Our New Daughter

Here are some pictures of our daughter. She was born at 7:30 am on Friday, and she weighed in at 7 lbs. 5 oz. and a little over 20 inches long.

A close up of our daughter with her customary hospital baby hat.



A picture of Mrs. Pickles looking radiant and beautiful (of course!) about 12 hours after the birth.



A picture of our new daughter on the scale about 30 minutes after birth. You should be able to see the weight on the scale in the lower left-hand portion of the picture. Check out all of that hair. Makes me (Mr. Pickles) envious! :)



Another pic of Katie on the scale. We love this shot of her. She just looks so fresh and new! The "baby Lojack" on her cord stump is a tracking device the hospital puts on all newborns now, for extra security.


CL w/her "baby Lojack"

And finally, here's a picture of our eldest daughter with Mom. She's hamming it up as usual, though it did take a little while until she warmed up to the situation (a new rival and all).

I hope you all enjoy the pictures. We'll try to put up a summary of the birth story as soon as possible. Thank you for your love and prayers.

Spring and Fall

On Sunday, the priest in our parish gave a good homily (judging by the bits I heard inbetween caring for my daughter) on the month of November. The gist of the homily was that this month is spent on focusing upon our death, our final end. What will that final end be? What will that end bring for us? He stated that throughout the Sunday's in November The Church continues to focus upon the theology of death. What does death mean for us as Christians?

I recall one of my professors in college spending some time talking about this topic in class. He talked about the paradox that death brings to life. In youth hope continues to spring up. There is no confrontation with death, and little thought about death. The site of life brings joy and an experience of beauty. However, the experience of death causes us to mourn and question that joy. Life gives joy and hope, yet it also causes us to mourn when we acknowledge its finitude. Why should something so beautiful not last forever? There lies the echo of God in our hearts, and a calling from Him to come closer. I found this attitude best described in the following poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. I often comes to my mind when I must rake leaves during the fall (as I did yesterday).

Márgarét, are you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow's spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

A young child encountering the death of something beautiful. Isn't that like us? God's children in a world full of beauty and Himself, yet also full of death. "Yet you will weep, and know why." We know why we weep. We know why we sorrow. Death will come. It will come for all of us. The beauty we see will perish, and we weep. But we will soon weep tears of joy when ushered before He who IS beauty, and our sorrow will be no more.

During this month of November, may we all remember our final end--and the final joy that should accompany it.

Christ's Peace,

Happy Halloween!

Aren't we just the scariest family? (L-R: hippie mama, "ballaneena," and Mr. Math -- he's holding an Operations Research textbook, for those who want to know)

Trick or Treat! 


We apparently won some neighbors' informal pumpkin carving contest with this incredibly inside-joke pumpkin. :) (no one else got it, but several trick-or-treaters said they thought it looked cool) Next year we want to do TROGDORRRRRRRR.

"Hi, I'm Marshie!" 

Listen to Bill!

For once I agree with Clinton.
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Also from WSJ's Best of the Web

"Snivel Discourse"

Bill Clinton was campaigning in Philadelphia the other day, and he had this to say: "If one candidate is trying to scare you and the other is trying to get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the one who wants you to think and hope."

It's hard to argue with that. So, who is the candidate of hope, and who is the candidate of fear? For an answer, we turn to Slate, the online magazine, which asked each of its staff and contributors to make the case for Kerry (an intern provides the pro-Bush counterpoint). Reading their endorsements, a clear theme emerges:

Paul Berman: "The prospect of tumbling down the stairs for four more years has got me scared out of my wits. Better Kerry, then."

Kris Fritz: "If Bush gets re-elected, I might have to change citizenship and move to another country."

Mickey Kaus: "I think Bush is prosecuting the fight against terrorism in a way that will make us dramatically less safe. . . . Let the world calm down so that fewer people hate us."

Laura Kipnis: "The rest of the world sees Bush for exactly who he is, which unfortunately ups the danger level for all of us."

Josh Levin: "If Kerry gets elected, the world will be just a bit less dangerous, and I'm all for baby steps away from mutual assured destruction."

Jill Hunter Pellettieri: "I fear what another four years of Bush's myopic worldview would bring to our country and the world."

Laurie Snyder: "Another four years with Bush-Cheney at the helm is a terrifying prospect."

