heaven

although this little guy won't be visiting there anytime soon...i could imagine this is what it would look like for him. boys and their toys!

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!

wow

tony arrived home from florida safe and sound last night. wow...i didn't realize i missed him as much as i did until i saw his big, dark eyes looking up at me and hearing him say, "i missed you mama".

we didn't do much at all this weekend, and you know what...we loved it! we spent the rest of the weekend just enjoying our little family of 3 again.

following church, we came home, had lunch and just spent the day together. we watched a movie, watched some football, played domino's and with cars.

we had sword fights in the living room with a new light sabre from disney and an old light sabre from disney (one can never have too many)...

daddy & tony - sword fighting from Christy D'Angelo on Vimeo.

listen to that giggle...i could all day!

oh, and laughing...there was a lot of laughing going on...to the point of tears! especially after tony ran upstairs to use the potty and mama jumped up to grab the light sabre to "fight" against daddy...i'm not saying who won! it was a great day and i can't wait to have another weekend like this with my boys!

it's O-VAH!!!

from people magazine, october 15, 2009...

our long national nightmare is finally over. jon & kate plus 8, which in recent months had become just about as fun as reliving your parents' divorce, will stop filming new episodes next month, according to the new york post. after jon gosselin, 32, forbade tlc from filming his and 34-year-old estranged wife kate's eight children for their show, the network will try to squeeze out a couple remaining episodes from existing footage before putting the show to rest, according to sources. kate, who's previously said she relies on the show for her income, and who says the kids have been crying since the film crews left, hasn't commented. neither has jon, who said he put the kibosh on the show because had an epiphany about the harm the show was causing the family – and not because he'd been axed from a future version of the show to be called kate plus 8. it's not clear whether tlc would restart the show should jon change his mind about filming the kids.

sorry kidd-o's (as a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e as you are, with the exception of the one bitchy twin who acts just like her mother...monkey-see, monkey-do)...looks like mommy and daddy will have to get real jobs now!!!

(mostly) wordless wednesday

boy do i miss my little mouseketeer!!

overload.

now that i've completely overloaded your google readers with my catch-up updates, you're probably wondering how the heck i had all this time on my hands the past two days to spend on the blog...that would be because this little guy isn't here...

up, up and away...

yep - you looked right. that would be tony strapped into his southwest airlines seat headed to sunny florida this past saturday 10.10.09 with his mimi and poppop by his side.

my dad has a "family-friendly" work conference this week in orlando, and tony got to hitch a ride for all the fun. he's attended two cocktail parties and has a dinner party tomorrow night. here he is at tonight's cocktail party...the hosts of the conference even arranged for crafts for the kids to keep them entertained through the evening.

cocktail party crafts

the conference is being held at universal studios. they arrived in orlando and headed off to their first cocktail party before heading back to their portofino bay hotel (on property) to enjoy the pool. tony loved it...maybe also because it had a jumbo screen wall tv showing scooby-doo cartoons poolside.

they spent today (and will spend tomorrow) at sea world before heading over to check-in to their disney hotel at all-star sports on tuesday for the rest of the week. they'll be in the disney parks wednesday and friday with a trip to visit the berger's just outside of cocoa beach on thursday...heading home saturday!

to say he's having a good time would be an understatement...to say we don't miss him would be lying. it is so weird after almost 4 years of scheduling your life around someone, to be left to your own devices to go about your day as you wish. john and i spent a portion of this evening just staring at each other with that blank look like "what do we do now?"...and he's only been gone a little over 24-hours.

we did get to skype with him last night and see him for a little, and they are going to continue to send texts/text pictures and check-in through skype when they're able. he was in his swimsuit headed for the pool and looked waaaay older than he did when he left yesterday a.m.

i have a lot to do (surprising him with a new room upon his return), but again, would be lying if i said i didn't think saturday could get here soon enough.

summer (fun) - in - review (september)

september flew by in a blink. faster than the entire summer i think. one minute it was here...the next minute. gone-zo.

we camped 3 weekends in a row and i didn't take a single picture. our first of three weekends...it poured. second of three was bea-u-ti-ful. third...it poured. but you know what? we made the best of it and had a fun time anyway. we played card games and watched movies. took naps and played at the playground when it wasn't raining.

the brumbaugh's were there the first and third weekend and we have some guests the second.

our camping trips have ended for the year now and after a great season (we did more camping this year than any year in the past), we are so excited for next year.

even though we did so much camping, we still managed to be able to enjoy several other occasions such as my aunt's birthday, mom's birthday, and dad's birthday, corinne and dave's anniversary, and our god-son troy's birthday all on the same day! i forgot my camera for all of these events as well, but trust me...we all had a great time.