A Busy Weekend

On Saturday night, Orin and I traveled to South St. Louis to provide entertainment for the TEC Founder's Dinner. In the St. Louis-area there used to be three TEC centers. They have now combined into one: Spirit of St. Louis TEC. This dinner was one of their first activities as a newly formed center. For the event, they brought in the founders of the National Teens Encounter Christ (TEC) Movement, Fr. Matt Fedewa and Dorothy Gerke, to give talks. It was a fun and inspirational night. Thanks to Ron Reiter and the TEC staff for inviting us in.

Sunday morning brought Noah's Baptism. Orin and I led music at Mass. The sacrament was administered during Mass (which we loved) and everything went very well. Madeleine, however, provided some comic relief. I was holding her during the Baptism, itself. After Dan (my father-in-law who is a Deacon) poured water on Noah's head, Madeleine threw her hands up in the air and said "Noah...CLEAN!" This is something she says when she is done with her bath. It was very funny, but also theologically profound. Orin and his wife Erin were proud Godparents.

We rounded out the weekend by celebrating Madeleine's birthday last night. Her actual birthday is on Monday, October 16th, but we needed to take advantage of the fact that Erin's family was in town. The party was a lot of fun. We decided to do a lot of things that Madeleine likes, so the house was filled with Cinderella decorations and balloons, and we ate the things Madeleine really likes. Our party food included: Pizza, McDonalds french fries, rice, manderin oranges, chips and vegetables with "dip, dip, dip!" and cupcakes.

It proved to be a crazy, but a very blessed weekend. For more on the family, go to cerneka.blogspot.com

-Shannon