Dana Daily

Almost year ago, I posted that Emmy would be starting Ready-K in the fall. I am excited to say that she skipped right onto the Kindergarten. We felt she had the skills, and St. Ursula's was willing to let her try. School just agrees with her. She loves the structure, her friends, her teacher, but she loves mommy coming to help out with workshop the best. Workshop starts about 10am with the kids being divided up into groups by table. A parent volunteer sits at each table and leads that specific group through an assigned activity for a period of time. Then, the kids rotate to the next table and begin their next activity. I helped out with workshop a couple times last year with Sarah's class, and couldn't wait to visit Emmy. I dropped the girls off at school, ran a couple quick errands, and then met up with them for mass at 9am. They sat with me in the church, although I think they would have been less fidgety sitting with their respective classes. Following mass, Sarah ...

Sal's final choral concert was this evening, and since he had to be at the school early to get the kids ready, I took the girls to my favorite Italian restaurant in Steubenville, Scaffidi's. Their sauce is out of this world. A family sitting at the table next to us offered to take a picture. Next semester Sal will be taking over the middle school band position. It's bittersweet for him, I think. He's always wanted to teach band, but he's been teaching choir for a long time.

My mom requested a family picture at my wedding. With a bit of photoshopping here it is. I'll post our Christmas card on December 25, and the rest of our pictures should be available in February.

Yesterday a wedding, today a birthday. A very happy birthday to my handsome husband.

My best friend, my gift, my husband.

I found the most perfect rehearsal dinner invitations online. We weren't going to send formal invitations, but our wedding party started asking us the particulars and this seemed like an easy solution. Our rehearsal went smoothly along until afterward when Monsignor asked us for the marriage license so he could fill it out and mail it for us. Sal and I just looked at one another. Marriage license?!?!? I could not for the life of me remember seeing it anywhere, but my sweet little 5 year old said, "Mommy, it's on the bed at the hotel." I have no idea how she knew this, but she was right. After about 15 minutes of pure panic we had the license in hand and were returning to the church to give it to Monsignor. With heart rate's returning to normal, we returned to the hotel for our rehearsal dinner. The Ale House at the Quality Inn in Franklin provided the meal, and we enjoyed our dinner in the Garrison Room. We had a buffet with chicken marsala and ham, and...

The subject of programs caused some debate. Sal was adamant that we have them, I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with the hassle. If I was going to spend the time on programs, I was going to do them right. Sal won so I created programs of which we can be proud. I ordered a design on etsy.com. Are you seeing a pattern here? The seller sent me a template and I customized it with our information. I am most proud of the last page which is a poem to honor Sal's parents, both of whom passed away years ago. It’s their little boy's big day today,   Dear Lord, please clear some room.   They need a perfect place to see   their son become a groom.   Let him feel their presence   as he waits before the aisle,   Let him notice their absence   for just a little while.   When he stops and thinks of them,   in a heartfelt way, let him know that if they could,   they would be with us today.   Dear Lord, please clear a s...

This turned out to be one of my favorite wedding-related projects, our Welcome Bags. We have quite a few out-of-town guests and we thought it would be nice to give them a few treats. In each bag was a couple of snack crackers or chips, single dose of Tylenol which we found in the travel section at Walgreens, a rack card for them to hang on their hotel room door (personalized for our wedding, of course), personalized M&Ms, and a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer in the Dazzling Diamond scent. For a wedding, could there be a more perfect touch? I created the tags based on a design I saw on etsy. I thought the purple and white bow was a cute, whimsical touch. I hope our guests enjoyed receiving them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Sal had mentioned taking dance lessons in the past, and I thought our wedding was the perfect opportunity or excuse. We didn't have enough time to choreograph an actual dance, but we did have several fabulous instructor's at Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Pittsburgh teach us the foxtrot. We will be dancing to Frank Sinatra's Fly Me to the Moon . Here we are learning a dip. The instructor, Andrew, took our picture so we could see our form. It could be better, and I think by the wedding we'll have it mastered. We hope to keep up with lessons after the wedding too.

Invitations are in.THE.mail. Look how happy he is.

Here I am. Ready to bite into a s'more at St. Ursula's Annual Marshamallow Roast. What a fun night! Unfortunately, Sal had a football game and couldn't come with us, but the girls and I had a blast. Good music, good food, good times.

