Speechless

I really don't have much to say about what is below. The pictures say it all. Pure. Delight. Beauty. Gifts from God.






This is my favorite....

Hidden secrets

Today we found this park in our neighborhood! What a nice hidden surprise!
It's nothing special but to Brady it's everything and that's all that matters. It's about a 5 min. walk from our front door which is awesome. Fresh air, no car ride, Coaly can come. In an ideal world, the only thing missing from this park are some swings and a few benches. Put perhaps that's something that the neighborhood can work on getting together for the dozens of kiddos that live here.

The other hidden secret we found just down the street is a farm market with fresh every kind of produce you can think of, all grown right there on the property. We walked out with 5 lbs. of Honey Crisp Apples (my absolute favorite and hard to find) and 3 ears of corn for dinner all for $4.00. The apples are delicious, I've had two since we got home! Brady hit the jackpot while we were there, the older gentleman (what a kindred spirit he was, I could tell) gave him two fresh peaches and a cucumber (his favorite). We will be going there a couple times a week that's for sure. We watched two tractors pulling wagons full of apples while two dogs ran around the wheels of the tractors. It was very nostalgic. Made both B and I happy.

By the way, B and I are having a wonderful day together. Smooth sailing today. He had a popsicle for breakfast, perhaps that helped! Good way to start out the day :) And so far today, two police officers have sat on our street patrolling the race car drivers. That makes me happy.

It's cloudy, cool and threatening rain here in Dayton, OH. It's a perfect afternoon to read or nap or watch TV. Or maybe all three! Happy Wednesday.

Ten on Tuesday: The Late Evening Edition

*I know a lot of friends that do these 10 on Tuesday posts so I thought I would do one too

1. I can't believe that it is practically Labor Day weekend. Where did the summer go? This too reminds me that this baby girl in my tummy will be arriving sooner than later! I'm excited that Mike has a 4 day weekend coming up.

2. Brady and I have been at odds the past few days. We both are just stubborn and that is never a good combination. I can't decide if this is "terrible 2's", just a phase or just a general reaction to all the changes in his life as of recent. Perhaps it's a bit of everything! Or maybe it's me, not him? :) Naaaaaah.

3. I finally found the battery charger for my camera but have only taken one picture which I will post below. I tried to get Brady to make some movies for me today but he wouldn't. Stubborn, see, I told you.

4. I love having the laundry room on the 2nd floor! It's so nice having it right by the bedrooms, it means that I (well right now until the novelty wears off) actually fold the clothes in a timely manner and take them right to our room or B's room and put them away. In our Bellbrook house, sometimes they would sit in a pile on the floor for days, I'll admit.

5. Our house sits on street in our new neighborhood that connects to an old neighborhood and some back roads that take you to the grocery store, Wal-Mart, etc. Well because of this, apparently people use it a lot as a "short cut" and wow, do they fly down the street. I mean we're talking upwards of 40 miles/hour on a neighborhood road where children and/or dogs live in practically every house. Speed limit is 25mph. Today I decided to contact the police regarding my concern. And not 2 hours later, a patrol car was sitting in front of our house. I was so happy! It was great to see the cars creep down the street seeing the officer's presence. Unfortunately he can't stay there forever and sure enough after he left (he stayed for about 30 mins.) the cars were flying up and down the road again. The Sgt. in charge of the "patrol division" that I spoke to assured me that they would provide better speed enforcement on our street from now on so hopefully once these race car drivers see the police around more frequently they will think twice and ease up. I was very impressed with the immediate attention they showed for my concern.

6. This is a sad story, if you have this dog toy, please throw it away. We don't own one but I've definitely seen it in the stores before.

7. The lone picture I took today is of the beautiful roses my dear dear friend Sarah sent to me late last week. I was instructed to place them in my new kitchen which I did. I'm only sorry that I didn't take the picture earlier when the flowers were at their best. They are still gorgeous and they look great with the wall color. Thank you Sarah. Oh how we all miss you, G and David.

