Help "The Crescat" Get to the Vatican!

Graphic by Mary Rose - use on your own site if you'd like :-)

I just found out about this today. "Carolina Cannonball" and her blog, The Crescat, have been invited by the Vatican to take part in a special blogger meet-up where they will learn about using this new-fangled stuff called social media for the good of the Church. (I think that's the gist of it...)

There were 750 submissions (!) and only 150 invitations issued. Obviously, the Vatican has touched a chord with wanting to meet Catholic bloggers because boy howdy, did the bloggers want to meet the Vatican! And I say it's about time. I know the Vatican moves slowly with progress (and I actually love that) but yet it is good to see that they want to communicate more with bloggers. That to me is just downright awesome.

So, among the 150 names, I only recognized three and The Crescat was one of them. However, The Cannonball needs a little help getting there. If you could consider donating, she has posted a PayPal button on her blog where you can do so.

All I know is I want lots of pictures, and a few of the Swiss Guard wouldn't hurt, either. :-)

My Updated Digital Scrapbooking Site

Whew, what a week. The reason I've not been updating this blog as much is because I've been on a crash course learning WordPress. It took three days to get the installation process to work, mainly because I was trying to do it manually but discovered my hosting service had an "auto-install" feature. So I've been fooling around lately with directories and FTP uploads.

I know there are many wonderful free WordPress themes out there, and I actually fell in love with one of them. However, the "readme" file was only two paragraphs and I was totally clueless on how to customize it for my needs. So... I bit the bullet and purchased Thesis, which is supposed to be the next best thing to chocolate. Or so I've been told.

Today I spent the day creating the site and more is on the horizon. I have a new welcome video, although I really want to add a form to the side of it so people can sign up for notifications. Still, I was able to get my old posts uploaded, added a few pages, and added my social media icons.

I had no idea how many ways there were to do so many things with Thesis! It seems as though everyone has a different take on how to install or activate something and of course, the ones I tried didn't work for me. Add to this a theme that has been updated quite often and you end up with a mishmash of "how-to's" online that are outdated and unusable. As a newbie, sifting through all of that is not particularly my idea of fun, but I'm on a mission.

So, if you've been wondering if I've fallen off a cliff, now you know!

Check out my website, if you've not, already. Next, I have to figure out how to feature my gallery. Oy.

Welcome! I'm Glad You're Here!

This post will be for new visitors (and old ones, if you'd like to add more information about yourself). During the past year that I've kept this blog, I've been deeply touched by my visitors. Many have introduced me to new ideas, websites, blogs, etc. that has helped me in my journey. Some have prayed for me and I really appreciate it. We all can use prayer!

So introduce yourself if you'd like. What do you love about Catholicism? Are you a "reclaimer" who has been away for awhile? I enjoy hearing other people's experiences and our stories encourage one another. I hope you enjoy the blog. Also, if you have a blog of your own, let me know so we can all visit. :-)

Adrienne of Adrienne's Catholic Corner and Angela of Where Angels Go were two of my early online Catholic friends who helped make me feel welcome. I highly recommend reading both blogs. They are full of warmth, encouragement, and many times just plain silly fun. Who said Catholics are stuffy?!!

Vote for Me.... The 2009 Cannonball Blog Awards!

Okay. How embarrassing is it that I don't have even one vote? I know, I know... I've not let anyone know that I'm there. The voting just started this past weekend and will end May 23rd.

So. If you need a little help, here you go:

VOTE FOR TRUE CONFESSIONS IN THE ' BEST SPIRITUAL TREAT' CATEGORY!

Shy, I'm not. :-)

Still Here After Windstorm '08

My last post was on Saturday, September 13. Little did I know it would be five days until I could update my blog again.

Sunday was a beautiful day. The temperature was around the mid-70's and there was a nice breeze in the air. My husband and I discussed riding our bikes but we both noticed the breeze was starting to turn into a strong wind and decided to forego the ride. We spent the afternoon relaxing and I thought I'd make dinner a little earlier than usual, which turned out to be a good choice.

Just as we finished dinner, around 5:20 PM, our power went out. We had seen our lights flicker a little and started to hear an increase in the wind. After our power went out, we started to hunt for the candles and the flashlight.

My husband and I spent the rest of the night looking out the window and talking to a few family and friends about what was happening. One tree in our yard split at a branch that looked to be around 10 inches in diameter. Only later did we discover that we were experiencing the winds of a Level One hurricane. Ike certainly didn't slow down before blustering through Ohio!

We were blessed. Our power was only out for 24 hours. As I type this, many Ohioans are still without power and some won't have their power restored until the weekend or even Monday. Although our damage is nowhere near the destruction that Galveston and Houston experienced, it still brought its fair share to our area. One woman called a radio station to say her power had been restored after days without it - only to have the tree that had fallen on the line burn to a crisp after the power came back on, which promptly destroyed the power line, leaving the area once again without power. Talk about bad luck!

Although our power was restored after 24 hours, our Internet connection was not. Our service provider had to wait until power was restored to the hubs and evidently, our hub was still without juice. After four days, we just got our connection back today around 3:00 PM.

So I'll be catching up with emails and such. It's strange to be without the Internet when you're used to having it available 24/7. Yesterday, I almost went into a Panera's to see if I could hop online but then thought better of it. The place was packed because so many people were without their Internet. I decided I'd tough it out and get reacquainted with my new home which still could use some organizing.

But still, I have to admit I am very glad I'm online. It can be pretty frustrating when you have a thought, think "I've gotta blog about this!" - and then realize you can't!

Blogger Stuff: New Widget Added - Blogs I'm Following

I have to admit that there are just way too many good blogs out there! Since returning to the Catholic church, I have found some great blogs that have helped me in my journey. Some are just "hi-freaking-larious" (according to the ever-popular 'Carolina Cannonball' and her blog, "The Crescat) and some are very informational (such as Fr. Z's blog, "What Does The Prayer Really Say).

I decided to make use of the new Blogger widget, that updates a blog list with the most recent entries. I think it's cool. My list will most likely change, according to how many other new blogs I discover, but for now, it's fairly lengthy enough. And yes, I know my left hand column is getting busy. There's just so much out there! :-)

I still want a better reading list, though. I think Blogger improved it. I need to find it and test it out.

Need a Feed?

If you look to the left, you'll see I added an RSS Feed to the site. You should be able to subscribe with whichever Feed management provider you use.

I am thanking The Curt Jester for this after he posted a recent entry about his updated blog design. After he admitted he never visited a blog again if they didn't have a feed, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and add one. I've known about them for years, I just didn't take the time to learn how to do it.

So, all I can say is thank God for Blogger and the relationship FeedBurner has with it. However, I use FeedDemon to keep track of my growing list of subscriptions. Now that I'm checking into it and building my own personalized news feed, I'm thinking, "What the heck took you so long, Mary Rose?!!"