Seth Stevenson: "The Bush administration frigging TERRIFIES me. . . . They literally make me fear for the fate of the world."

Louisa Herron Thomas: "I wish I didn't fear for the safety and health of myself, my country, and my planet. Under Bush, I do."

Julia Turner: "I think Bush is bad for the country and the world--and for me. He has put my lungs at risk. He has put my reproductive rights at risk. He has put my retirement at risk. He has put my friends at risk, by sending them to Iraq on false pretenses. He has put all of our lives at risk."

It seems clear, then, that when Clinton urged Americans to vote for the candidate of hope not fear, he was endorsing President Bush. But ostensibly he was campaigning for Kerry; this photo depicts Kerry as a teenager excited that he's standing next to a rock star. Oh well, Clinton always had a talent for making people on all sides think he agreed with them.

Endorsements for John Kerry

Courtesy of WSJ's Best of the Web
compiled by James Taranto

"I know few people enthused about John Kerry. His record is undistinguished, and where it stands out, mainly regrettable. He intuitively believes that if a problem exists, it is the government's job to fix it. He has far too much faith in international institutions, like the corrupt and feckless United Nations, in the tasks of global management. He got the Cold War wrong. He got the first Gulf War wrong. His campaign's constant and excruciating repositioning on the war against Saddam have been disconcerting, to say the least. I completely understand those who look at this man's record and deduce that he is simply unfit to fight a war for our survival. They have an important point--about what we know historically of his character and his judgment when this country has faced dire enemies. His scars from the Vietnam War lasted too long and have gone too deep to believe that he has clearly overcome the syndrome that fears American power rather than understands how to wield it for good."--Andrew Sullivan, endorsing John Kerry, The New Republic, Oct. 26

"I can't remember ever voting for anybody I disliked as much as I do John Kerry, at least not for president, but vote for him I will. I didn't have much use for Al Gore either, but I don't remember any real sense of hostility before punching the hole next to his name. . . . I can't persuade anybody to vote for a candidate for whom I can muster so little enthusiasm, but there must be an awful lot of people out there who are going to cast votes next week for Kerry who are, like me, discouraged by the prospect and needing one of those you-are-not-alone talks."--Mark Brown, endorsing John Kerry, Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 27

"I remain totally unimpressed by John Kerry. Outside of his opposition to the death penalty, I've never seen him demonstrate any real political courage. His baby steps in the direction of reform liberalism during the 1990s were all followed by hasty retreats. His Senate vote against the 1991 Gulf War demonstrates an instinctive aversion to the use of American force, even when it's clearly justified. Kerry's major policy proposals in this campaign range from implausible to ill-conceived. He has no real idea what to do differently in Iraq. His health-care plan costs too much to be practical and conflicts with his commitment to reducing the deficit. At a personal level, he strikes me as the kind of windbag that can only emerge when a naturally pompous and self-regarding person marinates for two decades inside the U.S. Senate. If elected, Kerry would probably be a mediocre, unloved president on the order of Jimmy Carter."--Jacob Weisberg, endorsing John Kerry, Slate, Oct. 26

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Pathetic, isn't it? Is anybody actually voting FOR the guy? (as opposed to voting merely against Bush)

Sound of Music Trivia!!

Miriam just handed me a toy ladder from her Little People fire truck and asked me to sing "keen and bwight fowevew," meaning of course that she wants me to sing Edelweiss from the Sound of Music, pretending that the ladder is my guitar. In the past she has also pretended that her popcorn pusher is her guitar. I miss having an imagination like that!

Okay, another 10 points to the person who can tell us which song this line is supposed to be from: "My sun shoo be like a diet." She informs us that it's from the Sound of Music (well, "Kids Movie" anyway), but we can't figure out what it's supposed to mean. Does anyone else speak Toddler?

Lookadat Baby Belly!

All right, all right, we've gotten harrassed enough to finally post an embarrassing picture of The Belly. Hope this satisfies you all. (looking at this picture of myself explains why I don't fit into most of my maternity clothes anymore!)

8 1/2 mos. 

