Wow

I don't mean to sound overly archaic, but this is startling. For as much as people laud the population and quality of life since birth control became the norm.. this is one negative thing... I'm JUST sayin'..... Don't bite my head off.....
This article from Foxnews:
VATICAN CITY — Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.

He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population -- a stable percentage -- while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.

"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.

When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.


What has happened to those large families of the past? Oh yeah, we wanted to limit them and be better able to provide. What a shame. Materialism should be seriously discussed for it's moral repercussions. This just isn't a Catholic issue, it's for everyone. Be fuitful and multiply, so long as you can afford it? Hmm. We might be on the fast track to becoming like China, a nation of only children. That can't be good.

The Circus was a Circus!

Today was wonderful.. and went by so fast I can't believe it!
Matthew and I got up and went to Mass at St. Gerard's. It was so nice and although it is much smaller than St. Jude's, we really liked it.
After Mass I dropped Matthew off at home and headed to Hixson to meet my Sister and Nephew. We had planned to go to the circus at the UTC arena at 2:00 p.m., but when we got downtown it was teeming with little bitty kiddies and we decided not to go. No loss, we went to the Chattanooga Zoo instead and had a really great time. I cannot remember the last time I visited Chattanooga's Zoo, and it was surprisingly nice. I really enjoyed myself, and so did my Nephew.
After visiting the chimps and jumping goats, we left and went to the International Towing and Recovery Museum. Going solely for the benefit of a 10 year old boy, we had another great time. I cannot believe I enjoyed looking at tow trucks and memorabilia, but I did! I had an amazing time spending the afternoon with my Nephew, and learning a lot more about him. I think now that I have moved away our time is more special. YaY
We came back to my house and he played on the net while Matthew and I finished hanging clothes and cleaning up.
I took him back to Sale Creek and ate dinner with my Dad and Sister and had a great time updating them on all that was going on with us. I miss them already.. but not the drive up there!!!
Ha Ha.

Ugh, tomorrow is Monday.. already?!?!

No time off, Sorry.

Friday went way too slowly. After work I went looking for furniture, namely the writing desk. I struck out, but ended home at the same time as Matthew was arriving home from work, so we headed down to eat dinner and stopped by a furniture store on 2A. We found the most beautiful writing desk, and immediately bought it. We were so pleased that we had held out and not settled, because this desk is so nice it was worth shopping around for. Simple, solid wood, just perfect. I spent the evening hanging oodles of pictures and art and Matthew got called out on a sink leak.. and I was home and did A-OK all by my lonesome... WooHoo. Spent the rest of the night until midnight watching TV and paying with the cats. They are adjusting well.
This morning I woke up early as I normally do.. no sleeping in. I ate breakfast and watched DVR-ed Monk episodes while planning out my next picture wall. When Matthew woke up we had to take Pumpkin to the Banfield Vet in Hixson to get a check-up and more anti-biotics. We thought for sure she might have diabetes with her hind leg issues and going outside the litter box, but he vet assured us the hind legs was probably seizures or a behavioral reaction to stress... Geez, Thanks, huh? We ran into Adam at the Vet and I haven't see him in a few months.. he has let his hair grow out.. it is so cute.
Well anyway, we came home and I finished hanging the dining room pictures.
Overall w had a busy but immensely productive day. I found out that after almost 6 years of marriage, Matthew had never told me that he has never had a Big-Mac! Can you believe it??
Also, My keyboard stinks.. and every fifth or so letter just never appears on the screen.. so I am having to run the spell check as I blog.. annoying!!!!

Hope everyone is doing well and has a magnificent weekend!

Job Security

Well, after work yesterday I went to the Colonial Bread outlet store thingy on the way home and bought some rolls and egg noodles. I came home and actually made a decent dinner. I had everything timed to when Matthew would get home and then I get the call... there was a water emergency (3 hr. toilet overflow) that some resident came home to and now Matthew had to stay and supervise the extraction company coming in to deal with it, and basically clearing out 3 of her rooms so they could get to all the water. Ick. So, I swept, did the dishes (by hand!), vacuumed, did a load of laundry, cat litter, and took out the trash.. then I crashed in front of the TV and watched HBO. We were supposed to hang the pictures last night, but that did not happen.
I was peeved that he was going to be late, but that is all part of his job. At least it doesn't happen as often as when he was working for Signal View. In fact, it happens so less-often we take it for granted until some emergency happens.. then he goes into "supervisor" mode, which is interesting to witness. I wish he would take charge and handle his chores as well as he handles his work, Oh well. :-)
So, after 3 hours he finally gets to come home and eat. It was well after the sun had gone down and I was really proud of myself for not freaking out. There is something about this house and this street that calms me down a lot. I haven't had my usual irrational fears since we moved in. I go outside in the dark by myself, don't walk around the car 10 times before I get in it, take the trash to the road in the dark, and don't bother combing the house and looking in every closet when I get home ... I am really having a breakthrough. YaY.
I finished the In Treatment episodes on the On Demand program. I can't wait until they have season 2.
This weekend is a blank slate. We have little to no plans other than working at unpacking.. and shopping for the elusive furniture.

