Lamb Thoughts 2

August 25, 2004

2004-08-25T05:10:00.000-04:00

I just thought I would make a post here since I havn't posted anything in over a month now.

Things have been going ok for my husband and I. The checkup that I mentioned before was fine, the doctor was just curious about why my medicine levels were going all over the place for a while... they seem to be more stable now though. I visited my Mom around the second week of August, got to spend time with my cat, Autumn too while I was there for my two days off.

Mom and I spent most of our time going different places during the day and then at night we'd go back to the house and just relax. I decided while I was there to try and help her out around the house alil too... all I really got accomplished though with her was just the laundry and cleaning up the mess that Autumn made in her bedroom. We went out for lunch at Pasta Too but we ended up taking most of it home with us because they give really big portions of food there... it was nice to have some leftovers later that night though that I could heat up. :)

I had my evaluation done this month too and I'll be getting a slight raise in my pay starting next pay period. I can't think of much else to post right now... don't be afraid to make any comments on my blog and let me know what you think about various things and if you'd like me to post something else as well.

Whats new?

2004-07-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

Just thought I would make a blog post saying that we just got a new computer yesterday at Wal*Mart for a pretty cheap price and that means that we're now able to go online with the free 3 month internet access that was with this computer and that also means I'll hopefully be able to post on here more often without having to worry about others in the Library wanting to get on and stuff :)

This afternoon I'll be going for a Doctor's appointment... just a normal cardiologist checkup to see how things are with me and stuff like that.

I do need to get to sleep now though so I won't be so tired tonight for work, I'll be posting more tonight or tomorrow sometime. :)

New for July finally! :)

2004-07-22T10:06:00.000-04:00

"What did you think of the "Lives of the Three Hierarchs"? Which did you find the most edifying? Did anything suprise you?"
I thought this book went into a lot of detail about the lives of the three Great Hierarchs of our Church. I'm still finishing up the life of St. John Chrysostom, but so far though I would say that what surprised me the most was the fact that Sts. Basil and Gregory went to school together and that they were both Bishops at pretty much the same time... St Gregory over a small area that no one really wanted and St Basil over Caesarea in Cappadocia. I also find the miracles performed by these Saints to be very surprising, like for example how St Basil used his foreknowledge of when he was going to die, in a way to convert a physician to the Orthodox faith, by basically wagering with him that if he were to live past the time the physician said he would that he and his family would be baptised into the Orthodox faith. They are surprising in a good way to me because they show how true it is that with God, all is possible, as long as it is God's will for it to happen. All things happen for a reason too.

"I hope that you'll enjoy the "Lord Peter Wimsey" books. I've known them for a long time. "The Nine Tailors" and "Murder Must Advertise" and "The Unpleasentness at the Bellona Club" and "Strong Poison" are some of them. There is a rough order to them as in the earlier ones Lord Peter is still somewhat reacting to illness from WWI and in the later ones some have Harriet Vane (a mystery writer) whom he eventually marries in the last full novel "Busman's Honeymoon".I'm "Anonymous" as I don't have a Blogger account. But this is Ebor"

Ebor, thankyou for posting your comment on my blog! I am enjoying the Lord Peter Wimsey books. So far I've read the Have His Carcase book with Harriet and Wimsey in it, and right now I'm in the middle of a collection of short stories of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. If I didn't enjoy reading these stories so much though, I would say that the short story collection has some long stories in it that are almost too long and drawn out to be what I'd think to be called short stories. I don't mind though :)

Also, I don't understand, why would you have to have a blogger account to make a comment on my blog? If this is true, how could I fix it so that you wouldn't need to do that in the future?

Has anyone read the book by G.K. Chesterton named "A Man named (or called?) Thursday"? I was thinking of reading it soon but I was wondering if anyone else has read it and what they thought about this book.

updates for July 2004

2004-07-06T11:58:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to appologize to everyone for not posting very much this past month. I've been busy working and on my days off I've been catching up on sleep and spending time at home just reading and stuff. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still doing ok. I don't have much time to post today though because the library is busy today and people are waiting for computers.

How is everyone's summer going?

