Category Archives: Paroxysm of Giggles

Wednesday Musing

November 7, 2012Jennspeak, Paroxysm of GigglesCadyLy

God’s most precious gift He could give us is the gift of His only Son, right?

I get that parents usually love their children more than themselves and therefore the gift of an only child would be a greater gift than if you sacrificed yourself for another person.

But on the other hand, it can seem a bit … external.

Good thing for us there is no dichotomy here. Because Jesus *is* God. As the Word of God, He is the incarnate reality of God the Father’s perfect self-image. So, in a way, you can think of it as God — in giving His only Son — is giving everything that He is, holding nothing back. A complete gift of self. To us.

He’s giving us all that He is and all that He holds dear. There is nothing else that could be given above this. And He lays it all before us, and waits to see what our response will be.

I’d Forgotten How Much I Hate This

November 5, 2012Paroxysm of GigglesCadyLy

I have been spoiled rotten.

I haven’t had a “regular” illness in over 4 years. For serious. No cold or flu or anything like that. This started in fall of 2008, when my godmother was in the last months of her battle with lung cancer. I begged God to keep me healthy and non-contagious, so that I’d be able to be with her as much as I can. I guess prayer really works!

On Tuesday after I taught catechism, my voice was a little scratchy. I chalked it up to “yelling” at the kids to keep the volume down. However, by Wednesday morning, it was clear that I was getting a case of laryngitis — and it HURT! Add to this the fact that I work in a call center currently and have to talk on the phone all day. Ouch! I went up to my boss, so she could see how bad I was getting, but she had no sympathy at all and just shrugged and said that she got that all the time. She’s one of those who looks at you like “Seriously?” if you try to say you’re sick, and I’m one of those who will continue working until someone sends me home, so I suffered through the workday.

Thursday, I was feeling worse. My throat was very painful and I was squeaking like crazy. By 3 pm, I had had enough. The patients calling in couldn’t understand me and I was sure that they were deathly afraid of catching my germs over the telephone lines. I asked a coworker to call my PCP’s office to see if I could be seen. They had an appointment in 20 minutes, across town — across downtown Ann Arbor. I asked my boss if I could leave and got permission to go. I called the doctor’s office on the way to my car and took that 3:20 spot. I could be up to 20 minutes late. I got there at 3:30 pm.

When I saw my PCP, I only had symptoms of laryngitis, although my left ear was starting to close up — always a sign of worse impending sickness. But I truly didn’t feel bad otherwise. My doctor wrote me a note to allow me to be off work on Friday, since resting my voice would help me to get it back faster.

Over the weekend, I got a lot sicker. It became a full-on cold and a pretty nasty one at that. I don’t really recall the weekend that much, except that I spent most of it in bed and didn’t make it to Mass on Sunday. You might be thinking that a cold, while uncomfortable isn’t really a big deal, and this is normally true. However, because of my other health issues, it causes problems. My doctors have told me before that I’m not allowed to get sick again, and here I am, doing what I shouldn’t! Typical. 🙂 So while I normally get short of breath, this was exacerbated and I could only take small “sips” of air at a time. This also caused me to get tachycardic quite a bit.

Since my doctor’s note only covered for Friday, I went back to work on Monday. And Tuesday. And since my boss was out the rest of the week, I felt obligated to come in. And I was miserable and resentful the whole time. Each day, I could manage for a few hours, but the last 6 hours were pure torture. I got a runny nose and used so many of our cheap Kleenex that my nose became chapped and raw. Once that subsided, I developed horrible coughing. I thought I was going to rupture something and my throat again became very swollen and painful, until I didn’t want to eat or drink anything.

I was doing a pretty bad job of eating and drinking in general, although I tried. My house was getting dirtier and all of my dishes were in the sink and I was so upset that I didn’t have help. When you are sick, you realize some things about your character. Turns out, when I’m sick I get whiny (thankfully, usually only in my head) and cranky (again, usually I can keep my comments to myself) and want attention.

