happy birthday troy!

on sunday we spent the afternoon celebrating troy's 3rd birthday at a yo gabba gabba party!

the weather was beautiful and all the kids (and grown-ups)had a great time. shannon had the yard decorated so cute and had organized crafts and other activities like pin-the-tail on the donkey, a pinata & pumpkin painting. sooooo much fun!

shannon snapped and shared some cute pictures of tony from the day.

tony hamming it up for shannon
tony taking his turn at pounding the pinata

tony's masterpiece

the look of total concentration

following the party, tony and troy decided to cool off by using the leftover ice from the drinks to cool off.

soaked and still having fun!

happy birthday aden!

this past saturday, we headed to

to celebrate aden's 6th birthday!

the birthday boy aden, and tony d!

it was the first time tony (and john right behind him) got to experience ballocity.

he and john were all over the place, shooting ball guns and climbing around and sliding down twisty slides.

it certainly made for one small sweaty boy

after the fun in ballocity, we headed downstairs to play some games and win tickets. after a nervewracking time deciding what to spend tickets on, he selected a knock-off transformer and some fake matchbox cars (all a.k.a: junk)!

thanks aden (and his mom and dad marjori and bobby) for the invite to the party...we all had a great time!

time

there just isn't enough of it. in a day, a week, a month, or even the year. and...i.don't.like.it.

a few weeks ago, john gave notice to the part-time position (mantle shop) he's been working for 9 years now. it became difficult for him (and on him) to be out of the house two days a week from the time he would leave for berks in the am and not arrive home until after 8 or 9 pm. that made for a long day for me of getting tony ready in the morning and out the door, going to work and coming home and taking care of tony, the house, etc. it was taking it's toll on me and on john as he was missing out on so much time with anthony in the evenings. tony would typically be in bed before john would get home, which would lead to there sometimes being 2 days straight where john wouldn't even see anthony awake, let alone get to have any "fun" time with him.

we discussed and felt it would be better for john to pick up some side work on the weekends (one or two good paying jobs a month, which he'd already been doing on top of mantles). this would, not always easily, make up for the loss of income we'd be taking by him leaving mantles. we'd have to make some changes, but ultimately, it's his health and the health and happiness of our family that is most important...we'll manage. it was with a heavy heart that he gave the notice to his boss. a man who had become a good friend...a man who, as a father himself, understood john's reasons more than some would.

last week marked the first week that john didn't have to work in the evening. it wasn't quite an accurate portrayel of how our weeknight's would be as anthony was in disney all week, but already i could see it was going to be a good thing. today ends the first week of our "new schedule" and all i can say is...

i.love.it.

we have eaten dinner by 6/6:30 every night as a family (as opposed to two meals and two shifts, with the latest being after 9 pm sometimes)...tony's had his bath followed by lots of snuggle, book reading, board game playing time (instead of bath and right to bed)...and john and i have had some quality time together in the evenings to talk and work on our little projects (both individual and household)...all before 9/9:30 at night. we are getting more time together as a family, as a couple...more sleep too, and it's making our little house on mayer street a much happier place.

another thing we are working on is our need to "just say no". we find ourselves booking our calendars jam-packed to the point of juggling multiple things on the same day and running the three of us ragged, all because we like to keep everyone happy and can't say no. we have started to limit ourselves for the remainder of this year, allowing for plenty of us (meaning just the three of us) time. starting january 1 we are going to evaluate this a little further even as we were just overwhelmed at times this year and just can't let that happen again.

please don't get me wrong. we love our friends and family. we do. we really, really do. we are so so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives, that we love and care for and they the same in return. this is why it's so hard to say no sometimes...but seriously people, there just isn't enough time. you know it. we know it. if you ask us to do something and we say no, it's not because we don't want to, or, heaven forbid, don't like you. we do. we really, really do. it's just we have to put our family and our needs first now. we've back-burnered ourselves long enough and 2010 is going to be the year for us!

