Dear Loved Ones,

Pleasant Greetings to everyone! June is the month dedicated to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Fr George had been actively campaigning for the enthronement of His Image at the homes of parishioners. As a child, I recall going to homes in our parish participating in this enthronement rituals, my mother being the lifetime leader of the Sacred Heart movement.

On the 1^st week of July, I attended the NU seminar on ‘Best Practices on Teaching’ where experts shared new, innovative ideas meant to enhance the students' learning experience. In addition to lunch, refreshments, and new competencies gained, faculty attendees were given a $200 stipend for the day – call it the highest level of incentive/ motivation! Celebrated and watched fireworks on July 4 with the family of Marilou (from Dumaguete) and Joe Spade, very hospitable couple at their home, as shown in photo at their beautiful garden!

Part of my youthfulness is keeping in touch with the young, which I learned from Dr. De Lara who continues to enjoy teaching at Grad School to imbibe the energy of the students. In line with this, I joined Sean to watch the live concert of the top ten American Idols finalists at Arco Arena on July 9 where the energetic audience was treated to 3-1/2 hours show with more than 40 songs/dances, each finalist had 3 solos, the top 2 had 4 each and the rest group numbers – really got more than your money’s worth – fantastic show! With the crowd’s cheer, apparently they couldn’t get enough, especially from David Archuleta.

To be socially relevant, I attended the regular 2^nd Wednesday monthly meeting of the catholic breakfast club of Sacramento, a network catholic professionals where speakers present interesting topics over breakfast, after a Mass celebration at 6:15 AM. The venue is always at the Sacramento Hilton Hotel. Speaker for the month was Atty. Pugno, also St. Mel’s parishioner, discussing on the ‘catholic response to same sex marriage.’ I was also curious on the speaker since I plan to engage his services on estate planning, which I believe is an essential phase in American life.

Being an avid ABBA fan, Sean and I watched the movie version of the Broadway hit show (which I also watched in 2001) Mamma Mia on its 1^st showing day on July 18, which we thoroughly enjoyed, and afforded us to recall beautiful memories of the songs since the eighties. My attachment with ABBA had been 28-years long journey, having watched them perform live in Norway in 1981, and continue to be so, being handed down to new generations of ABBA fans. As shown in the photo, I have the original piano pieces of all their songs, have the CDs in my vehicles all these years, the ABBA CD always alternating with whoever is the current CD hit. Despite the two couples having divorced, they continue to be friends, and I am glad that all of them (ex-couples Anni-frid and Benny, Agnetha and Bjorn) attended the movie premiere in London. The movie cast finale reminded us of their ‘flashy spandex costumes’. I watched them perform Waterloo at the Eurovision81 and their live concert before they disbanded in 1981. I recall in 1982, my daughter Sarah performed ‘Thank You for the Music’ lead interpretation in their Dominican School choral contest and won for them 1^st prize. Now, my duet with Sean of ‘Thank You for the Music’ and ‘Dancing Queen’ during ‘magic sing’ sessions at Filipino parties always yield us a score of 100.

This month was my turn to host our Opus Dei Circle at home last July 24, to make good use of the summer weather while Sean is on vacation, and the attendance was so amazing. Promptly at 9:30 am, 6 ladies arrived with their 16 kids, led by Deidre with her 5 kids, Filipina Veronica with her five kids (while her youngest is just 5 months old, she is now pregnant for her 6^th, and her eldest is only 7yrs old). Brangelina is surely setting a trend for big dozen families. How wonderful!

While we had our circle discussion at home, Sean brought 12 kids to the playground keeping him busy looking after them, and by 11:30 they all returned smoothly to have some refreshments with the adults. As shown in the photo, we all had a good time at home!

Attached are photos: 1) with the American Idols in concert, David Archuleta on the piano; 2) with my ABBA songbook; 3) at home with the OD Circle kids; 4) at their awesome garden on July 4. Let us continue to pray for our country and people and for America. Peace and Joy to You and God Bless Us All!

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Much love and Best Regards!!

SUSAN BG