summer (fun) - in - review (june)

we hope everyone had a great summer. of course it went by waaaay too fast! we had a great (read: busy) summer and wouldn't trade it for anything!!

now, where did i leave off several months ago?

oh, right...catching up with old friends...

in june we were lucky enough to be able to take a day off of work (and school for t) to spend some time with my friend rebecca and meet her family! you might remember me talking about rebecca in this post here.

we met up at her grandparent's house in wyomissing and drove up to the crayola factory for the day. following the crayola fun, we headed out to dinner and then back to their hotel for some swimming in the pool. tony and rachel hit if off like i knew they would as did ronnie and john, and it gave rebecca and i time to catch up on what we've been up to!

l to r: john, me, anthony, rachel, rebecca & ronnie

tony the caterpillar

rachel, rebecca and anthony - pool time at the hotel

it was ah-ma-zing to be able to spend time with this family...we hope to be able to visit face-to-face again soon and not wait another 20+ years to do it!

you can view picture from the rest of our crayola factory fun here.

tagged

i was tagged by jenni...here goes.

8 things i am looking forward to:
1. being happy soon
2. camping trips (oak creek/knoebels)
3. deep creek lake in august
4. going to the beach with my sister
5. working on our house
6. early summer service at church
7. expanding my wedding/baby invite and gift business
8. relaxing

8 things i did yesterday:
1. worked
2. cried
3. ate
4. packed
5. got my haircut/colored
6. read blogs
7. took the dogs out
8. slept

8 things i wish i could do:
1. go back a few weeks
2. be happy
3. be debt free
4. lose weight
5. focus
6. travel
7. completely redecorate my home
8. catch up on laundry

8 shows i watch:
1. dancing with the stars
2. american idol
3. the office
4. fringe
5. hell's kitchen
6. the real housewives (all series except atlanta)
7. top chef
8. project runway

8 favorite fruits:
1. grapes
2. pineapple
3. raspberries
4. plums
5. clementines
6. strawberries
7. peaches
8. pears

8 places i'd like to travel:
1. disney world (for literally the 28th time)
2. riviera maya
3. california
4. british columbia
5. martha's vineyard (10-year anniversary trip!!)
6. hawaii
7. montana
8. texas

8 places i've lived:
1. st. lawrence, pa
2. indiana, pa
3. lake buena vista/orlando, fl
4. wernersville, pa
5. pennside, pa
6.
7.
8.

people i've tagged
1. the high family
2. the schaeffer family
3. the matesic family
4. the deloretta family

have fun!!!

i have a lot to catch up on from the deloretta/d'angelo cabin weekend -
the d'angelo/brumbaugh camping weekend and some other stuff that's
been going on. i promise to post after this weekend settles down some!

silly swimmer

our gym is starting up swimming lessons for children in the next few weeks and held an "open swim" this past friday for children 6 and under (and this coming friday for kids over 6). john has been dying to take tony to swim lessons since he was 6 weeks old, so he jumped at the opportunity to hop in the pool with him.

here's my little swimmer...

and here are both my favorite guys...

here's a video of tony jumping into the pool that night


tony jumping in the pool from Christy D'Angelo on Vimeo.

and another of my two waterbabies

swimming tony from Christy D'Angelo on Vimeo.

february recap

here is my lame attempt at trying to catch up on posting all that we did the rest of february. i'm going to try to get it straight...bare with me!

february 19-22: john's coyote hunting trip

john was asked to join our friend danny and his friend joe at danny's hunting camp again this year. john was very excited to go. while no one came home with a coyote (yeah, like we have any room in the house for one of those), they still had a great time. john got to enjoy some snow (i have to admit, i'm a bit jealous about that one) and some "guy time" in the great outdoors that he loves so much.

look at all the snow...and the chains on the tires just to get to the cabin...

the hunter - kind of looks like a camera photo from a bank robbery, huh?

here is the album with all the pictures from john's "guy's weekend".

february 27 - march 1: lappin pocono house

on friday night the 27th the three of us loaded into the car and headed to the pocono's for a weekend getaway. our friend (and john's co-worker) john has a house up there and offered it to us for the night, and then he and 2 of his kids joined us on saturday for the rest of the weekend. we enjoyed fun times just hanging out at the house playing pool and drinking some wine. then we headed out to do a tour of some of the local wineries and drank more wine. tony just loves the kids and they are like built in baby-sitters too, so it was a pretty relaxing weekend for us all!

john and tony by the fire

riordan, tony and connor

my john at our first winery stop

john lappin (or john wappin as tony calls him) at the winery stop

our drive home consisted of a stop at a "jeepers creepers" style barn sale that requires it's own entire post!!