Bet you never thought you'd see that Cleveland fan in a Pirates shirt. . . My Pirates shirt is one Sal got me when he came to a game for his bachelor party.

After a chaotic summer of selling my house, having that deal fall through, selling my house AGAIN, being homeless and relocating to Franklin temporarily, we FINALLY closed on a house the weekend before a new school year started. Fortunately it was move-in ready, but I did paint the girls bedroom (they'll share for now), and our bedroom. The rest of the house will have to wait. My parents came down to help me get moved in and somewhat settled. My dad took care of maintenance type issues around the house, and my mom helped me clean. It was a project for sure, but we're so happy with our new home. We plan to turn the cinder block, cement floor basement into usable space. Sal would like a music room and we'd like to move the tv there as well. We plan to do most of the work ourselves, and by we, I mean Sal. If this post sounds a bit frenetic, that's because it is. Five short days until the girls officially move into their new home and seven before a new school year is ...

I have been browsing, perusing, and stressing over wedding invitations since we started wedding planning. I wanted THE perfect invitations. I found this design on etsy.com and asked the seller to make a few revisions. I didn't care for the graphics, but I loved the font. Of course we mailed invitations with our information on them, but here's the design. The design itself was $35. The seller sent me a pdf file and I had 60 sets printed at Staples on paper I supplied. Printing and cutting was a total of $19.08. We do have musical touches throughout our wedding decor, and Sal is a huge Beatles fan so these invitations are perfect.

Sal was a groomsmen in his friend Zac's wedding today. He looked so handsome in his tux that I cannot wait to see him dressed up for our wedding. Krista and Zac had a beautiful wedding at Avion on the Water in Canfield, Ohio, and we're so happy for them. Being at their wedding made me so excited for our own.

I'd never been to Put-in-Bay, but when Sal suggested going and taking our bikes, I was all in. Here we are at the top of the Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial . It was so windy. We had gorgeous weather, and had a super fun day, with just a couple misadventures - misjudging the height of the bikes on our car and having the wind catch my bike and knocking it off at a 90 degree angle once I loosened it from the bike rack. We visited Perry's Cave and Heineman's Winery . They have a delicious peach wine.

I didn't think Sal would want to do have engagement pictures taken, but once he again he surprised me. I thought since the wedding is in Franklin, that maybe he'd like to have pictures taken in the Cleveland area. My plan is to create a guest book on Shutterfly with our pictures. In February, we found Taryn Leach Photography in Akron and arranged to meet on April 27. I spent the morning getting my hair and make-up done, and Sal spent his finding outfits to coordinate with mine. It was a bit chilly on the lake, but we were able to get some fun shots. Here are a few of our favorites. When our session was done we met Sal's Uncle Ernie at Ruby Tuesday's for dinner.  One benefit that I wasn't expecting was just how much fun it was to giggle and laugh and pose together for 3 hours. In its own way it brought us even closer together. We had a blast.

Sarah's always had a sensitive tummy, and sweets tend to bother her so much that she just plain avoids them. When we were talking about different treat options for her birthday snack at school, I suggested fruit salad, which both of the girls love. Sarah was enthusiastic about the idea so we went shopping. When we got home the girls helped assemble the fruit salad and then scooped out seventeen servings, with a couple extras for the teachers and principal.

It's official. My little house in Gibsonia is for sale. My agent is confident it will sell quickly. I certainly hope so. It looks good in the pictures. Here are the girls. We are definitely ready for our next adventure.

Sarah started mentioning getting her ears pierced about six months ago and I kept putting her off. Finally, I told her that I would take her for her birthday. It didn't occur to me to explain to her how they would actually pierce her ears, although I had told her it would hurt. She thought she'd be reclining in a dentist chair type thing, not sitting on a stool. She also expected a pinch. She made it through the first ear okay, but she screamed when the second one was done. However, she was all smiles shortly thereafter. I asked Emmy if she wanted hers done, and with no hesitation whatsoever, I got a resounding, "NO!" We'll see how that holds up because Emmy loves to accessorize.

Emily's time at daycare is winding down. It's hard to believe that after 6 years, we are done. Emmy will join Sarah next year at St. Ursula's. I completed her Ready-K registration packet this morning. In May she'll have a chance to attend Move-Up day for a taste of what will come next year. She's already comfortable with the school and knows her future teachers because Sarah went through the same program. It will be wonderful having the girls at the same school again.