The Lemonade Stand

Remember when we were kids and you had the bright idea to set up a lemonade stand? And you were happy with the few bucks that you made? And then you had to split that few bucks with your siblings or your friends? And you were still happy?

We had a community yard sale this past Saturday and MK and the neighbor girl Delaney showed entrepreneurial skills and opened a lemonade stand. I donated some banana muffins and chocolate brownie muffins and Delaney's visiting grandmother donated chocolate chip cookies. The girls were up at 8am with lemonade and snacks ready to go for the hordes of customers that were going to come through!

Well, we didn't have hordes of customers and most of the families that were participating in the yard sale never broke $100 that day. But, MK and Delaney brought in $102!!!!! At a lemonade stand!!!! Of course, there were a lot of sucker neighbors who grabbed their lukewarm lemonades and tossed in a few bucks, too.

So, MK and Delaney split their $102 and then MK was most disappointed when she found out she had to pay some overhead expenses. All of $8.

Here she is making a sale to a sucker, I mean, customer!

Toulouse, France

I realized that I have never written about our day in Toulouse, France. If you read an earlier blog, you'll know that we were stuck in Toulouse for an entire day before we could fly out. We made the best of the day by storing our lugguge at the hotel, taking a free shuttle from our hotel to the airport and then catching a city center bus from the airport to the downtown area. Not many Americans visit Toulouse so the French assumed we were British. When they found out we were Americans, they were very surprised and delighted and then started asking lots of questions! So forget everything you've heard about those rude French! It is simply not true................

When you are an American travelling in France, there is only one place to eat lunch; McDonald's!
No really, this was the last day of our vacation and we were broke and looking for a cheap place to get something quick to eat.


I wish I could remember the names of all the places we visited. This is the first Cathedral we stopped by. It was closed for lunch so we had to come back later. Look at that tower; this was very typical for the towers we saw around Toulouse.



On our walk, we passed a small park with some play equipment. It must have been lunchtime for the Toulouse kids because it was packed with student groups. MK wanted to play on this merry go round and these French teenagers were happy to oblige as long as Matt kept spinning them around, too!

This stop was another old church and former monastery converted into an art museum. Here we take a break in the inner courtyard where monks used to take daily walks. The museum featured architectural items from the various churches in Toulouse from the different time periods. The statues and columns were mostly from the 14th and 15th centuries. There was also a modern art gallery featuring impressionism and post-impressionism works and marble statues. What impressed me the most was all the school children groups. When you grow up in a city next to a world class art museum, you get to take daily field trips with your art teacher and practice drawing the art that you see.Every city in Europe has a city center, or markplatz, or town square. This is the Toulouse city center and the building is a former royal residence. The town hall is located directly across. Toulouse was a delightful little detour on our travelling home day. If you're ever in the area, stop on by!

Mary's rant on ignorant people who should keep their uninformed thoughts to themselves

Recently, a "friend" posted a video on the bulletin section of myspace page. I started a myspace page as a way to keep in touch with the many cousins and other relatives I have out there. This particular "friend" is the babydaddy of one of my cousins. For those of you who don't know, a "babydaddy" is the father of your children whom you are not married to.
The video he posted was the seventeen second youtube video of two marines on patrol in Iraq who threw a defenseless puppy out over a ravine. His title for this posting was "our us army at its finest". I wrote to him to let him know that these two individuals were not US Army but instead were two US Marines and both were disciplined for this action. One was expelled from the marines and the other disciplined and demoted. His response was "marines or army, they are still out there protecting our country, or whatever."
And here's my response: While I am not going to get into a debate on myspace with a half-grown kid about the US Military and its service I will state my thoughts here. Yes, just like in any organization, group or society there are a few bad apples that will make the rest of the organization look bad. For those two marines who made a poor choice and did not represent the military very positively, there are hundreds and thousands of honorable men and women in uniform who are serving this country well. There are thousands of our soldiers out there going on patrols, being shot at, getting bombed, losing limbs, losing eyesight, losing their lives and all so you can have the right to make fun of them.
So while you feel safe in your homes across the midlands, just remember this: Terrorism has knocked on our doors and it was called 9-11. These same terrorists and their "friends" will not be happy until all infidels are wiped out. If you are not sure who the infidels are, that would be all Christians or people who believe differently than them. The US military's presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is fighting for our freedoms at the source of the problem. Would you rather our soldiers were fighting terrorism at our borders? Or how about letting them hijack a few more planes and wiping out 3,000 civilians in say Kansas City or Omaha or Oklahoma City. I didn't think so. So, while you sleep snug in your beds at night, and smoke your illegal drugs, and father children out of wedlock, just remember this, these guys are out there protecting you and your rights a half a world away. They are separated from their loved ones for months and fifteen months at a time. They come home with missing limbs, hearing loss, vision loss and traumatic injuries inside that you cannot even imagine. The memories of things that they saw and did while on patrols will haunt them for their rest of their lives. So yeah, "marines or army, they are still out there protecting our country, or whatever."