here is the album with all the pictures from the weekend at john's pocono house.

make new friends, but keep the old...

that's just what we did today. tony and i headed out on a road trip...destination, hershey, pa.

first stop was sinking spring to allow our old friend bobbi-jo and her brood (ryan and kara) to join in the fun...

we hopped on the turnpike and headed toward hershey to meet our new bloggie friend jannica and her little guy owen! it was such a funny turn of events that allowed bobbi and i to meet our "internet" friend in real life...it all happened so quickly, but i am oh so glad it did!

jannica and her son were in harrisburg to meet up with her husband who has been working at the eastern sports and outdoor show at the farm show complex all week. while reading jannica's blog on friday, i commented how it would have been cool to get together as harrisburg is only about an hour from us. i thought she had been there last week, but no! she was still in town!! we quickly made plans and i called bobbi!

it was great to finally meet her and her son owen in person after chatting with her over the past year after hopping to her blog from bobbi's. we enjoyed chocolate world and the ride and then headed to red robin for a yumm-o lunch. turns out, red robin is one of jannica's favorite restaurants (as well as mine) and bobbi had never been there...it was a good time for all. the hostess even came around and gave everyone carnations in honor of valentine's day. the boys thought that was cool and ryan was even sweet enough to get one for his baby sister!

bobbi with kara and ryan, jannica and owen, me and tony d

we had a great day and can't wait to see jannica, owen and meet her husband mark on their next trip to pa for the show next year...or before on our next trip to the finger lakes...which may be sooner rather than later as i am out of my favorite, glenora bobsled red wine! hee hee!

here is a slideshow of the rest of the pictures from our fun day in hershey.

she likes me. she really, really likes me!

much love to my friend bobbi for sending me my very first blog award!! i am slacker for not accepting this award sooner as it was given to me back in january, but as most of you are aware...life is a crazy thing and sometimes just gets in the way.

there is the award...isn't it cute?

"these blogs are exceedingly charming. these kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. they are not interested in self-aggrandizement. our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. please give more attention to these writers. deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

so here goes...this was tough because i can't give it back to bobbi and she already gave it to another great friend of mine and her awesome blog...check out luci's here...and a bunch of other friends have just started theirs...but here are my eight...

heath & jamie from the frey family - heath and jamie are the ones that got me into blogging. yes, my family can blame it all on them...although i do remember them warning me. i'm hoping in giving them this award, maybe, just maybe, they'll find time to update their blog. it's been waaaay tooo loooong...err...hint, hint!

heather from the watson family - heather is heath's sister and her husband kevin used to work with john before. we also spent a few camping trips and fun nights with them before they moved. i've been able to "reconnect" with them through our blogs and keep up with the happenings of their adorable kiddos victoria and logan.

rebecca from the schmidt family - unfortunately for all of you, her blog is private. rebecca and i met years and years ago when her grandfather was the pastor at my church. rebecca lived in hawaii at the time (i know...jealous, aren't ya?) and we became great pen-pals and remained that way even through college, getting to visit occasionally on her trips east. we lost touch towards the end of college. i kept tabs on her through her grandparents when i would see them (he had since retired from our church) and we reconnected last summer on facebook. i am looking forward to meeting her husband and adorable daughter this june when they visit east.

mario and anne from the matesic family - i've known ann all my life as we grew up one street away from each other and i went from nursery school through college with her sister karyn...only to start my job at penske to find that my co-worker mario was anne's then-boyfriend...now husband. small world, eh? the matesic's recently joined the blogging world in order to keep everyone up-to-date on the recently-added-to-the-family son brady.

alison from uncomplicate me - i began reading alison's blog when i was blog-hopping on blogs regarding infertility/trying to conceive. alison is now pregnant with her son "cletus" (nickname...not his real name) and is due "any day". she and her blog has been a wealth of information to me and i wish her and husband "j" all the best with their new addition

jannica from the moskal family - unfortunately again, this blog is private, but take my word for it...you are missing out! sorry! i came across jannica's blog (before it was private) hopping off of bobbi's. she was just getting ready to give birth to her adorable son owen...that was 8 months ago. i hope to be able to meet jannica and her family some day soon as they don't live too far away.

tamara from the deloretta family - tamara is just beginning her blog and unfortunately has had to take some time away from it after her dad's stroke a few weeks ago. i've written and asked for prayers for her and her family before. please keep them in your prayers. he seems to be doing well and they even had him "walking" the other day...God's work continues to amaze us all concerning her dad Dan!

the last one i am going to split between two blogs because they are both just starting and are doing a fantastic job as well...kylene from the knepp family and marci from the tolley family. both ladies work with john and have recently given birth to their first children...both boys...caden (kylene) and lucas (marci)...adorable. check them out.