Hope to write more on here soon! Again, I'm sorry :)

Mary Kissel

Working, Reading and Things

2004-06-10T12:54:00.000-04:00

I've now been working at WalMart since May 27th as a night cashier and I just wanted to make a post now and say that I am still enjoying working there. My 90day eval should be coming in late August or September. The hardest thing to get used to there is working from 1030pm until 7am every day except Monday and Tuesday. I am pretty tired sometimes after work, but I have enjoyed working there besides the being tired. :)

I'm also currently reading an interesting mystery story by Dorothy Sayers called 'Have His Carcase' I am going to be reading another series by her soon called 'Lord Peter' he's a detective like Fr Brown was in the Fr. Brown stories by G.K. Chesterton. I'm also reading the last of the lives of the Three Hierarchs, the first vol. of the 7vol. collection of the Lives of the Saints series. I'll write more later, can't think of anything more to write right now. :)

new job and other updates from the weekend

2004-06-01T13:31:00.000-04:00

I wanted to give an update for this week about what I've been up to again. First, sorry for not putting up anything up over this past weekend, I had no internet access so I was unable to get on. As of May 27th I've also started working at WalMart as a cashier. Thankyou for the prayers again :) I'll be working there every night from 1030pm to 7am and have Mondays and Tuesdays off. I'm glad that I'm able to work the night shift there because it's not as hectic as it would be during the day, and more laidback in a way too. I don't mind so much having to zone the various departments or sorting returns and go backs either because since it's not as busy in the late hours I can actually finish something that I started instead of constantly having to stop and start all the time and lose track of what I was doing before. Have to go now though. I'll give more updates as I'm able to.

Mary :)

Baby birds

2004-05-25T14:15:00.001-04:00

The birds' nest that was outside our apartment is now empty, this weekend I looked out to see if the baby robins were still there. I've been checking them out a lot this past month and it's amazing how fast they grew from little pink naked little things to chubby birds with feathers all over the place and ready to try to fly! I'm sad that the birds aren't there anymore, but also happy that they were able to fly away with the other robins! :)

update for this week

2004-05-25T14:15:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had my 3rd interview with the last manager that I needed to see at WalMart. After he talked to me for only a couple minutes he took me back to the personell office and from there I was handed a drug test form and told where to take it to. So now I'll just have to wait to find out when I'll be starting at WalMart! I already know that I have the job because they told me that unless the test comes back with drugs in my system, I have the job. Thankyou to everyone who's been praying for me to get this job. I'm so very happy to be back at WalMart.

Now we just need to save up money and do the various neccessary things required to get a reliable car, even if it's a used car for now because we both have a feeling this car that we have now isn't going to last much longer.

Also, over the weekend I finished The Pillars of Orthodoxy book, it was a really good book! I highly reccomend the whole set to anyone out there!! Right now I'm reading the Lives of the Hierarchs book again from that set and also finishing up a book by G.K. Chesterton, The Father Brown stories.

Interview #3

2004-05-22T13:26:00.000-04:00

It looks like I have the job at Wal-Mart, but before they tell me if I do or not, I need to speak with the overnight cashier supervisor. I am meeting with him on Monday morning around 830. Please pray that all goes well. I'm always very nervous in any kind of interview, even if it seems very possible that I'll get hired. Well, I need to go now, I'll post more later this week with more updates!

Mary :)

Interview #2

2004-05-20T11:45:00.000-04:00

Today I am going to be going to a second job interview at WalMart, it will again be at 1:30pm as it was yesterday. Yesterday I just spoke to one of the CSM's in an interview and she has asked me to come back today at the same time to speak with the Personell managers now, which to me it makes me think that I will most likely be hired there. I was already told yesterday that they do need cashiers for the overnight shift, which is what I am interested in getting. I'm still a bit nervous, but as I said, I think I'll get this job. I will let everyone know what has happened with my second interview there today.

A Test

2004-05-19T14:00:00.000-04:00

This is just a test to see if my new blog works and looks ok :)

Why all the changes??

2004-05-19T11:26:00.000-04:00

If anyone was wondering, the reason I've decided to change the blog address, as well as re-post my past blog stuff is because I'm planning on using this current on if it works out better. It looks less sloppy and carelessly thrown together compared to my first one. I do hope to continue to do better at posting often, as the internet is available to me.

