can and can't say.  Woah.  I didn't know there were so many sides to this issue!!
• My brother and niece are coming to visit me next week!  You can't even begin to understand how excited I am.....

OK, well, I've got to work on a paper..... I've got a busy day tomorrow!  4 classes, here I come!
xoxo,

Home Sweet Home

After a long, 6-and-a-half hour long car ride, we finally made it back home!  It was a fun trip- we talked about school, temperaments, the Myers-Briggs test, books, movies, and snow.

(sidenote- I am baffled by the appearance of snow before November.  Driving home, we looked out the window and saw white fog.  Only, it wasn't fog- it was snow.  Insanity!

It is awesome and somewhat confusing to be home.  The bathroom sink is lower than at college, the bed is wider, my room is darker, and my desk chair is significantly more comfortable. :D  It's a familiar environment, but at the same time, things look different.  Part of that comes from the fact that we redid the kitchen (and put new flooring in the entryway and the living room) right before I left, so while I saw all the changes, I didn't really have time to get used to it all.  And then my room is different too, because most of my things are at college!!  Nevertheless, it's wonderful to be home.  *happy sigh*

Today was a very productive day.  I got my hair cut (by my sister's amazing hair stylist who understands curly hair!!).  Then Mom and I went to the Running Store for some sneakers for me.  The Running Store is mind-blowing.  In a previous post, I recounted my horrible experience of looking for sneakers near college, and how they had no shoes that fit me.  Well, after the lady at the Running Store watched me walk, watched me run, and measured my feet, I had good fitting shoes 15 minutes later!  Wow.  We then had lunch, and headed to the mall for some cold weather clothes..... thank goodness I found what I needed!  It's getting chilly soooo much earlier than normal this year!

So today it was snowing here at home, too.  I mean, it's ok for West Virginia to have snow, but not us!  It's wayyyy too early.  And it didn't even stick!  I just looked at the weather website, and we have a "Freeze Warning" in effect until tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow..... It's definitely going to be a very good day. :)  After mass in the morning, my brother and sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law, and all the kiddos are coming over for brunch.  I haven't seen any of them except my brother in 2 months!  (Not counting Skype....)  And then in the evening I'm going to get together with one of my very good friends who I also haven't seen in 2 months.

I also realized that I didn't post the pictures from the flash mob.  Here are a couple:

Evelyn and I wrote up dozens of post-it notes and put them on people's doorknobs in our dorm, telling them about the flash mob the next morning

The guy on the left is Peter, who came in from Chicago to lead the flash mob.  We were all gathered in really close together, so the balloons formed a sort of tent. :)

We marched up the stairs in a parking garage on our walk through the city!

I'm hoping to possibly get a video I took up soon....... 

Well, I'm off to continue memorizing "La Cigale et la Fourmi" (The Cicada and the Ant) for French.  I never realized how hard it is to memorize something in another language!!

Stay warm, everybody!
xoxo,