pasta run 5k

wednesday evening brought about a fun family event outdoors. heat and humidity aside, i'd say a fun time was had by all of the brumbaugh, d'angelo, mohr and mulligan families! this 5k race really was a family affair for us as john, corinne, dave, my dad, aunt cath, uncle jim and cousin jack and even harry...yes, harry, ran in the race (ok, he was "pushed" into it...ha ha!)! tony d, my cousin sam and i cheered from the sidelines!

this event is organized by my uncle jim every year and is held on city island in harrisburg (where the harrisburg senators stadium is located). proceeds from the race go to the american lung association so it's not only fun, but it's for a great cause as well!

i even got what has become the traditional "tony & harry" race picture as i seem to have a picture of the two of them in their strollers from every race we attend. ok, so tony wasn't actually looking at the camera...he was too into the banana!

it's getting harder and harder for anthony and i to go to these races and support john without t himself wanting to run and join in the fun, so after john finished the race, he handed off his number to tony who proceeded to run all over the place "running the race like daddy" before throwing his hands in the air to say he won!

the night ended with the awards where my uncle won 1st place in his age group (congratulations!) and a catered pasta dinner (hence the name pasta run) by cantone's and olive garden. yummy!!!

you can see more picture from the evening here!

1 in 150

did you know 1 in 150 children will be diagnosed with autism?

i know 1 very special boy with a form of autism known as pervasive developmental disorder. a wonderful friend of mine, luci, has a son adam who in 2005 was diagnosed with ppd-nos.

luci, in addition to being an amazing mom to adam (now 6) and abby (1), has an incredible way with words and recently got into blogging herself. wow - her site is great and truly an inspiration! the site also includes a lot of stuff aside from her life with adam and autism. please, please take the time to visit it if you have a free moment. you can link to her site here or on the right under "sites we love", schaeffer family.

luci's site doesn't have a comments section, but please feel free to leave any comments for luci here and i'll see that she gets them.

well he's moving on up...

well, actually i guess it's down...either way...tony is out of the crib! we set up his big-boy bed (toddler bed) last night with his help and removed the crib to the attic. i have to admit i teared up as i started disassembling the crib bedding and prepared to wash/store the crib bumper and other items. that turned into a full blown sob with rolling tears as the crib came apart and was moved to the attic. tony was cute and said, "why you taking that down?" to which i replied "because you're a big boy, not a baby and cribs are for babies." he then said, "you gonna have a baby and it will live in there?" john and i had a chuckle with each other muttering, "if it were only that easy".

the transition seems to have gone well. so far so good...he's been in bed for about 2 hours now and hasn't gotten out (or fallen out) once! i don't think he realizes that he can get out when he wants to...we'll see. i hope it's a sign of how easy the next steps will be!

next on the plate...the "b" and complete potty training! he still does well peeing on the potty when asked to and every once in a while he'll ask to himself, however we had come to a screeching halt with the potty training when he started having complications with "number 2" and we had to forgo the potty-training in order to just get him to go and not be blocked up for weeks at a time like he's been. poor thing! i hope to start working on it again over the next few weeks so that when we are at the beach for a week (and i'm off with him that whole week) we can really concentrate on it!

as for the "b", i am going to take the suggestions of many books i read that said to stop the use of it following a trip as their little minds are still wrapped up on what they did on vacation and returning home to familiar things. we'll see. they are slowly "disintegrating" anyway as we've already thrown a few away that have gotten holes in them.

wish us luck...we have a lot to accomplish over the next few weeks, but i think we can do it! i think we can...i think we can...i hope we can!

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weekend update

live from pa...it's your weekend update! ok, so maybe to you, our weekend was not as fun as an episode of saturday night live, but for us it was pretty darn fun!

john and i both had off on friday so it was another 3-day weekend after the long one the weekend prior. the weekend kicked off with haircuts for tony d and i on thursday evening. we went shorter for tony than ever before using the clippers this time. miss alicia did a great job! here are some after shots of tony posing so silly!

we packed up thursday night/friday morning and headed to oak creek for the long weekend. corinne and david got there on wednesday so they had all the "kitchen" stuff set up already which was nice and made it an easy set up for us this time so it was done in no time. tony enjoyed hooking his "car" up to his camper and pretending to tow it "like daddy does in his big truck". it was adorable!

friday evening we enjoyed the company of our friends marjori and bobby who stopped by with their son aden for an evening by the campfire. they brought pizzas and marjori's (now) famous mac & cheese (she uses brie in hers with another secret ingredient which i've not been told yet)....it was fabulous! it was fun night and tony loved playing with aden.

saturday was an exciting day. first thing in the morning tony and d caught a frog (on the picnic table)! we let him go but not after tony wanted to pose with it for a picture. it was very cute and scary thing was...it wasn't all that much bigger than our frog carmine at home (the same frog that we grew since he/she/it was a tadpole).

after the crazy tornado watch and storms blew over, john, david and the boys went down to see the firetruck display at the main office of the campground. the local bowmansville ladder truck was there and the kids got to climb around in/on it and john got some great pictures and video of anthony and harrison. t just loved being in the driver's seat and turning the wheel!

the boys each received a "fireman hat" and tony was very proud of his! he was in his glory!

anthony and harry really just enjoyed playing with each other. harrison is really becoming more active and tony is always his usual helper with him and just in general. here are some cute pictures of anthony leaning in to kiss harry when surprisingly harry grabs tony and end up munching on his nose...those darn new teeth! the progression of the pictures is quite funny!

what is also funny in these pictures is the obviousness of the toning of the boys skin color. harry (for being the irish/german baby) sure has the italian olive coloring (that somehow corinne got too) that anthony (being the italian/german baby) somehow didn't get. but you can sure tell they're related, can't you!? that first picture says it all!