[Here I am, finally editing this post to publish, and I am sick again! Ugh! This sucks! But hopefully I won’t get as sick as I did here in November (it’s April 2013 now). I ended up in the ER for dehydration – is how this tale ends. I know that eventually I will get better, just as I eventually recovered from this, but the living through it is difficult. Working while sick is pretty miserable too! My sympathies and prayers to all those out there who are also sick.]

Links and Things to Check Out

October 17, 2012Paroxysm of Giggles, Things for Follow UpCadyLy

I have a to-do list which is 2 years long. Meaning that I have things on there that I was supposed to have “done” 2 years ago. LOL! That sounds about right!

So, instead of keeping them in there to rot, I figure that some of them — especially links to websites that I want to check out or reference or just have on hand — I will instead post here. That way, I won’t lose track of them, you guys can check out what could be neat sites or information, and perhaps write me back with your impressions. 🙂 Win-win-win!

Some of them, I haven’t taken a look at in a while, so hopefully I’ll remember why I stuck them on my to-do list….

1. Exploring YouCat: This is a course guiding you through the new catechism for Catholic youth.

2. National Catholic Bioethics Center: always a favorite! Someday, perhaps, I might be working here. 🙂

3. The Sacred Page: “Blogging and Podcasting about Catholic Biblical Theology”

4. Sojourners: Faith in Action for Social Justice (I don’t remember how I got tweaked onto this site, so I’ll put a note of caution here. I’m not sure what their leanings are, or if they are orthodox Catholic, etc.)

5. Supreme Court ObamaCare Oral Arguments: Information & Resources

6. Fr. John Riccardo: One of our parishioners put together this resource list for Fr. John, listing his many recordings in both chronological and topical organization.

7. Communion processions offers opportunity to teach reverence: This is an article written by Archbishop Charles Chaput. The link is just to this one article, but I would also take a look around the site for more of his writings. He is well worth the read.

8. Blessings for Non-Communicants: This is an article from Zenit.

9. Bishop Flores’ Blog: He was an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Detroit, but now is in Brownsville, TX. He’s awesome. I would definitely recommend that you check out his blog. 🙂

10. 5 Ways to Get Review Copies of Books: ‘Nuff said. 🙂

11. Saint Basil’s Keys to Spiritual Growth: A 12 Step Plan for Everyone

12. World Priest Day: Annual Global Rosary Relay for Priests. They have some good information on this site. Our priests can always use our prayers! The next day is June 7, 2013.

13. Manilla: Free Online Account and Bill Organizer

14. American Bioethics Advisory Commission: This site gives links to many different articles on the topic of personhood.

15. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex: I must have gotten a question from someone regarding this to look up this article. I haven’t read it yet and don’t know how credible the author is. Forgive me for being slow in responding, Whoever Asked This Question of Me….

16. Hitchcock Family Genealogy: I *still* have a TON of people to add to my family tree. Send me information if you have any. 🙂 I’m pretty sure at this point that the majority of the population of the U.S. is related to me in some way….

17. Blog post on Thomas Marshall: He’s in the family tree… somwhere….

18. Sermon 185: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Ways of Prayer

19. Video clip: How do we know we are encountering God?

20. The Name of Jonah: I found this website when doing homework for my Bible study. It had a lot of stuff on Jonah, so I decided to bookmark it for future reference. 🙂

And…. That should keep you busy for a little while, at least! 🙂

Fun at the Zoo Boo!

October 14, 2012Holidays, Paroxysm of Giggles, PhotographyCadyLy

Sorry, everyone…. I’ve been quite sick lately, so EVERYTHING has fallen off my plate. Pretty sure I dropped the plate, too. I’ll try and catch up, if I ever get better. 🙂

Krystin invited me to the Zoo Boo with her family. It was so cute to see Evie as a bee, especially when she would tell us that a bee says, “Buzz!” Dad Jerad was quite the trooper, carrying his little girl most of the way. It’s always awesome to be around parents as excited and involved as Krystin and Jerad. 🙂

It was raining on the way over, but by the time we parked, the rain had stopped and we could see some blue sky peeking in:

The Detroit Zoo had set up a short walking course dotted with candy stations manned by Zoo personnel in various Halloween costumes. Along the way, we got to look at tons of carved pumpkins and other visual delights.

