"I just called to say - I love you"

In the years 1990 - 1991, I traveled around the country with a Catholic missionary group called N.E.T. We did retreats for teenagers in Catholic parishes in places like New York, Illinois, Toronto/Ontario Canada and St. Paul, Minnesota. It was like "road rules" for Catholic college people. It was both life-changing and really hard in a lot of ways. One of the best outcomes was the friendships I made with the other 9 people on my team (5 men/5 women) - there are actually 100 plus people who are on 10 or so travelling teams - but you mainly spend the year with the 10 people on your specific "team." 

Yesterday, we all found out that one of our team members died in a car accident. His name is Chris, and he was a really wonderful man who was gentle and kind and a very good drummer. We didn't stay in close touch, but it is still sad for me and the other members of our team even 21 years later. Chris was 43. In the photo above, he's dancing with another woman on our team, Lupe. I pray that his soul, through the mercy of God, rests in peace. 

On much lighter notes, My parents (the Joads) arrived from Reno and are back to taking care of the boys and I. RKZ is on a work trip to Florida and Philadelphia until tomorrow. This will be RKZ's last trip (that we know of) until baby #3 is born and I was so glad he could go and focus on his job for a few days while knowing that we're ok - RKZ has been working so hard helping us and he deserved to have meetings (and some beers) with coworkers! 

The pics below are the boys enjoying the local Science center. We've also seen the La Habra Children's museum and hoping for maybe Knotts Berry Farm today. Gotta' keep these kids moving at all times :)