I love LEGOs and enjoy seeing what creations people come up with. Duane Collicot has built a LEGO replica of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse. I might have to drive up and see this!
Read LEGO is used for lighthouse gift donation in the Leelanau Enterprise
Now you can see the latest posts from my other two blogs, Leealnau Sports Guy's World and Good Saints on the right-hand side of this site. Go ahead and start reading!
Finally caught the special on Good Morning America Weekend's "Ice Cream Challenge" and Moomers Homemade Ice Cream in Traverse City is one of the four finalists!
I know we try to make a couple of trips every summer to enjoy their delicious ice cream. If you haven't been, you're missing out! Go and vote through Saturday, May 24th for Moomers to be the best in America!
Many of you know that Mary was in the hospital for two weeks and is now recovering at home. I just want to take a moment to thank all of you praying for Mary and our family, we really appreciate it. Also to the countless people who have helped with food, housework, gas money, etc., we feel very blessed to have you as family and friends!
God Bless each and every one of you,
The Stecks
PS. I have setup a new email account that Mary and I both access at thestecks@gmail.com.
PSS. I thought the baptism gown worn by Mary's family for 3 generations was impressive, but check this out in the Record Eagle - Gown worn by family since 1889!
At least that's what a recent study found...
A new study by The Nielsen Company shows that PG-rated movies with less profanity made more money at box offices across the United States. The study cross-referenced box office figures for 400 films in wide release from the fall of 2005 to the fall of last year.
My wife won't watch many movies that are PG-13 or R so it's disappointing when browsing the local video store just how few PG or G movies there seem to be. It does seem that Hollywood just keeps spitting out trash and not taking the box office numbers into account. I remember driving by the Horizon Theaters one night last summer and every movie there was PG-13 or R. I know the mall theaters generally cater to the kids movies, and the Horizon more teen and adult, but still, it really seemed pathetic.
Read Appeal, success of PG movies apparently falling on deaf ears in Hollywood at OneNewsNow.com
This looks like quite an upgrade and it now has built-in many features that I've been using multiple plugin's to do. This should be very cool.
Read 2.5 Sneak Peek at Wordpress.org
I wish I had more time that I could beta test it...
So I was building animals, cars and swimming pools for the kids out of PLAY-DOH the other night and I had a blast! Claire always wants me to make a daddy deer, mommy deer and two kid deer, Luke likes swimming pools and cars, and Mark likes to smash whatever we make and throw it on the floor (yes, it drives me crazy!). Anyway, I was wondering how long PLAY-DOH has been around, so I went snooping around the old internet and found a timeline of the history of PLAY-DOH...
1956: PLAY-DOH® Brand modeling compound, a non-toxic reusable modeling compound developed by Rainbow Crafts in Cincinnati, is demonstrated and sold in the toy department of Woodward & Lothrop Department Store in Washington, D.C. PLAY-DOH compound is available only in one color and size, an off-white, 1.5-pound can. One year earlier, it was introduced to schools, kindergartens and nursery schools.
The photo on the right is not one of my creations, it's alot better than what I can build. This Photo is from the PLAY-DOH website at www.hasbro.com/playdoh.
I also found these commercials from the 80's advertising the PLAY-DOH Make-A-Meals sets, I assume they did this because kids weren't eating enough PLAY-DOH...
Stay tuned next week as I feature Silly Putty!*
*Just kidding. Maybe.
Here's an article I missed a week ago about Rev. Dan Gallagher of Traverse City. Father Gallagher completed the first year of a five-year assignment working in the office of Secretariat of State in the Vatican. His job is to help Pope Benedict stay in contact with the English-speaking world.
Fr. Gallagher's fluency in foreign languages earned him a place in the seven-member English section of the department where he, along with other priests, laity and religious women, study, read and translate information that comes to the Vatican in English.
"It is an opportunity to see the church from a bird's eye view, and I learned that there are a lot of areas of the world where Christians are suffering because of their faith," Gallagher said.
Fr. Gallagher is currently helping put information together for Pope Benedict XVI when he travels to the U.S. in April.
Read Local priest continues work for pope in the Record Eagle
Teresa Philomena was born on Monday, January 14th at 9:25 AM, weighing 8 pounds 2 ounces and 19 inches long (although we think that might have been a bit short). Everyone is doing well and Teresa is loved by her brothers and sister very much!
Aunt Sue stopped over the other night and took some pictures of Teresa at 1 week old!
We named her Teresa after great saints Teresa of Avila and Mother Teresa (she's a saint, just not officially yet), and Philomena because of the chaplet I prayed asking for St. Philomena's intercession during the surgery. Mary's doing great and Teresa is beautiful.
We thank everyone for their prayers!
We're still enjoying the Christmas season and went to mass today to celebrate the feast for Mary, the Mother of God. We had a visiting priest, Father Max Frego, who delivered a beautiful homily about Mary and the church. I just did some searching on Google for Father Max and found that he has a neat conversion story (scroll down to In secrecy no more about 2/3 of the way down the page).
The kids are excited about all the snow that is coming down today so we just might head out to build a snowman.
NEW PHOTOS
I've added 9 new photos to the new photo gallery and expect a few more shortly as we are anticipating the arrival of baby Teresa any day now.
