This used to be my playground

Oh, how I have missed blogging and the stress relief this form of journaling, and praying at times, has been for me.  With moving to Ohio, getting settled, prepping for the upcoming school year, and meeting so many new people in this new place, the days and nights are rolling on by with barely a moment to breathe let alone write.

I just completed making major revisions to my dissertation manuscript and am taking a quick break before moving on to triple check my four syllabi but wanted to get these thoughts down in blog land while they are still fresh.

My Aunt Marie, Uncle Bill, and parents spontaneously joined me for mass and dinner tonight!!  These are the sort of outings I missed so much while living in North Carolina.  It is nice to be able to see my family as often as I have been since moving to Ohio in spite of the distance.  Of course I miss the little ones and my brother and sister-in-law in the south but have been loving getting in this regular time with my parents and seeing my Pittsburgh relatives more often these days.

Mom and Dad were passing through on their way back from visiting Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota and Aunt Marie and Uncle Bill are only about 45 minutes from here.  In fact, as a child (well really more as a toddler) we used to make the drive over to Steubenville to visit my Mom's cousin and her family.  The Cunninghams lived on a corner with a nice front yard and one of the girls was my parents' flowergirl in their wedding back in June '76.  Sadly, Margie died at a young age from breast cancer leaving Larry to raise the five children on his own.  I wish I could recall the days of visiting this Irish Catholic family in Steubenville but I don't since I was so young.  For the longest time when I would hear the word, Steubenville, I would think of the big ol' family my Aunt Gladys and Uncle Joe were grandparents to and that was it.  Then in my late 20s, upon listening to the Lighthouse Media CDs and learning from some of the prominent scholars in Catholicism over the years, I discovered Franciscan University of Steubenville through their ties and connections to this school.

Fast forward several years later to this past spring when I interviewed with and landed a job at FUS then literally had the house in which I'm staying fall into my lap.  As Mom said tonight, I didn't find the house but rather "the house, and my housemates, found me".

Dusty Shamrock and I enjoy this view each day as we take our daily walks.

So back to tonight, after mass and dinner, Aunt Marie, Uncle Bill, Mom, and I took my "Irish Dog" as my new colleagues at work call him, for a walk so I could show them some of the neighborhood.  Lo and behold, the house down the street and around the corner (less than half a block away) was where the Cunninghams lived!!!  In fact, just last night, on our walk, a large Golden Retriever left his porch (the very same house where my Mom's cousins lived) and came after us to sniff Dusty.  I also am pretty sure we saw the owner of said dog at mass tonight.  I am apparently living around the corner from where I played as a small child.  How crazy is that?!  God continues to astound me with where he has led me and the paths he has put me on over the years....!  What a nice reminder of this verse:

In fact, I had just purchased a poster with the above scripture on it for my bedroom the other day and was also planning to hang the same poster up in my office on campus.

May we all trust the Lord to guide us to our paths wherever they may lead!


*  This is the poster I mentioned last night that I hung up this past week....