Week in Review: Another Pope, Another Season, Another Acceptance

Happy Friday!  

We have a new American Pope!

I got 21 texts within a few minutes once he was named, so even though I don't watch the news, I know the important things :)  Also, went on a deep dive to find out more about him:

Not only did we get a new Pope yesterday, but we also opened The Ice Cream Cottage for Season 3, and my brain is fried from *waves hands around wildly* everything.  But it's pretty much all GOOD things, just BUSY things, just LOTS of things.  Y'all can relate.

Opening Night!

Once we got back from Spring Break, it was time to really buckle down and get The Cottage ready to open, order inventory, shop, clean, organize, create social media content, etc.  To be honest, Phil runs the front end of the shop, and I keep it running in the background, where introverts thrive.  The kids are really great about helping out when they are not busy with school/friends/events/studying and somehow it all comes together by God's grace.  We have lots of new updates for this season, including a second soft serve machine that will house coffee soft serve and Dole Whip, plus an extended sidewalk with outdoor seating and umbrellas for our customer's comfort.

There are a few weeks of overlap between the ice cream shop and our "second jobs" - Phil is the DRE at our parish (his first job is a full-time high school Theology teacher) and I teach two accounting classes online at Franciscan University (my first job is a full-time District Accountant for a town's public schools) - so once Religious Ed classes/sacraments are over for Phil, and once I can submit my final grades at the end of this semester, things should hopefully be less stressful.

Muahahaha.

Why do I always believe that lie?

Our parish's First Communion last Sunday - Xander and Declan served

Anyway, life isn't all work, there have been lots of family things happening as well.  

JP had his big all-day in person interview at Duquesne medical school and he got the phone call that he was accepted the next morning!  They also offered him the Dean Scholarship for $10,000 a year.  JP absolutely loved the school, and the Dean and Admissions Director both seemed to love him and the fact that he was a Franciscan grad.  They are a Catholic university and want to have students that align with their mission and help the faith to grow on campus.  Duquesne has a big academic campus in downtown Pittsburgh, where not only do they have the college, but they have a nursing school, PA school, law school, and medical school.  It's definitely JP's first choice, so now we wait for the official letter and have to figure out financial aid and loans and find an apartment (he spoke to lots of med students who said the apartments off campus are much cheaper than living in the new on campus housing).  We are so proud and excited for him!

JP bought a black suit at Kohl's the day before the interview, but had only packed brown shoes.

Pittsburgh is only 45 minutes from Franciscan's campus, so JP visited friends for a couple days before they graduate this weekend.  He said it was tons of fun, and they hiked and played games and finally had a PowerPoint night, that had been talked about for a long time, where everybody presented on a topic of choice.  JP decided to present on Urinal Etiquette.  I don't even.

{ Funny JP story - he had taken time off from work to vacation with us in MD/VA in April, and then only had a few more days left of working as an ER Tech before he flew out to Pittsburgh/started working at The Cottage.  When he went into work after the vacation, all the nurses told him that they had a goodbye party for him on the Saturday when he normally would have been working, but he was on vacation and gotten someone to cover his shift.  There was food and a cake and gifts, and JP wasn't even there!  Still so nice of them, but leave it to JP to miss his own goodbye party!}

Andrew pulled into our driveway at 8:30 pm on Wednesday night, after driving home from college all day.  Poor kid was so tired and sore and bored from driving alone for 11 hours, and his reward?  He got to work a double shift at The Cottage the next day!  Ha!  We're not that mean, he actually wanted to work the double to start making money right away.

Eamon and Maggie have been taking AP Exams - three exams each - and have been approaching them very differently.  Maggie seems to actually be studying and Eamon seems to continue golfing and watching the Celtics games at night.  We shall see whose approach works better!  Maggie ran for and won Student Council Vice-President for next year, and was named Captain (again) for Volleyball, so she is basically killing it.  Eamon has all sorts of senior-ish things coming up, and his sentimental mother reminisced with teary eyes while making his collage that they hang in the high school.

May 1 was Decision Day!

Maggie and her bestie, Maggie, got a shout out in their high school's monthly newsletter

Xander is also doing all the graduation things leading up to the end of 8th Grade, as well as preparing for the History Fair (our kids are super lucky and get to have a Science Fair and a History Fair each year of middle school...hence why we buy these poster boards in bulk.)  Xander chose to report on Babe Ruth this year, and I ordered him an outfit costume uniform to look the part.

As for Declan and Brendan, well they are just riding along at the tail ends of this crazy family, being mostly good boys who love to fight as much as they love to constantly be together.  Declan is still playing travel soccer, and actually made it to his first game (one game was on Nantucket, one was cancelled for rain, and two happened when we were on vacation). His team lost 2-1, but Declan scored the lone goal and earned himself a trip to the bakery to pick out whatever his heart wanted.  "A chocolate croissant" whispered his heart:

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend surrounded by the people you love, a chocolate croissant, and an ice cream or two!  I am so grateful to have all my little chicks back in the nest for a couple of months, and that's the only gift I want.  OK maybe that, and a nice breakfast and a clean house ;)