Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Wedding Progress

We have a priest for the wedding ... again. I finally caught up with Father Frank this week and his calendar was open for the day of the wedding. Yeah!! I'm so relieved to know that we have a priest for the wedding and a priest that we know and like. I'm excited to have him perform our wedding. We both are!

Monday, January 29, 2007

My night: Intro to the Sacraments

Tonight we skipped Theology on Tap and instead went to Church to hear a guest speaker. The speaker was Joseph Martos the author of Doors to the Sacred, a book that has been used since the 1980s in college and seminary classes to teach the history of the Sacraments in the Catholic church. Mr. Martos teaches at Spalding College in Louisville.

He was an interesting speaker. Tonight's topic was just an introduction to the Sacraments. He spoke about spiritual experiences in our lives as well as very basic things like celebrations and why we have them. He then went through each of the seven sacraments and touched on each one briefly. Tonight was just the beginning. For the next seven Mondays Mr. Martos will return to talk about each of the Sacraments in turn. Unfortunately we won't be able to attend all of them, but I hope to get to at least three or four more. I am definitely planning on attending the session on the Sacrament of Marriage.

I'm now interested in reading the book. I glanced through the table of contents of a copy tonight and it looks very interesting. I enjoy history and I think it would be nice to read about this topic from a historical view point. Should be good reading ... one day.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

My Weekend and Some Sad News

My weekend was fairly uneventful to start. I got some surprising news on Wednesday, but at that time I wasn't sure what the impact would be.

Saturday we had an appointment to look at wedding invitations. We found something we both liked and decided on fonts for the lettering. We also got a price quote for everything, the invitations themselves, all the necessary envelopes, RSVP cards, Thank you cards, table seating cards, and probably a number of other things. The cost wasn't nearly as high as I was expecting. Some of that could still change, we still have a lot of other decisions to make. But it shouldn't change too much.

We also got 50 minutes of exercise in after lunch on Saturday. It was clear and the temp was around 40. Chris knew it was supposed to rain later, so we went off to the Arboretum and walked for almost an hour. It started raining shortly after I got home. Since then the temps have dropped (it's about 19 degrees right now) significantly. I'm trying not to spend too much time outside.

This morning I got to Mass just as it was starting. I grabbed a bulletin and joined Chris in the pew just in time for the processional. Wednesday evening I had a Faith Formation Committee meeting. At the end of that meeting the chair announced that since we are a committee who is supposed to be supporting the educational outlets of the parish as well as looking at future directions for current groups as well as future groups, she wanted to let us all know that an announcement would be made this weekend that the Rector of the Parish would be leaving at the end of June. I was totally floored!!

So at Mass this morning, Father Paul gets up to do his homily and as he starts talking I grabbed the bulletin to look at his weekly letter. I'm thankful I had warning that something was coming. In the bulletin I notice that not only is he leaving but that he'll be in California on a sabbatical at a seminary there from mid-September to early-December. He used his homily to explain why he was leaving and to let us all know what he hopes to accomplish. My first thought however, was my wedding.

Anyway, Father Paul has not only been a great priest for the parish of Christ the King, coming at a time when things were in a bit of an upheaval and working hard for several years to bring trust back into this huge parish, but he has been a great priest for me. He is the first priest in my life that I can honestly say I had some sort of a relationship with. We weren't exactly friends, but he knew who I was, he knew what I was involved in at the Parish, he knew I was someone to count on (he volunteered me for the Faith Formation Committee I mentioned earlier), and he was someone I knew I could go to if I needed to. At one point in my life I was very down and I didn't know how to get out of the slump I was in. I had started attending daily mass before that happened and I kept myself going during that rough time. I felt most at home at those masses when Father Paul was presiding, and when I was very down his homilies were always what I needed to hear.

Chris and I spoke to Father Paul after Mass this morning and we got a chance to speak with him again briefly tonight when we went back to church for the monthly Sunday Supper. We do have to find a new priest for our wedding, but it was comforting to have him tell us that our wedding is one that he will particularly miss being at. I've done a lot of crying today (hey, I'm an emotional person, I'll admit it), but I know that Father Paul will return to our diocese in mid-December and although he will not be at our church, I hope we'll still see him. Maybe he'll be able to baptise our first child.

