D'Angelo Family Weekend

My Nephew Tony and his wife Ann and thier 14 month old boy,Samuel came in this Memorial weekend for a visit from Chicago. It brought all of us D'Angelos that live in this area together also. There are a few of us in the above picture at the Detroit Zoo. Many of my family live out of state. And visit's are few and far between. It is so nice to get everyone together. We had a great weekend . The weather cooperated ,so we went to the Zoo and the Rochester Heritage Festival.



I strongly recommend that Festival to anyone wanting to have a great Family time. The Park is beautiful and there are many family events going on. Duck race,simulated war fights,crafts,old car show. People dressed up in 1800's period dress. Food booths, Petting zoo. I would definatly go again!

Hope everyone's holiday weekend was as fun as mine!

so much happens in a year...

It has been a year since my precious girl suffered a blood clot large enough to almost completely cut off the circulation in her left leg. She was in Greece when this happened and I could not be there to help her. I have never felt so frustrated in my life! She was on the other side of the world hurting and I could not get to her! I think I know now how mothers feel that have children in the armed forces. Not knowing day after day what danger they are in,not being able to get to them when they are. I don't care how old your children get,they are always your children .

Last year was one of the worst. Rachel,my daughter and only child had three major health problems.Losing a good portion of her hearing in one ear,suddenly. Being diagnosed with Celiac ,an autoimmune disorder,and the Protien S Factor V blood clotting disorder. One of them would be more than enough for anyone to deal with. She has learned to deal with all three admirably. Not without allot of suffering and soul searching. I am damn proud of her.

Nature,the natural artist!

Well I spent most of the weekend planting flowers and adding color all around my patios and across the front of the condo. I used a deep purple/blue and bright orange color mix across the front of the condo that almost glows in the dark the colors are so bright. I love it! I put so many pots and stuff around the patio that everywhere you look there are splashes of color. I still need to get a couple hanging baskets and another plant for the balcony and I will be satisfied. I bought all these cute plant holders that added some personality to the back area.

I think it was becouse of the horribly long cold winter that we had that has made me want to plant color,LOTS of color. I am so completly happy that spring is finally here that it has almost made me forget the economy and swine flu and all the other crappy stuff going on right now.

I even planted some herbs and a Jalepeno plant! I am actually going to cook with these herbs this year! I saw a really interesting recipe where they took the fresh herbs and wrapped them in tinfoil with the fish and cooked it on the open grill. It sounded so delish!! Yep can't wait to try it. Ahhh ,the best part about Spring is it's followed by summer....

Client Educational Seminar

This week Wednesday evening we are having our very first Educational seminar for our clients. We had to keep the sign up for this class to 15 because of limited space in the salon. We had 17 sign up ,and are hoping for about 12 actually being there. I am excited about this!

Each one of us will be talking about the different services that we offer in the salon and how they can benefit our clients. I am speaking about skin care and the assorted facial treatments we offer. Also talking about the Rejuvalite, The skin rejuvinating device that we have been using at the salon for about 10 years now. It works with intense pulse light to stimulate the activity of cellular renewal. I am excited to better educate our clients in the hope that it will get them to try out some new services.

The other girls are speaking about what they specialize in as well. Ruth will be talking about Cranial Sacral therapy which is a body treatment where the therapist manipulates the cerebral fluid in the body with energy between the client and herself. From what I have heard this can help migraines,and many other assorted pains.
Nonnee will speak about Thai Table massage . A fully clothed massage that uses compression and stretching movements. Tia will speak about Electrolysis and how it can work in conjunction with Laser hair removal. And Chris will talk about the benefits of hand and foot care.

So not only will we be educating our clients I am sure I will learn allot myself! We will be encouraging questions and offering some healthy snacks . We have a Raw Food teacher dropping off some treats and some fliers on what she does. If this goes over well,we will do this about every 3 months.

Samuel is ONE

Happy Birthday to my great Nephew Samuel ! He turned one in March but I just got some new pics of him. I wish he lived closer than Chicago.Cute Boy!!

Mental-Pause

Ok ,this post is about Menopause. Or Mental-pause as I call it. I don't know what the maker has against the female species, but it's not funny. First we start out our repreductive life with the once a month "period" which we all know comes with its variety of meladies.

We suffer through life having this period always come to "visit" when we least want or need it to. Vacations,camping trips,honeymoons (no matter how we try to plan around it) It always showed up . Bloating ,mood swings ,ect ect. We have this for maybe how long? maybe 40 years? Then what do we get for all our suffering? .....menopause.

Now this doesn't just happen overnite,oh no,it creeps in slowly over the course of 5 to ten years,with what they call,Peri-menopause. That fun time is when our periods come closer together and become erratic. Oh yes my dears,you NEVER know when your going to get your period. Forget counting the days and following any type of schedule. It comes simply,whenever. Then just when you are through with all that crazyness and they stop coming at all ,which is cause for a party believe you me. You start to become a forgetful idiot. You sweat at the most inoportune moments. A good night sleep becomes a thing of the past and your sex drive takes a hike!! You put on weight without changing your eating habits. Did I mention that you never have to wear a pad or a tampon? yea hang on to that becouse thats the best part...

I have been determined to go through this natural ,no drugs,no hormones... Useing natural remedies. Excersize,herbal supplements,blah blah... Well ya know what? screw that! Summer is coming again and if I have to go through it with 10 or so hot flashes a day again I will most likely kill someone or myself. Just kidding,I wouldn't ,but I might just kill for a good nights sleep. Anyway,seeing my Doctor the end of the month and I am talking to her about these "bio identical hormones " I keep hearing about. Suzanne Summers looks awesome and happy,she says thats the way to go. Well I damn well intend to find out.

"The One"

OK,I got this idea from Rachel L. and thought it was great . So heres mine! How did I know he was the one? I didn't at first. It was a gradual appreciation of the kind of person he is that just keep growing until one day I realized that,simply put, I loved him. It was not easy to admit my feelings for him right away,even to myself. The main issue being the age differance,he is 16 years younger than me. Plus I had 2 marriages behind me and a daughter just hitting her teenage years. I came with baggage,so to speak . If you made up a list the cons outweighed the pros into getting into this relationship. But the heart knew this one was diferent

What was so special?Well lets look at the outside first, I love his laughter. He has this big booming laugh that makes you look when he comes out with it. And then you smile along with him and even if you don't think what he is laughing at is funny ,you kinda laugh at his laugh anyway.He has these soft brown eyes,that just lookwell, kind. He has this great deep voice. And really nice smile.

The inside,He has strong integrity. He sticks to his beliefs. He has alot of long time friends that love him. I think that says alot about a man. He is loyal and he makes me feel loved. He respects women and he respects me. He loves his family and he opened his heart to my daughter and even though I dont think he expected it ,he loves her like if she were his own. He has been understanding about my having to help caregive for my ex husband becouse he knows it helps his step daughter. Who couldn't love a man like that?

He's not perfect. He takes forever to get ready to go somewhere. He gets moody often and he can have a temper when pushed . And god help the person that pushes him. He is very neat though and I never have to pick up after him. He is not too great at jumping in with the housework but will if I push it. He cooks for himself most nights. So all in all can't complain there...

I feel content when I'm with him and can't wait to see him after a long work day. It's been 12 years married and many more than that knowing him and being with him hasn't gotten old yet. We tell each other we love each other every day . We might argue once in awile but rarely fight.

So I guess he's the "one" becouse I can't imagine my life without him and becouse the best time in my whole day is when we snuggle in bed and watch TV together before falling asleep. It doesn't get any better than that.