Regina Coeli Ball...

It's been awhile since I shared some photos from our dances with ya'll! We haven't had a formal ball since Christmas; just casual dances, which are still fun, but not quite as fun as dressing up in satin and tulle and waltzing the night away, if you know what I mean...

One of the girls got several of us ladies beautiful fans in our favorite colors...they definitely come in handy after dancing for a few hours! Some of the boys even swallowed their pride for a few minutes and borrowed them when it got too hot...=P

This time, I have a video of one of my favorite dances to share with ya'll! This is the "Glass Slipper Waltz" that we discovered went perfectly with the song "La Valse de L'Amour" from the new Cinderella movie!!! It took us almost a year to learn it, but I do believe this was our best attempt yet, despite the music cutting off suddenly, me tripping on my dress a few times, and a few people forgetting which direction was clockwise...

Despite the serious expressions on our faces, we were all having a blast ;)

Everyone had a lovely time, and we were even able to sneak in a few encore dances before the night was over ;).  It always makes me happy when I look at everyone who attends our balls...old and young, everyone has big smiles on their faces and those who don't know the steps to the dances are assisted by those who do.  Everyone behaves like ladies and gentlemen; before and after each dance, the gentlemen bow and the ladies curtsy to each other, and afterwards the gentlemen escort their partners off the floor and thank them for the dance.  No lady is left out; the gentlemen always make sure every girl attending gets to dance, and a few of them know which ones are our favorites, so they make sure we have a partner for those dances.  It's like being transported back in time to a different age, where courtesy was a common sight and respect was mutual between everyone.  I love dancing so much, and when it's in such a Catholic environment, with such lovely people, I find there's almost nothing else I'd rather be doing =).

Some Thoughts About "True Love"...

In the past couple of years, quite a few of my friends and acquaintances have gotten married and I've been privileged to be an observer of their friendships, courtships, and marriage.  I used to think love looked the same no matter who it involved, but now I realize how many types of relationships there really are...too many to count actually! I've seen the "knight and his princess" love, the "best friends since childhood" love, the "star crossed lovers" love...there are so many and each one has been so uniquely different from the other that it leaves me in awe of how perfectly they fit each individual involved.  It's like they were made specifically for each other, with all their life experiences preparing them for that moment when they first laid eyes on each other...and I believe that is exactly what happened!  Most people would say this is silly and naive, but I really believe that God had created us to each be the perfect fit for our future spouses (excepting those who are called to the religious life; that's a different post for a different time =P) and every moment of our lives is meant to be a step closer to when we find the one He has created for us.  It may be tomorrow, it may be twenty years from now, but if I've learned anything from watching my friend's romances, it's that it will happen at the perfect time and in that moment you will realize how well it was all planned out from the beginning.  In my personal experience, I've found knowing that it's not all up to me helps me sleep much better at night =P.  When you stop worrying about whether you're good enough, or if you'll be able to handle putting your heart in the hands of another human being, or whether you missed your opportunity for love, you're whole life changes.  When something goes wrong in my life, or a door has been closed with no other opening in sight, I always try to imagine how this will help me be the person my "true love" will need one day.  Maybe if that door had remained open, I would have done something that would keep me from meeting him, or maybe that trial was to help me one day understand something he went through, or maybe my heart needed to be broken so he could be the one to put it back together.  Not knowing what the future holds is part of the charm; if God told us everything, it would spoil the surprise =).  Life is so much more exciting when you can look around you and wonder whether that person you passed on the street, the guy you met at Mass, or the girl you saw at a party is the one God has planned for you, or if you've even seen them yet. One of my friends who was married earlier this year told me that when she met her husband, her whole life suddenly seemed to make sense, and on a different occasion, her husband told me the same exact thing about her! To me, that remark made a huge impact on the way I viewed love.  It's not just chance or something to be played with, it's a carefully planned time in our lives that is intended to help us reach our ultimate goal of being in Heaven.  The first end of marriage is the bringing of children into the world, but the second is the edification and saving of your spouse, and I love that thought.  Being the one planned from all eternity to help save the soul of the one you love seems to be a wonderful, amazing privilege, and one I pray I'll be prepared for when the time comes.  Years ago a priest friend told me to not worry about finding my future spouse, just to give my heart to Our Lady and St. Joseph and ask them to keep it safe until I meet the one Our Lord has chosen for me to be with, and this has been some of the best advice I have ever received! I tend to worry too much over...well, everything, so it is not always easy for me to just trust in Our Lady to work it all out for me, but when I do just give it all to her and St. Joseph to sort out, I never regret it.  In summary, don't worry about whether you are still single, or despair of finding that special someone one day; just give it all to Our Lady and she will write you a more beautiful love story than you could have ever planned for yourself. =)