8. I saw at Wal-Mart today that New Kids on the Block is releasing a new CD on September 2nd! LOL. Seriously?!?! What a riot. Gosh I loved them in Elementary School. Also on September 2nd for any of you 90210 fans, check out the season premier of the new 90210 on the CW. I think the tag line is "new drama, same zip code". I'm looking forward to going over to my friend Laura's house to watch it. So in one day you can get a new NKOTB CD and watch 90210. What a day that could be.

9. I'm looking to have some new pictures of Brady taken. I'm looking for something better than Portrait Innvoations/Sears/etc. Does anyone know a photographer in Dayton that will do on-location sessions like at a park, garden, etc?

10. I hope you are having a peaceful night and a good week.

Settled....sort of

I have no new pictures to post, I haven't yet found the charger for my camera batteries! But we are somewhat settled in "new house" and enjoying the space! Brady did fine his first night in his new room (I was worried) and he is napping like normal too so hopefully this will continue. He has asked to go "home" several times since yesterday but that too shall pass. His playroom is all set up minus decorations on the wall. Before nap today he learned about a fun, childhood perk - the ice cream man! He got a lemon-lime popsicle and we ate it on the front porch.
Hope you all are having a nice weekend.

Emotional

Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to finally live in our new home. But gosh, I didn't think I would be so emotional about leaving our current home. And to think we are only moving a few miles away, what will I be like when the military moves us (again)? I guess it's because this home brought many firsts, Brady's firsts really and I'm just sad to walk away from where some of the happiest moments of my life took place. Yes it's just walls and windows and a roof but under that roof (and in that yard) we've had moments like these:

In Brady's room on his 3rd day home, January 29, 06

Asleep with Dada in February of '06

On the hammock in August of '06

Brady's 1st Christmas. What a mess!

Brady's 1st Birthday.

Some of your very first steps in April of '07

On the porch swing with your very first and best friend, Grace.

Thanks for the memories silly old house. And yes I know, get a grip Jen, I can hear these words from my Mom and sister :)

Priorities

No worries, we have very little furniture at our new house, very little food or drink. HOWEVER, we have a TV and we have a blanket and we have the CARS movie and apparently a blue pool noodle. We don't need anything else right?

Note the beautiful new black TV table that Mike built for us.

What is left of our Bellbrook house will be moved over tomorrow - all the big stuff, the beds, Thomas the Train table, kitchen table, couch, etc. We will start "living" there tomorrow night! We will be without internet and a land line until Thursday, the 28th so this might be the last post until then. Direct TV will come tomorrow afternoon, please, Mike couldn't miss a day without the TV this close to football season. Like I said, priorities....until next time.

Finally, it's official!

We officially own that new house of our's! It's about time! Seemed like this process took much longer than we thought! The new carpet looks lovely and I think we convinced both Brady and Coaly the dog that the new house is a pretty nice place. Neither one of them wanted to go in it up until yesterday. We moved a large chunk of Brady's toys over there and set them up in his "playroom" (which is really the dining room but we are not formal people in this stage of life so dining room = playroom). The appliances arrive this morning and we will continue to move our junk (and I say that with lots of love in my voice) over slowly this week. I'll post pictures as I take them! Thanks for the support.

Cox Arboretum

This past week we went to Cox Arboretum twice! Oh we love it there! On Friday, Mike took the day off so we packed up a blanket and picnic lunch and spent the afternoon looking at butterflies and relaxing.

Lunch time!

Inside the butterfly house.

So amazing, this butterfly had just come out of it's cocoon!!

Looking for Dada inside the maze, they were playing hide 'n' seek.

Toepainting

I brought along some fingerpaints to my parents house last week and a huge roll of paper in case Brady was feeling creative. Fingerpainting lasted about 5 mins. I captured the above picture in those five minutes. A few hours later he asked to get the paints out again and he created toepainting. He was inspired! And it lasted for at least an hour. He had fun, the paints were washable and for the most part it was an easy clean up!

*Some things to note for those of you that are curious....we close on our new house on Monday. We bought blinds for every window yesterday and we will start hanging those today. The carpet is being installed all day Monday. The new appliances and the big splurge (Mike bought a 42" Flat Panel TV) are being delivered on Tuesday. After the carpet is in on Monday we will start moving things over. We imagine we'll be "living" at the house come next weekend. I'm excited and every time I go over there I feel more and more like it's "ours" but I am sad to leave our yard, well more sad for Brady and Coaly, not sad for Mike who has to spend hours each week maintaining it. We'll make our new yard lovely, I know but I will miss the space and the shade.

