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The kids couldn't wait for today to arrive. It was the last day of classes at Pyramid Mountain and once again Giulia, Diego, and I got to go on a canoe expedition in the Rockaway River. The weather was absolutely perfect. The spring sun had some turtles and frogs out getting warm. We also got to see a big (15" or so) turtle at water's bottom. I tried to snap a picture, but the flash snapped and only the water surface shows.

We had a great time and can't wait to do the trip again (maybe next time John will be around and can come with us - he was still in Texas).

Here are some photos of our expedition:

This first one is Douglas giving us some paddling instruction.

Diego settles in the canoe - he was set on taking the kayak in the water though.

Kids enjoying the trip......This next one is a painted turtle (they were all we saw).

This was a bigger one - the first shot we took when we first went downstream. Upon
our return it was still there, facing the opposite direction. Note the frog on the wall.

This year Giulia's gym didn't get a photographer in to take the kids pictures. Since Giulia had her last meet on 4/13 we seized the opportunity to get some photos for the album as she was already dressed for the meet. Here are the ones we selected:

Once again way too long has passed since I last updated. Here's a summary of highlights:

1) Giulia had L7 States
2) Giulia was invited to NJ Team Championships
3) Giulia had 3 L8 competitions including L8 States
4) Giulia started playing the violin
5) Diego had 2 karate tests and now has two yellow stripes on his white belt
6) Diego continues to be a menace
7) Kids got new haircuts
8) John went to San Diego
9) I started karate lessons
10) We are in the process of selling our house
11) We are in the process of buying another house
12) We are finally getting a tax rebate

Yep! It's been that long since I last updated.

Giulia's had a lot happen with gymnastics in the last couple of months. She is having a great time with it all and learning lots of new skills. She also started playing the violin, but continues with the piano as well. Giulia is having a good time with homeschooling. We've been doing lots of things with other homeschoolers lately. We went to a couple of school-age plays at the Morristown Community Theater. We did Newton's Revenge and Mathemagic. We also went to see Cirque Le Masque although that one was for entertainment. Giulia has been enjoying Pyramid Mountain classes again as well as the Historic Speedwell program. We also started a book club with another homeschooling family and have gotten through Caddie Woodlawn so far. We meet up at the library each week, discuss chapters we read, and then do some type of craft or activity. Giulia's favorites were taking a clock apart and making a shoebox diorama.

Diego's also done a lot the last couple of months. He continues in gymnastics classes and loves to jump and land on his head. He's also had two karate tests earning him stripes on his belt. He learned some single hand punches, kicks, and choke escapes so far. He is also doing languages still and absolutely loves going to classes because he can see the trains go by from the window. We have our issues with these classes though because Diego gets mad a me when I pick him up. He wants daddy to go get him so he can show him the trains. He tells me "Daddy needs to pick me up". He gets particulary mad if I tell him daddy is going to pick him up, but I am the one to show up instead. I have to deal with being rejected the best I can :-( Diego is also doing Kindermusik and loves it, he's learned five notes so far and he's pretty good at identifying them, both on paper and on the glokenspiel. In all that he does Diego continues to be a menace. He is pretty good while he is in classes, but man is he a handful when out of them. Yesterday we had to go to a wake. One of our friend's father passed away. Diego wanted to know "the dead man's name" so we told him it was Mr. N.... He said no, it's not, Mr. N is there (pointing to our friend). Shortly after a fireman's service started and an older fireman was the speaker. Diego looked up and said (ALOUD) "The dead man is talking." I thought things were getting better after that, but it started smelling a little and I asked him it he did anything, he said (ALOUD AGAIN) "No, I didn't. Daddy farted." At this point he does a loud fart on my lap. I almost lost it. And so with all that we decided it was time to go. We went to say our goodbyes and as we were talking to Mr N (friend) we say goodnight, and Diego says "Goodnight Mr. F" Obviously, there couldn't be two Mr. N's in any justifiable way in his head, so he decided one of them was Mr. F instead (another of our friends). We proceeded to walk out. By the outside door a couple of the fireman were still hanging out, including the speaker, a much older gentleman sitting down on the side chair. We say goodnight as we walk out, and Mr. Embarassemt waves at the older man and says "Good night dead man". The fun never ends.

