Eye knowed it! I'se uh grammer ekspurt!

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?

I credit my homeschooled education for the high score. There's no WAY I would have known the correct answers if I had attended regular school all the way through.

Important Health & Safety Message

Thought this video was a very funny way of getting a good message across, now that we're entering virus season.

HT: Kateri

The Latest Miriamism

"Ooh, that toothpaste stingles my tongue!"
(she's just graduated from tooty-fruity to minty toothpaste)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a quiet Thanksgiving Day this year, which suited us just right. I made a fairly simple dinner since there were only the four of us (half of which ate next to nothing).

The menu:
Roast Rock Cornish Game Hens with sage stuffing
Himmel und Erde (mashed potatoes & apples seasoned w/nutmeg)
Green Bean Casserole (is it Thanksgiving if you DON'T have this?)
a bottle of Riesling
and, of course, Pumpkin Pie w/whipped cream

Simple, but very yummy, if I do say so myself! I would have done a little more, but I threw my back out twice in the last couple weeks, and haven't fully recovered enough to do a full-out feast. Maybe for Christmas.

The girls helped decorate for the day:


(Katie had some help). Miriam's turkey has feet with seven toes, according to her. It's also wearing socks. I thought you should know.

I spent most of Wednesday trying to finish a new dress for Miriam to wear on Thanksgiving, since she only has one winter dress so far. (It's only just recently turned very cold, so she's been surviving on cooler dresses with a sweater.) Unfortunately I didn't quite finish in time -- I quit at 11pm with only the skirt to go. But I finally finished it today:


Can anyone say, "Mary Ingalls"? (I've got an idea for Halloween costumes for the girls next year...)

Now, I'm not normally this horrible of a procrastinator, saving it for the last minute like this -- I would have started working on it sooner if I had been able to do more than lie around and whine for the last couple weeks. :) Although I do find that I work better with a deadline...

Hope everyone had a peaceful holiday!

More Birthday pics

forgot to add these last time:

From Edy both girls received a really fun gift:

wheee!! confetti in a can!! (thanks for the warning beforehand, Aunt Rachel!)

But the girls were very happy to help clean up:



Everybody enjoyed Katie's birthday...

even the balloons.

New Error Message

(with apologies to our separated brethren, but I just found this too funny!)

And now... the post you've all been anxiously waiting for...

The Katie's Second Birthday Blogonanza! Complete with pictures! (speaking of which, sorry it took so long to post about this -- Blogger hates me. More specifically, Blogger hates me trying to post pictures.)

Sooooo.... here is the Birthday Girl in her Birthday Outfit posing for her Birthday Pictures and looking Birthday Cute.

No girl should be without the coordinating purse.

Her true personality shining through.

I'm cute and I know it!

For her cake I made cupcakes and shaped them into...

what else? :)

Blowing out her candles (with the help of the bigger girls).

The Birthday Bear with her birthday bear. She was SOOO excited about this present! She liked them all, actually, but she was the most enthusiastic about ripping this one out of its wrappings once she saw what it was. :)

Katie really enjoyed her birthday -- the cupcakes, the presents, the singing, the balloons -- she soaked up all of it! (Sometimes I still catch her singing "Happy Birthday" to herself.) I just hope that our children always feel loved and special on their birthdays. (One thing I've noticed though -- how come mothers never get any appreciation for the hard labor they went through to PRODUCE the birthday child, huh?? btw, Mom B, thanks for the 23 hours of back-breaking labor that you're fond of reminding me YOU went through 29-odd years ago!) :)

One thing I love about this time of year -- our table is covered w/festive cards! (for those who don't remember or didn't know, I spent our 4th anniversary frantically cleaning the house b/c I was in pre-labor w/Katie -- she was born early the next morning) :)

At what kind of benefit gala do you see...

A man, wearing a tux, and carrying a baby in a carseat?

A fundraising dinner for an OB/GYN practice, that's what kind!

I'm sure most of you have heard of Dr. John Bruchalski and the Tepeyac Family Center. Well Mrs. Pickles is one of the fortunate patients at that practice. Dr. B delivered Miriam, in fact. Tepeyac is an amazing, totally pro-life practice. Their motto is "combining the best of modern medicine with the healing presence of Jesus Christ." A little while back they decided to transform into a non-profit practice, so every year they hold a fundraising dinner to help support the practice. This year the gala was on our anniversary, so we decided to attend. It was a LOT of fun. We saw several people we knew there -- all part of the "Catholic mafia" that's infiltrated this area. :) We actually sat next to people who graduated from the Alma Mater a few years before us. Small, small world! They brought their 2 month old baby girl. In fact, there were babies and carseats everywhere. It was great being at such a formal event where bringing your little baby was EXPECTED.

