Today was the first day back for all of the teachers at our school. Since I work at a private Catholic school, the first day back is always a retreat at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton church (one of the three churches our school serves directly). Today’s retreat was very special. A day filled with the Holy Spirit in a way that I have rarely felt it before. I love being in a relatively large group of people (that I know), discussing our faith and enjoying each other’s company. Our priest, Fr. Scott Ardinger from the Diocese of Allentown, PA, did an awesome job of explaining the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit and helping us to begin the process of discerning our gifts. We finished the day with Mass, Adoration of the Eucharist, and group prayer. It has been probably six years or more since I have had a religious experience to rival this one. What a great day!
Tag-Archive for » Family «
Jeremy got his cast off on Monday! I was very happy as I thought the boy had been spending too much time inside the house (just for having a cast on his arm) and soccer is getting ready to start at the High School. Friday was the Arlington Diocese Day at King’s Dominion and the kids were having a blast. I was getting phone calls and text messages letting me know how things were going all day, until…Jeremy calls about 4 PM to let me know he’d sliced a toe at the wave pool and they were taking him to the medical station to evaluate it. After much trepidation, it transpired that he needed stitches and they don’t do that at King’s Dominion. So, off to the emergency room we go. He left King’s Dominion with a couple of chaperone’s and arrived about 25 minutes later. I left Woodbridge (on a Friday afternoon, heading south, on I-95) and arrived 95 minutes later (it was about 28 miles). When I got there, they had just taken him back so I was able to be there for all of the treatment phase. But this means at least 10 more days inside and the stitches should come out the day that soccer practice starts. Oh my, why him. Here’s a picture of him being wheeled around King’s Dominion.
Jeremy getting wheeled to the Medical Facility at Kings Dominion
Incidentally, the nurse from King’s Dominion called the next day to check on him and when I asked about the spot where he cut his foot, she told me she had taken pictures of the spot and would be reporting it to the maintenance folks for evaluation.
Well it’s taken 6 weeks but the crud of being forced to be a single parent is starting to wear on me now. If I could just get the house clean and the weeds pulled, I think I would feel better about things. I hope that the funk I’m in now will pass shortly and reading June Cleaver’s blog recently reminded me that there are those whose situation is not as bright as my own. Still, all sexist innuendo intended, I believe that women are better equipped to handle the spouse leaving for an extended period of time than men.
Mrs. Hobbit seems to be getting better as we go along though which is a great thing. She did not feel secure for the longest time and though I don’t believe it’s improved, I think she is getting more accustomed to the area. Also, the office has settled down now and they are starting to work a little better together. That really takes a load off of my mind as well.
Okay, so I’ll leave you with a little joke by a guy who was my favorite comedian for years but has become very weird (in a not so funny way) lately – Steven Wright.
First Lady
Have a blessed day!
Mrs. Hobbit had a birthday today. She’s younger than I am and that’s all I’m going to say about that.
We sang Happy Birthday to her twice, once last night (which was this morning for her) and once this morning (which is tonight for her). You work it out if you want to but she’s 10 hours ahead of us. The lad and lass get a kick out of asking her how the weather is going to be later on. You’d think they were 6 and 8 not 12 and 14. Oh well, at least we get to see her and talk to her over Skype; great invention Skype, great invention.
Anyway, I know that she’s feeling lonely and left out of the family because she’s so far away and removed from everything we do. I’m sure she worries about us to (I’m not her after all and she is the family glue); but I hope and pray that she is safe and well looked after, she deserves it. June Cleaver is much better at this sort of thing than I am; for Valentine’s Day she did this awesome 100 reasons she loves her husband thing that I still think about sometimes. Those kinds of things take planning and forethought, neither of which am I blessed with, being of the male persuasion but I just wanted Mrs. Hobbit to know that I love her and think of her every day (no, I’m not just missing sex) and I ask God every single day, to make sure you come home safely. We need you here after all. I cannot wait for you to return.
I love you very much, have a most blessed birthday!
Okay, I’m not normally a twice a day post-er. Let’s face it, I’m not that great of a once a day post-er but I’ve got to tell you, my birthday was as good as it could have been without my wife being here.
