The year in review...some thoughts...

Thanks to the ever amazing sognatrice for the idea of doing a me me to wrap up the New Year.

I have been a bit absent these last few weeks and I apologize.

Seeing as I started the blog in Feb I have a least a year's worth of reflecting to do.


1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before? Went to Tuscon, San Diego, Jamaica and St. Lucia, Got married!, started teaching, started a blog, became and aunt!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I can't remember if I made any but I am sure I did not keep them if I did. This year the only resolution I am making is to be content with all the wonderful things that God has seen fit to give me.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Hell yes! My sister-in-law Lisa gave birth to Sofia Vincenza March 29, my sister-in-law Evie to Greyson, my friend Dawn to Jacob Zachary, my friend Bert to Liam Francis, my friend Amara to Jenna, my friend James' wife Kerrie to Finn, my friend Annie to Caleb Steven, my friend Sean's wife, Elise to Maggie, my ex-GU roommate Rogerwene to Catherine Lily, my friend Laura to Bennet, my ex-Alexandria roommate Eleanor to Reese Aida and most recently my sister-in-law Michelle to Hannah Caroline on Dec 24. It's raining babies!

4. Did anyone close to you die? My mom's friend Mrs. Emma a few weeks after our wedding. We just got our wedding video and it is great to see her dancing and having fun.

5. What countries did you visit? St. Lucia and Jamaica

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? A baby! A Master's Degree.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? March 29 - the birth of my niece, Sept 22 - my wedding day.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Quitting a job that I did not like and finding one that I loved! oh yeah and getting married :-)

9. What was your biggest failure? Gaining 20lbs after my wedding :-(

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I was just diagnosed with high blood pressure and put on meds...other than that nothing thank goodness!

11. What was the best thing you bought? My wedding dress

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My sister-in-law Lisa for giving birth to the most beautiful baby ever! And Bono for the continued inspiration to create clean water projects in Africa.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Our prez...can we get a new one already?

14. Where did most of your money go? Our wedding and tuition for grad school

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My niece's birth and my wedding!

16. What song will always remind you of 2007? This is hard. Probably our wedding song - I Belong to You by Eros Ramazzotti and Anastacia

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?
(a) way happier (b) um, yeah way fatter (c) poorer...I quit my well paying office job to teach but am so much the better for it!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Exercise

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Eating

20. How did you spend Christmas? Christmas Eve working at La Locanda - Christmas Day with my parents.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007? Yes, with my niece

22. What was your favorite TV program? Oooh, tough one. It's a tie between Lost and Project Runway

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Hate is such a strong word...I guess I hate the person that invented Pizza...cause it's sooooo goooood.

24. What was the best book you read? A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - The runner up - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Hope "Who am I to say" is an amazing song!

26. What did you want and get? A baby niece!!!

27. What did you want and not get? A smaller waist line

28. What was your favorite film of this year? We really don't go to the movies...but we liked 300.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I was 34 and I was in class that night so I didn't do anything. Dan took me to dinner later that week.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Not much - it was a pretty great year!

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? Please let this fit me!!

32. What kept you sane? As always...the music of U2

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Daniel Craig. I never thought I would say this but he is better than Pierce - who knew?

34. What political issue stirred you the most? Clean water is a basic human right.

35. Who did you miss? My Suppa Club girls!

36. Who was the best new person you met? Barb & Suzanne, the teachers in my classroom

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. No matter how bleak life seems, there is always someone who is worse off than you - so get over it!

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. "In dreams begin responsibilities" - U2, Acrobat

So how did the rest of you fair this year?

Felice Anno Nuovo!!! See you all in 2008!

Bath Time Giggles

Tonight my baby bro turns 30...so in honor of his b-day I am posting a video of his beautiful daughter at bath time...Anth, you have come a long way from that hyperactive, Transformer obsessed little boy. Your daughter is precious!