More :)

2004-05-19T11:22:00.001-04:00

Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Birds and things...

I saw something the other day that I thought was very interesting to watch. We have had for a few months now a nest of baby robins on a ledge over the entrance to our apartment. On Sunday as we were coming back inside we noticed that the baby birds are slowly getting bigger, and as we were standing inside looking through the window, watching and waiting to see what would happen, the adult robin flew back to their nest and started to feed the babies...there looks like there's about 4 baby robins in the nest...the adult robin only fed two of them with what she was able to carry in her mouth to the hungry birds waiting for food. I thought it was very interesting to watch how they were feed.... she first just dropped a few pieces in one baby's opened mouth and it looked like she gave the rest of it to the other baby bird and then as she left to get more food they all opened their mouths for more and one of them looked like they wanted to follow her out of the nest. I really love baby animals of any kind, and I think it's very interesting to watch how they interact with eachother and with their parents.

I've also finished the story of the life of St Gregory Palamas that I've been reading for awhile, and I'm now starting on the life of St Mark Evgenikos, Metropalitan of Ephesus. His life is the third story in the Pillars of Orthodoxy book that I've been reading. I do still hope to get the collection of the Monastery builders books to read someday in the future as well.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Just thought I'd make a post on here to let everyone know what I've been up to lately. I'm still working at the same store, though I'm trying to get another job somewhere else, preferably somewhere with medical insurance!

We've decided to wait on the hamster, at least until we can get caught up with other more important things, such as a reliable car so we don't have to worry about when this car will be done for.

Also, with the support of my dear husband, I'm working on losing weight and getting in shape so that when we try to have a baby next time it will be less of a worry for me to gain the weight to supply what will be needed during the pregnancy.

With the nice weather this past week here, he and I have been taking advantage of it and walking a lot downtown, I'm really enjoying all of this too. :)

I will write more later.

More from my old blog

2004-05-19T11:17:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately I havn't been reading as much as I've planned on reading this year. I'm currently still working on finishing a couple books such as, "The Pillars of Orthodoxy by Holy Apostles Convent", "Journey to Heaven, trans. Fr. G. Lardas", and also reading "The Father Brown Stories" by G.K. Chesterton. This is the second or third time for me reading the Journey to Heaven book, I think it's a really good book and I reccomend it to everyone to read. The Pillars of Orthodoxy is interesting too, there's many things I've learned from it already, such as the view of the Orthodox church on the split between rome and Orthodoxy just to list one of many things. The Father Brown Stories is about a roman catholic priest who solves mysteries in an almost comical way and in a way that many people would never expect.

Sorry for missing so many days with posting on my blog. I hope to have everything back to normal soon. Today was my husband's birthday too and we just had a small birthday cake (I got it for him at work) and ordered a pizza for his dinner. It was a nice and quiet time for him and I to spend together.

Engagement and Wedding!

2004-05-19T11:16:00.000-04:00

Monday, March 29, 2004
The Engagement and Wedding!
After our first date I knew that Justin was the guy I wanted to marry and spend forever with. I hated to be away from him, I was always very sad and missed him a lot when he would drop me off at home and have to drive all the way to Portage. We would always talk on the phone and online at night when we couldn't be together but that just wasn't the same for me as when we were physically together face to face and spending time together.

One night (late at night, after midnight on Feb. 25 to be exact) when we were talking online he asked me if I had any questions for him, and I told him that yes, I did have a question for him but that I wasn't sure if I should ask it or not. He said to go ahead and ask, that I didn't need to be afraid to ask him anything. So I said ok and I just came right out and asked him if he would marry me. He wasn't expecting me to ask him that question at all, and I was shocked myself that I actually asked it! He asked me if I really meant it and I told him, yes, I meant it, I really wanted to be his wife and I knew this in my heart. After what felt like ages went by he finally answered my question and told me that yes, he would marry me!

