A very very happy birthday to my Grandma, who is doing much better and is still with us, thanks be to God.

And a very merry unbirthday to ME! Please take my quiz.

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Happy birthday to Noelle, our sweet goddaughter and niece. So sorry it’s two days late! We didn’t forget. We can’t wait to see you and give you lots of hugs & kisses!

Rachael C. asked me these questions.

1. Can you sing? If so, what kind of voice do you have (e.g., soprano) and have you ever performed before an audience, either in a group or solo? I can carry a tune, but I don’t consider myself a great singer by any means. I’m a mezzo-soprano. I can sing most alto parts and most soprano parts pretty well. I’ve sung in choirs and once sang a duet with Rick at church. That’s all that I can remember doing.

2. If you were given a magic wand that could cause you to have twins instead of a single baby for your next pregnancy, would you use it? I don’t think so. As much as I love the idea of having twins, there’s another side of me that freaks out at the idea of all that work, not to mention the labor & delivery. Of course, I’d completely welcome twins if that was God’s will, but I don’t think I’d choose twins if the decision was mine to make.

3. If you were to have twins someday, would you want their names to be totally different from each other or would you prefer to choose names that sound alike, have complementary meanings, or otherwise match in some way? I’d like them to have uniquely different names from each other, I think. I wouldn’t want to be all matchy-matchy with them, except when it came to clothing, and even then, I’d try not to put them in matching outfits ALL the time.

4. Have you had many good friends in your life, or are they more rare for you? Do you often feel a lack in this area in one way or another? I have had only a few close friends in my lifetime. I have a difficult time being close to someone, not because I’m guarded or anything, but probably because I’m somewhat shy and don’t want to push a friendship on someone else. I always feel like I’m being invasive if I pursue a friendship. I guess that comes from my own insecurities about what people think of me. If I know for certain that someone really wants to be my friend, I’ll open up quite easily to them. I’m not sure how satisfactorily I answered that question…I could go on and on on that subject!

5. If you could be a prolific author, would you want to be best known for novels or for non-fiction and why? That’s a tough question. I’m not sure which I’d rather be known for. Novels, I guess. I’d like to entertain readers with a good story.

If you want me to ask you five questions, comment below.

I’ve been meaning to post these. We had a beautiful Ash Wednesday with temperatures in the upper 70’s. We took full advantage of it by taking a trip to the park after our church service.

Here is Kyrie walking into church:

In the nursery with Papa (she rarely goes there, but she was extremely wiggly so Rick let me stay and listen to the sermon while he watched Kyrie):

Playing at the park:

“For the sheep that is not marked is an easy prey for wolves, not having the help of the sphragis and not being recognized like the others by the Good Shepherd, since it does not know the Shepherd of the Universe.” —Didymus the Blind, on baptism and the sphragis.

Again, a quick update. We met with my oncologist today for my weekly checkup. He had the results of the MRI report done last Friday. It shows that there has been no change in the cancer in the pancreas or the spot on the liver since the CT scan done 12/4/’06. That was ten weeks ago. This is good news! The cancer is dormant at this point but we don’t know how long this might last. Given my prognosis six months ago, this is an answer to prayer!

Please join with us and pray that the cancer be disintegrated completely and that full health and strength will be restored to my body. There is no medical procedure or chemotherapy that can be done at this point which would lengthen my time as compared to the very toxic side effects which can be lasting. Quality of life is my goal at this point. The doctor gives me two more months but he was wrong before.

Thanks for all the fervent, continued prayers for me which I believe have added length of life and improved the quality of my current life and ministry.

We continue to live in the two “realities” simultaneously, thanking God for the healing He brings each day and praying for healing tomorrow. We continue to be surprised and overcome by the faithfulness of God communicated to us daily in scripture, prayer, song, the Eucharist and tears intimacy.

Love to you all,

Bob and Joanne

Here is Kyrie looking through her scrapbook that I’ve been making for her.

Here she is crying because I took it away.

Here she is being cute, sitting on a chair.

Here she is trying on shoes that are 4 sizes too big for her and wearing my boy shorts (scandalous).

Here she is being her beautiful self.

A few years ago Robert Rector and Kirk Johnson of the Heritage Foundation did an analysis of the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth and found that for women 30 or older those who were monogamous (only one sexual partner in a lifetime) were by far most likely to be still in a stable relationship (80 percent). Sleeping with just one extra partner dropped that probability to 54 percent. Two extra partners brought it down to 44 percent. Who would have thought that the price of sleeping with even one partner would lead to divorce for almost half of those who had only one extra tryst?

Being girly:

Being snuggly:

Showing off her new sunglasses and flip flops (got ‘em at The Children’s Place today):