Baby G is still in the womb! 
We’re about 2 weeks from our due date. Baby G is in the right position–head down… everything looks good. Please keep us in your prayers these next couple of weeks.
Advent is a wonderful time to have a baby…we’re reminded daily that we know not the hour or the day… This is our time of patiently wait for the coming of a child that will change our lives…
This year because we are so close to our due date ( only two weeks away!), we had my family over for Thanksgiving on Thursday morning.
Wednesday night I still had the turkey to carve and the dessert to prepare. I turned to Adam on the way to vigil Mass and said, “What was I THINKING!??” How do people do this!? WHY do people do this, is the better question. I see why I have enjoyed having potlucks for Thanksgiving in the past.
With a lot of grace, I am forever thankful to God, that by Thursday morning, it was almost really easy. All the hard stuff was prepared. I was able to give my parents a break and let them just sit and enjoy the feast.
AND, since it’s our house, I made everyone say what they were thankful for this year. 
It was a nice warm fuzzy for my family…very different from our usual Thanksgiving conversation. It felt like something out of the Waltons or Little House on the Prarie for a brief moment.
So, what am I thankful for? I am thankful for the trials and struggles we had this year. As painful as some of them were, God carried us through. And God blessed me with an incredible husband that has been my rock. God also gave us a beautiful little girl who has taught me more about His love and mercy.
We’re outside in the driveway. Therese is playing on her tricycle. She is standing on the seat with her hands on the handle bars.
Sharon: “Therese, I don’t want to tell you again.”
Therese: “Sit down. Sit down. Sit down.”
Everyone busts out laughing!
So what does an employee do when his company not only offers to pay for the certification examination fee but includes a $250 bonus for each certification he can obtain before years end?
He crams like crazy.
I haven’t taken any sort of exam since finishing college 5 years ago, so I was certainly nervous and uncomfortable with the whole idea. But hey, cash is on the table and Christmas is around the bend.
After studying two books cover to cover and bringing a few years experience along with a dash of jitters to the testing site, I can now say I am a certifed Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Developer and Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Designer (2 different certifcations). I’m not listed on Macromedia’s official list yet since I took the exams recently, so you’ll have to take my word for it. Many thanks to St. Joseph for helping me through the whole process. The guy just knows how to get work done.
Now, do I dare go for Dreamweaver certification?
Some days are just too funny and cute not to write about…
So the other day, Therese and I had come home from running some errands and I made us some lunch. AFter I was done, I got a work related phone call and had to run upstairs to check some things out. I come back down and the kitchen is quiet…”oh, no! what’s she getting into.” I walk into the kitchen and Therese is fast asleep on her plate! It was too funny.
Later that day, we were waiting for Adam to come home. He calls a little distress about something that was holding him up. I turned to Therese in the middle of making dinner and said, “Therese, we need to pray that Jesus will be Daddy’s helper right now so he can come home.” I tend back to dinner, and ask, “are you praying for daddy?” The next time I look at her she is standing with her hands together saying, “Jesus, helper, daddy.” It just melted my heart. And sure enough, Adam came home very soon after that.
If it should be God’s will that I am to live out the remaining years of my life in a nursing home, this is where I’d want to be.
My feet are currently throbbing from the long day we had. It was good though.
Greg and Julie Alexander had an open house for their new Alexander House Marriage Resource Center. It is clear that the work they do is pleasing to God and that he wants them to continue. Theirs is an amazing story. EWTN is running a series on the work they do. Unfortunately, we don’t have EWTN so we haven’t seen it, but we hear it’s awesome. If some nice soul out there has been taping it and wants to lend it to us, it would be much appreciated.
After our trip to the open house, we went to celebrate Isai Molina’s first birthday. What a cute little guy. His parents were quite wise in having it at a park…not only is there minimal stuff to clean up but there was a play ground to occupy the little ones for quite a while. Isai and his mom, Alissa, come to our mom’s group and have been a wonderful contribution. I think Isai and Therese are kindred spirits in screaming! I sat wondering the other day if maybe it’s because their moms are such passionate women!
And while we’re on the topic of screaming… I’ve been telling Therese how important it is for us to be nice and not to scream at the other kids especially on the play ground. SO, this afternoon everytime she saw a kid coming her way, she would say, “nice, nice, nice.” It was very cute.
On Wednesday, James Nicholson and I gave a Theology of the Body and Chastity talk to the confirmation class and their parents at St. Louis. Adam and our good friend Devin as well as Danae Hebert helped us out in talking with the boys and the parents respectively.
I must say that it went really well…at least from my perspective and that of the parents and teens that we talked to afterwards. I was quite nervous, but Jesus, Mary, Joseph, St. Maria Goretti, St. Dominic Savio, and St. Gianna came through once again!
Too often I take for granted that which I know and how valuable it is to share the Church’s teaching with our fellow Catholics. When I asked who had heard of the Theology of the Body, only about 5 people raised their hands out of a room of about 100 teens and parents. I find that to be 95 people too few!
I think this weekend’s Gospel reading is a call to share the talents we have to produce more fruit. So I am very greatful that we had the opportunity to share with these young people and their parents God’s design for us as male and female.
For all those reading this blog, I ask that you pray for all our youth to embrace chastity and purity. I also ask you to pray that all their parents will do the same in their marriages or other states of life.
“The results are in from Tuesday night’s election, and Proposition Two passed. Effective immediately, the Texas Constiution will now define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Proposition Two passed by a huge margin. However, the majority of voters in Travis County [Austin is in Travis County] voted against the amendement.
Here’s a look at a breakdown of the numbers: 76 percent voted for Proposition Two, and 24 percent voted against.”
On Saturday a couple of sweet friends, Alexis and Annie, threw me a Baby G Shower. It was so much fun to hang out with my girl friends. Thank you all for you generosity. We and baby G find it such a blessing to know all of you and have you as friends.
One of the more memorable moments for me was the twist on the game of measuring my tummy. The ladies had to say one nice thing for every square of toilet paper they had. Since for some it was a lot of toilet paper, I got them off the hook a little by dividing the number by 2. Anyway, the most interesting comment I got started as “financially responsible” by Annie. Then it was Erin’s turn. She was perhaps a little more honest when she said, “No, Sharon is a PENNY PINCHER!!” I got a good laugh out of that! Do my friends know me or what!? haaahhaaahhaaa!
One of the sweetest moment was when my good friend Misty said, “I could think of an adjective for every one of the squares.”
Thank you again Annie and Alexis!
