Dana Daily

Last year we had such a great time at Kennywood that I've been looking forward to this year's trip ever since. Sal planned his band kid's trip for the last day of May this year, in hopes of having great weather. Success! The kids arrived by bus at 11am. The girls and I met Sal at group sales while he bought the tickets. After we got our tickets, we stopped for a photo op with Kenny (picture taken by Sarah). Then we rode Garfield's Nightmare just because it was close to the gate. I swear it is THE dumbest ride ever. I will never understand why Kennywood took out the Old Mill . At least that was entertaining in a silly sort of way. The girls were not happy to find out that they're still not tall enough to ride the Sky Rocket , which is right next door to Garfield's Nightmare and where the old cars ( Turnpike ) used to be. Eventually Emmy decided it was time to the ride the Pittsburgh Plunge and she and Sal rode it two times in a row. Poor Sarah had to s...

The girls were begging to go to St. Ursula's Parish Festival (or Festibal, as they say), and today the weather was finally nice enough. It had rained every evening all week. Sarah would have ridden the Ferris Wheel all night, and she did manage to find a kid from her class to go on it after Emmy had enough. Emmy found a whole group of kids. We were even lucky enough to witness a marriage proposal. A young man got down on one knee near the Ferris Wheel, and as far as we could tell his girlfriend said yes. No one thought to ask them who they were or if they festival had a special meaning to them, but how exciting. Here are a few pictures from our evening.

Sarah had her seven year well visit this evening. She is 48.5 inches tall and weighs 62 pounds (with a cast). Emmy asked if she could be weighed and measured too. She's 49.25 inches and weighs 60 pounds. The doctor would like to have Sarah checked out by the orthopedist for possibly having flat feet. She said generally they don't worry about such things in kids her age, but since she's seeing a doctor for her arm anyway, this is a good time to get her in. Between orthodontists and orthopedists poor Sarah is a mess.

All three of us had dentist appointments today. I went in at lunchtime and returned with the girls after work. Emmy and I both checked out fine. Sarah also had a good appointment, but the dentist would like her to see an orthodontist this summer for a consultation. It appears as though some of her teeth are coming in slightly crooked as there isn't enough room for all of them. I don't want them to go in and start surgically messing with her mouth, but I don't want her to have bigger problems later either. It feels like a Catch 22. It won't hurt to talk to an orthodontist though, I suppose, and get some baseline images. Sarah also had a molar sealed. That was her second. We shouldn't have to worry about them at all in the future. The girls don't know how lucky they are. Fluoride treatments used to take 4 minutes. Four minutes with that disgusting sponge hanging out in your mouth, while you drooled and tried to breathe. Now it's one minute, and neit...

Among other projects we worked on this weekend, we finally ripped out an overgrown shrub and planted flowers in its place. This took a couple days to complete. Sal worked really hard to unearth that stump and rip it out. We have others to pull as well, which you can sort of see in the first image to the left of the steps, but we may end up hiring someone to do that work (and probably not until next summer). I told Sal that it doesn't look like old people live in our house anymore. Those particular shrubs saw their rise in popularity 30 years ago and are now passe. We still need to add mulch to the flower bed, but it's already greatly improved. We planted a couple begonia, marigolds, petunias, and salvia. I've had good luck with salvia in the past so I'm hoping my track record continues. I also planted some gladiolas bulbs. We made the deadline for those by just a few weeks. Gladiolus are the flower for the month of August, my birth month, so I've always love...

We had a fabulous time hanging out with my college roommate, her husband, and some friends. We grilled, had a few drinks, made s'mores in their brand new firepit. It was a darn good evening.

Bet you thought I gave up on my striping project. Wrong. It was just put on hold since the weather improved. I was back at it this morning since Sal had to go into work for majorette try-outs. Doesn't that sound like something a 40ish male wants to do? Anyway, with him gone for the day I was looking for a way to entertain myself and decided to paint the stripes I taped off a couple weeks ago. Ultimately these stripes won't matter since the window treatments will cover them, but you can't leave a section of wall unpainted. This project will be complete by summer's end, and it doesn't matter to us if it takes that long. There are too many fun projects outside to do.