The bestest part if cable internet...

Robbie Videos! Now I can get my daily fix!! I've misssed sooo much!

Certainly not a floor sitter.

Well, yesterday was a mixed bag. I came home and did a few chores and organized a few areas, watched another episode of In Treatment from Comcast On Demand.. that is so awesome.
Matthew came home and headed to the computer, doing Disney research for our 2009 trip... it's going to be a long year.
My sister and Nephew came down to see the house again, since it was his first time seeing it since we "moved in". That was nice.
I ate a granola bar and was not too hungry, wound up trying to see the new Gavin DeGraw video on Yahoo Music, only to find out our Java whozamahozit was not enabled, so I had to download the update, scratch my head, and restart the computer a few times. I finally got around to watching it this morning.. I love the fact that I have so much time to piddle in the morning before I have to leave for work now!
I am actively seeking the writing desk today.. my legs fall asleep if I am on the floor with the computer, and my back was all contorted.. ick!
I am ready for the weekend!!

Update

Surprisingly, we've been working our behinds off and haven't had much time to blog. Until last night we were without internet and cable altogether.
Lets see.. since getting the house 2 weeks ago...
we've painted, painted, and painted some more, brought in furniture and set up our new washer and dryer, moved (ever so slowly) from one state to the next, ate out way too much ( :-O ), and made 5 cats considerably peeved.
I have a few "first day" pics with my sister's camera, but I haven't found us "the one" yet, and frankly I'm in no rush because I haven't found anything comparable to what I had. So I wait for the perfect camera match for us.
Easter weekend went great, we went to the Easter Vigil Mass and finished our obligations to the RCIA program by going up and standing beside Christopher as he was baptized and confirmed. It was so exciting to see another group of RCIA people come into the Church. We bought a few crucifixes in the gift shop an had Father David bless them. I bought a beautiful trinity crucifix for the front door, and I can't wait to post a picture. I also bought a smaller crucifix for over the bedroom door and the same as a gift for Christopher. What a night! I can't wait to get a camera and be able to put pictures to words (for now I will post a similar looking one I found on Google Shopping)!
I am also waiting, much to the annoyance of Matthew, for the "perfect" accent table for the living room (or somewhere to put his coke can while he's on the recliner!), a nice white short dresser for the bedroom (or someplace to throw socks and undies and still be a good place for the fish tank to reside upon), a few bookcases (or a place to store all of Matthew's paperback collection that he has re-read about 60 times over), a student-style four-leg basic writing desk without a keyboard tray/drawer (or someplace other than the floor to surf the net on), and finally I am searching for the perfect wall cabinet for the bathroom (or someplace to hide all of the personal type things that don't look so swell sitting on the back of a commode).
Whew, well, I am not settling and over the last two weeks I think I have been to every website, and about 20 stores in town just searching.. but for now our house remains a few pieces of furniture short.. or as Matthew would say.. having to put coke cans on the windowsill, socks in a pile on the floor, books still in their moving boxes, surfing the internet from the floor and getting "fallen-asleep limb syndrome", and a crowded commode lid.
Hahaha.

Touch-Ups

The painting is officially over! We finished trim and baseboards last night and touched up the bedrooms and living room.
We sent all the paint to the basement and cleaned up and hauled away two large trash bags full of mess we had created in the last four days. We left the kitchen and trim paint out because I know we will need to do more touching up and paint the new door after the appliances come in on Thursday.
Have I mentioned how ready I am to be living in the house?
Anyways... Matthew and I went over our schedule for the end of this week and have tried to time everything around the church schedule, which is very busy this time of year. He is not sure if he gets Good Friday off from work yet. He is going to ask off if it isn't,I can't imagine why anyone would want to work on Good Friday. It is so exciting, as it should be.
Easter makes me always think of this one piece of art by Bouguereau, the Marys at the Tomb:

Almost done!

