After hours of Internet shopping and visiting bridal store after bridal store, we have finally chosen the perfect bridesmaid dress for my friends and sisters to wear, designed by Watters.

Now the next thing I have to do is find the accessories I need to make each girl stand out in a unique way. I'm planning on doing this by finding them a special broach to wear on the bodice of the dress, and a simple diamond letter of their first name initial to add to their bouquet, like so: 

and this broach from Amazon.com

It seems as though the closer we get to the actual wedding date, the better our plans have been falling into place. However, the only problem with that is it now leaves me more time to think about other things. For example, how in the world am I going to live with a boy for the rest of my life?! 

I know that God is with me each step of the way, but even so, I'm forever worrying about things that are sometimes out of my control. Hopefully after we attend the Engagement Enrichment Conference this coming April at St. Lucy Parish, Racine, we (OK, I) will be a lot better at expressing myself.

Sigh. Can you tell I'm the kind of person who can freak out over the littlest things? 

-Amy

Music playing while writing this: "Country Roads" by Ryan Bingham

I received an e-mail yesterday called "Love One Another" from Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. A weekly electronic "homily," he chose this week to share his thoughts on what people should be concentrating on during the "Season of Mercy." His number one recommendation? Confession. Instantly my heart dropped.

Let me confess something to all of you: I haven't been to confession in almost five years.

When it comes down to it, there really isn't a huge reason why I've been avoiding it. I kept telling myself that I couldn't this week because of school, work, family responsibilities, baby-sitting, etc ... you know, all those things that I just CAN'T drop.

Recently, I've been thinking about the sacrament of reconciliation a lot, and I think I've finally come up with a good analogy for it, based on my own experiences. Funny enough, it has to do with caring for your teeth.

After I enrolled in college, it seemed that just about everything had to take a backseat to my earning a degree. This not only included getting regular haircuts, keeping doctor appointments, eating on a regular basis, and washing my clothes, but also taking care of my teeth. I failed to floss, only brushed about once a day, and mouthwash? What's that? Before I knew it, I had gone nearly three years without a dentist appointment, when suddenly, the inevitable hit: a rather throbbing pain in my lower jaw. I decided to ignore it.

Before I knew it, more of my teeth began to hurt, and I was going through nearly a bottle of aspirin a week. I was getting huge headaches, and waking nearly three times a night with flashing pain. Sensitive to hot and cold drinks, life was not fun at that time of my life.

Once I began to feel this pain, that was when I began to take care of my teeth more. I flossed, brushed about five times a day, and used mouthwash every chance I got. You know what happened? Yup, nothing.

Finally, I went to the Marquette University Dental School, where I was treated with ... well, OK, I had to get three root canals before the pain would even remotely stop. Then they did a whole bunch more things on my teeth that today, I'm still embarrassed to admit. I'm also really mad at myself that all of this could have been avoided if I had actually just brushed my teeth twice a day, flossed regularly, stopped drinking so much dang soda and used mouthwash before bed. Ten minutes a day could have saved me nearly two years of dental work.

Anyone see a connection here?

When you go to confession regularly, it helps you in all aspects of life because of the graces it sends you. The more times you go, the less you have to confess, as my family priest once told me. Keeping your soul clean should be even more important than keeping your teeth healthy, because that's the part of you that's going to live forever.

OK, I get it now.

So this coming Saturday, plan to join me as I go for my first confession in nearly five years. I don't expect it to be easy - far from it, actually. But I do know that it is essential to keeping my faith life healthy. There are so many ways that God helps us in our lives, so why not take advantage of them? It's hard, I know it. Really hard, actually. But SO GOOD when it's done.

Are you as grateful to God as I am for his second chances?  

-Amy

Music playing while writing this: "A Little Time" by Jonathan Clay (because we all need just a little time to get things back on track)

The long questionnaire was filled with all those burning questions that many of us may have been too afraid to ask our significant other. From financial responsibilities to raising your children in the Catholic faith, it touched all aspects of life. Below are some that stood out to me:  

“You are happy with the domestic roles that you and your fiancé have chosen” (agree). “Marriage is the only way you will be truly happy in your life” (disagree). “I have had homosexual tendencies towards members of the same sex, and I’m afraid it will ruin my future marriage” (disagree…wow, what a question).   