Here's some pix of the kids January haircuts:

John, who hates to travel, had to go to Cancun for another business trip (and he has to leave next week for yet another - he will be away for his b-day). He thought Cancun was phenomenal as he even got to take a trip on his last day there to see the Mayan ruins. John continues to be bogged down with work, and has also had his hands full with other issues like a tree that fell during the last storm. It just scraped the house. He had the other two trees in the front of the house cut too before they had opportunity to fall. We both ended up having to move the logs off of the front yard, man was that a project. John continues to go play soccer several times a week even though he is always complaining about his knees and back. Aside from those I don't really know how he can even kick the ball, I think he is blind as a bat. He can't read signs that are ten feet in front of him. I've been trying to convince him that it's time for an eye check - I may just make an appointment on his behalf. I am sure I will have some updates on this for next time...maybe John with glasses? he he.

I've had my hands full with kid's activities (and the obvious Diego challenges) in the last couple of months. We've also had the bug hit the house. Diego was hit the hardest, he had a high fever for five days and was practically knocked out. He is back to normal now, well for Diego anyway. The rest of us just coasted through it pretty much. I started taking karate classes in the same program the kids do. I figured I'd get me out of the house once a week. If John is not home from work by the time I leave I take Diego to the child sitting area. He loves it and always comes home with some story to tell. I am way behind on videos/photos as things have been so busy around here. I've also started packing for our upcoming move.

Yes, we are moving! If everything goes according to plan we should be closing on the sale of our house in early May and on the purchase of a new one a couple of weeks later. The house needs TLC but it is just the right size (4 bedrooms) and in a very nice area. I am greatful the government is finally sending us something back this year. It will all be investing in fixing things up. Happy Tax Day 2008!

I worked on another collage last night while waiting for John to get back from San Diego. He arrived at 2AM, and brought the rain back with him.

G had a mini play this week (from theater class), I took video but haven't had a chance to upload yet. I am behind on videos, with John gone this week things got a bit busy around here. G has a concert tonight (holiday songs) and then has her state gym competition tomorrow morning. Here's the collage from 12/9:

Where did that year go? A lot has happened over the last month:

1) Dad had surgery
2) I cut my hair (again)
3) Dad turned 60
4) Giulia had a holiday concert (singing)
5) Giulia had a dance recital
6) Giulia had a gymnastics home meet
7) I did all my holiday shopping in 4 days
8) My brother came to visit
9) We got Santa pictures done (just before Santa left the mall)
10) John had a week off of work
11) Christmas
12) I picked up my crochet needles again in attempt to finish Diego's blanket
13) Giulia lost a tooth
14) We started a New Year
15) Kids got a nice break from schooling
16) We got the yearly pix done (a couple of months late)

Okay, so dad had surgery. He ended up having a pleurectomy and his lung was spared but some of the cancer was wrapped around the aorta and couldn't be removed. The doctor was extremely happy with the outcome of the surgery. His pathology came back as epithelial-type mesothelioma, his lymph node test was negative, and his x-rays revealed his lung had fully expanded. Dad starts the radio treaments later this month. He is recovering very well from surgery and is off the pain meds although he has pain and pressure in the area. Dad got home from the hospital just in time for his 60th b-day (pictures to come, we took them with dad's camera and I haven't copied them yet).

Giulia had a holiday dance recital and I missed it. I had to work one of her gym's meets that entire weekend so John took her...but...there will be video (we had to order it, its not here yet) and I got some photos during the dress rehearsal. She was part of a mouse and soldier's dance, she was a mouse that was shot by the soldiers and was carried off stage by the other mice. It was a busy weekend, she had to sing on Friday night (after gym practice), had the recital on Saturday, and had to do gym competition on Sunday morning - I had to be at the gym from 2pm-9pm on Saturday and from 8am-10pm on Sunday.

My holiday shopping was extremely rushed but I managed to get it done. Juan and Mary came down to visit the Saturday before Christmas - I usually don't see them for months after the holidays as things are frozen by them and we don't do the winter travel back and forth - it was a nice get together and we even took some terrible mugshots for our passports (these too are in dad's camera).

I finally took the kids to see Santa - Diego asked him to bring trains and Giulia asked him for puzzles and games. Chritmas came and they both got what they wanted.

John had a nice week off of work and set up a Christmas tree for us (I hadn't gotten around to that either) so that we could have a place to put presents. On Christmas day we took all the presents (including the ones Santa brought) to mom and dad's and had a great time opening everything there. We then visited John's dad, siste, and family and had some more fun with them. The kids enjoyed the week off to play with their new toys.

On New Year's Eve's eve (12/30) we went to a 40th surprise b-day party. We had a great time and G got to hang out with her best friend from gym. When we got home she was brushing her teeth before bed and knocked one out. Her first canine is gone :-) She wrote the tooth-fairy and got $10 for it -- (yes, I was going to let my hair grow again BUT I couldn't :-) It is short again, really short):

We spent New Year's Eve at mom and dad's but not everyone made it to the new year (Giulia did but was out cold within minutes). Afterwards we went to Elio and Maria's house, the kids slept for the ride and only Giulia woke up for the visit.

