365 Day 182

I love the way my sink looks after I bleach it.

 I don't even care about the stains and scratches it came with I know it's clean.

365 Day 181

Oh how I wish she would smile without her teeth bitting her lip, but oh well. 

We got to play with this precious little girl (and her awesome brother) today while visiting Pops and Granny for the boys's belated birthday celebration. I should of taken more pictures but I got caught up in playing with these two year olds. Who knew tea and hide and seek could be so fun! Excellent, excellent day!

365 Day 180

After two escapes we finally decide it's time for her to get another shower. You may say this is mean, but she was purring.

365 Day 179

The birthday party is only days away and I still haven't sent out invitations.

Utter fail!

Today I finally pulled out my camera, took some pictures, and made the card. It's printing now and will be ready tomorrow for me to send out. Whew, that's a load off my chest!

365 Day 178

He actually surprised me. 

Well actually, they all did. 

I was going to spend my day just cleaning the house but my good friend invited me to hang out. With a good excuse to get the kids together to play, I couldn't pass it up. 

What started as a few hours turned into many when Cliff told me he had to work late. My friend was making spaghetti and invited me and the kids to stay. Turns out Cliff planned the whole thing and brought Buca over to their house for dinner as a surprise (she really did make spaghetti so I wouldn't get wise). Buca gave me the over sized card with our Antipasto salad and Penne Cardinale. My friends were in on it too and had picked me up this perfect coffee cup and card beforehand. I love my friends and family! 

They made today truly special.

Oh, and the best part was the homemade peanut butter cheesecake they made me! 

365 Day 177

It was such a beautiful day outside we wanted to make the most of it. It didn't take these two any convincing to play outside. Little E actually chose to wear pants today and had a great time getting dirty and making dirt piles with her brother!

365 Day 176

Today was a 4th birthday party at the gymnastic center. It was a blast! I took this picture before Little E had arrived. My camera didn't like the lighting in the place so getting my photos to come out how I wanted was difficult but even with the flaws I still love having all the cousins sitting together in one unposed shot. 

The highlight of the day (there were many) had to be watching my brother, father, and husband attempt to climb the rope to the ceiling. I say attempt but Cliff  did succeed. I have to admit I thought he'd make a fool of himself (like I would have and normally do) but I think he might have impressed them that he could still do it.

365 Day 175

Tonight we went out for dinner before the fights started, or at least the fights we cared to see started. Cliff had steak and I ordered the Seared “Rare” Ahi Tuna Wild Caught in Hawaii with Wasabi Butter and Pickled Onion. The butter wasn't spicy like I was hoping and farm raised would of been more ideal, but the pickled onions added the most perfect flavor to the delicious fish! Add the lemon and my mouth was in complete bliss.

The night was very interesting, starting with the table right in front of us getting pissed off about being cut off from alcohol and the (not so) gentleman refusing to put down his knife while yelling at the EMT security.

The fights were good but the last one had the crowd pretty riled up, many of them throwing their drinks at the area. While we waited to hear the winner (and just after that) a large group of people started running up (down? away?) the aisle. I look up at Cliff who was next to me and see a very large man hold (and using a stun gun) right.next. to Cliff's head. I tried to warn him and then I bolted down the path away from the fighting mob. Nothing happened, and enough large security guys were around to keep it from effecting any of us, but the way I figure I was just proving I still know how to run in large heels. 

All the stuff going on at home had me a little down this evening so when we got home Cliff made me the most delicious Chewys ever. 

And, as if that wasn't good enough, he saved some cookie dough so I could have the raw stuff too. 

365 Day 174

Today Little E is getting dropped off with Mamaw so we can have our date night tomorrow. Mamaw was planning on taking her to see Disney's Brave and offered to take all of us with them. The boys were so excited. Mamaw spoiled us, getting each of the kids one of the popcorn boxes and a popcorn and drink for her and I to share. I loved the movie, and so did the boys. Little E got scared during some of the angry bear scenes but Mamaw convinced her to see that it had a beautifully happy ending. 

365 Day 173

Keeping busy waiting for Mr. Mann to finish his physical therapy and feel better. I love days where Little E can occupy herself in a store without an iPod.

365 Day 172

We're finally getting into the swing of summer and finding ways to enjoy the long hours. Today Mr. Mann painted pictures with his little sister. They were so cute to watch. She painted a sun and a castle and a whole assortment of things from her imagination. I love watching her get inspired by her older brother. 

365 Day 171

Zelda's for pizza followed by a slice of heaven at Rick's Diner with the best company in the world. 

Another last minute 5 star day!  

365 Day 170

My forgotten potatoes have apparently forgiven me. 

365 Day 169

Another awesome night with friends filled with coconut, pineapples, and the cutest baby ever!

365 Day 168

*Taken 6.14

365 Day 167

Alex's turn!