*And two things I have to write down for my sake before I forget that Brady has told me in the past two days....
"Mama, I cannot give you a hug because hugs are expensive"

and
"Mama, my waffles are dancing in my belly with orange juice"

It's a rough life

but someone's got to live it.

At MeMa and Pop's house last week.

Can't get enough

Of this carousel in Oakland (a neighborhood of the city of Pittsburgh, home to the University of Pittsburgh, Carlow University and some of the best hospitals around). I think we've gone to ride this carousel every trip home since April. We also always have to stop to stand in what was once the outfield of the great Forbes Field and stand by the remaining wall, on this day Brady wanted to be "the number 4" so you can't see that it reads 457 feet, one of the deepest outfields ever. I included a shot of Brady standing in this same spot in June of 2007, what a difference a year makes.

MeMa took a turn riding in this silly spinning cup that Brady insisted we ride on
3 of his 4 turns on the carousel.

It's so pretty! And there we are again on that spinning tea cup!

Forbes Field August '08

Forbes Field June '07

Progress

Mike (along with my parents help two weekends ago) finished painting our new house! Every room has a new color of paint, except the bathrooms which will stay as is (at least for now) The colors were wild before and perhaps some of you might think that my color choices are wild too but their my wild colors and I love them! You'll notice that there is no carpet in the house, Mike pulled it all up and new carpet will be installed throughout the whole house next week. We close on the 18th.

Brady's Blue Room

Lucy's Turquoise Room!

The kitchen!

I scream, you scream....

We all scream for Ice Cream!

Enjoying an ice cream cone at Graeter's. Brady insists now on ordering everything by himself, we are not allowed to interfere, he does the talking! So he ordered a "vanilla cone with no eyes please". A lot of the ice cream shops put those little candy eyes on the ice cream for the kids but he does not like them, hence the "no eyes"

Baby Syer's Shower

The Zollars side of the family hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Laura, this past weekend. It was at Mike's Aunt Colleen's house in Pittsburgh, PA. I feel bad because I spent more time chasing Brady than taking pictures. It was so nice to see the family and spend a day celebrating with Laura. The boys spent the day celebrating on the golf course, of course! We can't wait to meet this new niece or nephew arriving in mid-September. Best wishes to Ben and Laura.

The cookie bouquet!

The gift table!

Opening a gift from Aunt Karen who lives in Denver.

The new Mommy-to-be!

My Boys

This is what I saw while I was making stromboli's tonight for dinner. I looked out the kitchen window and there were my boys, sitting together under a tree blowing bubbles together. Happy weekend everyone!

Me....at 22 weeks

So after posting these pictures and viewing them on the actual blog I realize that they are kind of dark and not really the best pictures. Sorry about that!

Fine. Here you go. I've been asked by some of my friends to show my pregnant tummy to the world. So here it is. Mike took these two pics this evening. 22 weeks along, about 8 lbs later. I have been very self concious about this pregnancy for some reason, I'm not very accepting of the changes my body is going through, I know, whine whine whine. Baby Lucy is healthy and I'm healthy and that's what matters most. I am still wearing "normal" clothes but I imagine give me another week or two and I'll have to break out some maternity clothes. By the way, check out my hibiscus tree. Isn't it gorgeous? Today it had 8 BLOOMS!!!! I wish they lasted more than one day! It's the only thing in my garden that is thriving this year. I'm proud of it :)

Lazy Days of Summer

This morning when Brady and I went outside, this may sound strange, but it smelled like the beach. Must have been the heavy humidity in the air. Well Dayton, Ohio certainly isn't anywhere near the beach, much to my dismay, but we did enjoy some fun times outside today at The Activity Park and in our big backyard. Brady finally decided today that he wanted to enjoy the water feature at the park, I can't count how many times we've gone to this park since May and he wouldn't go near the water! It was worth it today to see this happy face.

At The Activity Park enjoying the water!

In our backyard this afternoon after playing in the sprinkler and little swimming pool.