All Hallow's Eve - a scary but true story...

It was All Hallow's Eve in the village of Beacon and the day was a dark and rainy. The day started out as any other day but it became more peculiar as the day continiued. Things started to turn strange when this girl named Claire wanted to carve out some goelish fun. She needed a place to allow her creative juices to flow, so she started to create a monster. She chose her victim carefully, a small critter, with just the right shape and texture. In an effort to give her "monster" character she used the help of a pattern from her "Wicked" friend. She took out her tools and went to work on her monster. She scooped, and poked, and sawed away to get just the right face for this creature. After many tiresome hours of work her Goul was done.

She proped up her goul next to the "Wicked" friend's spider to scare all those little kiddies who would come for treats. The trick-or-treaters had started to ring the bell of that scary Red House on Oak Street. (There were rumors that it was haunted by some nuns who formerly lived in the house and came back each Halloween to warn trick-or-treators about what happens to those little children who pull tricks.) When out of no where a Pretty Pretty Princess appeared.

She had some advice for Claire and her friends. She said, "You must dress up and share the treats you have with those Friends of Francis." Claire and her friends were not sure exactly who this Pretty Pretty Princess was talking about and besideds they had no costumes to dreess in. The Pretty Pretty Princess assured Claire and her friends that she would guided them to these Friends of Francis and with a wave of her magic wand the Pretty Pretty Princess had Claire and her friends in costume in no time. The Pretty Pretty Princess guided Claire and her two friends, now in costume to a large old house across town and then disappeared just as she had come.

They rang the bell and to what should their eyes behold but a scrary man with a shirt that said, "Take a Hike". The Pretty, Pretty Princess had told Claire and her friends to visit this strange house to deliver treats but this bearded man with glasses surely could not be the one who would welcome treats. Claire and her friends decided to trust the Pretty Pretty Princess and make known their offering. Despite his rugged appearance this man welcomed Claire and her friends and offered gifts of chocolate in return.

Claire and her friends were making their way back to the Red House when they noticed the scary man from the house was following them in a Jester's costume. Was this some sort of trick?

Claire and her friends entered the Red House quickly to escape the man in the Jester's costume. They ran upstairs to tell their other roomate about the Pretty Pretty Princess and how she had told them to share treats with Friends of Francis, and how the man they had taken treats to was following them in a Jester's costume.

Pokeydoa, this other roomate, did not seem to find this at all strange for he tooo had had an encounter with the Pretty Pretty Princess. He had been told to pray that the scary nuns, who haunted the house, would not come back. Once he was finished praying the Pretty Pretty Princess had waved her magic wand and he was wearing a black dress with a prink tie around the waste. Claire and her friends were so frieghtened when they came into the house that they had not even noticed the strange attire that Pokeydoa was wearing.

Claire, her two friends, and Pokeydoa crept down the stairs so see if the Jester was still there, and too their horror he was now at the front door peering into the window. The Jester said in a deep forbading voice, "I have a message for you from the Pretty Pretty Princess." Slowly the group opened the door to better here what the Jester was saying. The Pretty Pretty Princess told me I should follow the people who left me treats and take them bowling. Then she brought out her wand and put me in this Jester's costume.

What could this message from the Pretty Pretty Princess mean? Not wanting to have any harmm brought to them they all went bowling in their costumes, and to their delight nothing else happened that night. Maybe the Pretty Pretty Princess just wanted them to all go out and have a good laugh or two, one may never know what the real intent of the Pretty Pretty Princess was.

Now you ask was this a trick or a treat? Both is the answer to the question, trick becuase the story was partially made up but treat beacuse you got to hear about a crazy time we had. As you should be able to figure out by now this is a partially true story of my adventures on Halloween. Claire did create a goulish monster, a carved pumpkin. The Pretty Pretty Princess is Ann who did provide us all, minus Lake, with costumes for Halloween. Yes Pokeydoa did dress up in Ann's dress. Finally, we did go bowling in costume and had some great laughs. We were the only ones in the bowling alley dresed up and it was a league night where we were the youngest people there. It was the spontaniety of the adventure that made it all the more fun. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Apple Picking

Today my God's Tym teens and I went apple picking in Marlboro, NY at Weed Orchard. It was a fun adventure and reminded me of the days of when I went apple picking with my family when I was younger.
We picked a whole bunch of Empire apples. The teens went climbing in the trees like little monkeys to get the best apples at the top of the tree. As the day progressed they started resorting to the long-handeled apple picker. Just as we were about done picking apples it started to drizzel. It was fun to see Joe Parelli pulling the wagon full of pumpkins along, not trying to get stuck in the mud. We all managed to get out of the orchard not completly covered in mud and had a great time. Plus I got to eat homemade apple cider donaughts. (Yummy)

God's Tym - Mike, Joe P, Joe D, Emma, Lori, Steve, and Ryan

Justin McRoberts

Ann has been raving about this muscian Justin McRoberts for weeks and tonight three of our God's Tyms went to see him in Hopewell Junction.

I planned it as my God's Tym for the week but none of my kids showed up. It was a bit dissapointing because I do believe that some of them would have really enjoyed the music. I did enjoy the concert and Justin's music. He sang about his experiences and said that him writing songs was like keeping a journal. To listen to some of his music you can visit his website http://www.justinmcroberts.com/ . The music reminded me that I need help in the work that I am doing and must remember to ask for help. I will keep working at how to improve God's Tym.

Thanks Ann for telling me about a great concert.

Throwing Clay is not easy

Tonight my pottery class was a humbeling experience. I went later to class because we had dinner at the Friary so I didn't get to have my teacher around as long as normal. I trimmed pots last week so it was time to throw more clay for new pieces. Throwing clay is using a pottery wheel to create pieces. The first class when I learned how to throw it came fairly easy but tonight this was not the case.

I had trouble centering the clay, which is important so that your pot does not become lopsided or too thing and break. Also I was having trouble by getting my clay to wet. Clay absorbs water quickly and once it is too wet it is hard to work with until it dries out again.

Although this was frustrating I learned two lessons from the clay. The first is that you have to continue to keep your life in balance, and working on your centering. You cannot work too much or play too much but rather find a balance between the two and remember to take care of yourself.

The second thing I learned was that I cannot absorb all of the stimulus that is around me. I can only pick up bits and pieces at a time or I will not be able to concentrate if there are too many projects going at once.

My time was not completly lost because Ray Boswell, the man who owns the studio came in and showed me some techniques to create a bowl. So it took until my last lump of clay this night but I did accomplish something. The bowl in the picture is the one that I ended up with and is one of the better pieces that I have created.

God continues to teach me lessons in unexpeceted places.

New York City

What better way to celebrate St. Teresa of Liseux's feast day than going into New York City and going to Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. We took a little trip to the city today.

We went to Mass, ate lunch on the steps of St. Patrick's, walked around Times Sqaure, stopped for ice cream, walked through Central Park, and stopped for dinner. It wasn't that we did anything special but it was about the people I was with. This is very much the way of St. Teresa, doing small things with great love. The five lay assistants in Central Park