The St. Louis Basilica

"My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations"

~ Isaiah 56:7

This is my favorite place to retreat to for prayer in St. Louis. If you have never been to the Basilica, it is a must...It is home to the largest collection of mosaics and has beautiful side chapels. I invite you to visit!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was filled with spending time with great people. I started the day with Dad and Francine at Mass. Then I went to Tom's (my mom's husband) family for Brunch. Following that we celebrated Christmas at my mom's house, and then we traveled to my aunt Jeannie's house for the rest of the Christmas day and to celebrate the Carmody Christmas.

Time at Aunt Jeannie's was filled with Carmody tradition...playing outside, taking pictures, exchanging gifts, eating good food, singing songs, and of course playing the gag gift game. What a better "gag" gift than the neck of the turkey from dinner! Anyways, here are some snap shots of the evening...

Turkey neck...gag!

My cousins and I had some fun photo shoots, though I can't seem to remember some of my cousins' names...

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
~Luke 2:1-20

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve afternoon I went to my dad's house to celebrate Christmas. We watched Robyn's video of the Turkey Day game, exchanged some gifts, ate dinner, and then played some games. It was a nice way to start the celebration of Christmas.

Robyn and I


Robyn and her boyfriend Tim

Robyn, Dad, and I

Robyn, Dad, Francine, and I...oh and Emmie too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Remembering Lavell Kroner

Lavell Kroner
December 9, 1987 - December 22, 2007

Uncle Bob, Terrell, and Lavell

Being home for Christmas has brought forth many reminders that I have a wonderful family and that I do not appreciate enough the blessings that God has placed in my life. One of my uncles, Bob, is a man with a large heart, as all of my family members have. Uncle Bob holds a special place in his heart for a young man named Lavelle. Uncle Bob met Lavell when Lavell was three. He then grew in friendship with Lavell for the past 17 years. I had the privilege of also getting to know Lavell whenever my uncle brought him by to visit.

A few years back Lavell was diagnosed with Leukemia. He has been battling it ever since. The Lord ended his battle here on earth yesterday afternoon. We will miss Lavell and his presence. We considered him one of our family members and loved to have him at our family events. Though this will be a difficult time for Lavell's family and my uncle, we all know that Lavell was a good man with a strong heart and great aspirations, and that he will now rest in a more desired and peaceful Place. May God Bless him and his family as we mourn the loss of an amazing and loving young man.

Here's just a small video to tribute to one of our fond memories of Lavell...

Advent Wine Tasting Party

Last night my roommate Stacy and I had friends over for a wine tasting party. We were inspired from our trip to Weston. We asked each guest to bring a bottle of wine to sample. I prepared some mauled wine to start us off and to warm our guests from the snowy weather, then we were onto the testing....with nearly 2o people there, as you may guess there was plenty of wine to try!

"You raise grass for the cattle and plants for our beasts of burden. You bring bread from the earth, and wine to gladden our hearts." -Psalm 104:14-15

The Evil Eye

I received the link to this video a couple times in one day! It's another You Tube fav!

It's been awhile...

Hello friends and family!

I am sorry I have not posted in awhile. As the end of the semester wraps up things have become more hectic, but things have been good. I have kept myself busy with school, spending time with friends, mentoring, and trying to regain some balance in all areas of my life.

Since it's been awhile, I am almost at a loss of words, so I hope that the sequence of pictures fill you in with what I have been up to!

I hope you are all having a blessed Advent season and I hope to see many of you over the Christmas Break!

Love, Lauren

Snow Day(s)

Last week, I can't remember which day, but we received about 3 inches of snow while at school...that is when the snow day bug hit for all the students. They had several rumors going around by 11. The first rumor was that we were going to be released at 11:30. Then they said there was a line of buses outside ready to take them home, when in reality, there was the singular vo-tech bus that comes every day! So needless to say, with the first snow of the season, not much work was accomplished in class...

So then at the end of the week when forecasters were calling for an ice storm that weekend, students were banking on a snow day. Nothing happened as predicted on Sunday, but Monday night they were calling for an inch of ice through the night and potentially another inch on Tuesday. With the anticipation high, students were stir crazy on Monday, and I guess the school district was being cautious, so by 9:45pm Monday night, school was cancelled for Tuesday. It was a glorious moment. I needed a mental health day, but I am too dumb to take one! So I decided that God granted me this day off! The day was great. I got some school stuff done, but I then took the second half of the day for myself to relax, rest, and spend some time in prayer.

We did end up receiving about a 1/2 inch of ice, but the roads were fine, at least where I live. I do not think we would have had the day off if the anticipation was not a factor. However, now I am hearing that some of the surrounding areas near Riverside were hit hard and out of power.

Tuesday morning, I woke up, a bit anxious about school...I think I just knew I had a lot to do...so I got up early to get some things done before school began. I arrived at school at 6:30. I noticed there were only 3 other cars. I just figured I was early and people were being careful arriving to school...the thought crossed my mind that school was cancelled, but I couldn't believe it was possible. So I tried to get into school, and only one door was open. Again, I gave the janitor the benefit of the doubt that she was a little late, so again I didn't really think school could be cancelled. I finally made it in, made some copies, unlocked all the doors I needed to get to my office. On my way to the office, I passed another teacher who just said, "Getting some stuff done?" And all I thought was yeah, I know it's early, but...Now I wonder at this point if he knew...he must have! It was then close to 6:50 and all I could think was, there is no one else here! So I thought, what the heck, let me check online...sure enough, school had been cancelled. I then checked my phone which I had already placed on silent and I had missed two phone calls. School was cancelled at 6:05, but I did not get contacted until 6:35.

Though I had to go to school to find out, it was a pleasant surprise to have the day off! I got a little more school work done. Got to see Sasha on her birthday and do a few other odds and ends...I guess we were cancelled due to some of the schools not having heat.

I have to say, it was a great break just before the end of the semester. We are now down to five days left in the semester....then Christmas Break! I will reflect more on the semester later, but let me tell you...I am ready for the break but at the same time, I will be sad to see some of my students move on....5 and counting....