Look at the cute Kutler family! Ready to get CANDY! 🙂

Evie-Bee getting ready to get candy at the first stop:

She looks a little unsure, but Daddy’s right there to keep her safe!

Then, she took off running!

We found a maze made of hay bales and chased Mommy through that.

On the way to MORE CANDY, Mommy and Daddy helped their little bee fly!

Treat Station #2

Oh, Look! Another bee!

And a Snowman Pumpkin!

They didn’t seem to be as interested in looking at all of the pumpkin sculptures on the side of the walkway — at least not as much as I was. 🙂 These things were CUTE!!!

Okay, this one was kind of freaky…

Cheezing for the picture:

A family stroll:

The Toy Story characters were there…

Getting a family picture…

The Reptile House was set up like a Haunted House of sorts. Really, they need to get creepier?!?

Now, it was starting to get dark, but we were still able to take a look at the camels and deer.

See how Daddy picks his Evie-Bee up?! 🙂

Mommy and Daddy leading Evie to the next candy station:

Glow sticks — sold for a King’s ransom. Needless to say, we didn’t buy any.

Aww! Polar Bear Pumpkins!

I like this picture:

They needed to have this drink station more in the middle of the walk, not the end….

Zebra and Giraffe and Elephant Pumpkins!

Yay! This was a fun Zoo Boo!

The penguins watched us leave….

Goodnight, Zoo!

7 Quick Takes: Gangnam Style!

October 12, 20127 Quick Takes Friday, Paroxysm of GigglesCadyLy

— 1 —

I have jumped on the Gangnam Style bandwagon! I’m not exactly sure what it is about the song that I like. Certainly the upbeat music is a major part of it. Perhaps I like the fact that I can basically sing gibberish and pretend that I know how to sing in Korean. No one is going to know the difference anyway, right? 🙂 I think, too, the part of me which is not yet conformed to Christ likes the fact that Oppa Gangnam Style, when sung, sounds like Open Condom Style, so I can get away with being a little rebellious without actually doing anything “wrong.” 🙂 That’s living on the edge, right there. Sometimes it’s hard to contain my bada&& self. LOL! So, when you pass me entering or exiting the church parking lot and I seem to be dancing in my seat flashing gang signs, I’m just driving/worshipping/shopping/etc. Gangnam Style! Join me, and we can start a flash mob. A Gangnam Style flash mob after Mass. 🙂 We need a priest in vestments to lead this…

— 2 —

I don’t trust my priest. Especially lately, when I ask him how he’s doing and he says, “Good.” See, I know that answer. That and “Fine,” are ones that I own. Neither one of them mean what they seem to mean superficially. What it really means is either, “Not great, but I don’t want to go into it,” or “Nothing’s changed,” or “Crappy, but not worth complaining about,” or something like this. Sometimes, he’ll call me on it and ask, “Really?”, so I decided to return the favor and asked him, “Good – enh? Good – great? or??” He replied, “Tired. Like you.” Which is a very dangerous statement, indeed! “Like me” can mean anything from slight discomfort to pits of Hell suffering. I hope he didn’t actually mean ‘like me.’ I think we will have to find new words. One which I’ve become increasingly enamoured of is “craptastic.” I think that sums things up nicely. 🙂

— 3 —

Firestarters’ Bonfire is tonight! And after the week I’ve had, I’m really looking forward to some S’mores!

— 4 —

Last night sucked! Just thought I’d share that. I was all set to go to Bible Study. I had finished my questions for the week and everything. But everything conspired against me. First, for whatever reason, traffic was horrible. Apparently there was an accident on the highway which had everything stopped up for miles. By the time I got up to the crash site, I didn’t see anything, so I can’t verify that there was actually a reason for the delay, although my GPS promised me that it was due to a crash. As I’m writing this, I realize that I forgot to pray for the people involved in the accident. I usually try to. But by this time, I was not feeling well at all and wasn’t so much sitting in the driver’s seat, but slouching with one elbow on the window ledge trying to hold my brain inside my skull. I was pretty sure from the headache that it was trying to swell and escape, and I had at least an hour’s drive ahead of me. By time I got off the exit for my house, I just wanted to sleep. I knew that I should eat something, but didn’t want to cook and didn’t have an appetite for any of the 1 billion fast food options in the mile radius of my house. I ended up picking one, and then tried to eat it while laying prone on the couch, with some Bewitched reruns playing on the TV for company. I had to cut both activities short and jump into bed. Blessedly, I was able to fall asleep. Being unconscious was so much better than being awake.

