Years of Messes

It took me about 4 years to research and write my dissertation, so for roughly 4 years I have done little in the way of organizing. Even under the best of circumstances, I tend to make piles of stuff round the house, but this past year -- in which I was doing almost nothing but actively writing -- my piles became grand champion and frankly, overwhelming. They have taken over certain portions of the house. Since handing in my document, I've been trying to clear through them a little at a time. This task -- plus looking after Sammy, who is extremely high-maintenance -- takes most my time!
At the risk of embarrassing myself, I am going to share with you my EXTREME messes so you can see what I'm up against. Really, it looks as though we are moving.

The Living Room --


The Dining Room --

A long shot of both rooms together -- you can see my nice den rug is rolled up on the floor here to prevent Sammy from ruining it. There are baby gates on both ends of these rooms to keep dogs OUT!!! You can also see that I never have put away BB's camp trunk and other items, though I did unpack and do wash!



Like Mother, like Daughter: BB's messy table --



BB and I both contributed to this mess on the porch --


You can see that we have out work cut out for us. In the meantime, BB and the dogs have been enjoying our new gas log fireplace:




Happy Friday Everyone!!!

Turkey Lurkey Thursday: A Quiz

As we prepare for Thanksgiving, everyone may need a refresher on correctly identifying turkeys, so we at the Rose Jugglers have composed a simple quiz for your review.

Which one is the REAL Turkey???



(The beautiful wildlife photos were taken by my Mom in her backyard last summer!)

Sammy is NOT a good study buddy!

In fact, Sammy is positively a GOOF-OFF! I think he is trying to distract BB from her homework...

Now it looks like BB has totally abandoned her book -----




I think Sammy may be a bad influence!

Happy Halloween!

Look what a good job Baby Bean and Nana did decorating our front porch this afternoon! Check out the spooky jack-o-lanterns, too.

Baby Bean is treat-or-treating as a biker!


Love the jacket -- we found it in a thrift shop -- XS so it fits BB perfectly. We think she should wear it after Halloween.

You won't believe how big Sammy is getting -- will post pics next week. Everyone has been sick, mostly me. The dissertation defense was a success, but I was really swamped getting the final document in to the university -- phew! Glad it is over! Now I can get back to fun things like blogging! Happy Halloween!

Taking a Walk

We walk everyday, but today was special because Baby Bean was off from school for Columbus Day and could walk dogs with me. The walk is Alice's favorite time of day, and Sammy needs it to run off puppy naughtiness! Excitement builds as we start off:


Alice strains at her leash --let's go!


This is better!


Everyone loves the monkey grass:

Especially Sammy, who does dolphin dives in it:
It's important to check p-mail:


You never know where you might find an important message!


Sammy follows Alice's example:

Baby Bean greets her friend Miss Muffet at the end of our walk!

New Puppy: Meet Sammy

The Rose Jugglers are back! And we have a new Bean family member: Sammy the puppy! I promised Baby Bean that as soon as I was finished with my dissertation I would get her a puppy. So we went to our local SPCA and found Sammy. Sammy was a bit of a sad sack at the shelter; he came from the city pound and had been at the SPCA for three days. He was skinny and scared. But he seemed so happy to see Baby Bean and her best buddy C.B., so that is the dog they picked. Now that he is feeling much better, his naughty puppy tendencies are shining through!

Fast Facts about Sammy:
Birthday: June 24th
Favorite Food: every kind
Favorite Toy: the Kong
Favorite Treat/Chewy: Flavored Nylabones

Sammy is fitting in well -- Alice hated him at first, but she seems to like him pretty well now!

The dissertation is with my committee & I defend on October 19th -- It is almost over!

Me & Mrs. Montagu

Dear Blog Friends,
Some of you may know that I am working on a dissertation for a PhD in European history. I've been working on this degree for many years and I am nearly finished. My dissertation needs to be handed in in early October so that I can defend in time to graduate in December. The deadline on this is very strict, and if I don't finish this fall, it is quite possible I will not get the degree. Baby Bean is off at camp for the month of July (she is having a really good time) and I am spending most of my time working. I have decided that I must stay focused and greatly reduce my blogging until my paper is complete. I'm so close -- I must finish!

My friend Jocebean convinced me to blog last winter and it was a lifesaver. Scholarship is a lonely business, and between Baby Bean, household duties, and my work, I have had little time for a social life of any kind. Blogging has filled my need for social interaction & I have so enjoyed meeting so many interesting, fun, funny, and kind people (& animals!!) . I thank all of you for coming to our site and for your friendly comments! I'll be back after I spend some quality time with Mrs. Montagu, the subject of my dissertation.

The top portrait is Elizabeth Montagu in the costume of Anne Boleyn. Miniature portraits were done as keepsakes for wealthy individuals, kind of like modern photographs. EM was about 20 years old in this image, not yet married. (c. 1740)

The image at the very top of the post is a black and white photo of the of a painting of Elizabeth Montagu by Allan Ramsay, 1762.

These and other images of Elizabeth Montagu and other Bluestocking women of the 18th century were on display at the National Portrait Gallery (London) in 2008 at a special exhibit called "Brilliant Women." I was not able to attend, but have a copy of the lovely exhibition catalog. It is widely available, if anyone is interested. Just check Amazon.