to accept your award, save the award picture above and copy the award explanation...paste both into a new post and you're off. don't forget to post your award on your side bar too!

congratulations and my thanks again to bobbi for giving me the award!!

happy inauguration day

if you can't beat him...

ya might as well join him...

while i didn't vote for him, i am sucking up the fact that he will become our president and fearless leader today and could not resist this fun little website. so to my obama-mama's and mavericks alike...go ahead...obamicon yourself...whether you like him or not, you know you want to.

i could not go off to bed tonight without bidding adieu to this cute little guy. my bank account may be in the toilet and family and friends out of work, but it sure was a fun 8 years...plus i just want to just give him a hug.

*tear*

thanks alot bobbi (read with sarcasm)!

as if i, my husband, or child need to be reminded of my addiction to blogging, i came across this little gem of a quiz on bobbi's blog...here are my results:

82%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

i guarantee there will be several people i know that would think that score was not high enough...i on the other hand can only think why it wasn't this easy to score a percentage like that on any test i took in college! ha! perhaps if i'd have taken blogging 101 at iup, i'd have actually gotten a 100% on something!

thanks bobbi, old friend, old pal, for feeding my blogging addiction!!

**click on my score to take the quiz yourself**

if you can't go to disney...

let disney come to you...that's my new motto!!

john, tony and i will be heading to the sweetest place on earth (hershey, pa) to attend disney on ice!!

what's better than disney on ice, you say? disney on ice for free!!

aunt cathy, aunt cath, kat-kat...whatever you choose to call her...scored us some club level seats to tonight's performance (helps when you know the giant center house manager) and after enjoying a quick bite to eat with aunt cath and the rest of the mulligan's, we'll be surprising tony with the show. he has no idea we are even doing anything like this tonight. we're not telling him either. all he knows is there's a surprise waiting for him after a good day at school. he'll think it's just seeing jack and sam! hopefully i'll be able to catch the surprised look on his face when the show starts!!

i'll post pics and more tomorrow! i can't think of a more fun way to kick off tony's mickey mouse clubhouse birthday extravaganza than seeing the main mouse himself!!

have a magical evening...i know we will!

for the love of facebook

ok, so i could never get myself into the myspace thing, but i've fallen for facebook...fallen hard...but it's ok because something amazing has happened because of it!! i've reconnected with a lot of people...old sorority sisters, former co-workers from the disney college program, and high school classmates that i haven't talked to since...well, high school. but last night, i received a friend request from a very special person in my life from a long time ago...my pen pal that i had from elementary school, rebecca - and even john agreed at that point (after seeing my total excitement at reconnecting with her), that facebook is a good thing!!

rebecca is the granddaughter of my pastor of my church (now retired) from when i was growing up. we began a friendship (back in the 80's) during one of her visits to see her grandparents. she, her mom, dad and two brothers lived in hawaii. we kept in touch for years on paper (to this day i still have her parents home address in hawaii memorized - and anyone that knows me knows i have trouble memorizing anything!) and visited when she would come East to visit her grandparents. through college we lost touch, but she was never far from my mind, and the first person i asked about when i ran into pastor and mrs. harding.

she has a beautiful family of her own now with a daughter only about 6 months or so older than anthony! although she no longer lives in hawaii, she is still not real close (now in california), so for now, we'll have our blogs, email and facebook to keep us back in touch with each other...a far cry from the cute stationary and fun colored pens we used to use "back in the day"...but a heck of a lot quicker than the snail mail we used to rely on!

which disney princess are you?

i saw this on several blogs that i read and finally decided being the disney fanatic that i am, that i need to see which disney princess i am most like. ok, so it's basically to see who i need to lock in a closet and steal her job next time i'm there, but i digress...

drumroll please...

i'm most like princess aurora (aka "sleeping beauty")

thoughtful and loving. authority figures probably have been sheltering you all of your life. thankfully you're a very tranquil person who is content with what life has given you, but secretly you want to know how the outside world works.

which disney princess are you?

hello designers...

project runway season finale part 1 tonight!! can i just say i'm not the only d'angelo to be excited about this? john has actually become equally (ok, well, almost) obsessed with it about as much as i am now...if not only for the pure entertainment of tim gunn!

tony d. was fed early with all attention devoted to him and only him for several hours after arriving home, so i could guarantee he'd be tired and an early night into bed where he'll stay, so johnny d and i can enjoy the entire [uninteruppted] episode!

enjoy if you will!!

oh, and i'm so done with kenley...if she's still around after tonight's episode, i'll scream!