As the time went slowly by I missed him more and more and was looking forward to marrying him and being with him in our own house together. We talked to Father John at St. Michael's and to Father Basil at Holy Assumption of St Mary's (at this time I was attending Father Basil's Church) and asked both of them about what we needed to do to prepare for marriage. They both basically told us that we would need to take marriage prep. type classes so that we could learn the Orthodox teaching on marriage and learn what was basically expected of an Orthodox married couple. We started to attend classes then with Father John and we used the marriage book and 6 video tape set... I think the books are called 'Bless O Lord...." Everyone thought we were too young to get married and that we were going too fast. We never planned to get married until around Pascha of the year following our engagement but things happened that caused Justin and I to decide to get married sooner. After we finished our classes together we talked to Father John and asked him if he would marry us in December and after much hesitation on his part, he okayed it and we began planning for that!

I sent out many invitations to friends and family on both sides for our wedding...this was a new experience for everyone because he and I are the only Orthodox in our family and nobody ever was at an Orthodox wedding. After all the planning was done that needed to be done, I started to get really nervous and counted days til the wedding day. The only people that were in the actual wedding were my parents and my God Parents, Deacon Stephen and Matushka Sophie. Justin and I didn't want a big wedding, we just wanted a nice, simple wedding. We were married in the Antiochain Orthodox Church at St Michael's by Father John on December 28, 2002. I still sometimes wonder if any of it actually happened or if it was all a dream. That was probably one of the most happiest days of our life together.

Addendum (written by Justin)

2004-05-19T11:14:00.000-04:00

After Mary let me read this, I just wanted to add a few things for clarification and just to provide a bit more detail. The marriage materials we used were by Fr. John Mack. I thought he was a bit too vague in the discussions of sexuality, though I guess he was trying to leave things open so that the priests of each church could give guidelines as they wished. Still, it would have been nice to have been given the traditional Orthodox positions on certain issues. Fr. John also seems to have (unfortunately) bought into the same school of thought that Fr. John Meyendorff did with regards to the history of Marriage within Orthodoxy. Other than those two things, though, his material was really good, with the positive stuff far outweighing any concerns I have.

The priest at the parish Mary was attending at the time was not in favor of the marriage, which was a complicated situation since he was her self-appointed (or bishop appointed) spiritual father. Soon after the marriage he released her as a spiritual child (I don't recall what exact phrase he used, "released" is the best word I can think of). The reason that the marriage was moved up from after Pascha to December was that Mary and I were living in a homeless shelter, and it was either 1) get married quickly, or 2) shack up. Fr. John, out of his loving and pastoral heart, agreed to marry us. Mary's God Mother Sophie and "adoptive" God Father Dn. Stephen were our sponsors.

I was sort of confused by the way Mary phrased things concerning how big our wedding is, so in case anyone else is confused by that part, I'll clarify. There were about 25 people or so from Mary's family there at the wedding; there were about 8 from my family. Living in a homeless shelter and trying to plan and pay for a wedding was no easy task! The only thing that made it possible was a rather large gift from my Grand Mother. The food was donated by Mary's Aunt, who owns a Chinese restaurant. The music was provided by my Dad, who burned onto two CD's the strange and varying mix of music I requested (Stevie Ray Vaughn's cover of "Little Wing," a love song by Stryper, polka songs, and many others).

Some of Mary's relatives wanted to know if I was Amish (because of my beard), lol. Actually, some guy just came up and asked me that same thing at work this past week! No one else in our families are Orthodox, so it was a new experience for them. I could tell that some people were uncomfortable, but then those people would have been uncomfortable no matter what church they were in :) I had originally hoped that we could get married on a Sunday, which from my understanding is the traditional day to get married (since marriage is a sacrament and ideally to be celebrated with the Church and her people, and not as a private social function). As it turned out, though, that wasn't possible and we had to have it on Saturday. We had planned on staying for Vespers, but it started snowing pretty heavily and we had a 3 hour drive to get back to where we were living, so we had to leave sooner than we wanted.

I'll conclude by saying that we are now very happily married (thanks to Mary's meekness).

My Journey to the Orthodox Church

2004-05-19T11:13:00.000-04:00

My first visit to an Orthodox Church was to St Michael's Antiochian Orthodox Church and it was on the Feast of the Holy Transfiguration. I called up the priest Father John at the Church and told him my situation and how I found out about the church. I asked him if he knew of anyone who could pick me up and take me back and forth to church because I didn't have any way of getting there at the time. I also told him that I was interested in learning more about Orthodoxy and that I felt very confused and alone spiritually. After we talked a little bit on the phone about various questions that I had he told me that he would check to see if anyone could bring me but that he'd find a way for me to get out there to the church.

