A Quick Update

I have a few moments of relative peace, so I thought I'd put some words down on paper (or screen, as the case may be).

We had a lovely Easter in Houston with my enormous family. It's funny how I grew up with two parents and one sister and now, suddenly, after a couple of "I dos" between my dad and stepmom in September of 2004, I have four more sisters, another niece, another nephew (and anther niece on the way, due in August), another brother-in-law and scads of family friends. So our once-small family gatherings have turned into an enormous undertaking.

We all gathered on Saturday at Heidi's house. In attendance were:

Todd
Me
Devin
Faith
Grace
ZZ
Brian
Addy
Presley
Brendan
Kaelin
Dad
Jean
Heidi (who is pregnant with little Erin -- or so the campaign goes)
Ross (Heidi's husband)
Luke (Heidi and Ross' son)
Amy
Jaime (Amy's daughter who turned SIXTEEN on Easter Sunday!)
Amanda
Diane (Amanda's friend)
Heather (Amanda's friend)
Lindsey

By my count, that's 22.5 people. It was a ton of fun! Easter in Texas was a cold, wet one. We had snow as far South as Austin! We stayed inside the whole day, but that was okay with us. The kids ran around like feral children while adults played cards, napped and talked. It was like Thanksgiving -- only colder. :)

Easter Sunday was cold as ZZ, Addy, Presley and I headed to Mass with Dad. But when we left church, it was clearing up and it turned out to be a beautiful day by the time the rest of the family returned from church (we're so big, we have to split it up).

The kids found their Easter baskets upon our return from Mass. The girls both got new outfits, a package of onesies, books and new sippy cups. Devin got the Happy FeetDVD and lots of candy.

We went over to Pa-Pa and Nana's house (my parents) and had our egg hunt there. Much fun was had by all! Jean cooked an enormous, beautiful and scrumptious meal for all of us, and before we knew it, it was time to go. We packed it up and headed back to San Antonio.

It's just now starting to warm up outside. We're all still in shock at how cold it got in APRIL! We're finally back into the 70s during the day and it feels good!

Tomorrow marks the first day of the retreat we have been planning for more than three months now. I am psyched and terrified by the whole thing. I just have to remind myself that it's too late now for any more planning. We just have to go with what we have gotten done so far and let the Holy Spirit take it from there. It's His show, anyway. We're just the actors.

If you're the praying type, any prayers you can send our way would be appreciated. Pray for our team -- that we will have the strength, knowledge and spirit to pull this off. Pray for our retreatants -- that they will come with open hearts and open minds and find God in new ways in their lives. And pray for our retreat -- that the light of Christ will be in everything we do.

Thanks for all you do. More info next week - and some pictures, too, since I've been really remiss in those!

E