Hannah Montana Mania

After a long morning as St. Agnes, Cameron spent the afternoon and evening at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with her daddy and 74,000 other screaming Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fans. Bryan said she really enjoyed the concert, even when Billy Ray came out and sang "Achy Breaky Heart" during the HM to MC costume change. Here she is moments after walking in tonight.


A big ol' Hannah Montana thank you goes out to PaPa for making tonight happen! Thanks Dad! (I heard Cameron called him on the drive home - oh, the excitement!)

St. Joseph's Day

Sicilians celebrate St. Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus and patron saint of Sicily, by building an altar upon which they laden decorative breads, food, wine, cookies, candles. My mother has memories of her grandmother's home altar each March and the special breads and cookies she made, and I have seen those photos and a few tables at the Italian Festivals when I was a child.

Today we participated in the Festa de San Giuseppe at St. Frances Cabrini church, a truly spectacular event.

The girls went as "Saints" - St. Agnes, the 13 yr old virgin martyr, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the princess who fed the poor and built hospitals for the sick during the Middle Ages. They processed into the church along with Joseph, Mary, St. Frances Cabrini, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Jude, St. Lucy, Blessed Mother Theresa, St. Therese of the little flower, St. Clare, and others. The children sat in the front pews during Mass and then presided at the head tables where they tasted all of the special foods prepared for the feast day.

We had the great honor of hearing Mass celebrated by Cardinal DiNardo. I can not recall a time I've ever heard the Litury of the Eucharist sung in chant, but he did and it was beautiful. His homily embodied humor, relevance to the readings, thought-provoking moments - and he literally brought down the house when about three-quarters through the fire alarms sounded. He stopped and casually remarked that it wasn't he first time he's used so much incense that the alarms went off. After repeated attempts to continue, only to have the alarms go off again, he was finally able to resume and finish the homily. During the final announcements, the Pastor, Father Fabj--who is known for his short on-target, pointed homilies--smilingly told the Cardinal that the alarms weren't for the smoke, but as a warning against long homilies. The Cardinal laughed with sincerity.

The Cardinal came to the hall and blessed the altar. He spoke with a few of the children and posed for a few photos.

Then he left to make an appearance at the other Mass. When he returned, he sat at the head of the table with a large white tablecloth tucked over his red garments, and ate. Everyone was served and the food was delicious! Pasta with red sauce, boiled eggs instead of meatballs (it is Lent) and breadcrumbs, spinach, fava beans, bread, and cookies - oh the cookies.

The Saints had to taste a little bit of everything on their plate, and for the most part - both girls ate everything on that first small plate. After that, many ladles of pasta were delivered to all the saints.

If you would like to see more photos, check out the website from one of the Houston Chronicle photographers. There is a fabulous photo of Cardinal DiNardo saying Mass, and two pictures of Brenna.

Brenna's Kindergarten Field Trip

Today Brenna's kindergarten took a field trip to the Zoo. I thought I had signed up at the beginning of the year to be a chaperone, but no one called me. So my first awareness of "field trip day" was when the permission slip came home last Wed. Brenna asked me to come with her, but I am heading to a conference tomorrow and I still had work that needed completing before I could leave.

They lost Brenna at the Zoo.

Each chaperon had four children assigned to her, and from what I can gather from various tellings by Brenna (since I received no note or phone call from the school or teacher) they were in the fish exhibit, a darkened interior room. She was looking at the fish, turned around, and couldn't find anyone she knew. She looked around for a few minutes and was not sure what to do next, when a woman (she thinks this woman was a chaperone for another school group) asked her if she was lost. When she said yes, the woman took out her cell phone and called the phone number printed on Brenna's nametag. I presume the school office called the teachers, who called the chaperones, because someone came to pick up Brenna a few minutes later.

Apparently two moms had been walking together with their combined eight children and they walked out of the area without counting. Brenna said they were very "mean" after that, said things in a mean way, and wouldn't let go of her hand. (I wouldn't think so!)

She had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. (If I may quote from Judith Viorst)

When they sat down to eat their sack lunch later, she claimed she wasn't hungry. But I know Brenna... she was still upset over what happened. They tried to force her to eat; uh-oh - you can't "force" this child to do anything. She's the only one who's ever brought my dad to a draw! You have to leave her alone, ignore her, but tell her exactly how long lunch will be "available." Then she'll decide to come eat.

So she didn't eat, and they put her sack lunch back in the cooler. But then the chaperone didn't give it back at the end of the field trip. So until 4 p.m. when she arrived at after-school care, all Brenna had to eat was a handful of scrambled eggs at 7:15 this morning. The after-care teacher said she was crying so they fed her two sausage biscuits.

I had been worried about her all day - feeling guilty that I didn't clear my schedule and go up to the Zoo. I pushed aside my feelings thinking that I was just letting it get the best of me. Those feelings don't seem too ridiculous now.

