This weekend

On Saturday Bret picked up our new piggy/garbage disposal. Its a gilt (unbred female) and she is pink and her name is Yum-Yum. She is actually our second Yum-Yum, but we are starting to run out of creative names for our pork (feel free to make suggestions of your own). I'll get a photo of her posted later if I can.

Saturday evening I convinced Bret (with very little effort on my part in all truth), that this tired, pregnant old lady needed Chinese food. In Charlotte we had two children and a Chinese take-out a five-minute walk from our house. Here we have five kids, and the Chinese food is about a 20 to 30 minute drive, depending on which buffet we choose.

We never go out to eat, or rather I ought to say, other than the occasional desperate stop at a fast-food place, we eat out maybe twice a year. So this was a big deal for the kids. Because there was a waitress to remove empty plates and a dimly-lit and quiet atmosphere, the kids thought we were at a fancy restaurant. I explained that fancy restaurants don't drop the eating utensils, all rolled up in paper napkins, in the middle of the table for everyone to help themselves to. We all gorged on a lot of shrimp, and the kids took full advantage of the unlimited deserts, averaging about three per child.

Yesterday after Mass, Fr. Tom Sullivan, CPM, gave me a blessing for my pregnancy near the statue of Padre Pio, and then anointed me with "Padre Pio Oil", which I believe was blessed with his relics at San Giovanni Rotundo.

At home, I was changing out of my church clothes and glancing out the window when I saw a pink critter jogging jauntily down toward the pond. The pig! Yes, the escape of Yum-Yum. So far, every pig we have ever owned with the exception of J.P. has managed at some point to escape. So Bret, with the aid of Una and Sebastian, had to go and capture her and reinforce the pen.

We relaxed with a rented video in the evening and I finished knitting a baby hat. We went to bed early (everyone was in bed before 8), and I read until about 8:45. I'm glad I was out early, as Dominic crawled into our bed at 2 a.m. and squirmed until Bret put him in his crib at 3. Then he awoke again at 4...at which time I got up and had coffee...

Hope you had a good weekend...