“One may live without bread, not without roses.” Jean Richepin

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” Dale Carnegie

Not me! I am ALL ABOUT the roses blooming outside my own window. They are all MI winter hardy with no covering or help. They come up every spring and like a present just burst in to bloom. Not only do they hold their own over winter every year, they seem to grow larger with more effusive blooms. Come take stroll and we will definitely stop to smell the roses.

 

Above is Quadra- a Canadian Explorer rose

Below in the foreground is a Morden Fire Glow

   

 

This is an Armide- a really old rose. Tt smells exactly like you imagine a rose should smell.     

This is a Buck Rose- Prairie Harvest.

  

Our William Baffin – another Canadian Explorer is almost exploding with blooms.

   

      Caelun wants to smell the roses too.

         

 

The William Baffin on either side of the arbor.

Our neighbor brought the bench over so she could sit by the roses. It is big enough for 2 feel free to have a seat.

        

Hope you enjoyed the stroll. Remember to stop and smell the roses.

Abbi’s 8th grade dance

Let me open with you couldn’t pay me a million dollars to be 13 again. I have been very happy with the way our middle school here is run. As a former BOE member that cut the ribbon on the new middle school facility I am glad my daughter had a chance to utilize this new building. As a high school teacher I say – may blessings pour down upon the heads of good middle school teachers everywhere. 13 is now fully in my dear daughter’s review mirror and while the CSMS motto is “The good stuff is in the middle” we are happy to be at this milestone. This means she completed middle school this year which means I am now the parent of a freshman in high school. Yeah! As a celebration of this achievement – and I think as a dry run to start the learning curve on how to comport oneself at such an event before homecoming- their first dress up event in HS- the powers that be decided to hold a dance. Abbi had a friend come over to get ready and I then picked up more friends on the way to the dance. I was in full “momarazzi” mode so forgive me for the copious amount of pictures. It isn’t often I am given such license when taking pictures of my daughter. Being an 80’s child myself I was surprised at the dresses. They all could have went to my 8th grade dance in the spring of 1984 and fit right in. Clint and I decided the hairstyles were more from the 70’s – think Charlie’s  Angels which is a good thing considering the 80’s were all about the hairspray. We got Abbi a corsage to match her dress. She was surprised and exclaimed when we gave it to her “Oh no! Now it’s like this is the real thing!” Yep it is. Not surprising the girls had a better handle on the dress and comportment than the boys did. Again the powers that be probably knew this and that is why we had a “practice run” before high school. After the dance I took Abbi and the friends that wanted to out for ice cream. The powers that be had a good idea of how to end 8th grade, middle school as a whole, and the challenging year of being 13. Bring on high school!

The Girls getting ready.

 

   

Aren’t they pretty?     Then we started to pick up the friends.

  

  

The tall boy is Abbi’s date.

 

We got to the school and lots of the kids were out front so I hung around for a momarazzi moment.         

This was after the dance when I picked her and some friends up.

Ice cream to close the celebration.