SharonAndAdam.com

Happy Birthday Pookie!

Today, my Pookie Bear, turns another year older!  His age is the sum of four times Therese’s age*, five times Fulton’s age*, Gianna’s age* and the number of years we’ve been married (5 years).  [*Note: use the greatest integer function for the children's ages.]

Happy Birthday sweetheart and may all God’s love and blessings be upon you this year!

“Let’s pray…”

After a couple of weeks of reminders from Therese that we needed to make new homeless bags, we finally got them done last night.  Of course, I forgot to actually put them in the van.

So on our way back from church this morning, we saw a homeless man and the light was green and we didn’t have a bag in the car.  Lost in my thought and “to-dos,” I simply said to Therese, “Remind me to put the bags in the car when we get home.”

After turning the corner, she replies, “Mommy, let’s pray a Hail Mary for him.”

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.  Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Lord, bless those tonight without a home or food.  Surround them with your love and mercy.  Send your angels to minister to their needs.  And as the nights grow colder help them to find warmth and shelter.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

This is Joy

…sporting a new bike helmet every chance he gets….

…taking her place as princess and loving it…

… 5 full PLATES of beignets gone in less than half an hour (and it was only our family. Better come early on Sunday if you want some)…

…a new look for our home…and we love it!

Thank you

My heartfelt thanks to all of you for your prayers, consolations and beautiful words of support for our family.  I get all teary thinking of the blessing God has given us through your friendship. Many thanks to Alexis for taking care of the kids this morning while we went to the hospital.

God is so good.  Adam has been so wonderful. God could not have blessed me with a greater husband.  Thank you, dearest, for your blessing last night.   The kids have been very understanding and just bringing me book after book to read in bed.

All seemed to have gone well this morning.  My blood pressure which was very high for the last couple of weeks was normal when went in.  Your prayers have certainly brought a great deal of peace to my aching soul.  Thank you to Fr. Abraham for the annointing, Fr. Tim–your phone call meant so much, and the Srs. of Mary for storming Heaven.

Jesus I trust in you.

Gerard Francis, pray for us.

Michael Joseph, pray for us.

Gerard Francis Gretencord

Tuesday we learned that Baby G V, died.  We would have been 9 weeks pregnant this week.  We were hopeful a couple of weeks ago when our ultrasound showed a beating heart.  But our baby didn’t develop past 6w 1d.  God had different plans for this baby and our family.

We named him Gerard Francis because we learned about our little blessing on the Feast of St. Gerard, and Francis because of all the animals that have been attracted to our home (and Fulton’s fascination with St. Francis).

Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I will go into surgery for a D&C.  I opted this route because our last miscarriage was rather traumatic and I didn’t want to go through that again with the kids around.  I’m scared but I think this is the best thing for our family.  Thank you for any prayers you can offer.

Traumatized

I officially don’t like irresponsible dog owners.

Fulton and Therese were traumatized on Friday by a dog who’s owner did not have it on a leash while she was out for a jog.  Unfortunately she couldn’t keep up with her canine and it ran straight for us while I was taking the kids on a bike ride.  The dog was about the size of Fulton and of course, the kids started screaming.  I asked the owner to put her leash on her dog–which she didn’t do even after that because we saw the pair again on our way home.

Most of you who have dogs know that the kids weren’t big fans of these animals to begin with.  The most unfortunate part of this all, is that my kids were scared today to go out on a bike ride.  They were peddling slow and apprehensive at every corner.  Therese wouldn’t take the lead like she usually does.  Fulton even said, “I don’t want to go that way. The dog might come out.”  I took them that particular route anyway, assuring them that it would be safe and I wouldn’t let anything happen to them.   And now they are even more weary just passes houses where we know there are dogs.  Their joy in biking riding is gone in less than a couple of weeks.

I know they are well meaning when dog owners say, “oh, my dog is nice. It wouldn’t hurt you.”  Quite frankly, we don’t know your dogs and they don’t know us. And you never know what a dog will do when faced with a 5 year old screaming kid.

So what to do (beside carry pepper spray)?  How do I keep the kids from going completely bonkers when they see a dog? And there’s NO WAY we’re getting a dog to get the kids used to them.

Nailed ‘em!

The critter was indeed a rat, yet a small one at that… no Di, I will not get a cat… in a hat.

Ok, I’ll stop now.

But yes, he has been caught. Sharon brought home 3 rat traps. I placed two in the attic knowing it was a long shot that the rat would be hanging around up there on occasion. The third I went directly to the source.

I removed the air vent cover from our bedroom ceiling, unlatched and pushed back the flexible duct pipe, and slipped the rat trap above the ceiling. I tied a piece of kite string to the trap and set the spool on an unstable surface in our room. Two reasons for doing this: 1) it would serve as a telltale that the trap had been moved the slightest bit 2) in case the trap was a bit slow in doing it’s work and the rat tried to drag it off, I would have something to pull it back in.

Thanks Allen for the great advice. The cotton-cheese ball worked like a champ. Marc, the same technique might work for those campaigners…