wordless wednesday: snow!

only in the south would they cancel school based on only an idea of snow -- but that's exactly what happened.  susanna didn't go at all on tuesday simply because there were flurries in the forecast -- even though it wasn't even expected to begin until late afternoon --  and liam was released at 11:30.  so all day long we waited ... and waited ... and finally, around 6:00 pm, we saw our first flakes.

and it kept coming -- enough to total about 4-5 inches by the time we awoke this morning.  after two years (i think) of not missing a single day of school for snow, it was a welcome sight for sure!

what was not a welcome sight?  my iphone deciding that it likes the cold even less than i do.  i managed to snap only a few pictures and videos before it shut down, stubbornly refusing to work until it warmed up by the fire.  who knew?!

sure, they're all smiles now.  but let me describe the HIGH DRAMA in the hour before we emerged ... we just don't have much need for snow gear around here, so just had to make do with what we had.  liam initially went out in shorts underneath a pair of sweatpants.  within minutes his legs were bright red from being soaking wet, so we returned indoors to dress a little more smartly.  (turned out his sweatpants became wetpants.)  and don't get me started with susanna ... she actually was quite fortunate to have actual brand-new snow pants (from a target clearance purchase a few years back) but had the audacity to wail about it because their bulkiness made her "look like a boy".  seriously?!  i told her that a 20 degree winter storm was not the time to expect to make a fashion statement, and when that didn't pacify her, i assured her we wouldn't be seeing anyone we knew

... and then we ran into one her best friends kinsley on the next street over.  so much for her less-than-fashionable fashion statement.  but she wound up playing at her house for five hours so i guess she let it go

wonder didn't know what to make of the stuff, but i know her little paws had to be frozen solid.  she didn't seem to mind

unfortunately, the type of snow that fell didn't lend itself to building snowmen ... but snow angels were an easy feat.  (and you can start to see how his sweatpants became wetpants.  still giggling at that verbage)

these sleds, along with the ski bibs i'm wearing, have been in my family for at least thirty years -- probably longer.  we sprayed the bottoms of them with pledge and they were just as speedy as i remembered them

see what i mean?  chris and liam were flying -- full-speed around a sharp curve, even.  scared me half to death

wordless wednesday: richmond

when the evite came through a few months back for a good college friend's 40th birthday party in richmond, i knew i wanted to go.  it was a fabulous idea: whole families were invited to the U of R basketball game in the renovated robins center, and the party was to be held in one of the brand-new fancy schmancy terrace suites. 

we drove up on saturday morning for the 3:00 game, and from the get-go, it turned out to be a fantastic trip.  liam won the kids' raffle at the party, coming home with his very own rainbow loom.  richmond prevailed in what turned out to be an exciting game.  and after spending the night with our friends, susanna gained a new bestie in the form of our friends' nine-year old daughter.  a victory for all involved!

in a crazy coincidence, a friend of ours from raleigh was responsible for all the new fancy seating in the stadium.  he explained that rather than going the cheaper route of simply screenprinting the spider on the back of each chair, U of R opted for the much more expensive method of embroidering.  and you start to see how easily the renovation earned its $17 million pricetag ...

i reconnected with gobs of college friends, some of whom i hadn't seen in decades.  (from left, danielle, me, jen, dave, alison, and patrick).  ironically, the birthday boy isn't in this picture

an excerpt from the text message chain between susanna and elise.  "maybe elise and i can go to richmond together and be roommates like you and her mommy were!" susanna said.  i'm printing out the scholarship forms as we speak

four happy spider fans with full bellies, a raffle prize, new buddies, and a victory.  doesn't get any better

 oh wait!  it does get better -- we also all received a free fleece spider headband (as seen on susanna).  we'll be showing our spider pride all winter long

2013: a look back

since i can't seem to get my ducks in a row to post on this blog as much as i'd like, i thought that the best way for our end-of-the-year summary is going to get written is if i put three of my family members to work.  (i figure i can at least write for myself and on behalf of the pooch.)  i asked each of them to come up with the three most memorable parts of 2013 and type them here.  an ingenious idea, if i do say so myself ... and this way, our yearly recap is actually going to be written before, oh, july.

so here are the highlights of 2013 for the mann family.

liam (composed and even typed by liam himself)
1) i got into magellan. i had no idea what in the world was happening when my mom was in tears until she told me.  this is the best school i have ever dreamed about attending.

our teachers surprised the whole 3rd grade with a trip to the movies to see "frozen".  we also got popcorn and a soft drink at 9:00 in the morning!

