Doggy Dash

Friday after work Alyssa and I hit the road and drove to Syracuse to pick up Daisy, my dog. We stayed the night there, visiting with my mom and siblings. Saturday afternoon we visited my dad and grandparents for lunch before beginning the trek back to Erie.

It was a 24 hour adventure, we left at 5pm Friday and were back at our place by 5pm Saturday. We spent almost 8 hours in the car round-trip. Daisy probably feels like her world is upside down with all the travel and all these new sights, sounds and smells. But she seems to be adjusting rather well, and I'm so happy to finally have her here, I've missed my 4-legged kid. I was asked today by one of the sisters if I feel complete now that she's here, and I definitely do. It's been two years since I last had her with me, and it felt like forever.

Road trip!

Enjoying a chewy bone in her new home

Experiencing the peninsula for the first time

Bath time! Clearly not her favorite lol

Welcome home Daisy :)

Bless This House

This past weekend Alyssa and I hosted our big house blessing. It was quite the production which included planning the blessing itself, making food and figuring out how we'd fit almost 50 people into our apartment.

I'm happy to say it went off without a hitch. We asked our director from the Benedicta Riepp program to actually do the blessing, which she was more than happy to do for us. It helped it to mean a little more to us getting to plan it with her. The response from the community was massive, as we had about 40 sisters in attendance. They loved our place and were so happy to finally see it with their own eyes.

Having been in a funk for the last few weeks, it made me feel so good to have a house full of sisters and friends. My new house felt full and warm and bursting with life and energy. I could feel the pride pouring off of the sisters as they finally got to see how Alyssa and I are doing now that we're on our own. Having them here putting their blessing on our new place has helped it to really feel like it's mine now. It has felt kind of empty these last two months. But if I listen really carefully, I can still hear the voices singing praise over my new space, and it helps it feel like home.

Thankfully, there was a sister taking lots of pictures and videos of the event which she turned into a wonderful slideshow. I'm happy to share that with all of you :)

House Blessing