Rose Cottage

Roses from Our Rose Garden

We have 40 different rose bushes around our new home. 

Plus tons of other plants and flowers...and bees. Lots of bees.

This is new for us. We've never had so much vegetation in our yard. It's a wonder for us. We will be spending lots of time at our local nursery with about a trillion questions. 

I'm in love with roses

We've decided to call our humble abode...Rose Cottage. We have an antique teacup set we found at the local thrift store that has roses and is called "Rose Cottage". I liked it! I think it fits! Now I need some white picket fencing.

I made a Pear Crisp from our pear trees. I'll post the recipe and pictures at a later date. I hope you have flowers and I hope you dance.

WOW! I've been away from you for too long...

 

 The winds of change they are a blowin' ...

I took a long hiatus from my blogs and even shut this one down for a while.

I'm not sure where I will go with this one yet...I am still determined to finish the PW Cookbook, but I'm not putting a time limit on it. No! I can't...I find too many recipes to try every single day.

So...since we last blog-conversed...

My dad moved into his own place...a cute little apartment downtown in a round building. It's a "Senior Citizens Only" complex with a very nice staff. He is still independent and he's happy there.

It took him a few weeks to get used to the idea and the location...I am happy to report that this has been a good move for our whole family. Mine and Madley's stress levels are much improved. I don't worry about my dad nearly as much. We've communicated more in the last month than in the whole 4 years he lived in our home.

Glory Glory Halleluiah! 

Little Indy (our daughter who lives with us along with her twin 8 year old girls) is graduating with honors from college (Anthropology with an emphasis on Archeology) this Saturday. She made the President's list! Straight A's. I'm prouder than an Arabian stallion prancing in front of a pretty mare :)

Next Little Indy will prepare to take her GRE and go to Grad School to get her PHD. So...3 more years of college!

We went to her grad party held at her college last week; her teachers all told us what a great student she is and they love her to pieces. YAY!

Next item of business...

We're buying a house after 4 & 1/2 years since we sold our last house. We only looked at 4 houses and when we walked into the fourth one...I fell in love. It's a retro 1965 ranch style with a full finished basement. LOVE!

Now...I have been telling everyone that we are downsizing and getting into a smaller home. I was determined. But then...our Realtor showed us this home. It's in his neighborhood. It's a LOT bigger than we'd planned on...but the price is phenomenal! (If I'm anything, I'm frugal).

It took a little convincing to get Madley to stop looking at anymore homes and look at the possibilities of my dream mansion...but when I showed him where he could have a retreat/man cave in the basement...he flipped head over heels and is now just as much in love as I am.

The yard is like an English garden. The house had the same owners for 35 years and they loved to plant things...everywhere. Plus! there is a nice area all ready to plant a veggie garden...and trees! Mature trees. AND! a new roof and all new windows throughout...always a head turner for a man.

We may or may not gut the kitchen and put in an IKEA kitchen. TBD. If you can believe this...it's Madley trying to convince me :) I love the retro look...he promises I will love it more when it's done.

So I may be without a kitchen to cook in for a while. I guess I'll get a 2 burner cook stove and get used to microwave cooking and BBQ. I'll be sure to post before and after photos...if I'm still coherent after a major remodel.

Tonight I am shooting (no pun intended) a benefit basketball game between our city officials (including our mayor) and some retired Harlem Globe Trotters. This should be frighting interesting. I've never done sports photography before...but at least it's basketball and I can be on the court dodging giant men and basketballs. All I can say is.. MEEP!

I've missed you all so much...

Lindy the Sports Photographer/Homemaker 

New Home. New Adventure.

From my new front window

We have been working our little hineys off for a month now!

We decided we would take the whole month to move and clean. 

You know, save ourselves the stress of moving all at once and not being able to find anything.

Well...it's been a good move. It's been a bad move.

The new house is almost put together. Little projects aside, I liked this part. Bring some stuff here, put it away. Bring some more stuff...yada yada yada.

But with that came the utter lack of motivation to go back to the old house to clean or finish grabbing those last little things...Madley STILL can't find his remotes for our TV system. Life is not the same for him.

So this week has been a rush to get it all done. STRESS was my middle name.

But I am happy to report that with one day left in the month. I am done!

Madley is over there as we speak grabbing his last minute things and then he will be done.

I'm tired to the bone. 

 I may squeeeeeee! 1960's retro home!

3000 Sq Ft with a basement.

I do have lots of projects lined up for our new home. But they can all be done one at a time and in no hurry.

We've been puttering in our lovely yard...pruning and cutting and enjoying every last minute of it.

Our old rental neighborhood was really...The Hood. Teenage boys (and some girls) lurking about doing things I consider ILLEGAL, IMMORAL and possibly fattening. Dead behind the eyes and mischievous to the nth degree.

Scared to go out to my driveway at night. This was supposed to be a quiet, good neighborhood. But the teens from hell made everyone nervous and cranky and stay inside.

Fast Forward to new neighborhood...

We just got an invitation to a block party. A family friendly BLOCK PARTY!

Our neighbors have all been stopping by to welcome us to the neighborhood.

The teens here say HELLO! to me when I am outside. They smile and have life in their eyes.

I am solidly in love with our new digs.