As of this week, I will only be buying (and changing) diapers for one child. I’m sure there will be the occasional setback, but that is to be expected.

You all can file this one under “Too Much Information.”

“Erin wants to embody her ideals, not just vote for them”

It is no secret that I think my siblings are the bees knees. But the wide range of reactions that I’ve seen to yesterday’s election (from wild, uncontained glee to clothes-rending despair), my sister’s simple Facebook status update was by far the best. And it carries so much weight because nobody I know tries harder than she does to act on her beliefs. And that’s saying something, because I know some amazing people on BOTH sides of the political spectrum.

Kate reminded me to take pictures for Picture of the Week, since she was going to be in New York with the kids and I was going to be in Seattle. She also reminded me to actually pull the pictures off the camera and write a post. Which I. . . forgot to do. So now I’m stuck in Seattle with the pictures on the camera and no way to process and upload them, since I shot in RAW. This is where Rich chastises me for not shooting JPEG.

Anyway, in lieu of a Mary picture of the week, I give you our most recent family pictures (old news to those of you on facebook).

Due to popular demand, here are the first four pictures of Mary and our family. I would be posting more, but I’m having issues with the Flickr uploader and am needed back at the hospital. More to come!

My brother Murray on the new camera:

it’s not the camera, its the beauty of the ppl you take pictures of

so just make sure i’m in every picture and they’ll all look like professional, HQ crystal clear masterpieces”

He’s humble, that kid.

I just wanted to let everybody who may be following the Virginia Tech tragedy know that Murray (my brother who is a student at Virginia Tech) and Matthew (Tim’s brother, also at VT) are both fine. Thank you to everybody who has contacted me expressing their concern.

Please keep all the victims, their families, and friends in your prayers.

We rearranged some furniture in our house, and Kate is redecorating our family room. As part of her redecorating efforts, we are creating a wall of old family pictures, reminiscent of those in our parents homes. Over the years we have raided the photo stashes of our parents and grandparents. I picked up a lot of photos when my grandfather passed away in 2004. It was a very therapeutic process, and I found and scanned a few pictures of him and my grandmother from back in the day.

I spent the evening printing photos for the wall and putting all the old photos we currently have in a set on flickr.

One of the neat things about my parents photo wall that we liked was the pictures of them as kids, so we tried to find baby pictures of me and Kate when we were approximately the same age (she’s 18 months, I’m 2 years). So. Who do YOU think Simon looks like?

On Friday I got a call from my not-so-little brother, Murray. He’s a senior in high school, and we’ve all been waiting in suspense to see if he’d break the tie (Me and my dad went to Virginia Tech, my mother and sister went to UVA). He got word on Friday that he’d been accepted to Virginia Tech.

I’m sure that he’s thrilled, seeing as he’s been planning on being a Hokie since the age of five. But I hope he realizes the responsibilities that come with attending such a fine university. First and foremost, he must be willing to endure all sorts of early mornings, long lines, and bad food. . . while he waits in line for football tickets for his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew.

In all seriousness, I couldn’t be more thrilled that Murray is a Hokie, and I’m confident that he’ll succeed in whatever path he chooses to take at Virginia Tech. Congratulations, Murray!