In January, I posted a brief blog entry about celebrating New Years at my parents with a couple of their neighbors. Those neighbors were Chuck and Mary Beth Henshaw, aka "Henshaws." They've always been "Henshaws." We telephoned "Henshaws." We hung out with "Henshaws." We went to Chuck E. Cheese with "Henshaws." You'll see what I mean. To back track for a moment. . .I remember my mom telling me some time ago that when she first moved to Franklin after my parents were married in 1976, Mary Beth was her first friend. I don't know how long my dad and Chuck had known each other, although I don't think they grew up together. You can imagine if you're friends with someone from the 1970s on, you have years of shared history. My mom and Mary Beth were pregnant with their first child at the same time, although I beat Tim out of the womb by 8 months. As new mothers, they pushed us around the neighborhood in our ...

The S.U.N. is the S t. U rsula (School) N ewsletter. While the newsletter itself has been around for awhile, I became co-editor in 2012 when Sarah was in Ready-K. I saw a posting that St. Ursula was in need of someone for layout, and after mulling the request over, decided I would offer my services, unless someone more qualified stepped up. I am not a graphic designer, which would greatly help in the general layout of each issue, but I do my best. I've learned a lot in the last couple of years and feel more confident using InDesign (which I was familiar with through my job as a technical writer). I browse other school newsletters looking for elements and design ideas that I can incorporate into ours. I find myself picking up various newsletters around town and reviewing them as well. Cranberry Township publishes one a few times a year that I always enjoy. I was delighted when I received positive feedback from my co-editor, other SAC members, parents, teachers, and even the sch...

My mom received a phone call that my late grandfather's cousin passed away last week. However, this wasn't just any long-lost cousin. This woman was the person who introduced my grandparents to one another. Barbara and my grandma worked in the same hair salon. As the story goes, my grandfather arrived to pick Barbara up after her shift and take her home, and she introduced him to my grandmother. My grandpa offered to take my grandma home since it was "on the way" to Barbara's house. It wasn't. Grandma agreed to go anyway. The rest is history.

SAC = School Advisory Council According to the bylaws, "A SAC is an advisory and consultative group that offers assistance and expertise to the pastor and principal on school matters. It also serves to improve communications among those involved in school issues. The purpose and functions of the SAC are detailed in the Saint Ursula School Advisory Council Draft Handbook." I was asked to join for the 2014-2015 school year. It's an opportunity, and I can't wait to get started. No doubt, it's going to be a busy and fun-filled year.

Sal's Italian band was asked to play at a charity dinner today at a church hall in Steubenville, and the girls and I went along. The spaghetti dinner was delicious, and Sarah and Emmy enjoyed listening to the band. They get loads of attention from the guys, and Sarah has the added bonus of sporting a cast. Everyone wants to know what happened and when, and they shower her with sympathy and regale her with their own tales. The band played for a few hours, and at one point I took Sarah and Emmy outside for a little break. There's a school connected to the church and they enjoyed the small playground. However, painted on the parking lot was a huge map of the United States. The girls know where quite a few states are located so I called out a state and they would run to stand on it. Florida, Texas, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania are easily recognizable to them. At one point I had one of them stand on Pennsylvania and the other on California so that they would have an i...

Lots of Sarah posts this week :-) Today she was one of three girls selected to cantor at this Friday's mass. I wasn't planning on attending mass this week since I had just gone last week, but when I found out Sarah was participating again, I had to be there. I took a few pictures while they were practicing beforehand. I'm so proud of my sweet and sassy Sarah, and she sets a great example for the more shy, more reserved Emmy who will follow in her footsteps next year. I did get a picture of her actually singing, but since her face was hidden behind the music stand and there wasn't any sound with it anyway, I'm posting this one instead.

