Clare is getting Baptized!

Our little one will be entered in to the Life of Grace through Baptism this Sunday, October 21 between the morning Masses at Our Lady Star of the Sea! For anyone wanting to attend, we'd love it! It should be around 9:15 A.M.

My sister Shannon had a wonderful idea for a family tradition a while back, and I'm pleased to be able to start it this Sunday. She found a beautiful hand-made Baptism gown at an Irish store in Coeur d'Alene and fell in love with it. So, all three of us went in together on it and we'll use it for all of our children's Baptisms. Cool, huh?

We're so excited that Clare's Godparents, Matt & Jenny Ahmu, will be able to make it up from California for the second weekend in a row...thank you for your sacrifice, you guys. We can't wait to see you!

I love Fall

Today has been one of those Fall days in Washington that I absolutely love. I'm not kidding -- I look forward to this time of year all year long. In fact, I find that in the last month or so of Summer, I am longing for gray skies, rain, and wind. Strange, I know.

A few years ago, while my sister Kristy was still home in High School and I was home from my coworker year with Regnum Christi, she and I would go for walks on nights like this. I was reminded of a particular walk we took tonight as Tom and I were driving home in the dark. It was raining like crazy and the wind was blowing leaves all over the place.

I missed my little sister a lot when I thought of that walk. We were cold when we got back, bright red cheeks, soaking wet, with an enormous leaf we had picked up and decided to keep for some reason (we named the leaf, but I can't remember the name right now.) Hot chocolate was, of course, in order. If Clare hadn't been cranky all the way home and needing attention when we got here, I think I would have bundled up and taken advantage of this beautiful Fall evening...Oh well, there's always tomorrow, because I think Fall is definitely upon us and here to stay for a while.

Want to take a walk with me, Kristy, when you come home for Thanksgiving? I love you!

The View

You know, it's so hard for me not to get fuming mad at these people who parade around spouting their ridiculous opinions about the Catholic Church. I was visiting my friend Bryan's blog to see what he's up to, and he'd posted a link to Jimmy Akin's blog that I want to share with you. The particular post dealt with a recent episode of The View in which all the ladies decided to go on an inane rant about the Catholic Church. You can visit Jimmy's blog here and read the transcript of the show for yourself. I would say, "Enjoy!" but I think that's going to be rather difficult, considering the idiocy and lack of accurate information that are displayed by these ladies.

It's so true that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice in this country.

End of my rant. Have a lovely day! It's Tom's sister Ceci's 5th birthday today, and Tom is giving a talk at the Memorial for the Unborn at the Bremerton Boardwalk tonight.

Guy Bonding

I'll never understand why this is fun.



Tom's brother Chris flew in on Tuesday afternoon from Afghanistan where he's serving with the Army. He managed to work out getting a couple weeks off to be here for Mary's wedding! So, the Herring boys have been having fun and enjoying having all 4 of them together again. The past couple nights (using the term loosely -- the first night they were up until 5 a.m., and last night I think Joe and Chris played until 8 a.m.) have been spent at our house playing Halo with 2 T.V.'s networked together so all 4 of them could play against each other.

I don't get it, but at least they're having fun. Mary is in town now, so I'll get some good girl time with her and the Herring girls while the boys stick to Halo and Settlers of Catan. : )

Bath Time!

When we first brought her home, Clare hated bath time, because it involved laying her down on the kitchen counter and wiping her off with a wet washcloth. She really doesn't like being cold, and even now she gets really fussy when you take her pants off to do a diaper change, although it's getting a lot easier as time goes by.

But after her umbilical cord fell out(after the first week), we were able to start using her baby bath tub that fits in to our kitchen sink. She likes it a lot better, since she can be in the warm water. It's usually a 2-person job, since she's kind of squirmy, but Tom usually is in charge of keeping warm water running on her so that any part of her that's out of the water doesn't get cold while I wash her.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday's bath. The only part she screams at anymore is when we take her out of the water and transfer her to her hooded towel. After we get her wrapped up, she's all happy again.

Check out this baby!

Our friend Matt sent this photo to us...

I'm so glad Clare was an 8-pounder!



Baby girl Nadia (L), who weighed 7.75 kg (17.1 lbs) after birth, lies in a maternity ward in the Siberian city of Barnaul September 26, 2007.

Adjusting

Before I had Clare, people kept telling me to get used to the fact that after her arrival my house would never be as clean as I like it anymore, I would never be on time for anything, I'd accomplish about 0.75 things (if I'm lucky) on my "to-do" list for the day, and would start thinking that sleeping 3 hours all in one stretch is almost a full night of sleep. To be honest, I didn't believe them.

I couldn't imagine that one little person could impact my daily schedule (other than the sleeping thing -- I was prepared for that) all that much. One friend jokingly told me of how she adjusted to life with a baby: she'd choose one thing she wanted to get done that day, eg: cleaning the bathroom. She'd go about her day trying to get it done...The next day her goal would be to finish cleaning the bathroom and to start something else. I laughed, thinking that for some reason I was going to be immune to this chaos.

So here I find myself, 3 weeks after Clare's birth -- house not as clean as I want it; calling people saying, "We're going to be a little delayed..."; starting a bunch of different chores that I get 1/2 way done; and thinking that 3 hours of sleep all in one stretch is a treat.

Don't get me wrong; I LOVE being a mom. Clare and I are starting to get adjusted to life with each other here while Tom is at work. I outsmarted her yesterday, and was actually able to accomplish some much-needed organizing in the office that I had been wanting to get to forever (I was in the middle of it when my water broke 3 weeks ago). She loves being held -- as I'm sure most new babies do -- and has been insisting on being walked around lately. So, in order to hold her and walk around and have the use of my hands, I put her in her Baby Bjorn carrier. Voila! Baby asleep in no time at all. What a marvelous invention! Gotta hand it to those Swedes. For the first time in 3 weeks, I actually did something with my hair that did not include throwing it in a pony tail! She slept through the 25 minutes it takes me to straighten my hair and make it look like someone cares about it; it was great. *Note to all our pregnant friends: I highly recommend the Baby Bjorn. It's comfortable, too. Wandering around with her practically all day strapped to my chest didn't hurt my back in the slightest. And since she either sleeps or is happy to just look around while I'm roaming the house, I'm assuming she's comfortable too.

So, since she is now happily asleep in her Baby Bjorn as I type this, I'm going to take advantage and attempt to accomplish one thing today. :) God bless you!