soon, but not soon enough...

we've been holding our breath around here for the past month or so, waiting to hear when john's "cruise" will end. we heard rumors, which were then considered likely and then were considered 90% accurate, stating that the cruise would be lengthened considerably. by considerably, i mean two and a half months. it seems now that we're looking at the likelihood that john will instead be coming home sooner rather than later.

unfortunately, dear reader, i cannot divulge the actual dates...one does not want to compromise the security of the ship.

i'm delighted to know, though, that my better half will soon be back home to share in the joys of our happy little severely-deflated-in-value condominium.

we've all changed a bit while john's been gone, but of course none of us as much as not-so-little josiah. can you believe that when john left, josiah looked like this:

he hadn't been walking all that long (i know, he's a late bloomer), couldn't say that many words and was more baby than toddler, really.

today, josiah is a TALKER, he runs, jumps (almost), swims (with floaties) and can climb out of his crib. and he's almost two! just look at him:

luckily, we've been able to use Skype a couple of times and john recorded some DVDs last cruise of him reading children's stories, so josiah's been able to "see" his daddy a couple of times. i wonder what he'll think when he figures out that his daddy is an actual person and not just a face on the TV/computer.

however it happens, it will be wonderful to have john home. we can hardly wait.

ringing in the new year

ok, well, ringing in the second quarter of the new year...or the second half of the second quarter...i'm no good with fractions.

not that it matters. i've been gone so long that you're probably not even reading anymore.

what to tell!?!? john has been deployed for 4 months now, and we have no idea when it will end. at least it feels that way. actually we have two ideas of when it will end, but both are classified and i don't want to be the one to compromise operational security.

ella is nearing the end of her kindergarten year, still loving school and obsessed with playdates. every time i pick her up, she greets me with a nearly frantic request to have a playdate with brice, or a playdate with blaise, or a playdate with nick...notice a pattern?

she would say that her biggest news is her early birthday present:

not that you can really see them in this picture. what you can see, however, is how pleased she is to have them. they being earrings.

my big news is that i got to go to thailand to visit john...yay!

this made me very happy. i miss my man.

josiah is just happy to be alive. he's enjoying running and adding words to his vocabulary...'no thank you' and 'no like it' are two current favs. as is saying 'mama' over and over whilst plugging his nostrils with his fingers. and he likes to tell jokes. his favorite goes like this:

josiah: knock, knock

unsuspecting mark: who's there?

josiah ...joke over.

john is working hard at putting the multimillion dollar naval aviator training to good use.

and acting to increase international goodwill wherever he goes. like, say, hong kong for instance

the best aunt EVER

a picture might be worth a thousand words, but a drum set for a drum-crazy toddler is priceless...

don't you wish your aunts were as cool as me?

all she wants for christmas...

...is not her two front teeth, but to lose some teeth.

wish granted...

and thank the Lord for that! mommy was getting tired of answering questions like 'when will i lose my tooth?', 'why did grace lose her teeth and i don't lose my teeth?', and 'gwen lost her tooth, why don't i lose my tooth?'...ad nauseum.

happy christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

welcome to the world!

there's a new DiBernardo in town.

weighing in at 6 pounds, 14 ounces and an un-DiBernardo lengthiness of 21 inches, i'm pleased to announce the birth of my new niece,
Sophia Marie DiBernardo.

born on november 26 to my little brother mario & his wife adrianne.

baby, mommy and daddy are all doing fine.

don't you just love that little bow in her hair!

you say it doesn't taste like lime, eh?

"I'm ready for school, Mom!"

so, you like dressing your kids up all cute and stuff...just wait, your time is coming. eventually they'll wanna dress themselves.

huh...glasses really do make you look smarter

and really good looking!

give thanks

i recently read somewhere that it doesn't make sense to just give thanks to no one. that without a recipient for your thanks, you can't really be thankful.

thankfulness requires two things: the one who gives thanks and the one who receives them.

it's nice to know that no matter what's happening in our world today, we can rejoice that our own Thanksgiving holiday, conceived on November 1, 1782, reflects that Truth as evidenced in the Congressional Proclamation establishing said holiday.

"IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf: Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged; the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war, in the course of the year now drawing to a close; particularly the harmony of the public Councils, which is so necessary to the success of the public cause; the perfect union and good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between them and their Allies, notwithstanding the artful and unwearied attempts of the common enemy to divide them; the success of the arms of the United States, and those of their Allies, and the acknowledgment of their independence by another European power, whose friendship and commerce must be of great and lasting advantage to these States:...Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness."
http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=875&display_order=8&mini_id=1083

happy thanksgiving, dear reader & friend.

you can pick your friends, and you can pick your pumpkins...

...but you can't pick your friends' pumpkins.

OK, maybe you can.

here at the U-pick pumpkin patch though, it's every grammy, mommy and cousin for himself.

ella, caleb & gracie off to find the perfect pumpkins

perfect pumpkin number 1

perfect pumpkin number 2

perfect pumpkins numbers 3-5...someone's getting a little greedy

oh, wait...perfect pumpkin number 4 is for josiah. nevermind then.
and i just love this one. the girls off doing girl stuff
and faithful caleb hanging around with his grammy.

superella and her trusty sidekick dragonboy

every superhero needs a super sidekick. superella is no exception.

oh, and they also need a super pose. that is perhaps more important than the super sidekick.