So many things to blog about so little time

My hubby and I just went into our basement to find that it had flooded overnight - yikes! So not what we need right now!!! Anyway I apologize for being MIA - I had finals which are now over - yee haw! I think I did well and now I have a break until mid-Jan when I tackle 3 more classes...but then in May I will have my Masters in Ed so it will be worth it!

I had my last Toddler Talk class on Tuesday - the kids were so cute - and I got gifts!!! My first as a teacher - so exciting! Toddler Talk starts up again Jan 22 so I will try to post some of our crafts for your entertainment pleasure - it was something that I wanted to do all along but never got around to photographing the final products we made.

Sofia went to see Santa yesterday - she was enthralled by him and could not tear her eyes away...

She is so cute!!! She is coming over in a little bit so her mommy and I can check out the new Steve and Barry's - aka Best. Store. Ever. which just opened up in my neighborhood. We are talking walking distance people - this could be a problem.

Other than that I am working at La Locanda and trying to get our house in order. We painted the office/den yesterday - finally - so things are coming together a little bit at a time.

I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy holiday season!

Liam Francis Greenberg

A picture of the newest member of the Bridgeport Ribhouse Softball team.



Welcome Liam!

Cell phones and shoes

I bought Sofia a pair of Tommy Hilfiger shoes this weekend while out shopping. I also got her a cell phone. It is never too early to start a girl out on her basic necessities.



She is the best and brightest little student - look how intently she is listening to her Zia explain about the importance of good footwear. She is going to be the smartest girl in her class.

I spent the cold and snowy! day writing a paper so I have no news to tell. I did go to the doctor for a physical last week only to find out that I have very high blood pressure and was immediately put on medication...sheesh...another thing to add to my list of aches and pains. Getting old SUCKS!

One last thing - congrats to my friends Roberta and Mark who had a beautiful bouncing baby boy, William Francis, this morning at 11:40am. Liam is 6 lbs, 5 oz and 20 inches long. Both mom and baby are fine and Auntie P cannot wait to see them tomorrow! So many little boys - my friends Dawn and Mike welcomed Jacob Zachary into the world last week as well...sigh...I want one too!!!

Buona Notte ragazzi!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Thanksgiving comes and goes. I was not blogging since I had a heinous sinus infection the week of Thanksgiving which kept me from work and unable to even use my computer.

We spent Thanksgiving (and the weekend) in Altoona, PA with the in laws. It was alot of fun and 9 of Dan's 15 siblings were there with their sig others, kids and spouses. Since the in laws do not have a TV (oh the horror!) we spend alot of time eating my MIL's delicious cooking, playing board games, playing Yahtzee on the laptop (which we brought) and reading. We even ventured out to the mall on Black Friday just to stretch our legs a bit.

On the way back from Altoona we stopped in Mechanicsburg, PA to visit with another of Dan's siblings and his 5 kids (one on the way). Then that night we stopped by his oldest sister's house where we enjoyed another turkey dinner and a great visit with the rest of the siblings - only the oldest brother was missing - or else we would have seen them all at some point during the holiday. It gets tricky when you are one of 16 children...

Last night we had dinner at my mom's and I finally got to see Princess Sofia who has HER FIRST TOOTH!!! YAY!!! Her first toof is breaking through and it makes her adorable smile unbearably cute. She has learned to clap hands when we sing her the Italian folk song Batti Batti Le Mannine (clap, clap your little hands). Between the toof and the clapping I almost lost it - she is soooooo cute!

And so I leave you with another adorable pic of the princess! Buona notte!

E A G L E S Eagles!

The Eagles cutest little cheerleader!




Me loves!

Allebach Photography

Getting married any time soon? I absolutely 100% enthusiatically recommend my wedding photographers. Mike and Rachel at Allebach Photography are amazing. We just got the CD of our pictures and we love them all. Below is just a sampling of the 700+ pictures. Seriously, if you can book them do it. Their packages go on sale after Thanksgiving through Dec 31 which is when we booked last year. Worth every penny!



















