being Catholic

Finally on Saturday I am going to be getting Confirmed. And I am so excited!! I did not have to do two year of Catechism. In case you are wondering why I wasn't confirmed considering that I went to Catholic school until I went to college, yes even pre-pre-school: I felt that I should have being able to get confirmed through the school. I am a devote Catholic, but taking religion class everyday from pre-school until 12th grade and going to mass every Friday in elementary in addition to going to church with my family on Sunday was more than enough to show my devotion to my faith. I felt that I also didn't need to give up after school sports, and activities for 2 years in high school to show my devotion.

I heard recently that the reason for having us "Catholic school kids" attend the after school Catechism classes was not to torture us, but to include the non Catholic school kids into the community. Yes, it is turn that we, Catholic school kids, knew the priest better, and (at that time) the boys from the school could only be the alter boys. But I didn't realize that they felt outcasted or that we were snobby/inclusive. We just knew each other because we saw each other everyday. And you can't pretend not to know your class mates when your class size is about 25 students. So we were a little close knit. Yes, we did laugh at those kids, that didn't know the Apostle's Creed by heart, took communion the wrong way, didn't know when to kneel, stand or sit, didn't know the words to the songs, or could not sit through mass without being entertained i.e. coloring books, toys etc. But you have to realize that we went to mass every Friday for 8 years in elementary school!! We had to know all the words, and songs, and weren't allowed to bring anything with us. Even as first and second graders we had to be quite all though mass. We could probably lead the mass and recite all the words if the priest was sick.

Since Phil got baptised on Easter Vigil (thanks to are friends for coming out to support us), I decided to sign up and get confirmed. Little did I realize that it was only going to be six weeks. It is great, and I don't even have to memorize the Nicene Creed!! (Although I will, because it is embarrassing not knowing all the words. For the first time I am getting a little of my own taste of being an outsider.)

I decided on a Saint, St. Camilla. I love the name. Originally I wanted to be the patron saint of alter girls, since I always wanted to be an alter girl. Alas, I was born too late. But my younger cousin was an alter girl, and it made me so so proud. And thank you too all my friends that had other creative suggestions like St. Man Cave etc. but it did have to be a real saint.

If anyone wishes to attend it is going to be at St. Bartolomew in Long Beach. Saturday, May 30 Vigil Mass at 5pm.

Unfortunately no pictures of Phil's Baptism, Bryant got really anxious after 2 hrs and I had to be in the outside part of the Church, so I couldn't take any pictures. Then afterwards we were all being pushed out of the Church so I couldn't take any pictures of us.

Here are a few pictures of the new Los Angeles Cathedral when Phil was a Catechumen (i.e. never baptized). I expected there to statues of Saints, but instead there were murals, which is different, and takes some time to get used to.

I did find one beautify statute...

Cardinal Roger Mahony, the Los Angeles Archbishop, in purple, entering to begin the ceremony...

...the blessing of half of the Los Angeles County Catechumens...

a picture of the St. Bart's parish Catechumens, sponsors and a few of their instructors...

behind them is an ornate and beautiful alter from a parish from Spain. Apparently that parish sold their alter because the city needed the money after the Spanish Civil War. Such a sad story, I could not imagine our parish having to sell the alter. They don't make them like that anymore.

Poison Control

Last week on Wednesday, Bryant gave me quite a scare that morning, and I needed to call poison control. Here is their phone number (800) 222-1222 in case anyone else needs it and the website is http://www.aapcc.org/DNN/.

the story...

Bryant was "walking", in his walker, around the house while I was cleaning. I saw that he had something in his mouth. I thought it was a rock that I have on the coffee table. I don't have a rock on the coffee table it is candles surrounded by decorative rocks . Going back to the story.... he has put these rocks in his mouth before. I went to pull it out, and it wasn't a rock. It was a package that the manufactures put in shoe boxes and purses to keep them dry. I pulled it out, and realized that the package had been open, there were little beads on his walker, in his mouth and on the floor. I was totally freaking out, because those things come with warnings not to ingest it. I called the doctors office, and after answering a ton of questions they had me call poison control. When I called poison control they said not to worry, he could have eaten the whole package and been okay.

Memorial Weekend...

It started on Thursday evening...we went to Legends to watch some basketball game. Surprisingly, Bryant yells, and screams could not be heard over everyone else cheering and yelling over the game. People were really surprised how great he was behaving at a sports bar, I guess they really could not hear him.

On Friday, Bryant spent the day with my dad and the twins. After work Phil and I went and picked him up. We went out for dinner with my parents and the boys to a local Italian restaurant in Downey.

