I just can't get enough!!
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
MAXWELL ROBERT BEHR
Kate and Randy had their baby!!! Max was born last Wednesday (Aug. 17th) at 4:15am. He weighed 7'15" and was 21" long. Kate was induced on Tuesday and was in labor all day, but he didn't want to come out. She was doing fine until about 3:30 when she started to get a fever, so they did an emergency C-section. My mom and brother were there and they got to hold him and he was doing just fine for the first two hours so Mom and Joe drove home. Max got some sort of infection though and he started turning blue so they put him in the Neo-natal ICU. For a while he was all hooked up to a ventilator, an IV, a feeding tude, a blood pressure cuff, and a pulse monitor and a bunch of other stuff too. He had to stay in his incubator for a few days on antibiotics to recouperate. I guess the incubator makes babies turn orange and Randy said that he looked like a cheeto for a while, but he is doing much better now. I saw him yesterday but I wasn't allowed to hold him, but I got to rub his head and he feels like a little peach! He should be coming home on Thursday or Friday hopefully and then I'm going to see him again. Sorry I don't have any good pictures yet, but he was looking a little scary for a while. He's cute now, but my camera isn't digital. I'll post one ASAP.
Part 2: Germany / World Youth Day
The central location for World Youth Day was Cologne, Germany (Koln in Deutsch). However, since there were so many people making the pilgrimage ("Pilgrims") our group along with about a thousand others stayed in a little town near there called Pulheim.
We thought that we would be sleeping on a gym floor and not showering for the next 6 days, but instead we got to stay with host families in their homes. I lived with a cute little German grandma lady named Freyja. She was so sweet and she even left packs of gummy bears on our pillows! So we ended up with soft beds and warm showers - yeah!!!
Remember how I said that we weren't allowed to drink at all? Well, that sort of went out the window when we got to Pulheim. The people there threw festivals for us every night at the Church hall with free beer and brats. One night the festival was out in a field and they even had a DJ playing music - a lot of which was American music and it was just like a festival back at home! (except there were people from all over the world there and the legal drinking age was 14!) It got a little out of hand that night, but it was alright. (Who gets drunk and grinds on a pilgrimage!!???) Whatever - stupid high schoolers!
Apart from that there was a lot of good stuff too. We had catechesis (the Catholic version of Sunday school) and mass and one day it was all done by an archbishop from Nigeria who was next in line to be the Pope! It was extra awesome too because someone asked him about justice and he replied that justice will come when rich countries stop selling guns to poor countries and poor countries can feed all their people. It was great - Perry would have loved it! He's not all that old either, so maybe he'll be Pope in a few years! Yeah!!
When Pope Benedict XVI came into town he rode down the Rhein on a cruise ship waving and blessing us. I had a great seat on the bank and it gave me chills. My picture is pathetic though, but I will include it only for your amusement (Hint - Papa is the white dot on the front of the boat against the tree in the background. lol)
We got to see the Cologne cathedral where the bodies of the 3 kings are kept. That was the theme of the trip "We come to worship him" - and at the end the theme verse was "and they returned home by another way". It was cool because I really feel that a lot of people (myself included) are going to live life differently because of this experience. (Another huge blessing)
The weekend festivities were at this field in the country called Marianfield. They built a "Pope Mountain" in the middle and there were just people for miles - literally. We were supposed to have sweet seats, but by the time we went to mass and then walked the 18 miles from Pulheim to the field our patch of grass was taken, so we sat in the back in a mud pit wrapped up in these aluminum foil emergency blankets - who knew Germany was so freakin' cold in August!! Everyone else spent the night there after the vigil service, but we headed back to Pulheim. Our train was scheduled to leave an hour and a half after the end of sunday mass and we heard that it would take approximately 12 hours to get out of the field when mass was over because of all the people there, so we played it safe and went to the city.
I actually ended up watching Sunday mass on a TV in Cologne while drinking beer in a pub at 10:30am. It was great. It was mostly in German, but we followed along in our books in English.
About those straw hats...they were just as ugly as I thought (maybe even uglier), but surprisingly enough everyone else LOVED them! Everyone wanted to take our picture or take their own picture wearing them and they wanted to trade us for them. (Trading a huge thing at WYD - you get a bunch of random stuff from other countries - we traded Pope pins). On Sunday we were finally allowed to trade our hats away. I gave mine to a lady in Mc. Donalds and she gave me beads from Tahiti. The best trade of all though was one girl in our group who gave hers to the pub owner who bought our first round of beer for the mass - for 8 of us!
