The diamond of great dollar value....not to be confused the pearl of great price

I lost my engagement diamond. The setting had gotten loose and I brought it to a local jewler who replaced all my prongs for $127. I got it back the day before my 9th anniversary. It was clean and beautiful and sparkly...and I was attached to it. (That would be the opposite of detached.)

Then, two weeks and 1 day later I noticed that it was loose again. I was driving afternoon carpool with 7 rowdy kids in the car (no..they aren't all mine) and I made a mental note to take the ring off as soon as I got home. Well, the usual chaos ensued and I forgot. Not only did I forget to take my ring off I but I proceeded to garden, take out all the trash and recycling, break down cardboard boxes, do dishes, laundry, snuggle each kid into their beds, clean up the kitchen, make myself a bowl of ice cream because I felt sorry for myself that my husband was working late and then sweep the floor while talking to my aunt on west coast time only to realize THEN my diamond was gone. I frantically searched until 11:30 at night to no avail.

I have to admit I took it all pretty well if I do say so myself. (P. agrees!) It was insured, I was trying to be detached yada, yada, yada. I was fine until the jewler made me cry when I tried to get my money back for the repairs. "What did you do? You broke off 3 prongs...that took something." I just stared him down and said I just did the same job I have been doing for nine years and I lost my diamond two weeks after he "fixed" my ring. Needless to say I got my money back.

I planned on giving it the weekend before calling the insurance company to see about making a claim seeing as that bad boy was the most expensive thing we owned for many years! Well, we were bumming around the house this evening and P. took out the rest of the ice cream to have a bowl (it was his half since I had eaten mine solo the other night.) He's sitting there eating his B&J Half Baked when he bites down and goes "OWWW!" He pulls something out of his mouth and asks..."is this your diamond?" Why yes, yes it is.

Needless to say we are very thankful and rather amused. He's been praying to St. Anthony and I had decided to ask this little favor of Fr. Joseph...so we'll see who gets the credit!! The kids are going to think this is hilarious, even if Biki does complain she didn't get any ice cream.

All's well that ends well! Maybe we can win some sort of contest from B&J for that story! : )

Commandment Catechesis

Sometimes at prayers we go over the 10 commandments for an examination of conscience. All 6 of us were in the room together and by the end of it I was weeping from trying so hard not to bust a gut laughing. Some of the highlights:

*The Conqueror kept beginning each commandment with "God shall not...." Uh, not exactly.

*Honor you mother and father evolved into a tangent of whether certain parties would rather belong to other mothers instead of the ones they were given by God. We weren't really getting anywhere but the non sequiter on the subject came from the Conqueror again...something along the lines of, "Well, yeah because we would be the Joses or something." Why do my kids end their statements with something? I must do that.

But the best one come from Biki on "Thou shall not bear false witness." When asked what a lie was she exclaimed "I do!" and then in one hurried breath gave the following example:

It is like when mom has a chocolate bar and eats it and then someone smells chocolate and asks was that a chocolate bar and Mom says no...THAT'S A LIE!"

Ok, for the record, I usually just don't answer. I really don't think I lie. Let's be honest, I know they are smart enough to figure it out.

There's a reason they have to reach the age of reason...

There was an 'incident' this evening involving beads all over the floor. It could have been Beanie, it could have been Momo. Beanie was sitting at the table next to it drawing, not her normal behavior after doing something wrong. Anyway, she obviously had seen it or watched Momo do it without calling the alarm because there was some serious guilt when confronted with the situation.

During interrogation by Dad the following ensued:
"Beanie did you do that?"
"No." she answered not entirely convincing anyone.
"Well then who did it?"
"Maybe it was some weirdo....(pause)....or something."

***
Weirdos are the people we look for in public restrooms etc. just so you know.

You know you are a Catholic when......

Your one year old attempts to make the sign of the cross after dipping her hand in the toilet bowl. Oh yes. At least it was clean!

My 1 year old...

sounds like the seagulls from "Finding Nemo." No joke.

Brave new world....

While I don't think counselors should be proselytizing on the job and do think they need to be able to counsel everyone no matter their orientation I was horrified when I read the article below:
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/education/2010-08-10/asu-denies-claims-made-student?v=1281407144

The part that scared me the most was the dean of the school talking about what was unethical: "(T)he unethical part (was) applying your own personal beliefs and values on other people and not truly accepting that others can have different beliefs and values that are equally valid as your own." (Emphasis mine.)

No. I even looked up the word valid in the dictionary. Won't work. I believe there's an objective moral order people.....and I can love people and treat them with the respect they deserve but that DOES NOT MEAN I THINK THEY ARE RIGHT. In fact, to quote the catechism, I can think they are "disordered" and still love them. I am thinking that wouldn't pass the 'validity' test. Hmmmm.

Ok, just had to get this off my chest.

Coincidence?

I think not.

First go read this....
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2300573/estrogen_levels_in_water_alarm_scientists.html?cat=58

and then go read this.....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704268004575417442626829952.html?KEYWORDS=puberty



This week's virtue: HOPE.

(Sorry...I am on a bit of a downer....we start school Wednesday.)

Scenes from a roadtrip....

I was telling P. that road tripping is like labor. It is hell to experience and you wonder how you ever got yourself into that situation but eventually you recover and can imagine putting yourself through it again. Besides, family is worth it. Watching my kids interact with great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins of all degrees is worth it. Just don't be offended if we don't get back in the car for a couple of months.

• Time of departure-4:45am. First time I heard "are we there yet?"- 4:52am. No joke. Remind me that I find 3 year olds amusing.
• Time from St. Louis to Chicago in the car- 8 hours. Next time we get AAA.
• Days we got to go to the beach- 6!!!! We were all sporting awesome tans.
• Days Momo slept in past 10am-3. (Of course Momo was up late than 10 every night too!)
• Cousins met- countless. My kids couldn't even remember all their names. Beanie just kept saying, "And these are all my cousins? YES!"

My favorite post vacation story involved Biki talking about some cousin. "What was her name honey?" "I have no idea but she wore a green suit with polka dots. Her mom played the mole." That allowed me to zero in on the cousin's name. Anyway Biki was impressed with said cousin because "she had a pocket knife." "Really? Did she bring it to the beach?" I asked with a bit of worry, she was only 5 after all. "No but she said she had one because she said she wasn't afraid of sharks 'cause if she saw one she'd just cut off its tail with her pocket knife." Bik was duly impressed. Never mind there are no sharks in Lake Michigan. I wonder what else the kids talked about on the beach every day.