Veteran's Day

I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge today's holiday and say that I am truly thankful for all of the people who choose to serve in our country's military. I know, not only from my own experience, that it's a great sacrifice to serve. You miss important days and an incalculable number of everyday moments because you feel committed to freedom and called to protect the rest of us.

So, thank you. And God bless you.

just look at those cute Veterans!
John, US Navy; Dad, US Army; Mario, US Army; Mario, USMC
baby caleb, ???

food for thought...

sorry dear reader...nothing to entertain today. just some food for thought:

"The church is safe from vicious persecution at the hands of the secularist, as educated people finished with stake burning circuses and torture racks. No martyr’s blood is shed in the secular west. So long as the church knows her place and remains quietly at peace on her modern reservation, let the babes pray and sing and read their Bibles, continuing steadfastly in their intellectual retardation: the church’s extinction will not come by sword or pillory, but by the quiet death of irrelevance [emphasis mine]. But let the church step off the reservation, let her penetrate once more the culture of the day and the face of secularism will change from a benign smile to a savage snarl."

-R.C. Sproul, John Gerstner, and Arthur Lindsley

stay tuned, i've got wagner family pics & info to share!

riding in daddy's truck

when mommy and ella were at the star trek exhibition with grammy (see post http://thissurereallife.blogspot.com/2008/10/split-infinitive.html below), daddy and josiah had a "men's day" of beer brewing and getting dirty.

the day began with a ride in daddy's chevy. i couldn't believe how tickled he was just to be sitting in the seat. it was pretty cute.

crazy baby

someone didn't get a very good nap because grammy is SO exciting to spend time with. that same someone pretty much lost it at chili's...although it might have had something to do with the molten lava cake we fed him.

p.s. he pulled his shirt over his head like that all by himself...

the split infinitive

to boldly go where no man has gone before. well, not necessarily boldly and not necessarily where no man has gone before. ella, grammy and i went to the san diego air & space museum for the star trek exhibition.

yes, friends, we are trekkies. ok, ella and i are just novice trekkies...but grammy?!? grammy is like the prime minister of trekistan. seriously. she LOVES star trek.

so, we ventured out to balboa park to see what star trek had to offer. it was impressive, even for someone who knows little about star trek. i don't really know which was more fun, seeing all the cool costumes; sitting on the bridge of the o.g. uss enterprise; getting beamed up, scottie; or listening to my mom rattle off more details than the museum itself.

it was awesome.

the awesome-ness also included glimpses of the teenager my daughter will become in a few years. she totally thought her mom and grammy were RIDICULOUS. and i realized that i won't always care if my daughter thinks i'm the "coolest" person in the world...as long as she's willing to be a geek with me when i ask her to. note the look on the five year old's face as grammy and mommy feign fright at the thought of de-molecularizing in the transporter.

a little off the top

that's right faithful reader, josiah got his golden locks chopped. much to my surprise he actually enjoyed the clippers- they must have tickled.

it's unclear to me though who the real star of the show is?!?...

i miss the way his hair combed over into that "little boy haircut."

he does, however, look completely awesome with a buzz- even with a face full of pesto!

well done, daddy...

rad, period.

this comes your way via john, who saw something on our friend jonathan pope's website, which led him to click something which brought up a page that had a picture on it, which he clicked and led him here.

so, without any further ado


one completely satisfied viewer, eviltella, had this to say about the guitarist Jim Durham:
"Filmed a short while after his conversion you can still see the Irish Punk attitude that first endeared him to Elvis Costello. Jim had captured the imagination of a group of parishioners, who frankly wouldn't have known "cool" if it had descended from Heaven on a golden calf, and organized their Thursday night choir practice into this gem of early eighties new wave...."

I guess that about sums it up.

the newest wildcat

well, folks we've reached yet another milestone.

ella is now an official kindergartner. as of tuesday, august 19th, ella is a sundance elementary school wildcat. her teacher is a very sweet lady named ms. scattareggia- ms. scatt for short.

incidentally, ella is attending the same elementary school that aunt michele did...many, many, many years ago :-).

ella's enjoying school, i think mostly because she gets to carry her very own hello kitty lunch box (complete with hello kitty thermos and hello kitty insulated food container). if only i could get her to eat all of the food i pack into the hello kitty goods...

did you know they make you buy those separately now?!?! what a crock.

now a week into kindergarten, ella is a seasoned veteran. it's so fun to see her socialize and be her very own person.

well, that is until i realize that my little teeny girl is growing up. then mommy puts on her sunglasses and sheds a few silent tears of joy with just a pinch of sadness.

without further ado, here's our girl. so precious. i just love her.

little brother seems to enjoy the idea of kindergarten too. although, he does bellow "ella" throughout the day, so maybe he's not quite caught on yet...

waiting in line to go to class after the morning bell.

ella's new favorite "photo" face. it's been a real fun development.