Moving Right Along.....

Chris set up a new site for us at http://web.me.com/ckiolbasa

This is a Mac site, and it is a lot more user friendly than this one, so I am going to give it a go at being a regular blogger at that site. There are new updates on the page as of today. Have a Happy New Year Everybody!!

Lent - What a Holy Time

I love this time of year - Lent - our preparation for Easter. A time to reflect, pray, give alms and do good works. This year I am going to do the following in lieu of "giving up" something:

• Attend Vespers at the Norbertine Community each weeknight
• Attend Mass at Santa Maria de la Vid Priory (Norbertine Community) each Sunday
• Work with my parish on establishing a formal intercessory prayer ministry
• My almsgiving will benefit the St. Jude's Children's Hosptial this year

I pray that Lent is a holy time of peace and reflection for each of you - that you draw nearer to God in Christ. Many blessings on each of you!

Random Thoughts to Ponder

In defense of vegetarianism: There is no Mad Tofu Disease.

Wear your seatbelt....it makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of your car.

Ok, so I saw these on a button and a bumper sticker respectively, but I thought they were pretty funny!

New Family Members

Hello there - and YES - the Albuquerque Kiolbasas are still alive. My sister-in-law, Michelle, reminded me that it had been a super long time since I had posted...and it has....so here I am.

January has been a month of new additions to my families. My little sister had her baby last Friday (1/18/08)...and you can see the little angel, Penelope May Lewis in the picture above....she's the little, tiny human.

The other picture is of me holding my new baby, Neeka... she is the little furry child sitting on my lap. Chris and I are fostering Neeka for a local pet rescue for a little while until we decide whether or not she gets to stay permanently. She just arrived yesterday, and as far as we can tell she is staying. We have had a minor amount of feline posturing, growling and hissing, but nothing really serious. Neeka and I spent a few hours alone last night, bonding, and she really seems like she will be my kitty, but that all could change in a week or two....that's how long it took the other traitors to move to the dark side.....or CHRIS's side, if you will. Neeka likes to sit on my lap, and she likes me to carry her up and down the stairs. She only weighs 8 pounds, so this is not that big of a deal to me.

So now we have 4 cats again, 2 boys (Alvin and Julius) and 2 girls (Neeka and Clementine) again. We were down one cat for a couple of months after we lost Sabine to diabetes. We can never replace Sabine, but in her honor we wanted to offer another cat a home, and believe me, there are a lot of cats in Albuquerque that are homeless.

So here's to the new additions to the families! May all of us be happy together!

All Saints Day was Yesterday

Yesterday was All Saints Day - the day we remember the Saints who have gone before us to heaven, and ask them to pray for us. The Mass held at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church was beautiful. Father Anthony Maes, a good friend of mine, gave a terrific homily, and really got me to thinking about the Saints, both ordinary and extraordinary. He reminded me that we are all "living saints" and are children of God, regardless of any problems we may have in our lives. The Saints were not perfect people - the only perfect person to walk this earth was Jesus, our Lord - they were merely committed to the Lord and His people. Remember this, and have a blessed day. Be the living saint that God made you to be.

You say goodbye, I say hello...

The two cute little dogs are Wrigley and Auggie. A month or so ago, we decided that it was time to find them new homes due to lack of time and energy to spend with them. They are sweet little dogs, and Wrigley (the pit bull mix) has already been adopted! Auggie is hanging out with us until we find a suitable home for him. My boss says she is really interested in him, and so is someone else from work, so we will see what happens.

In the meantime, Chris has decided that it was ok for me to get replacement pets. About 2 weeks ago, I got two guinea pigs from Melvin's Place Guinea Pig Rescue in Rio Rancho, NM. You can see the available piggies at www.saveacavy.com . Our girls names are Naomi and Mona. Mona is the little red and white piggy, and Naomi is the tri-colored, larger piggy. They are already doing very well in their new surroundings. They both squeal their little heads off any time we walk into the kitchen. It's their way of saying, "Give me carrots, NOW!" They are also quite fond of oranges and romaine lettuce. Not so much on kiwi or brussels sprouts. Here they are with their new mom.

Wow...a whole year!

Ok...so I haven't blogged in a little over a year. Bad Me. It also means that I haven't commented on anyone else's blog for that long...Really bad Me.

Let's see...news... My little sister had a baby boy last year, and I do follow his life quite closely through their blog. His name is Theo, and he will be one at the end of August...and his new brother or sister will be born sometime toward the end of January. Lots of babies in that part of the family.

One of my little brothers has 4 kids now, from the ages of 4-19. The other little brother has a little girl who is almost 2. One of my older brothers has a 17 year old daughter....and the other older brother has two kids, a boy age 9 and girl age 4. My Wonderful Husband (WH) on the other hand, has close to 20 nieces and nephews ranging from 12-mid 20's. That's a whole damn lot of kids!

My best friend from college has an almost 2 year old boy...who I also follow on Blogspot. He just got to go to Disney World for the first time.

With all these kids floating around, it is easy to get jealous and want some of my own...and with the perfect timing of the WH...we are now in discussions to adopt a teenager in a couple of years. WOW! We want to wait until he is out of school, and for a couple of other things to happen, but it is actually something we both want to do! Yea!!!

Keep us in thought and prayer as we discuss, research and move toward becoming parents!

Big Sister's Blog

Here I am a'blogging...again. I actually have a myspace blog too...although I haven't blogged on that in ages. I use it to keep track of some of my nephews and friends. Now that my baby sister and her husband are having a baby, I need a way to keep track of them too. Don't worry I will do something with this blog, and I will post pics of stuff that's important to me. May God bless you all today!