Happy 8th Birthday Shmookie Pie!

My Pooka Shmooka (aka Six) is such a sweet guy.  Here's a picture of Baby Six with Toddler Five.

And here he is on his second birthday.

We went shopping yesterday and let him pick out some presents.  His favorite so far?  A rubber snake. :)

St. Francis Xavier, Parkersburg

Roadtripped to Parkersburg for Mass this morning and got some pictures of the church.


Painting above St. Joseph altar.

Painted ceiling:

The Eleventh Station:

Confessional with Five peeking in:

St. Joseph Altar:

Communion rail wasn't used at this Mass, but the only Extraordinary Form Mass I've attended (outside of the Sacred Music Colloquium) was at this church, and the rail was used.

Baptismal font:

St. Francis Xavier:

Paintings above altar:

Le dome:

Choir loft, with a 3-manual Casavant organ:

Blessed Virgin altar:

Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

"This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world."

Same Sacred Heart statue picture above, but looking up into Jesus' eyes.  They look REAL and are very touching.

St. Therese of Lisieux:

St. Anthony with Baby Jesus:

Infant of Prague:

Very nice crucifix:

Front middle doors of church:

Beyond the railroad trestle, a side view of the church:

Mock Trial; St. Mary of the Annunciation, Portsmouth

Ten teams competed at the regional mock trial competition, and only two were advanced to state level.  Our team was one of them!  It's an incredible accomplishment, especially considering over the half the team are first-timers, and of the remaining three, two of them started only last year.  No one was expecting this, and no hotel reservations had been made for the state competition.  Congrats to our team!  Trivia:  we're always the only homeschool team in the entire state.

While the first trial was going on (Four's wasn't until the afternoon) I took the Little Ones to a museum, a furniture store, and two Catholic churches.  I got some pictures of the first, but forgot the camera when I went in to the second.

Without further ado, here are some pictures of Saint Mary of the Annunciation.

The rear of the church. There are two stairways up to the choir loft, and they both are designed the same.

At least half of these pamphlets were geared towards encouraging/exploring vocations. I was impressed.

A beautiful baptismal font. And check out the reflector on the bottom of Six's coat. Impressive, no?

More beautiful windows. Don't forget to notice the Stations.

Altar: St. Joseph with Jesus, and statue: St. Anthony with Jesus. Ignore the piano and microphone.

Altar. The church was dark, and the glowing tabernacle area was visually striking.

Entrance of church and choir loft.

Ceiling with angels holding scrolls with Latin script. The phrases I could translate appeared to be taken from the Magnificat.

Main altar.

Blessed Virgin altar.

Saint Barbara!

No recordings....

The bad news:  I didn't get any recordings because the recorder wasn't "behaving."  The good news:  I've learned more about my recorder, and I won't make the same mistake again.  Grrrr.

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time - February 27, 2011

Introit:  p. 245 of this link
Processional:  I Heard the Voice of Jesus (BB 480)
Psalm: Carissa
Offertory: Lord of All Hopefulness (BB 393)
Communion: psalm, Primum Quarite if needed
Recessional:  O God Our Help in Ages Past (BB 439)

Sunday Diary - Feb. 20, 2011; St. John the Evangelist Church, Logan

Celestine was unable to attend Mass last night, so we decided to make a road trip out of her Sunday morning Mass attendance.

We hadn't been to St. John the Evangelist Church for several years, but had good memories of the liturgies there.  Years ago, they also had a very nice Adoration chapel; I have no idea if they're still using it.  Of course there are freaky things, liturgically speaking, that happen in most every diocese, but the Diocese of Columbus is a pretty safe bet for reverently celebrated Masses.

The priest gave an interesting homily that started out rather sketchy, but ended well.  At the beginning, it was clear that he was trying to relate some deep theological truths (seriously, regarding the impossibility of moral perfection) but he just wasn't able to express it in common parlance.  Later, he started talking about the particular judgment, imperfect vs. perfect contrition, and other such matters, and everything came together.

The music was......  For fun, let's put it mathematically:  Guitar+microphones+out-of-key singers+Marty Haugen+Dan Schutte=Several souls out of Purgatory (at least I hope so.)  As Four put it, "1977 called; they want their musicians back."

Anyway, the church is on the National Registry of Historic Places; consequently, it has not been wreckovated.

The bricks seem to have a glossy coating, and it appears there's little to no mortar. I'm sure this is a common construction technique, but I haven't noticed it before.

Let's look at a few interior photos. First, a confessional! The sign on the left says "Face to Face", and the other one says "Traditional". The interior was quite roomy. (Sounds like I'm talking about a car.....)

Nice pews; make sure to look at the details.

And this strange, intricately-designed metallic device/sculpture...what is it?  Ah yes, I remember now:  a communion rail!  It was unfortunately not used.

And a few more photos sans my snarkful comments:

We headed north and circled around a famous Corvette lot, which had disappointingly few Corvettes and WAY too many new Camaros. I like very much the Synergy Green color, but four of them? It doesn't seem to be a color choice that would appeal to the larger body of consumers.

Ultimately, we ended up at a Mega car dealer in Columbus, with one specific purpose: to see the object of my desire, *cue choirs of angels singing* a Grabber Orange Mustang.

(Photo from a Grabber Orange forum detailing a rally in Pennsylvania.)

Unfortunately, the car was a repo that didn't pass their inspection, and they sold it back to the wholesaler.  We took the opportunity to check out a Mercedes SLK, Nissan 370Z, BMW Z4, and a Saturn Sky (the twin of the Pontiac Solstice.)  None of them impressed me enough to want to test drive them, and the wind and sleet didn't help matters.

When I finally test drive something, it will be a Grabber Orange (or even an awesomely gorgeous Grabber Blue!) or a yellow Pontiac Solstice GXP.  Here's hoping for better weather, a better selection of cars, and a well-paying organ job/s. :-)

As we left the dealership, I realized to my dismay that I had a burning throat and airway. Instead of driving farther north, we headed back home, but had to make an obligatory stop at Tim Horton's. Yummy. :)

Here's Four's take on the day.