Summer Doings

Summer is nearing its end and I have not posted since May. *gaspeth* My apologies. I really do want to start posting more frequently.

On to summer doings (not in order):

1) Graduated from highschool
2) rejoined Facebook
3) had graduation party
4) visited Rachel and Emmy in VA for a week (soooooo much fun!)
5) missed out on the Fairy Tale Novel Get-Together :( but enjoyed reading everyone's reviews and looking at pictures.
6) watched and slightly partook in a Jane Austen romance: aka two of my friends started courtship (it was so sweet!)
7) worked many many hours at my job
8) registered for the fall semester at our local community college
9) attended a couple parties
10) family visited from out of state for a week
11) helped a little bit with planting our huge garden and more recently canning all the food (IMHO, canning is a pain, smelly, time consuming, and better left to the manufacturing companies)
12) watched Captain America in theaters with Hannah
13) uh.....I know I did something else...OH! Went to see Casting Crowns in concert and got a practically front row seat!
14) attended the First Professions Mass and reception of the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist

Coming up:

1) Get to see my friends: the newly courting couple and her family :D
2) dentist appointment to see if I need to get my wisdom teeth out (probably will, too, they hurt so bad!)
3) college starts on September 1st
4) I turn 21 years old!
5)aaaaaaaand.....I think that is it for now

I hope you are all having a marvelous summer and are looking forward to fall!!!! :)

God bless!

I GRADUATED!!!!

I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT, HOORAY!!!!! THANK YOU, LORD!

Seton Home Study Graduate 2011

Regency Ball 2011 Hairstyles

(Excuse the stupid ribbon ^ sticking out of the side of my head. I wouldn't stay down!)

The Crusaders Tale

Ladies and Gents, I would like to introduce you to my brothers' film project: The Crusaders Tale. Danny is directing and acting in it. Almost everyday he troops out with David, Tony, Gabriel, weapons, costumes, facial hair, tri-pod, and a very high-tech-y HD camera. They post pictures and are getting ready to present some clips. So, check it out here and become a follower of their filming adventure!

Sink or Swim

Have you ever gotten to a point in life where it feels like you are have to either sink or swim? Guess what? I'm there! I feel like I have swam an incredible distance and I am only a foot away from reaching land...but I feel so exhausted that I don't even want to try to swim the last foot...just sink away.

If you haven't guessed it already, I'm referring to school. Yes, I am finally this close *holds two fingers close together* to graduating from high school forever! However, one thing stands in my way: the gigantic, terrifying research report on Roe v. Wade. I'm telling you, it's a monster! As soon as I defeat this beast (which I really don't feel like tackling), I can be free for a whole summer and never have to return to Seton Home Study again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, to attack or to continue to put it off like I'm doing now by writing this post? :P

Happy Mothers Day!

Dear Mom,

Thank you for choosing to be open to life...which resulted in us six kids! ;) You are such a beautiful person, Mom. You are so meek and humble that no one would ever guess how much knowledge you really posses. You are so solid and knowledgeable in your faith, and in any subject that pertains to raising children, from medicine to computers. In addition, you are so sensitive to others feelings. You make each person feel like what they have to say is important no matter how small it is. Your diligence and perseverance in homeschooling us and being a stay at home mother is so admirable and courageous. You are my nearest and dearest friend, and I'm blessed that God made you my mother. I love you so much, Mom.

Your daughter,
Vicki

Note: For those of you who don't know, my mom went through seven years of infertility before she was able to have her first child: me! My parents thought they would never have any children of their very own, so motherhood is a very big blessing to my mom. :)

School, future plans, and dreams

I've been having a lot of thoughts (and prayers) lately about - for a lack of better words - my future. I have exactly two Geometry Tests and a research report on Roe v. Wade to finish and I am officially finished with high school forever! Along with the knowledge that I will be signing up for fall classes at the local community college soon, I've wondered if I really want to major in Early Childhood Ed. I just have this feeling that I want to do something more meaningful with my life. I mean let's face it, Early Childhood Education is not exactly the most exciting thing out there.

I played around with the idea to photography, because over the past months I have become infatuated with wedding and graduation photo shoots. I love them! However, I have absolutely no experience with this field of work and it is not something that you can really live off of unless you are really good.

The other majors that I have somewhat of an interest in is Theology, Philosophy, and maybe Politics (yeah I know, I'm weird). However, there are not a lot of profitable job opportunities in Theology and Philosophy unless you want to teach and that usually requires a PhD, and I am not doing that!

