Wine And Food Pairing

Our friends John and Mary invited us to their home for their 4th Annual Wine and Food Pairing.  Bill and I, along with 7 other couples from our family prayer group had a fun time.

John and Mary, with son Andy

 

John and Mary are the best cooks I know and they are wine connoisseurs. (thank you spell-check).  They spoil us rotten every year and we love it!

To see last year's wine and food pairing, click here. 

Still Learning

 Yesterday my good friend Mary came over and spent  hours with me on this blog. I wanted to learn more about blogging and she's somewhat of a blogger guru, so I asked her if she could help me.

 Anyone who knows me knows I have difficulty asking for help. Mary has offered help many times in the past and she basically has to hit  me over the head for me to accept. Well, this time I went to her and asked for help. Quite the milestone for me. But it also says a lot about her. She's one of those people who is thinking I did her a favor yesterday instead of the other way around. Don't believe me? Read her blog. ( attempting to add the link here, but not sure I can. If it doesn't work, try the sidebar on the right that reads, "Me Myself and Mercy")  If it works, we'll have another milestone!

 Here's a picture of my friend.....beautiful inside and out. ( not to mention the only one who leaves comments on my new blog!!  Hint, hint )

Holy Water

 Thanks to the encouragement of good and faithful friends, a few years back Bill and I went to our parish's annual retreat. At first I thought if I were able to get away with Bill for the weekend without our kids in tow, a parish retreat would be the last place I'd want to go. Turns out, it was one of the best decisions we've made.

  Since then, we've built many friendships with good people. Last night, we had a reunion of sorts. It took place at our friends' home. We started with mass. Now, since it's not my norm, I'm not really sure how I feel about having mass somewhere other than a church. But I have to say, it was all very reverent and a wonderful experience for our kids. An "altar" was set up in the family room and all the kids there had a front row seat to the transubstantiation. ( I had to google that ). It was a beautiful thing...so very intimate.

  The not-so-wonderful part for me was the pool party that took place afterwards. I have 5 children who can't swim but think they can. Since our priest friend Fr. Allen was there, I was tempted to ask him to bless the pool, and then maybe I could have relaxed a bit. Probably not.

  Here is a picture I took this morning. In the far distance on the right is our church. We are so blessed to be a part of such a great parish!