Dear Jonnie as you turn 6

Dear Jonnie,

I write this on the eve of your 6th birthday. I can't believe how quickly these six years have gone by that you've been in my life.

It seems like only yesterday that you were born and had to go back to the hospital because of jaundice. Granny Smith was by my side as I sat in a chair by your ultraviolet box and cried. I blamed myself for your plight with everything from having drank too much orange juice to the orange cheese (which you love) on McDonald's hamburgers.

You and I spend a lot of time together. As an infant, you were sick a good bit and Dad could not take time off work to stay home when you were sick. Of course, we had 12 weeks together while I was on leave from work. We have Saturdays when Daddy shoots plus his trips to state and national matches. We have evenings when Daddy has Knights meetings and we have the time when Daddy is watching NASCAR.

I've tried to be a mother and a father to you. I think you've come to learn that I'm not so good at fixing things like the TV when it breaks. I guess that's the advantage to having so many because we can go to another room.

I'm by no means perfect and I think you've learned to realize this. I'm stubborn and tempermental and I don't tolerate being told what to do in my personal life. Unfortunately, my stubborness meant that you have no birthday party with your friends this year. Pap-Pap gave you a family party at Easter but I know that's not the same. I promise that next year you will have a party with your new friends that you make at Plain City Elementary as you enter first grade in the fall. As for a family party, someone else can do that.

I Love You, Jonnie, more than words can say. I know it doesn't always show especially on my stressed out day but I do Love You Very, Very Much.

Happy Birthday with Love,

Mama

Letter to NASCAR

Dear NASCAR,

I did not realize how inconsistent or varied your racing schedule was until I sat down during breakfast this morning and started entering races onto my calendar so I know when my husband is not available. Jon's family is strict about watching the races; he is called to make sure he is watching the race sometimes at the beginning, middle, or toward the end. To avoid conflicts and the wasting of money like I did when I bought hockey tickets for a game that conflicted with NASCAR, I am putting your races on my Outlook calendar.

I've only entered races through September 6th at this time but I was blown away at how often the races change. You have a few on Saturday nights but most are on Sundays. Some start at 12:30, some at 1:30, some at 3:30. We had family outings scheduled on Sundays that I had to cancel once I realized that it conflicted with NASCAR, specifically Sprint Cup, races. Since my husband has the membership to the recreation center, my son & I cannot go without him. Once I enter the rest of the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule into my calendar, I know there are more Sunday family outings that will have to be canceled.

It would be wonderful if you could offer consistency in your schedule. If I know that from February through November that my husband is unavailable 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM because of a Sprint Cup races, that would be preferable. Of course, asking NASCAR to change its scheduling is probably as likely as it is for my husband's family to loosen its strictness on race viewing.

A Dale JR Fan and former NASCAR race viewer,


Jodi L. Santini

(PS - I'm not actually sending this to NASCAR. I just needed to get my frustration out! I used to watch NASCAR regularly but since the spying started to make sure we were watching, I frankly got pissed off and stopped watching on purpose.)

Redecorating without dollars

At the end of last week, I moved into what used to be our spare bedroom. My husband had been in that room for 3 weeks but when he went back on call for work, I quickly realized after 2 calls in the middle of the night that it made no sense for the phones he's called on to be in a different room. I'd rather not schlep phones down the hall in the wee hours of the morning. Jon is also a difficult person to wake up so he needed to be next to his alarm clock again.

I've been in my new bedroom for only a few days and I have the urge to redecorate. However, with car repair bills, school tuition, summer camp, and vacations there really isn't the extra money for me to run out and buy new stuff. For years when we shared a bedroom, Jon's tastes ruled the bedding choices so we've had varying comforters of black & gray. Now that on-call and constant snoring has lead to different sleeping arrangements, I feel like a little girl again and want a more feminine room. Right now, I have a quilt on the bed that my Mom made that is shades of lavendar and white. I needed something lighter-weight than the heavy black & white plaid comforter that had been on the bed. Of course, the plaid bedskirt that matched the comforter is on the bed. I was looking for bedspreads on-line and kept going toward ones that had roses. I keep thinking that we still have a bedspread in the basement that my mother-in-law gave us when we got our first apartment and it's got roses on it. We only used it a short time before Jon found a black comforter for the bed. The bedspread had matching valances so I would have to get brackets so the valances can go on the windows with the wood blinds. You can see pictures of my room in my album called My Blah New Bedroom on my Facebook page.