I picked my crochet back up over the Christmas break (and I have a New Year's resolution to start spending ~~more~~ some time on crafting. I am terrible at crafts but love to try them (I always wish I had someone around that would do these things with me). My grandmother (dad's mom) taught me the knit and purl stitch when I was little (maybe 7 or 8). I picked up the knitting needles to make Giulia a blanket when she was a baby. I then discovered crochet and found it was more portable so I decided to learn to do it. I did a blanket for Giulia (for her Christening) and started a second one...I never finished it. I then did one for mom, I gave it to her for Christmas a couple of years back. I then started one for Diego because I felt bad Giulia had one and he didn't. That was over two years ago, it is only half way done and I hadn't touched it at all since before I left work. SOOOO - my goal for this month is to get that blanket done and start one up for dad to give him for father's day. Then I am finally going to start one up for me. At the same time Giulia is learning to knit. She is working on a scarf and is then going to pick up the cochet hook and start a granny square back craft she got for Christmas. She will be my partner in crime in the craft department (and writing this all down will hopefully keep me accountable so for those reading please ask from time to time how the projects are going - this way I will have to keep on track) - I'll try to get some photos of the completed projects and Diego's ongoing one.

Lastly, here are some of today's photos (the photographer had the pacience of a saint with Diego) - in the last picture below kept trying to give Giulia raspberries instead of kisses.

These couple of weeks have flown by even faster than the last. G had a couple of meets since I last wrote and I snapped some nice photos. I made a collage for each meet so that I could share more photos without taking up a lot of space. Video of the meets is posted on her gym page:

Leaves have been falling like crazy here and the kids are having a great time when we rake things up on weekends:

We spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house, Jack was in the oven by 11AM, he was a big fellow this year, 27 lbs. After dinner we stopped to visit with John's dad and then stayed up past my bedtime at Elio an Maria's house. The kids had a great time (as did John and I):

Diego started Kinder Karate classes at the Y. I took some video using my little camera and will post it to the Gallery in the coming days.

We had another couple of busy weeks around here. On 10/20 it was my b-day, Giulia had a late afternoon meet and got to wear her new leo and warmup and afterwards we had dinner with mom and dad.

Mom and dad left for Spain for a week, dad really wanted to visit before moving on with treatments. They missed halloween and Diego's b-day but got to meet Marta and spend some time with family. On 10/27 we had the YMCA Halloween night, this year Giulia was a fashion witch and Diego a monkey:

We also finally made it to one of Teresa's and Angela's soccer games, Diego behaved as his usual self:

Halloween: Giulia had gym practice but they let out early so we went out Trick-or-Treating with Elio, Maria, Giulia, Teresa, and Angela - the kids had a great time and got lots of candy:

Lastly on 11/1 Diego turned 4, time is sure flying by. Diego was afraid to blow out his candle again this year but he now has the hang of opening presents:

Morris County has an awesome parks program. Some of the sites run classes for homeschoolers. Giulia has been attending some of them for a while and absolutely loves them. Today they got to go out canoeing (through the Pyramid Mountain program). Since I had Diego I wasn't expecting to be one of the moms on the excursion; I brought Spike along so that Diego, Spike, and myself could 'hang-out' while we waited for Giulia--- well, to our great surprise we all ended up in the water and had a great time (I can't wait to do this again):

Last Sunday we went to Elio's house (John's bother), it was wine making day for them. I was amazed at how fast and efficient the Arpino wine making method is - I was expecting to get there and find everyone with their feet to work like the good old days - a long laborious day, but by the time we got there they were pretty much wrapping up the process (the first part anyway). Of course Elio and Maria adopted us for dinner as they know we are total losers and we never have a place to go....so we hung out a while. The kids love going over their house, Giulia loves the company, Diego loves all the goodies (cookies, soda, donuts, ice cream, etc) and he is not shy about asking for all of it either (thank you guys):

(these two are talking soccer as usual)

D.

