The schedule at the restaurant that I work at is made every week on Saturday for the next week.

I was at Rosie's wedding this Saturday (and had an amazing time!!!).

Today I called the restaurant to see when I work this week.  My boss, Tony, said, "Hey Danielle, uh... we closed the restaurant."  Then he put his wife on the phone, and I talked to her for a while.  She thanked me for working, said I did a great job this summer and said she was sorry they wouldn't be open when I came back for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.  I knew that they were having trouble with money, but I didn't know it was bad as it was.  Saturday was the last day.  When I was talking to Shelly, it sounded like she was about to cry.  My heart ached for her, and I told her that I had been praying for them, and had asked my friends to as well.   She thanked me, and said something like, "I guess it was just time."

I'm glad I was at Rosie's wedding, but I wish I would have been able to say goodbye to the people that I worked with.  They are such great people, we all worked together, and I just *loved* working there.  I was hoping to work there for a long time, perhaps even when I start teaching.  I learned a lot about serving, about foods... and about alcohol.  I still think beer is gross (Miller Chill isn't bad though), and I started learning about different types of wines.  That was cool.  I also improved my spanish, because most of the chefs and all the bus boys that worked there spoke spanish as their first language, so we'd teach each other :)  

I thank God for this experience while it lasted.  I am reallllllllllllly going to miss it though.

Please pray for my boss Tony and his wife Shelly, and all the employees that worked there.  Thanks guys.

I joined facebook today...

Today was cold, so I closed the pool where I work and went home.  and still got paid for being there :) YAY!

Actually, I went to deposit money in the bank, then realized it was Customer Appreciation day-- free food!  OH NO! About 4 people in front of me, they ran out of food.  BOO! I was upset.  So I went inside to make my deposit.  The teller told me I could open a new account that did the same as my old one, but had higher interest.  No fee to start.  YAY!  I opened it.  She reminded me that there was a raffle for a $500 gas card.  Ohh, back to the tent outside!   I registered for that, and I spun the prize wheel.  I could win a water bottle, a magnet... other goodies.... or one spot said a $25 gas card.  I spun... and got the gas card! (25 not 500, but hey.) YAY!

Then, I stopped in at a garage sale at a local church.  Found some 10 cent wine glasses to bring to school (Christine- I won't have to drink wine from a orange plastic cup anymore!!)  a few glass potpourri things (I recently made potpourri from all those rose petals I had.  Ya... some of you know what I'm talking about... Those dead roses I took from St. John's Chapel!) and some little baskets to make dried floral designs in.  YAY!

I ate, relaxed a little, then showered and *ugh* put on makeup and went to work at the restaurant.  A few people commented "Oh you look really nice today!"  I wore my contacts, had makeup, and put my hair in a bun.   It's usually little to no makeup, ponytail, glasses.  I felt pretty.  YAY!

One of my friends at work gave me a book of short daily meditations.  I had mentioned to him the other day about saying a prayer *RIGHT* before I almost got into an accident.  I read one of the pages when I wasn't too busy-- it said something about how are hope is in God.  I think I've been needing a spiritual boost.  Maybe I'll start reading this to help focus my daily work on God.  YAY GOD!

It was a *slow* day for dinner tonight-- ESPECIALLY for a SATURDAY!  Oh my gosh.  I still did pretty well with tips though.  And cash ones too.  (credit ones get taxed...)  And I keep finding myself singing/dancing a little to the music playing.  ("over my head. 8 seconds left in overtime..."  "My girl... talking bout my girl"  "chicago! Chicago!" etc.) YAY!

On my way home, I was singing along with the Christian station, and I missed my turn for my street.  It made me smile. YAY GOD!

All around excellent day.  

Thanks Lord
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ok so i haven't posted in about a bazillion days.  Meh.  It was a busy semester.