I bunch of my friends from work took me to a restaurant I’ve never been to before Tim’s Rivershore in Dumfries, VA. This restaurant is right on the river, in fact you can back your boat up to the dock and walk in to it if you would like. I think I’ve only had boiled crabs once in the past 25 years but I made up for it today. I ordered 1/2 dozen medium crabs and they accidentally brought out a full dozen. Undaunted, I charged forth and ate them all. They were not the fullest crabs I’ve ever had but they were delicious and added with the ambiance of the restaurant, I could not have enjoyed myself any more.
After lunch, I went back to work for a little while and then headed home to the kids. My friend, Evelyn, had taken them out for a couple of hours yesterday so I assumed they would have a gift for me when I got home but…Jeremy (14) grilled steaks with rice and gravy and Becky (12) baked a yellow cake with chocolate icing and Happy Birthday Dad written on it. They also bought me a new book “The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth” which I cannot wait to read (though I have to at the moment). Finally, there was Ice Cream (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough).
I don’t think a man could ask for a better day when his wife is halfway around the world, do you?
I am 43 years young today and as most of you know, Hobbits give birthday presents to others on their birthdays. This morning, as I was running, I said a decade of the rosary for all of my friends who read this blog and for those whom I love around me. I had planned to create a poem for the occassion but like most things, I did not get this accomplished. Maybe sometime in the near future I will have enough quiet time to sit down and compose something for you.
I pray that you all have a most wonderful day!
So, when the missus told me that she was going to be deployed to a place far from Middle Earth, I was a bit concerned for our health and well-being. I knew that I hadn’t arrived at 43 on accident and that I could fend for myself okay but still I knew in my heart of hearts that this little 6 month jaunt was not going to be a piece of cake. Of course, I could not show that to Mrs. Hobbit as the prospect of leaving her family for 6 months was hard enough on her already and I didn’t feel she needed the added pressure of worriting about us. We all put on our strong faces and behaved like these 6 months would fly by and she’d be back before we knew she was gone.
We dropped her off at the airport and then the kids and I had a nice talk on the way home about how things were going to need to change and that I would need their support and that periodic freaking out by the old man should be expected and that they should just go to their room and pray for him if that happened. The problem is that after 3 1/2 weeks, the old man has held together just fine and the kids, with the exception of 1 broken thumb, have done just fine. And the broken thumb could have happened anytime, it was just an accident within the confines of a normal, everyday, day.
School has not started yet and I know that things will change dramatically at that point but really, that is going to impact the time line of when we go to sleep and what we do as soon as we hit the door in the afternoon. We’ll have some adjustments to make but really, I think things are going swimmingly at the moment.
I really just wanted you all to know that your prayers are working and that we truly appreciate them. Please keep them up and we’ll in turn pray that God blesses you and keeps you safe as well.
That used to mean a fair amount of liquor and a little Bwow Chicka Bwow Wow but as I’ve mentioned before my wife is in Islamabad for 6 months so no Chicka till January.
Anyway, I got a call from an old associate yesterday about 2pm and she needed help because a graphic artist had created a rendering for their website but was several weeks behind in migrating the design over to the web and she was now 2 weeks past her deadline to her boss. I really did not want to take on another website right now because a couple of the ones I maintain are requiring a lot of time and energy at the moment. Plus, the kids usually start complaining when they don’t see anything but the back of my head for a week. But I told her I would take a look at what she had and I’d let her know what I could do for her.
Well, it turns out this guy is a print artist and I knew as soon as I saw the design why he had not converted it over. It was a beautiful piece but there was hardly a straight line anywhere on it! The web is not like print, everything really needs to fit in some kind of rectangle. You can make circles and curves appear but it’s not the simplest thing you can do. Anyway, I took one look and thought ‘much bigger than a bread basket’; they only have 6 pages but there are 2 different designs and to top it all off, it was created in InDesign, the one part of Adobe Creative Suite 3 that I don’t have at home and I’ve used it maybe twice at work.
The problem is, I saw this as a big challenge and I wanted to take it on. Sooo, zip forward to 3:30 this morning (11 hours straight with one 30 minute break for supper with the kids) and I’m closing up shop with a completed recreated design and a fully-functional website. Feel free to check it at www.bgcmotormadness.com. One caveat though, I really hate the inner page design where there is a bottom graphic and the text within the page has to scroll internally. If it were up to me, I would place the banner across the top and just let the text flow down naturally but I didn’t do the design and I didn’t think it appropriate to contact the lady at 1:45 this morning to debate the issue!
So this is the new hangover; pulling an all-nighter with my brain set to ‘full create’. God bless you all, I think I’m going to start a load of laundry and take a nap.