Lessons we’ve learned while doing home improvements

Lesson #1 – Home improvement projects ALWAYS take longer than you expect.
This is no surprise to anyone who’s ever attempted to do anything worth doing. There is always something that goes horribly, drastically wrong and sets you back. The Picklesbane was the wallpaper in the bathroom (see “Diary of a Bathroom”). We were supposed to have all painting and decorating projects done by the end of summer – we just finished last week.

Lesson #2 – You’ll hear your spouse using words you didn’t even know they KNEW.
Like when Mr. Pickles stepped on a sharp edge of an old light fixture – in his bare feet – twice. Mrs. Pickles followed him up the stairs with a wet rag, mopping up the trail of blood he left on the carpet. (The gash is STILL healing.)

Lesson #3 – We have come to associate painting with nursery rhymes.
To keep Miriam occupied while we were painting, we would play CD’s of kid music. One day while Mrs. Pickles was painting a wall in the bathroom, she found herself humming things like, “Ollie Mae the Octopus, we love you, yes we dooooo....” and “Down by the bayyyyyyy, where the watermelons growwwwww...” even though there wasn’t anything playing on the stereo.

Lesson #4 – The man who invented curtain rod brackets is probably spending a lot of time in purgatory. Or at least he ought to be.
Ours seem to be designed so that the hook wherein the rod rests obscures the screws holding the bracket to the wall, making the task of putting in screws a job worthy of Sisyphus (i.e. a job seemingly impossible to complete). The only way to get them in was to use a ratchet set and a lot of patience.

Lesson #5 – In tight quarters, surrounded by walls with wet paint, bending over can be quite precarious.
Let’s just say that Mr. Pickles has some shorts he won’t be wearing in public again.

Lesson #6 – As Click & Clack the Car Talk Guys say, every project is an opportunity to buy a new tool.
Well, Mr. Pickles didn’t actually get the power sander he was eyeing (to sand more easily the spackling we applied over the gouges in the sheetrock that appeared while removing the !@#$%^&* wallpaper in the Picklesbane bathroom), but he did get to play with a lot of his big boy toys when doing things like removing the toilet tank, moving the bathroom sink, hanging curtain rods, and removing and replacing the old bathroom hardware. (The most complicated thing Mrs. Pickles got to handle was a Phillips head screwdriver.)

Lesson #7 – When attaching hardware to your bathroom wall, please don’t strip the screws holding them to the hang plate.
Our LOVELY former owners did this, necessitating the use of a hacksaw to remove the towel rings and TP holder. Mr. Pickles got a couple nasty blisters in the process, since he had to scrape his hand against the wall to get the saw close enough.

Lesson #8 – Hacksaws are wonderful tools, but there are times when Mr. Pickles wished he had an acetylene torch for cutting through metal...., or maybe a laser. (Maybe next home improvement project?...)

Lesson #9 – When instructions for installing bathroom hardware tell you that one of the tools you will need is a level, you really WILL need a level.
Line of sight just ain’t quite good enough. (Especially if your floor is crooked.)

Lesson #10 – Any home improvement project will end up costing WAY more than you would ever expect.
I think we’ve pretty much blown our miscellaneous household expenses budget for the rest of the year. And oh yeah, don’t expect any Christmas presents from us either.

The Picklesbane -- before & after

This is the closest I could get to a "before" picture -- note the seizure-inducing wallpaper in the background (if you can get past the diapered rabbit.... don't ask). (Miriam is just under two in this pic, FYI)

before 


Ta-Da! Isn't it pwetty? (well, ignore the burned-out light)

after 

Diary of a Bathroom (aka The Picklesbane)

Week 1 – Aug. 30-Sept. 3
We had just finished the dining room & had our home blessing at the end of August, so we were feeling pretty pumped & ready to finish up the last 2 rooms of the house, the living room and main level half bath, or “powder room”. We spent this week doing prep – removing pictures from the walls, books from the shelves, etc. Walmart was out of a particular dye we needed for the paint, so we decided to tackle the bath first, since that required lots of prep (primarily removing wallpaper). We tried peeling off some wallpaper, thinking it would come off as easily as the paper in the DR, but it clung tenaciously to the wall, the stubborn stuff.

