2 weeks more to go (hopefully!) ... Any random guesses on her birthday? Her "due date" is Dec 15th but only 5% of babies are so punctual as that :)-

Clearly scanning is not one of my talents. Jon is in the top photo with his dad and I am in the bottom one. I was 8 lbs 1 ounce and 21'' long. Jon was 10 lbs 3 ounces and also 21" long.

Walking up the stairs to our apartment...

Me: So tonight I think I will make you some of these bite size protein balls from a recipe I came across so that you will study better. Good protein. 

Jon: That sounds good

Me: Yeah. They have crunchy peanut butter, sesame seeds, flax seed, sunflower seeds, honey, oats, and you roll them in cotton

Jon (perplexed): Cotton?

Me: Oh no..haha..I meant coconut!

Jon: Those are some funny protein balls..rolled in cotton

haha :)-

Lately Jon has been referring to Clare as "Clefairy"...In the interest of finding out exactly what image goes through his mind as he says this, I decided to look up this Pokemon figure online. And THIS is what I found: 

Oh dear. If she comes out looking anything like this, then we have more on our hands than we imagined.

Jon in Show Business

On Friday, Jon got a call asking him if he could do a short clip for EWTN on Christian ethics. He said yes. All weekend, we had fun joking about his entrance into "show business," how he would need to find an agent, how it all starts with a 30 sec clip right before a commercial break, how he already has experience with sets and cameras since he was in our wedding video after all. 

Monday morning over breakfast...

Me: What time are you going to be filmed? Did they already film the show or are you all being filmed at the same time?

Jon (puffed up): It's in the can.

Me: What do you mean it's in the can?

Jon: That's show business talk, Lauren, and I'm in show business now, so that's what you say when something is done.

Me: Oh you have to be kidding me...lol

* In light of Jon's newfound stardom, which will probably be a never-ending joke for us now, I have to post this funny joke pulled from the website for Dr. Regis Martin's Fan Club since it relates to the show Jon was on for a few short clips:

"I believe I remember a time I was watching Franciscan University Presents and Dr. Martin, Dr. Hahn, and Fr. Mike were talking about something very spiritual...and very boring. At some point in the discussion Dr. Martin said something to the effect of, “We may want to change the subject before the eight people who are watching this show change the channel and get up to pour themselves another cup of prune juice.”

A Meditation on the Gift of Free Will

According to St. Augustine, evil comes from free will in that we have the choice to choose goodness or not. If we did not have free will, we could not truly and sincerely love God since love requires self-donation. This freedom allows us to choose the absence of goodness (since evil can hardly be said to be a reality, but rather a privation of good), but then how can that be freedom at all? Are we free when we choose darkness (the absence of light) over light? 

Fr. Ryland, a Protestant convert, on being a faithful Catholic and not picking and choosing Church teachings, thereby making yourself the final authority:

"You can't be a little bit pregnant and you can't be a little bit Catholic; you either are or you ain't"

We were also thankful tonight to receive a wonderful blessing for Clare from Fr. Ryland. It means so much to me when priests pray for her. As I type, she is moving around confirming her enthusiasm :) Every day, especially now as we near her birth, I look forward to the moment that we will finally behold her and see God's handiwork. She truly is the supreme gift of our marriage.

A life without such anticipation, a life no longer opened up to heaven, would be empty, a leaden life. That is why there are in reality no societies altogether lacking in cult. Even the decidedly atheistic, materialistic systems create their own forms of cult, though, of course, they can only be an illusion and strive in vain, by bombastic trumpeting, to conceal their nothingness.

-Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, The Spirit of the Liturgy

Do bicyclists have to buy snow tires?

36 Weeks at Tim Horton's and our first true day of snow in Pittsburgh!

Jon and I went for our 36 week baby appointment and the midwife confirmed that Clare is head down. All looks good! Please keep us in your prayers as we near her due "range." ;)

Sorry Ladies...Instead of praying for a date, pray for his vocation! ;)

http://catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14260

At the end of our prayer before dinner...

Jon: And thank you, Lord, for our squirt (i.e., our daughter Clare!) 

I think that one might just stick..lol

Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord

-Job 1:21

I thought he said it was "above his pay grade"????

Obama supporting the Freedom of Choice Act, horrific :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf0XIRZSTt8&eurl=

To fight legislation that supports abortion sign this petition: http://www.FightFOCA.com/

Every baby is incommunicable, irreplaceable, beautiful. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4WrUuyx1Ds

While we're sitting at dinner...

Me (looking at my left arm): Hey, my arm looks fat

Jon (without paying undue attention to it): No, it's the same

Me: But it's not. I remember my arm used to be the same thinness all the way down and now it's fat there. Just look.

Jon: Well, if anything it's a little swollen, that's all, just slightly.

Me: So you're agreeing it's fat?

Jon: Why won't you let me tell you what you should want to hear?

hahaha....

34 Weeks

Wacky Professor and Globe Girl (Clare and I were Jon's Pedagogical Assistants ;)

It's too bad you can't see his bow tie up close and his rolled trousers with mismatched socks and tennis shoes. So funny...reminds me of J. Alfred Prufrock:

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?