Good 'Ole Cherry Street/Riverside Drive

I don't know quite what has gotten into me lately, but I have recently become very nostalgic for my small hometown.  Perhaps it is the fact that I am missing so many friends' weddings, showers, the upcoming birth of my sister's third son, or just being at the lake in the summer, but I really have started missing good 'ole Arkadelphia!  Now that summer is nearing up here in Minnesota and school will be out soon (I think!) I am starting to see lots of kiddos riding their bikes, walking their dogs, etc. and it really has me thinking about my growing up on Cherry St/Riverside Drive.

I am very convinced that I grew up in the best neighborhood in the entire world--quiet street overlooking the river with lots of older kids to look up to, kids my age to play with and neighbors who welcomed us into their homes with open arms and often cookies and put up with all of our shenanigans!  We rode our bikes, jumped on the trampoline, played basketball and even got to ride in or drive our neighbor's go-cart.  I played basketball with our mailman who always called me "too-tall," and played football in our neighbor's yard with all the older boys.  We always stopped to talk to all of our neighbors when they were outside and I even got to stop by a neighbor's workshop where he would always tune up my bike and invite us in for cookies.  When I got older I always hitched a ride with my neighbors, which was always an adventure and then returned the favor once I was old enough to drive. For many of my "growing up years" I lived 1 block from my great aunt Mae and from my great Aunt Mary and literally across the street and 2 houses down from my Aunt Pet who was something like my great-great aunt.  I am sure that all of these are really unique experiences that not many people have, but it certainly made for the perfect place to grow up.

Perhaps it is that we don't have kids, but although I love our neighborhood here in Minneapolis, I don't feel quite the sense of community as I did back "home."  I often don't see any of our neighbors!  Everyone is very nice, but they all just seem more private.  Don't get me wrong, we live in a fabulous location with Minnehaha creek just behind our house, 4 tennis courts 1/2 block a way, 2 blocks from Lake Harriet, a beautiful lake with lots of walking and bike paths, and on a really quiet street--we love our neighborhood, but I just don't have the same feeling.  There is probably a component of small town vs. large city, mid-west v. south--who knows!  I just miss my old neighbors!

While my hometown was certainly the greatest place to grow up, it sounds like there are some struggles right now with how to keep it growing, or rather, keep it from declining.  I certainly hope that Arkadelphia moves in the right direction.  Anyone would be lucky to grow up in a neighborhood like the one I did!

Thanks for reading!

House Reno updates

Wow, it has been a long time since I have updated anything on our blog here.   Part of it is that we haven't made a whole lot of tangible progress on renovations.  I hope though that we will have the guest bedroom done soon.  We have a tiny bit of painting left, have to sand and paint the baseboards and then put polyurethane on the floor, but the staining is done, and after 2 coats, I have to say it looks pretty good.  I will be eager to share with y'all.

Bathroom renovation is still on a halt.  We found a guy to do the tile, we just need to bite the bullet and get the courage to pay for it. Haha!

Thanks to my mom's help, we finally ridded our living room of boxes! Below though is what it looks like now:

We have been working with a "design-build" company to come up with a design for our home that would redo our kitchen, family room, add a mudroom (a necessity in Minnesota!), and expand our bedroom upstairs, add a bath and a walk-in closet.  Obviously, we can't do these projects ourselves!  So, now our living room (since we have no furniture) has turned into a design spot.  We have all the plans spread out, measuring tape to mark out the new spaces, and paint samples for the living room.  Marc keeps telling me I need to stick to one project at a time, but I am just eager to get settled into our home!

Hopefully, I will have more updates soon!