Temporary calm...

Dad has done his east coast pilgrimage and I am the lucky recipient of his first stay. He arrived on Friday evening, after fighting all the extra holiday traffic and boy was I glad to see him. I hope I can keep him extra long! Sorry Rissa and Dory, I'm being selfish...I should want to share. I will let you have him, if I have to.

Since he has been here David and I have taken him to Buck's Tavern, Montgomery Inn, and we spent a nice hot Sunday at the ballpark watching the Reds beat the Rockies!



We picked a great game to go to. Jamie Moyer pitched his old school style wearing his old school pants and socks,








Votto hit a big home run









and the hits just kept going out of the park to break the parks home run record for one game!






Dad even got to see Chapman's 90+ mph pitching!



Funny...90+mph pitching in 90+ hot weather! It made for a sweaty afternoon and the snowcones looked even more appealing!






We settled in last night to watch the first of the three part Hatfield & McCoy mini-series!

I have the DVR set so Alex can watch it the next time he is here. It has proven to be very good. Dad & I plan on watching all three!

Having him all the way in Arizona is hard. I miss him...yes, even as a grown up. I still need my Daddy. Having him here is comforting. I am sleeping better, feel less anxious and have an overall sense of calm. I hope he stays extra long and if not, let's hope this week creeps by, because I don't want him to leave, but, until then I'll keep my eye on the patio door and smile every time I do!!



Because my Daddy's here and everything is temporarily perfect in my world!

A new addition, got me thinking.

Go ahead, congratulate us!! Its all true..honest, for real and we are both smitten!We have a granddaughter, we welcomed our new little girl, Haleigh Faith Milam to our family last Wednesday at 7:44pm. She was 3 weeks early, but perfect in every way.



Seeing that teensy little face reminded me of my maternal/pediatric nursing studies. How helpless and defenseless this little lady is, how dependent she is on those that surround her. All her needs must be met by those who have been entrusted with her care.



Do you think she knows? Do you think infants are born with instant trust? I wonder. As human beings we have a hierarchy of needs that must be met in order for us to thrive and grow.



When we are born we start at the bottom of the triangle, it is by far the largest of our needs and those needs must be met...and it is the responsibility of the adults caring for the infants to see to it that they are met. As we grow, physically, emotionally and intellectually we progress up the pyramid.

All your basic needs, the bottom of the pyramid must be met at ALL TIMES! Simple huh? Provide food, water, shelter, air and warmth. The MUST haves to grow and thrive...if these are met then you progress up the pyramid and feel safe and secure, then you move up again...you have a sense of belonging, feel loved and that you are part of a family, which moves you on up to feeling worthy, and then to arrive, loved, safe as well taken care of having food, water, shelter.

As we grow we recycle this process. Each stage of our life has to move through it. So as you get older you add to the requirements, like having a job and making friends who accept you and make you feel needed and worthy...it's a vicious cycle. Necessary in every way to make you mentally and emotionally healthy!

I pray our little 6lb 3oz little Haleigh Faith always meets her hierarchy of needs! Her Mommy better see to it. We are madly in love with her and will do what ever it takes to make sure her life is as beautiful as she is!













Welcome to the world Haleigh Faith...Poppaw Milam and Mommaw Bev Love you!

Mother's Day weekend.

Children scattered and only Emma Grace and David to celebrate with? Perfectly fine! We celebrated in our own way.




Chelsea thought I was crazy, because I wanted an outdoor grill for Mother's Day. HA...I got it! And the construction proved to be interesting. The guy at Lowe's assured us it would only take 40 minutes? Good thing we stopped and had some lunch at Red Robin before we took it home and unpacked ALL the boxes. 2 1/2 hours later and we had a functional grill. That was on Saturday. On Sunday, I slept in and then we headed out for brunch to my favorite place!

And YES...I had the Bacon Pancakes with a side of BACON!!



