For over 20 years we have been having a nice little party. Started the first year we were married, and none of our friends were. All of us right out of school and no money to go out to the big scene. We used our silver wedding dishes and leftover napkins from the reception. Had a really fun time. Then in our first house we would have the babies asleep, and people could bring their kids and playpens. Low key fun with friends. Onto the house we raised our kids in. Everyone could bring their kids to the party, so no one had to pay for a babysitter. Somehow the kids all played together famously, and managed to stay up past midnight and be a delight. Everyone brought an appetizer to share, so it was a casual party and not much work since the house was already deep cleaned from the holidays. This is the first year in our new (empty nest) house. Our kids are in college, and they are still coming to the party, except now they are all old enough to take part fully. When we told our friends we were moving, usually the first thing they wanted to know was if we still planned to have our new years eve party. It has become a really nice tradition. I think that us and all of our friends like to get together, not spend any money, and not shout over a loud bar scene. It is really a nice time. Just wanted to put this out there in case anyone else might want to start a nice little tradition like this too.

Help I have the same problem but it's EVERY weekend and it's MY house and MY bed. at first it was just saturday night but now his ex has taken to last minute asking my fiance to take his 8 year old daughter on friday night's. the first night she asked to sleep with us he got mad, he was still enjoying our cuddle time. i felt bad cause our relationship was so new i told him she was scared and it was ok. WHAT A MISTAKE! it hasn't stopped since, 3 months. he doesn't even try to put her in her own bed. if i do stay in the bed i usually end up on the couch. the other night i went to sleep in her bed but could not fall asleep. i thought screw this, that is my bed. they were both asleep but i pushed myself in next to him. i don't know what to make of it. i can't think she's afraid. it's a small house her room is literally 10 feet down the hall. we leave a light on in her room, the bathroom light on and both bedroom doors wide open. i've talked to him about this twice and my plan was to just go sleep somewhere else but now i'm thinking he can sleep with her in the little twin bed or if he can't be man enough to stand up to her and lets her come to our bed he can sleep in the middle so i can still be close to him. she does this whenever we are together. if we are sitting on the couch she insists on sitting between us. when we took her to the movies she let us know well in advance she was sitting in the middle. i hate to sound like a spoiled child. i just don't know what i am doing. i never dated a man with an ex wife let alone children so all this is new to me. he doesn't have these things to deal with as my children are grown. i think it is even harder for me because when my son was the same age i had moved in with a man and he was still dealing with his father's and my divorce. he would come to our bed almost every night. my boyfriend at the time would get very angry. i worked really hard to get my son to sleep in his bed through the night even as it broke my heart.of course i wanted to comfort him and make him feel safe. i feel like i am in a terrible position

I have had this for about five of its twelve years. I have raised the caudex slightly. Gave it a slight hair cut when I got it. Blooms every spring for a month. I still prune for more branching on the back side. I usually water once a week with 1/2 dose Pro-tek & KLN. Rick just suggested to water twice a week this time with just water. It has been so hot. The plants are under 85% shade awning. All 20 of my plants love it. I am not an expert. As Dain pointed out two I pruned are ugly. I hope they fill in. I use a adaptation of Als Gritty mix. I could not find all products listed. I use Happy Cat zeolight kitty mix, small Grow stone, pine fines, small clay beads. Had to add a little potting soil to keep it more moist. We were 18% humidity today. I have a love hate relation. With heavy fabric pots. Great in summer when they can quickly free drain. But winter in Ca I use no heat or lights. Water every couple weeks to month with drain pans. The fabric pots tell me the roots and caudex are growing by the way the sides bulge. I don't touch the roots for a few years. Like narly roots.

