Please pray for our Holy Father...

In Detroit, Polish-American Cardinal Adam Maida, a longtime friend of the pope, issued a suggested prayer for the pope:

“Father of all life, we ask your special blessing and protection for our Holy Father on earth. We pray that through his suffering we may deepen our own faith in the mystery and hope of sharing in Christ’s Resurrection. According to your will, restore him to the service of your church and keep us all in your peace.”

A bedtime story...

For everyone who reads this blog esp. those of you suffering through the awful flooding and stranded on campus, I, Mama Kitty, have decided to tell you a bedtime story to remind you how much God loves us!

Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight walk of my Hubby dear!

As we were enjoying the 30th day of December, 2004, in Oahu with our entire family, my Husband, Jay, made reservations for just the two of us to eat a lovely meal on top of the Ilikai Hotel in Sarentos restaurant.
"The Ilikai’s landmark status comes from when Hawaii Five-O featured the hotel in its dramatic opening sequence—a sweeping panoramic shot of Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett standing on his Ilikai penthouse balcony surveying Waikiki with aerial views of the Pacific Ocean and Diamond Head".
It was a lovely dinner, sitting next to a window on the top floor of the hotel, 30 stories high. We enjoyed a nice bottle of wine and great food. As we were sitting there looking out at all the high rise buildings surrounding us, I commented on how I wouldn't like to live in a high rise. I need grass and to be able to just walk outdoors. Jay mentioned that he'd worry that he'd walk off the balcony. We finished our meal and rode the glass elevator back down and went back to our room at the Sheraton Wakiki. I was tired, but Jay and Michael decided to go dancing in the bar at the hotel. They got back to the room about 12:30 and went right to bed.
All of the hotel rooms in Oahu have double beds and the boys were sharing our room. As the 3 "men" are close to 6 ft or taller, beds were a problem. So Jay got his own, I got one, Michael got a rollaway and Pat slept on the floor. When you are young you can do that and still move the next day.
About 2:30 there was a loud banging at the door. Pat heard it first and went to see what was going on. He opened the door and there stood Jay, in his P.J.'s and 3 security guards. Jay walked into the room followed by the security guards and said: " I climbed over the f.........g balcony". We just stared at him and as the guards left they said that he was lucky he wasn't dead as we were on the 10th floor. I couldn't move! He didn't have his glasses on and can only see about 8 inches away without them. My heart was pounding because we had stood on that balcony earlier in the day watching a sting ray swimming in the coral down below us. There were people on the other balcony's, but they are built for privacy so you can't see over or around them.
I didn't tell the girls until the next morning and we were all still in shock. We knew why he had done it, he was sleepwalking! The only thing he remembers is getting up to go the the bathroom and then the next thing he remembers is being on the balcony next to us. He knocked on their door and the guy first yelled " you're on the wrong balcony buddy"! The second time Jay knocked, the guy called security and they took him through the other guest's room back to us.
What we can't figure out is HOW he did it! I am posting the picture below to show you what he climbed over. We still don't know how, but are positive that God loves him very much and he must have a very powerful Guardian Angel.
You be the judge when you see the picture. We still can't believe it, but we know it happened.
So, when you sleep and are worried about flooding, mudslides, or just the normal things we all worry about, remember this story and how God held onto Jay as '10 stories up' he somehow swung out and around onto another balcony. Thank you Jesus!!!

The infamous balcony...

Our room was about at the bottom of the first frond of the tall palm tree.
Every night, at every hotel after this experience, we blocked the balcony doors with tables, chairs, whatever we could find. And Pat slept where Jay would have to step on his head to get to the balcony. There were two types of railing. The all cement and the balcony's with metal railing. Ours was all cement.

Precious Suffering...

Not has been posting some beautiful and funny pictures of our Holy Father. We have been so blessed that the Holy Spirit led the Conclave to pick John Paul II. As some of you know, he has been a key player in many areas of the world's problems. The most prominent one and ongoing is his continous, unyielding respect for human life, both at conception and in the final days of the sick and elderly. Newsweek publish a very good article about him and I wanted to share the link with you. You'll find the article here.
It gives me hope that with the world in shambles, God has provided us with a holy man to represent Him on earth. Pray that God allows us more time with his leadership and that when his suffering on earth has ended that the Holy Spirit will once more intercede and direct the Conclave in electing a new Pope to lead us in God's way.

Disclaimer:

Bumping this up for new friends I've met...

Blogs at times become quite personal. Having been a mother for 24 years, it is sometimes difficult for me to keep my mouth shut or my fingers from the keyboard, especially when I read something I’ve experienced. If I should inadvertently overstep your boundaries, please don’t hesitate to say so.

Intro:

Ditto on last post:

Some of you might wonder about me, so here is a short introduction to who I am and what I do. I am the mother of five wonderful, unique children. And as someone once asked me at a swimming pool, “Are they all from the same father”? The answer is Yes!
Twenty-five years of wedded bliss to the same man – well, not perfect bliss but thankfully the good days outweigh the bad.
Ten years ago I started to have a midlife crisis, but decided to overcome the crisis part by creating something in my life that would invigorate and renew me. I became a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician and joined our local Search and Rescue team. Since that time, I’ve become an Incident Commander for SAR and actually run the missions, making the decisions that could affect someone’s life. Happily most of the missions end with a successful ‘find’ of a relatively healthy person. Those that don’t are very sad, but whether a person is dead or alive our job is to bring home a loved one so their family may have closure to a tragic event. SAR has kept me young at heart and physically I still do many things I enjoy such as climbing and rappelling, caving and backpacking. My body protests at the end of a long day, but it’s too much fun to let that stop me.
Three of my children have left home to start the process of making their own place in the world. Two are still at home, but not far behind the others. Then I suppose I will suffer from empty nest syndrome and have to travel to distant places for a cure. I suppose I can handle that; Italy, Ireland, cruises and of course many visits to the gambling Mecca’s of the Southwest, Laughlin and Las Vegas to name a few. So, to put it bluntly, life doesn’t come to a screeching halt when you reach 30, 40, 50 or older. You become mellower with time (like a fine wine) and your body slows down, but the only thing stopping you from enjoying life, is YOU!

Prelude:

One more time:

Having commented for several months on some of the blogs in this area, I’ve finally got a blogsite of my own. Before I was directed by a link to these blogs, I didn’t know that web logs existed. And certainly not in the numbers I’ve seen.
I find them fascinating. I’ve especially been held captive by all the comings and goings of many of you. It seemed over the summer that most of you were quite happy where you were and then in a matter of a few days, there were rumblings of movement. Many going back to school and others off to foreign lands. And then all of the weddings, perhaps the biggest step of all. I wish for all of you fond memories of these years, years that will quickly lead to the place where you will make a permanent home. I do enjoy and am amused by many of the writings. They remind me of my life some 30 odd years ago and memories I thought were forgotten are resurfacing. Most are pleasant reminders although there are a few I wish had remained buried. But, my gratefulness in still being able to remember moments I thought were forever gone overrules the need to rebury those few. Will that God grant me many more years to enjoy those memories and the ones to come.

Update: Over the months that I've been blogging I've met many people. Many of these people are not in the TAC arena I started blogging in. I haven't forgotten any of you TACky people, but I have enjoyed meeting the new people, esp. those who are closer to my age. As the months fly by, I hope to meet many more people and add them to my memories of life. Kitty