It was such a wonderful trip with only a few exceptions. Our chaperoens treated us like fourth graders and held our passports, airline tickets, train tickets, and subways tickets at all times. Also, I can only take so much High School B.S., but it definitly increased my prayer life - if for no other reason than needing God to grant me patience, so overall it was great. Now I'm hooked on curry-ketchup and NUTELLA (Sorry for not appreciating it last time - I totally understand now!)
We thought that we would be sleeping on a gym floor and not showering for the next 6 days, but instead we got to stay with host families in their homes. I lived with a cute little German grandma lady named Freyja. She was so sweet and she even left packs of gummy bears on our pillows! So we ended up with soft beds and warm showers - yeah!!!
Remember how I said that we weren't allowed to drink at all? Well, that sort of went out the window when we got to Pulheim. The people there threw festivals for us every night at the Church hall with free beer and brats. One night the festival was out in a field and they even had a DJ playing music - a lot of which was American music and it was just like a festival back at home! (except there were people from all over the world there and the legal drinking age was 14!) It got a little out of hand that night, but it was alright. (Who gets drunk and grinds on a pilgrimage!!???) Whatever - stupid high schoolers!
Apart from that there was a lot of good stuff too. We had catechesis (the Catholic version of Sunday school) and mass and one day it was all done by an archbishop from Nigeria who was next in line to be the Pope! It was extra awesome too because someone asked him about justice and he replied that justice will come when rich countries stop selling guns to poor countries and poor countries can feed all their people. It was great - Perry would have loved it! He's not all that old either, so maybe he'll be Pope in a few years! Yeah!!
When Pope Benedict XVI came into town he rode down the Rhein on a cruise ship waving and blessing us. I had a great seat on the bank and it gave me chills. My picture is pathetic though, but I will include it only for your amusement (Hint - Papa is the white dot on the front of the boat against the tree in the background. lol)
We got to see the Cologne cathedral where the bodies of the 3 kings are kept. That was the theme of the trip "We come to worship him" - and at the end the theme verse was "and they returned home by another way". It was cool because I really feel that a lot of people (myself included) are going to live life differently because of this experience. (Another huge blessing)
The weekend festivities were at this field in the country called Marianfield. They built a "Pope Mountain" in the middle and there were just people for miles - literally. We were supposed to have sweet seats, but by the time we went to mass and then walked the 18 miles from Pulheim to the field our patch of grass was taken, so we sat in the back in a mud pit wrapped up in these aluminum foil emergency blankets - who knew Germany was so freakin' cold in August!! Everyone else spent the night there after the vigil service, but we headed back to Pulheim. Our train was scheduled to leave an hour and a half after the end of sunday mass and we heard that it would take approximately 12 hours to get out of the field when mass was over because of all the people there, so we played it safe and went to the city.
I actually ended up watching Sunday mass on a TV in Cologne while drinking beer in a pub at 10:30am. It was great. It was mostly in German, but we followed along in our books in English.
About those straw hats...they were just as ugly as I thought (maybe even uglier), but surprisingly enough everyone else LOVED them! Everyone wanted to take our picture or take their own picture wearing them and they wanted to trade us for them. (Trading a huge thing at WYD - you get a bunch of random stuff from other countries - we traded Pope pins). On Sunday we were finally allowed to trade our hats away. I gave mine to a lady in Mc. Donalds and she gave me beads from Tahiti. The best trade of all though was one girl in our group who gave hers to the pub owner who bought our first round of beer for the mass - for 8 of us!
It was such a wonderful trip with only a few exceptions. Our chaperoens treated us like fourth graders and held our passports, airline tickets, train tickets, and subways tickets at all times. Also, I can only take so much High School B.S., but it definitly increased my prayer life - if for no other reason than needing God to grant me patience, so overall it was great. Now I'm hooked on curry-ketchup and NUTELLA (Sorry for not appreciating it last time - I totally understand now!)
I'm home!! (Part 1:Rome)
It was wonderful!! The sightseeing in Roma and Vatican City, a train through the Alps, staying in Pulheim, Germany, the crowds from all over in Cologne, Mass with 1 million fellow Catholics, and THE POPE - who could ask for more??? It was awesome! I wish I could post ALL of my pictures, but that isn't exactly efficient, so you will all have to come visit me in St. Louis soon!
There is just so much to say! I'll split up all my writing into separate entries, but I'm sorry - they are going to be long anyway!
