Too Meaningful to be "just a coincidence"

The following is the post I put up on facebook today:

I've been thinking a lot about life and death. My Nana just turned 90, yet I know so many who've died young. Life is such a gift, and sometimes during the daily grind, it's easy to forget the gift that it is. May I live each day as if it's my first day, my last day, my only day. Because you know what? I don't want to go unexpectedly while in an angry, crappy, "the world owes me a favor" bad mood.

This evening I received an email from my friend Audrey with the story below. I don't think it's "just a coincidence" that I wrote what I wrote, and then received this story (and just as an aside, Audrey is not on facebook). As I stated above, I've been thinking about life, death, the meaning of life, why some suffer, why others don't, why some seem to be so blessed all throughout life, while others seem to be in a living in some type of hell on earth, why some people die before they haven't even begun to live, and why others just keep living until a very old age. I am reminded in the midst of all of these questions to go back to my faith, my faith that this earth we live in isn't heaven, nor is it supposed to be. I'm glad that I believe not only that there is life after death, but that the life I'll have and the place I'll go, that we will all go to (God willing), is exactly what we've all hoped and yearned for - a perfect place - heaven. So, although it's very hard some days, I'm trying to keep my eye on the prize. I'm trying to pick up my cross daily and carry it, asking God for more help on the days when the cross seems to be more than I can bear. My challenge isn't where I live, what I have, the people around me (okay, well sometimes it's the people around me...had to put in a bit of humor)...but it's usually with my mental and emotional state. I can very easily get down and I have to work daily (sometimes hourly) to keep positive. My cross, my "demon" (because we all have them) is my own mind, and I am trying my darndest to conquer it.

May we all keep positive, carry our crosses and remember the gift of life we've each been given.

Here is the story I received via email: (there should be pictures that go along with this story but when I just checked my blog it seems as though they're missing. The pictures kind of need to be here because the story is all captions about the pictures...hmmmm).

The wedding.

Her name is Katie Kirkpatrick, 21 yrs old. Next to her is her fiancé, Nick, 23. This picture was taken prior to their wedding January 11th, 2005. Katie has terminal cancer and spends hours in chemotherapy. Here Nick awaits while she finishes one of the sessions...

Even in pain and dealing with her organs shutting down, with the help of morphine, Katie took care of every single part of the wedding planning. Her dress had to be adjusted several times due to Katie 's constant weight loss.

An expected guest was her oxygen tank. Katie had to use it during the ceremony and reception. The other couple in this picture is Nick's parents, very emotional with the wedding and to see their son marrying the girl he fell in love when he was an adolescent.

Katie , in a wheel chair listening to her husband and friends singing to her.

In the middle of the party, Katie had to rest for a bit and catch her breath. The pain does not allow her to stand for long period of time.

Katie died 5 days after her wedding.

To see a fragile woman dress as bride with a beautiful smile
makes you think... happiness is always there within reach, no matter how long it lasts... let's enjoy life and don't live a complicated life. Life is too short.

Work as if it was your first day.
Forgive as soon as possible.
Love without boundaries.
Laugh without control and never stop smiling.

Please pray for those suffering from cancer.
We all have someone close to our heart.

Fun time with B!

My parents came to visit us one afternoon while we were at the cottage. Here are some great shots of my dad with the kids. In this one they were all saying, "ooooooo"

Honestly, I'm not sure what the heck they were doing in this one!

Brian had enough of B, so he split. That's okay because B got to spend time with his girls.

Pat pat pat.

Kelly was REALLY getting into this one!

Brian at the Cottage

Kate at the cottage

Kelly at the cottage

Fun with Glow Sticks!

We recently took a vacation to Blackmore Pond in Wareham, Ma, where we enjoyed great weather, great family time, great food and great fun. One of the nights I opened up the 100 piece container of glow sticks that I brought and the magic began!
It was kind of buggy outside so we played with them in the dark cottage. Below are the kid's names written out in glow sticks (but I guess you could probably figure that out on your own :-).



Jeff kept the shutter open longer on the camera allowing this image of the kids and I waving our glow sticks in the air.

If you look at this closely you can see that I've spelled out "I *heart* U" in the air with glow sticks. Very cool!

Nana's 90th!

We love you Nana!

Cheers to the birthday girl!

Nana's children and their loves!

Me :-) with several of my cousins, their spouses, and one boyfriend :-)

Some of Nana's great grandchildren having fun on a rock!

Just click

Just wanted to let people know that if a picture is too small for you to see clearly, you can click on it which will enlarge it :-)

Michael McNamara - The Cute Criminal

Take a good look at this beautiful little boy, but don't let those adorable cheeks fool you. Little did I know that less than one hour after this picture was taken, Mr. Michael (who is my cousin Bridget's son) was going to commit a crime of epic proportions (okay...maybe that's an exaggeration). Want to know what happened? Read the next post.

A Little Boy on a BIG Mission

This past Saturday we celebrated Nana's 90th birthday. The Nana was glowing, the wine was flowing, the laughter was contagious, the joy was immeasurable, and the food was out of this world! The day was as close to perfect as any day can be. However, little did we know that lurking among us was a sneaky, small, quick, and completely adorable toddler, who would do his best to deprive The Nana from her one true source of stability.......her cane (well, I guess her "true" stability is leaning on others when walking, and her cane is merely a prop...but for the purposes of this story, let's just say she can't walk without it :-).

Pictured below is the the victim: the ever gorgeous Dorothy Rafferty. If you look closely you'll notice that she is not smiling and acting carefree as one should during their birthday celebration. Something had gone awry. She could sense that something of hers, a crutch of sorts, had been taken from her.

Pictured below is the villain himself (clearly his mother's son, but don't call him Roger...that's an inside joke), caught red handed with The Nana's cane. Sure he's cute, sure he's little, sure he's probably unstable on steps and I should have helped him rather than take his picture....but he DID have a cane for crying out loud (and he appeared to know how to use it!).

He's almost there....

Here we have a Kelly in the foreground (eating a cupcake), part of our villain off to the left, and what appears to be the stolen merchandise, which has now served it's purpose, and has been tossed aside for anyone to trip on (again...I could have helped by moving the cane, but I was very busy taking pictures).

So, what was the purpose of this crime? Was there a victory treat at the end of the road for this little man? Oh, I think there was! One can only hope that those squeezable cheeks were filled with cookies or cake, and NOT the contents of the empty Corona bottle on the bench behind him.


The jury is still out on whether or not my two daughters, and half of Michael's sister, Maeve, are guilty of any crimes that enabled them to make it to the dessert tent. But one thing is clear. The dessert tent was the place to be, even if it meant stealing from the elderly to get there.

Green, Brown and Blue - Beautiful!