“2009 an Emotional year”

 For seven years we have been working the downsizing plan. 

 “Stuff of Life”

“Pictures of Life”  and  “Scott  Downsizing”
Now in the first few years of downsizing it was very liberating. I do not miss, or cannot remember most of the stuff that used to sit around, or that we had stored in boxes.
In 2008 we took it a few steps forward and sold our condo on beautiful Centennial lake park in Edina Minnesota.  
 

Our condo was one of a kind, and cannot be replaced here in Edina. It also was very nicely furnished.  

He  rented a condo in downtown Edina it is very comfortable, but not our home. We moved our furniture  and what was was left of our stuff with us. It did not seem  that there was that  much stuff at first, but we still carried boxes for hours.


Now I already knew before I move again, a lot more stuff will have to go.  Me being the organizer I am, started
soon after I moved into our rented condo.
I got 4 boxes.
one for things to sell,
one for things to donate,
one for things to garbage,
one for things to keep just in case I ever need them again: One rule here, this must be the smaller box of stuff.








One year later in 09 all the stuff in the boxes is gone sold, donated, garbage, and the just in case box got moved up north to our” garden house” and yes it is small.
 
Now that was the easy part. Then I started with the furniture, even though I do not know when I will  leave here. I am a downsizing  junkie now.
Most of my nice stuff I sold to coworkers just by word of mouth, for a very low price. For a few weeks.. I watched my beautiful furniture go out the door piece, by piece. In a few weeks there was only enough left for Scott and I to sleep on, eat at, and sit on, since we have very little family and no other visitors to speak of..
“A choice of our by the way”  we did not need much.
Most of what we have now will go to garbage, and  what is left of the good stuff is spoken for by family members. I still have some downsizing to do clothes, shoes  ect! 
We still have a piece of land on a lake in Northern Minnesota with our little garden house on it that we plan to keep for awhile yet. 

We   have our coach that we plan to live and travel in when we leave this chapter of our life.

Our Jeep that we hope to keep for a long time.

Now the big question, and the reason for writing this post in the first place is how do I feel?
Since I grew up in Ireland with no unnecessary stuff, you would think this would be easy. I have since become very American and I have worked hard for my stuff. I have come to believe that stuff makes a home stuff is growing, stuff is who I am. So how do I live without all my stuff.
I love this little piece of advice I got for a wise old man, have you ever seen a U-Haul behind a hearse going to the graveyard.
Another piece of wisdom I read a day or two ago.  it is called  “Five Remembrances”   that some Buddhist Monks  chant each day: I will lose my youth, my health, my loved ones, everything I hold dear and, finally, life itself  by the very nature of being human.
  Those remembrances told me I need to let go of  the past, to make room for the future.
A great little video I found.



I have to retrain myself to live with  my needs and try to control my wants. I am feeling like a walking dead woman.  The only days that are good days, is when I am downsizing because that also gives me a  feeling  of growing … just in a different direction.
Scott and I have worked hard, played hard, have had nice cars, boats, houses, and motorcycles, and have  good jobs. 
Now we are getting ready to get rid of them all to smell the roses.
 
As we bring 2009 to a close and ring in our new year. We hope to  dance to a different tune. We look forward to all the beautiful tomorrow! We have yet to share in.

“My Husband My Friend”

Scott, happy Anniversary, 32  years.  Where has the time gone. For all those years we have worked together, laughed together, cried together loved together. We have had many dream together, and even a few swear words.  Many people have said we were very different from one another.

“ They were reading the cover, not the book.”

One time I was asked why I married a man who never smiled.

I have always seen that big smile in your heart for me.

 

  We have discovered that love  means a whole lot more, than we know when we first got married. We have weathered change,acquired more patience, and learned to laugh when life doesn't turn out exactly as we planned.

Sharing everything that comes our way has given us something that most people never knew… and on our anniversary, I am looking forward to all the beautiful tomorrows we have yet to share. I love you.

“My Husband My Friend”

My Great!! Stump Man

Before Scott and I bought Crow Wing 11 lake lot it was an overgrown woods. We are its first real people family, and that is very special to us. Along with the woods, came many years of dead trees, stacks of dead brush, and lots and lots of Poison Ivy. Scott can tell you some horrific stories about Poison Ivy. Making the land useful required a mission to take down all the dead trees, clean up, and burn all the dead brush. So Scott bought a chain saw and became a lumber jack.