There is no better feeling then seeing you and the ones you love look so beautiful on such an important day.

I cannot wait to get my album!

100 posts - parlez vous francais?

Yay 100 posts - how exciting.
Here is something special to celebrate with.
Regardez s'il vous plait.



Bonne journee mes cheres!

INSPI(RED)

I am sure you are having Sofia withdrawl so here you are - more pics of my little activist niece.

Cute as a button and cuter every day!

I was cleaning out some drawers yesterday and I came across some funny pictures of me and my brother from when we were little. I don't have a scanner so these pics of pics will have to do.

Me and my brother on the day of my first Holy Communion. Look at how tiny my brother is! Note the 3 piece suit. It is crazy that he has a little baby himself!

Here is another

This was taken on my way to a baton twirling competition. Yes, I used to twirl batons competitively. Needless to say I was not very good - it's not like I was going to be performing in any pagents any time soon. I think I was yelling at my mom/dad(?) who was taking the picture. My baby brother had just woken up from a nap. I love that my socks are not symetrical and what you can't see is that I have a TON of make up on. Good times.

I leave you with a picture of me and the Mr this Halloween

The beer wench and her beer. Needless to say my hubby won first place in the beer pong tournament. Yes, I said beer pong. Yes, we are too old for that. Please let my husband know.

Ciao!

I have been tagged!

I have been tagged by my fantastica blogger friend A Novelist. The rules are below. After my facts will be the names of people I have tagged.

Here goes.

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.

B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.

C. At the end of the post, the player then tags people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. Yellow mustard is my enemy. I hate hate hate it more than anything on earth. If you don't believe me try eating something with yellow mustard in it in my vicinity and see what I do.

2. There is an exception to the above fact. McDonald's cheeseburgers. And this is only because I can't really see the mustard in there.

3. I love to go to Urban Outfitters in different cities and see if I can find jeans on sale. So far I have gotten awesome jeans at the Urban Outfitters on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, Tuscon, San Fransisco, Washington DC (Gallery Place) and Philadelphia (Rittenhouse Square). I have never paid more than $19.99 for a pair of these jeans. The ones I found in San Fran were only $9.99 when the cashier rang them up. Score!!!

4. The first night I met my husband he asked me to dance and I turned him down (we were at a wedding). A little while later he asked me to dance again and I turned him down a second time. At the end of the night he asked me to dance one last time and I said yes...we have been together ever since.

5. My first crush was on a little Indian boy named Sam. He was five. I was four. His family moved back to India and it broke my heart. I refused to go to nursery school for a week because Sam was not there to ride the bus with me.

6. I spent my second birthday in the hospital having major surgery on my bladder. The nurses brought me a b-day cake and all sang happy birthday to me.

OK people

Lisa and Anthony

Sognatrice

Dixie Chick

Tag! You are it!

Never too young to make a difference!

When my beautiful niece, Princess Sofia, was born I bought her a t-shirt from my favorite charity - the African Well Fund. Here she is modelling the shirt...I cannot believe it fits her already - my how time flies. Isn't she the cutest?

You know you want to buy the little baby in your life one just like it. All proceeds go to building clean water projects in Africa so click on the link above and get yourself a shirt!

Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See?

I see someone who is doing everything humanly possible NOT to write her paper which is due tomorrow...and she has to work tonight.

Sigh, the ADD is not getting any better. What is worse, my house is in shambles, I am not sleeping at all, I have not been working out. All because I am in denial over a paper. I seriously need to get over myself.

The bright spot in my day was reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see? by Bill Martine and Eric Carle and then creating brown fuzzy bears with tissue paper today in Toddler Talk. My life is pathetic.

Off to see if I can make some headway before I leave for the restaurant.

A better post later this week - I promise.

More Halloween cuteness

I love her more each time I see her...she is the perfect ladybug.