— 5 —

I’m dismayed to look at the clock and realize that I have 2.5 more hours at work. Why? Because I feel horrible again and don’t think I can make it another few hours, plus be able to drive home. 😦 Does anyone want to take me in for the night?

— 6 —

I am too sick and tired to finish my 7 quick takes with meaningful, exciting words. So, I will fill it with pictures instead.

— 7 —

Yep!

That about sums it up! 🙂

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary!

Hungry?

October 11, 2012Food, Paroxysm of GigglesCadyLy

We had pre-planned to order lunch today, and sent Tracy out to pick up our Applebee’s order. I know, you’re used to having this blog be full of my exciting adventures. But sometimes, eating is as exciting as it gets! 🙂

I had the Berry Spinach Salad:

which was *delicious*! Raspberry vinigrette was super-yum. The only thing I would have changed would be to sub the bleu cheese for feta.

I also had the Classic Clubhouse Grille sandwich:

It was okay, but I’ve had better sandwiches.

So, what did you have for lunch today? 🙂

Stunning Sunrise

October 5, 2012Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Paroxysm of Giggles, PhotographyCadyLy

This morning, I’m struggling to compensate for how much pain I’m in, so I have cute clothes on, hair arranged, make-up on, got an iced chai at Starbucks and blasted happy music all the way in to work. God apparently went along with this plan, because He gave me an amazing sunrise to watch. I mean, just LOOK at these colors!

The photo is grainy and stuff, but when you are merging from one highway to another and working with a point-n-shoot…. 🙂

Here’s another “lovely” shot…

And here’s an “action shot,” taken over my shoulder out the window. 🙂

Finally, I pulled into the parking lot of a nearby hotel and walked as close as I could to the highway to get a clear shot.

I’ll give you some more shots, so you can enjoy it, too. This is straight out of the camera — no edits.

This is also straight out of the camera, but I started playing with some of the color settings. 🙂

Hope you have a blessed day!

Somerset Shopping Trip

September 29, 2012Paroxysm of Giggles, Shoppingair freshener, balsam, Bath & Body Works, Chrism, hand sanitizer, hat, Janie and Jack, lingerie, Papyrus, soap, stationeryCadyLy

My future husband is certainly in trouble! Because I spent the day shopping at Somerset, the area’s more upscale “mall,” and found that … I like this shopping thing! 🙂 Truly. I don’t mind crowds. I like browsing. And at the end of the day, I feel relaxed. The only thing that saves me (or him, LOL!) is that I don’t feel compelled to buy everything that strikes my fancy.

That said, I was able to pick up some things during my time there. 🙂

First, take a look at my surroundings:

Pretty, isn’t it? 🙂 I want a big pool like that in my back yard. Except deeper. 🙂 And palm trees in my living room. LOL! I don’t think I’ll ever get that request granted, but I’d like to put it out there.

This is what I came back with at the end of the day:

The bags aren’t too big. Not too much damage to the pocketbook… 🙂

My first stop was one of my favorite stores, Papyrus. They have really cute stationery there, as well as cute supplies for wrapping presents. While looking around, I found these little label sticker in a French theme. Too cute!

The package states that there’s 80 labels inside, but there’s actually a lot more than that!

Next, I picked up some things to *finally* wrap my brother’s birthday present. I have been waiting to wrap it up for a long time. They had this sparkly black tissue paper, and due to the present itself, I picked out some Halloween-themed ribbon:

They also had these cute little notecards in a box with a St. Augustine quote on them:

And this super-cute box of cards with shiny sea animals on the covers!

Next stop: Bath & Body Works!