One of the beautiful things about Tepeyac is that they will take any patient, regardless of risk or ability to pay. Some women are such high-risk pregnancies that other practices refuse to treat them. Tonight we heard about a story of one woman whose membranes ruptured halfway through the pregnancy. (For the uninitiated, this means her water broke over 4 months early and the unborn baby was without the protection that provides -- there's a serious risk of infection.) Doctors from another practice all suggested she "terminate the pregnancy" because the possibility of carrying a healthy baby to term was so slim. One doctor even wrote in her file that there was 0% chance of viability. But the good doctors at Tepeyac took her in, carefully monitored her for infection, and admitted her to the hospital for the last month of the pregnancy. She delivered a baby boy 6 weeks ago, and is expected to be able to bring him home from the hospital any day now. I hope the woman brings her son into the first practice to show him to them, and says, "Hey, remember me? This is that 0% chance baby!"

Because the doctors at Tepeyac will take in patients with severe complications, and they also provide services to the poor, the practice is heavily dependent upon donations, as you can imagine. It costs $2500 just for a normal birth (not including prenatal care). If they treat women with complications, that amount goes up. To raise money the gala included a silent auction, live auction (hosted by a priest), and a raffle. The auction items were some awesome things (vacation packages to the Caribbean, a prenatal massage package, golfing at an exclusive club, fishing with one of the Drs, works of Catholic art) -- but there's no way we could bid for anything until we become independently wealthy. We would have loved to be able to give more -- we were convicted once more of the importance of getting out from under our debt so we can be more generous to causes we feel passionate about.

Tepeyac is a fabulous practice and I feel so blessed to be a part of it. It's been generating a lot of press lately too: Dr. B and Tepeyac were even featured on the front page of the Washington Post (and fairly positively!) a few months ago. Anyway, it was great having a good time and supporting such a beautiful cause at the same time!

Happy Anniversary to us!

6 years and 2 kids later, we still look gooooooooooooood.

Mr. Pickles even got a new suit for the occasion. (Mostly because I told him I wouldn't be seen in public with him in his old one -- at least not at a "black tie optional" affair!)

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Some pics from trick-or-treating last week:

I found the Mr. Potato Head (or should that be "Mr. Pumpkin Head?") at the grocery store and couldn't resist. Since Miriam is too young to wield the pumpkin knife, this was something she could decorate herself.

Katie was a bride, Miriam was the flower girl. It was Miriam's idea -- I asked her if she wanted to be a bride for Halloween, but she said, "No, Katie's going to be the bride, and I'M going to be the flower girl!" (Everybody knows that's the most important role in a wedding. ) Mr. Pickles stayed home to hand out candy while I took the girls out. I wore a purple dress too so I could be the maid of honor. :) (thanks for the idea, Aunt Terri!) Incidentally, the bride dress is one that Nana made for another Katie a long time ago! (I had to hem it up about six feet though.)

We actually had slim pickings this year -- I couldn't believe how many people weren't answering their door. We rang about 60 doorbells, but only a dozen answered. Maybe everyone ran out of candy early, like we did. :) Anyway, the girls LOVED it. We had a nice night -- it had been 70 that day so the evening was very mild. (Miriam did wear a sweater over her dress.) Miriam finally decided she was old enough to beg for her own candy (last year Daddy had to say "trick-or-treat" for her because she was too shy.) She happily ran up the steps to each house while I helped/dragged Katie, and pressed the doorbells. Katie REALLY got into the candy thing. When prompted she said a very enthusiastic "CHICKERCHEAT!" at every house, holding her pumpkin up high. They got lots of comments on their cuteness (and handfuls of candy).

I spent a lot of time thinking about the relation between Halloween and All Saints Day this year, trying to work out how to celebrate them in our family. A lot of Catholic families I know don't do Halloween or trick-or-treating -- they dress as saints and have All Saints parties. A while back we went to an All Saints party at a local parish and it was lots of fun. I'm glad that Catholics are reclaiming the holiday -- Halloween IS "All Hallows Eve" after all, and it's important to remember that the saints were once ordinary people like ourselves. Our pastor gave a great homily about how his family celebrated Halloween as he grew up. They all dressed as saints, and since they were all boys they liked to go for gruesome, so they picked martyrs: John the Baptist with his head on a platter, St. Lawrence with stripes painted on and carrying a grill, St. Sebastian stuck full of arrows, etc. -- sounds like they had a lot of fun.

It got me thinking about the scarier aspects of Halloween -- I'm still grossed out by costumes of serial killers, or blood-soaked shirts, or anything demonic. But I can see how dressing as the scariest thing you can think of gives you ownership over it, helping you to conquer your fear in a way. This can actually be a Christian thing -- since we know that Christ has the ultimate victory, nothing should frighten us, and dressing up in scary or gruesome costumes to earn candy mocks those things. It helps us realized that yes, fear and evil do exist, but they're not the end of the story. After the antics of Halloween night come the celebrations and feasting of the next day, a Holy Day (whose Mass obligation miraculously hasn't been abolished here yet).

Of course, the problem is if people start to glorify the scary or evil things.

I haven't worked everything out yet -- like whether dressing as devils or monsters is forbidden, or dressing only as saints is allowed -- but for now, trick-or-treating is in.

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As I was writing this, the girls came downstairs all dolled up, as they often do, and Katie asked me, "Go chickercheat now?" She's all dressed up, so obviously it must be time to go out and get candy!

Updates coming soon...

...as soon as I can get the computer to register the media card slot again...