Brooklyn and Gerard's Favorite Spots

As I told you all when I have no news on the adoption home front I plan on posting something about Gerard or myself or our families. Well when we were in Brooklyn for J's funeral this was the first time Gerard had been back there in 10 years. So Gerard is a very quiet man. He loves being able sit in the back yard with Dottie. Traffic is not something that he loves to deal with as well so the daily life of living in Brooklyn for him was not one that he really enjoyed. He hated the traffic, parking and the fact that it took so much time to get anywhere. See this is one of the reasons why he moved to South Jersey. I like to think it was for me but I am sure that fishing and peace and quiet were high on the list.

I have to say I never minded going to Brooklyn with him but he just never like to go. Maybe I would feel differently if I had grown up there. Before J died I asked him if we could go to Brooklyn so that I could take pictures of where he grew up for Little Bean's scrapbook. He would always tell me one day. Who knew that day would come and the need for us to be in Brooklyn would be a sad one. We drove to Brooklyn via the magic carpet (AKA Gerard driving too fast for anyone but me and Nel. I never mention that I brought my camera because we mostly we sad that J passed and out of respect for Eddie and his family. I do not know what even made me bring it.

Gerard looked at Nel and I after the services and he asked me "Do you have your camera." See Aunt Nel does not live in Brooklyn anymore either but she does miss the driving around and buying certain things that you can only get in Brooklyn. So I told him "Yes I brought it." He asked me "What do you want pictures of maybe all the cars in the street and no place to park?" I told him that I wanted pictures of everything that he remembers that was good about living in Brooklyn. He thought for a minute and then we were off driving around Brooklyn.

When I think about this now I think this was the perfect day to do this see J loved Brooklyn and even after her children moved out of Brooklyn she would never leave because that was her home. This was also Gerard's family's home up until 10 years ago. Well here are the pictures that I took I hope you all do not think this is too boring but I think that knowing where a person comes from and the different experiences that he or she has had gives you a different perspective on why that person may act the way he or she does.

For Little Bean it is my hope that I am able to photograph many of the good things about Russia. I want to make sure that he or she knows that a place is can not be all good or all bad. I think after this day Gerard also figured this out. He is still talking about the 4 of us driving around Brooklyn and there have been no complaints.

We would go here for pastries and stand in a line down the street at Christmas time




The best bread in Brooklyn. If you live in New Jersey and are from New York this is one of the main topics at dinner the bread in New Jersey is never as good as the bread from Brooklyn (That is the truth)



Pastosa Raviolis. If you ever get a chance to eat them buy extra these are the best Raviolis there are in the world.


Gerard's House in Brooklyn. His dog Bobo would sit in the window and watch everything that happened on the street.



Gerard's Grade School Saint Thomas of Aquinas. This is where Gerard, Eddie, AM and his cousins Billie and Jackie (Aunt Nel's boys) all went to school. They would walk there everyday and have lunch at Lenny and John's pizza store.



Aunt Nel's House she lived around the corner from Gerard when he was a child. This is one of the things that he loves the most being close to his family. Aunt Nel still lives in the same town as us and we love it when she drops by to see us.



One of the funny things that I noticed was that most of these places centered arround food. Even his Aunt's House she was and is still always baking or cooking something for him.

An Example of a Great Mom

Well,
I sorry that I have not posted in a couple of days that was not my intension. I intended for this heading to be about my mother but I am sure that she will understand. There are so many great moms out there and I wanted to share this with you. We have had a death in the family and I offered to help during the last couple of days. My services were not needed because God called her home first. This woman was one of the strongest people I have ever met. I did not know her well. She was my Sister-in-Law's (Ann-Marie) Mother-in-Law (J). I will only give you a couple of small facts about what little I knew of her. I will not be mentioning certain people by name because I have not asked there permission.

J was a woman that knew what was important. She strongly encouraged her children to stay together as a family. See J was a single mother not by her choice. Her husband died many years ago. I never knew him personally but only through stories that her sons B (Her oldest son) & Eddie (My brother-in-Law) told me about him. I know in my heart that I would have loved to have just met him once.

