Life Lately

Wow! October 1st...anyone else in shock? I swear the leaves are changing extra early this year. I guess it's fine, I mean, I do love Fall. A mixture of pics below. A couple cute ones of my little man looking more like a little boy than a baby. We also went to our local park for a walk and the scenery was just beautiful. The cool air and the smell of leaves brings me back to jumping in leaf piles as a kid.

I actually am dying to have a yard with trees, just so I can rake leaves and let my kids jump in them!

Annnnd on a completely different topic: before I had Noah, I would see moms pushing their kids in those huge shopping carts that look like race cars for their kids to sit in and vowed to myself that I would never do that....well as you can see below...my how the tables have turned.

Ok Fall, I'm ready for you

At first, I was really sad about summer ending. I just wasn't ready for fall... at all! This weekend helped me feel much more welcoming for the change of seasons. We took Noah to an apple orchard close to our house. It was brisk, cool, and the sun was out; it was a great first day of fall.

Walking through the apple trees and seeing pumpkins, was the perfect thing I needed to get excited about the change of seasons. So... Bring on the changing leaves, cool weather, and sweaters...I'm ready!!!

Race for the Cure

My best friend talked me into running in Cleveland's Susan G. Komen's breast cancer run. A friend of her husband was running with his family for their mother, who is a survivor. At first, a 5k sounded so scary, but when you realize that it's only 3 miles, it doesn't seem as bad.

Luckily we had great weather. It was cool enough to feel comfortable, but warmed up by the end of the race. I'm glad I did it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It would have been easier had I conditioned for it, though. Thankfully my best friend was with me for moral support and it was fun to wear Barbie pink. Not to mention how uplifting it was to see people who have survived cancer crossing the finish line.

Wide Open Internet

I am clearly aware that you can find just about anything on the Internet. I am also aware that not everything you read is true. And I am also aware that whatever you put out there in digital form can and will travel through the Internet at an alarming rate. I just had my own personal experience with the latter. I know, being a blogger, that I should not have been caught by surprise, but I was. 

I was browsing through Pinterest when I came across this photo....

And I was like, "Oh My God, wait a minute....that's my baby!! Those are my husbands hands!!" It was one of those moments where you have to stare at it for awhile, just to make sure you are in fact seeing what you are seeing.  Even though I have seen images from blogs I follow on Pinterest, seeing my own baby was weird. Especially since I did not post it originally.  Needless to say, I contacted our photographer and decided to order more pictures because we never originally ordered this one (is that crazy?) I don't care, I did it anyway. 

Noah will be 18 months on the 23rd of this month and it really feels like a long time since he was only 2 weeks old (that's when this picture was taken). If anything it brought back some memories. I can't believe how fast time has gone.

Lesson: if you don't want it out there, don't put it anywhere.

Slides, Swings, and Smiles

I truly enjoy park days. Noah gets to explore and be free. I love to see him so happy. Of course, when we have to leave, there are toddler tantrum tears... But it's worth it for all the fun we have.

This weekend was pretty rainy in Ohio, but we took the moment of sunshine to go to the park with my mother-in-law and her boyfriend, Bob. By the way, Noah does not say "momma" or "dada" but he does say "Bob".

House Search: You Have to be Kidding Me

I just have to share how frustrated I am with our house search. The condition of some of these homes is just unbelievable. I am a little bit addicted to the site, Realtor.com, so I see when new houses become available in the communities we are looking at. So far, we are not opposed to looking at short sales and foreclosures, because Adam is pretty handy and we might be able to get a larger house in a great neighborhood, for a lot lower price. Each time I go into one, I feel shocked by the poor conditions people allow their homes to fall into. It's not like they are in the inner city or anything. They are in beautiful, established, sought-after communities.

The next city over from us is a very well to do, established community. It has trees, sidewalks, and an adorable main street area. The schools are top in the state (which make the taxes unbelievably high) due to the fact that Ohio funds their schools by property tax. (don't get me started on that)We would love to live here but can't afford it unless we can get a short sale or foreclosure.

So....anyways...I just have to share photos I took from the house I just went to look at in this community. Homes on this road go for over $250,000-$400,000 and this home is listed at $195,000. It states clearly that it is a foreclosure but I was thinking, "how bad can it be if it's in this community? Well, let me show you...

This looks likes a beautiful front porch until you stand under it. The rotting wood and mold was just everywhere. That was the scariest element of this home. There was mold, rot, and crumbling foundation everywhere. (ignore my realtor's bum in the next photo.)

 It's hard to see from the photos but the siding is wood paneled and rotting right off the house. This is causing moisture to get into the home.

The backyard, however, was heavenly. It obviously needs to be weeded and cleaned up, but it was perfect size. There were shade trees, room for Lola and Noah to run around, and to entertain. I loved it!

 Even though the family room and kitchen are ugly as hell and need serious updating, I would be able to overlook that in normal circumstances.  Actually, the main floor of this house was pretty nice.

  Now, this is where it got scary. In the above photo there is an actual pool of water on the floor with mold. I don't know from where, but if it looks this bad to the eye, I can only imagine what it looks like behind the walls.

 The picture below is the "master bath" gross! Someone was living in this bathroom with it looking like this. It's just appalling.

I just had to share how bad this house looked, and pictures really don't even show the worst of it. The baseboards and doors look like someone let Freddie Kruger run around for a while blindfolded. I was so disappointed.

Making The Most Of It

We really wanted to have a fun Labor Day weekend. It's just a great way to say "goodbye" to summer. Friday, I completely scoured my whole house, I mean, you could perform a surgery in any room. I just didn't want to have to worry about it during the weekend.

Saturday, we had a great day at the county fair ( which you can read about in my last post). Sunday, we had a family reunion and then had friends over for a casual dinner at our humble abode. Monday, we did some browsing and shopping at an outdoor outlet mall near our house. We also have a pool in our development so we went swimming for a little while.

It's just a great feeling knowing we made the most of this "last weekend of summer". It doesn't change the fact that I am shocked it's September already! This summer flew by at an alarming rate.

A Day at the Fair

I have to admit that I can be a little prissy at times. I don't want to be, it just comes out of me. Near where we live we have county fairs and the Geauga County fair is huge. Adam wanted to go this year and I have to say, I was lackluster about it.

We rode the tractor in from the b.f.e. parking lot and things weren't so bad.

There were hundreds of people but it didn't feel overly crowded. We saw horses, sheep, and cows. There were huge tractors which Noah just loved. And we ate really crappy fair food. I opted for ice cream, a soft pretzel, and a Carmel apple. Adam went with the corn dog-root beer float combo.

Adam even played a dart game and won Noah a prize that looked just like Lola.

It was a great day!