May the God of your choice Bless You

After a huge Thanksgiving dinner and before the dessert spread, Father Stegman, a neighbor of my mom’s, came over to bless Oliver. I grew up Catholic but don’t currently practice it. I feel there’s a religion out there for me, I just haven’t found the exact one and until I do, I am happy to accept any prayers, blessings, and well wishes from any one that wants to pass them along to my family or myself. Recently I’ve heard the expression (the second time was by Kinky Friedman on David Letterman, I can’t remember who said it the first time), “May the God of your choice bless you” and I really like that – kind of sums my take on things. I think as long as you’re not hurting anyone and are positive and good, then your God is the right God. People may follow different paths but it’s still the same God in my eyes.

Father Stegman was very sweet and I felt a good positive energy coming from the whole experience – it helped that we had heaps of family beaming at us as well. And now I bounce that energy back to Father S, poor dear just got diagnosed with bladder cancer. And for everyone else:

May the God of your choice bless you.

The rest of the trip sped by and we headed to Dallas stopping in Waco to have a great visit with Tommy's extended family. His 2nd cousin Matthew was there and is insanely adorable and a vision into my future since I have a feeling Oliver will be cut from the same cloth. It was so, so great to see Tommy's grandparents with Oliver much less with all his other relatives. As an added bonus, his cousin Brian even gave O a West Point t-shirt! Thanks to all for their wonderful company and hospitality!

Onto Dallas....

Dad has had a time health-wise as of late. Since I was at the tail end of the pregnancy and the beginning of the birth, I was a bit sheltered from his condition but have since caught up. I am so, so thankful he is bouncing back but I still catch glimpses of what could have been but I think holding Oliver will give him further motivation to get healthy and stay well for years to come.

We got to see Jeff, too and take pics of Oliver in his Nascar truck. As an added bonus, we got to see his rockin’ dad. Man, I love those guys!

Speaking of true, deep sisterly love, I would also like to thank Kathi, Stacey and Phillip for throwing a damn fine “Sip and See” shower so friends could get together and ogle at Oliver – pictures of the shindig and the rest of the TX trip are on my flickr page.

Something I learned: Costco hummus is tahini-licious!