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.

saturday june 13, 2009 - wedding work

the sun was shining and the rain held off...the day was truly a blessing for clarisa and lance. this couple has gone through the obstacles to make it back to the alter...yes, i said back to the alter. clarisa and lance were married before - to each other - and have 4 children. due to personal circumstances (that is not my business to blog to the world about), they like millions of others in the world, got a divorce several years ago, but remained amicable towards each other co-parenting their children. their love they shared for their children, then grew again into love for one another and through Christ's redemptive work, blossomed into a beautiful relationship.

following their thanksgiving engagement, clarisa asked if i would make the invites & bulletins and act as wedding coordinator for their day. my duties included decorating the church, meeting with the florist and picking out the bouquets, alter flowers and the flowers for the favors. of course, i jumped at the chance seeing as how i love to do that sort of thing!

the invites - black linen cardstock, white cardstock, vellum overlay, tied together with a turquoise sheer ribbon (personal information blurred out of course)

the invite with the vellum lifted to see the print better

the bulletin - black linen cardstock, white cardstock layered, tied together with a turquoise sheer ribbon

another view of one of the "layers"

the "with thanks" layer (personal information blurred out again)

i met the bride, groom and their children at the reading museum for pictures prior to heading over to the church to do some final prep and open up for the guests and musicians to arrive. i have to admit i was extremely nervous as this would be the first time she would see the flowers i selected...but luckily...she loved them - i was relieved!

clarisa - the beautiful bride

a family - reunited by love

here's another collage of a few of my favorite photos i took that morning. i am by no means a photographer, but as much as i know i will enjoy looking at her professional pics when she receives them...there is something about the candids taken by friends that show that much more of the "personal" side of the day.

friday june 12, 2009 - phillies fun

neither john's nor my company had an official picnic this year due to the ever present "state of the economy", however tamara volunteered and took over the daunting task of organizing a great evening, attended by several berks homes employees, at the reading phillies on the coors light party deck. the all-you-can-eat buffet was great as usual and everyone had a great time...

little kids (paige, tony & jacob)...

and big kids (steve, john, joe) alike.

i didn't take too many pictures as i got to the game late since it ended up being the same night as the rehearsal for the wedding i coordinated. i got there just in time to enjoy a beer, chat with some friends and see the a-m-a-z-i-n-g fireworks display the stadium does! tony had a great time (as he usually does anywhere he goes), but i know he enjoyed spending some daddy-and-t time! thanks to aunt sue for lending her helping hands as usual!

the great outdoors

back in the middle of may we joined the deloretta's at their camp, "god's little acre", for some r&r in the great outdoors for the 1st annual deloretta/d'angelo camp weekend! when i say, great outdoors i mean it...no indoor plumbing - that provided for a funny look from anthony when he said he had to go potty...luckily tamara is a seasoned camp packer and packed the portable "potty-training" potty...thank you tam - tony thanks you too!

we enjoyed a weekend full of fishing (for tony and paige), turkey hunting (for john and danny), hiking (all of us), and sleeping (me...big surprise there, i know). i forgot my "good" camera, so i was stuck using john's work camera and therefore have few pictures. i stole a few off of tamara's blog too to add to the album, but here are a few of my favorites.

we had a wonderful time...good food, good friends, good times...can't wait for the 2nd annual trip!

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!

cake, anyone?

my dear (and very crafty herself) friend luci honored me with the request to make a diaper cake for a shower she was co-hosting for a co-worker of hers. i of course obliged (could never say know to that girl) and came up with this little cookie...err, cake...it was a lot of fun to do!

gordonville auction 2009

saturday morning the 3 of us and harry b. loaded into the truck, (followed by mikey lutz and cj in his van),bright and early to head to the new holland area of lancaster to attend the gordonville auction/mud sale. it's always fun to look at all the gorgeous antiques and crafts up for auction and check out the animals and buggies the amish come from all over to bid on. we got lucky and this year turned out to not be too muddy of a mud sale as in years past. once we arrived, we met up with our friends tamara and danny and their two daughters paige and lilly. all the kids (and adults alike) had a great time!!

we bundled the boys up nice and toasty and off we went with the wagon.

i love this shot of the amish buggy's lined up waiting to be auctioned off

this little boy in his traditional amish clothing was absolutely adorable

there was no way we could be in the new holland area without making a stop at weaver's amish store for some window shopping...and a ride on the "big truck" inside the front of the store. it's tony's favorite...and it was harry's first time on it...he's a fan now too!

my little cowboy!

here is an album of the rest of our weaver's pictures.

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.