A Love Story

Today, behind the barrier of the extremely dated wallpaper that we found behind the mirror, we found a little love note:

And I have since been whisked away to a different era - an era that happened nearly 77 years ago - a love story.

Who is Dan Beller?  Who was the girl who wrote this?  What is the significance of August 30, 1935?  How did they meet?  How old were they?  What was a romance in 1935 like?  What did they wear?  What did they do?  Where did they live?  Was this a secret romance, or true love?

Brian and I have both tried to find more information online through Google searches.  We've looked up the history of ownership on our house.  In May of 1935, this house was owned by James & Louise Neels.  The prior owners and the future owners didn't have Beller or any resemblance to the last name at all.  Was this a teenage crush?  Did they ever get together, or was this feeling a secret?

I can only imagine what it was like.

Brian claims to "know" that this was written from the worker who installed the wall paper...sealing his love and dating his project.  But the handwriting is suspiciously woman-like, I would say, and until he able to provide proof of this, I have my own version.

I believe it was true love.  I believe that the woman who wrote this and Dan Beller found something in each other that was powerful and strong.  Something they could not resist.  I believe their love was magical in all senses of the word and I believe they had so much joy and love and laughter through their long lives together.

Then again, I suppose this could be Mrs. Louise Neels' secret relationship with the construction worker putting the wall paper up in her brand new house while her new husband was busy at work and this was the only secret and safe way to seal the relationship that they both should not have succumbed to.  I suppose that could have happened as well.

BUT I prefer version number one.  I prefer the romance and the magic and the love.  I prefer the butterflies when you kiss, the tender touch when you hold hands, the love in each other's eyes.  So, I'm going with the first option.  And I want the woman who wrote this to know that we will continue to seal their love and keep their forever on our wall - whatever the story.

(For your reading pleasure, here are a few facts from 1935:
 -Franklin D. Roosevelt was president.
 -The board game Monopoly was released.
 -The cost of a gallon of gas was 10 cents.
 -Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Pacific.
 -Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Fred Astaire were among the top artists.
 -(Brian, this one is for you:) And the very first Orange Bowl was played by Bucknell and Miami - of which, the Bison obliterated Miami with a 26-0 win.)

A Package Deal

With the decision to renovate the sunroom and turn it into Brian's office, we negotiated the renovation of our spare room a.k.a. Bun's room a.k.a. the ballet room a.k.a. the future nursery for our little girl.

There's not a ton that needs to be done to the room, but there is more than Brian or I want to take on (or know how to take on), so we left it up to the professionals.  We will be removing the mirrors, repairing the little bit of water damage, painting, and getting the room ready to bring our sweet baby girl home!  We've wanted to remove the mirrors in that room and paint since we moved in, and this is the perfect opportunity to do so.

Bun's temporary residence will be in the basement, but he'll probably move to the other spare room once the office is finished.  Jack and I miss him being two floors away.  (I don't know that Brian necessarily "misses" Bun, but I guess I couldn't say that he doesn't miss Bun either.  I suppose he is probably indifferent about Bun's living quarters!)

Anywho, we have begun the transformation from our spare room to the nursery.  We will be updating our photos just like we have been with the sunroom.  You can check them out by clicking on the image below.


Jack and I prepare to move Bunny-Boo to the basement.

In just a few short days, we will be well on our way to a finished nursery!

We Bought a Zoo

Seriously.

We just received the bedding today that we picked out for our darling girl!  And we love it!  See for yourself:

Our zoo.

Don't you just love it too?!  You just can't help but smile when you see it.  AND, it is just what we were looking for for our little girl's room - bright, fun, cute, and perfect.  (Probably just like she will be, of course!)

The bedding is reversible and there are strips on the reverse side just in case we need a break from the wildlife, or if she's not a fan of sleeping with the gators, and it looks absolutely fantastic with our dark furniture:

Jack models with the new bedding.

Plus, Brian's birthday gift from his little girl (which is technically for his little girl) were these three perfectly matched frames that are going to look simply amaze-balls in her pink, orange, and green themed room:

How fun are these colors?!

We are so excited to see the nursery come together!  At first the selection of bedding, baby furniture, and all the stuff in between is overwhelming.  But, like wedding planning, it somehow all just falls into place just the way it should be.  And it is simply perfect.

That's how we feel about the nursery right now.  Now, if we could only find a chair...

(Here are some more photos from our zoo!  Not that bedding is that exciting or required this many pictures...)

The Fruits of Our Labor

Today I picked the largest zucchini ever from our garden!  This is our very first crop!

Holy zucchini!!

And our watermelons are growing like crazy!

Our little sugar baby!

We actually have three watermelons growing!

Can you spot two of them??

And tons of tomatoes!  None are ripe yet, but they are all forming on our tomato plants.  We expect they'll probably all become ripe at the same time and we'll have 47 tomatoes to eat, but we won't be complaining!  We are just so excited to be enjoying our homegrown veggies!

Happy, HAPPY Birthday!

