Monday, June 25, 2007

3 months old

and so pretty! Princess Sofia is going to be 3 months old on Friday. She is still as fabulous and cute as ever. See for yourselves.



She is so funny - she has the greatest personality. And she LOVES boys. She openly flirts with any man near her and thus has her father, grandfather and uncle's wrapped around her finger. I can only imagine what will happen when she is a teenager. I hope she calls me to come over so I can see my brother's reaction when she brings home her first boyfriend. Tee hee!

My summer semester 1 is coming to a close. I have one last class Friday and then I am done. Then I am off to San Fran for the African Well Fund Board of Directors Retreat/Meeting. Should be fun.

And I know at this point you have lost all hope of ever seeing pics from San Diego but I really do hope to have them up tonight...famous last words.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Second opinions

I have struggled for the last couple of days about whether or not I should post about this. I am scared, angry, heartbroken and hopeful all at the same time. I decided that sharing this may help me work through all these emotions and at the same time make sure that we remember to not sweat the little things and treasure our friends and family like the gifts they are.

My friend Jen called me 2 weeks ago to wish me a happy birthday. She has a 21 month old soon so I jokingly asked her when little Rocco would get a baby brother or sister. She proceeded to explain to me that she had been having some health problems and was having testing done that week. She said she would keep me posted.

So I called her last week to see how her testing went. Turns out Jen has stage IV colon cancer which has metastasized to her liver. I felt like I had the breath knocked out of me. I still am incredulous as to how a healthy 32 year old who eats well and exercises regularly - she is a fitness instructor for goodness sakes!!! can have cancer.

I asked her how it could have spread this fast without any symptoms. She said that she had had symptoms, constipation and blood in her stool, so she went to her primary care physician. He told her to add more fiber to her diet, gave her some Metamucil and sent her home. When she went back, complaining that the Metamucil had not helped, there must be something else wrong, her doctor told her that because she was so young, a colonoscopy wasn't really necessary - the risks of having it done outweighed the benefits and sent her home again.

Jen wanted me to tell everyone this one thing: follow your gut instinct and GET A SECOND OPINION. Clearly if this doctor had been more thorough, he would have picked up on the fact that a woman who makes every meal for her and her family from scratch probably does get enough fiber and that something else is going on here.

Jen is getting excellent help at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University. The treatment is going to be long and hard but Jen is young and strong so we are very hopeful that she will beat this - besides I made her promise me we would dance our asses off at my wedding.

If all of you that read this could please keep Jen, her son Rocco and her husband Joey in your prayers - every little bit helps. I have my mom lighting candles for her in churches all throughout Italy - that combined with the excellent care she will receive at GU and Jen's rock hard stubborn will to get better should put us ahead of the game.

Last but not least remember, it is OK to get a second opinion if your doctor is not able to relieve your discomfort. It just might be the most important decision you ever make.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Showers of love

My wedding shower was on Sunday. It was supposed to be a surprise but I managed to figure it out once the invites went out since people started to buy things off my registry. The miracle of modern technology. It was a really nice shower and so many of my friends and family were present - my only regret is not being able to talk to everyone that was there. Below are some pictures. I ended up getting so many beautiful things - only 1 double - aaah how I love registries!!!

Surprise!

Me and Dan

So many gifts!

The super yummy cake!

The Yeagers!

Top from left: Lorraine (holding Greyson), Evie, Mindy, Christy, Amy, Dan, Me, Kelly (holding Ava), Michelle and Amy. Nicole, Jackie and Morgan are my adorable nieces in front. Dan's sister Jill was the only one not there.

My cousin Gina, my maid of honor

My bridesmaids: Jen, me, Lisa, Suzie, Kelly, Michelle, Gina, Juliet and Olivia - Melissa could not be there on Sunday.

The shower was at La Locanda and the food was really good - of course I am totally biased on this front since I work there and my dad is the owner :-) Sofia even made a guest appearance and I got to show her off to all of my friends. She looked very pretty in the Laura Ashley dress I bought her. Anyway, now my mom and I have the daunting tasking of putting all my things away. Dan has already put the coffee machine and toaster oven to good use while I have removed the iron from it's box and hope to use it this weekend. Dan's shirts won't know what hit them!

Anyway, I promise to have the pics of San Diego up soon - I am so bogged down with summer session - a paper every week = yuck! only 2 more weeks to go though and we are done. Summer 2 should be amazing - Creating a Community of Readers - how fun does that sound?!?!?

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Roses are red

and Sofia is still the cutest baby ever!!! This is the outfit she had on today when her mommy and I went to get our nails done. Awesome.


Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Sofia's special day

Saturday Sofia officially became a member of the Roman Catholic Church. The ceremony was officiated by her grandfather, Nick Pitocco, who is a Deacon in the church. It was really special to have her own grandfather baptise her - there were tears abound throughout several parts of the ceremony.

Here are some pics from the day. Sofia wore the gown that my brother and I wore for our baptism - so she was stylin' in vintage christeningware :) She was very well behaved for the whole ceremony - did not cry once - not even when they poured the water on her tiny head. She made her godmother proud!!!

Anyway, here they are...pics from San Diego will be next...if I can ever find the time to download them!!!


Her first vintage gown!


Proud mom and dad

At the font - Lisa's brothers Scott (pictured here) and Antonio where the godfathers.

Feel free to caption this yourselves - the cuteness leaves me speechless!


One big happy family!!!

Congrats Sofia!!!