Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Today I'm sharing two of my favorite pictures of my kids.  When they were little I always tried to dress them somewhat alike for Halloween.  As they got older that idea didn't fly but when they were little it sure made for some cute pictures.

(For the purposes of this blog post, I am writing only of the secular celebrations. I'm planning on doing another post on religious holidays as it gets closer to Christmas)

I always loved Halloween as a kid.  I never liked the scary part of it but I loved dressing up and I REALLY loved the candy!  Of course when I had kids of my own I loved sharing in their excitement and helping them to pick out costumes.  Now that I am an adult, I think I love Halloween because it's the true beginning of Fall in AZ and it means that Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  Fall is my favorite time of year and in all honesty, I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I know that shocks most of you who know me as the obsessed Christmas lady, but it's true.  I do love Christmas, but a little bit of the magic goes out of it when your kids grow up and it looses a little bit of it's shine.  Plus, it's just such a hectic time with so much hubub. Thanksgiving on the other hand is a simple joy.  I love everything about it.  The colors, the decorations and of course the food.

It is a time to spend with family and friends.  It's all about gathering at the table and giving thanks for the Lord's abundant love and blessings in your life.  Thanksgiving is the purest and simplest of holidays.  Gather together, enjoy some good food, enjoy each others company, enjoy some football if that's your thing.  Spend some relaxing time with those you love and who love you.  It's the calm before the Christmas storm.

I'm really looking forward to this holiday season.  With the addition of my new son-in-law Adam and his family, the Clem Clan is growing ever stronger...in personalities and in numbers.  It's all very exciting stuff.

I'm still trying to gather my thoughts about the whole wedding thing. I'm hoping to write about it this weekend when I have more time to gather my thoughts.  Until then I will leave you with this...in the pictures above Beth is the littlest surgeon and witch...last Saturday she dressed up as a bride...and she was gorgeous. Words cannot express how my heart fills up when I look at this picture.  Simply beautiful...

To Makeup, Or Not To Makeup...

I don't wear makeup...ever.  When I was 37 two things happened that made me decide I just didn't want to wear it anymore.  I had to switch from contacts back to glasses and I got an extremely bad sunburn.  The glasses just made me feel like you couldn't see my eyes (my best feature, I think) so what was the point and when I had the sunburn I couldn't wear it anyway.  I had never really enjoyed wearing makeup so at that point I just decided it didn't matter anyway.  I'm ok with no makeup and I don't really care if anyone else thinks I should wear it.  I'm independent that way.  But...

My daughter is getting married on Saturday.  Events like this only happen once.  Pictures will be taken.  I don't want her to look at her pictures years from now and think...wow, Mom looked really bad.  Not that she would, because she's not like that.  But, I don't want to be the washed out one in all the pictures.  I'm already the lightest one in my family.  If I don't do something, I'll just be Casper the Ghost standing next to all those Malibu Barbies and Kens.  Also, several years ago, I acquired rosacea...a lovely little skin condition that leaves your nose and cheeks red.  It makes you look like you've had a few too many...all the time.  So I'd be drunk Casper to boot.  No one needs that in their pictures. 

So...in order to even out my skin tone and not appear dead in the pictures, I bought makeup for the first time in 18 years.  Today I did a practice run with said makeup.  Here is what I learned:

Plucking gray eyebrow hairs is not fun. Plucking is another thing I don't do anymore...don't judge...at this age I don't have many left and you can't see the dang things anyway.  But in order to wear eyebrow pencil...one must pluck the brows.  Trying to twist and turn so the light would catch the silvery ones so that I could then pluck them...well, that probably would have made a good home video...thank goodness no one else was home.

Applying makeup with a sponge is not as easy as Carmindy on What Not To Wear makes it seem.  Never used the sponge before...it was interesting to say the least.  We will think about this little task an re-evaluate later.

The medicine I use for my rosacea also dries out my skin considerably so the makeup didn't look so hot over the dry skin...don't know what to do about that one...any ideas?  I'm not that keen on looking flakier than I already am.

I hated the way it felt on my skin and could not wait to wash it off...which is going to make my time sitting in the 90 degree weather on Saturday just peachy.  But I will do it...for the sake of my fellow wedding attendees...and pictures.

And all of this just goes to prove the lengths you will go to for your children...even when they are adults.

Wish me luck with the making up on Saturday...I need all the positive juju I can get. 

Despite the great makeup debacle of 2013...I am beyond excited for this wedding and can't wait for the day to finally arrive.  I will be back next week, sans makeup, to tell you all about it.

Have a great week everyone!

Intercession

St. Germaine Cousin

I have vowed to publicly thank my patron saint anytime she helps me with a problem.  So, today I am here to say thank you to St. Germaine for her intercession, once again.  She is known as the forgotten saint, so I have vowed to do what I can to make her name known.  Her story is incredible and worth the read.  I think it will inspire you.  Here is a link to her story: http://www.stgermaine.com/germaine.htm

In the past several weeks I have asked for intercession twice and both times the outcome has been favorable.  Not surprising to me of course, prayer is powerful.  It changes things.

I wanted to talk a little bit about intercession and prayer. 

Lots of people who are not Catholic, and many who are, do not understand intercession.  Many people think we pray to saints instead of going straight to God.  This could not be further from the truth. We are not asking the saint to grant us anything.  We are asking for their prayers. Do you ever ask a friend to pray for you?  This is exactly what intercession is.  You are merely asking for someone else to pray on your behalf.  That is what I ask St. Germaine to do for me.  I have been doing this since my parents taught me to pray.  I feel like she is my friend.  And as I would ask any friend if I were in need, I often ask her to pray for me...or to intercede.  Here is a link if you wish to read more about intercession: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08070a.htm

I have asked publicly on Facebook many times for prayers.  I have a community of faith filled family and friends there who are always willing to pray for my intentions, even when they have no idea what they are praying for. You don't always have to tell people what you need.  You need only to ask that they pray for a special intention.  Sometimes what we need is too personal to tell the world.  Or we may be embarrassed that we are asking for intercession for something we may think God thinks is insignificant.  But remember this...if it's important to you, it's important to God.

Prayer is so powerful and in numbers it's power can be staggering.  I have seen it in my own life and in the lives of others.  Of course, we must always be mindful to pray that God's will be done.  And remember that your prayers are always answered...it may not be the answer you wanted, but it is always the right answer.  And sometimes you don't get the answer for years after you pray.  But when the answer comes, you know it, and you realize that God knew all along.  He knows what is in our hearts before we do.  He knows what our lives will be before we can even imagine it.  So whatever His answer is, it's the right one.

So once again, I am coming before you and St. Germaine and asking for your prayers for a special intention.  I appreciate your prayers and always keep you all in my daily prayers as well.

Thanks for being such supportive and loving friends.  I love you all :)