Welcome the new arrival!

I am the proud "mother" of a Borrego Beige Metallic 2008 Honda Civic LX.

The new little one was driven home on Memorial Day and has been getting lots of attention from mommy and many passers by on the street ever since. Lots of shout outs on the street she gets!

I saw this color Civic parked in a Visitor's spot in my development and fell in love on sight. The color I wanted was never in question after I saw this. In person, it has much more personality than "gold," although that's the general color I say the car is. The color is only available in a couple of the models of Civics, so I won't see my twin everywhere either.

Omar wants me to name the car Paula, for Paula Deen, whom he loves. I laughed because she does love butter and the car is gold, but I don't know. Jarred is opposed to it because he thinks Paula Deen is annoying (for shame!)

I had an easier go of things when I got my other Civic in 2002 (oh yes, this is my 14th year of Honda Civic driving, my friends!). Caroline lost count and thought this might be the 4th Civic, but it's only the 3rd. (I just drive them for a lot of years each!)

In 2002, as I pulled out of the dealer's lot with my new Civic that day I bought it, I turned on the radio and a country station was on (I don't listen to much country music on the regular) and the song that was playing was "Fancy" by Reba McIntyre. Well, anyone who knew me in my karaoke days knows that that was my best song--and thus, the car was named Fancy. I actually used to like to say she named herself!

We'll see what we wind up naming this new little number--Maybe naming it "Deen" could be a compromise?

Random odds and ends, part 11

Well, my friend Pat is now a priest. You can read about him here.

I am still most disappointed that I was not able to attend his ordination, but I am happy to say, praise be to God, that the Holy Spirit led the others involved in the parish pastoral council discernment process on Saturday to choose me to be one of the 10 members of the first parish pastoral council for the new parish. We will begin our work in July.

My mom and I are planning a vacation in the fall to Denver to see my mom's sister and her family. I haven't been to Colorado since my cousin Trish married a professional bowler when I was 18 and she was 19. Needless to say, that was a long time ago! Although we get to see my Aunt Patty in the summer at her condo in Cape May, we hardly see my cousins and their spouses and kids, so the trip will be a great opportunity to do all of that, relax, sightsee, and so on, for a week. My dad will have to make it without my mom for a week, but I think he'll be OK. He wouldn't want to go out there and stay in my aunt's house for a whole week, he likes his space, so we're better off just going without him this time!

As of this moment, I have no major Memorial Day plans, although I will be going over to the Honda dealer at some point to see how much I could get if I traded in my current car--but fear not, I'll still be able to do my blog posts from the Honda dealer every now and then like I like to do since my new car, when I get it, will of course be another Honda! I just can't say no to such reliable cars! That said, I should start cleaning out my car trunk this weekend too :)

The weather is supposed to be fantastic, so that will be great. Sunny every day of the weekend and getting a little warmer with each passing day.

I have plans to see my Steph from Rutgers and meet her husband Darren for the first time at Old Man Rafferty's in June, so that will be a lomg overdue visit for us that I am looking forward to!

I hope your Memorial Day weekend is relaxing!

Discernment

I have been away for a while...but I have a bit of a dilemma currently. My friend Pat is being ordained to the priesthood on May 17 and now I cannot attend his ordination. The easiest way to explain the story is to share the e-mail I sent him....

Hello Deacon Pat,

I just want to let you know how proud I am of the journey you have travelled to become a priest and how much I really want to thank you for listening to and responding to God's call to your vocation. Please know that you are always in my prayers.

I have to let you know, very regretably, that I am now not going to able to come on May 17 to see you be ordained a holy priest and I am really distressed about the whole thing.

As you know, my parish in in the middle of a, for some, painful merger where we lost our very beloved pastor, Fr Pat, and there are a fair bit of hard feelings at present toward the new administrator (a Franciscan, since the combined parishes---to be renamed in July--is now going to be the Franciscan parish in the diocese). I feel like the hard feelings a lot of people have are somewhat unfair, since I am able to appreciate the huge undertaking our new administrator is in the middle of, while a lot of older parishoners are just hurt their parish will no longer be what it once was--in name, at least.

We are in the process of putting together a parish pastoral council--12 people--six from each original parish--and I feel like it's very vital I be on this. They need the younger viewpoint. I was the youngest person in the room by at least 5 or more years at the information sesssion that the woman from our diocese ran. I am the future of this parish and my prayerful spirit can be an asset to them in the long run.

Here's the rub--the day of prayer and discernment to determine who will be on the council is May 17 from 10am-1pm. If I don't go, I can't be on the council. I feel very strongly that I need to pray about being a part of this council and feel that I can make a difference for the "parishes" now and in the future.

I hope you can understand this. Please know how sorry I am that I am going to miss this beautiful day of yours. I can't wait to see you celebrate mass very soon!!

Love and prayers, L


Luckily, Pat understood and supports me in what I need to do, which I knew he would.

I recently told my new pastor/administrator that I would no longer be working with the youth group after this school year ends. I don't feel like my gifts are best utilized in this setting and with this age group. I pray that the Holy Spirit will agree that I may be best suited to be part of the new parish pastoral council.

I'll keep you posted...