Happy Birthday Ashley!

Happy Birthday!!

Urgent Prayers needed

It kills me to have to post this today but I'm asking for as many prayers as possible.
Yesterday, my dad was diagnosed with ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Basically, this disease is incurable and causes paralysis all other the body which eventually leads to death. Once people are diagnosed with this disease they typically have between a few months and a few years to live. All of you know how close I am to my dad and my whole family and I'm sure you can only imagine how shocked we are. However, we are praying to Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos for a miracle which since the disease is incurable would aid in his canonization. More info about Blessed Seelos and a prayer for his intercession can be found here

Please keep my dad and my whole family in your prayers and I will keep you posted if we here anything else. Thank you so much.

9 Year Reunion?!?!?!

Hello again to all my friends. So, I was thinking wouldn't it be fun to have a get together at some point? Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Julia is going to be in the States sometime in September. Perhaps we could get together at some point then. Alex and I were already planning a trip up north around that time and it would be great to see everyone. I know Will and family are in CA but I am not sure when (if?) they are next going to be in MA so this might be the best opportunity for awhile.

What do you all think?

Leave it to me.

So, I haven't updated all of you on my very exciting life in awhile. I'm not sure if anyone is reading this but that's okay, it's therapeutic anyway. Monday night found me in the ER. Have no fear, me and baby are A-Okay. However, I had a weird episode of vertigo which made me super sick and I couldn't keep anything down and so got dehydrated and had to go in for an IV. Six and a half hours and no answers later we got to come home. Fun times. Good news was that I got to see my little baby bean via ultrasound again which was awesome.

Anywho, we are leaving for the Outer Banks tomorrow. Apparently, it is for people down here what RI or Cape Cod is for us New Englanders. We are sharing a house with a couple other families for the week which should prove to be quite delightful. I can't wait to go to the beach; I even found a bathing suit I really like! I'm at this weird point in my pregnancy where a bunch of stuff is snug and my regular bathing suit was way too small (not that Will and Geoff care but its not like they are reading this anyway... :P but all maternity stuff looks like I'm wearing a tent so it is tricky to find appropriate attire. However, I found a wicked cute blue and brown tankini and it should be perfect.

Oh, by the way I finally found the widget so everyone can actually subscribe to the blog by email so you won't miss a minute of it! On the main page is a button where you can just enter your email and you're good to go!

Hope all of you are doing well! Hurray for summer!

Back to Reality

Yuck. We got home at about 11:30 last night and had to lug all of our stuff up four flights of stairs, only to encounter an overly tired toddler who refused to sleep in his own bed and a house that was approximately 1 million degrees from being shut up all week. Today, I get to do multiple loads of laundry, unpack, pay bills, keep Anthony from throwing clean clothes in the hamper or emptying the dirty dishes from the dishwasher and figure out how to pay my bills and still supposedly save something every month. Good grief. Oh well, it's not so bad, just nice to vent.
Happy Monday! ;)

Refraining from Comment

Okay, I am trying to not leave as many of my messages as comments. I start writing a sentence or two under someone's post, and quickly I realize I have just written something that is far too long to be a comment and might never be seen!! :/ If I am going to go through the trouble, I must know someone has seen the fruit of my labor. Hmm... I might not be getting my reward in Heaven. Anyway, I do wish it were possible to get alerts and links when something new has been written. I guess we each could just email everyone else when we write, but doesn't that seem silly? Ah, the important dilemmas of life.

So, Ashley, I am really surprised that someone had so proudly taken a picture of her positive pregnancy test in high school. That is what I gathered anyway. Ashley said she was not going to post high school photos and the posted the aforementioned under the caption "I Lied..." In case some of you did not understand why that little stick has joined us on this blog, that was Ashley's typically sneaky way of saying she is pregnant. So a huge congratulations to Ashley, Alex, and Anthony!! We can't wait to hear more details about you and baby, and we hope you are getting rest and feeling well.

Back to high school photos, please, please, please put them up. I really would like nothing better than to laugh at my high school self dressed like a complete mess. It makes me feel good about myself actually. I realize how far I have come.

Mmm, Friday. I love it. I still live for the weekends. I have been told by my husband that this is what only kids do. Oh, well. He must be a really mature adult. Any special plans this weekend, you five? I am going to my friend Meredith's going away party tomorrow night. (We went to Holyoke Catholic together.) Figures. I am moving to the city just in time for her to move to D.C. Ashley say hi to Mere for me. ;) Ah, the weather is supposed to be great hear for the next week - all seventy-degree days. I wish the pool were open. Heather, the cover is off now. Can you finish it please? I am dying to stick my feet in water as I sit in the sun. Actually I would love even more to hit the beach - another thing I will be closer to when I move. Yay! I am told I am lucky to have a kid who loves water because apparently some little kids don't. That is not allowed to happen in my house. Ever.

Speaking of water, our pool is in the complex's courtyard. It is very nice... and clean (always a plus). The courtyard itself is undergoing construction though, which has started promptly at 7 a.m. every freaking day this week (and keeps going until 6 or 7 at night). Yes, it is driving me insane to have the sounds of the heavy-duty saws and massive metal mallets breaking up concrete all. day. long. I have to try and get G to talk his nap when the workers are on lunch... speaking of which it's that time.

I hope you all enjoy a great weekend, and aren't you glad I didn't leave this is the comment section of Ashley's last post.

Love from Cat

I lied... here's a picture ;)

And that's why there are no pictures...

So, I decided it would be fun to post some pictures of our time at Mariamante. (I'm sure some of you already know where this is headed.) Anyway, I went into my closet this morning and pulled out these two big tubs of pictures/cards/play programs/other memorabilia from high school and college. I had a great time until I came across one of me wearing a jumper (okay, try dozens of me in jumpers) and then the delightful fashion sense that we all possessed back then and then the glasses and the hair and... well, I stopped. And that is why there are no pictures with this post.
I thought I had a firm grasp on how embarrassing these pictures were and that I had moved on but no, they were and are every bit THAT bad. So, you will be seeing some pictures but it may take awhile (a LONG while) to find some that are not completely and utterly humiliating. Until then, adios.

On a side note, Anthony watched Toy Story 2 for the first time yesterday (he fell asleep half way through but I kept watching) and I forgot just I much I enjoy that movie. "And a key, I don't know what it's for but you never know... and an EXTRA bouncy, bouncy ball..."

Buh-bye buh-bye now.