Battle Lake, MN

CheriGENERAL, TRAVEL

We recently took a trip to Battle Lake, MN  to a friend’s cabin for an extended weekend of R and R. It was wonderful! I grew up with lakes in my life.  My grandparents had a summer home on a lake in Michigan, and I lived 20 minutes from the beaches of Lake Michigan Give … Read More

Wedding

CheriGENERAL, LIFESTYLE, WEDDINGS

Finally made a page of the twenty-eleven wedding — where our Wild One marries the the love of her life in a wedding and reception of her dreams! Check out the page:  Twenty-eleven wedding for a blast from the past!

Red Barn Farm

CheriGENERAL

One of my favorite pizza spots is on a farm. So when we wrote up our list of things to do and places to go for our staycation, The Red Barn Farm was included.   The Cincinnati kids had never been to a farm for pizza, so going was a request on their staycation to … Read More

Staycation Favorite

CheriGENERAL

Day two of our staycation included a two hour tour on the Rochester Pedal Pub! Using a group deal, we got our tour for 1/2 price… then invited a bunch of friends to join us. We all chipped in a few bucks per person, several people brought some snacks, everyone tossed  some beverages in the … Read More

Staycation Part I

CheriGENERAL

We did a staycation this summer … at TheCottage reason #1:  Our Cincinnati kids wanted to come “home” reason #2:  We live in a cottage … with a pool … in a cool town …  reason #3:  Two kids had summer (Master’s) classes that they couldn’t miss. reason #4:  Why not? The goal was to … Read More

Kitchen Reveal

CheriGENERAL

It’s done! The final step of the kitchen remodel was completed yesterday when Kirk hung the open shelves. We started our remodel journey in January and it has been a long process — but it was so worth it! I am over the moon excited about how it all turned out.  Kirk kinda likes it … Read More

Holiday

CheriGENERAL

Nothing like a long holiday weekend to kick back and relax.    After a long spring of working hard on TheCottage remodel, we had a little fun for a few days! Kirk had the week off and worked on several projects at TheCottage over the week — great vacation huh? Before the weekend even started, … Read More

and now … for something completely different*

CheriGENERAL

Last Wednesday we spent a few hours at University Center Rochester (UCR). It was graduation day for our Baby Girl! She received her Masters of Science Degree in Education. First order of the event:  attend her Action Resource Colloquium (Baby Girls presentation was the best presentation in her group — no kidding) (Colloquium: a usually academic meeting … Read More

Change is happening!

CheriGENERAL

Things have been (and are) humming here at TheCottage the past couple weeks! The wood floor was installed last week! It looks every single bit as awesome as I was hoping it would! Floor in.  Stairs are next on project list. We’ve been working on the stairs — three different flights of stairs!  Have I … Read More

Father’s Day Fun(?)

CheriGENERAL

Some serious, heavy duty, physical, labor took place at The Cottage this weekend. Friday was flooring delivery day and we had to get several sheets of particle board ripped up before delivery.  We opted to DIY the floor demo to save us a chunk of change.  With the linoleum backing paper covering the particle board … Read More