I'll be walking Brenna into the school tomorrow to have a talk with the teacher before my flight leaves in the morning. I would really like to know why none of the adults sent home a note or called me. Didn't they know she would tell me herself?

Favorite "H" words

I walked into a conversation between Bryan and Cameron in which Cameron was telling him her favorite "H" words.

Hypothesis
Harry
Horse
Hamster
Hogwarts
Houdini

It doesn't take much to analyze this one: Science fair, Harry Potter books, and Nintendo games. What about Houdini you ask? Brenna has been reading a short biography of none other than The Great Houdini himself.

Sabine River

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Cameron earned her trip to the Sabine River by getting an A on her report card in Social Studies. Since then we've had a houseful of sickies that have postponed the trip. Sunday morning after CCE we put the ice chest in the back of the car, loaded up the girls (who didn't know where we were going) and hit the road. Two hours later we spilled the beans about where we were going as we approached the Sabine River bridge going into Lousiana.


You can still see the effects of Hurricane Rita on the landscape in East Texas along I-10. Trees are leaning, some trees are down, some of the tree tops are snapped off and hanging. Cameron wanted to know why people didn't come along and clean up the fallen trees.

After we crossed the Sabine into Louisiana, we stopped at the Information Center. They have a boardwalk over the marshlands in the back, and we took the girls on a mini-hike to see the landscape. Beautiful bald cypresses with their "knees" sticking out and the Spanish moss hanging down.

This is where we were when I received a telephone call from my Mom, who told me that Dad experienced chest pains while at "the ranch," and my uncle was driving him to the nearby rural hospital. There wasn't anything I could do - being at least two hours away from home, which is two and half hours away from the ranch - so I asked her to keep me posted. Bryan and I decided to eat our picnic with the girls before heading back; however, on our way to Niblett's Bluff on the Sabine, Mom called again and said they were life-flighting Dad to a major Austin hospital. We immediately turned the car toward home.

We did make one more stop, on the Texas side, to use the restroom and break out the picnic sandwiches (we ate in the car). I also let the girls take a quick trip outside to see the Blue Elbow Swamp. More bald cypress, frogs, a few early blossoms, and a whole slew of turtles sunning themselves. Cameron & Brenna enjoyed this statue of a snapping turtle.

Well, maybe Cameron enjoyed it more....

We were back on the road when Mom called to say that Dad had arrived at Austin and was in the heart catherization lab. About an hour later we heard that they found the blockage and were able to clear it with a stent. He was okay. As soon as we got home, my sister and I drove out to Austin to be with Mom & Dad & our brother. Dad came home on Tuesday and we've been very thankful to God for all our blessings.

Sunday morning, our CCE lesson had been the Miracles of Jesus (focusing on the Wedding at Cana story), and our faith word "Miracle" was defined as God's presence in our world. If you put together all of the many, many small things that allowed Dad to receive care so quickly on Sunday, it can only be be defined as a Miracle.

Haircuts

The girls have been getting a little shaggy lately. In December I found out that my hair stylist of the past five years was quitting the business. She married in the summer and they decided she would go back to college full-time for her degree. So only Bryan has had a haircut for the past two months. I finally had to try a new place because the girls have class photos next Friday.

Here are the before/after photos:

Tell me if you don't think Cameron & Brenna are starting to look like more and more alike!

Jaywalking

I've heard quite a bit of talk lately about getting the youth vote in the upcoming elections, representing the 18-29 yr old demographic.

I just watched another painful episode of Jay Leno's Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars. This segment features three of the most ignorant people they could find on the streets during a Jaywalking taping and brings them on set for a Jeopardy-style display of their complete stupidity. I cringe every time I see this and I always comment "God, I hope it took them HOURS to find people stupid enough to get enough footage." Sadly, I know it probably takes them no time at all. (And why anyone would actually sign a release for NBC to use them on the Tonight Show proves beyond any other doubt their intelligence.)

In tonight's episode they showed a photo of John McCain and not one person could say who he was. The closest they could get (after being told he was running for President on the Republican ticket) was Dick Cheney. The city in Italy famous for its canals? (after being prompted with the phrase "Venetian blinds") Venezuala. Who lives in the Vatican? Why it's the Vaticans of course.
Members of which profession take the Hippocratic Oath? Hypocrites. Members of Congress. Nuns. I just can't stand it.

THESE are the "youth" that everyone is begging to get their vote. Too large of a percentage can't tell you the basic tenets of what each candidate stand for or what their party stands for. They only know that there's a young African-American who smiles and gives charismatic speeches about hope and change. In ten years when these "youth" should be succeeding and making a bit of money to raise their family, they're going to see just what "hope and change" costs from their paycheck and their pockets. But don't worry, the government will take care of them, it just won't be what they're used to from good ol' Mom & Dad.

What unit of currency do they use in France? The Peso? The Dinero? Yeah, but that's not France, that's 59-Pizza Patron stores in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California.