I know this might sound like I’m bragging, OK I am bragging. You could not believe what he could do with that little saw. Scott must have removed 30 trees that were over 60 feet tall with a little chain saw and a rope.
Cutting up the downed trees

I took care of carrying all the brush to the fire and keeping the fire burning and safe. That was a job I loved!

 

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We tried to get started early in spring before the leaves came on the trees because that made it easier to carry the brush.

Spring Tree Cutting

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After the trees were down and all the the clean up was done. Scott would start removing the stumps. He used everything you could think of to get them out of the ground ropes, jacks, our jeep, shovels, boards, axes or whatever worked. After a few foul words they always seemed to come out much easier.

This stump was a big victory. It took many foul word’s to get it out. Often after a difficult stump, a victory dance was performed on the defeated stump carcass.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Weekend after weekend, me and  My Great!! Stump Man went up to our lake lot and spent most of our time taking down dead trees.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

On the particularly difficult trees like this one where there is a danger of the tree falling on a house or other important things the stump dance is always preformed. I was lucky to catch this primitive ritual on film!

With all that dry dead wood it was easy to have great bonfires. I took so much pride! in them.

Morning Coffee By the bonfire

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Happy Hours by the bonfire

 

After many summer of tree cutting, brush burning, stump pulling, and grass planting and a few foul words.We have a beautiful front, side, and back yard.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

I would like to give this story and all its great!! memories to “My Great!! Stump Man”

 

 

We have more dead trees every year to cut down, and we plan many more summers at the lake with many more bonfires to enjoy.
“Live your Best Life”

Our Buildings were Dreams

Early on in the beginning years of our life together we both knew we were dreamers. Since Scott was a man of many talents maybe that is the wrong word to use, I should say he could teach himself almost anything he wanted to. We started out on the dreams like all couples do. To have a nice home since we could not afford or want one all fixed up, we bought a fixer upper. That was the beginning of many homes we fixed up. We also had so much fun doing them. We even got on the front page of our local newspaper for turning the impossible into the possible. It was also the year of the hot tub and Scott and I being the dreamers we are, had to have one of them in every house we fixed up.

When I say fixed up Scott did everything himself with me being his helper. I loved to decorate and I got to buy new stuff, for my new houses as our projects took shape.

Our Hot Tub room was built in the back of the garage in a cedar sun room with a handmade cedar spiral stairway going to a new master bedroom over the garage. The stairway took Scott 4 hour per step to build.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Since we started out, our house as a home, and a dream, the next dream was always to start again with new ideas and a new set of plan’s. We had learned so much with the first house that we wanted to try out everything we learned. When we sold our first little dream house we got our money back, and enough to start another dream.

Off we go in search of another house to fixed up. This one was a lot nicer to begin with than our first house. It was bigger but,very out dated. So the fun begins. Just what we wanted two year of very hard work and another dream. It turned out to be a beautiful house and it sold without every going on the market. “Another dream was over a new dream begins”
 

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This Hot Tub was on the deck and much bigger

“Another dream was over a new dream begins”

We bought a lot overlooking our city and the new dream was much bigger. Now we wanted to build an earth shelter home. With the help of 2 men that like working on earth shelters the dream begins .This dream contained a bit of “the good the bad and the ugly” but in the end “WE DID IT”. We were the local tourist attraction. Every day you looked out the window to see someone sitting outside staring up at our House

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I could never begin to tell you on this post the work and creativity that when into this house I can only tell you that we sold it to one of the plant presidents of GE, who had moved to town. They called it their “penthouse” . We got back our money and enough to start another dream.

The Hot Tub Room was build on the Roof of the House and made of stone

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

We already had a lake lot. Up to this time the lake lot was about camping and water sports but a new dream started.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We got the itch to have a house on the lake even thought we were a little scared that would end our dreams at that lake. We did it anyway.

This was by far the hardest goal of all because Scott was going to do it all himself with 4 weeks vacation and me as his helper. We had to get it all closed in weather tight before going back to work . Some how “WE DID IT”. We also have to be thankful for Scott’s Mother and Father for coming out to help us on weekends. As well as a few skiing friend that Scott had. They did a lot of work in exchange for help on their project. “It’s nice to have friend and to share”

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Of course it had a Hot Tub on the corner of the Deck

To see the end of that story go to Spring in Minnesota 

We have had a few condos since our return from Europe. They were very nice. They were places to go home to after work but not dreams.

