Thank You!!
Anyway, I just wanted to get online real quick to THANK YOU all for all the prayers and well wishes on our Anniversary! We enjoyed reading each and every comment! You are all so kind and thoughtful! It was so fun to look back at our wedding day and share a few of our special memories with you all. Also, THANK YOU to my little brother who babysat so we could go out to dinner and a movie. (A rare treat indeed!) And THANK YOU to my in-laws and Marci for the beautiful cards in the mail… that was so very thoughtful of you both! You all helped make our anniversary very special!
Wedding Memories on our Anniversary
Awhile back I saw this Marriage Meme on someone’s blog and I thought it would be fun to do for our Anniversary this year. Here are my answers:
1. Where/How did you meet? We first met at a youth group meeting I attended while home for Christmas break from Christendom College. He was there helping out that night. We were reintroduced by my parents the following summer.
2. How long have you known each other? almost 11 years
3. How long after you met did you start dating? We went on our first (official) date one year later, on January 31st, Super Bowl Sunday. My parents did invite him out with us, a couple weeks prior, for my 21st birthday.
4. How long did you date before you were engaged? Not long, it was only three months! 🙂 After we had been dating 2 months, I prayed a novena to St. Therese to send me a rose if he was the man I was suppose to marry, since I had a feeling he was. On March 17th, the last day of my nine day novena, I opened my apartment door to find a single red rose sitting on my doorstep from hubby. It was the very first time he had given me flowers and he had no idea about my novena!
5. How long was your engagement? Not quite six months
6. Did you have a bridal shower? My friend Trina drove 11 hours to give me a wonderful bridal shower!
7. What was your favorite Bridal Shower gift? This is an easy one!! My Aunt Bridget gave me Our Wedding Anniversary Memory Book
8. How long have you been married? It has been 9 years today! Happy Anniversary my love!
9. How old were you when you got married? I was 21 and hubby was 26.
10. What is your anniversary? We had hoped to marry on either October 1st or October 3rd (the new or traditional feast of St. Therese) but our parish only allowed weddings on Saturdays at the time, so we were married right in between on October 2nd, the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels.
11. Where was your wedding? Inside a beautiful Roman Catholic Church
12. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? I think he teared up. ; )
13. How many people came to your wedding? Approx 350
14. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding?
The flowers were a gift from a friend of mine. I wasn’t picky at all, except when it came to my bouquet. I had seen a picture in a Martha Stewart magazine and asked the florist to recreate it… It was perfect!
15. Describe your wedding dress. I am going to skip this one, since I think I have posted enough pictures for you to see it… It did have a nice long train which you can’t see in the pictures, and I loved all the bead work on the front. For some reason it doesn’t look as pretty in the photos.
16. How many people were in your wedding party? Best man, maid of honor, five bridesmaids, five groomsmen, ring bearer and three flower girls. (I also had two more of my brothers serve the Mass, and Hubby’s oldest brother did the readings — he was in the seminary at the time and could not be a groomsman– we did our best to have all (15) of our siblings in the wedding. My two youngest brothers were the only ones not in the wedding party… They were in the picture though!) I could have kept going too… I had a few friends that I really wish I could have had as bridesmaids as well.
17. Are you still friends with them all? Yes, although we have not stayed in touch (other than Christmas Cards) with 2 of the groomsman, and one of my bridesmaids — we did attend her wedding last October though! In fact, one of the groomsman ended up marring my younger sister/maid of honor. The photographer even ended up positioning them next to each other for pictures! (They are just to the right of me in the above picture.)
18. Are your wedding bands engraved? No, but they were blessed again this past summer by our best man, who is now a priest!
19. What did you dance your first dance to? I could Not Ask For More by Edwin McCain.
20. What kind of cake did you serve? Each tier was a different kind: Chocolate, Marble, White with Strawberry filling, White with Chocolate filling. We went with a simple design and extra sheet cakes to help keep it affordable, but it was SOOO YUMMY!
21. What did you serve for your meal? The Catholic Daughters catered, and I really can’t remember exactly what was served… Isn’t that awful!
22. Most special moment of your wedding day? The moment when the priest said “I now pronounce you Man and Wife.”
23. Any funny moments? I loved seeing my father-in-law, brother-in-law, and grandfather doing the hokey pokey.
Everyone also laughed at this same bil’s toast… It was a quote from a movie
24. Any big disasters? Well… About a month before the wedding, my soon-to-be hubby was sent on a 21 day fire assignment. Right before he left he asked me to take the Marriage license to the priest. Well, what I needed to do was take it to the courthouse and have it validated and then take it to the priest… I didn’t realize that, and no one caught the mistake. When we arrived home from our honeymoon we had a message from Father asking us to call him. He said that we were validly married in the church and the eyes of God, but that the state wouldn’t recognize the marriage. We headed down to the courthouse and sure enough, they would not recognize our wedding ceremony as legally binding. I couldn’t believe it. We then had to validate a new marriage license and then “wait 3 days” in which time hubby had been dispatched on another 21 day assignment to another fire. During that time I visited him on the fire and since it was close to Reno, we joked about heading there to “get married”… After the assignment was over we renewed our vows with a couple witnesses once again. So, although today is the anniversary of our marriage, our legal anniversary is not until sometime in November. I bet that will be confusing to some descendant of ours trying to peace together their family tree many years from now!
25. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change? It was perfect, but there are two things I would change… Although I loved my dress, I wish that I would have chosen one with sleeves… I also wish I would have asked my favorite auntie to be a bridesmaid. :o)
26. Do you have a favorite wedding gift? Yes, lots of favorites, actually! One that stands out particularly in my mind is the beautiful Pieta statue carved by Santini that was a gift from one of our groomsmen… (The groomsman that, shortly after the wedding, started dating and then married my sis!) It is absolutely beautiful.
27. Where did you go on your honeymoon? We went on a cruise to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
28. How long were you gone? Just over a week.
29. Greatest challenge as a couple? Finding time to talk to each other… (As well as finding babysitters!)
30. Greatest strength as a couple? Our Catholic Faith.
I so enjoyed being reminded of all these wonderful memories through doing this meme! Have a great day, I will see you all sometime tomorrow.
Chocolate Roses for St. Thérèse
Seeing Mary’s adorable Angel Candy Favors the other day reminded me of the Chocolate Roses my sisters and I made years ago. What a perfect craft they would make for the feast of St. Thérèse! My children agreed!
They are quite fun and very simple to make.
Materials:
- Hershey’s Kisses
- Pink or Red Cellophane, cut into 4 1/2″ squares
- Florist wire (cut in half with wire cutters, or leave as is to make long-stemmed roses)
- Green florist tape
- Silk leaves (optional)
Instructions:
1. Remove the tags from the candy. Take a 4 1/2″ square of cellophane. Place two Hershey kisses together, as pictured.
2. Place the tip of one of the kisses in the center of the cellophane square, then wrap the cellophane around both kisses, gathering the corners together around the tip of the other kiss.
3. Using florist tape, wrap the gathered corners together as tightly as you can without tearing the tape. Insert a florist wire into the gathered cellophane until it meets the tip of the Hershey’s Kiss, and wrap with tape. Do not insert the wire into the chocolate, since it is not food safe. If you’d like, you can use bamboo skewers instead of the florist wire, and then you could stick it right into the chocolate. (I was going to use those, but I am out of them right now.)
4. Continue taping down the length of the wire until it is completely covered with florist tape.
This was my children’s favorite part!
5. If you’d like, tape silk leaves onto the stem.
6. Place in a vase, wrap as a bouquet, or display however you’d like. Enjoy!
You can see a few other ideas for celebrating the feast of St. Thérèse here. Have a wonderful feast!
A Week of Celebrating
This is quite the week for celebrating feasts in the Church, isn’t it?! We started with Michaelmas yesterday, today is the feast of St. Jerome, and we also will be celebrating St. Therese, the Holy Guardian Angels, and St. Francis as well! (Click the links to see our plans.) Today we celebrate the feast of St. Jerome. St. Jerome is one of the great “Fathers of the Church.” He is best known for his translation of the Bible into Latin, called the Vulgate (meaning “common language of the people”). It is historically the most important vernacular edition of the Holy Scriptures. He was a brilliant man, and St. Augustine has been quoted to say, “What Jerome is ignorant of, no man has ever known.” Last night, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I noticed our cupcake stand was still more than half full (Dinner was so yummy and filling, that my children were hardly able to eat one cupcake each.). I remembered the lion cupcakes we made for the feast of St. Mark. It wouldn’t be hard to turn those leftover cupcakes into lions! (Jenn was thinking along the same lines!) So, after lunch today, the kids and I made some caramel corn — this recipe from Mary is sooooo easy and delicious!– and then the kids decorated the cupcakes to enjoy as they colored and listened to a couple stories about St. Jerome.
I was so excited to find a inexpensive copy of Margaret Hodges, St. Jerome and the Lion a few months back. It is out of print, but so worth keeping your eyes open for a used copy. We also read the story of St. Jerome found in another great book, Legends of Saints and Beasts. 
Other than that, we just stuck with a couple core subjects today (Math, Language Arts and Religion), and have spent the rest of the time enjoying having hubby/daddy back home! 🙂
Plans for the Feast of St. Therese
The Feast of St. Therese is coming up!!! It is celebrated on October 1st on the New Calendar, and on October 3rd on the Traditional Calendar. I am still trying to finalize our own plans, but I thought I would take a minute to share a few ideas with you all…
Prayer:
We will finish up our novena, and then Pray the Rosary with St. Therese.
A MORNING PRAYER WRITTEN BY ST. THERESEO my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.
O my God! I ask of Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all Eternity. Amen.
Food/Snacks:
Last year we made little éclairs, since they were St. Therese’s favorite treat. I think we will make these again for an afternoon snack.
I am also planning on making the Rose Petal Coconut Cake suggested in My Nameday, Come for Dessert
Another fun idea, if you happen to have a rose shaped pan, would be to use a Strawberry Cake Mix to make mini rose shaped cupcakes. Marci made these this past summer, and they were a hit! I should really try it out sometime since I have this awesome pan, and have yet to use it!