We've had a busy couple of weeks. We visited Sloan with dad and had some good news, Dr. Krug had dad repeat a CT-Scan as the PT/CT he had was not comparable to the prior CT from June. We returned to the city this week for the results and were happy to find the change from June to now was minimal and that dad may be a candidate for surgery (with the March diagnosis we were told surgery was not an option). In addition to Dr. Krug, we saw Dr. Flores, a thoracic surgeon at Sloan. Deciding on the surgery is going to be a tough one, the doctor was clear with us in that decisions are made during the surgery as it is hard to gather all needed information from the CT and PT images. At this point he doesn't know whether dad would need a pleurectomy or an extra-pleural pneumonectomy (EPP). He believes it would be an EPP but will only know during the process of performing the surgery. We are still awaiting a pathology report to determine if dad can take part on an ongoing clinical trial. While we were at the doctors the kids got to visit with grandma and visit Rockefeller Center, the American Girl Store, Disney Store, and St. Patrick's Cathedral - they had a good time.

On Friday 10/5, Giulia and I left for Texas. Man the bugs are huge out there!!! The girls did great at camp, they really pulled things together last moment. They got to meet Marta Karolyi, Kim Zmeskal, Kristie Phillips, and other gymnasts and coaches. Diego missed me so much that by Saturday night he had a high fever, he had a fever for several days but is now back to his normal self.

Yesterday we went to Giulia's (Elio and Mary's Giulia) confirmation. I tackled curling G's hair the night before with some new curlers and it didn't come out half bad. We took them out in the morning and she went through 4-1/2 hours of gym and an hour of karate before the party - they held up pretty well:

Diego was his usual menace at the party:

Oh and while we were gone John surprised us with a haircut:

I think that sums it up for the past few weeks :-)

Wow, its been so long since we updated the website! Things are finally getting settled here at home with our schedules and homeschooling so updates are now underway.

Progress will be slow and some of the links may not work for a while but slowly and surely we will get things up to date.

For those unaware, we have been tackling several things over the last year:

First and most difficult, Dad was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma. He had a broncoscopy in March to diagnose and started undergoing chemotherapy right away. He finished his first series of treatment (8 rounds of Alimta and Cisplatin) and had a follow up PT/CT scan that showed progression of the disease. We are now contemplating starting Gemzar and are also going to see Dr. Krug, a specialist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering (thank you Michelle), this coming month. Updates will follow as we get more information. If you have any information for us in this area please email me, we greatly appreciate it.

Second, I tore the ACL and meniscus on my left knee and was 'messed up' for a couple of months. I had surgery (performed by Dr. Hurley) to repair it at the end of August and am now undergoing PT. The first three weeks after surgery were rough but I am now off the crutches and brace (for normal activity that is). I am hoping things will be back to normal in this area in another couple of months. The worst part of this ordeal is that I didn't get to ride my bike once all year, ughh!

Third, homeschooling! We started our adventure last year and the fun continues. We are busy as can be between our formal academic work and all the other activities (nature classes, museums, languages, gym, swimming, karate, etc). Giulia seems to be loving it although she is a bit on the lazy side - she takes her time and daydreams a lot. Diego is an absolute terror, he is non-stop all day long. He started gymnastics classes now and swimming (he hates the showers), and he is taking French and music lessons too. This adventure is going well (although poor John is not too thrilled that we can't keep the house clean and books and papers have taken over the little room we had).

Fourth, we already had little room in the house for things and to make matters worse our basement flooded and continues to flood so we had to pile all our stuff up all over the place - there is no room in the house for anything. We have been trying to get things started to build an addition to the house so that Diego can finally have a bedroom and so that all our things can have a place to be stored. It is very slow moving in this area and every day presents a new challenge. Our holdup now is the sale of the other house, its been on the market now for more than four months. Home sales around here went south and no one is out buying.

Giulia continues with gymnastics, she has now moved into optionals and is very excited to have her own music and routines. The biggest thing for her at the moment is a trip to Houston. She qualified for the National TOPs Testing that takes place at the Bela Karolyi Gymnastics Camp. She is working hard on getting her skills along with her team mate that will be going along with her (what a duo these two are).

Diego as I already mentioned is a complete monster. The kid never stops to recharge his batteries. He is never up to anything good (especially if he is quiet for more than two seconds). The other day he was being WAY too quiet, I walked into the bedroom to find him kneeling on the nightstand next to a VERY STILL cat who was on the edge of the window sill. On closer inspection I found that the cat was fearing for her life, she had the blind cord wrapped around her neck three times! One move and ouch! Later that week (on Giulia's birthday) he decided the two balloons grandma got for Giulia were his. After two minutes of a very quiet house I left the kitchen to check on him (this was after 11 at night, we were cleaning up from dinner) and found him standing on his toes on top of the computer wheel/swivel chair with his hands stretched over his head opening and closing a pair of scissors in order to reach the balloons that had escaped to the ceiling. Anyway, all that to say he is definately keeping me on my toes. If he wasn't so darned cute I would return him.