Looking back on life so far, for Scott and I, it is about the dreams. Even though we are always sad leaving an old dream, we are also excited about the start of a new dream.
Now life is going too fast. We have been sitting a little bit too long , “GOT TO GET GOING” and “START ANOTHER DREAM.”


"We Made a Difference One Home at a Time"

A taste of Hiking.

As Scott is closing in on finishing up on our Colorado adventures my mind wandered back to how we got the taste for hiking in first place. In the early years of our marriage we had a lake lot where we spent all of our off work time, camping and having fun with our boat, and friends.

Maybe Scott will do adventure on that some time since it took up a very large portion of our life and we have great memories from it. He also is the adventure writer in the family. Now to get to the part of the story I want to share. We spend most of our money and time on our lake lot. That did not leave much money or time left for any trips.

Scott's, mother and father have always had a motor home of some kind over they years, and we joined them once in a while for a few day on what ever camping trip they were taking. When they were getting ready for their retirement they had their hearts set on Arizona for the winter weather. They were going to become Snowbirds.

I am not sure if it was their first year or their second year out in Arizona they invited us out for a week or two. That was a big adventure for us as we had an inexpensive place to stay, and food. As well it was quality time with Scott's parents, not to mention getting out of Minnesota winters for a great break. All we had to come up with was the money for our plane fares.

At that time they stayed in a place  called Desert's Edge. It was a small camp ground where Scott's parents parked their motor home for Snowbirds. Just outside the gate of the campground was a small mountain. Even thought at the time it looked big to us we set out to challenge it.

We were hooked. The next day we asked Scott's mother to go with us again, and as you can see we celebrated with our wine.

From Desert Edge

While we were there they always took us on a trip someplace to see something new. We could not wait for they next year to come.

After a couple of years Scott's parents moved to a bigger and nicer Campground with lots of pools.

From  Sunflower Resort and Pool Arizona.

A few years after that they bought a park model and put on an Arizona room.

From  Sunflower Resort and Pool Arizona.

This was great for us because we then had our very own room at night to sleep in. I even had room to leave a few things there so I did not have to carry as much back next year. Which I caught a little hell for when Scott's mother found them.

Almost every year for the last ten year we have shared this time with Scott's family and always looked for bigger more interesting mountains to climb. This lead us into our many hikes in Europe and Colorado. You can read about them in "Our Adventures".

I know many children talk about, and thank their parents for putting them through college, but we could never have learned in any collage what we learned on those hikes. I hope we can enjoy many more years of hiking new place's, and time with them.

Thank You Enie and Neil you have "IT"

"Spend Your Life Wisely"

Drowning the Shamrock

With St Patrick day just around the corner memories come to mind. Growing up in Ireland St Patrick's day in our house was a day of going to church with our shamrocks pinned to our shirts. Lead by my mother to the front row in church to pray and thank St Patrick for running all the snakes out of Ireland. At least that's what I was told. Maybe it was just another Santa story? If you have read any of my Irish stories you will know what I mean. Then there was the drowning of the shamrocks afterward. I did not know how the shamrock got drowned then, because that was for grown ups.

After coming to America I was living in a small town. I also was the town only bar, "bartender" and with a nick name of “Irish”  Being the only real "Irish lass" in the town, along with all of my "Wish we were Irish friends"I started out to prove to them I knew how to drown the shamrock.

From St Patrick's day

First I got myself a green dress with a few shamrocks on it. Then my bra and underwear were made out of green material like a shamrock. Along with a green wig, green shoes, and of course that famous Irish button that says "KISS ME I AM IRISH"
I’m all ready to drown the shamrock!