I have heard it suggested to serve French Food today in her honor. We will probably have French Toast for breakfast if I have a chance to pick up French bread, but if not, we will be making crepes.
If you are looking for more inspiration, Barbara also has a yummy looking recipe for St. Therese Cupcakes and these Rose Basket Cupcakes are super cute as well. Also, here is an instructional video on how to make marzipan roses. Catholic Culture also suggests a Rose Leaf Jam.
Reading, Audio and Video:
You can check out a whole bunch of great books about St. Therese here.
We will be reading:
- The Little Flower of Jesus
- Saint Therese of Lisieux: And the “Little Way” of Love
- Catholic Treasure Box Books
During our craft time, the children will listen to “God’s Little Flower: The True Story of St. Therese of Lisieux.”
Hubby and I may watch the movie Therese
Copywork:
We will probably use one of her quotes found here.
Craft/Activity:
- Make St. Therese Sacrifice Beads.
- Make these darling Paper Roses, or these Paper Flowers.
- Make Chocolate Roses.
- Make a St. Therese Wooden Doll.
- Make a St. Therese Spoon Saint.
- Here are a couple great coloring pages. (Thank you Charlotte!!)
- Color the St. Therese page in Fenestrae Fidei.
- Another idea is to print out one of the many online images of St. Therese, and make homemade holy cards.
*We will not be doing all of these, it is just a list of ideas!
Novena to Saint Thérèse ~ Day Nine
O St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who during your short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God, now that you rejoice in the reward of your virtues, cast a glance of pity on me as I leave all things in your hands. Make my troubles your own, speak a word for me to Our Lady Immaculate, whose flower of special love you were — to that Queen of Heaven “who smiled on you at the dawn of life” Beg her powerful intercession the grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment…and that she join with it a blessing that may strengthen me during life, defend me at the hour of death, and lead me straight on to a happy eternity. Amen.
O God, who did inflame with the Spirit of Love, the soul of your servant Thérèse of the Child Jesus, grant that we also may love you and make you much loved. Amen.
DAY NINE
O St. Thérèse, seraphic virgin, beloved spouse of our Crucified Lord, you who on earth did burn with a love so intense toward your God and my God, and now glow with a bright and purer flame in paradise, obtain for me, I beseech you, a spark of that same holy fire which shall help me to put things of the world in their proper place and live my life always conscious of the presence of God. As I conclude my novena I also beg of you to secure for me the special favor I seek at this time…
St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, pray for us.
Celebrating Michaelmas
A few of my angels
Snuggles loved the cake this time!
“Yum!! Even my clothes taste good!”
Artwork on Michaelmas
The Great Battle for Heavenby Captain
St. Michael the Archangel by Rascal
The Simple Woman’s Daybook ~ Sep 29th
Outside my Window… it is smoky and still smells like skunk. I’ll be keeping the windows closed today!
. I just finished watching it, and I really enjoyed it.
From the learning room… lots of angel and rose crafts this week. The girls will be continuing “A” week and learning about Colors and Angels with Little Saints.
I am thankful… that hubby is coming home this morning!!!! They released him a few days early, and we will actually be able to have dinner as a family tonight for the first time in 18 days.
From the kitchen… Gaufres with Blackberry Jam for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, and a big feast for dinner including Apple Chicken, Steamed Carrots, Garlic Angel Hair Pasta and Sparkling Apple Cider, followed by Devil’s Food Cupcakes for dessert.
I am creating…plans for the feast of St. Therese.
I am going… to try and get caught up on sleep now that hubby will be home.
I am wearing…an apron.
I am reading… all the great posts shared in this weeks From Thy Bounty Fair: Feasting with the Angels. I am so excited that Catholic Cuisine has been such a success and is turning into such a wonderful resource thanks to all the great contributors.
I am hoping… that I don’t get too sick.. I am coming down with a sore throat, and have a mild fever. I better start loading up on the Vitamins.
I am hearing… the children playing St. Michael in the other room. Dressed up with wings and swords and all! They are having a blast!
Around the house… Roses from hubby in the living room and a vase of Michaelmas Daisies on the kitchen table.
One of my favorite things… Fresh cut Flowers!
- The tutor is only coming today, and then we are taking the rest of the week off. We’ll still be doing school, but a light load for the week, so we can enjoy hubby’s days off.
- Celebrate Michaelmas!
- Celebrate the feast of St. Therese!
- Celebrate our 9th Anniversary and the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels!
- Mass and Benediction on Friday, followed by lunch with Father.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing:
It took me all day to get around to finishing this post, a few seconds at a time! 🙂 To see more Daybook entry’s, click here.
Novena to Saint Thérèse ~ Day Eight
Novena to Saint Thérèse
O glorious St. Thérèse, who, burning with the desire of increasing the glory of God, invariably attended to the sanctification of your soul by the constant practice of prayer and charity so that, becoming in the Church a model of holiness, you are now in Heaven the protector of all those who have recourse to you in faith, look down upon me who invokes your powerful patronage and join your petition to mine that I be granted the favor I seek in this novena…
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