Oh When the Saints Go Marching In.....

How I want to be in that number....when the saints go marching in!

Friday night we attended our 2nd annual All Hallow's Eve Party hosted by the Catholic Homeschool Group we are a part of. It's a BLAST! My children chose the saints they wanted to be & I worked on their costumes since the first week of October. I took some pictures of my beautiful children modeling them.

Introducing: Olivia Joy as St. Cecilia patron saint of musicians. St. Cecilia because of her faith in Christ was ordered to be put to death. Her head was to be cut off. She didn't die even though she was struck 3 times and mortally wounded. God allowed her to remain alive for 3 days. While she lay mortally wounded on the ground she was still singing her praises to God, and proclaiming her love for Jesus Christ. Many people came to visit her lying there & were converted because of what they witnessed. This happened in 117. In 1599 her tomb was opened and her body was found to be incorrupt. St. Cecilia Pray for Us!

Oscar Francis as St. Thomas More patron saint of lawyers. St. Thomas More also is a martyr of the Faith. He was Chancellor of England under King Henry VIII. He resigned his position when he refused to consider a law that would make King Henry the head of the Church of England. Thomas was beheaded in 1535 by King Henry VIII because he would not compromise his Christian beliefs. St. Thomas More pray for us!

Vianne Aviv as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Oh, so much could be said about this wonderful saint! She was the mother of 5 children. She is a convert to the Catholic Faith. She established a girl's school in Baltimore. She and the women who helped run the new school wanted to become nuns so they started their own order which eventually became known as the Sisters of Charity. She is the first American-born citizen to be beatified and was cannonized a saint in 1975. We use the Catholic homeschool curriculum put out by Seton Home Study and we LOVE it! St. Elizabeth Ann Seton pray for us!

And my little Gabrielle Vered as St. Gabriel the Archangel. Gabriel means "the strength of God", and he has been given many special and important jobs which are recorded in the Bible. He is the Angel of the Incarnation, of consolation, and of mercy. He left us with the first words of the "Hail Mary" prayer. St. Gabriel the Archangel pray for us!

Here they are pictured together:

There is a saint guessing game at the party where you give 3 clues for your saint & see if people can guess who you are. Nobody had any trouble guessing these saints! Way to go Catholic homeschoolers!

& to end this post, I'll include a picture of our youngest saint.....Levin Augustine! Complete with a precious little smile.

All ye holy men and women, pray for us!

a short video....

This is really beautiful. http://www.rhchurch.org/pages/cardboard-testimonies/ Praise the Lord!

it's been a looooong time....I know!

Whew.....life is busy these days! I'm very sorry to those friends who've emailed or called, & I haven't responded to yet. If I don't get to responding to you, please forgive me....know that you are in my thoughts & prayers. My beautiful mother always said that whenever someone comes to mind, say a prayer for them. Anywhere from 15 to 100 people will run through my mind in the course of any given day......I always offer up a prayer for each & every one that does. So, please know that YOU are one of these people! And I haven't forgotten about you. I've just been a taaaaad bit busy....... (;

We went to a wedding this past weekend of a friend that I've known since I was 10 years old. Jenny & I go way back. She is such a beautiful person & such a great friend, and we've shared so many wonderful memories. I cannot express how thankful I was to be able to attend her wedding & be a part of such a special day for her.

Some funny facts about Jenny & I: Jenny's maiden last name is Fiedler (Fieds for short)....mine is Felger (Felgs for short). Sometimes people would mix us up in school, but I had to always remind people that Jenny FIEDLER was the smart one (; We both went to the Catholic grade school in Buffalo, MN and the same Jr. High & High School. We both went out of state for college, her to WI, and me to MI. Jenny was a runner in Jr. H & H.S. and she also ran in college. One of her teammates in college turned out to be one of my future cousin in-laws.....yup! She ran with Katrina Shingledecker.....one of my husband's many cousins! Small world. Well.....it gets even smaller. Jenny moved to TN, and attended UT Knoxville for grad school. Two years later my husband & I move to TN. Jenny has spent many evenings having dinner with our family & enjoying smoothies with the kids, answering our questions about those strange bugs we find in our yard, picking blueberries & even camping once (when Vianne was a baby!). Jenny met her future husband Jon Davenport....only to follow in my footsteps marrying a man named 'John'....(but spelled differently)....we joke that our initials will never be the same any more.....

Jenny moved to North Carolina last January to be with her fiance. In May my husband started a job with a new company & we'll be moving to North Carolina.....yes....I'm just 'following' Jen (; Even though our phone calls may be few & far between, Jenny & I always seem to 'know' when one of us is going to call the other....we always just happen to be thinking of each other moments before the phone rings. Here is a picture of her at her wedding.

Here's a pic of her wedding cake......carrot cake with just the perfect topper to suit her & Jon....hunters.

The bride & I. Jenny & Jenni. Fieds & Felgs. Jenny....remember: "If you can't ski up it...you don't deserve to go down!" Just a random memory (;

She had an outdoor wedding...with music provided by the Boogertown Gap. It was a man playing a banjo & a woman playing a guitar or flute. Oscar called the banjo man the leprachan and the flutist a fairy. What GREAT music!