What are your thoughts on "True Love"? Do you share my views, or do you feel differently? =)

Happy Father's Day!

Last year for Father's day, we thought it'd be fun to go to a national park for a hike.  You can read about how that fiasco went here, but long story short, we ended up getting lost in the woods without any food or water, hiking up and down cliffs for three hours, and being eaten alive by mosquitoes...This year we decided we'd rather stay home and have a nice quiet dinner with a movie =P.

My dad's favorite foods are cheesecake and caramel, so I mixed the two into one scrumptious dessert...I had planned on making my own caramel like I normally do, but our refrigerator has apparently broken, so all our milk and cream has gone sour =(.  Luckily my mom had some caramel left over from our vacation when we made sundaes, so I just used it instead.

Crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup margarine
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Filling

24 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup caramel

Crust

Combine all crust ingredients and press into 9-inch springform pan.  Bake 10 minutes at 325 degrees F. and remove from oven. Turn oven to 450 degrees F.

Filling

1. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla extract, mixing at medium speed until well-blended.
2. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Reserve 1 cup of cheese batter; stir 1/2 cup of caramel topping into this reserved cup of batter.
3. Spoon half of plain batter over crust; cover with the caramel batter, spread remaining plain batter over the caramel layer.
4. Bake 7 minutes at 450 degrees F, then reduce temperature to 250 degrees F and bake 40 to 45 minutes more.
5. Remove from oven and loosen cake from rim, but do not remove rim until cool.  If you have any caramel left, you can drizzle some on the top of the cheesecake to make it look a little more fancy ;).

Hope you all had a lovely Father's Day! =)

Awkward/Awesome...

Awkward...

...completely forgetting about Father's Day until yesterday =O

...losing my brother in a bookstore...after assuring my mom I most certainly would not lose him in the bookstore...

...being sick (aaaaaggggaaaiiinnn) for two weeks and being to weak to even get off the couch...

...having a staring contest with a dragon fly...I lost ;)

...trying to order some books from the library, and discovering my card expired a year ago, and the library is apparently only open between 1:00 and 2:00 P.M. on days that do not contain an "a" in their name and only after a full moon... =P

...the temperature being an average of 100 degrees every. single. day...

...having to convince a waiter at a wedding reception that, yes, despite appearances, I am twenty one, and yes, I can drink champagne, and no, I do not want sparkling water...

Awesome...

...when I was finally well enough to go to Mass again, not only my own girl friends, but all of my brothers' friends as well, came up to give me a hug and tell me how much they missed me the last two weeks...made my day =)

...the wonderful feeling of jumping in the creek after getting all hot and sweaty...

...my dad bringing home another rose bush for me to plant...our yard is going to look so pretty by the time we're done!

...the boys being almost finished painting the whole house...the poor guys have been working on it for a couple months, but they're very close to being done and it looks lovely...

...hearing my dear friend whose wedding I decorated for is now expecting!

...a very successful shopping trip to several thrift stores with my mom and my brother...

...finally getting our wood burning stove! Of course, now we have to rearrange our whole livivng room...

...driving with my brother, singing with the radio at the top of our lungs...=)

Awkward/Awesome...

Awkward...

...the weather apparently not being able to decide whether (see what I did there =P) it wants to rain or be sunny...just in-between days for a whole week

...making sauerkraut, and my hands smelling like garlic and onions as a result...

...trying to find some good pictures of my siblings and I to hang up in our home...and realizing nearly every picture my parents/grandparents took from our childhood is of (cough) me...

...attempting to drink the bubbles from the top of my glass of kombucha and nearly choking to death in the process...

