Hey Everyone,
Happy St. Patricks Day! I hope everyone wore green and avoided getting pinched. The boys were pretty excited to wear green to school today, AND they got special snacks-- little cups of candy that they found "at the end of a rainbow." Their arts and crafts project involved painting a pot of gold, and their teacher wrote on each child's what he or she would do with a pot of gold. Joseph said he would "buy a light chaser" (I guess 3 aren't enough), and Brigham said he would "Go to Disneyworld and see Mickey Mouse." We'll definitely have to take the boys up there again sometime. Maybe for their birthday.
We had the missionaries over tonight, so I made a traditional Irish meal, thanks to allrecipes.com. I made Colcannon, a mashed potatoes/cabbage/leeks dish that I really liked-- much better than plain old mashed potatoes; Irish stew, which had carrots, parsnips, leeks, onions, potatoes, rosemary, and beef (supposed to be lamb but I couldn't find any lamb at the store); and Irish soda bread. It was all very good, except perhaps a bit too much rosemary in the stew. I think the rosemary would have gone very well with the lamb, but with the beef, a little less would have probably been better. For dessert we had mint-n-chip ice cream (you know, it's green). While the missionaries were here, I gave them a brief history of St. Patrick and of St. Patrick's Day. For any of you interested, here's what I learned:
St. Patrick was born in England in the late 4th or early 5th century A.D. At the age of 16 he was kidnapped by Irish marauders and taken to Ireland where he was a slave for 6 years. As a slave he worked mostly as a shepherd and it was during this time that he became deeply religious. After 6 years he escaped and fled back to England. After returning to England, he had a vision of sorts in which he was instructed to become a priest and go back to Ireland. 15 years later, after becoming a priest, he did return to Ireland as a missionary to minister to the small group of Christians in Ireland, and to convert many others. Ireland was a largely pagan country, with the people following a sort of nature-worshipping religion.
Patrick was a master at merging Christianity with the pre-existing Irish rituals and symbols familiar with the people of Ireland at the time. It was he who combined the sun (powerful Pagan symbol) with the Christian cross, to create the unique Celtic cross. He also encouraged the people to celebrate Easter with bonfires, a traditional ritual of spring in the old Pagan ways. He is said to have died on March 17, 460 A.D., which is why we celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 17. He later became the patron saint of Ireland, and many myths have arisen surrounding St. Patrick. The most famous one is that he drove the serpents out of Ireland. However, this is certainly a myth as it appears there never have existed snakes on the island, at least not since the ice age.
St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated for centuries in Ireland, as a feast day in the midst of Lent. People would go to church services in the morning and then in the afternoon the celebrations would begin. St. Patrick's day became a holiday from Lent, with the people commonly eating meat and celebrating with a feast. Since St. Patrick spent his life as a missionary, St. Patrick's Day is traditionally a day of prayer for missionaries throughout the world (I thought this was really cool, especially since we had missionaries over for dinner!).
The first St. Patrick's Day Parade was actually held in New York City in 1780-something, when the Irishmen in the British Army marched in national solidarity. Since then, the St. Patrick's Day parade has become a global tradition, as has wearing green, the national color of Ireland.
So, now you know!
Ok, that's it for tonight. I'm really tired. I think I'm definitely experiencing MS fatigue because I just cannot seem to get enough sleep. I've been so exhausted and I've barely exercised at all this week, which is really bad because I start getting really depressed when I haven't worked out. I'm definitely going to workout tomorrow. I'm hoping it will help clear my brain, too, since I've also been feeling really fuzzy and just not totally right mentally. It's really bugging me. It is pretty subtle, though, so I can't tell for sure if it is just a combination of external factors getting to me, or if it is the M.S., or if it is all the drugs I'm taking, or what. But it is getting to me.
I was able to get a bunch of stuff taken care of today, though, including a persistent problem with our bank and our mortgage company. Our bank, Bank of America, keeps sending our mortgage payment to the wrong account number at Flagstar Bank. Luckily it is being sent to a non-existent account number, so the money is still there, but it shows up on our account as if we haven't submitted a payment, so I've been getting these nasty letters from the Loan counseling department at Flagstar, threatening all sorts of things if we don't pay up. So that has been a hassle trying to straighten out, and even more aggravating because this was supposedly all figured out 4 months ago and here we are again, the same exact problem cropping up. Right now I'm pretty mad at Bank of America, and pretty mad at Flagstar. Bank of America shouldn't be making a mistake like that, but Flagstar has been extremely rude to me on the phone whenever I've spoken with anyone. Even more maddening because it is NOT MY FAULT!! Grrrr...
I got a call from a girl in the Ft. Laud ward who wants me to photograph her 2 week old. But my camera is still in the shop! So I'm trying to find someone with a camera I an borrow, or a place that will rent me a camera for the day. Newborns have a very limited window of time where you can get really cute curled-up newborn poses, and that window closes right at about 2 weeks. If I can't find a camera soon I'm gonna miss that window! Hopefully I'll find something soon.
All right, that's it for tonight. Have a great weekend everyone.