Education was important to J. This was one of J's things that she tried her best to instill into her 4 boys. She did everything to ensure that her boys got not a good education but a great education. She managed to put all her boy through private school by making personal scarifies. She stood by her boys even if they were wrong (That is not to say that they did not hear about what they needed to change). Eddie told me about how when he was considering quitting school. She started back to school after many years in an effort to be the best example that she could be to him. Wow that must have been very hard for her to do.

The other thing that was very important to J was her religion. From what Eddie has told me she was the type of person who welcomed everyone into her home. Advice was given if it was needed. Her faith was something I guess helped to guide her through times of sorrow and times of joy. She believed in God and from what I understand tried to live a good life.

J will be missed by her boys greatly. Things are emotionally hard for this family right now but I know that with prayer and time the pain will ease. Please include her and her boys in a small prayer tonight they need it.


This not only Gerard's Childhood Church but J's church as well.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Brooklyn, New York

Who's your Daddy?

Well, I could say many different things about Gerard. We have been together for 17 years. Gerard is an Electrician who works for a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey and has his own business on the side. He has mostly done only commercial electrical work. It seems that he is always working. Gerard is one of the most goal orientated people that I have ever met. He is criticized for working so much but what many of his critics do not know is that he wants me to be able to stay home at least part-time for the first year. He is making sacrifices that many would not even consider to be an option.

Gerard comes from a perfect family of four; there is Chippy (his father), Mommybird (his Mother), Gerard and Am (his younger sister). They all grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Gerard however is so not a city boy. His family was lucky enough to have a summer home at the Jersey shore where he stayed every summer and on most weekends. After he graduated he lived in Brooklyn and worked in the city for a couple of years. He decided to move to New Jersey to his parent's summer home because the commute to Manhattan from Brooklyn was the same as if he left from the shore. That is when we met.

He loves to fish, Jet Ski and goof around on the boat. The one thing that he loves the most about living here is that it is much quieter then in Brooklyn. For him it is painful to have to go to the city. Gerard is a shy quiet person. Sometimes this gets mistaken for being stern or uninterested. This is so far from the truth. Gerard is very camera shy. I think over the last 17 years I only have about 10 good pictures of him. That is it. As a result of his shyness to cameras I stopped trying to take pictures of him. I have told him that he will just have to figure it out and get over it once the baby is here. He just laughs at me.

As I mentioned in a previous post Gerard has a little OCD. That just makes him quirky. That is one of the things that I love the best about him. Because he will not let me post a picture of him I will just describe him to you.

He says he is 5 foot 10 inches but I say he is 5 foot 9.5 inches (Just to mess with him). He weights 163 lbs and is a muscular build. He is one of those people that if he stopped eating carbohydrates for one day he would lose 3-4 pounds. He has dark brown hair that he loves to keep short (no gray hair yet just wait till the little bean comes). The one thing that his family has always told him is "just wait until you are over 35 your waist will just expand." Well he can lovingly say they are all wrong. Still the same 32 inch pants from when he was 18 (Don't you hate that). He has a five o'clock shadow about 10 minutes after he shaves (This drives him crazy) but I like it.

Gerard is the King of nicknames. I am not sure if I mentioned it but everyone has a nickname even some of the people that I work with. There is the Talker, the Quiet one, Craig's wife; those are my weekend girls. If he does not have a nickname for one of my friends then he calls them by their first and last name. None of his names are mean (at least he does not think so) just funny. He has only called me by my name once other then that I am the bozz or bozzie.

It was not until our nieces and nephews were older did they realize that he never call any of them by their names. Now teasing him is their main goal in life. When I introduce each family member to the blog I am hoping to have a picture along with their nickname. It is easier to keep track of them that way.

When he comes home from work everyday the first thing out of his mouth is not "Hi' or "What's for dinner" it is "Oh Dottie, Dottie, Dottie did you miss me. Mommy did not pet you at all today did she?" There you have it he loves his dog. I will try to slip on a couple of pictures every once and a while.