all in all, we ate well...

had some fun...

and did plenty of relaxing...

hope you all had a good weekend too!

click here if you'd like to see more pictures of our weekend!

odds & ends

my man jason is still in the running towards being the one deanna chooses on the bachelorette! i predicted it back during the first episode and there is some definite chemistry going on there! he fessed up last night during their one-on-one date about having a son and deanna was so ok with it...so much so that she presented jason with a scroll stating that a star had been named for his son ty. it brought jason and deanna (ok, and me) to tears! keep being yourself jason...that's who she'll fall in love with!

and last but certainly not least...

introducing...the newest member of the d'angelo family...the sue d'angelo family that is...zoey! zoey joins wolf, sue, luis and dominic and is the sweetest dog you'll ever meet (ok, aside from all the current d'angelo dogs).


she' s a greyhound/dobie mix that sue rescued from the animal rescue league (i don't even know why pet stores exist - they should be outlawed)! congratulations and have fun with the new pupp!

memorial day 2008

mark this date down on the calendar...the d'angelo's stayed home today! we had a very productive day, raking out the flower beds, edging, mowing, cutting down some trees/bushes in the backyard we've hated since we moved in (almost 6 years ago). wow - it may not look like much, but for us, it was huge. we just need to mulch and move around some old bushes and plant some flowers (and john has to finish my flower boxes for the front porch) and we're ready to sit down and enjoy! wow...now that i actually write it all down, it's a lot more than i thought! whew!

we enjoyed a lot of family time (well, after t's 3 hour nap, when he finally joined us) and being outdoors. the weather was just beautiful...i would love it if the rest of hte summer was just like today. warm in the sun, cool in the shade with a constant breeze! perfect!

we got to take a break from working when the lutz's stopped by on their walk back home. they left their house and hiked about 5 miles (3 hours) to the top of reading (fire tower/pagoda) and then back to their house...another 5 miles and another 3 hours! they are heading to yosemite this summer and are preparing themselves for the (crazy!) hiking they'll do when they are out there...we would have loved to join them (when i say we, i mean, john...tony and i would have been at some cool spa!), but we just weren't able to fit it into our already packed summer schedule...and budget! have you checked the price of flights lately?

tony loved helping daddy with the bush/tree he cut down in the backyard and helped him load it into the back of his truck to take to the township recycling dump. he loves being a helper!

we hope everyone had a relaxing memorial day weekend and that the week ahead is enjoyable for you as well! we have a 3 day week this week too as we head out camping friday for the weekend! let's hope the weather holds out as nice next weekend as it was this weekend!

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there's no place like home

after a fun weekend out of town (and a ton of driving), there is definitely something to be said about being home! we had a great weekend and the weather couldn't have helped more in making the weekend an even bigger success! the sunny days yesterday and today were just gorgeous and made the long drive (and main reason for not having been back to iup in 8 years) much more enjoyable.

we pulled off of mayer street around 7 a.m. and made a quick stop at giant to load up on children's motrin and tylenol for tony who spiked a high fever through the night. after that little snag in the plan, we were off, tony (still in his pj's) and determined to have a good time at the wedding he's been talking about all week.

after one stop, we arrived at iup, only to find out that it was the culmination of a week long celebration leading up to indiana, pa's hometown boy, the late jimmy stewart's 100th birthday...a huge, huge, huge deal for the indiana residents and an unexpected treat for the d'angelo's.

we enjoyed a great lunch uptown at the coney, walked philly street and "visited" some old haunts, took in some of the js b-day celebration and then headed to campus for a visit to the oak grove and to check out some of the changes that have occured since i was last there.

it was wonderful to be able to share the oak grove and the beautiful (very quiet this time of year...graduation was 2 weeks ago) campus with tony and john. at one point, t said to me, "mama, i like your school...it's nice". it was very cute. we were also able to view the new world trade center memorial in the oak grove. there were several iup alumnus that lost their lives in the towers on 9/11 (many worked at cantor fitgerald). standing tall in the oak grove is now a piece of the twisted metal from one of the towers with a plaque, dedicated on 9/11/02 (one year after the attacks) to those that lost their lives. it's quite amazing to see it that close.

we loaded into the car and continued on our road trip to greensburg, pa to check in to the hotel and get ready for doreen and paul's wedding. we had a great time, and it was nice to share in this special day in d&p's new life together! it's been a long road to get there, and i know i can speak for all of our friend's that we couldn't be happier for doreen as she has truly found her prince ! emotions were definitely high as we watched her on her father's arm walking down the aisle.

everyone had fun at the reception. tony was excellent for being "sick", although he wasn't as into the dancing as he normally would have been and was content to dance while being held by either myself or john (and watch the pretty little girls in their dresses from the sidelines) before crashing in his stroller for the remainder of the reception and heading upstairs to our room for the night.



on our ride home this afternoon, we thought it appropriate this memorial day weekend to stop at the united flight 93 memorial site in shanksville, somerset county to pay tribute to those brave people who stopped the terrorists from sending the plane down in dc and instead into this empty field, thereby limiting the casualties to themselves only.

we personally did not know anyone connected to the 9/11 attacks, however you can't help but be overcome with emotions when you see the field and the items left behind by loved ones for those close to them they've lost. the national parks registry has the typed out transcripts of the phone conversations many of them had with the 911 dispatchers...just a few words into i was unable to continue.

we hope everyone enjoys the rest of their long holiday weekend and hope that in the midst of rushing from one picnic to the next, you are able to stop and take a moment to thank all those people who have left their families and loved ones to fight and then lost their lives so that we may continue to live ours. happy memorial day!

click here to view the full album of photos from our weekend! enjoy!