...losing my notebook with *all* my editing notes for our favorite TV shows...uh-ohhh...

...my team losing every. single. round. of Family Feud...=/

...my swimsuit FINALLY coming in...and it's in the wrong size =(

...the look of absolute betrayal Mishka gave me when I hid her toy and told her to go find it...

...my brother pronouncing "Lasagna" "Laz-sag-a-na-na" because he thinks the correct way to say it is "boring"...

...my brother telling me that if I were a character in a movie, I'd be the Ice Queen from Winter's War...XD

Awesome...

...while at a friend's house for dinner, I was just walking around their house minding my own business, when I suddenly stumbled upon a full-blown Nerf war going on between my brothers, the boys whose house we were visiting, and their four year old sister.  Before I knew it, someone had shoved a gun and some ammo into my hands and I was fighting for my life...XD

...coming home from vacation to find a box of goodies from my friend Angela waiting for me!!! Glittery nail polish, homemade jewelry, perfume, even an adorable little stuffed fortune cookie; you're a darling, Angela ;)

...yet another wedding this weekend! Hopefully I won't get sick again and actually get to make this one...

...this lovely article about motherhood

...Mishka watching the rose bush outside the library window EVERY DAY to make sure it doesn't run away...


...one of my little friends coming up to me out of the blue and saying "Maddi, you're my favorite thing ever!" XDDD

...The look on the same little girl's face when I let her wear some of my pink, sparkly, lip gloss...her older brothers still won't forgive me for "ruining their sister"...=P

Missouri Vacation...

Hello everyone!!! =D

My family has never been on a "real" vacation before (yes, Mom, I remember going to that water-park when I was eight, but it doesn't count ;P), so after our incredibly eventful last three years, we figured this would be a good time to escape for a little "family fun time".

Mom had found a really great deal on Craigslist for a timeshare at a resort in Missouri, so after many weeks of anticipation, we finally loaded up the suburban and headed off for a week of adventure...

The place we were staying at had multiple pools, but our absolute favorite was the "secret" saltwater pool that we found hidden behind one of the buildings.  We were able to swim there nearly every day, and had it to ourselves the whole time...it was soooo lovely!!!

On Saturday my parents rented a boat and we got to spend the whooole day out on a beautiful lake; swimming, relaxing in the sun, and then swimming some more...I got thrown off the boat by my brothers at least twice =/

By accident, all our swim suits ended up matching XDDD

By the end of the day we were all pret-ty sunburned and tired, but we'd had so much fun...everyone slept well that night, for sure ;).  The boys' sunburned skin turned brown after a day or two, but, as usual, mine went straight back to being white after being embarrassingly red for a day or two =P...despite being part Indian, my skin never tans =/.

I showed this picture to a friend, who said it perfectly captured of all our personalities...Truer words were never spoke...=P

We had a massive thunderstorm come in one of the days we were gone and we were unable to go swimming, so we decided to scope out the little town we were in and find something fun to do.  My youngest brother found a "fun park" with go-carting and lazer tag, so he and I tried it out.  The go-cart track was a FOUR. STORIES .HIGH. , circular ramp, with slopes and sudden curves that made you feel like you were in Furious Seven =p.  My brother and I had loads of fun chasing each other, and got to go around several times before our time was up...

After we finished go-carting, and we'd been completely bested in lazer tag by a kid younger than all of us, we checked out an exorbitantly overpriced chocolate shop and tried some of their goodies...

Our last (and probably favorite) fun activity was our first archery lesson.  My brother's have their own bows and have gone hunting with them before, but none of us had ever really been taught the correct way to use them, so it was a great learning experience for all of us.  And, yes, I did manage to hit the bulls-eye a few times =P...

We left Missouri sore, tired, and sunburnt, but with many lovely memories and plans to return next year.  Mishka was *so* happy to see us and didn't leave my side for several days; she'd even curl up around my feet when I was standing up =).  My brother is making a video of our trip, with lots more pictures, so I'll share that with ya'll when it's completed ;)

I hope you all are having as lovely a summer as I am!!! If you have any vacation stories you'd like to share, tell me in the comments...I'd love to hear them =)!