Well, I found this photo and scanned it for family history purposes. My kids insisted I post it...
Yep, it's me... 13 and a half years ago. The image scanned a little too dark, my hair wasn't so dark.
Wow... time flies... who is that person?? Seems like a lifetime ago.

Unfortunately, the all the latest news has been bad.

My Aunt Darlese passed away last week from cancer-- she was 78. Her funeral mass and burial was Friday. The up side to this is that she's no longer suffering and that she would have been thrilled to see so many members of her family all together that day. I saw some cousins I hadn't seen in *many* years. It reminded me how blessed we are to have one another.

And, of course, the awful hurricane. Hurricane Katrina has devastated LA, MS, and AL. We are just beginning to grasp the level of destruction caused by this storm. I pray that all people will work together to help the survivors in any way they can. I can't imagine how a family would recover. Anyone who can afford to should certainly try to give to organizations who will assist in the recovery efforts. I'm off now to the American Red Cross website....

I got this from an e-mail list for those using Mother of Divine Grace curriculum. Since Jacob is *wrapping* up his study of Egypt now, we're going to have to try this. Better than the 'ole mummifying a raw chicken!

* * * Make Your Own Apple Mummy * * *

Instructions for making a mummified apple with a salt compound.

Ever wonder why you get thirsty when you eat salty foods? That's
because salt is a desiccant-it helps remove water from things,
including human bodies. Experiment with different salt compounds and
discover which makes the best mummified apple!

You need
Fresh apple, knife, 1 cup table salt, 1 cup Epsom salts, 1 cup baking
soda, 4 12-oz. Plastic cups, marker, masking tape, food scale, a data
table, shelf shaded from sunlight

To do:
1. Put a piece of tape on each cup and label as follows: Control,
Baking Soda, Epsom Salt, and Table Salt.
2. Slice the apple into quarters so you have four slices similar in
size. Place one slice in front of each cup.
3. With the apple slice for each cup, and record the weights on the
data table. Drop the apples into their cups.
4. Pour baking soda, Epsom salt, and table salt into their
respective cups. Make sure each slice is covered completely.
5. Set the cups on a shady shelf, away from direct sunlight. Let
them sit for seven days.
6. After a week, take out each apple slice and brush off as much
salt as possible. (Do not rinse the apple because that will
rehydrate it.) Weigh each slice, and record the new weight in your
data table. Then, calculate the amount of moisture lost by
subtracting each slice's final weight from the initial weight.

Conclusions:
Which compound words best at "mummifiying an apple? Where did the
moisture in the slices go?

Don't stop now!
Embalmers used a mixture of salts to dry out Egyptian mummies. Try
different combinations and proportions of baking soda, Epsom salt,
and table salt to "mummify" apple slices. Which combination works
best?

Our house will look something like this, put on a full walk-out basement. I can't wait to get it done! :-)

Today was Vince's day off so we had a very relaxed day, not really accomplishing much. We made a quick visit to our church to visit Jesus in Adoration and then stopped by my mom and dad's house to see how their sun-room addition is going. After a nice little nap with the baby, I suggested we take an evening trip to the pool. It closes for the year before long so we'd better enjoy it while we can. Dear friends of ours also are members of the pool and they were there, too, so the time flew by with all the chatter of happy friends. :-) A nice close to a nice day...

Well, I decided it's time to do our own blog. Seeing as how we'll start construction on our house soon, I might have some pretty interesting posts and pictures in the near future. We're doing a modular home over a full basement. I'll upload the picture of the proposed house soon.

Today Jacob was at a friend's house so the the girls and I took turns helping the little ones... Lucas and Emma. I had a phone call appointment with our Mother of Divine Grace consultant amid the busy-ness and then it was back to "school" day for Mary's dance class.

The other interesting thing was that we saw a news story this morning on a military reservist who has been distributing shoes to Iraqi children so I jumped on that as a new service project. Shoes, shoes, send me your shoes! Hopefully we can send several boxes of shoes for our Iraqi neighbors.