2) we went to the bahamas.  the cruise was so amazing and the ship was so luxurious [i am not using this term loosely] and the food was great. thank goodness there was mini golf and table tennis there. there was also a water park and pool that was really fun.

marshall, web, me, and susanna with the captain of the cruise ship

3) my soccer team won our first soccer tournament in charlotte, and we dominated.  during the tournament, we never were behind.  although we had some ties during games, we won every game.  after, we went to daddy's awesome college and had a very sweet lunch.

[sara: this picture was my choice -- we were so proud to find this hanging on the wall at our soccer facility!]

susanna
1) for the first time, i got the same teacher liam had last year.  i really like my class a lot.  there are so many great friends in it!

me and my friend lily at the lacy boosterthon -- a little sweaty and tired from running all those laps, but we had so much fun!

2) we stayed in a new beach house for our annual family reunion.  it had a pool and an elevator and everything.

my second-cousin reilly and me, having a sleepover in one of the bunk beds

 
3) i had my first communion.  i wore a very pretty white dress and flowers in my hair.

me and my friend charlotte, who's also in my Y princess tribe

sara
1) we bought a brand-new car after weeks of test driving and negotiating with sleazy dealers.  my favorite feature of my enclave is the remote start button -- a welcome tool for the sub-freezing mornings we've had recently.  a close second is the CD player, which plays books on CD from the library during the depressing amount of time i spend driving that thing.  now that liam's attending a charter school with no bus transportation, this new car is quickly becoming an old car in terms of mileage.  when you count the time driving there and back with the time i'm just sitting in the carpool line, it winds up being about an hour every afternoon picking him up.  add that to all the other activities that require me ferrying my children every which way, and this is a representative example of how much time i spend driving in a week:

yes, that's over 13 hours in the car in 7 days.  sort of depressing when i think about it.  maybe i shouldn't use this timer tool after all

2) we were fortunate to have several amazing trips this year, but the one by far was our cruise to the bahamas with good friends.  from start to finish, it was absolutely fantastic.

 not exactly the best picture to sum up the trip, but i'm trying to use one that's not already in the blog

3) i found out that i'm going to be an aunt again -- twice, in perhaps the same week!  my brother ben is expecting his second baby on april 6, and my sister leslie is expecting her first on april 9. we don't know what either is having, but my money's on boys for both.

 me and teddy, soon to be a big brother

chris [with a few editorial inserts by sara]
1) My new gig in R&D at SAS.  While Topaz was a fairly fun rollercoaster ride, I certainly don't miss the commute to and from Durham every day, nor the long hours.  I love getting to collaborate with a wide variety of really smart folks, having the freedom and encouragement to experiment with methods and processes I've never been empowered to implement before, and not feeling guilty volunteering at the kids' schools when given the opportunity.  Oh, and the M&Ms are pretty good, too.  [mondays are fresh fruit days, wednesdays are M&M days, and fridays are breakfast treat days.  chris also regularly uses his lunch break to play in the company flag football league, tennis league, and basketball leagues -- in the middle of the day.  interested in the piece about SAS being one of the best employers in the country, which aired last week on the today show?  click here and scroll down just a bit.]
2) The addition of Wonder Wo Mann to the fold.  I really didn't think we were ready for a new family member after Super's painful decline and then having to put her down. But Wonder is such a playful lovebug, she never ceases to put a smile on my face.

poor Super (it's easy to see how bad off she was near the end) and Wonder, during the few hours they were together

3) Discovering, after much prodding by some friends, F3. The volunteer-led fitness, fellowship, and faith program has been a fantastic kick in the rear for me to get into better shape with a bunch of cool guys who want to be better people.  [chris neglected to say that they meet at the ungodly hour of 5:15 a.m. and in the rain or sub-freezing temperatures.  how is that sane?]

wonder
these aren't just highlights -- they are major life changes.  do i get an award for surviving this crazy year? 
1) i got knocked up by some labrador and gave birth to ten (yes, ten!) "boxadors" -- who all looked more like labradors than boxers.  seriously?
2) the blue ridge boxer group rescued me after my previous owners couldn't afford to keep me, and was adopted by the best family i could imagine [oh wonder, how lovely a description!].  i'm blissfully happy, even though it took my mom several months to even write about me in this blog.  harrumph.
3) i had my name changed since no one knew what it originally was.  i'm pretty sure it's "super-i-mean-wonder".

 my mother used my picture to help her teach her online course -- 

and i daresay she's not giving me any compensation for my time

that's all for us. and i say this every year as i sign off ... but our true highlights are the health and love and happiness we continue to be blessed with by God. we strive each day to show our gratitude for all that we've been given.