Hi, all! My own garden is winding down, as I'll be moving the old roses to the cemetery when places for them become available. My landlord had to have work done in the front "yards" of my house and next door -- we're on the same lot, both owned by him -- and that meant ripping everything out from there. Roses went to the cemetery in Autumn, and I've been waiting for him to replace the sidewalk before putting things back together there, but then all the COVID-19 stuff happened, so it's just sitting there looking barren. The back needs attention and simplification, because spending so much time and energy on three gardens is wearing me down. Again, because of the COVID-19 stuff going on, I haven't been able to get it mulched, and it's not "picture-worthy" at the moment. Eventually, as the last of the roses move to the cemetery, I'll be making it a simpler garden, probably filling the gaps left by the roses with edible things. Since I'd like to move in the next couple of years, I want to leave nothing behind that I can't easily replace, and also leave it simpler for the landlord to maintain. The cemetery is moving along slowly now, being as I changed jobs and don't have overlapping time there with Mark, who would drop wood chips for me to spread in the garden areas. When I was starting this, I had off on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we were better able to coordinate things. But this will be changing, since Ellie has asked if I'd be interested in working there part-time, and leaving my one-day-a-week restaurant job. This would mean that I'd be listed on the cemetery's employee insurance, and that would allow me to use some of the equipment to get things done when I'm there on the weekends, while Mark is off. Once the paperwork and finances are finalized -- again, delayed because of COVID-19 concerns -- I'll be able to do things like use the Kubota cart to move mulch myself, or use the pick-up truck for moving other things. Over Winter, I ordered many, many packets of seed for date-appropriate perennials and self-seeding annuals, but, again, COVID-19 has delayed me getting that started. It's not for lack of time -- it's more because I'm leery of venturing into stores, but I found someplace nearby that carries the seed-starting mix I want, and allows for requesting and paying for it over the phone and drop-off at my car in the parking lot. I will be doing that tomorrow. In the meantime, bulbs planted last Autumn have been blooming in the beds I made in 2018 -- if you're on Facebook, I posted pictures in the album for the cemetery, and took some videos which seem to all go into the same "videos" album regardless of subject. I haven't uploaded them to the cemetery thread on the "other forum" -- maybe I should get that done this week. Last year I started working at a public park, taking care of the rose garden there. That's my "work garden" -- 1 acre fenced, in a formal layout, with HTs, Floribundas, and Grandifloras in central beds, and various species, OGRs, and shrubs in the outer beds. One of my tasks at the end of 2019 was updating and reorganizing the garden's inventory, which is linked as a PDF on the rose garden page. I also put everything onto the HelpMeFind listing for the garden as well. If you look carefully, there are a handful of discrepancies -- the PDF file contains everything actually there, whereas the HelpMeFind listing reflects a few things that will be replaced, and a few new things that were ordered for this year. Since the latter is easier to update, I use that as a reference for the annual update of the PDF on the park page. Working at the park has been a joy, even if also a bit exhausting. There are about 3,000 roses in there, and because my position wasn't filled for a couple of years, some big old species, OGRs, and shrubs in "the back forty" were in need of some work. They looked fine from the public's perspective along the paths, but when I'd get up close and personal with them, I saw things I wanted to clean up. My boss is amazing, and she had my job before me, but after being promoted to supervisor, she simply wasn't able to be in there as much as before. She did a great job of keeping it beautiful, but one has to prioritize when one isn't able to spend eight hours a day in there because there's so much else that needs to be done as supervisor for the team. And so now that there's one person dedicated to the garden again, those lower-on-the-list things have been getting checked off, bit by bit. I'm actually rather proud of several areas in there which I've attacked, but unfortunately COVID-19 has come into play again -- the park was closed to the public as of last weekend, and the annual Rose Day Festival for June was cancelled, along with all other programs. On the one hand, this means that I have more time to focus on the picky stuff that might otherwise be lower on the list because I have to do things like keeping the paths clear after a storm, planting and tending to the annuals that won't be coming now because the park commission lost revenue from the closed golf courses and cancelled programs, or other considerations I'd have when I know people will be walking through the garden every day. But on the other hand, it means that what I get done won't get seen by the public for the big first flush, since it's possible the garden will stay closed until well after that. Right now at my "work garden", the first of the early roses have buds that will probably start opening when I return on Monday -- things like the Spinosissimas and 'Canary Bird'. All the bedding roses have been pruned, thanks to the rest of my team and our one dedicated volunteer helping me out. I, of course, still want to be my fussy self and touch things up as I have time, but in terms of being "ready", the garden is there. Since I finally updated my cell phone, I'm once again able to take pictures regularly -- and they're much better quality now. I'll make another album of my "work garden" on Facebook and post them there. Posting pictures here has still been a bit of a headache for me. Sorry to hijack the thread with this post, but I just wanted to answer what was asked about me. :-) ~Christopher