Ice Cream!!!...and football

It was a picture-perfect, beautiful fall day - plenty of sunshine and a hint of cooler temperatures (60s)! Good thing we were heading to Notre Dame.

We did make one detour first - we stopped for frozen custard at Ritter's. How has it taken us this long to figure out this is the BEST place to start our ND game day experience?

Campus was filled with students, alumni, visiting team guests, and more. We saw more than one friendly face at the ACE tailgate - it's always fun to catch up!

When we got to the stadium, we soon realized we had been put in the freshmen section. (Oops.) Luckily, it worked to our advantage, as we made our way to the top of the section, strategically placing ourselves in front of a wall on which we could lean. Score!

The ND band always has something new up their sleeves - this week they celebrated the eclipse, complete with shifting a moon over the sun (and then running in a circle to make it spin when it was on top). I forget the name of the song they played, but it was pretty fun to watch and listen.

We ended up leaving the game a little early. In doing so, we missed a lot of traffic and were able to get dinner. But more importantly, before we left campus, we were able to find some peaceful moments at the Grotto. I love that place more than words can begin to come close to describing. It's absolutely wonderful, and it brings such a sense of peace to spend time in prayer there to our Blessed Mother.

And I am now about to hit today running (literally). I'm off to the gym, and then later today I am excited to witness the Baptism of my goddaughter's sister at Mass. The rest of my day will be spent preparing for this week at school and also getting some grad school work accomplished. The long weekend for Columbus Day will surely be welcome after the busy week that lies ahead.

Notre Dame our mother, Pray for us!

One word: Joy

It's a great day for the Irish - well, it would have been a better day if we could have "flown the W" like the Cubs (holler!).

But talk about game day picture-perfect: amazing weather, plenty of time to tailgate hop with friends (it was a night game, after all), and lots of beautiful expected (and unexpected!) faces.

One word: JOY!

On Facebook, I posted these photos with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "I didn't find my friends; the good Lord gave them to me." This could not be more true! Days like yesterday remind me of this, and I have to pinch myself.

Now, as Sunday night is upon me, I look back with gratitude over my weekend experiences (except the part where I had to turn around after getting to the grocery store on Friday to get my phone I had left at school - ah!) and look ahead with hopeful anticipation. Let us keep one another in prayer.

Grading, Preparing, Football, and St. Therese

Where on earth did September go?

I know I'm not the only one thinking that because I've asked around.

I haven't been out of the house much today (which is good because the rain was really coming down earlier) - I've been watching college football, grading, and making slides/videos for the upcoming week of Religion classes. It was a lot of work, but I feel confident that I'll be getting the week off on a strong foot through the preparation.

"Exhibit A": my students' books on prayer with ND playing in the background...

(Tomorrow I will need to catch up with grad school stuff - and by "catch up", I really mean "get ahead so I don't get behind." Story. of. my. life.)

Last night was a ton of fun - I hung out with a few friends from church and also ran into some familiar faces (mostly other ACErs/ACE grads):

No complaints from the weekend so far. And with apple picking (and Mass) tomorrow, life is pretty darn sweet.

But before I close, I would be remiss to ignore the October 1st feast of St. Therese of Lisieux (better known to some as "Therese, the Little Flower" or "Saint of the Little Way"). Happy Confirmation Saint day feast to my sister and me!

St. Therese is such a great model of faith for so many reasons, and this year I joined others in praying a novena to her for vocations - it was helpful to have a way to hold myself accountable (even if it was through coloring):

St. Therese, pray for us!

One more day of the weekend before a short week with students - yay for professional development on Friday!

Cloudy with a Chance of Smiles and Football

Notre Dame football - it's more than the game itself (win v. lose). It's about the people you plan to visit/catch up with, happily run into, make new friends with, or with whom you travel...

one of my Remick classmates - we parked at her parents' house by campus!

Found my SJV pastor at the Holy Cross tailgate

getting a break from the rain...

our seats...in the senior section...?

mmm...only the best pretzels

view from our seats - we made some new usher friends (because our seats were apparently a little messed up)

lucked out with sitting/standing by the top of the section - something to lean on!

token picture with the field

lovely leprechaun from the ND band

and representing the band Chicago

Heath frozen custard at Ritters

and happy twins with their ice cream

perfect weather for a perfect day

So grateful for the beautiful day and wonderful people. Not sure where I'd be without ACE - definitely not in South Bend for Irish football games.

Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame...

Happy to call this place home...

Weekend Fun

One long weekend after two (long) weeks at the start of school = darn good timing

As I have not been running recently (but hopefully getting an update and help for how to get back into that later today!), I have had some extra time on Saturday mornings - walking to and from the gym, stopping for coffee, (literally) stopping to smell the flowers...

A dear friend was in town for Labor Day weekend, so we did the whole tourist thing - after enjoying some delectable empanadas, we headed down to the Field Museum to see the Terracotta Warriors. It was my first time at that museum, and the sheer size of it is pretty impressive.

(The warriors weren't half bad either.)

Later that evening, we continued our excursion to a cocktail bar in Lincoln Square - I decided bourbon wasn't my favorite option, so I chose a lighter, fruitier drink instead. Since they didn't have food, we had to pick another dining option - we went to the cider bar just down the street. I had recently been there for drinks but not food, so it was good to try that aspect of the restaurant (even though it was a little on the expensive side).

After Mass on Sunday we got ice cream. (It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that much about us - it's a necessity.)

And we spent the afternoon enjoying everyone's company, eating, drinking, and singing along to the Hamilton soundtrack. Marisa and I impressed our friends with our ability to spout off most of the lyrics. Fun times.

I was so exhausted from the day that I didn't even turn on the ND game when I got home - I hear we need to work on our defense, but double overtime sounded exciting!

And would you look at that - no pictures from Monday. That's because I was literally in my apartment from when I got back after biking at the gym till now (when I am about to head off to school). I kid you not. Somehow I got piled under my grad school and teaching stuff, doing a standardized assessment analysis, reading, and fixing up some assessments of my own. But I can't complain, especially since I literally did no work the two days prior.

Now it's back to reality. The girls have their first volleyball game of the season tonight, so let's go dolphins!