long needed update

Okay folks. So this is waaaay overdue.

Here's what's happened in the last while.

In case you didn't know..... I'm pregnant!! :) 27 weeks as of today. That's a week shy of 7 months for those of you who don't like to divide. We had an ultrasound done at 20 weeks and 4 days. Here's one of the cool shots from that!

And here's one of the creepy shots where she sort of looks like an alien or skeletor. :) Ha ha!!

Yes we have picked a name for our baby girl and it's Clare Scholastica. Clare because St. Clare is totally awesome, was my Confirmation saint, and I've grown up with my mom talking about her devotion to St. Clare and the Poor Clares she used to visit and the Franciscan sisters she studied with etc. Scholastica because St. Scholastica is St. Benedict's twin sister! Jon and I really like those Benedictines. She was the abbess of the first Benedictine Convent.

If it somehow turns out that Clare is in fact not a Clare like the ultrasound technician said, our baby will be named Michael Benedict, for very similar reasons!

In other updates. We've moved....again. Gah, 8 times in 7 years(for me at least). Toooo many. The reasons for our move were two-fold.

1. Our old apartment complex decided that it wanted us to pay $120 more this year for our one bedroom apartment bringing it up to $960/month. Ick!!

2. We needed a place to put the baby when she arrived and I wasn't quite comfortable with Jon's suggestion of putting her in the living room. Ha ha ha!!

So while I was away in Sydney, Australia in July (yeah I should have posted about that too) Jon went apartment hunting. He found a place that was only 3.8 miles north of where we were currently living. The best part about this place is that it has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, it's only $15 more than we would have paid to stay at the one bedroom, and it's super close to Annie!!

We moved in about a month ago and we're at a place I'm pretty happy with in terms of unpacking. Fr. Frank came over at the end of August to our apartment warming and blessed the place for us. It was great to have him over with the crew. His eyes just about popped out when he saw Shalomers filling the apartment. It was great.

In a few weeks we'll get to make Clare's room a little more like a nursery and less like the computer/catch all room. Thankfully my older sister has had a girl already and the newest baby

has grown out of his newborn and infant stuff so I get the hand me downs!! She's also informed me that she's not currently pregnant so we will be able to use everything until Clare grows out of it!

Okay...update 3. I went to Sydney, Australia for 15 days in July to party with the Pope and 400,000 (I think) Catholic youth. I took 11 youth from St. Cecilia's and 4 other chaperones including my good friend Becky. We made it a double venture and teamed up with St. Luke's from Shoreline. All in all it was a difficult and rewarding trip, as any pilgrimmage should be. My youth were amazed at the reactions from the people of Sydney and the sheer numbers of youth all gathered in one area to pray, celebrate and learn. Many of them came away with a new view of Pope Benedict. He is a Catholic Rockstar.

We had the opportunity to ride on a boat and chase the Pope Boat in Sydney Harbour thanks to Becky and her Regnum Christi connections, listen to 2 huge presentations by Christopher West, see Fr. Stan Fortuna perform, visit the vocations expo and meet with religious from all over the world, attend the welcoming pilgrim's mass, spend the entire time in homestays, and attend the fabulous closing mass celebrated by his holiness Pope Benedict XVI. It was great. I truly hope our time there changed some lives and that we in some small way envigorated the youth and Catholics of Australia. Please pray for them as they have said seminaries and religious orders are having a difficult time attracting youth. Thank God for the surge in vocations we're seeing here. I haven't unloaded my camera of my Sydney shots so I'll have to post those another time.

Update 4 (actually they're in no particular order). Jon and I had our first rosary/potluck night last night. I got this random idea while we were praying the rosary one night last week to invite people over so we could pray with others. We had Sara and Casey over last night for dinner and prayer. It was cool! Hopefully our little group will grow and our prayers will be effective for our world and a great way for us to grow closer and offer roses to our Lady :).

And....last but not least update 5. I am no longer employed.

I decided to end my stay at St. Cecilia's at the end of July. I wanted to finish out the year with World Youth Day and make sure that the new person would have enough time to be organized and in their groove before they started the new year of ministry in September. So I stepped down and the old youth minister stepped back in!! Crazy how things work. So at the moment I'm hanging out doing the housewife thing and enjoying sleep before the little sleep stealer (I mean bundle of joy) comes in December. So far I've learned how to bake a pretty good pie, bake my own wheat bread, and been amazed at the wonders of the Kitchen Aid mixer. :)

That's all folks!