*Taken 6.14

365 Day 166

Made a trip out to Benicia to visit my Grandma and then stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory on the way home. They weren't in production but we had a great time. Leaving Jelly Belly I got onto the wrong freeway forcing us to drive 113. When we ended up next to the turbines and the baby needed a potty (no restrooms for days!) I figured we could take advantage of the road side photo op. Happy Impromptu Birthday!

365 Day 165

I arrived to my doctor appointment this morning 30 minutes late. It was for the results of my MRI (meaning really important!) and somehow I mixed up the time. I was so grateful that they managed to see me anyway but the rest of my day just felt crazy and hectic after that. This was actually my hair a couple of days ago. I was really proud of it and although I went to several places (most of which where I was well known) I only had 1 person notice and compliment me. See! This is why I rarely do my hair...

365 Day 164

Mr. Mann spent the afternoon helping Cliff tear down the fountain feature to build us this beautiful tomato bed. They did a fantastic job and this is going to be so much more useful than a fountain.

365 Day 163

I gotta admit the thought of this MRI is freaking me out a wee bit, but check out the stylish threads I get to wear for it!

365 Day 162

My favorite addiction: Fresh blueberries from Isleton! Just wish I lived closer and could get these delicious treats more than once a week. 

365 Day 161

Our last trip to Home Dept and Little E found herself in love with this watering can. She loves to help me water the plants every morning so Daddy indulged her and brought it home. It's been a huge hit with her and the other kids. Who knew watering plants would be so fun. 

Commencement Speech Win

Because my graduation certainly wasn't this awesome, and because this is awesome advice I wanted to save it where I could find it (and read it) again.

Wellesley High School in Massachusetts 2012 graduation: 

"So here we are… commencement… life’s great forward-looking ceremony. (And don’t say, “What about weddings?” Weddings are one-sided and insufficiently effective. Weddings are bride-centric pageantry. Other than conceding to a list of unreasonable demands, the groom just stands there. No stately, hey-everybody-look-at-me procession. No being given away. No identity-changing pronouncement. And can you imagine a television show dedicated to watching guys try on tuxedos? Their fathers sitting there misty-eyed with joy and disbelief, their brothers lurking in the corner muttering with envy. Left to men, weddings would be, after limits-testing procrastination, spontaneous, almost inadvertent… during halftime… on the way to the refrigerator. And then there’s the frequency of failure: statistics tell us half of you will get divorced. A winning percentage like that’ll get you last place in the American League East. The Baltimore Orioles do better than weddings.)

But this ceremony… commencement… a commencement works every time. From this day forward… truly… in sickness and in health, through financial fiascos, through midlife crises and passably attractive sales reps at trade shows in Cincinnati, through diminishing tolerance for annoyingness, through every difference, irreconcilable and otherwise, you will stay forever graduated from high school, you and your diploma as one, ‘til death do you part.

No, commencement is life’s great ceremonial beginning, with its own attendant and highly appropriate symbolism. Fitting, for example, for this auspicious rite of passage, is where we find ourselves this afternoon, the venue. Normally, I avoid clichés like the plague, wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole, but here we are on a literal level playing field. That matters. That says something. And your ceremonial costume… shapeless, uniform, one-size-fits-all. Whether male or female, tall or short, scholar or slacker, spray-tanned prom queen or intergalactic X-Box assassin, each of you is dressed, you’ll notice, exactly the same. And your diploma… but for your name, exactly the same.

All of this is as it should be, because none of you is special.

You are not special. You are not exceptional.

Contrary to what your U9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing 7th grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you… you’re nothing special.

Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped. Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You’ve been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You’ve been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. Yes, you have. And, certainly, we’ve been to your games, your plays, your recitals, your science fairs. Absolutely, smiles ignite when you walk into a room, and hundreds gasp with delight at your every tweet. Why, maybe you’ve even had your picture in the Townsman. And now you’ve conquered high school… and, indisputably, here we all have gathered for you, the pride and joy of this fine community, the first to emerge from that magnificent new building…

But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not.

The empirical evidence is everywhere, numbers even an English teacher can’t ignore. Newton, Natick, Nee… I am allowed to say Needham, yes? …that has to be two thousand high school graduates right there, give or take, and that’s just the neighborhood Ns. Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools.

That’s 37,000 valedictorians… 37,000 class presidents… 92,000 harmonizing altos… 340,000 swaggering jocks… 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs. But why limit ourselves to high school? After all, you’re leaving it. So think about this: even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you. Imagine standing somewhere over there on Washington Street on Marathon Monday and watching 6,800 yous go running by. And consider for a moment the bigger picture: your planet, I’ll remind you, is not the center of its solar system, your solar system is not the center of its galaxy, your galaxy is not the center of the universe. In fact, astrophysicists assure us the universe has no center; therefore, you cannot be it. Neither can Donald Trump… which someone should tell him… although that hair is quite a phenomenon.