When that Sunday rolled around and I got picked up for Liturgy I was told what to expect on the ride over. I don't remember right now much of what I was told, except that I did feel both excited and nervous. I always feel nervous when I meet new people for the first time, but this was a different kind of nervous feeling, I really can't explain it. I was also very happy because Father John was able to find someone who could take me to church when I needed a ride and he also was very open to answering any questions I had. When I got in his car he introduced himself as George and told me that it would be very different than what I was used to in the Roman Catholic churches that I've attended growing up.

When we got to St. Michael's and walked inside the first thing that I noticed was a long low wooden box with white sand in it and tall skinny beeswax candles that were lit and standing up in the sand and at the end of that box was an icon of Christ (I knew it was an icon because Geoge told me that's what they were and he explained to me what the wooden screen was in front of the altar in the Church and other things like that.). I saw people crossing themselves and venerating the icon and lighting the skinny candles and I just stood back for a little bit watching what was happening there until Geoge showed me what to do and told me I didnt need to do it yet if I wasn't comfortable doing it. He also explained that the candles were lit for prayers; just like the roman catholics do in front of statues of the saints in their churches. He also told me not to worry that we weren't late for Church, that we were actually early, he told me this because when we walked into the main area of the Church the priest and deacon and some of the parishoners were already standing and chanting some of the psalms.

Besides the difference in crossing ourselves, the other thing I noticed right away when I was following him was that no one genuflected in front of the altar before going to their pews. Also hardly anyone knelt at all during Liturgy, they either stood or sat. While I was standing there in the Church I looked at everything around me and I just felt deep down inside me that Orthodoxy was what I was looking for all along. Even though it took many doubts and a rough journey, it was well worth it in the end because I found the Church that has been around since Christ and His Apostles and that Church is the Eastern Orthodox Church. I just knew right then and there that, yes I wanted to be Orthodox. I unfortunatly can't really put into words my whole first experience at an Orthodox church during Sunday Liturgy, all I can really say is it felt like a taste of what heaven is, the best way for others to see or find out about Orthodoxy is to attend a Liturgy at an Orthodox Church.

After Liturgy that day I went up to talk to the priest and told him that I wanted to be Orthodox and I asked him what I had to do to begin. Fr. John didn't want me to go too fast so he made me wait five months before I became a Catechumen. I'll be honest, I was frustrated with having to wait to be Orthodox and finally experience the fullness of Orthodoxy in the sacraments and the church life but I figured Father knew what he was doing so I tried to be patient.

I decided to join the choir too after about a few weeks of attending St Michael's. I figured it would be a good way for me to meet people and to also learn the music and what happened during Liturgy. When I joined the choir, this was a totally different experience itself because they used no musical instruments such as piano, organ, etc...it was acapella and they chanted in what I later learned was one of the eight tones depending on what day it was and other various factors. Most of the actual music during the Liturgies on Sundays were the same every week except if there was a major feast then more music was added and also some words would be changed as well depending on which saints that day were to be commemorated. I was very happy to be able to join the church choir because I love to sing and I felt that I was able to learn much more about what was going on and keep my mind on God and not having it wander to other non-Church related things.

While I was attending Liturgy at St Michael's I met many nice people there, they all welcomed me to their church and were happy to hear that I wanted to be Orthodox. I also talked a lot with Father John and asked him many questions about the church and told him more about why I wanted to be Orthodox. While we were talking together about some of the questions I had he introduced me to the deacon that serves with him. He told me his name was Deacon Stephen and he asked me what I thought about the Orthodox church and how I learned about it as well. He also told me that I could ask him any questions and that he'd try to help me the best he could, especially if Fr. John wasn't around or available at the time.