Then David strapped his hands onto a buggy at Sam's club and we strolled for hours throughout the store. Comparison shopping and we managed to spend less than $200.00. It was a rainy dreary day here, and the grill didn't get used on the official day. I was completely ok with that, because I was still stuffed from all those pancakes!

As the evening wore on, we just watched the rain and some TV and thru the window we caught a glimpse of 2 feathered visitors and they hung out just long enough for me to shoot some awesome shots! Crawling around in the mud and rain was SOoo worth it!
























It wasn't what you would call a family celebration, but I'm ok with that. It makes me proud that my children are making their way through life and trying to be successful. My Mother's Day wish is that I have many more, and that my children continue to flourish, so I can keep bragging on them.You two make me proud, maybe all the sweat, tears and worrying wasn't so bad after all. Look at what I did! It was a good Mother's Day...Grill, Food, Awesome Photo opportunity,Texts and LONG lingering Phone Calls!! I Love you Alexander Pierce and Chelsea Anne, to the Moon and back...I am proud to be called your Mom!

Looking at the bigger picture

Dangit!! As if I didn't have enough to do or something new to master! We discussed my recent obsession with Zaplife....right? I made it to the top! SEE!


That is my moon picture!! I was so giddy and excited I immediately text'd David and Colleen and then posted a fb status!! I'm actually on the Popular page in first position and I also have 7 pictures on there!! It was heaven! In the words of Sally Fields, "They like me! They really like me!(well at least my photography)"

Daily, well...honestly, several times a day, I check the site and search for pictures I like and mark them. While doing so, I ran into the the most fascinating processing. This transforms your art into true miniature art! Can you say, TILT-SHIFT? The guy who caught my eye did so with minature cattle, and teensy people beside a shifted waterfall. The object to this photography is to look at the bigger
picture, the view your whole eye takes and then focus onto an area you want to highlight and after a few adjustments, you have THIS!!



























Now I'm thinking a need a nice wide lens! This new hobby is getting expensive. But, on a happy note. I ordered my first set of prints yesterday. If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna enjoy it somewhere other than scrolling on my screensaver! Ta..ta..I'm off to play with tilt-shift :)

The wanderers

Packed full of fun, non-stop, memory making, and tiring. Yep, those are the words that describe the remainder of our weekend. Having a four year old in the house is always fun, messy and busy. We look forward to each and every weekend. Trenton always comes bolting in the door grabbing as many if his toys he can carry and plops them down in the living room. He is just content staying in as he is about going out.

But a growing boy need sunshine and fresh air. He needs to learn and experience the world around him and we always try hard to expose him to just that. Our inquisitive Trenton loves trains! So when we discovered a local restaurant that is in an old water/fire station that also has a dinning cart, we knew we had to take him. He was spellbound! So much so, we couldn't get him to focus on eating. Getting outside to explore was more his style!









It just so happens that this eatery is positioned right by the Bike trail, so we took off and did some more exploring and I kept shooting!

The return of Kings Island season and new adventures!

Kings Island is open for the season! Trenton is one happy camper :) can't you tell. Not only does he get to ride the old rides, but this year he reached the height requirement for some new rides. Hands up...big coaster was a success!









And the Linus flyer was super exciting for him!




Poppaw enjoyed the ride for me...NO circles, and this one goes round and round and round! There are several more he can ride, but, two new ones was his limit this weekend. With the reopening comes his greatest pleasure, BLUE ICE CREAM!




We walked and rode and even stayed for some fireworks and park views of the Super Moon!









I managed to conquer my fear of heights, just long enough to shoot a few pics and then I kissed the ground and shot some from the fountain area, waiting for the fireworks! I was excited!!! Super Moon, Eiffel Tower and Fireworks.....the perfect set up for pics? Maybe if one has a fully charged battery or at least a spare. Lesson for the weekend-always carry the spare battery.




But of course, the camera bag, with the spare charged battery and other lens was at home.....disgusted Bev, or Mommaw Cranky Pants exited the park with crappy iPhone pics of the perfect picture setup! Maybe I'll get them in 17yrs? Trenton had a good time and that's all that matters!