Re-Opening of the Church

This morning marked the re-opening of our church!  After 8 long months, we are finally back to celebrating mass in the church and no longer in the gym of the school.  This morning, Father held a special prayer service for the care of God's creation.  The students and staff were able to attend, and I thought it would be lovely for Julianne and I to go as well.

Julianne did fairly well - she liked being able to sit on the pew (and not someone's lap) and she loved being able to stand on the kneelers to see.  She also got pretty excited when she spotted "Beb" (Reba) - in the center with a white shirt.

 and Dallas - off center to the left in the red shirt with his head down.  As they left to head back to school.

It is simply breath-taking!

Until next time...

Cleaning the Church

Our church remodel is getting so close to being completed!  In order to get ready for the final touches (i.e. touch up paint, mop the floors, move the statues, etc), the church needed a good cleaning!  There was such a heavy layer of dust settled on everything.

I spent my morning dusting (which is by far my least favorite thing to do) the pews.

Others worked on the pulpit area

While a few others braved the height of cleaning the alter that houses the tabernacle.

I absolutely love the blue ceiling - if I haven't mentioned that before!

I had never been in the balcony, so once my dusting was completed, I headed upstairs.  They added new carpet, pews, and railings.

I was also able to get an up-close look at the details on the pillars.

What a breath-taking view!  We are hoping to have our first Mass back in the church at the end of August.

Until next time...

All Lined Up

The workers set the new pews in place at our church today

They also worked on redoing the "Cry Room", which includes new doors!

Until next time...

Going Up

While we were in Iowa, the workers added carpet to the upper level at our church.  They used a lift to raise the rolls up and over the balcony rail.

The past few days and today have been spent piecing the Communion Railing back together.

According to the Facebook post, the railing was purchased in 1919 and was dedicated to the veterans of World War I.

These awesome guys are going off of the above pictures trying to piece the puzzle back to its glory.

They did it!

Until next time...

Tourney, Swimming and Remodeling

This morning, Dallas' baseball team started their tourney.  They were seeded 4th in the 'B' Bracket.  We have learned that the league divides the Pinto teams into 4 brackets (A, B, C, and D).  The 'A' Bracket has the top 6 finishing teams of the league.  The 'B' Bracket contains the teams that finished 7-12 and so forth.  It is a double elimination tournament, so there is a winners bracket and loser's bracket.  If you win, you stay in the winners bracket, if you lose, you move to the losers bracket and face another team that has lost.  If you win there, you continue in the bracket, with a chance to make it back to play the final winner of the winners bracket.  If you lose in the losers bracket, you are eliminated from the tourney.  Clear as mud?

So...Dallas' team played the first game of the tourney at 9 a.m. against the 5 seeded Corpus Christi Gold team.  We played them in our last game of the regular season and lost.  Needless to say, our boys were on a mission, and they were able to get the victory!  With the win, we were scheduled to play again at 1 p.m. against the number 1 seed, St. Joe White.  We did not play them in the regular season, but our boys played hard, and they defeated St. Joe 8-4!  With the second win of the day, we were finished until tomorrow afternoon.  

It was such a hot day, so the kids were begging to get in the pool once we got home.

In other news, the new pews were delivered to the church today!

Until next time...

Tile Work Continues

Our beautiful church...

I love the pattern they chose for the alter area and aisle

I've said it before, but I can't wait to see it when it is completed!

Until next time...

Tiles

The workers started on the tile pattern today!  I am anxious to see what the design will look like.

Until next time...

Floor Prep

Work continues on our church...today they have been prepping the floor for the soon to be tile flooring.

Until next time...

Church Pews

Our church added some photos of the new pews that will be added as part of the renovation to Facebook today.  I can already tell they are going to be beautiful!

Until next time...

Church Progress

You might remember back in early January when I talked about our church undergoing renovations?  Well, today, the church posted some pictures of the progress on its Facebook page.  I thought I would share!  I LOVE the blue that has been added.

Until next time...

Church Renovation

Our church started a HUGE renovation project this weekend.  One of the things about the renovation is that we are getting new pews.  In order to do something with the current pews, the parishioners were given the opportunity to purchase them through a silent auction.  After some discussion, Doug and I agree a pew would be a nice addition to our home decor.  Luckily, we were able to "win" one of the pews!  The kiddos helped Daddy pick it up from church last night and bring it in the house.

To begin the renovations, there was a little "destruction" work that needed to be done first.  Doug was able to go and help this morning, and he sent me a few pictures of what they did...

Neither of us had been in the balcony of the church, so he got a picture of the pipe organ!

Looking down from the balcony.  They lowered the large chandelier and covered it.

Removed all the stations

Removing the statue of the Holy Family

Taking out the carpet on the alter

They discovered this tile work down the main isle once the carpet was removed!

We figure it will be 7-8 months that it takes to complete the renovations, so until then, we are having Mass in the school gym.  Here's to hoping everything goes well!

Until next time...