happy 2014!

wordless wednesday: brrrrrrr

the polar vortex swept through raleigh last week, resulting in a delayed opening for public schools because of the temperatures.  so while the vast majority of the country was miserable, susanna was loving it -- it meant two extra hours of beauty sleep for our late riser.

but jeez louise, it was cold!

liam was disappointed to learn that charter schools have no need for delayed openings because they have no buses.  at least his monkey hat was smiling

for once, i didn't have to pull her out of bed kicking and screaming.  "i wish it could be nine degrees every morning!" our sleepyhead said

she's a wonder

i'd like to introduce you to our newest family member (albeit a few months late): Wonder Wo Mann, called "wonder" for short. after three reference checks, two home visits, and four phone interviews (!!!), we finally gained approval to adopt our sweet brown girl through blue ridge boxer rescue -- the same group that gave us super seven years ago.

fortuitously, even though the rescue group services all of north carolina and south carolina as well as parts of virginia, she just happened to be fostered at a home only ten minutes down the road here in raleigh.  we were able to have her for a short visits before she officially joined us, which included taking her to the "blessing of the animals" service at our church.  we were amazed at how well she fit into what was surely the most chaotic surroundings she'd ever seen -- dogs and cats and birds and rabbits and gerbils all hanging out with their owners outside on a sunday morning.  she made not a noise, unless you count the whoosh of the air while her little nub wagged and wagged.

getting her church on

a few weeks later, just a few days after her spay operation, she joined us permanently.  well -- sort of.  we quickly noticed that she was bleeding a bit at her incision spot.  so our short-term solution was this:

  the diaper worked great -- until we left her out on the back porch while we were gone one afternoon.  we returned to find shredded up diaper all over the dadgum place

and the long-term solution was losing her for a bit.  because of the rescue group's policy to release their dogs only after they've been deemed totally healthy, she returned to her foster family to recuperate a bit longer.

when she finally did join us on a truly permanent basis, we realized what an adjustment it was to go from a totally immobile dog to one that has the energy of a puppy, to say the least.  we hadn't needed to so much as walk poor super in over a year, and now, we have a pooch that needs a ton of exercise.  luckily we have a large back yard and she doesn't stray too far, so we can just let her loose.  the second she gets outside, she'll run full-speed (she's almost like a blur, honestly, she's so fast) around and around and around the perimeter of our house.  she's an excellent partner in games of fetch -- until she decides she's had enough and just drops the tennis ball wherever she sees fit.  we've got probably a dozen old balls strewn throughout the wooded areas of our yard to prove it.

she's found her favorite spot in the house: the front window.  from there she can monitor all the going-ons of our cul-de-sac, and be the first to realize when a family member has returned home.

the christmas tree's location proved to be a bit of an obstacle for wonder -- but she made do.  and we only lost a few low-hanging ornaments in the process

there's nothing quite like driving into our driveway and seeing our pooch eagerly awaiting our return. 

 by the time we unlock the door, she's right there in the mudroom, excited to welcome us home

she's quickly learned that most furniture is off-limits.  (one of her first nights here, i climbed into bed in the dark after chris had gone to sleep.  i felt a lump on my pillow, and when my eyes adjusted, found her curled up like the queen of sheba.  that didn't last long.)

obviously she can't read.  she must think the chair, which liam had brought down from the playroom, says "wonder".  literacy lessons commence tomorrow

we toyed around with the idea, ever-so-briefly, of not replacing super when she passed away.  dogs can be difficult, especially at the beginning -- and the vomit and accidents we endured are proof of that fact.  but i'm just so thankful we found her and welcomed her into our family, because i just can't imagine life without a pooch.  not only does she keep me company at home during the day -- we call her Velcro Dog, because she's never more than a few feet away from us -- but without her, we wouldn't have hours of free entertainment.  case in point: just watch how she reacts to the reflection my knife made on the walls of our breakfast room over dinner last night.

 this isn't torture ... right?

she's brought us so much joy over these last few months. she's affectionate, patient, friendly, doesn't bark at the doorbell (a huge plus), and just fun.  in short ... she's a wonder.

wordless wednesday: zipping along

#1 christmas gift of 2013: a zipline!  liam's probably ridden it, oh, 500 times by now.  (susanna's been on once or twice -- but at least she's open to it.  "cautious" is her middle name.)

the fact that it was eighteen degrees outside didn't stop liam from flying through the cold air at breakneck speed.  wheeeee!