While he is away from pastoral duties during the last six months of 2007 he hopes to do some thinking and writing, in particular he is interested in exploring the option of doing a book. I pray that he will accomplish all that he is setting out to do and I ask everyone out there to also keep him in your prayers as he explores these options and grows more in his life as a priest.

As for our wedding, I'm sad that Father Paul will not be there. I had imagined him being the priest to marry me even before Chris and I started dating. Although this will now not be possible, we will have still get married and we will find a priest who will do an excellent job. I will most miss just having Father Paul at our church. I'm sad but also happy for him as he starts a new chapter in his life and I wish him the best of luck.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Marriage Prep

Chris and I had our Marriage Preparation class this weekend. It was a little dull and there were a lot of corny worksheets to fill out and discuss together. Although they recognize that the average age of couples is now between 22 and 35 instead of the former 18-24, the class has apparently not been updated to take that into account.

There were about 14 couples in the class, many of whom are getting married in the next several months. I think Chris and I had the furthest out wedding.

It was an interesting class, but mostly just practical stuff and mostly all stuff we've already talked about. The spiritual part of marriage is done in more depth in the next class we have to take, which we're not taking until June 2.

That pretty much took up our whole weekend. This week is starting off on a good foot. I've already gotten a lot of stuff done today, so I am hoping that means it'll be a very productive week.

Tonight we're off to another session of Theology on Tap; the topic is the Papacy.

P.S. How do you like the new look to the blog? How about the cool wedding tracker at the top! Thanks, Shawna!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Update on the week

It's been another busy week here in Kentucky. Monday was a holiday, of course, so I didn't have to work. I went looking at wedding invitations instead and had lunch with a friend.

At work this week I have spent the majority of my time working on a book review for a journal in my field and meeting with my staff members to discuss goals for 2007. The book review was finally finished Thursday. It ended up being kind of fun to do. I reviewed a dictionary of music and had a good time looking up random things, flipping through and seeing what was on the pages I landed on, and following cross-references. I don't know when the review will be published, but probably in an upcoming 2007 issue. The journal is Music Reference Services Quarterly so if you have access to that one (*laugh*) check it out. :) Also, today I finally started writing a job description for a faculty position I want in my unit. It'll probably take a year to get approval for it and then another year to hire someone. So maybe by 2009 I'll have that position filled.

Last Friday Chris and I took our first NFP class. As Catholics we are opposed to using unnatural forms of birth control. So instead we will be tracking my fertility cycles using what we learn through this class. I have charts I fill out each day and as we go along and learn more we'll learn how to interpret the charts so we know when the best time to get pregnant is, or if we want to delay pregnancy, we'll know how to do that as well. It sounds a little complicated, but after one class I can see how easy it'll be to do the charts. Once we get the hang of it, it'll be easy. For now, of course, I'm totally on my own doing this. The other two couples in the class with us are both already married, so the husband can actually fill out the charts based on the information his wife gives him. They also say that the divorce rate for couples who use NFP is around 4%, as opposed to the national trend of 50%. It was definitely an interesting class and we learned a lot. Next class isn't until February.

Tomorrow evening (Friday) we start our two-day, Marriage Preparation class. We've been told that there are about 10-12 couples in the class and it is taught by a married couple. We talked about this with some friends last weekend who confirmed some of my suspicions about the class. We'll probably be the oldest or one of the oldest couples in the class, we'll also probably be bored as it'll be geared toward those younger, just-got-out-of-college couples, and we've already talked about many of the things this class is supposed to get you started talking about.

Okay, one more day of work and then it's the weekend!! Can't wait!

Friday, January 12, 2007

All Systems Down

The upgrade at my office has officially started. I'm going to be leaving here soon as a result. No point in sitting around when I can't do any work. Next week I have a list of things to keep me busy, but I didn't feel like starting any of them now. The only thing I probably should be doing is looking up and copying some book reviews to assist me in writing the one I have to turn in by Tuesday. I'll get to that shortly.

