Sadie, Brooms and Bekalu

Sadie continues to get bigger and smarter (although not always at the same rate). One of her current obsessions is the broom, or anything with bristles. "Broom War" is a favorite game pictured here.




















She loves people, although small children need to be brave around her, as she sometimes "loves" them flat on the ground. Bekalu seems to be fine with her, though.

Pittsburgh Zoo

We've been enjoying our zoo membership -- this time I brought a camera along and snapped some of the more photogenic animals. We have guest passes, if anyone wants to come and see for themselves!

New Fence

The Days are hard-working, joyful troopers! In what may have been Pittsburgh's hottest days of the summer, the five of us put up a beautiful new white picket fence for Sadie. Ryan's parents and sister explored Pittsburgh with us as we made three trips to two different Home Depots, dug post holes, painted, measured twice and cut once to put up the fence - all in very hot, sunny, and humid days. The results are grand, and seem to be enjoyed by Sadie as well.


Beyond the physical labor, we enjoyed trying more eateries, a good visit to a new-to-us church on Sunday, and the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. The PGH Zoo and Aquarium is excellent and very close. We look forward to using our membership and guest passes with anyone who visits.

Home Improvement, Part 1 of ?

Our house was built in 1950. We bought it from the daughter of the first owners. Her mother lived here until she was in her 90s, only moving out a few years ago. When we first saw the house, we were really excited about the space and the original wood. We were less excited about the plethora of window coverings, the glass chandelier, and the carpet, which left a continuous musty smell.

Last week, we pulled up the dining and living room carpeting, replaced the light fixture, removed the window drapes, added new window valances, and generally spruced the place up. Here's how our dining room changed:

And our living room:

We're very pleased and enjoying our "updated" rooms. Now if only the air condition can be serviced to help us with Pittsburgh's near record high temps of 90+ with humidity. It's been a heat wave here!

Graduation pics

It's been three weeks since graduation. It feels like longer with the efforts of setting up life here in Pittsburgh. However, it's never too late to share pictures. It was so nice to enjoy graduation weekend with my side of the family.I was honored to have my dad serve as my escort at the official graduation ceremony.


My grandmother looks and is 83 years young. I'm grateful that she could make the trips both to Madison and Pittsburgh. Her help in packing, unpacking, cooking, sewing, etc was much appreciated! Here we are on our Lawrenceville front porch.

On the Web Again... from Pittsburgh!

Yay! We have internet in Lawrenceville, the location of our new Pittsburgh house.

We've had a very good week! Ryan drove a very full 26-foot Penske truck and trailer from Madison to Pittsburgh over two days. We made it for our closing with time to spare. We were met by my mom and grandmother, as well as some new and old friends, who helped unload our truck, which was a huge help.

Our first week has been full of good connections for Ryan, unpacking and settling in, and exploring new restaurants and places to walk Sadie. My mom and grandmother were a great help to have as we settled in. We're very happy with our house. We've pulled up two rooms worth of carpet to reveal nicely finished hardwood floors underneath, removed lots of old drapes and replaced a few light fixtures. The place feels more like our own each day. Pictures are soon to come.

Tonight is Sadie's first Obedience class and we continue to hear of good church communities that we're interested in learning more about. Ryan's family will be here over the next week to help us explore Pittsburgh and continue making the house our own.