The Greatest Guys in the World

I have four of the greatest guys in the world!
They are so sweet!

Apparently, for several months now the boys have been wanting to have a "Greatest Mom in the World" party. I didn't know anything about this. They have been planning and asking Tim when.
This is a pleasant surprise to me because I am not only their mother, I am their teacher, and it's tough to win the popular vote some days.

Well on Saturday night they got their wish.
They all went downstairs and left me blogging unaware. They were down there a long time...
So awhile later, John calls from the bottom of the stairs "Mom, I need you down here." I said I would be down in a minute and was finishing my post, and I hear him call again, "I really need you to come down NOW!" Hmmm.... That sounded serious.

I put down the laptop and went down, around the corner and....SURPRISE!!!
They had the basement all decorated with balloons and streamers, they had gotten me a couple of movies and they had made HUGE banners!


It was just the nicest thing.

Brendan the SKATER!!

Brendan had a GREAT day yesterday.
He had informed me a couple of days ago that if he couldn't have a skateboard, he wanted some skates. He asked me to go online and check prices. We did and he was rather underwhelmed when he saw that it was going to be about eight weeks before he had enough allowance!
He is such a sweetie. He just looked rather downcast and then said that he would try to save.
Well, when the mail came there were TWO items for Brendan and Two for Paul, one thing for John and a lovely card for me. Deena had sent birthday gifts to both of the boys and they were very excited, then Grandpa Dick sent something along and lo and behold, Brendan had enough, with his allowance, to go to Target and get his Schwinn in-line skates.
He got on them at around 3:00 yesterday afternoon, and by this afternoon he was flying around like a pro!
I told him that his Godfather will be very proud! He can't wait to see him and Giordan and talk Hockey.

My Favorite Poem

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf's a flower
But only so an hour
Then leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to grief
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay

American Papist

An American Catholic and Loving it!
Now here is an encouraging Blog!!

I have put it in my Google Reader. This young man is a fabulous speaker and writer. This interview is just one post. Go to the blog and read it! Share it with any teens and young people you know.
This is why I am confidant in our American Catholic youth. They will carry the flame of Christ's love forward into the future.

Jesus Comes to Brendan!

Today was a very big day in the Merkel household!
Today was Brendan's First Communion!

He looked so nice! He got all dressed up in his suit and tie.
He was just so grown up and such a little gentleman.

The Mass was wonderful and Father Jay did such a nice job with the kids.
He asked that no one take pictures during the Mass, which I thought was very nice for the kids. I took a couple as they were coming in...

And this is the class afterwards. Brendan is very proud of his new Crucifix.

Then Father Jay went inside to take pictures with all the kids.

This little boy was baptized on the same day as Brendan, at St Patrick's! His mom said they were watching the video and there we were! It was so neat to have them receive Communion in the same class. He was also on Brendan's Soccer team.

The Baseball Thing

So John is getting into Baseball.
He has been collecting cards for about a year. Now he knows enough about the players that he wants to listen to the games. Most of the stations have blacked out the games and I don't know if we can stream the one that hasn't. So I went ahead and paid the 15.00 to stream the Major League Games for the season.
Now I am listening! It's the coolest site!
It has a great Live Page to watch and it has all the stats, the live play-by-play and a ton of info!
I'm having a great time! The Orioles are not.
They are having a hard time keeping their feet under them this year.
I'm glad I don't have to watch...

War and Peace

Saturday was a very nice day.
We traveled up to the Harper's Ferry area to participate in a Civil War Reenactment with the Army of Chivalrous Christian Soldiers. The Battle they did was the Battle for Chancellorsville.
The young people that put this on are really amazing folks. Major Bradford is a docent at several Civil War sites and he knows all the battles, history, people, customs and well, just about all there is to know about this time in history. Even better, he and his friends are devout Christians and are devoted to passing on the art of Chivalry to young boys and girls when they come to participate.
The clothing, the food, the language, the manners, were all part of a three day history lesson.

John and Paul were Confederate infantry
and Brendan, once again, wanted to be a Yank.
They were so into it all day! They drilled, marched, and fought

all over this huge farm. They were given lessons in manners and how to treat a lady. My son actually tipped his hat to me! They didn't complain at all, the whole day. They saved all their complaining for the drive home.

As an added Blessing I was privileged to meet, in person, a very special lady that I have known online for a couple of years. I have been reading her blog "Mommylife" for a long time now and we have occasionally written back and forth. I have been praying for her since I started reading her writing, because I had a feeling that she was searching and sure enough, this Easter she returned to the Catholic Church, and her husband, Tripp came into the Church with her. It has been so wonderful to follow her journey online! So, since we were going to be in Louden County VA, where she lives, I wrote and asked if I could drive over and pick up some books that I had ordered from her, and meet her. She is an excellent author. She said that Saturday would work well, and as it turned out, the farm was only about 15 minutes from her house! God is so good!
I was so neat to finally talk to her in person. I met her family as they came in and out, and they are so special! Her daughters are sweet, both of them were so gracious!
The boys are a neat bunch. All four of them have Down's Syndrome and they are all very nice boys. Johnny is 16 and a cutie. He is quite a character.
We just had such a nice chat. It was such a treat. We ended up talking for a couple of hours!
I love the sense of family that we have within the Church.

After I got back to the farm, we watched the tactical and then had supper. It was so good!

We had to get back home that night, but we stayed until the dance began.

We were so tired, but it was so much fun!