“But, Dave,” you cry, “Walt Whitman tells me I’m my own version of perfection! Epictetus tells me I have the spark of Zeus!” And I don’t disagree. So that makes 6.8 billion examples of perfection, 6.8 billion sparks of Zeus.

You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless. In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another–which springs, I think, from our fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality — we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement. We have come to see them as the point — and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole.

No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it… Now it’s “So what does this get me?” As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well-being of Guatemalans.

It’s an epidemic — and in its way, not even dear old Wellesley High is immune… one of the best of the 37,000 nationwide, Wellesley High School… where good is no longer good enough, where a B is the new C, and the mid-level curriculum is called Advanced College Placement. And I hope you caught me when I said “one of the best.” I said “one of the best” so we can feel better about ourselves, so we can bask in a little easy distinction, however vague and unverifiable, and count ourselves among the elite, whoever they might be, and enjoy a perceived leg up on the perceived competition. But the phrase defies logic. By definition there can be only one best. You’re it or you’re not.

If you’ve learned anything in your years here I hope it’s that education should be for, rather than material advantage, the exhilaration of learning. You’ve learned, too, I hope, as Sophocles assured us, that wisdom is the chief element of happiness. (Second is ice cream… just an fyi.) I also hope you’ve learned enough to recognize how little you know… how little you know now… at the moment… for today is just the beginning. It’s where you go from here that matters.

As you commence, then, and before you scatter to the winds, I urge you to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance. Don’t bother with work you don’t believe in any more than you would a spouse you’re not crazy about, lest you too find yourself on the wrong side of a Baltimore Orioles comparison. Resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction. Be worthy of your advantages.

And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life. Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it. Dream big. Work hard. Think for yourself. Love everything you love, everyone you love, with all your might. And do so, please, with a sense of urgency, for every tick of the clock subtracts from fewer and fewer; and as surely as there are commencements there are cessations, and you’ll be in no condition to enjoy the ceremony attendant to that eventuality no matter how delightful the afternoon.

The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life, is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap because you’re a nice person or mommy ordered it from the caterer. You’ll note the founding fathers took pains to secure your inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness–quite an active verb, “pursuit”–which leaves, I should think, little time for lying around watching parrots roller skate on Youtube.

The first President Roosevelt, the old rough rider, advocated the strenuous life. Mr. Thoreau wanted to drive life into a corner, to live deep and suck out all the marrow. The poet Mary Oliver tells us to row, row into the swirl and roil. Locally, someone… I forget who… from time to time encourages young scholars to carpe the heck out of the diem. The point is the same: get busy, have at it.

Don’t wait for inspiration or passion to find you. Get up, get out, explore, find it yourself, and grab hold with both hands. (Now, before you dash off and get your YOLO tattoo, let me point out the illogic of that trendy little expression–because you can and should live not merely once, but every day of your life.

Rather than You Only Live Once, it should be You Live Only Once… but because YLOO doesn’t have the same ring, we shrug and decide it doesn’t matter.)

None of this day-seizing, though, this YLOOing, should be interpreted as license for self-indulgence. Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct. It’s what happens when you’re thinking about more important things.

Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly. Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion–and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special.

Because everyone is.

Congratulations. Good luck. Make for yourselves, please, for your sake and for ours, extraordinary lives."

      ~David McCullough, Jr.

Source

365 Day 160

A little while back our good friend Amy gave us a large supply of play-dough toys. We've pulled out a few pieces here and there but we were out of play-dough at home and I didn't realize there was some in her bags. Today, I made a few batches of the stuff and the kids went crazy playing with it all. Little E spent literally hours making the hair grow and cutting it on the play-dough barber shop.

365 Day 159

Although we were only making a quick run to the store she wanted to take both her animals with her.

365 Day 158

We learned a very important lesson at dinner tonight with our friends: make sure you're clear about what you want or you may end up with warm diluted vinegar instead of salmon.... not my mistaken order, but still entertaining.

365 Day 157

I still can't explain why this nightly routine is so comforting for me. I love how excited she is in the morning when she sees her vitamin bears and it seems to help me to take my own vitamins at night. 

365 Day 156

While working in the yard Cliff noticed we had a new home built in our shade structure. I just had to scurry up and see if it was finished and I discovered these little surprises. Now that the kids are out of school I hope these little things hatch soon. 

365 Day 155

He loves her purple jeep and being the excellent big sister that she is, she's happy to take him for a drive across the lawn and keep him safe! Cutest. Thing. Ever.

365 Day 154

All grown up and still plays with toys. It's a sign of a good party when the adults are playing as much as the kids.

365 Day 153

Coming home I couldn't find her sunglasses so I let her use mine.