Fall Day

I had a stroke of creativity today and wanted to show you all how beautifully fall is presenting itself on the East Coast!

Emma's birthday/At the park/Feeding the ducks

Ok, I realize I have not posted in a while. It's taken a little while to move up and get situated. Andy goes back to work on Friday :(. I'm finally getting in the place where I can take pictures again and feel satisfied. Here's some of the goings on of late:

Emma's cake! Took wayy longer than I realized and didn't turn out as I expected... Oh well, at least she won't remember it and it's practice for next year! I wanted to put it up just to remember it. Around the cake, it says "Happy Bday Emma."

Birthday kiss!

Unwrapping presents

First pair of Levi's!

Pretty birthday girl in her tutu. Daddy got her a chair to sit on! That Tigger is from Grammy (my mom). We had been looking for a Tigger for*e*ver... Emma loves the Wonderful Thing About Tiggers song!

Reading!

She would not look at the camera... but these are still cute...

Yay! Feeding duckies!

There was only one duck, "Mrs. Duck," today.

She got really close! Emma kept dropping her snacks all over the place.

I hope you enjoyed those. The apartments where we leave now are really nice. As you can see, they have this man-made lake where ducks and geese like to come. Emma loves going to see them, so we go as much as we can. There's also a play place without swings (boo!) but we can still use the slides with my help. We're on the first floor, which is so much better than the second floor, especially with strollers. My mom was able to come up and visit for Emma's first birthday. We went to the Virginia Zoo which was cool. Tomorrow we're going to go to Williamsburg, it's only about an hour away. Other than that, what have you, o faithful readers, been up to? Sorry I haven't posted in so long!

Moving to Virginia!

For those of you who haven't heard (although I don't know many people reading this who haven't heard yet), we are moving to Virginia! Andy got his orders to the USS Newport News stationed in Norfolk, VA. We leave early Tuesday morning. The packers came Friday and we are just waiting around until Monday for them to load it up, and then we can leave!
I will be so glad to be out of here... A week ago I was going through a little emotion where I thought that I would miss this place, but those days are long gone now. I am very ready to be done and in a place with normal people again. A place with sidewalks and crosswalks would be good. Oh, and can we make it not so hot and humid?!! Thanks!
I will miss the friends that we have made. Valerie, our photographer from Richard Bell Photography. I was just looking at our wedding slideshow and was just so thankful that we had such a fun and exciting photographer. She's taken multiple trips to Germany to learn German and she just inspires me!
Our next door neighbors, Ben and Amanda Wade, have been an effervescent blessing. It was so fun to have fun people to hang out with right next door! It reminded me of being a kid again and just going down your neighborhood and knocking on the door to see if your friends could play. And Emma loves Amanda... We probably could have gotten away with her babysitting but I was always too afraid to ask!
Then there's all of Andy's friends from work and their families... Not to mention the friends I met while I was working. Most of them have moved on to other bases and we have already said our goodbyes, but you are always meeting people in this business. I like that, it keeps things fresh.
Even though we didn't get Hawaii like we were hoping, I am looking forward to making my home in Virginia. It seems like such an old-fashioned, colonial place to live! They have this thing for mermaids... Apparently there's a mermaid festival and parade? Fun times! Maybe these Virginians will have a lot to offer!

Inspiration: Pea Brush

I just finished watching Martha Stewart, as it is one of the many home and garden shows I like to watch, none of them on a very regular basis. I learned about pea brushes today, and upon doing a Google search to find out more I came across this poem by Robert Frost:

Robert Frost (1874-1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

12. Pea Brush

I WALKED down alone Sunday after church

To the place where John has been cutting trees

To see for myself about the birch

He said I could have to bush my peas

The sun in the new-cut narrow gap 5

Was hot enough for the first of May,

And stifling hot with the odor of sap

From stumps still bleeding their life away.

The frogs that were peeping a thousand shrill 10

Wherever the ground was low and wet,

The minute they heard my step went still

To watch me and see what I came to get.

Birch boughs enough piled everywhere!- 15

All fresh and sound from the recent axe.

Time someone came with cart and pair

And got them off the wild flower's backs.

They might be good for garden things 20

To curl a little finger round,

The same as you seize cat's-cradle strings,

And lift themselves up off the ground.

Small good to anything growing wild, 25

They were crooking many a trillium

That had budded before the boughs were piled

And since it was coming up had to come.

Looks like Robert Frost had the right idea. I am so excited to have a house of our own because I have always wanted a vegetable garden. My aim is to have something beautifully cultivated that also aids the economics of the home. How rewarding and easy would it be to simply walk to your garden and pick the produce for an upcoming meal? Flowers are always nice as well, but for now I am in love with vegetables.

If you would like to learn more about pea brushing/how to do it yourself, visit these blogs for excellent tips and advice:

Urban Veggies Garden Blog

A Way to Garden

21 days until Andy is on leave!!!

House Hunting

We've begun to look for houses in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. This is really exciting for me as it will be our first place. It feels so grown up going house shopping, and I know that it will be a good investment. There are a lot of bases around this area, so when we leave we are planning on either renting it out or selling it. We definitely don't want to get stuck in Virginia when Andy's time is done there, but we also don't want to continue throwing money away on rent, and let me tell you! There are some nice properties.

Now, I'm a veteran of Property Virgins... I know all about the "wishlist," the inspector, closing costs and not setting your sights too high. I mean I'm your average text book know-it-all. I know that you need to put a larger down payment and opt to have higher payments that get payed off quickly instead of a low monthly payment. Some of this I know from growing up with my Dad, but all in all, I'm ready to flex my investing muscles! It is a great market in which to buy, and I've been kicking myself that we didn't take advantage of it sooner. This is so me, though, always bighting at the bit, wanting do things a little too young.

More updates later. Emma will celebrate her first birthday while Andy's on leave! Yay! He will have 30 days of leave starting the 17th of September. I had wanted to go and visit during that time, but what with trying to find a place to live (we might have to rent somewhere while we figure out buying a house), moving, etc. I want us to just be able to relax and enjoy each other's company. Andy's been through so much at prototype and I just want him to be able to relax before he goes on a potential deployment.

Well, that's it for now. Here's some pictures of Emma and I playing Baby Moses the other day:

Emma and the Window

Turns out it's not just mirrors Emma loves, it's any piece of glass that she can look through! She loves seeing a world up close and personal, plus being able to stand up by herself. It's so cute to watch!

Everyday Stuff

These days, the bug is getting into everything... She is cruising on the furniture, and "walking" around with her whenever she can get us. We have to hold her hands for balance. Thankfully, though, she is a tall bean so I don't have to bend down very much! She is learning what to do for the camera, although the flashes bother her (do we ever get over that? I don't think so, lol). She usually "reads" her books upside-down, but I think she finally understanding that there is a right way to hold books! I love the bottom picture, as well as the one with her surrounded by magazines. She loves taking everything in and on our coffee table and throwing it to the ground.

This is our every day!