Welcome to the World Joey!

We'd like to welcome Joey Dalpiaz to the family!  Congratulations Jake, Lindsay and Emily.  This is great news.  We've been away to Charlotte NC (all NASCAR all the time) but received the news by text while we were there.  Again I say, what a wonderful world we live in to have news available to us on the minute.  Can you imagine not knowing until the next letter arrived from overseas?

It's great to have a new Joe in the family.  It's a great tribute to Joey's great grandfather Joe but I'm not forgetting "Grandpa Joe" Manzelli your great grandfather.  While we await some new pictures of the newest Joey, allow me to share one of Grandpa Joe (Giuseppe)

I'm sure you've seen this before.  Grandpa Joe is to the far left with the magnificent mustache.

We've been particularly blessed in the past week to also welcome to the world twins of my cousin Cathy in Gloucester Massachusetts.  One boy and one girl Calvin and Claire were also born within the last week.  Babies everywhere!  Can't wait to meet them all.

Happy Father's Day 2011

I just loved that Jean posted a picture of herself and her Dad on her wedding day for her Facebook profile picture to celebrate Father's Day.  So I went in search of something similar to post here and this is what I found:

I like this because everyone looks happy and relaxed.  It's great to see everyone together this way!  So, this picture reminded me of another:

Bobbie is clearly the party girl here!  I have a note on the back of this picture that it was taken just before I lost my shoe (I don't remember that part at all).  This was Kathleen's boat wedding which did not end up with your Dad feeling so well but I did find this picture of your dad and I together, which is what I was seeking to start out with:

I think your Dad is smiling!  And please note party girl Bobbie.  And we have two weddings coming up.......

So, in a roundabout way:  Happy Father's Day to all and special cheers for your dad!

Cold and Wet in Mid June

James and I spent this past weekend at the NYS softball championships in Saratoga Springs.  I just love Saratoga Springs, but we didn't get to see too much past the clay diamonds of the playing fields.  The weather was just awful.  We arrived at the fields at about 5:45 AM and it began to rain at about 6.  Did not stop until around 8 PM.  If you told me we'd get all 15 games in that day I would have bet you money otherwise.  We got soaked and it wasn't that warm either. James worked really hard getting the fields playable so he was wet, cold AND dirty.  I was merely wet and cold.

But we had a great time despite the conditions.  Facing that kind of diversity with others forges special bonds that arise from shared misery.  It's kind of amazing how many times we've had a great time in adverse conditions.  When were were on our honeymoon, we went on a whale watch and it was the same experience, with high waves added in for fun.My brother and his wife were with us and I remember us all singing the Gilligan's Island song.

Many of the times that I can recall where nasty conditions failed to dampen the spirits involve softball.  One year the tournament was held in Binghamton and I was helping to run it.  It poured.  Everything was just dripping.  But we made it through that day also getting all the games in somehow.  And I have fond memories.  It was so much fun that we did it again!  And again!  After that soaking, I sent thank you emails to  my helpers:  "Thank you for all your help with the tournament.  It was long, cold, hard, and wet but we made it."  I think you can see why I remember those emails so clearly.  Yikes!  And those people are still my friends (well, most of them are anyhow).  I'm sure we've all sent or received something similar and just cringe at the memory.

Another week of being a little bit behind.  I hope someone missed me since the last post, but I did get to see many of you last weekend for the showers.  Thank you to Bobbie for putting together two wonderful events for us to share within 48 hours of each other!  It was great that Kathleen could be part of several family events in her visit north.  Pat took wonderful pictures, as always so that we could all enjoy the event long into the future. 

This is one she missed (I think):  James teaching Miles that the Mets are Number One.

Your dad would have celebrated his 83rd birthday yesterday so I've been thinking a lot about him this weekend, especially after seeing Aunt Rose and Diana last weekend.  It's also graduation time so it seems I'm thinking a great deal about advice to give and lessons learned.  Here are a few of my own:

You don't know what you don't know.  (this came to me more recently than many of the others but at the moment, is my favorite one)

Sleep when you need to.  Sometimes this feels silly--like we adults shouldn't "have to" take a nap just a little while after our morning coffee, but your body knows what it needs.  Listen to it.

People are doing the best they can with the tools they have.  Despite behavior indicating otherwise, people aren't usually actively trying to make your day miserable.  Most of the time.

 Say "no" when you need to without explanation.  But include a thank you for the thought.

Use the good stuff.

Find ways to remove the irritants from your daily life.  They aren't going to remove themselves and no one else is going to do it for you.

OK, there's no future in graduation speeches for me so you are my audience.  Thank you very much.