Saturday we had breakfast at Chuck's near the pier. I wanted a beach view but it was crowded so we had to sit inside. The mimosas were still good inside, which is a good thing. It seemed that they have the same highchairs my parents had for me when I was Bryant's age. Check out those metal highchairs...Then we went to LA Marathon Expo to check out some really good deals on running stuff. Bryant had quite a fever while we were walking around so we decided to stop at Kaiser and make sure he was okay. He did have a fever, but he was okay. We also found out that he is 21 lbs. We would have guessed way more. He is quite heavy. We were suppose to go to a going away party for our friends Beth and Cheston before they leave Cali for Colorado, but with Bryant having a fever, we were scared he would be contagious or get worse. Sorry Beth for not going!!

On Sunday Bryant got much better, and didn't have a high fever anymore. We met up with Edgar, Laura, Carlos and Sofia at the San Diego Zoo. Again we missed mass, but it would not have been possible to attend mass and still make it to San Diego. Originally we were suppose to go to the Padres game , but we weren't able to the get tickets, so we decided on the Zoo. It was perfect, because we have been wanting to go to the zoo!! Although it wasn't perfect for Phil since we didn't take our stroller he had to carry Bryant around.

You can see the elephant behind Phil and Bryant.

Then on Monday, we had breakfast on 2nd street and went to the beach. Yes, we walked to both breakfast and the beach, since it was only .5 mile away, but we walked up the coast towards downtown Long Beach. We walked all the way to the Long Beach Museum of Art, which made it about 6 miles round trip walk. Yes, I am trying to lose the baby weight. (What is up with my hair, Phil should have said something before he took my picture!! Got to love the ocean breeze.)

Happy Birthday Natalie...

On May 17th we had a super busy Sunday. We had to miss Church unfortunately because we had to travel to inland, great ready, and pack all our stuff.

First, we went to Sofia's daughter's baby shower. It was a family baby shower so Phil and Bryant also went with me. It was great, Phil took Bryant inside the pool. I wish I taken a picture he was so cute in his wet suit. (Yes wet suit, later Phil took off his wet suit and had him in his swim suit.) We have been waiting for the temp to increase to at least 78 degrees before we put him in our pool, but it has been really cool with the marina layer here in Long Beach. We figuered that it was going to be warmer in Diamond Bar, and it was. Perfect poolside weather, which was nice!!

Then we were off to Chino Hills...for Natalie's Birthday. We had a great time celebrating Natalie's 1st Birthday on May 17th. We got there late, so we missed family and activities. But Nise waited for us to break the pinata!

Of course by then, Natalie was exhased and missed the pinata breaking ceremony...

However she woke up for the watermelon eating contest...

"Phil, do you think Bryant might have done this before..."

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was really great. I completely forgot that I was a mother until Phil asked me "what I wanted to do for Mother's Day?" I said "I didn't know and that I would ask my mom." He then said "this is your day too!" " That's right it is my day!! I am a mom. Wow! I am a mom..."

Well we still went to my parent's house. Liz and the boys showed up. I can't believe we are all moms. Liz bought us beautiful flowers which we are wearing.
I loved the gift I made for my mom with the help of Scrapbooking Heaven.

Then we went to Phil's uncle and aunt's house. It was great seeing everyone.

Phil's cousin Bobby and his wife Staci and their little girl came to visit from Colorado. We really do need to go out there and visit them. We miss them so much!

time...

...(Sorry dad- no photos yet, just a "book")...

I know that so much time has passed since my last blog entry. Excuses, excuses, excuses...tax season finally ended!!!, and then my desktop computer crashed. I thought I was going to have my first heart attach at my young age.

All I could think of is of all my photos, which are not backed up anywhere. We finally got a new computer, and Phil has been slowly working on getting it up speed. I am not techky (sp???) , so when it breaks down I don't know what to do. As it is I get really upset when I get online for one reason or another. Phil has had to download all my software and my files which were painstakingly restored to this new desktop.

Then just as it seemd that all was well, when for the last two almost three weeks we could not find the Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. I had so many pictures on my camera, and I could not down load them because I live this habit of fixing right after I download them or I never get around to doing it later.

Without telling me, (although he meant well) Phil download Photoshop 3.0 and download all my pictures from the camera. I almost cried (okay I did cry). They were not saved in the files I am use to saving them, and it was about 2 months of pictures... I did not know how to work Photoshop 3.0 and I did not want to sit down and figure it out. I had too much to do. Phil deciding to make thing better, when out and bought me Photoshop 7 for Mother's Day (thanks hun!!!) So I am slowing learning how to use it. Please wait patiently until the perfectionist in me feels that it is perfect to download those pictures.