Calfornia: Sacramento+IKEA+backyard

On Sunday we went to Mass at the Cathedral in Sacramento. The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, fittingly. It was the most beautiful church I have been inside in the United States. Papa asked, "What about that one in New York?" (St. Patrick's Cathedral). That was pretty too, but not nearly as elaborate.

 The singing was so beautiful. For some reason I had the thought, "I wonder if those people who wrote those more 'folksy' songs actually thought the songs would be sung be people with voices like this." The singers could have made almost any song sound beautiful and uplifting and reverent. Again, it was all very beautiful. The sermon didn't make much sense to me though, but maybe I was distracted by the beauty of the church...

A little family photo on the front steps. Apparently I need to clean my camera lens!

 Isaac with his dolly, who is now known as "Corinne". Sometimes "Lulu", sometimes "Coco". 

 Papa with his baby girl

 My handsome Isaac

 Now the next picture might just make your heart melt. It's okay if it inspires a little extra Papa love. I made it extra big so you can get a good look at that face I love. Well, two faces I love.

 A little forced animal petting never hurt anyone, right? Pet the horsie, Sonia.

 Isaac with another palm tree. Man, this is going to be a tough decision as to which type of palm tree to put around that house in Burkina. 

 Alright, little hammy ham.

 Some more pictures from our walk around the Capitol building.

 Then we went to IKEA. We ate the food, we bought a salad spinner. We had the IKEA experience. Now I will probably have to go to the one in Portland sometime.

 Finally we came back to Uncle Chris's place for a little cooling off. Uncle Chris was going to turn on the sprinklers so Isaac could run in them, but then Isaac fell asleep. I think he caught the tail end of the sprinkler time, but by then the nice evening breeze had cooled things off a little too much for Isaac.

 Mmm, champagne! Err, sparkling cider.

 Fish, fish, fish, fish! (accompanied by happy panting and bouncing). 

Evening came, and morning followed...

the death of Mila the parakeet

A really really sad thing happened. The day before Isaac's 4th birthday, our pet parakeet, Mila (who is a boy), died. We found him on the bottom of the cage, but he was not dead yet, oh no. He was having some sort of agonal breaths. We stayed with him until the end. Isaac made a little bed for him though and I think Isaac did not think he was dead yet when we left..

 because when we got back he was super upset and cried and cried and cried. I cried too. It is always sad to lose a pet, but it is indescribably sad for your baby to lose their first pet. Or maybe I was just feeling extra emotional that day. I remember what it felt like when Peet, my first parakeet, died after he crawled under a cushion and got sat on.

 Well, I decided, we have done all we can for Mila, and now he deserves a proper burial, as all good pets do. So we went and buried him in our community garden plot. Maybe that sounds kind of weird, but we put him in by the raspberries. I guess our other option was somewhere in the landscaping behind our apartment or back in the little wooded area behind the other apartments, but that might have looked a little suspicious....

So we found a good-sized box. Isaac completely broke down and cried when we wrapped him up to put him in the box. That is actually the part where we both cried. At that moment, it became very real. Mila is really dead and this is it.

 Isaac looks pretty chipper in the above photo though. The choice of the Wheat Thins box may have helped distract him from its contents. 

And that is the story, accompanied by several totally unnecessary photos, of how Isaac's first pet died.

Isaac has been wanting to remember Mila in our prayers. I'm not sure how appropriate it is, but I figure it is an okay coping mechanism, and God looks after all the birds too. He also has a renewed interest in praying for Mr. Troxel. To date his only experiences with death are those two: Mr. Troxel (we actually went to his funeral on Isaac's 3rd birthday...) and Mila. Nobody die next year any time within a month on either side of Isaac's birthday. Got it? Okay thanks. 

Divine Mercy Novena

About the Divine Mercy Novena

This is a deviation from my usual subject matter, but I wanted to quickly remind everyone that if you want to do the Divine Mercy Novena this year, you had better start tomorrow, on Good Friday. I want to do this every year and I always forget to start on time. Also, my confirmation name is Faustina, after St. Faustina, who started this Novena. So, I have two reasons to participate! And now you have one too. We can do it together.