So it's weird being home...  My dad and mom and sister are gone for most of the day, and my brother sleeps until sometime in the afternoon usually, so I'm the only on around the house during the day.  I have been doing a lot of cleaning and helping my mom out with things.  On Monday, I made fudge, which she gave as gifts to her coworkers.  Tuesday I slept kinda late, but then cleaning the house some.  Wednesday I worked on a sewing project for my mom, (she gives "writing bags" to her kindergarten students) and cleaned some more.  Today I ran errands and picked up a few Christmas presents.  I feel like a mom.

The strange thing is, I don't mind it.  I actually kinda enjoy it.

I know that doesn't really mean anything, because both sisters (as in the religious type) and wives/mothers are servants and have to act as servants.  I keep thinking about how it would be if I got married and had kids though.

Quoting our mother, "Let it be done unto me, according to thy word."

...or as Christopher West might put it, we live in the "already but not yet."

THE ALREADY
Yet another reasons why I love living in the AD, years of our Lord: communion of saints!

I love St. Therese.  I know that she TOTALLY interceded for me when I was fiddling around with trying to add another class to my schedule about 2 weeks before classes started... and I got into FLORAL DESIGN!!!  dude, woah.  There was only one spot left, and it just so happened to be at the time I was looking at it... I'm pretty sure she was sending down some FLOWER POWER from heaven :)  And then I went to go get books w/ my friend Katelyn before classes, and found out that SHE is in it too!!  I was amazed, and very glad, because I didn't get to see her as much as I wanted to last year.  YAY THERESE!

Today was the first day of Floral design, and I made a corsage.  I think I'll wear it tomorrow.  Its pretty :)


THE NOT YET
Reasons why I'm really looking forward to heaven:

1) Jesus is going to be there!

2) I forgot all the physics I learned in E&M 212, and its making 435 homework rather difficult, even though I know it should be easy.

3) On earth, love can hurt.

4) In heaven, I won't have to continuously remind myself to trust God, because I'll be in perfect communion with Him.

Yesterday when I was cleaning the pool before it opened, I found a baby bird on the pool deck.  It was alive, but it was in the middle of the sidewalk and I didn't want little kids to pick on it later.  So, I decided to put it in to the bush.  After taking a picture of it with my cell phone, I went to pick it up.  It tried to fly, which surprised me.  It only got about a foot or so away, and I tried a few more times before I got ahold of it, still squirming in my hands as I placed it into safety.  It kinda reminded me of how God tries to reach out to hold us, to surround us, and we just want to get away... We don't realize He wants to bring us to a safe place.

Then, when I was vacuuming the deep end, I heard a bunch of little chirps.  I wondered if this was the nest it had fallen from, even though it seemed a bit far away.  I peeked into the bush, and saw two baby birds that hardly even had any feathers, much younger than the other one.  Today I went back and took a picture of them, and it took a while, so mommy bird wasn't happy when she came back...  Ok, ok, I'm leaving...

I set my wallpaper as a picture of the two baby birds instinctively reaching for food (which I didn't have... but I made them stars!)  Then I set the banner to say "LIFEisBEAUTIFUL"  (That's the only way it would fit)

*~*~*~*

Bible study is going great!  I talked about the Incarnation this week, and there were about 10 teens!  yay!  It was also a very lively discussion.  They ask some challenging questions, and some of them are really questioning their faith, so it can be difficult at times to explain things.

I thought about using James Blunt's "you're beautiful" to help explain the idea of purity when looking at someone.  A few of the teens said it was "impossible" to look at an attractive guy/girl without lusting after them... that Jesus' standards (whoever looks at a woman with lust...) are against human nature (to which I responded with Christopher West's line "don't empty the cross of its power!")  Anyhow, I was listening to the song online and was like, "ahh this is perfect!" then I looked up the lyrics cuz there were a few I couldn't catch... and I found out that in the unedited version, the words "flying high" are replaced with "f-ing high."  SADNESS!  I loved that song, and that ONE word totally changes the meaning, and will NOT be such a great idea to use for purity of heart... even though he says at the beginning of the song "my love is pure."  Uhhh, if you were loving to your own body you wouldn't be using drugs...?!?!

I love JPII.  Theology of the Body is changing how I look at things... I see it in everything.  Its awesome.