HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY! And remembering Pope John Paul.

(The man in the blue shirt that the Pope is shaking hands with was his would-be assassin.

You may be wondering what in the world St. Patrick's day has to do with Pope John Paul? Nothing. Not a thing. But I have yet to figure out how to embed photos in my blog anywhere other than the top of the post. Sooooo, I was getting all clever and posting a little four leaf clover and then I rambled on about the Pope forever and then decided to put some pics in and well... it's a little... ecclectic. Have fun.

Facts about Clovers
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14!

One estimate suggests that there are about 10 000 regular three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover.

Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.

This morning I actually had to wake BOTH of the girls up at 8AM! I was actually a little freaked out to go in Ayana's room, she is just like clockwork and up at 7 AM every morning! I think she was already waking up because when I opened the door she was sitting up and stood up with the biggest smile and doing her little happy dance to be picked up. Today she has her 1 year check up at the Doc. I was'nt going to take her till next week but I really want him to see her little growth on her forehead. One of the gals yesterday said it was a "milk bump" that her kids got all of the time. I have never heard of that before, and I am not sure about all that. But who knows. I hope it is nothing that will be a chronic problem for her.

I watched a special on Pope John Paul II last night. It was SO fantastic! And I cried and cried. I LOVE LOVE LOVE him! I mean BIG love. And the day he died I was devastated. I was driving in my car and heard it on the radio. I immediately started sobbing and drove straight to my church. I went up to the door and it was locked. I almost just sat down right there and cried. But went home instead. There were photos of some people on the steps of their churches crying. He was in incredible human being. The most travelled pope of all time. The first non-italian pope in over 400 years. Arguably the most important person in the collapse of the communist reign over Russia and the wall in Berlin coming down. He unified all religions and participated in many different religious celebrations world wide. Which, I found after searching for photos of him on the net, that actually angered a good many people. One website actually called him the anti-christ! This particular website was just unreal! But it does not surprize me, really, I mean Jesus himself had many enemies. The pope was also such an amazing advocate for children. My favourite photos are the ones with children. And the one of him meeting with his assassin. The bullet that almost killed him is in the crown of the statue of Lady of Fatima. The day of the attempted assassination was actually on the Feast Day of the Lady of Fatima. It has been almost 3 years since his death, and I still miss him terribly. The new Pope is allright, but one of the first things he did after taking on job of Pope was to cancel the World Youth Day celebrations which Pope John Paul II started many years ago. When the first world youth day was held in Beijing it was estimated that 5 to 7 million people were there!!!!! That's 5 times the population of Calgary!!! And the latest thing, he has now devised a revision of the deadly or mortal sins to reflect our modern era. Some make sense, polluting our planet, becoming grossly rich for your own gain only, but the last one disturbed me. Drug addiction. How can you call that a sin? A person who is addicted to drugs is a person with a DISEASE. This person is STRUGGLING and suffering. They need our COMPASSION not our CONDEMNATION. So, I try to embrace the new pope, but let's face it, he had enormous Saintly shoes to fill. I am so very honored to have lived when Pope John Paul II was alive, and to witness some of his amazing work. He is on the fast track to Sainthood and I cannot wait for the day that that happens. Miss and love him to pieces.

Have a great day everyone!