What I Did On My Summer Vacation By: Sister Katy LaFond

To the tune of "Yankee Doodle"

It is Sunday, end of August, what am I to do?

School is starting, summer's parting...I think I'll blog for you-ouuuuu.

End of summer va-ca-tion! Start of a new school year.

Do the happy dance and sing--'cuz that school bell's about to ring!

No, I haven't lost my mind completely...yet. I was clearing out photos on my camera and realized that I had some good pics to blog about from my summer break. Hmmm...I believe I only updated twice this summer...retreat and new baby. Well...I thought, the night before my summer break is over, why not do a little photo/video journal using the ever famous cliche title:

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

By Sister Katy

June 22-28

Summer really began with my retreat...you know where to find that report! If not click here:

Retreat 2008

July 1

Summer break is (technically) over! Oh yeah...you read that correctly. I excitedly began my new ministry at St. Roman Parish School. Check out our website!

July 5-12

VACATION!!!! In formation you have to have goals. My goal for this first year of temporary vows was to go on vacation. I have had a couple days here and a weekend there (where were wonderful and with some of my favorite people), but I have not had a week long vacation since I don't know when!

My White House group of Sisters, rented a house in Lake Delton, WI and spent a week together. (There is some irony here...with the traumatic and disastrous rains in the beginning of June, Lake Delton was completely emptied due to flooding. It was awful. Fortunately, the house we were renting was ok and we became "disaster tourists" and supported the local economy.

Many many people cancelled their reservations because there was literally no lake. Lake Delton will be refilled next year and people are working at getting their homes and losses restored. Many prayers went toward that situation and we were glad to support our renters and the community!)

Seriously this was one of the best week vacations I have ever been on. It was soooo relaxing. My White House group is a great group for me...I find being with them very easy and I think I fit in pretty well. Mornings (whenever people made appearances) were quiet--people read, walked, ate, slept...etc. We would usually pick an excursion or two to suggest each day (i.e. mini-golfing, boat tours, regular golfing, etc...).

When it was excursion time, there was no expectations...people either chose to go or not to go. Then we'd take turns making dinner and enjoying our dinner late evening (like 7-8ish) on our great deck. We'd end our days with either Trivial Pursuit, cards, movies, baseball game, and even a campfire! It was just wonderfully restful and relaxing...and I was thrilled to be with 6 of my favorite people.

(Here's some bonus never seen before video footage of the great Trivial Pursuit Contest...in 4 installments...Enjoy!)

(By the way...this was a 2 day experience. We were getting creamed that first night. We had a team meeting before round 2 and we came back to win it! WOOO HOOO!)

July 18-22 Vow Group Retreat
One of my community's favorite formation events are "Reflection Groups"...well last year, as a part of my vowie wowie prep I requested to have a group of my Sisters together for a preparation/bonding retreat. It was so awesome and wonderful we wanted to do it again. So I asked the provies if this could be my yearly thing in lieu of a reflection group. Voila!

We met a few days before our assembly and had just a marvelous time. Good sharing, good process and prayer.

It's great to come together to pray, play, veg out, and continue to support one another on the journey. We are excited for next year!

July 23-27 Provincial Assembly


Every other year the US Province (all of the Sisters in my community who are in the US grouping of our International Congregation) have a "Provincial Assembly". It's basically our governance meetings for the province. We pray, we meet (and meet and meet), we learn stuff, we have processes, and this year we even played! It's pretty energizing during and afterwards...you know it's been good when you're just wiped out. :-) Don't have any pictures, but you could try our website...there are pictures and daily summaries...oooh lah lah!





August 16th--Reception of Sr. Deb

We have a new Sister! Woo! We have a new Sister! Wooooo hooo!


Deb Murphy, our affiliate this past year and one of my "live-ers"...was received into the novitiate in an absolutely beautiful liturgy on 8/16. It brought back so many gushy butterfly tinglys from my reception 5/2005.





Sr. Deb has begun her apostolic year and will be traveling our Province, meeting the girls, and doing some other cool stuff (LIKE GOING TO SCHOOL AT ALVERNO, volunteering, praying...yes...I am a little bit envious :-) ) I am so happy to welcome our Sister Deb into a deeper commitment with our Congregation!



Here are some pictures from the rehearsal hooo-hah at our house the night before. Just image that giant Tau made of yummy frosting, in silver around her neck...yeah!



We decided it was the role of the Affiliate minister to cut the cake...Yeah for Sr. Mary Ann!

WOO HOO!

August 23--Sea Dog Adventures
Don't have pictures (Sr. Barbara needs to send them to me!)...

For my last hurrah...5 of us SSSFs went to downtown Chicago to ride on the 40mph speedboat SeaDog...for a quick tour of Chicago's skyline. It was delightful, fun and nice being with my Sisters! I'm looking forward to our Intermodel Adventure next. (Ha ha..SMAM!)


Well...that consists of your audio/visual tour of my summer vacation. I hope you enjoyed this update.





School begins tomorrow! Please send prayers to the faculty, staff, students, families (oh and principal) of St. Roman's Parish School. Peace and all good!