From St Patrick's day

The first St Patrick day drowning the shamrock was a lot of fun. I had the whole day off work and we started bar hopping around noon. Meeting more wannabe Irish people at night that had to work that day our party grew. We were all excited about the next St Patrick's day before this one was even over.
We did this year after year with me adding more shamrocks and doing a better job at drowning the shamrock every year. Even the bars we went to waited for us to come in on St Patrick's day.

o

From St Patrick's day

I started dating Scott around that time. One little drawback there was that he was not into this whole green thing at all. Even though he was part Irish he did not have to advertise it. I on the other hand had a lot of friends to live up to, with this drowning the shamrock thing. Scott was a good sport and let me go with my friends. Off we went on our annual St Patrick’s day to drown the Shamrock. From bar to bar we were all welcomed and I could tell I was doing a better job of drowning the shamrock this year because around 3oclock in the afternoon I was asking everyone in the bar if they wanted to see  "My shamrock"
All I remember about that evening is that my Irish wannabe friends carried me home long before dark leaving me to drown my head in the toilet and having to answer to my new husband. At that moment I would have rather meet my mother with the broom. That was the end of my green outfit also the end of an Irish girl and her "I wish we were Irish Friends" trying to drown the shamrock.
Over thirty years has passed since that bunch of friends set out to drown the shamrock. I don’t see those friends anymore and my green outfit is long since gone. Did we drown the shamrock or not? You decide.
"To your Best Life"

Drowning the Shamrock

The custom of imbibing alcohol on St. Patrick's Day comes from an old Irish legend. As the story goes, St. Patrick was served a measure of whiskey that was considerably less than full. St. Patrick took this as an opportunity to teach a lesson of generosity to the innkeeper. He told the innkeeper that in his cellar resided a monstrous devil who fed on the dishonesty of the innkeeper. In order to banish the devil, the man must change his ways. When St. Patrick returned to the hostelry some time later, he found the owner generously filling the patrons' glasses to overflowing. He returned to the cellar with the innkeeper and found the devil emaciated from the landlord's generosity, and promptly banished the demon, proclaiming thereafter everyone should have a drop of the "hard stuff" on his feast day. This custom is known as Pota Phadraig or Patrick's Pot. The custom is known as "drowning the shamrock" because it is customary to float a leaf of the plant in the whiskey before downing the shot.

A Hikers Wish!

Hiking up the side of a mountain or a cliff gives you lots of time to think. That can bring out some of our wishes and dreams from the back of our minds that we have had for years. It might come from just struggling to breath or at time just hoping you will live and wondering what the %$#%$ &^%& I am doing this for anyway. But you just gotta do it. Something is driving you.

One of the many time that I've done the annual yearly climb of of Squaw Peak while visiting Scott's family in Arizona I started thinking.......

Since I had left Ireland at a very young age I had never did much with my family and that was what I missed the most in life. I did have a sister in American though (more on that story at a later date) but we did not see each other very often. We were both busy living our lives. My sister was busy with her family, business, and friends She also had many sports, but at that time hiking was not one of them. While I was trying to take a breath a thought came to mind, I wish I could climb this with my sister.

A few years later I got a phone call from my sister saying she had bought a winter home in Arizona.

At that moment I could see the beginnings of a dream coming true. Next year she invited me to stay at her beautiful home and we did my dream hike together. We even made a yearly hike together whenever we were in Arizona at the same time.

From Angie-Jeff-home-Arizona-2008

From Angie-Jeff-home-Arizona-2008

From Angie-Jeff-home-Arizona-2008

Since then my sister is a dedicated Arizona hiker. Thank you Sister Angela for a dream come true and sharing your beautiful home, and time out of your busy life. For these memories I will always treasure.

Pictures of Life

Picture where did they all come from year after year, camera after camera, moments that we cannot part with.

I tried lately in my downsizing adventure to give some cute little albums full of pictures, to family and friends of moments we shared together only to get them back at the next get together saying thank you I just have no place to store them.

Now my first thought was: I am going to through them out but, as I got closer to the recycling bin my heart said no these are part of a life. It sorta felt like murder. Well at least to me.

My next thought was: I will go through them and get rid of they ones that had very little meaning but every time I tried to recycle one a memories came back. I give up!

Scott has just bought us a new wireless printer/scanner and I will have to take on the job of scanning all those baby picture of him his mother gave me.
I got to admit he was a cute baby."What happened to you Scott!" Just kidding.

Then there was all those Granny and Grandpa pictures, aunts, and uncle and even all their dogs, cats, all those boyfriend I had, well they were all a part of who we are in life. From one picture to another they will have to be scanned in all 15 albums.

Now that the job is done many weekend later, I've got a special joy out of renewing the memories. I just did not spend enough time enjoying them then I was doing them. "Enjoy the Moments". Going forward I wish for a lot more pictures of special memories. Since we plan to live and travel in our motor coach we should have lots of them. Its nice to know we will not have to scan them as the only cameras we have are digital now.