We only had a handful of kids last night - my one gripe - the teenage girl - at least 16 yrs old - who looked at the candy I had in the basket - rolled her eyes and said, only Skittles? And then proceeded to take a bag and roll her eyes again. Seriously, if you are bitching about the choice of candy then you are way too old to be trick or treating. I hope the look of disgust on my face transmitted as much - however I am sure it was lost on the self-absorbed little wanna be 16 yr old hoochie.

Sigh, what ever happened to the days of the Great Pumpkin and being so excited and grateful that it was Halloween night?

Happy Halloween!!!

Our little ladybug's first Halloween!!!! Cute as a bug in a rug if you ask me. More pictures of cuteness...

Sofia reads her Halloween book - Mouse's first Halloween - already a good reader - Zia Paola is so proud!

Happy Halloween everyone!!! Be safe and eat lots of yummy candy!!!

7 month sweetie

Can you believe that little Sofia is 7 months old today!!! It seems like yesterday I was rushing to the hospital to make it on time to be there for her birth!

Here are some photos from our Princess!

Little green riding hood! Sofia went to a fundraiser - how cute was her outfit?!?!?!

Cutest Eagles fan ever!!!

Tummy Time

OK, so I copied this right off my sister-in-law blog but seriously - how freakin' cute is my niece!!! Me loves!

There is no way on earth that there could exist a sweeter more adorable baby. I cannot wait until she starts to talk!!! Sofia, la Zia ti vuole tanto tanto bene!!! Sei bellissima!

My girls

I know I am on overload with the wedding pics but I thought this might be a helpful visual for brides who are not convinced that one dress does not look good on all. My girls were allowed to pick out their own dress as long as they were the same designer and color. Don't they look beautiful!


My beautiful Jr Bridesmaids - Juliet and Olivia



My sister in law, Lisa. My best friend Melissa



My sister-in-law Michelle and her sons Ben and Adam. Michelle's sister Suzie (who also happens to be my good friend) and her son Trotman.

Jen, my roommate from college. Kelly, Dan's sister.

My cousin Gina, my maid of honor. My dad walks me down the aisle.

Mr. & Mrs. Yeager - we did it!

Again I appologize, but as more pics dribble in I cannot help but post! Tomorrow I promise a non-wedding related post!

Buona notte!

Adult onset ADHD

So I have been trying unsuccessfully for the last hour to focus on one of the many things that I have to do around the house, for school, for work...and all I have been able to do is sit on the couch and watch TV. The laptop was within arms reach hence my post.

I have no idea what has gotten into me lately. I thought the unability to focus was due to the stress of my wedding...but here I am - married one month already (yikes! has it been a month) and I am still in a mental fog.

The first month of marriage has been great. I think that fact that we lived together before hand was a huge help - we have been able to settle back in nicely without the stress of trying to merge households and figure out each others habits. I highly recommend it (as long as you are not morally opposed to it).

I got some more pictures back from the wedding...here are a few...

The Sweetharts

My beautiful Zia Rosina

With Harriet and Jeremy roommates on Kirkwood Road

With Jen, Kathy and Cathy - Henle 75 (minus Rog) in the house!

It was so amazing to have all of my friends come from near and far (Cathy lives in France, Kathy just got back from Pakistan, Jer lives in Las Vegas). I am so glad that I was able to celebrate with all of them near. I hope they had fun.

As you can see from this post I am all over the board with my thoughts. I guess I should try and get some stuff done.

Later, peeps.

St Lucia - Preview

I have finally uploaded the pictures from our honeymoon. There are hundreds so here are just a few to whet your appetite...commentary and additional pictures to follow.

In front of our room

The beach at the Sandals Halcyon in Castries St Lucia

The view from our room - a wedding taking place in the gazebo

The Paradise Pool - one of two pools on the property - this was the quiet relaxing one without the pulsating music.

Ok, that is it for now. I am exhausted and have to still take a shower before I hit the hay. More to come this week.

Buona Notte e Sogni D'oro, amici miei.