Today is Brian's one hundred and eleventh birthday!  (Spoken in true Bilbo Baggins fashion!)

Just kidding!

Today is Brian's 36th birthday!  And we celebrated just the way he desired with a fabulous dinner in downtown Columbus, OH at Milestone 229 with his Mom and Tom.  This restaurant was amazing!  The food was fantastic, the views were amazing, and it had such a cool atmosphere!  The temperatures were perfect with a nice breeze and it was a lot of fun being able to be downtown in the heart of all the summer night fun!  It really was a wonderful night!  And Brian is officially 36 (read: nearly 40)!!  (In all fairness I must admit...I am "nearly 35"...)

Bday pic with the bday boy!  I am one lucky lady!

Brian had five presents awaiting him when I got home:
one from yours truly; one from my parents; and three from his
little girl!

At Milestone 229 with Mary & Tom.

Downtown Cbus on Brian's 36th birthday!

I had to get on the action too!

Happy Birthday, Bri!  We love you!!!

Bambino Update

We had another appointment today and all is going very well!  We heard our darling girl's little heartbeat which was beating at a fast 141 beats per minute and the doc measured my tummy...vertically.  This is the first time she has done that.  I measured at 24 cm and she said that is right on target.  By the end of 40 weeks, we will be at 40 cm!  That's approximately me growing 1 cm per week!  Big Momma's going to be up in the house soon!

I gained a total of four L-Bs from my last appointment, which again is good.  We are currently six pounds on the positive side!

Our next appointment is on August 2.  We will have an ultrasound performed to see if my placenta has decided to make the move to the tippity top of my womb and we will get to say hello one last time to our little bambino before we meet her in person!  That is, unless my placenta hasn't moved.  I think another ultrasound may be scheduled if that is the case, but, for now, this is the last view we will have before the real thing!  Which, by the way, is only +/- 15 weeks away!  That is insane!

On one other note, I absolutely love my doctor.  She is amazing and incredible and so easy to work with.  She makes me feel at ease.  She answers our questions.  She takes her time with our concerns.  She is caring and attentive and wonderful.  We could not ask for anything more.  I do hope that she will be there come D-day because she is just that awesome!

So, in three weeks time, we should have another update with some photos of our little girl to post!

And we simply cannot wait to see how much she has grown!

We love you, sweet girl!

A Sign of the Changing Times

Just two years ago, Brian would run into his friends while he was out downtown at a bar...

...Nowadays, he runs into his friends at Babies "R" Us...

Brian ran into Duffy...mid-shop.

This is definitely a sign of the changing times, folks!

Camping Out

Remember how we bought a new couch, oh, about seven months ago??  Well, that said couch was purchased, loaded into another vehicle, and has now made itself home in someone else's home.

We decided it wasn't the right fit for us - especially when we found a couch that we liked a million times better when we were looking for a chair for our little bambino's room.

So, we (and when I say 'we' I mean 'Brian') sold our couch and purchased our new couch the next day.  The reason we hadn't purchased the newbie before we sold our oldie was because a.) we weren't sure if we would be able to sell our couch for a reasonable transaction to make sense buying a new one only seven months later, and b.) we weren't entirely sure what we were going to do with two couches in the living room if, for some reason, we couldn't sell the original one we had.

(Yes, some may diagnose us as clinically insane.)

Fortunately, the stars aligned and we had a buyer who was interested at the pricing we needed for this whole deal to make sense.  And that's why we no longer have a couch.

Current living quarters.

The funny thing about this whole situation is that the couch that we purchased takes 8-10 weeks to ship.  The other funny thing is we knew that going into this!  Therefore, until sometime mid-September we will be camping out Walden style in our living room - picnics, lawn chairs, loungin' on pillows!

Our current camp set up.

And here is what we are waiting on:

Pregnant lady with the flat expression
not included.

Don't you just love it?!  We do!  And I think camping out for the next 8-10 weeks is going to be a blast!  Now, if only we could have a little campfire in the middle of our living room...

Our Little Garden

Just over a month ago, Brian, Bun, Jack and I decided that we would plant a little garden this year.  We have a small concrete area in our backyard that was once a koi pond that is a perfect spot for a garden.  Initially, it was very weedy, but we weeded it, [hand] tilled it up a bit, bought some plants, planted them, and watered them daily.  We were slightly worried about what would happen to our plants while we were on our beach vacation, but they prospered in the heat and we came back with a garden full of bushy, green plants...and weeds.

Today we were weeding our garden a bit and noticed that we actually have watermelons, tomatoes, and green peppers growing!!!  This is so exciting, folks!  We had no clue what would happen to our plants or if we would even be able to manage a garden.  We knew that tomatoes and green peppers were easy to grow, but to actually see little watermelons forming on our vine is so gratifying!

It turns out we do have green thumbs!  And we cannot wait to reap the benefits of having a lovely little garden in our very own backyard!

Our little garden!

To Bump, or Not To Bump, That is the Question.

Week 16.

Week 20.

Week 24!!!

To bump, it is!