I would also like to ask for prayers for my mom.  Last week she tripped and fell and broke her shoulder.  I don't know much else since my parents aren't very communicative about their lives but I do know that.  Please pray since I know that a broken shoulder is painful and a fall is potentially dangerous for a person of her age.

Thank you.

Please, all of you who pray.  Pray hard for the soul of a member of Mary-Kate's class and for his family.  The young man died this afternoon.  None of us need know the circumstances, just that here is a family in need of our prayer.  It is a difficult time for any family.  I will thank all of you in advance for your prayers.

Matthew's latest pastime is going to Gander Mountain and shooting his bow in the back room of the store. 

A friend of his told him about the store having this place inside where they can practice archery.  So last Saturday they went and spent two hours shooting.

When Matthew came home is fingers were numb from all that shooting.  I had given him my bow and the man at the store was kind enough to adjust it for him.  He had a good time.  Tuesday morning the homeschooling group got together and spent the morning learning about bows, arrows, and safety. 

I think that you can see that he's not half bad.  Today he made himself a glove so that his fingers don't get numb from a lot of shooting this coming Saturday. 

I spoke with my 19 year-old son Jason tonight.  He is seriously contemplating the military, again, only really this time.

What do I think of that you may be asking yourself.  A mother with three sons in the military already.  Well that is a difficult question for me to answer.  I have mixed feelings about the whole thing.

The very selfish part of me says that I want him to say no and to stay here forever.  (that thought won't surprise P. OBrien since I want all of my children to stay around here)  But the rational part of me (yes Patrick I do have a rational part and I do take it out once in awhile for an airing) knows that it is his life and only he can live it. 

I also know this son very well.  He needs the discipline and order of the military much more than he needs the freedom and immaturity of college life.  The strict training and orderliness of basic training is something that I feel all teenage boys should experience.  But after basic training is another matter.  The relative freedom that he shall enjoy after "work" hours is something that my boy does not need. 

But then again, maybe the experience will grow him up enough so that the freedom won't be to him the temptation that I fear.  I know that I will be praying just as hard as I have been since the day that he was born.  I know that, again, it's his life to live and I cannot live it for him or tell him how.  So I will pray, pray, pray.  And let him know that I am here and that I love him just as I do for his other brothers.

That's Italian tagged anyone who commented on her sight for this one.  Well, it has taken me awhile to get to this but here I go.  Mrs. Amelia, I told you that you aren't weird and this will definitely settle that one.

1.  I like to eat peanut butter, mustard, and potato chip sandwiches in the summertime when it is hot and muggy outside.  The salty-ness and the sweetness seem to satisfy something in my when it is hot.  I don't like it at any other time of the year.

2.  I am obsessive-compulsive about my work area when I am sewing.  To the point where the tools have to be lined up a certain way and I can't work unless they are that way. 

3.  My favorite color is green.  Always has been, always will be.  When I was recently asked why, I had to think about that and finally decided that it's because it calms something in me.

4.  I don't like fruit but I LOVE vegetables.  Just about any kind of vegetable.  I like them best raw but I eat them cooked too.  Everyday I have two or three kinds in each meal.

5.  I only eat purple jelly beans.

6.  I only eat green peanut M&M's

7.  I can watch a movie and then watch it over again at a later date and not remember that I have seen it.  Even a movie I enjoyed when I saw it the first time.  My husband says it's because I'm a very simple minded soul who doesn't "get into" movies like others do.

It was very difficult to pick out only seven things to tell.  Well now that everyone knows how strange I am keep your kids away from me.

While my soldier son was home on leave Mary-Kate's second report card came out.  I was, unfortunately for her, so overcome with his presence, (You can stop gagging now Patrick), that I neglected my other children.  Now it is time to give them their due.  Actually past time.  But fortunately for me Mary-Kate is so enamored with her older brother that she probably did not even notice the neglect. 

So here it is:  Religion  95  English  93  Economics  97    Math  84   Art  97   Choir  99   This all makes for an average of 94.   Pretty good.  (She gets her brilliance from her mother......NOT!!!!)   Only in English does she take after her mother in everything else does she take after her father. 

Today is my parents 50th wedding anniversary. 

When they met my dad was in the Air Force and stationed at Grifass Air Force Base in Rome, New York.  My dad actually knew my mom's sister, my Aunt Pat before he met my mom.  But when he met my mom then I think he decided that she was the girl for him.