update:...screaming!!!! i just finished watching part 1 and i can't believe she made it to bryant park! ah, well, yeah, i can...producers kept her around for ratings! that's about it...jerrel is on his way home...so long girl!

shameless self-promoting...

ok, so i just finished two more sets of invites, ironically both for baptisms. one for my friend bobbi's daughter kara's baptism and the other for my best friend shannon's son troy, who after his baptism on 11/16 will be our godson as shannon and mike have asked john and i to be troy's sponsors! we couldn't be more excited or honored to accept that role!

although i did the same style, they are different in their own ways (on troy's i incorporated the baptism symbol of the scalloped shell)...i just really fell in love with the look of this simple, yet stately invite.

here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure (and again, my shameless self-promotion)!!

mom pick!

ok, while working today, i was browsing through some of the 50,000 baby related magazines we receive and i came across an ad for babieplates.com. i have to say that after dealing with the "stroller parking" at walt disney world (and tying a ribbon around the handles to distinguish mine from any others) last february and the various trips to knoebel's and the shear panic that my beloved pliko p3 would be stolen (even though i'm sure it would have been by mistake - don't laugh, it happened to my co-worker at wdw last november), i would have loved to have this product for my peace of mine...not to mention they are just adorable!

i plan on getting one now although i would probably put our last name or a phrase that only we would understand instead of tony's name (so it can be used again). they are pretty reasonably priced too i think. i will let you know what it looks like in person once i get it. oh, and the other reason it excited me is the fact that is so resembles my euro plate i had on the front of my adorable jetta (boy i miss that car - and the gas mileage too).

our new baby

no, we are not having a baby and we did not get another dog (although i would die for either right about now!!)...

let me introduce you to the newest member of the d'angelo family...

look familiar? that would be because this is the my sister and david's "old" camper. they had it all for 6 months or so (if that)! while shopping for a new vehicle to accomodate their growing family and something to be able to pull their camper easier, a great deal fell into their lap and the salesman not only sold them their new chevy suburban, but also sold them his personal camper (1 year old). here is their new home away from home...


so with that being said...we now have a great 1982 "vintage" serro scotty camper for sale...vintage sounds oh so much better than old, right? spread the word!! if you find a buyer for the camper, we'll take you on a camping trip with us!

finger lakes wedding

sorry for the delay in posting...finally, our weekend recap.

while tony enjoyed a weekend with mimi and poppop, john, my sil sue and her bf luis road tripped it to the finger lakes in upstate new york for their cousin sean and his fiance alison's wedding. the wedding was held in the chapel at keuka college and the reception at the belhurst castle in geneva, ny. it was a loooong ride (and we had not so nice weather), but from what we did and saw, we can't wait to go back!

we drove through watkins glen and saw the cars still hanging around from the grand prix vintage festival. this was very cool and i wish we would have been up there that friday which was the actual day of the festival.

our next stop was the glenora wine cellars in dundee, ny - home of my favorite wine, bobsled red and my new favorite, yellow cab.

friends of ours brought a bottle of bobsled red back for us when i was pregnant with tony and it was the first wine i drank after i had him. i was hooked, but unfortunately you can't purchase it around here, so i've been without for almost 3 years...needless to say, we stocked up with a couple of bottles before we left.

from glenora we went to the church and got ready (since heading to our hotel would have taken us about 40 minutes out of the way past the church). the chapel was beautiful. old, neat architecture situated on the keuka college campus, right next to the lake. just breathtaking. as the guests were arriving, we were greeted by a bagpiper marching across the front of the chapel. so neat!

the ceremony itself was beautiful and sean and alison looked so happy. it was very quick and sweet, then we were back in our car to continue north to belhurst castle for the reception.

the cake and flowers were amazing...

i drank way too much wine and way too many of these...

which is probably why i look like this in a picture taken of us that evening...

there was a lot (and i mean a lot) of dancing...and we even made some new friends...

shout out to meghan and todd!!

we hit another winery on the way home (just to take some pics as we left way before they opened), but we were told it was enough just to walk around and see this one in person even if we couldn't taste their wine. it was called rogue's hollow and as you walk the path from the parking lot to the actual tasting area, you feel as though you are in a scene from jeepers creepers, the hills have eyes, wrong-turn or another one of those country-bumpkin-gonna-chase-you-and-kill-you-and-do-all-sorts-of-weird-things-to-you type of movies.

as scared as i was to peek in the windows (not quite sure what might be lurking on the other side of the glass) i was shocked to see this sign when i did get brave enough to peek inside (my dad's company).

we had a great time and john and i will be planning a much longer trip to the finger lakes for some more wine tours very soon (even despite the 5 1/2 hour drive - ugh!). it was just too beautiful and too much fun! you can view more pictures of our weekend get-away here.