This weekend started out rainy and ended up being very beautiful.
I bought our last big splurge of house budget on really beautiful door handles for every door. You wouldn't imagine that our little house needed 2 deadbolts, 2 keyed handles, 5 locking handles, and 7 passage handles. It was very expensive, but they are really going to make everything come together and look like OURS!
We began work Friday night painting the rooms, 10 different colors! Matthew's parents came up and we got a good start.
Saturday my Dad drove down with us and we had him painting the "computer room" which is the only room Matthew picked colors for, and it was a BOLD red, and a BOLD blue. My Dad worked for almost 4 hours in one little room because the paint didn't cover like our other colors did. We still have to finish up the red..it's a pain!
My Mom came down for the afternoon and she also was put to work and painted the living room's 2 coats. After they had both left, Matthew and I stayed and worked until 2 a.m.!
Sunday, we got down to the house in the afternoon and Matthew's parents came back down and his Dad put in the new backdoor. I was so lucky to find the door we had been looking at from a guy on craigslist (again!) and saved us over $150.00 on it and it was just needing to be cleaned up a little from being stored. It was a major blessing.
Our friends Michael and Jennifer came to visit and we put them to work doing touch up because they are so tall! My parents came on their way back into town and helped on the trim work while we went out to eat with M & J.
We had such a wonderful weekend getting to know our new house, and spending a lot of time with our families.
Tonight we will finish the trim work and finish touch ups (and I will be cleaning up!). Tomorrow we start putting our stuff in!

Livin la vida LOCA

Whew! Life is coming at us a mile a minute and we are just trying to keep our heads on straight and not get bogged down with the overwhelming-ness (Sorry, brain is mushy today) of it all.
We are painting and have bought all of the paint and supplies. cha-ching. This weekend will be paint, paint, paint, replace the back door, and put in new door hardware.
Next week will be difficult, because there are so many obligations for Holy Week (not that I am complaining!). We will be taking down carloads of boxes at a time, with the big push to get everything moved happening on Good Friday and Sunday (Saturday is the Easter Vigil).
Anyways, to all of those who are rooting for us.. thanks for all the prayers and they are still needed!!

Pictures soon!

Less than a day now!

Well, we close on 3/11 at 11a.m. It sounds good, anyways. I am more than nervous. The mortgage company has been calling me with last minute things like getting me to hand write a letter stating that Matthew has full access to the money in our joint bank account. A joint bank account seems self-explanatory, but NO. I had to write a note stating explanations about a few deposits... once again, they just want to make me nervous enough to hurl.
Work is going well. Most of the time when someone is out my day flies past and I do not notice the time. However today I do not know if it is the nervousness I feel over the house, or maybe some nagging Daylight Savings Time glitch in my brain, but I am stopping to look at the clock every 3 minutes or so. It is irritating.
This weekend we didn't get the 'big snow' everyone was hyping us up for. I never thought we would, but I did get to see probably our last snow.. it just didn't decide to stick to anything. I was not able to give Mudpie away, and I think she may end up at my Mother's friend's house.. living a life outdoors. The good thing is she would be very far from any roads and would have a lot of room to roam.
We love our cats, possibly too much. In the absence of having children, we have associated our life with each other and our pets. Now it seems heartbreaking to have to break up our little family and downsize into the house.
I have a feeling though that God might be making us ready for when he decides to bless us with kids. It is just a hunch. Don't go and get all excited now! :-)
I woke up Sunday morning to what I thought was the Nuclear Sirens going off. A steady interval of wailing that made me jump up and grab my glasses and run to the door.
Matthew was watching TV and did not even hear it! I called up to Mom's house and she heard it too. It sounded like a cat, a dying cat! I got off the porch and rounded the corner by the road and there were two cats (not ours.. ours are inside!) fighting in our yard. I scared them and they went to the farm across the road. It had me up and going though.. well before I should have gotten up.
Since I had gotten up so early, we were out in no time for Mass and sat up front with Christopher. They had another blessing done. I can't believe Easter is coming so soon! In the homily, Father talked about how Easter had not been this early since the 1800's, and wouldn't hit this early again until the 2200's! What a strange year it is already turning out to be.
Well, wish us luck tomorrow. We need it.
Oh, and a person at the Wal-Mart said they liked our license plate Choose Life tag. I was so excited! Then I thought.. OH NO! Now I have to get the Georgia version.. and quite frankly.. it is U-G-L-Y! Here is a comparison:

It's the 'yuckies'.. thats for sure.