We had a lot of pictures up on the walls at our old house. I found a box of pictures and it was boy scout patches in a large frame and Jon's certificate. Not quite what I'm wanting on the walls in my room. I love the desk and night stand in the room. There is a mirror over the bed that matches them although I'll admit that the mirror sometimes makes me nervous. I'd love to get rid of the TV but since Jonnie sometimes likes to come into my room at night, I'd probably better keep it.

Does anyone have any ideas to share with me on redecorating my room without (or with very few) dollars? I'd love to hear from you if you do!!

Sister Jodi - we'll never know

Aside from the physical aspect of walking early in the morning, I enjoy the peace and quiet with the only sound being the chirping birds and a rare car passing by. This is a time when I find myself thinking about numerous things. This morning I was thinking about if I'd found the Catholic Faith as a young girl, if I might have been a nun.

The truth is that I'll never know the answer to that question. As a child my Mom shared many stories of the nuns she had in Catholic boarding school. Some where funny and others were scary. I think it's safe to say that the "Sister Sophie Pinch" would not be tolerated in today's educational system despite the fact that it might do some good!! In high school, we had a Halloween Party for Spanish club and I wanted to be a nun. My Mom made me a very nice habit. In high school, it was the rage for girls style their hair with bangs that would touch the sky and hair lifted out above each ear almost where it could touch the person next to you in class. My Mom called the hair style the "Flying Nun" based on the movie where the nuns habits flared out while flying through the air.

As I thought back on these things, I felt shame. I feel that in my younger years, I made a mockery of the sisterhood. I certainly know that I never intended any harm at the time but the truth was I had clue about the sacrifices nuns make to live their lives of service to Him.

I've been reading for the past several weeks Mother Teresa's book titled "No Surrender". It has made me truly understand what nuns for us and for our God. Sisters lead lives of Christ by helping the poor, the meek, and the lonely. They live simply and humbly. How many of us would go on a trip with only one change aside from what's on our back and only 3-5 other items believing that those we are going to see would provide everything else that we would need? I could probably get away with this visiting my parents but they'd probably think I lost my mind.

Abstinence for Christ Jesus; living our lives as he intended. Living our lives not for ourselves but for others. I've found that abstinence is the easy part but living my life for someone else? That's a toughie.

I've been reading "Her Name is Woman" for the past week. The pages I read had me fired up after I read them probably because I live life for myself, not someone else. The author wrote about Rebekah and Issac and the marital problems they experienced. The author pointed back to verses in 1 Corinthians where the husband should be the leader with the woman being his servant and obeying his commands. NO!!!! NO!!!! NO!!!! I know this is in the Bible but with the way I've been living my life, I cannot do this. When this scripture is read in mass, my husband cracks a smile because he can hear my eyes roll. Miriam is another woman I read about in "Her Name is Woman". She was viewed as "overestimating herself" or, as a woman, trying to over achieve in her work as a prophet with Aaron & Moses. She became a leper and had to be shut away for seven days. I was furious, again because of the way I've lived, that Miriam's desire to achieve was viewed badly because she was a woman.

I have to wonder if I could go back to being 6 years old again (my son will be 6 on Friday) and I had the opportunity he's had to learn about Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the vocations, would I have turned out to be a different person? Rather than being a boy-crazy teenager styling my hair to great heights and being selfish, might I have been called lead a self-less, simple life of the Sisterhood?

That, my friends, we will never know.

How we're keeping busy

There's never any shortage of things to do here at the Santini House. Generally, we tend to have the issue of how we're going to fit it all in.

At last Wednesday's PSR class, Jon's class invited Father Pat to come in for a celebration as the last class is this week. The children showed him how they do the "Sign of the Cross" and they recited the "Our Father" for him. Sounds crazy but I had to hold back tears! I think it was because not only did the kids do a great job but it triggered the memory for me of when I learned the "Our Father" as a junior in college.