Part 1: Rome
OK, so we started in Roma (Rome in Italian). 97 people total from about 6 little towns - 16 of which were from Ft. Loramie. My friend Aaron from Ohio State was the only one in my class, but in Ft. Loramie we are pretty close with everyone, even though we haven't tlaked since graduation. It worked out REALLY well though. The group got along great and I haven't laughed that much all summer. (Blessing #1 of infinity)
We saw a ton of sweet churches which were each special in their own way, the Pantheon, the Colloseum and Trevi Fountain. The Vatican was gorgeous. I'm sure it was 100% sweeter because I'm Catholic, but it was just gorgeous. I got to stand in the place where all those people waited for the announcement of the new pope and I saw the little pipe where the smoke came out and the bedroom window where Pope John Paul II waved right before he died. I saw his grave too and Saint Peter's grave. They were beautiful. Then we walked all the way to the tippy top of the dome and got to see the whole city - I'm pretty proud of my picture from up there!
While in Rome we stayed at a church and slept on the floor in the basement. They made "showers" for us outside in the yard which were freezing cold, 7 of them in a row, all together with a semi-see-through curtain between us and the people sitting in the yard - so much for modesty!! We all took shifts between guys and girls and fought for night showers so it was dark and less weird. I had flashbacks of volleyball showers. It was hilarious though. We got to go to mass everyday (sometimes in English and sometimes Italian) and we prayed a lot too. It was really cool to talk about faith with people who have grown so much since you last saw them!!
They we took a train to Germany through Austria and the Alps. It was a 15 hour trip with three differents trains. The one we were on all night was a sleeper car though, so that was awesome.
There is just so much to say! I'll split up all my writing into separate entries, but I'm sorry - they are going to be long anyway!
Part 1: Rome
OK, so we started in Roma (Rome in Italian). 97 people total from about 6 little towns - 16 of which were from Ft. Loramie. My friend Aaron from Ohio State was the only one in my class, but in Ft. Loramie we are pretty close with everyone, even though we haven't tlaked since graduation. It worked out REALLY well though. The group got along great and I haven't laughed that much all summer. (Blessing #1 of infinity)
We saw a ton of sweet churches which were each special in their own way, the Pantheon, the Colloseum and Trevi Fountain. The Vatican was gorgeous. I'm sure it was 100% sweeter because I'm Catholic, but it was just gorgeous. I got to stand in the place where all those people waited for the announcement of the new pope and I saw the little pipe where the smoke came out and the bedroom window where Pope John Paul II waved right before he died. I saw his grave too and Saint Peter's grave. They were beautiful. Then we walked all the way to the tippy top of the dome and got to see the whole city - I'm pretty proud of my picture from up there!
While in Rome we stayed at a church and slept on the floor in the basement. They made "showers" for us outside in the yard which were freezing cold, 7 of them in a row, all together with a semi-see-through curtain between us and the people sitting in the yard - so much for modesty!! We all took shifts between guys and girls and fought for night showers so it was dark and less weird. I had flashbacks of volleyball showers. It was hilarious though. We got to go to mass everyday (sometimes in English and sometimes Italian) and we prayed a lot too. It was really cool to talk about faith with people who have grown so much since you last saw them!!
They we took a train to Germany through Austria and the Alps. It was a 15 hour trip with three differents trains. The one we were on all night was a sleeper car though, so that was awesome.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Germany or bust!
Tomorrow I'm leaving for Europe! I'm flying from Detroit directly to Rome. We get to stay there and sightsee for a few days, check out Vatican City, and then we are headed for Germany. I really don't know the details, but I will attach a link if you are interested. All I know is there will be about 1,000,000 people there - including THE POPE! There are 97 people from my area going and the leadership has decided that we will all wear straw hats with the american flag on them so we won't lose anyone. Great idea! (Someone should tell them it's not "cool" to be from America.) We also aren't allowed to drink at all (not that I need it or anything, but who can resist a pint of Strongbow at the pub?) I'm really looking forward to the trip though.
My sister is having her baby on August 16th. I'll miss it! But I'll post pictures when I get back.
Last week was pretty exciting. I went to MI and cooked dinner for Brad. He kicked my butt in Putt-Putt and then we saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We both agreed that it was the best break-up date EVER! lol I also saw Alan last week. It was weird. I probably won't ever see him again. He's actually dating someone else now (Sarah, a girl from Oxford/Iowa).
ANYWAY...I'll miss you all! I'll be home in two weeks!
My sister is having her baby on August 16th. I'll miss it! But I'll post pictures when I get back.
Last week was pretty exciting. I went to MI and cooked dinner for Brad. He kicked my butt in Putt-Putt and then we saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We both agreed that it was the best break-up date EVER! lol I also saw Alan last week. It was weird. I probably won't ever see him again. He's actually dating someone else now (Sarah, a girl from Oxford/Iowa).
ANYWAY...I'll miss you all! I'll be home in two weeks!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)