Week 2 – Sept. 6-10
Made a run to Lowe’s (we LOVE Lowe’s – it has something for everyone!) to get THE CLAW™ – a fun, deadly-looking pokey wallpaper-remover thingy that we had hoped to avoid purchasing initially, but oh well. It all seemed so easy:
Step 1 – perforate wallpaper with THE CLAW™.
Step 2 – spray holey wallpaper with blue gooey gel. Let sit for 15 mins, allowing gel to work its adhesive-dissolving magic.
Step 3 – scrape off soggy wallpaper.
Piece of cake!
Right?
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ – WRONGGG!!!!!!!!!!
It turned out more like this:
Step 1 – run THE CLAW™ over the walls (this was actually fun), everywhere you can reach, except for places like corners, near the ceiling, near the floor – basically within 2 inches of any edge (since the pokey things couldn’t reach that far).
Step 2 – spray wallpaper, ceiling, floor, door, self with sticky blue gooey gel. Allow to dry for 15 mins.
Step 3 – attempt to scrape off now-dry and even stickier wallpaper.
Repeat steps 2 (omitting the waiting part) and 3.
Step 4 – while removing wallpaper, remove large sections of underlying sheetrock as well. Note that some patches resemble a cat, a boot, a small continent.....
Step 5 – curse previous owners and whoever hung the wallpaper.
Step 6 – give up in despair and fix your self a martini.
Step 7 – call around to local army surplus stores and see if they sell hand grenades.

Week 3 – Sept. 13-17
Mrs. Pickles opened the door to the bathroom once or twice, sighed, and shut it again. Instantly imagining the worst case scenario, she had visions of spending a fortune having to replace all the sheetrock in the bathroom, causing her to sink into a home-improvement-project-induced depression. She called Walmart to see if they had the dye in yet. No luck. That certainly didn’t help either.

Week 4 – Sept. 20-24
Mr. Pickles decided to have mercy on Mrs. Pickles and pick up where she left off. He clawed the remainder of the walls and removed most of the rest of the paper (and large chunks of sheetrock as well). He also removed the light fixture (dropping & shattering one of the glass light shields in the process – oh well, guess we get to have a new one that matches!), took off the toilet tank, and loosened the sink cabinet so we could get behind/around those areas more easily. We also ran out of blue gel so we had to get another bottle. Mr. Pickles called Walmart to see if they had gotten the dye in yet. They hadn’t. Kmart also sells DutchBoy paint, so Mrs. Pickles made a quick trip to see if she could get the paint they needed there. After her experience with the customer nonservice there she resolved never to shop at Kmart again. (Mr. Pickles said it’s no wonder so many Kmarts are going out of business.)

Week 5 – Sept. 27-Oct. 3 (the first time we worked through a weekend)
Heartened by Mr. Pickles’s progress, Mrs. Pickles’s depression dissipated and she finished up the last few patches – using tools like pliers, tweezers, and a flat head screwdriver in the process (don’t ask). Then she washed the walls to get the rest of the adhesive off (it is REALLY sticky stuff – we’re wondering if they didn’t use some industrial strength stuff since it is a bathroom). On a roll, she decided to give Walmart one last chance. The manager of Walmart was then informed that he just lost a customer forever because she will NEVER shop there again. Mrs. Pickles next went to Lowe’s and had such a positive experience there. They know how to match paint samples! They know how to work their mixing machines! They know how to speak English! Mr. & Mrs. Pickles decided to buy stock in Lowe’s. Aside from paint Mrs. Pickles also bought the economy size tub o’spackling to patch up all the naked sheetrock. Unfortunately, she chose a rainy day to do it, so the spackling took FOREVER to dry. But once it was all sanded, we put on a coat of primer. Hooray!!! Visible progress! The day after, we applied the first coat of paint. Hooray!!! A yellow bathroom, finally! We celebrated by going out to eat (mostly b/c we were both too exhausted even to THINK about cooking dinner). :)

Week 6 – Oct. 4-Oct. 8
Mrs. Pickles applied the second coat of paint, and after a very creative moment during a bout of insomnia one night, designed and started painting the border accent. (As of today, this is still incomplete, but she doesn’t care anymore. Have we mentioned that by this time Mrs. Pickles was 7 1/2 mos. pregnant and getting decidedly slower?) She cleaned up the mess, Mr. Pickles installed the new light fixture, towel ring, & TP holder, and, *sniff* oh joy, we have a pretty, working bathroom again! Oh frabjous day!