Giant Panda Attack!

Haven't had an entry like this in a while...Worth every word, though.

Today's Readings:

Reading 1
Is 55:1-3

Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread;
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully,
listen, that you may have life.
I will renew with you the everlasting covenant,
the benefits assured to David.

Reading II
Rom 8:35, 37-39

Brothers and sisters:
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel
Mt 14:13-21

When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist,
he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves.”
Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me, ”
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over—
twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.

_______________________

I was profoundly effected by today's readings. It could not have been a more perfect Mass for me to go to given my feelings as of late, and things I've been struggling with. I wasn't going to go to Mass today, I was tired after the concert last night, the house needs a good cleaning. But I got up and went anyways. And these readings are not new to me, I have read them before, heard them in prior Mass celebrations. Paired with Msgr. Larry's homily, it was just the spiritual nourishment I needed.

Reading II is chock full of goodness. Absolutely. There's nothing that can separate or cease God's love for you. He loves you every day, without a doubt, and His love is abundant. There is nothing so terrible or important or pressing that can keep Him from loving you. Whether you are feeling spiritually separated or broken or working through grief or a tough time, you may doubt, but the love is there.

The Gospel...When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. Msgr. Larry spoke of how when you lose someone you love, sometimes you want time to be alone, to grieve, reflect, pray. That's what Jesus sought upon learning of John the Baptists death. Yet when his "alone time" was disrupted by thousands of people seeking his guidance, he was moved with pity, not resentment or anger. He is living in a way that is giving and loving. Msgr. talked about how there are people in your life who may have bad attitudes, who may be hurtful or bitter or neglectful or just plain mean. And you can't change what's in their heart. You can only make sure that you do not reflect the same attitude. You have to live in a way that is lifegiving, affirming, and peaceful. It's the only way to live.

So sitting there hearing these words and reflecting, I am making peace in my heart. Everyone has burdens and times when things are just plain bogus. But knowing that God's love is there, and treating others with respect and dignity is what I can do to make life well-lived. Everything has it's time and place. I doubt and have my moments of not understanding why things are the way they are. But then I have days like today where God gives me what I need. He'll always give me what I need. As He fed thousands with five loaves and two fish, and had an abundance leftover after all were satisfied, He'll feed me what I need and still have more to give. It's a beautiful thing.

Happy belated birthday meganquinlan!

Happy belated 3rd anniversary thebigfatman and pgnblade!


It is almost October, which means so many awesome things! My birthday next week, me and Sean's anniversary, Jason and Greg's birthday, playoffs and the World Series...I love October!

I'm visiting thebigfatman and pgnblade this weekend, as well as the nephews, at their new house! It is SO perfect for them...lots of space for Lane to run around! The boys are so cute! I'll post some pictures as soon as I can, they're getting so big. Jasper is crawling and pulling himself up to stand. Lane's vocabulary is expanding and he's such a funny kid! He definately loves entertaining people.

I'm pretty excited for my birthday on Wednesday. I wish it were on a weekend so I didn't have to work, but I think I'll enjoy being in my mid-twenties. It seems like a fun time, I don't consider myself a recent grad anymore. This year to come has a lot of possibilities on the horizon, it should be a fun ride!

Last weekend I discovered a lake with walking paths in town, and it made me want a dog sooo bad. It's the prime place to bring your dog to play, on the little beach, in the lake, bounding along the paths...I'm going to spend some quality time there in the future taking walks, it's a very peaceful, quiet area. And scenic. Scenic is always good. Maybe I can borrow my roommates dog to take for a walk...

Ok, gonna go hang with the sis and bro-in-law. I hope you all enjoy your weekend :)

I just finished reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, and I am sooo in love with this book! It's the first of series of 3 called "His Dark Materials", and Sean lent me the second to start when I finished this one. I am anxious to start the second, but I think I'm going to hold off a bit. I have another book I want to read first.

I highly recommend checking this book out. It's being made into a movie as well, coming out this winter, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (oooh the sexiness!)

Anyways, I'm on to reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. I started it last year but didn't get far in it at all. It's about the author's decision to hike the Appalachian Trail. Sean bought it for me and said that after reading it I would understand why he loves the outdoors so much. Well, our hiking trip definately gave me a huge glimpse of that, and having hiked part of the trail now, I want to read this all the way through. The little bit that I read was pretty funny, he's a great writer, so into that I go...

Tonight was so fun - simply having a good time with good friends, eating, bowling, joking. It was nice to go out and do something fun, that it doesn't matter if you're good or bad at it. That's why I love bowling!

I sang at Mass tonight, and have 2 more tomorrow. I don't sound *great* on the songs, but I also haven't cantored since May, therefore I haven't done much intensive singing since May. But it's all good, it's a holiday weekend so most people are at the beach or away anyways. There is this one song for meditation that's just gorgeous, called Where My Father Lives. I almost cried when I was sightreading it yesterday in rehearsal. It's just very...peaceful.

Going on just over a month of Sean being on a gluten free diet and therefore me being on an 85% gluten free diet. I must say, I'm feeling better than I've felt in a long time. More energy, generally happier...There's something there in the lack of bread and junk food and beer (although tonight I enjoyed half a pitcher of Sam's Summer...and my body was like "What is this madness?!?!" whereas before it was like "yum Yum Yum beer!!!)

I am hoping to start volunteering at a local hospital soon. I called their volunteer office this past week and I have to do an orientation session before I can start, so I'm hoping by the end of September that will be part of my weekly schedule. It's a well established volunteer program, you can choose basically how you want to spend your time, whether with a lot of patient interaction, with a little, or with none. I want to have interaction, get involved, get some experience and make some connections, so when it comes time to try for a nursing program, I'll have some experience under my belt and I'll have a better idea of what I'm getting myself into ;)

Ok, time for sleep, it's been a long day and tomorrow will be long too. After Masses I need to do some cleaning and then in the evening I'm picking up the Seanster and we're heading to Staten Island till Monday for Kevin's cookout.