I have a nervous tick that has appeared as all of the craziness and overwhelming truth of us buying a house is crashing down on me. It really didn't help that I started the Byetta injections again, and that always makes me walk around in a state of nausea until I get it in my system for a week or two.
Yesterday we took the afternoon off work and started a goose chase that was supposed to be pretty cut and dry. We began with the home insurance agent's office where Matthew signed some forms and we were set to go. Then we needed to attend to the power situation. I have never seen so many power companies emphatically deny my new address is serviced by them. I had called EPB earlier in the week and they said NO. I called the realtor who suggested N. Ga Electric, and I went there.. sat for 30 minutes while the lady kept looking at her screen like her staring at it would change the fact that we weren't on their map. She sent us to the Ft. Oglethorpe City Hall, who says they only do water/sewer (and we weren't theirs either!) so go try Walker county. By this time I was clouded over by a headache and frustrations, so my brain began to shut down. Matthew and I drove to the house and looked at the meter... EPB!!! I drove to the next driveway and asked them where they get their water..... Tennessee American (who also denies we exist!).
So, with the meter number it was amazing how quickly EPB found us and apologized for the headache.. little did they know my brain was mush by that time, because I do not deal with anxiety well. So, the power is hooked up for the 11th, YaY.
I called the Tn American Water Co. back and explained to them that the neighbor's are on their system, which means we are also on their system. They said, NO. Without an old account number or old phone number tied to the address they were unable to pull it up. So, we have the realtor trying to get us some info for that as well.
It was an awful afternoon!
Then we went up to Ooltewah and met a guy in the Bi-Lo parking lot and got some Tarantulas for my nephew. Thanks to Craigslist! Matthew was feeling really nervous about transporting two spiders around, but they we did fine, and they were in their little enclosure. My nephew loved them, so it was worth the trip up.
This weekend we are packing the little stuff, taking a lot of trash to the dump, and hopefully giving a cat or two away! Once again, thanks to Craigslist.. I am taking Mudpie to a home to "see how she does" with the other cats the lady has. My Mom also has a friend that may take one from us. I am so happy about that!
Well, I never knew how intrusive buying a home can be. The mortgage company has been asking a lot of questions about where certain deposits came from, etc. It's actually made me rather mad, because I do NOT like the idea of people pouring over and scrutinizing our bank information. Ick! I can not wait until the process is over Tuesday and we can get on with our life.

Just a little Patience.... yeah...

Well I was sick all last week and this weekend was hectic. So much to do! Had to figure out house insurance, pick out doors, buy a vacuum, a love seat, start shopping for a TV, Computer monitor, etc. Plus try and keep a lookout for decor. Thank goodness it is all beginning to wind down to closing! I am ready to get in this house and make it my own!
Work is going well, even though I missed 4 days last week I am back at it and feeling better. I am going back on the byetta to try and regulate my hunger and eating. Hopefully I can manage to take my glucophage and give myself the injections and stay on track. I am starting tomorrow and am going to try and do a solid week without missing a dose, Lord help me.
We are still committed to Christopher and the RCIA at St. Jude's, but now that we are moving so far down the road, we are literally under 5 minutes from a new parish! I am going to visit there this weekend and get to know it a lot better. It is so small! So, after Easter services and we get Chris through the RCIA program, we will be able to begin switching over to St. Gerard's. I am really excited to be so close to a Church! There seems to be an endless amount of blessings!
We are lucking up on finding things for the house, getting rid of things we need to part with, and managing to stay happy with each other and staying sane! I am definitely carrying around a new respect for real estate enthusiasts!
I have purged all of the "junk" from our house these last two weekends at the flea market. As much flack as I have gotten from my family (they can't get the whole give-a-way aspect), it has been a great experience. Mainly, because I am not worried about selling things, just finding things homes.. so I end up giving away most things (even nice furniture.. ssshhh!) it is just too fun!! Of course, I could always find a purpose for the extra $$ (who couldn't?!) but the reward of feeling lightened and the freedom I feel from not having to move a bunch of things I never even liked too much! Awesome!
Right now I have found one interested guy in my precious Mudpie, whom can not move with us (it is an ordeal!), so hopefully she will find a loving home soon!!!!
I am up at Mom's sending cat pictures to the guy, mostly because I have no computer monitor (that 70 lb CRT behemoth was also given away! YaY!), so my internet usage is severely stunted. I cannot wait to get out of the dreaded "dial-up only" zone and get comcast high speed again.. it has been almost 4 years since we moved out of civilization!!!!!!