I didn’t find what I came here for, but picked up a couple fun things for Lindsay and me! We are always looking for ways to smell the delicious Holy Chrism. Since we can’t get *actual* Chrism, I’m always on the lookout for balsam-scented items. What do you know? Bath & Body Works have a balsam scented air freshener! I picked up some for each of us and the little clips for the car. Hers is the squirrel; mine is the boring white one.

Next, is some Halloween-themed hand sanitizer for me and my ghoulfriend! LOL!

For me, I picked up some lip gloss and a minty bar of soap:

I won’t put up the pictures (although, if you really want, they are on my Flickr), but I did a bit of shopping at Vicky’s, too… 😉

Finally, I popped into Janie and Jack and picked up this cute hat for Matthias, the little boy of my friends James and Shauna.

Isn’t it adorable?! 🙂

Apparently, I’m One of Those Annoying People

September 27, 2012Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Paroxysm of GigglesBlues Traveler, dancing, morning people, music, Run AroundCadyLy

Because all “morning people” are annoying, right? 🙂 I can’t help it. I wake up happy. Sometimes giggling. Sometimes I jump out of bed. It doesn’t typically take me long to get going in the morning. While I like coffee, I don’t need it to function like a human. Etc, etc.

Consequently, I tend to be loud and boisterous in the morning. So, it’s a blessing that I live alone. That way I don’t bother other people. Take this morning for example.

I woke up about 5 am and decided that I wanted to listen to some music. While showering. Which meant that I had to blast the music on the stereo in the living room, so that I’d be able to hear it in the shower. You can’t do this if you live in a condo or apartment. At least if you don’t want to be killed in a slow and torturous manner. 🙂

This is the song that I was blasting, a throwback to my Navy days:

It played once through the shower, once for dressing, and then as a final measure, I played it a third time while dancing around the living room brushing my teeth. Because I do that. 🙂

I don’t think my stereo noise goes too much beyond the confines of my house, but I left the doors open to my car with the radio on (loud — I like to feel my music) while wiping the condensation off the windows, and thought that it might be disturbing to my neighbor, Dominic. Fortunately for me, Dominic was getting into his truck to go to work, so I wasn’t waking him up. 🙂 Plus, it’s cool enough outside lately that it’s not likely that he would have his bedroom window open, which is right next to my driveway.

Calm, peaceful, lazy, relaxing, grumpy… These are not adjectives for me! 🙂

So, yeah, I’m one of those annoying morning people! And happy for it! 🙂

Songbird Cafe

September 27, 2012Food, Paroxysm of GigglesCadyLy

Yesterday for lunch, I tried a new place in town. To be honest, I entered the shopping plaza for the Baskin-Robbins. 🙂 But right next door was a place called Songbird Cafe, so I wandered in. (More information about them in the linked article.)

They have quite the unique menu. There’s coffee drinks that I’ve never heard of, as well as interesting sandwiches. I tried their Brown Sugar and Spice Latte, which was very good and not at all overly sweet, as I had expected. It was in fact more “spice” than “brown sugar” and that was a good thing.

I was looking for a more traditional sandwich — just your basic turkey and cheese. Luckily for me, they were willing to change things around. I ordered their Ham & Gouda and subbed the turkey for the ham.

As I came in to work this morning, I arrived in Ann Arbor early and was thinking of the best place to grab a coffee. I love Starbucks, but unfortunately there is not a convenient Starbucks on the north side of town. (Well, there’s one in Kroger’s, but that’s not *really* a Starbucks and it’s not really convenient to dash in and out.) Espresso Royal used to be my coffee place of choice many years ago, but that was more because I liked the baristas there — the coffee really wasn’t that good. Sweetwater’s is okay, but they are overpriced — and this is coming from a regular patron of Starbucks! Biggby is a little out of the way, and I like them, but their drinks tend to be rather sweet and I wasn’t sure I was in the mood for that. Still indecisive, I was heading toward Biggby when I suddenly pulled in the plaza for Songbird Cafe. Even though their “large” is only 16 oz — a medium anywhere else — I’d give them another try. Yesterday’s latte was good and I kind of wanted to try all the different flavors they had.

This morning, I picked up a nutella mocha. I’ve tried nutella in the past and have been rather unimpressed with it, but let me tell you, in the mocha it’s great!