The Convent with her name on it

Here she is...........our little sister in waiting.

MK and I attended a Mother/Daughter retreat in May at the Schoenstatt retreat center in Schoenstatt, Germany. MK was most impressed by all of the Sisters she saw. We attended Mass at the Adoration Church with about 300 Schoenstatt Sisters. We sat near the front and during the whole Mass, she kept looking behind and smiling at all the nuns. This was an amazing site for her to see!

The interesting thing about Schoenstatt Sisters is that they are a secular society and do not take Consecrated Vows. Instead, they take Secular vows and are thus not really "nuns" but secular sisters. They can leave the order at anytime they wish but few do. These women just glowed with joy!

When it was time to leave, MK did not want to. She asked Sister Angela, our guide, how old do you have to be to a nun. Well, its still a toss-up between being a nun and having three children someday!

Girl Scouts and Berchtesgaden

Call me crazy, but I just spent the weekend with 18 girls between the ages of 10-12 in Berchtesgaden, Germany. We sold those cookies last February and bought ourselves a bus to the Hinterbrand Lodge for the weekend, see below. The Hinterbrand Lodge is an Army owned facility open to student groups from Europe. It's free and completely self-catering. We had to bring our own food, cleaning supplies and bedding but couldn't have picked a better location for a bunch of Girl Scouts. The Hinterbrand Lodge was built in the 1920's and sometime in the "30's taken over by the German Nazi party. A man named Dietrich Eckhart hid here in 1926 from the Weimar Republic. Later, Hitler later dedicated the second part of his book "Mein Kampf" to this man whom he considered his mentor.

Our plans included visiting the Eagle's Nest, Hitler's hideaway in the Alps; the Berchtesgaden salt mine tour, and hiking around the Lodge. We worked on GS Badges and had a fabulous weekend!

The girls returning from a two hour hike and the Hinterbrand Lodge on the top of our hill. We were at 3200 ft.

Who needs an alarm clock when you can wake up at 7am to the noise of cowbells? We ran out of our Lodge to see and hear the cows being herded to a different pasture.

The view from the balcony of my room. Breathtaking! Would you ever want to leave?

Later, we took off on a hike around the Lodge and found the cows! We tried to talk to them but they didn't speak English, only German!

A view from below of the Eagle's Nest. We spent the morning hiking around the top of this mountain. There was still LOTS of snow and I was constantly screaming at the girls to "Get off the snow!" The highlight of this trip for me was having lunch on top of this mountain with its 360 degree panoramic view.

Tobacco-free Week

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in our travelling to Lourdes travails that Matt forgot his roll of Copenhagen. He was not a happy man! He had one can of Copenhagen and managed to make it last for three days. He bought some cigars to tide him over but MK was scared for his life and worried everytime she saw or knew he was lighting up. You know how they teach in school to "say no to all drugs"?

50th International Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes

Every year, we attend the International Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. For 50 years now, Militaries from around the world come together to pray for peace. This year was the 50th anniversary of the pilgrimage and the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother to the peasant girl, Bernadette. We were crowded in the streets with over 25,000 soldiers and their family members! It was truly awesome!

MK's favorite thing in Lourdes is the Mary water. Before we can do anything else in Lourdes, we have to go fill our bottles with Mary water. We drink the water all weekend and save some to bring home to give to our friends.



We stayed with the Heidelberg Military Community in a family-run hotel. Our room was very tiny. Literally, only one person could be standing at a time. However, we were on a pilgrimage and were grateful to have a room. Did I mention that the food was superb and served family style. And look below; this was the view from our room.


U.S. soldiers line up for the Opening Procession. Matt is in there somewhere! We've been attending the military pilgrimage for five years now and this was the largest group of Americans we had ever seen. For the first time ever, the Army sent the USAEUR Army band. On Saturday, the bands from the different countries performed in places throughout Lourdes. The Irish pipers gave impromtu performances all through streets. Truly delightful!


Soldiers marching through the streets. These are Croatians. The view is from our hotel room.


We attended Mass on Sunday in the grotto where Mary appeared to Bernadette. It was a beautiful Mass with the Irish.


I am going to be so sad when we finally move back to the States and won't have the opportunity to go Lourdes so regularly. Despite all our difficulties, we received so many graces.