I <3 long weekends.

Oh! And I got my haircut. I LOVE it! Picture soon to come (tomorrow probably)!

This is how I will always remember Luke, with a big Trask smile.

Lucas Trask, my 16 year old cousin, passed away Thursday night in his sleep. Cause of death is unknown, he just didn't wake up.

My family would appreciate your prayers and support at this time.

I don't even know what to think right now. A week before his dad, my uncle Matt's, birthday, my Grampa Trask's 6th anniversary of his passing this Wednesday. It's gonna be a tough week for our family.

-Got Sean hooked on Grey's Anatomy. No, I'm not that girlfriend. He liked it!
-Had an awesome weekend full of shenanigans; first with work people since Tom's moving at the end of the week. Happy hour rocked, but the afterparty at Kate's was even better. We painted Tom's nails after he went to sleep, there were many Coronas consumed, and I can't believe Jack showed up!! Going to bed at 5:30 and waking up at 11 was no fun for our heads, so Tom and Kate and I went to IHOP and ate massive amounts of chocolate chip pancakes. I love pancakes.
-Had a chick night Saturday night with Mollie and Tiffany. After a glorious dinner at Pasta Faire, we went shopping. *smirk*
-Sunday I went to IKEA to walk around rather than walking on a treadmill for an hour. It was fun to get some future decorating ideas, but it was massively crowded with lots of pushy people. Meh. Followed that up with a great little hanging out with Tek for a couple hours over cocoa at Las Vetas and then dinner and awesomely bad tv with Tiffany.
-Work this week has been mildly stressful, and I'm not looking forward to Tom leaving as 1)I will be picking up a bit of his workload and 2)I will not have my friend to joke around with while mindlessly putting together hundreds of mockups. Boo.
-Tomorrow is V-day and to celebrate, Sean and I and Mollie and Chris and Tiffany and Josh and Tek are going to Kobi's to eat delicious hibachi food. What better way to spend an overglorified holiday than with friends that I love.

I have decided that once I have moved into a new place in the spring I am going to look into taking a course or two in the fall. I need to get my brain working again. I'd like to take an art class, and maybe a dance or language course. Anything to keep my brain from turning to "office mush".

I am such an old lady. I totally just fell asleep on the toilet.

I realized tonight that I don't eat much meat anymore. I mostly eat chicken if I am going to eat meat, but yeah, not a lot...

I had a burger tonight for dinner, and I think when I actually eat red meat now my body reacts. I got little waves of stomach urkiness during class tonight. And I'm suprisingly not missing having it in my diet as much. I have red meat maybe once a week now. Maybe. I've been having lots of veggies and fruit and grains and nuts. I actually just made a kickbutt soup based off the "no points soup" by Weight Watchers. It's probably a point or two per serving, but soooo healthy and yummy. I made it with water, beef boullion cubes, carrots, celery, green and yellow squash, red onions, scallions, chives, chunked potatoes, red pepper, ground ginger, garlic, and basil. It smelled sooo good cooking. And I made enough to have for lunch all week and probably all weekend too.

My room looks like a laundromat exploded. I should probably put these clothes away if I want to get any sleep tonight.

T-minus 40 days till the next nephew arrives in the world! I can't wait!

Ok, so I'm making resolutions a month late. Sue me. Anyways, they're not resolutions, just things that I must force myself to do and make a regular part of my life.

-Balance my checkbook manually. Viewing my account online everyday is fine, but I need to physically and meticulously keep track of my funds and budget from now on. I need to really put some savings away in the next couple months and online banking just doesn't completely cut it for me.

-Go to the gym in the morning. It's gonna take a hell of a lot of discipline, but it just takes too much "me time" out of the day to try to go after work. It takes at least a good 20 minutes just to get to the gym from work, and it takes away my time to unwind, eat a good dinner and enjoy the company of friends or just myself. If I go in the morning, I can shower before work, maybe even have more time to get ready so I'm not rushing out the door so much. My goal is to make myself do it tomorrow morning. If I can do it tomorrow morning, I'll know that I have the drive to really get rid of this weight and make a healthy lifestyle for myself. It'll also help me get my butt into bed a bit earlier during the week so my body isn't stressed during the day.

-Read more. I have SO MANY BOOKS I want to read, and I never make the time for it. So I'm going to try to get through 1 book every week or so. And I won't pick up another book before finishing one.

-Continue to eat healthy. I'm doing pretty well in this area. I just need to be careful when hanging out with my friends from work because we tend to eat crapwhen we're hanging out. But, I eat well the rest of the time, so I'm not too worried.

So, enough about me....How are you doing this week? Tell me what you are looking forward to in February.

This was the work week from HELL. I had to work overtime today there was so much work to do by Monday. Yes, overtime on a Saturday. It wasn't bad though. I got a lot more done this week than my boss realized, so we were only there for a couple hours. And then Tom and I got lunch at Bertucci's on the company's money. Woohoo! But it's just been crazy. I've been utting together about 12 each of 20-25 different spring and Christmas '07 promotional items. It's tedious mindless work and I'll be glad when this load is done and shipped out. I might also be going on a business trip! We have a huge Walmart meeting coming up in March and we're going to have a ton of stuff to do in our Alabama office/plant. So my boss mentioned today that since I know what to do and I've never been there before, I may be going on the trip too!

I'm going home next weekend as Kathy and Jason are moving into their apartment. So I'm hopefully going to help them next weekend. I'm just running around like crazy, oh so much fun :)