Sarah and Emmy had such a good time riding their bikes around the neighborhood on Mother's Day, that Sal and I decided they were ready for the bike trail. We decided to hit the bike trail on Monday, May 12. Sarah took us quite literally about "hitting" the trail and fell off her bike shortly after we made it to the end and turned around. I saw it happen before it actually did, but there was nothing I could do to prevent it. She went down and started screaming. I checked her out, put her back on the bike, and she cried the four miles back to the car. She complained about her arm/wrist hurting all evening, but it wasn't swollen or bruised so I gave her Motrin and sent her to bed. It didn't look any worse on Tuesday, but she did say it hurt. On Wednesday she went to soccer practice and fell on it, of course. After that incident it swelled up and she went to the doctor today. She was diagnosed with a radial buckle fracture and is now sporting this bright pink c...

Sarah and Emmy had such a good time riding their bikes around the neighborhood on Mother's Day, that Sal and I decided they were ready for the bike trail. We decided to hit the bike trail this evening. We weren't sure how far the girls would go, but we wanted to give it a try. They made it from Millvale to PNC Park, the entire way of that leg of the Heritage Trail. Here are some pictures taken from the trail's end across from PNC Park. These pictures were taken before Sarah's accident . On the return trip she fell off her bike. Seemingly unscathed, but with plenty of tears, she hopped back on and rode back to the car. P.S. Emmy wears a helmet too, just not for pictures.

It's hard to believe this is my 7th Mother's Day. Time sure does fly. After dinner at Eat N Park, we came home for a family bike ride. Emily finally gave her bike a shot. For some reason she had been afraid of it and would always opt to walk over riding when Sal got the bikes out. Naturally that meant I had to walk with her. I was excited when she said she wanted to try riding her bike. Here we are after a good half an hour of bike riding; please pardon our hair.

Saturday Morning: While it looked like rain, Sal and I really wanted to get a bike ride in on the Heritage Trail so we decided to risk it. We almost made it to PNC Park before getting pelted by huge raindrops. Almost. We made it to an overpass and hung out underneath until the skies let loose. Sal took the time to perform some bike maintenance on his new headlight which wasn't working. Once the rain slowed, we started back to the car and arrived somewhat muddy and a little wet. Saturday Evening: Sal was asked to play percussion in Wheeling Central Catholic's performance of the new and improved Godspell . I had helped with show when Franklin Civic Operetta Association performed it back in the 1990s, but didn't remember much about it. I can't even remember in what capacity I helped, spotlight maybe. It's not one of my favorite musicals, but the kids did a great job, as did the orchestra. Sal kept telling me all week after rehearsals just how much fun Godsp...

The girls school has mass every Friday morning, and during the month of May, first grade is responsible for the liturgy. This mean first graders are selected to read, take up the gifts, cantor, and participate in other ways. Sarah volunteered to read. Reading has been a real struggle for Sarah. No one ever specifically pinpointed the issue, but last year and well into this year words were a challenge. So much so that midway through Kindergarten her teacher recommended she see a reading specialist for help. Sarah has been seeing Mrs. Connolly ever since and within the last month or so I can see a real improvement. Reading is finally clicking. Of course Sarah is aware that reading does not come as easily to her as other kids. This is why when she volunteered to read I was so impressed. Her teacher divided Friday's reading into 3 parts and assigned each section to a different child. I know Sarah was practicing all week and by Friday, she was ready. Before mass she told me he...

I had a bit of trouble getting the girls out of bed this morning. We didn't get home from Sal's band concert last night until 9:30, which is an hour to an hour and a half past their bedtime. His concert was amazing though, and we loved every minute. Anyway, we had a little extra time this morning because their school hosted a breakfast in honor of mother's day, and it's a good thing we did. Sarah had homework to finish and both needed showers. It was a scramble, that's for sure. Sarah happily sat next to me while we ate, but Emmy wanted to be with her friends, half a table away. That's okay. I still got a picture.

I believe I was 2 years old when this was taken at my grandparents' farmhouse near Butler, PA. Here's my same aunt and I on my wedding day, November 30, 2013.