Block party - Yesterday was one of Claire and Abby's most long-awaited events: the annual neighborhood summer party. This neighborhood has lots of families with young kids. The party included a bike parade, a lawn tractor race, kiddy pools, games for kids and adults, water gun fights, and a cookout. The weather was mild, dry, and breezy. We stayed until about 7PM because our kids' witching hour was approaching, but for some the party lasted past midnight. I'm sure all the neighborhood kids slept well last night. Ours certainly did! The only challenge that afternoon was tracking Timothy. To quote an oldies song, "he's a wanderer, yeah a wanderer..."
Fr. Ray - I had to lector this morning at 8AM Mass at Infant Jesus. It was a bit sad because it was probably the last time most of us will see Fr. Ray Gagnon, IJ's pastor for the last fifteen years. The new pastor arrives Wednesday. There were lots of watery eyes this morning.
Since there was no breakfast after Mass, we stopped by Dunkin' Donuts, picked up some treats, and headed to the nearby Sergeant Ave Park. After being good most of the morning, it gave the kids a bite to eat and a chance to stretch their legs.
Back home - Today's weather is a lot like yesterday's mild conditions but with more sunshine. It was a good day to trim the lawn. I could drive the tractor without feeling like I was baking in the sun. The recent rain and cooler temps have helped the grass recover from its annual brown spell.
Once I finished I decided to try this little stand about a mile west of us: the Dog House. They have an assortment of hot dogs and burgers (including buffalo!). I had a 10" hot dog with chili, cheese, and bacos. I should have skipped the bacos (real bacon would have been awesome...) but otherwise it was good even if unhealthy. Now I'm just sitting here on the back deck, watching Michael and Timothy, and enjoying the cool breezes while typing away.
The girls are spending the afternoon with some neighborhood girlfriends (trendy name alert): Madison, Samantha, Katrina and Anastasia. While they enjoyed seeing family in the midwest, they've been spending a lot of the last few days catching up with their local friends. One of the things I liked about this neighborhood vs. our Nashua neighborhood is the number of friends they've been able to make out here that are their age. Nevertheless, the girls are really looking forward to next month's visit by grandma, grandpa, Suzy, TJ, and Cassidy.
Did you ever think our girls' names would fall into the trendy name list? At Rhodes School this past spring, two teachers had baby girls within a few days of each other and both named them Abigail Rose. There is a Cassidy on Wood Street and on Maple Street, and one of them goes to St. Cyp. Did Claire tell you about the baby she saw at Bev's pool named Claire Noelle? She is Mrs. Mittel's granddaughter. I like trendy names- I guess to be untrendy now we would have had to name our girls Donna or Lorri.
The block party sounds like it was fun. We go to one by MaryJo at the end of August and always have fun.
Cassidy's team won again tonite so we have another game tomorrow night at 8. That will be 5 games in 4 days! She is having fun though, so I shouldn't complain.
Have a great week!
Lyssa
When we named Claire, as with all the children, we tended to look into the 'Catholicity' of the name. Clare of Assisi was a contemporary of Francis who also started an order. I hadn't heard the name in years and thought it would be 'safe' without sounding too old fashioned.
St. Clare's life is briefly summarized at:
http://www.daughtersofstpaul.com/saintday/m8.html#BM11
Abigail was another name that I figured was too old to be trendy. In the Old Testament she saved David's life. Other than "Dear Abby", it was a pretty unused name. Abigail's life is at:
http://usccb.org/nab/bible/1samuel/1samuel25.htm
The 'Rose' of Abby's middle name is in honor of Michelle's grandma. The 'Marie' of Claire was in honor of Mary, Jesus' mother. It was months after Claire's birth that I realized that there was a 'Cosmo' copy-cat magazine called 'Marie Claire'.
If someone were to tell me ten years ago that those names would be trendy names, I would have been hard pressed to believe it, but here we are.
The one trendy thing I steered away from was unusual spellings, like your other niece, Abby Tarpey. Similarly my co-worker has a daughter, Aimee (with an accent on one of the e's). I didn't want my kids to be spending their lives clarifying the spelling of their names. I find it annoying enough to live on Cortland (without a 'u') Road.
Congrats to Cassidy! I'll let our girls know...
Posted by: Scott at July 26, 2004 06:29 AMOld fashioned names seem to be the trend- Anastasia, Emma, Emily, Isabella, Olivia. To not be trendy now, you should use names from the 70s- like Jennifer, Laura, Michelle. One of the Abigail Rose's I know is a Jewish baby, and the names were chosen for biblical reasons- the other one was named after grandmothers.
I have to admit Cassidy's name was chosen purely randomly, with Tom at the hospital the day after she was born just going through the baby name book- "How about Cassidy?"
"Cassidy what?"
"Cassidy Ann"
"Yah, that sounds good."
Fortunately Ann is Tom's mother's middle name, and the mother of Mary, so Cass has some religious and family connection.
All the boys have family names, if not for their first names, at least their middle.
My middle boys are fighting over the Play Station games. Gotta go!
And if you look at Today's Saint (for the 26th) it mentions St. Anne, mother of Mary.
We had actually given some thought to a name like Ann Marie for Claire. Maria is, of course, Michelle's younger sister. Marie is also her older sister's middle name. And of course, there was the few weeks we were thinking of using Clarissa, until we saw the Nick show of the same name. It's funny how certain memories and images can just ruin names for you. No one names there son Adolf anymore.... Hmmm, wonder why?
Posted by: Scott at July 26, 2004 03:04 PMIs 'Catholicity' really a word?
Cassidy won her game tonight, tommorrow we play for the championship.
I like Clarissa, and gave thought to naming Kyle, Gengis Kahn Tarpey.
Tom
That's why I put the word in quotes. ;-) Don't tell the folks at catholicity.com that it isn't a word.
Congrats again to Cassidy. Wow! The championship! That team must rock!
Funny, lately we seem to call Timothy just about every other name to express how he gets into everything! "Timbo, Timzilla, Turbo, Turbonium, ..." At 31 pounds, he's the "round mound of pound".
Still, I have a hard time picturing Alyssa shouting out "Genghis! Come back here!"
Posted by: Scott at July 27, 2004 06:42 AM