On Thursday evening, Jon got Jonnie out on his bike and he rode around the neighborhood. Jon suggested Jonnie practice for the trike a thon he was doing at school on Friday. The school managed to get the trike a thon in outside between rain showers but I don't know how many laps Jonnie rode.

Friday brought lots of rain come afternoon-evening. I dropped my car off at the Ford dealer for the 80K service package and it was raining when Jon picked me up. It started pouring on the way to the school. We managed to get the bike & everyone into the car without getting soaked. The rain slowed down by the time we got to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. I promised my husband dinner since he was driving me around and I needed to get groceries. Jonnie had his Pap-Pap's favorite of corn dogs, Jon tried the chicken tender slammers, and I had Asian zing wings. Yummy! Once we got home, I changed the sheets in what used to be our spare bedroom. Jon had been sleeping for about 3 weeks and was sick during that time. He went back on-call for work and having his cell phone & the house phone not in the same room as him proved to be a real wake up call when I had to take both down to him at 2 AM Friday morning. Not to mention, Jon is not really easy to wake up so he should be by his alarm clock. Jon his in the large bedroom with the big TV and all of his other techie stuff. I'm in the small bedroom with the small TV (I wouldn't care if it was there at all), alarm clock, cell phone charger, lamp, books, ceramic elephant from Jonnie, and my picture frame with pictures of Jonnie & Pope John Paul II.

Saturday brought the opportunity to sleep in and I woke up a little after 7. Jonnie wanted to hang out with me even though I have a small TV and he ended up staying there all night. After lunch we were able to get my car back before we had to go to Jonnie's play. We did not realize that we would have to sit through 7 other plays before Jonnie's class came on. However, we were able to get seats up front so that I could see. Jon took his tripod and video camera and I took some pictures with my digital camera. The video of the play will eventually be on YouTube and I'll download photos from my camera since I promised pictures for my Mom by Mother's Day. We went to Wal-Mart as we promised Jonnie post-play. Jonnie got some huge Star Wars Lego set that cost more than the hoodie & capris I found on clearance, a new pedometer, and ant traps we also had. Jon had coupons for Best Buy so he and Jonnie went there to look for movies. I went to World Market to gaze at all the goodies they have plus pick up some unique wines as well as birch salad bowls and some bamboo tongs that Jon found. We get home and Jon fires up the grill for grilled corn on the cob & steaks. Of course, his Dad calls to make sure he's home to watch the NASCAR race that was on last night.

I managed to schedule one 5K per month through the end of the year. I only have the 1st and 3rd Saturdays to work with or Sundays. If I do a Sunday 5K then I have to go to mass on Saturday. If it's a 2nd or 4th Saturday, Jon is out shooting so Jonnie ends up going to mass with me on Saturday and mass with Jon on Sunday. I guess it won't hurt him.

Jonnie's birthday is coming up this Friday, May 8th. It's hard to believe that he'll be 6 already. He keeps changing his mind on what he wants to do now. We were going to the House of Japan. I guess we'll decide something by Friday. A month after Jonnie's birthday is our wedding anniversary. It's year #13 for us this year. I leave for vacation on our anniversary which Jon said was perfectly okay. I wanted to take him out to dinner at the Montgomery Inn probably after I get home from vacation. He's shooting as soon as I get home and I have to check the NASCAR schedule so to make sure we're not away from the house during the race. Jon's Dad calls to make sure he's watching the race and it's sometimes at the beginning, the middle, or the end. We missed half a hockey game at the arena a few weeks ago because Jon's Dad called to make sure he was watching the race as we were walking in the arena. Jon got in trouble so we sat in the pub watching NASCAR on one TV and the hockey game on another so Jon could tell his Dad he watched the race. After spending over $100 on tickets for the hockey game, I was pretty well ticked off so I learned my lesson. I'm not taking Jon out for dinner at $30 a plate and end up leaving in the middle with doggie bags so Jon can come home and watch the race.

Today, I completed my promised rosaries for the "One Million Babies" program going on this weekend. I committed to praying the Rosary on Friday and Sunday. Later today we're all going over the RPAC since NASCAR was on last night for family day. I'm going to walk 3.2 miles (5K) as practice for my 5K next week.

I'd better run & get some breakfast. I have to be at mass early since I'm ushering.

Have a wonderful week!