As would be expected in a family where half of your family is Roman Catholic and the other half is Protestant or holiday Roman Catholics and no one has heard of Eastern Orthodoxy, I had some problems when I was preparing for my Catechumenate and preparing to be Chrismated in the future. My Dad would ask me questions to try to find out about the church I was attending and then when I would give him answers to his questions he would try to confuse me by asking me questions that made no sense to me and would twist my words around and take them out of context. For example, if he asked me a question like "When you become Orthodox, you can still receive communion in the catholic church, can't you?", my answer would be "No, I can't receive in any roman catholic church once I'm Orthodox.", then he would somehow twist my words and make it sound like I was turning my back on him and our family and the church. It would get so frustrating at times that I would even refuse to answer any questions from him.

At times I would get really sad and feel lonely again and wonder why I was even bothering going through the wait to be Orthodox. The Catechumenate period was filled with many struggles and many dry spells. There would be days, even weeks where I wouldn't feel like getting up and praying in the morning or even praying before bed at night. At that point it would take all my energy just to cross myself and pray the Our Father. I would especially feel sad because there never seemed to be anyone around that I could talk to about questions, feelings, fears etc. Yes, there were always Father John, Deacon Stephen and others from church and friends online, but what about my family?

My family basically figured that I was going through a phase, and my Dad still had it in his head that I was being stubborn and just didn't want to attend Church with him anymore. I wanted to go to Church with him, but not to the roman catholic church because I was preparing to be Orthodox! Even the Catholic priests that I talked to said I was being brainwashed by the Orthodox Church and that I should stop jumping from church to church.

My Catechumen classes finally came to an end while I was barely making it my first year of college (after the first year of barely making it, I never went back to college either). The only things on my mind during college was learning about Orthodoxy, attending St Michael's as much as possible, and talking to friends online so unfortunately I didn't get much at all out of the actual college classes. Since I was going back to Pittsburgh to live with my Mom again after college that year I had to wait to be Chrismated until my sponsor, Sophie and I could make it to Pittsburgh to talk to Father Basil at St Mary's. Eventually I did get Chrismated though on April 8(Palm Sunday of 2001). The Saint that I took as my patron Saint is Saint Mary of Egypt.

Thursday, March 18, 2004
The SSPX and my journey to Orthodoxy
In the beginning when I started to attend the SSPX church, I thought to myself that this was where I was 'meant' to be. I was happy that I found a more traditional Church whose beliefs seemed to mirror what I was looking for in the Church. I wanted a traditional, conservative church who didn't change with the years and change things because they were afraid of offending people. I was looking for a church where the laity had more respect for their clergy and where the clergy actually looked and acted like real genuine clergy. I also was hoping to find a church where the people who attended the services didn't treat church as some sort of fashion show and would wear more modest clothes and keep their minds on God instead of on their bodies and trying to inadvertantly attract others attention.

The sspx seemed to fit all those things and more. The clergy were respected more, the laity dressed more modestly, the women and young girls even wore head coverings. The mass was all in Latin, that was hard to get used to, but it was very pretty to listen to and after a while of being there you do begin to pick up what certain words were and even how to pronounce them.

Then one day things began to fall apart all around me. I started to wonder from things I heard in the sunday school classes if the sacraments I received when I was in the 'modern' roman catholic church were actually valid. I started then to get all kinds of doubts running through my head, I began to worry and question everything all over again. I eventually came to the conclusion that I should be 'conditionally confirmed' just in case the previous confirmation that I received in the other church wasn't valid. I talked to the priest and found someone to be my sponsor and I prepared for my conditional confirmation. All through that period of time (a few months if I remember correctly) I began to have even more doubts but I just figured that it was just the devil trying to cause me problems and to get me to essentially just stop going to any church altogether.
I did get conditionally confirmed when I was turning 18.

After I was conditionally confirmed I began having many many spiritual problems, I didn't want to go to church anymore, and people around me even commented that I was acting different. My Mom even thought that church I was going to was a cult and that it was having a bad influence on me. When I started college I began to have even more problems and then I just gave up trying for awhile and talked to one of my really close friends (at that time) and told them how I was feeling and asked them for advice since I didn't feel I had anyone to turn to.

That was when I learned about Orthodoxy. My friend mentioned to me that he was considering Orthodoxy and I began to ask him many questions. To begin with, I didn't even know what the Orthodox Church was, I thought it was some sort of moslem group or something. I didn't tell him that though, I just asked more about it and eventually corrected myself. I asked him to help me find an Orthodox Church near me that I could attend so he gave me an address of one that he found for me.

