GMAC at the Dentist

Inch, Rose and I had our biannual dentist appointment last week. Our dentist suggested GMAC just watch this time to prepare her for her first dental appointment. It was Rose's turn first GMAC sat in my lap, watch carefully, and asked lots of question. When Rose was done with her cleaning, the hygienist, asked GMAC if she wants a practice appointment. She hopped into Rose's lap and really enjoyed it.

Rose was a bit nervous here

Really cool nuns

Some may think the term "Cool Nuns" seems like an oxymoron because when people think of nuns they they unfortunately think of this
The stereotypical scary old lady with a permanent scowl and lightning quick with the ruler.

Well let me introduce you to the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara

The sisters singing a song before mass

These ladies are young (or young at heart) vibrant, full of love for the Lord and seem to always be smiling!

One of the things the sisters do is run an weekly oratory for young girls. Oratory is like a day camp and Mystical Rose has been going for the past year. This past Saturday the sisters held a family day so we all went. Family Day is something we look forward to; with games, singing, food and fellowship it is always fun.

GMAC playing one of the games run by the nuns

The novitiate house is next to a farm

this is where we had mass

"U" was even able to serve at mass

Treehouse building day 2

Yesterday we dug the holes, today we placed the posts and concrete

Us putting in a post

-Inch

P.S. Sadly I did not have many pictures in the post, so here is one :

Treehouse Building Day 1

We finally started building our tree house. The first step was to drill holes in the ground, we used this:

Just kidding!!! It looked more like this :

Sadly it was 5" to short, so we (meaning my Dad) had to hand dig the rest.


Tomorrow we will probably finish building the base...hopefully...

Whats in a name?

For the past few months Mystical Rose has been attending a girls oratory held by the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara. This week we had the privilege to participate in a mass where 14 of the novices received their habits and new names. During the mass there were also these ceremonies

• The Perpetual Vows of Fr. Joseph LoJacono, IVE and seminarian Gerardus Hauwert, IVE
• The Investiture of cassocks of 12 novices of the Institute of the Incarnate Word
• The profession of First Vows by four Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará
• The Admission to the Third Order of the Institute of the Incarnate Word for Adiela Cabrera

Cardinal McCarrick was the principal celebrant and two Bishops , to include one of our favorites, Bishop Holly concelebrated. The Vicar General of the IVE , the Provincial Superior of this province also concelebrated.

This was also the 20th Anniversary of the order coming to the US. There was a huge party afterward that we were invited to. At the party we were able to talk to many of the sisters and also met some of the impressive young men going to the new minor seminary started by the IVE.

The IVE is an amazing family of priests, nuns and lay people on fire with the Holy Spirit

Congratulations
Dear sister __ , to be concealed from the world and consecrated to God,
receive this new name by which we will call you...

Sr. Maria Blanca Azucena
Sr. Maria de Conforto
Sr. Mary Servant of the Cross
Sr. Maryja Wspomozichielka
Sr. Maria Mater Vitae
Sr. Maria Altar Purisimo
Sr. Maria Vera Luce
Sr. Maria Filotea
Sr. Maria Tonantzin
Sr. Marie Etoele de le Esperance
Sr. Maria Alma Redemptoris Mater
Sr. Marie Notre Dame de Victoire
Sr. Mary Our Lady of Divine Providence
Sr. Mary Lily of the Valley

Check out all of our photos in the post below

What's in a Name II

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Pass the pigs

our very good friends came over for pizza and board games. We played Pictionary, Gestures and they introduced us to what is becoming one of our favorite games Pass the Pigs
The game is so simple yet so much fun, with the differences in our kids ages it is hard for us to find games that the whole family can enjoy.

A visit from Papa

The week of Thanksgiving my Dad came to see our new house for the first time. It was great having him here and the kidfs especially loved cooking and chatting with him.

Kids with Papa

Papa reading to G-MAC

My dad also cooked for us. Growing up, my Mom did the cooking so I never realized what a good cook my dad was.

-- Crucian Dad

Riz Djon-Djon (ice and Hatian Mushrooms) -- on the right
Grio (Fried Pork) -- on the Left

Field Trip with our cousins

We are still here, yes, we haven't blogged in a while, but we've been having fun. Week before last we were able to spend some time with Cruzan Dad's sis and kids. We went on a field trip to the American History Museum.

The kids had fun on the subway...they were trying to maintain their balance

The girls enjoyed some of the hands on exibits

GMAC let her cousin hold her up to see an exibit

Aunt L. treated the girls to some ice cream...yum, yum

-Mallu Mom

Halloween 2009

OK so I know that it is a few days late but here are the kids in their Halloween costumes.
Even though the teenagers didn't trick-or-treat they still enjoyed dressing up.