He has carried this picture of my mom in his wallet as long as I can remember.  I have to confess that when I was a little girl I used to look into his wallet when it was on his dresser just to make sure it was still there.  I thought that if that picture was still there then they still loved each other and I knew that my life would always be secure.

Here they are on their wedding day at my grandparents house in Rome, New York.  It was a cold winter day that they got married.  They had no honeymoon.  They went on their honeymoon when they had their 25th wedding anniversary. 

My mom always made sure that our house was clean and that we always had good hot meals on the table.  We always had clean clothes and she saw to it that we made it to where ever we had to be on time and well prepared for whatever we had to do. 

My dad always has a song to sing.  I can remember one of us talking to him about anything at all and something that we said would suggest the line of a song to him.  He would just begin to sing that song to us out of the blue.  There was always some kind of music playing at our house.  My dad likes all kinds.  When I was little the house that we lived in had registers in the floors of the upstairs bedrooms to let the heat come up.  I can remember laying on the floor of my room, after I was supposed to be in bed, just to be able to hear whatever music that my dad was playing on the stereo in the livingroom below.  Then when he came up to go to bed he would find me on the floor sleeping.  To this day I can hum all four movements of Beethoven's  fifth symphony.  I know music by such greats as Stan Kenton, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Count Base, Chopin, Mozart, and many others.  I know all the words to the songs of Nat King Cole, Barbara Streisand, The Irish Rovers.  The music that my dad listened to still plays in my head. 

There aren't too many couples who are celebrating such anniversaries today but they are an example to the rest of us.  God's blessings to them. 

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear soldier, happy birthday to you. 

I remember when you were born.  You were a bouncing 10 pound 4 ounce baby boy.  The nurses in the nursery called you "Max". 

Now look at you!!!!!  You send the terrorists running for cover.  You are the hero of your little sister.  She is still bragging on that chicken coop that you built for her while you were home.  How many big brothers are that good to their sisters?

You have a heart that is soft and squishy for little baby sitting kids.  (girls and boys alike)  All they have to do is ask and you melt and give them their heart desire.  Up onto your broad shoulders they like to ride.  Your big laugh can be heard ringing out around here still. 

Don't anyone be fooled by that enigmatic look or that cheesy moustache.  He has a heart as big as all outdoors and as good as gold. 

Hope that your birthday celebration that we had here at home is still warming your heart and the love that we give to you still fills you and follows you where ever you go.  I love you and miss you.  Remember that you are always in my prayers.  Stay close to Our Lord and Our Lady. 

Here are a few ways that a soldier home on leave keeps himself busy.  Last week while it was cold and snowy he was out by the wood pile cutting, splitting, and stacking wood.

Last fall the stack of logs was over all of our heads.  Now my son has managed to reduce it to only a few logs.  Now I feel warmer seeing the stacks of wood all cut and split waiting to be dumped into our basement.

Three dump wagon loads of wood ready to be dumped into the basement and one dumped down.  Now it is warm out and we don't need the wood so much.  But it is all there just waiting for the weather to turn cold again.

Then he spent time entertaining the troops.  Elizabeth's grandmother had to work at the polling place today so I watched her.  She was in her element with a big strong guy here to wrap around her little finger.

So he carried her so she could see the pigs and not get into the mud.

Then he took her down into the valley to see the rushing water of our creek in flood.  She wasn't sure about that trip at first but then she began to enjoy the ride.  What's not to like when you're riding on the shoulders of a big guy like that?

Then he ran back up the hill with her.  After I brought her back into the house all she could talk about was being outside and riding on his shoulders.

Monday he helped his father load some pigs that were going to be sold.  The pigs were not enjoying this trip but the guys were.  Now instead of fifty pigs we are down to only forty-five.

Then it's time to please our little sister and finish her chicken coop for her.  He worked two days on it and to show her appreciation she made him a batch of cookies.

What a versatile guy.  He can swing a hammer just as well as he does a go-devil or wields a chainsaw.  Can I raise them or what?

Then last night he wanted roast suckling pig on the menu.  That was fine with me but someone had to prepare the pig for me so that I could put it into the roaster and into the oven.

When a man's stomach is at stake you don't have to ask twice.  Very soon I was presented with the killed and well cleaned six-week-old piglet. 

Now all I had to do was stuff him and rub him and place him into the roaster and into the oven. 

The piglet was enjoyed by all.  The leftovers were enjoyed tonight.  It is all gone just in time for lent to start tomorrow.