Jeff was raised Southern Baptist and my being Catholic didn’t lend itself for room to compromise. So I continued to maintain my quiet relationship with God. We would toss the idea around of trying to find a middle ground or even going to a Lutheran church but never did.

I had been working at Holiday Treasures for a couple years without any type of benefits. I remained active within the Miva Merchant community and thought I had a couple of leads there, but they didn’t pan out. I had posted my resume on Monster and watched for job openings in Birmingham. Flipping through the channels one night I stubble across EWTN and Mother Angelica was doing a catalog show. Electronic catalogs and ecommerce are my “specialty” so I went to checkout the EWTN website. They had job listings posted – one was for a Web Designer. At the same time, I found a job listing for Web Developer at the Baptist Health System (here in Birmingham). I wound up interviewing with both of them around April 2001 and then went into the “hurry up and wait” mode. The running joke was “who would get me first? The Baptists or the Catholics?”

Turns out that one of the site owners for a site I built, had ties with EWTN. He came over to me one morning, asked if I still was interested in working at EWTN and gave me a phone number to call. I wound up talking with one of the people who was part of the interview time from when I came in back in April. I went back to EWTN for a second interview with the webmaster – he gave me a great tour of the campus. I went back to my car and cried – I felt like I wasn’t “Catholic enough” to work at EWTN. Little did I know they were trying to find me so I could have a third interview with the company President. So God WAS trying to tell me something – I got the job at EWTN.

I started October 1, 2001. In the spring of 2002, we went to the EWTN Family picnic that was held at the monastery in Hanceville. The picnic included a family Mass. Jeff had never been inside a Catholic Church – it was quite a moving experience for him. He was so full of questions – now I know why I had put at EWTN. He started attending RCIA classes and I started the painful annulment process (I’ll save that for another time). It was a long process – Jeff was finally able to join the Church this past June 2005.

Looks like this may have to be one of those continuing threads.

Somebody should have reminded the “Brookie” where she was at before she decided to drop the f-bomb. I guess the crucifix on the wall wasn’t a reminder? Her dinner time “conversation” with her sons would have my mother rolling over in her grave – I was raised that there is a time and place for everything.

I was a little disappointed that more of the business uses for blogs was not discussed. I did learn that I don’t run in any blogging circles. But I should think about starting a Miva Merchant blog and get Megan to start one too. Then she would have a place to sound off.

Going to a Blogging Discussion Panel today presented by IPSA (Internet Professionals Society of Alabama) – should be fun. I loved to see the Friars here do a blog – Day in the Life of a Friar.

Decided that I wouldn’t be a gas “speculator” today and filled my SUV up at $2.36 a gallon. I’ve been only putting about $20 at a time since all these hurricanes have blown through.

What a disappointing weekend ala Tennessee football. Think I’m going to pass on the tickets to the TN – Vandy game. I really wanted to go see the female drum major in action so to speak but that would probably wind up being the best part of the whole game. I could talk football for a while but think I’ll start looking forward to the Lady Vol’s basketball team.

The time change gave me jet lag – it really messed me up Sunday afternoon. Kittyboy didn’t like it either – 4AM he’s trying to wake us up. I waited until 5 to feed him. Then he came back and thought we should get up. He started at the blinds on the window near my side of the bed, then went after the blinds on the other side of the room. I think he wanted us to know it was daylight outside.

I haven’t forgotten that I need to finish “the rest of the story”…

I’m not a “cradle Catholic”. I was baptized and confirmed Lutheran. I still remember my confirmation – it was while I in the military hospital in Wiesbaden Germany having knee surgery. I was still in high school at the time. It was a inspirational moment for me. Being a military brat, the base chapel was always an eclectic mix – but receiving communion touched my very soul at that moment in time. I enjoyed helping out at the chapel, with vacation bible school and Sunday school. Teen Challenge was a cool place to go and I enjoyed the Revelation Generation.

Somehow all of this slipped away and I married too young. But there were some very good things that came out of that marriage – three beautiful daughters who I love dearly (rather they believe it or not) and I discovered the Catholic Church. My first touch with the Catholic Church was when my first marriage was blessed by the Church (something I thought needed to be done to have Vanessa baptized in the Catholic Church) I thought it would be special to have her baptized at the church my ex-husband went to – St. Ann’s in Nashville.

Even though I wasn’t Catholic I felt that a Catholic education would be very beneficial to my daughters. I didn’t need to be Catholic to send my daughter to school at St. Bede’s but I thought it was about time we started going to church as a family. So we started attending Mass at St. Bede’s. I felt that same warm welcoming feeling I had felt before. I started attending RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) classes at St. Bede’s – it’s a long process starting in October and ending on the Easter Vigil (the Saturday before Easter) when I entered the Church.

I truly enjoyed the time I spent as a member of St. Bede’s parish. I volunteered to coordinate the nursery and helped with grounds keeping. I still remember the day we laid sod for the school. Megan was baptized by my favorite priest – Fr. Troncali. But it all fell apart when one daughter was having problems with ADD – the school wasn’t really equipped to deal with her needs and my ex-husband was sent to Korea on a remote tour.

So I drifted away from the Church but I kept my personal relationship with God. He had an amazing plan for me though. So stay tuned for more….