Two Things That a Blue-Faced Alien Taught be About Relationships

Happy Pentecost!!!!

Happy Pentecost from the Boise airport!!!!!!

Today, I feel like I could be in The Terminal. My husband and I are in the process of traveling from Ohio to Washington, and our flight plan has included many long layovers in the airport. I seriously have been thinking about how cool it'd be to befriend all of the people who work here and make myself at home (especially the people who manned the desks at the gates in the Minneapolis airport; they were all super cool. They would talk to each other across the room over the microphones, crack jokes to us passengers while we waited to board, and were very nice to all of us). So I've been praying and hanging out with my husband, having great conversations with lots of random people (the Solemnity Hat has been a wonderful conversation-starter today), reading Nicholas Nickleby for the first time (highly recommend it so far!), and now, in the last couple hours of our final layover, catching up on a blog post that I've been meaning to write for a couple of weeks. A few weeks ago, we re-watched Guardians of the Galaxy. It was the second time I've seen the full movie, and one of the same elements jumped out at me. So I feel the need to share my thoughts with y'all, if you wish to read them! 

The Next Big Adventure! (Including: The Awesomeness of St. Joseph and adorable baby birds)

I hope that y’all are enjoying your week! Over here, life has gotten a bit fuller—because my husband and I have picked a day to begin The Next Big Adventure!

For the past several months, my husband was job hunting for hours upon hours, sandwiched in between his part-time job, schoolwork, and classes. Like many other students preparing to graduate, he was getting rejected time and time again. The two of us, and our families, were all keeping St. Joseph busy as the days flew by. Early in March, my husband had a couple of phone interviews, and one of the companies said that they wanted to fly him down for an onsite interview! Then, on Sunday, March 15—just a few days before the Solemnity of St. Joseph—my husband decided to intent (officially state his intention of joining) to a campus household which is dedicated to St. Joseph. The next day (the day on which he was going to intent to this household), my husband was at an appointment on campus, so that he could prepare for his upcoming onsite interview. During this meeting, he got a phone call from another company with a job offer! When God rains down His blessings, He dumps and pours them down! We were unsure if we should take the job or not, so we continued to pray, and my husband flew out for the onsite interview with the other company. They also offered him a job, and we reasoned, prayed, and talked through the jobs. Then, seeing where God was pointing us, we chose. And just the other day, we decided to move on June 10^th—just a few weeks away!

A New Saint for the Church: St. Mariam Baouardy!

Hello there!

 It’s been a while since I’ve written a post on modern sanctity, so today I’d like to talk about one of the new saints in the Catholic Church: St. Mariam Baouardy, also known as Mary of Jesus Crucified! I first heard about this amazing woman a few summers ago, when I was blessed to hold a relic of her during a relic exhibition. Here are some cool highlights from her life:

Is Marriage About Affordability? Part 2!

Hey there! I’m following up on my previous post, to continue talking about marriage and financial affordability. Today, I'd like to touch on some very practical topics regarding engagement and marriage:

Summer Reading: A Brief Review of Maria Hummel's "Motherland"

Happy Ascension Day/Sunday after Ascension (depending on where you live and what your diocese does)!!!!!!

Since I am done with school, and it's summertime, I have been taking full advantage of the library. I go at least a few times a week to find awesome books and movies, because reading is amazing.

The other day, while searching the shelf, a book title--in lovely script--struck my eye. Pulling the novel out, I glanced over Motherland, by Maria Hummel. The cover looked quite sad and compelling, and glancing at the brief synopsis, I was not surprised to see that this was a World War II book. I greatly enjoy reading historical fiction, and I took an entire course last year on Holocaust literature, so I grabbed the book. Over the course of Friday night and Saturday morning, I gobbled up this story. It is so touching, so profound, and so beautiful in many ways.

Is Marriage About Affordability? Part 1!

After the Baccalaureate Mass on Friday night, the University hosted a reception at the J.C. Williams Center. At this reception, I was blessed to talk with the family of one of my friends who is getting married this summer. This woman’s mother spoke with me about the importance of simplicity, of recognizing the Sacrament of Marriage, and not worrying about dishing out a large expense for the wedding. Two years earlier, my parents and I often talked about this very thing as we wedding-planned. After this conversation, I knew that I had to write a blog post about this.

On Wednesday afternoon, I sat in a hard-backed chair in the downtown library, preparing to finish off this blog post. It wasn’t long before I was joined at my table by a group of four adults: two men, two women, all who looked to be in their thirties and forties. I began to chat with these individuals, and it wasn’t long before the librarian had to quiet down our animated conversation!

At one point, I casually mentioned that I had been in the process of writing a blog post to debunk the myth of “I can’t afford to get married.” One of the women—I’ll call her Angel—had mentioned that she had gotten married two months ago. At my words, Angel looked me like I was an alien. “What? But I just got married, and it was practically free!” This woman and her husband (who was also in our group) both experience the poverty characteristic of downtown Steubenville. But they still got married anyway! Angel mentioned that they paid for the wedding license, she bought a fancy dress for $5, her friends put together a bouquet for her, and she and her husband had a fun, joyful ceremony at Urban Mission, a Christian-run organization downtown. Angel couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that there are many people in this world who think that they can’t afford to get married.

I'm All Graduated and Growing Up! (Well, I don't know about the "growing up" part)

Happy Monday! I am officially an alumnus of Franciscan University of Steubenville!!!!! Graduation was wonderful!!!!! And the best part?

I got to do it all with my best friend, my husband!!!

Look at us, we're all graduated and adorable! 

Being married college students was amazing, and it was so awesome to end my college career with Jacob (however, since he was Bachelor of Science, and I was Bachelor of Arts, we had to sit in different sections, which was lame. But it was still awesome to graduate with him!).

Haven't Seen Daredevil? Here are 11 Reasons Why You Should

 Lately, several of my friends have been watching Daredevil off of Netflix. From them, I have been hearing that this show is, apparently, Quite Awesome And Worth Watching. I didn’t give this hype a whole lot of attention, because I try to not be swayed a huge amount by fads and the culture current in general. Also, I don’t really watch many TV shows; pretty much the only ones that I watch are Doctor Who and random anime series.

BUT, I kept hearing amazing things about this show. And then I heard that it portrays Catholicism in a non-heretical way. And it’s about a superhero. Who happens to be blind. Also, I had a “free month-long trial” from Netflix dangling in my e-mail inbox. 

SO, a few weekends ago, my husband and I took the plunge, acquired the Netflix trial, and began watching Daredevil. Last Thursday night, he declared that I was on a “Netflix/Daredevil ban,” because I needed to study for finals. But on Monday evening, I finally saw the last episode of Season One.

This show blows my mind with its epicness and beauty, and I can’t stand the thought of waiting an entire year for Season Two! But, God just likes to teach me patience, so I guess I’ll have to (I mean, get to) joyfully deal with it J Today, I would like some time to help educate those people who, like me, had never heard of Daredevil, and maybe are not aware of why they would benefit from this show.

 For all of those individuals who have not made the time to see the show—well, I’d like to give you a few non-spoilery reasons of why you should.