I had the craziest idea last night while I was lying in bed. You see, I love to plan, organize, and administrate events. It's so much fun! So as this dreamer had the idea to form an organization that would focus on evangelizing -so to speak - on three things dear to her heart: The Eucharist, the pro-life movement, and feminine modesty. Additionally, she even thought of patron saints for each topic, a boy and girl saint for each. She continued to dream of how awesome it would be to hold a national conference every year that would have have three sections - one for every topic - and have top Catholics from around the US to speak on them. And I mean big names! Like Father Frank Pavone (for pro-life), Colleen Hammond (modesty), and Scott Hann (the Eucharist). Then this crazy girl went even further to say, "Hey! To go along with modesty, we can have a section of chivalry for the guys! Then we could have someone like Doug Barry come and speak to them!"

Yeah. I got kind of carried away, but it was so much fun dreaming about it! Then I came back to reality that 1) there are soooo many groups/organizations popping up all over the place that are aimed at youth and young adults that it would be ridiculous to start another one; 2) I don't know how to start one; 3) I'm still in high school! :P So yeah, not happening.

Well, I think that's enough rambling for today.

Oh! One more thought: did anyone watch the first Republican Presidential debate on Fox News last night? It was so much fun. I am so voting for Rick Santorum! He's Catholic, conservative, has 7 kids, and is pro-life!

Goodbye Planned Parenthood!!!

They passed the bill! Here is an excerpt from the email I got from the SBA list:

Thanks to the hard work of dedicated SBA List activists who flooded Congress with e-mails and phone calls, the House just passed the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3).

It passed by an incredible margin – 251 to 175!

This historic pro-life legislation establishes a permanent, government-wide ban on taxpayer funding for abortion, bans federal subsidies for health plans that include abortion, and strengthens conscience protections for health care workers.

God be praised! Vincet vitae! (Life will conquer!)

Happy 19th B-day Amanda!

You are such a dear friend, Amanda, and I hope your day is filled with laughter, joy, and blessings! 19 years old is a marvelous age, and I hope you enjoy this year immensely (which I'm sure you will). I am lacking a picture of us together on this computer (darn it all!), so you are going to have to be satisfied with these 'umble words. ;)

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Amanda is 19

And I love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA!

Cakes, Friends, and a Ball...oh my!

Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about college. Something that come up recently is the idea of attending a culinary arts school with a focus on baking and pastries. There are three different levels of accomplishment for that: Certificate (1 year), Associates (2 years), and Bachelors (4 years). I don't like to cook that much - although I love watching the challenges on Food Network - but I truly love to decorate cakes! They are so much fun to create and memorable to the person you make them for. Here is a picture of the cake I did for Gabriel's 1st Communion back in '09.

*sigh* Unfortunately, there is no program near us that I could attend. The one I would like to attend is in MI and extremely up-to-date, is considered the best in the country, and has world renowned chef's that teach there. However, it is much to far from my house to commute and I am not going to be staying in co-ed dorms! :P *giggles* I was even looking at programs that were in my best friend's state, but there is nothing near her house either. I guess God wants me to stick with community college after all.

Moving on, the snow is leaving! I really hope it melts quickly, because I want grass and warm weather!

Rachel and Emily are coming to visit! Exactly three weeks and they'll be here. Exactly three weeks and three days is the Regency Ball! I am so excited! This year it is being held in South Bend, Indiana. IT IS GORGEOUS! Click here if you want to see pictures of the Masquerade Ball that was held there last August. This year the Ball starts at 11am instead of 6pm...and we live a little ways from South Bend. Therefore, this year we will be getting up at the bonnie hour of 5am and leaving the house at 8am just to make sure we get there on time. Due to this we will be taking pictures at the ball this time not at the house.

Well, I must scoot off to do school. TTFN!

Happy Birthday Claire!

Happy Birthday dearest Claire! You are such an inspiration to me and I am so grateful that you are my friend. And can you believe it...your birthday isn't in Lent this year!!! :D I hope that this day is filled with joy and blessings. I wish I could be there. God bless!

O God, our times are in your hand: Look with favor, we
pray, on you child, Claire, as she begins another year. Grant
that she may grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen her
trust in your goodness all the days of her life; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Mother Mary take her hand in yours.

Amen.

Happy SAD (Single Awareness Day)!!!

Okay, not really. ;) Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

For all of us single people, this day can be depressing...if you let it be. This year for some reason - maybe because I'm getting older - I feel more disappointed than previous years that I don't have my special guy to spend the day with.