How I met my husband

2004-05-19T11:12:00.000-04:00

Thursday, March 11, 2004
How I met my husband:
I first met my husband through an Orthodox chatroom online on msn. We had been members of the same Orthodox mailing list online and we bumped into eachother a few times in the chatroom. We started to message eachother eventually and got to know eachother a little better. One day I got the 'guts' up to do something I've never thought I'd ever do... I started to message him and tried to hint to him continuously about asking me out on a date since we both lived in Pennsylvania. He finally took the hint and asked me out for our first date.

We met for the first time in person on December 28th, 2001. After he got lost a couple times trying to find my house I finally saw him drive past our house (Mom and I were just finishing moving in as well this day) while I was standing outside. I watched him drive past and then kept looking for him to turn back around eventually (which he did!) then when he pulled in our driveway I just knew right then and there that I loved him and this was the guy I wanted to be with for eternity. I don't know how I knew this, I just did! *smiling* I did do something that I still feel really bad/silly for doing though....I asked him to help me carry the last few boxes from our car upstairs into the house so I could hurry up and leave to go out to lunch with him.

We spent our first date going to my favorite restaurant, Olive Garden and I ordered Fetuccini Alfredo with shrimp, and he got Spaghetti. I enjoyed our meal together, just sitting there smiling accross the table at eachother as we were eating and feeling equally nervous inside with each of us wondering what the other was thinking. After our lunch we had an adventure getting lost on our way to the movies. When we finally got there we saw "Lord of the Rings-Fellowship of the Ring" together. I liked the movie but from what he said, it was a disappointment in comparison to the book.
We got lost also on our way back to my house but eventually after sitting in traffic, and figuring out where we were, he got me home safely. If you're wondering why we got lost so much, I lived in Pittsburgh and Justin had never drove in Pittsburgh before. (Next: The Engagement! ...)

About Me

2004-05-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

About me:
I was born and raised in the Roman Catholic Church. I went to Church every Sunday with my Dad. When I got older, around 15 or 16 I began to notice what I considered to be 'strange' all around me in Church. I noticed first of all that the priest in charge of the youth group that I was a member of seemed very charismatic and almost protestant. He had this sort of idea/attitude that everyone was 'equal' and he pretty much seemed to try to teach us that it was ok to attend a protestant church once in a while and while we were there if they offered us 'communion' (crackers and grape juice most likely) that it was ok because it wasn't real communion, it was just a way to show love to our fellow man.

Then one day he somehow convinced me that being in the church choir wasn't enough, I needed to be a eucharistic minister or an altar server. I mistakenly and regretably chose to do as he suggested and chose one of those as well....I ended up being an altar server. I just reasoned to myself that my cousin (younger, and girl as well) was an altar server so it couldn't be that bad... or could it? After that everything seemed to just fall apart for me inside...I started to doubt and question everything I was ever taught. Afterall, a priest, someone who is answerable to God for our souls, was leading the youth down this path...what was I to think? I always was taught (and even felt) that a priest was someone who you showed respect to and didn't question or judge or even disobey, you had to pretty much answer to him before God.

Once all this started to happen I just began to feel very alone and upset to the point that I just didn't want to go to church with my Dad anymore, because I didn't think that I could go there when I couldn't even respect the priest who in my heart misled me. These feelings started me to look online to my friends who had mentioned to me before about a more traditional roman catholic church: the SSPX...(More to come tomorrow)

From my old blog

2004-05-19T11:09:00.000-04:00

I guess the best way to start out is from the beginning with the question: Why am I writing this Blog? The answer to that question is I just want to have a place where I can write my ideas, feelings, thoughts, and experiences as a Married Orthodox Christian. I welcome anyone's thoughts, suggestions and any constructive criticism or opinions on the things I write here.
I plan on writing on various subjects a little bit each day, and hope to have new stuff added each day as I have access to the internet.

Job Interview today

2004-05-19T11:00:00.000-04:00

Today I have an interview at the local Wal-Mart. I hope to get the job, if I do get it, I will get much needed medical insurance, as well as better benefits, including better pay compared to other past places I've worked. I will give an update later on what happened with the interview.