Tonight Chris and I are attending our first NFP class. We have four to go to over the course of the next four months. I already have the book at home, but we'll be getting other supplies tonight. From what I understand we'll actually learn everything we need to know at tonight's class. The other three classes are to assist you in reading your charts and answering questions that come up along the way. There may be more to it than that, we'll find out tonight.

I'm looking forward to taking this class!! I've been reading a book called Life-Giving Love by Kimberly Hahn. It has been a great book to read and she talks quite extensively about NFP. I have become even more excited about having children once we get married as a result of reading this book. (I was already looking forward to having children, just more so now.) I'm definitely looking forward to what tonight's class will be like as well.

Hope everyone has a happy weekend!!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

This week

This week has been so amazingly busy!! Here's the run down:

Monday: this is that last week we can do work in our system before we do an upgrade. We hope that we have enough server space to do the upgrade!! Either way, the pressure is on this week to do as much as possible before we go down, plus classes start Wednesday, so plenty of professors are around wanting their stuff NOW!

Monday night: Theology on Tap. A very excited speaker spoke on Saints and Relics. Very cool!

Tuesday: the pressure is still there!! More meetings and more deadlines, all for things that I don't need to use the system for. Wouldn't it be better to do those things next week when I can't use the system, rather than this week when I could be using the system!

Tuesday night: met with the photographers for the wedding, signed the contract, made the deposit, and talked more and more. Again we were there for an hour and a half!

Wednesday: More meetings!! more deadlines. I managed to get some cataloging work done in the system, but it is now obvious that I won't get done everything I had hoped to this week. I turned in something today a day early, will turn in something tomorrow a day late. That evens out, right?

Wedensday night: first YAACK meeting of 2007. We had 2 new people come, which gave us 4 people for the evening. I hope they come back!! Had a nice discussion about the readings for next Sunday: Isaiah, Corinthians, and John.

Thursday: another meeting, finished up the thing that was due yesterday, have many more things to do and I'm currently procrastinating!

Tonight: Band Rehearsal! I desperately need new a new reed, but who has time!?!

Tomorrow: who knows! Just make it through the day.

Friday night: Chris and I take our first NFP class (Natural Family Planning). I'll post more about that later.

Hope everyone is having a good week! Are you all also as busy as me??

Monday, January 08, 2007

Bridal Shows

Chris and I went to a Bridal Show in Lexington on Sunday afternoon. He sampled 3-4 cakes, a pasta dish from a caterer in downtown, and we both tried a few hor d'ouerves items from several caterers, especially the chocolate fountain.

We also picked up a ton of stuff: catalogs, business cards, forms, advertisements, etc. We went through them all last night and eliminated things we weren't interested in, made some decisions, and filed away the things we want to look at again.

We did make an appointment to meet with someone about invitations (and other stationary needs) and we scheduled a free dance lesson!

On Friday we met with a photographer that we really liked. He had a great price, a package that had everything in it we wanted, and we had a good time talking to them. After talking with and reading through the information from the various photographers at the Bridal Show we decided that the person we met on Friday would be our best deal and would be fun to work with. So we are signing a contract with him tomorrow. Another thing off the list!!

The two other big things I want to look at now are cakes and flowers. Those are the things that we need to have vendors lined up for on the actual day, so we need to book them soon. So much to think about!!

Hope everyone had great weekends!!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Happy New Year!

I'm only a few days late in wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I had fun visiting family in Atlanta. Chris came late in the week and we went downtown to tour the CNN Center, which was actually a lot of fun. Then we had my niece's birthday party on Saturday. I can't believe she is already one year old!!

On New Year's Eve Chris and I drove back to Lexington through terrible rain almost the entire way. New Years Day started with Eucharistic Adoration at 6am (I was all alone in the chapel this time, no surprise there), then home to shower and change, and back to Church for Mass (January 1 is the feast of Mary, Mother of God).

After Mass we went to Chris' house for brunch: meat pie (traditional holiday breakfast in his family), cranberry sauce, scrambled eggs, apple strudel, and half an orange. It was an interesting brunch. And it was a lot of food, we really didn't eat much the rest of the day. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, taking a walk, and watching a movie. Nice way to start the new year.

In wedding news: I bought a dress!!