However, it dawned on me that I do have a date...JESUS! What better guy could you ask for? In addition, tonight I'm planning on Hannah and I taking our Valentine candy upstairs, getting in our PJ's, cuddle up on my bed, and watch My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding (skipping the bedroom scenes of course)!

So, I challenge all of you single girls to make this day special with Jesus and do something fun! Don't spend it moping. Single guys, if you are able to take you single sister(s) out for dinner and make it special for them.

Happy Valentines!

Brief March Recap

Back from the March. Very, very, very tired. I'll do a more in depth recap on the March weekend later. I got to see/visit with quite a few of my friends, marveled at the beauty of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, visited the Lourdes Grotto and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine both in Emmitsburg, and of course participated in the March. Oh yes, and got very little sleep. :P However, I am content.

March For Life

I'm going! I'm going! I didn't think I was going to go this year, but God worked it out. :) There is a young adult group in our Diocese that I am starting to attend and last week's meeting there was a sign up sheet for the March. I was sooooooo happy! The schedule is awesome,too, because Father Jeff wants to make this a pilgrimage, not just a sight seeing tour.

Our Schedule:

Saturday 22nd - 7:30am Mass at the Cathedral, after Mass drive to Maryland

Sunday 223rd - 9am Mass at the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine, tour D.C., and then attend Mass again at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Monday 24th - 9:00am Mass at National Shrine of the Lourdes Grotto, and then the March For LIFE!!!!! After the March we will drive home and get there very, very late.

Are any of you going to the March? Leave a comment and let me know. Oh, and I will be wearing a lime green scarf that has some yellow and blue in it. ;)

Rapunzel No More

12 inches donated to Locks of Love. *sigh*

Atheists Don't Have No Hymns - Steve Martin

Okay because the YouTube clip is larger than I want it to be I'm just going to post the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADNesm6F27U&feature=player_embedded

Enjoy!

Never mind

I did get sick after all. However, I am not throwing up, thank heaven. I at least get to lay on the couch watching the beautiful snow blowing outside. Keep me in your prayers if you would. Thanks!

Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year

I hope all you readers had a marvelous Christmas and New Year! My family did, despite the flu that decided to sweep through our family. I was the only family member that was spared – God is good!

I very much enjoyed my gifts this year, I received: my sweatshirt pictured in the below post, The Privilege of Being a Woman by Alice von Hildebrand, candy, a sign with my name on it from my brother, a red flannel hoody, a cute mug filled with candy, cocoa packet, chocolate suckers, and biscotties from my sister, Thorn in my Heart by Liz Curtis Higgs, a new wallet, a scarf, and SOCKS! Lots and lots of wacky socks. Toe socks, striped socks, plaid socks, fuzzy socks, ect. In addition, my mom got a GPS but I claimed half of it. ;) It’s a Tomtom and we’ve already downloaded C3-PO and Billy Connolly’s voices on it. SOOOOOOO much fun!

Now for my year in a glance (I’m only going to put one or two things for each month):

January - Attended the Father Daughter Ball in IL and surprised Amanda/Rose, Megan/Kathleen, and Teresa/Yaviel. Ah. Happy memories.

February – Attended the vocation retreat at the DSMME and after much discernment, decided not to enter. Held the first annual Week in Feminine Hairstyles on my blog. Hmm – must consider doing this again.

March – Rachel and Emmy came for a week and attended the Regency Ball with us! A week of bliss.

April – Finally got to 50 followers (!!!!!!!!), and I went to IL for a weekend to attend a vocation conference of sorts, and spend some time with the Halburs – love you guys!

May – Decided I wasn’t meant to attend FUS yet, felt a renewed calling to marriage, and the Halbur’s stopped by my house and were finally able to meet my whole family.

June – Family came to visit.

July – I GOT MY DRIVERS LISCENCE!

August – Flew out to VA to spend a week with Rachel and Emmy. Missed you Hannah!

September – Turned 20 years old – I’m still getting used to that.

October – For Mom’s birthday we went to this amazing little peninsula that juts out into the middle of a lake and the fall colors were drop dead gorgeous! Therefore, we were actually able to take some updated family pictures with a God given background.

November – Nothing significant.

December – I was laid off or work until next season (I never realized how much I needed a paycheck), attempted not to go broke buying presents, went to see VotDT and Tangled, and once again decided to delay college until Fall 2011. (I am getting so sick of delaying college!)

2011 resolutions: To FINALLY graduate from high school! And lose at least 20 pounds.

Have a great 2011!