See leprachan and fairy in background of pic below.....

Here is Levin sporting his new handmade knit hat! My very talented friend Daniella, from New Mexico, knitted it for him & made up the circle design herself! It's adorable! I'm SO impressed! And a pic of the rest of my pure loves.........(minus my husband John) I'll be posting more soon I hope!

Lots of Love,

jennifer j. s.

April 20th, 1920 - September 27th, 2008

Anastasia Georgia Jirovec Felger - known as Grandma Stacy pictured with her eldest son Jim.

My grandmother passed away at the age of 88 years on September 27th at 3:30am with one of her 4 sons, my dad's second oldest brother, by her bedside. It brings tears to my eyes to be writing about her now. As my dad, youngest of the 4 boys, summed it up in his beautiful eulogy "She was simply too extraordinary of a woman to sum it all up here". And since time constrains me now, I will add that I will not even come close to giving her justice in my short post about her here. She was the most generous person I've ever known. I was SO very blessed to have been able to attend her beautiful funeral, and be surrounded by my most favorite people in the world: my family. She is pictured above with her eldest son, my Uncle Jim, in her bakery "Stacy's Pastry Shop"....where she sold her delicious Czechoslovakian pastries & breads. My father spoke at her funeral, and with permission, I post his eulogy notes here. He did not 'read' this verbatum, but spoke so elloquently with love and admiration from his heart, about this extraordinary woman, his mother.

Anastasia Geogia Jirovec was born in Bremen Township on April 25, 1920. Daughter of George and Anna Jirovec. One of seven siblings.

Stacy, as she was known by, married Theodore F. Felger of St. Paul in 1940.

Ted and Stacy baked in Josef Felger’s bakery on Randolph and View in St. Paul. Later Ted and Stacy moved up to Bremen Township settling on Grabo’s farm for a while and then onto George and Anna’s farm which they purchased.

Out of this union were born 4 sons, James, Thomas, Gary and Kenneth.

My brothers and my first memories were from this farm.

In the early fifties, Mom and Dad started a bakery business in Sandstone, first at Viggo Jensens and then at the site of the old locker plant. In 1954, Ted and Stacy built their own bakery on Main St. in Sandstone. Ultimately it would become a world renowned bakery thanks to our mother.

Six of us lived in a 2 bedroom apt. behind the bakery about the size of our living rooms today. This is the place we called home. We were comfortable because us boys knew Ma and Dad were doing the best they could. Sure we lacked a few things other kids had but we didn’t really complain because we saw how hard they both worked for us kids. Ma always provided food, clothing, shelter and most importantly love. We would have been out of place to ask for anything more.

Our mother juggled a business, kids, social life; a farm which we still operated, and she always had food on the table at the appropriate time. She worked 16 to 18 hour days and never, never skipped a beat. Looking back, she was an exceptional mother, wife, business woman and generous human.

Stacy became a widow 44 years ago in 1964 at the age of 44. She remained a widow for an additional 44 years until her passing. True to her marriage to our Dad, Stacy never remarried although she had a few courters. One exceptional man entered Ma’s life just a handful of years ago, Roy Carlson, a boyfriend Ma had before she married our Dad. Roy was a great guy and all of us loved him because he took a liking to our mother.

Stacy was a very proud woman, she accepted no charity, working for everything she had. She alone provided for her boys, daughters in law and finally grandchildren and great grand children. Her qualities were perseverance, duty to her family, charity, kindness and generosity. She often times gave free bakery to friend, relatives and those who could not pay.

Ma also could be tough. Growing up in the wilds of East Central Minnesota I can imagine she had to hold her own on a few occasions. I remember in the bakery she chased out some bum with a rolling pin. He was lucky because it was Dad’s big rolling pin. About the same time, Ma showed her gentle caring side when some guy came in crying because his wife just left him.

Summing up our mothers life is impossible. She was simply too extradinary of a woman to put it in a few words here.

Stacy touched so many lives over her years, family, friends and strangers.

Ma’s passing was not unexpected yet we still grieve. The last words she spoke to me about 6 weeks ago were: “It was just the other day I could…” Meaning there was some task or ability she could perform just the other day but could no longer perform today. That struck me, and it should strike all of us in that time is so fleeting.

It was just the other day that Ma gave me a quarter to spend at Wright’s, just the other day she taught me how to clean sunfish, just the other day she showed us how to make dumplings, just the other day she spent a vacation with us, just the other day her health started to fail. Ma could no longer speak or express herself much of recent, however I would always tell her that she was the best mother in the world. One time she smiled in response. She must be smiling now. Until we meet again.

I love you Grandma....you will always be missed. Your life is so inspiring to me.....and to many others. Thank you Grandma, thank you for who you were, and the generous life you lived.

Oprah's Search for the World's Smartest and Most Talented Kids

This is amazing. The mom of this little boy is a friend of a friend who lives here in town. Amazing. You must be a proud mama, S! Keep up the amazing work!