A couple of days late, but Happy Birthday Brad! I love this picture and thought you all might like it too. Fifteen years ago.

Oh, By the Way....

Thanksgiving Eve 2009. I hope you are all looking forward to a great day with family and friends tomorrow, as we are. Amy has just arrived home so it's wonderful for us all to be together.

We were talking about this blog and Amy said "Oh by the way" regarding the little bell with the "D" leather attachment: she remembers that she found it at your house on the bar sometime after your father died. She liked it because "it was small and so was I" so she asked someone (maybe Kathleen or Pat) if she could keep it. And that's how it came to be at our house. Jean took a look at it and didn't remember anything in particular about it either so perhaps we will never know its story.

I gave the Happy Birthday shout out for our November birthdays, but I thought you might be interested in another November celebration from the past. This is a copy of the front and back of the marriage certificate for your great grandparents Joseph and Jenny Manzelli who were married November 19 1896 in (at?) Long Island City. One of the reasons I love these is for the signatures. You can see your great grandparents actual handwriting on the back side of this. Oh, by the way you also see great Uncle Giacomo's signature as well (the one who looks so much like James in his passport photo).

Worth noting is that they were married by Long Island City Mayor Patrick Gleason. Oh, by the way, Paddy Gleason apparently had a reputation for underhandedness. Definitely sounds like the "good ole boy" network was alive and well then as now. Makes you wonder a little bit about why they chose to be married by him. We can't tell the location of the ceremony from this document, but I'd be guessing City Hall.

Brian Monet and Ryan

I stumbled onto this engagement announcement for Brian and Monet last night and thought if you all hadn't seen it yet you might like to check it out here. I love this picture of them!

And then there's this picture. Ryan wearing his birthday gift from the Hartman clan. It does look pretty cool even if it's hard to tell from this.

We were in Gloucester over the weekend and had a great visit with the Ryan side of the family. We got soaking wet but at least it was warm. Now we are back to reality and Harpursville.

I hope you have a great week.

November News and "Someday"

Just catching up a little bit here. Happy birthday wishes to Brian, Thomas, Michelle, Steve and Brad! November's a big month for the Dalpiaz clan too. We had a visit from Jean, Bob and Hailey last weekend. Mallory was visiting in Oneonta and we got to have some time with the rest of the crew. It's been a while since we have seen them, so it was a very nice weekend break.

Basketball season has now begun. True to form, Ryan has already twisted his ankle a bit but it will be fine. That's just business as usual for basketball it seems. He took the SATs again and we are getting college applications together to finish sending out this week. Senior year is so busy...I'm sure Jean and Linda will agree.

And here's just a little something from Amy many years ago that I think is kind of cool to look at now as she is getting ready to graduate:

From her "Someday" book

Taking a Leap

This is Ryan receiving a pass last weekend in the last football game of the season. He will probably never put on a football uniform again. The day couldn't come soon enough for me. It has taken me 4 years of high school football and 2 years of modified football to get comfortable with quarterbacking terms and responsibilities. And in the last game of his career, the coach plays him in another position--I think they called it running back. That was a cruel cruel trick to play on the mother of the quarterback. I suppose there was a good reason for it and Ryan seemed OK with it so I guess sometimes you just have to take the leap that the coach knows what he is doing. Running back indeed. I thought they were supposed to run forward!

I've been taking some of these leaps with Ryan most of his life. I bought a "Ryan" name sign for his room before he was born. I just knew he was a boy. Our parents must have done the same kinds of things for us. Right? It's just kind of hard to think of them being anything other than practical. I have no idea what sorts of leaps of faith or love my parents took for me or any of my siblings but I wish I did. I probably wouldn't have appreciated it at the time, but I certainly do now.

I'm going to take some extra time this week and think about my parents and how hard parenting is and bless them for giving me the tools to be a parent today. I'll be thinking about your parents too for James is a great dad. And marrying him might have been my biggest leap!

Homecoming 2009

Last Homecoming for Ryan and for James. How weird that seems. Last night at the dance, another chaperone asked if I would care as much about school activities after this year. My response was that I cared about school activities before children and even before James, but I don't really know. It's hard to imagine not caring but I suppose that day will come.

Amy was home for the weekend, feeling much better after two emergency room visits (kidney stone and muscular pain). I heard from my sister Kathy in Florida and my sister Paula came over for a visit. Ryan won his game and the weather broke just as the game got under way. It was senior recognition so between the raindrops and the tears, everyone and everything was wet if not muddy. But it was a very nice weekend for the Harpursville Dalpiaz family. I hope the same for you.

News update

We had a threat of bad weather this weekend but it didn't turn out to be too bad. We had to travel over an hour east to Ryan's game this week so we were fearful of what we would be facing but it turned out to be not bad at all. And they won! Ryan had a great game and scored 3 touchdowns. That's a personal high for him. Thanks for noticing Kathleen and Nick! Next week is Homecoming and we are hoping for a good day then also. He's the guy with the ball here--number 4.

I am trying to document the stories behind some of the things we have collected around here (and you know your brother--we have collected quite a few things). I want their stories known so that someday when Ryan or Amy is deciding whether to sell it in a garage sale or throw it away, they do so knowingly. This is a picture of an item I am certain came from your father's house. I thought I remembered it being down in the basement near the bar but that could be wrong. Any ideas? Neither Kathleen nor James knows anything about it. It's a small bell that's maybe 3 inches tall. The top button with the D appears to be leather about 1 inch across. There seems to be some kind of fastener on the top. I would love to hear about it if you know anything.