Happy Birthday, Dad/Pappous!

Love,
Paul, Christina, Pavlos, and Petros:)

PS: photo is of yiayia and pappous with all four grandchildren

It's been a while...

Sorry, everyone, it's been a while since I posted. I'm even having trouble getting around to reading other people's blogs!!! We are quite busy, of course, with baby Petros and Pavlos and just lots of stuff going on. On Saturday we had a memorial service for Paul's father (Fr. Paul). It's been five years since he reposed. May his memory be eternal. So I spent Friday and Saturday putting together kollyva. I have a shelf in my cupboard that is dedicated to kollyva stuff.

Sunday was our church general assembly meeting. I don't particularly like general assembly meetings. And, since becoming co-chair of our sunday school program, we have to watch the children while the parents attend the meeting. AAAGGGHHH! Not my idea of a fun Sunday afternoon:) We were able to play outside and I brought Pavlos' newest game, Hullabaloo, and the kids loved playing it (it was a birthday present from yiayia and pappous).

Petros is now three months old. I cannot believe it. Pavlos went to his 4 year check up and we also weighed Petros... he's now up to 9lbs 7 ozs. Way to go!!! He is smiling a lot and making lots of cute baby cooing noises. Pavlos is a hefty (lol) 28.5 lbs.

I have started reading again. Finally have a little time to do that. I read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Oh Susanna by Kate Wilhelm (thanks, Kiera). Shadow of the Wind is kind of like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez book (are my sister and I the only people who like Love in the Time of Cholera better than One Hundred Years of Solitude? Just curious). The Wilhelm book was funny and entertaining and easy:) I have finally gone on line to the library to request some books to read.

Last night, I recorded the season finale of 24 so I could watch the DVD of Pride and Prejudice which we rented. After having seen the mini-series P&P numerous times and also reading the book many times, the movie went so quickly! It has beautiful scenery, wonderful editing, it flows nicely, beautiful score, but it just gets through the story so fast. If I had never seen the mini-series, I probably would have like it better... although I do like the movie, too... maybe it would be good to own for those times when I would like to watch P& P but just don't have the time to sit through the whole mini-series?!?! So tonight we will watch the season finale of 24... will Jack make it (of course, he does, Kiefer Sutherland has signed a new, three season contract). Will the president be exposed for the lying slimeball he is?

Ok, that's enough rambling from me... have to go work on baptism invitations (if you are a member of St. John's you will not be receiving an invite to the baptism as we are inviting the whole parish... but please, let me know if you can make it so we can plan on how much food to make:)

Save the Date... and if you aren't tired of the davinci code already, here are some links:)

Sr. Magdalen (the link on her name is to the monastery where she lives in England), author of "Children in the Church Today" and "Conversations with Children" (both excellent books if you haven't read them) will be the speaker at the St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church Annual Fall Women's Retreat. The retreat will be the weekend of October 13-15 here in Portland, OR. Just giving you all a heads up (since most of my five readers of this blog live in the Pacific NW). I am very excited to meet her!

On a completely different note... a priest friend of mine sent me the following links regarding the DaVinci code movie (and book, for that matter) and the gospel of Judas. These are websites that have been developed through the Greek Archdiocese. Mind you, I haven't checked out these sites, yet, just passing the info. on from a reliable/trustworthy source. And, on a side note, who has read the DaVinci Code? I did, and thought that it wasn't that well written of a story, aside from all the historical inaccuracies:)

Oops... happy birthday pavlos, update:)

Me and my sleep deprived brain forgot to add two things to my little happy birthday pavlos blog entry... First, Pavlos was and always will be my greatest mother's day gift... he was born Saturday evening, the day before Mother's Day!!! And second, I need to change the description of my blog... Pavlos is not 3 and he really doesn't say, "uhm" anymore like he used to... i will keep the title of the blog, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the description... thanks:)

Happy Birthday, Pavlos!!!