Inch is dressed as an ancient Greek

"U" went as a traveling beggar monk

Rose went as Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

G-MAC as baby Kateri

Walking Rosary

Today is the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary. Our family has been praying a daily rosary together for a little over five years. It has really become an important part of our lives. We know we have and continue to receive many graces from this prayer. Today in honor of this feast we decided to try something different. Our parish has a rosary garden that is really cool. It is a winding path in the shape of a giant rosary, with stepping stones for each of the beads. We pack up every one in the car, even the dog, and said our daily rosary at the rosary garden. It was a very peaceful and beautiful experience.

Crucian Dad

It's a little hard to see but we are on the rosary path

G-MAC thinks that whenever she has a Rosary, she has to kneel

Camp, evening schedule

This is what I did for the rest of the day

Evening Colors Ceremony—5:00
We put down the flag, does this need further explaining?

Retreat — 5:45 pm
Every evening Scouts and leaders gather on the parade field for our camp-wide retreat ceremony. Everyone is in full class A uniform. We march and salute the big flag and watch the big flag go down.

Dinner — 6:00 pm
Immediately following the retreat ceremony, we eat dinner. We still have to be in class A uniform for dinner.

Evening Activity Period — 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Every program area is open for Scouts to visit, mostly to finish merit badges. (I had to work on woodworking)

Special Evening Activity Period — 8:30 pm to 9:45 pm
Monday we had to find thirty random items (Like five boys in exact same band uniforms), we were in third place. Tuesday was troop night we had a campfire and played Risk (I won). Wednesday was patrol night; each patrol fought each other in a variety of challenges, from obstacle course to tying one-handed knots (third place). Thursday was outpost (or campfire if you didn’t take an outpost merit badge) Friday we had STAFF HUNT the staff went out all over camp and we had to capture them and bring them to HQ, WE GOT SECOUND PLACE!!!

Camp, afternoon schedule

Here is my afternoon camp schedule.

Lunch — 12:30 pm
Like breakfast but with different foods.
Oh yah, for camping merit badge we had to cook over an open fire (only Wednesday). I learned important lessons, when pancakes look like scrambled eggs, you used to much water in the batter. And Burnt pancake batter is good drowned in syrup. And Grease fires are bad. And after you put out a grease fire, if you put more grease on, another fire starts.

Siesta — 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
All program areas and the Trading Post are closed and the Scouts are expected to be in their sites. How fun :P This is why I brought Risk with me. This is supposed to be a time to give the staff a break
.
Afternoon Instruction Period 1 — 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Camping Merit badge, it is my last Eagle required :) All we did was learn about a bunch of things that I already knew (4 years of camping) but did not “officially”.
Thursday night was outpost; we went with the camping guys from 4 on. We also built our own shelter, they told us to bring anything but a fire starter. The Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared” so I brought duct tape. I was able to sit on the roof of my shelter.

Afternoon Instruction Period 2 — 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Electronics!! We got to solder (aka play with molten metal to connect other metals together). We made a little thing that beeps every few seconds, also we learned all about circuits and other things that I learned from The Magic School Bus. Fun class.

Special Interest Program — 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
SIPs are located at the different areas, I usually go to the pool one. We did things like water polo, beach volleyball, snorkel, Eskimo roll for kayaks…etc. I didn’t earn the patch because one of the days I was at outpost.

Daddy and Me

Well it really has been a busy week for us. Lots of things that we wanted to post about but just never did.

The boys have been gone to camp for the last week and I have taken this time to really pour a lot of attention into Mystical Rose. Usually the boys, especially Inch, get the lions share of the attention because ....well they are just bigger and louder. Its not that we just ignore Rose but she has such a giving soul that she really thinks of others needs a lot. Well this week we were able to go to the pool almost every day (notice how dark we have both gotten) and I have been able to read to her a good deal from a story that we started months ago. But while it has been a very nice week. We were all just commenting at lunch yesterday how much we all miss the boys.

--Crucian Dad

"Thurepe" Therapy

On Father’s day I suggested we play Thurepe( a card game from Kerala.) It is also known as 28. Growing up this is what we all did for fun. I thought it would be enjoyable for old time sakes; it turned out to be therapy for my dad’s recovery. My dad was always good at the game, he usually won. Most of the time while we were there, my dad looked week and tired. It was so cute to see his smile as he was winning; it was really therapy for all of us. The boys and Cruzan Dad caught on to the game quickly, and I am looking forward to many games with the family.

-- Mallu Mom

We played almost every afternoon.

"U" being coached by his grandpa.

The winning smile!