After taking the time to review the questions that we had to agree/disagree with, I have come to the conclusion that talking about these things is WAY SO IMPORTANT before you get married. Soon we will be meeting with the FOCCUS couple to learn the results.

One thing I do want to discuss with the couple that we will be meeting with is how they got about making their new house or apartment their "home." Now that Matt is in the new place, and I've got some of my things in too, I expected that I would feel comfortable being there. However, I'm just not. It's cold, I can't get the Bravo channel, and sometimes I just want to lay in bed and read (my bed!). Most of the time I just can't wait to get back to my parent's house (yes, I'm 27 and still living with my parents. You got a problem with that?) and just relax there.

Sigh. What would you suggest I do to become more comfortable in the new place? I need some advice! (Mainly because I'm not getting any younger!)

-Amy

P.S. I lost five pounds! At least, I think I did. I guess I should have weighed myself before I started this whole regime, huh? Either way, wedding dress here I come!  

Music playing while writing this: "A Kiss to Build a Dream on" by Louis Armstrong

Lack of $tewardship: Stewardship obviously isn't a corporate concept. Why else would so many companies have invested $2.5 million for each of their Super Bowl commercials, and then provide uninspiring material? Like most of the ads that aired during the game, the mother and son Tebow ad left me with a "What's the big deal?" reaction. Worst example of lack of stewardship was the $2.5 million of our tax money that paid for the U.S. census spot.

So, are you ready for baseball season? OK, Lent first, then baseball season.

During the decades I was involved in the radio and TV aspect of Catholic communications, I wondered aloud why the church didn’t invest in a Super Bowl spot or two and use that time for evangelization. This was pre-2002 -- prior to the revelation of the sex abuse scandal -- when the market might have been more receptive to that message. 

My contemporaries in that field didn't see it that way, nor did the Catholic decision makers, i.e., members of the U.S. bishops' communications committee. They did, however, believe there was value in having their own TV network -- the Catholic Television Network of America.  It died $10 million and 13 painful years after it was launched, and without having made a positive impact on the Catholic community. An idea with merit, but poorly executed.

Since the Super Bowl is still a good place to evangelize, I’m glad Focus on the Family is investing $2.5 million for a spot that is expected to have a pro-life, pro-family message. The spot will feature Pam Tebow, who reportedly will relate how she ignored doctors’ advice and refused to abort the baby she was carrying in 1987. The healthy boy to whom she gave birth is Tim, a Heisman Trophy winner and leader on two-time national football champion University of Florida.

The purchase of time and featuring the Tebows has provided fodder for sports writers and the sports talkradio crowd. Most of their reaction has been negative, e.g., “I don’t want to be preached to by some athlete” and “Keep your religion off the playing field.” 

One comment that has me shaking my head comes from a Jan. 26 article on MSNBC.com. Jehmu Greene, president of the Women’s Media Center, stated, “An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year – an event designed to bring Americans together.”

I don’t recall the intent of the Super Bowl ever being to “bring Americans together.”  We might gather for food and fellowship because of it, but that certainly isn’t the reason the late Pete Rozelle and Company conceived the game. It is played because it generates money for the NFL, its teams’ owners and players, the TV network that airs it, and the community that hosts it. Nowhere in Super Bowl history do we read that someone said, “Let’s play a game at the end of the season that will bring Americans together.”

As the game evolved from its AFL-NFL Championship roots, some people realized that there would be a lot of interest, i.e., viewers, and that businesses would pay a lot of money to advertise their products and services -- and even ideas -- to those viewers. 

Greene’s concern about an ad that divides has no foundation. The game itself has had a history of division. Fans cheer for one team or the other. Bookmakers offer odds that have people betting in a variety of divisive ways. Commercials divide among competitors: Burger King and McDonald’s. Coke and Pepsi. Budweiser and Miller – the latter of which personified division with its “Tastes Great, Less Filling” campaign.

Since the Super Bowl is the biggest TV marketplace of the year, and since Focus on the Family could pony up the $2.5 million to enter that marketplace, the Tebow ad has a right to be there. The Tebows' message is certain to touch some of the game's 95 million potential viewers, and it might plant some seeds that will get others thinking about the sanctity of life and the value of family. Airing a message to the largest possible audience is what the business community calls marketing. Airing a pro-life, pro-family message to the largest possible audience is what Christians call evangelization.