Pavlos is four today. Our first miracle baby. He's my little boy blue eyes:) He's loud, silly, and loves to sing and dance and play (especially with his little people). I cannot believe it's been four years... how much he has changed and grown up (especially in the last few months). We are celebrating his birthday party on Sunday afternoon (his cousins are coming down from the Seattle area and his god-parents will be over), but tonight, yiayia and pappous are coming over for some pizza and hot fudge sundaes (Pavlos' favorite foods). Happy Birthday, Pavlos, and May God grant you many, many years!!!

Pain-free visit to the dentist...

I went to the dentist today to have some long overdue dental work done. The dentist had to numb both sides of my mouth. When he inserted the needle, he said, "you will feel a pinch." I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. My body was poked and prodded so many times while in the hospital, I have developed a new level of pain tolerance! Whenever I have bloodwork done, it feels like nothing. No pinch, no poke, no feeling at all.

Baptism...

Petros' baptism will be on Saturday, June 10, time to be determined (most likely around 11am). If you would like to come or are in the area, please email me and I will keep you posted and send directions. The reception will be at my parents home in Vancouver, WA. We are very excited!!!

My email address is cdblankenstein[at]hotmail[dot]com.

UPDATE: I forgot to add that the baptism will be at St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Portland, OR:)

Holy Week, Pascha, and after...

I know that I have not posted in quite a while... I've been busy:) Petros had his two month appt. last week, you can read about that here. Maintaining two blogs at the same time can be difficult and tricky... I have to figure out where I am going with these two blogs, if I'm going anywhere!

Holy Week was beautiful and busy. I did not attend all of the services, but Paul and I rotated on a few services so that each of us could at least go to one service without children. We all went to Sunday evening bridegroom service. My mother in law and I went to the Monday bridegroom service. Then we all went to the Tuesday evening service because our Metropolitan Gerasimos made his first pastoral visit to our community. He seemed very genuine. Pavlos had a little "encounter" with him... Metropiltan Gerasimos tried to give him a flower but Pavlos became a little afraid so Paul picked him up to take him to the Metropolitan, but Metropolitan Gerasimos told Paul that it was ok and to not "force" Pavlos to go to him.

We all went on Holy Wednesday evening for Holy Unction. Let's just say that I spent the entire service outside of the service because Petros was really, really fussy! He cried almost through the entire service, poor guy. Thursday morning, Petros and I went to Liturgy and Paul was going to go to the Thursday evening service, but ended up taking his mother to urgency care because she thought she was getting bronchitis. Turns out she might have asthma!

Holy Friday was our Youth Retreat which Carrie and I ended up being "in charge of" because we are the Sunday School co-directors (I majorly stressed about the retreat but it turned out really well). And Friday evening was Pavlos' turn to have a meltdown in church so we ended up leaving the service early (after the procession). Saturday morning, Paul went to church and I took the kids to my parents home for an Easter egg hunt with their cousins (although Petros didn't really participate). And I didn't go to the evening service as I thought that I would really not get any sleep at all, even after the service, because the baby would still wake up for feedings, etc. So Paul took his mom and Pavlos to church. But we all went to Agape vespers on Sunday morning (minus Paul's mom because she wasn't feeling well) and then, the Pascha picnic at church where they roasted two lambs! Yummy! Very exciting Holy Week and Pascha! Christos Anesti!

This past Sunday, we were privileged to become god-parents to baby Athanasios. May God grant him many years! And we have god-parents for baby Petros so now we have to plan his baptism!

We are so busy... and then this weekend two friends of mine from high school will be in town and they are coming over for lunch on Saturday. Then we have a fundraising dinner at church on Sunday evening (complete with Greek dancing... woohoo!). We spent last Saturday planting flowers in our yard. And Paul bought a swingset kit to build Pavlos (and Petros) a swingset with slide in our backyard (a birthday gift to Pavlos from grandma). OH, so that means that Pavlos will have his birthday in 9 days... he will be 4 years old:)

Please keep Katina (Ekaterini) in your prayers. She reposed yesterday. I lived with her for a year in San Diego, CA when I was volunteering with Project Mexico. May her memory be eternal!

Sorry for the randomness of this entry... I will attempt something with more depth later on:)