Darling pretty

Round 10: Winter 2013


Alexander and Bobbie Greene are 62, Patsy Greene and Camryn Mitchell are 22. 
(Charlie, Dixie and Janie are 19, Tom is 20 and Brooke is 21.)

Narrated by Patsy Greene.

I was quite hesitant to move in with my parents after graduation because it seems that dad didn't quite approve my relationship to Camryn. He's always been very cold to her and has barely answered if she spoke to him. It all seemed to have changed when we had dinner together.

After the dinner he gave me a big hug and said that he's happy for me! You could have knocked me down with a feather!

It feels a bit strange to be back in my old bedroom. I never thought I'd move back home but it's great to live here with Camryn. My parents aren't getting any younger so it's nice to be able to help them with the household chores.

Uncle Patrick is retired so he usually comes over when dad doesn't have to go to work. You wouldn't think they're over 60 when you see them play! If you look beyond their wrinkles and greu hair they're just little boys inside. Dad keeps teasing Patrick by throwing the ball a bit too hard and Patrick yells "stop doing that" every time.

Mom invited the triplets and their significant others for dinner the other night. It's hard to believe that Janie is the only single. We always thought that Dixie was too shy to ever get a boyfriend but she's now living with Tom in a small house on campus. Charlie and Brooke have been dating forever, I think they got together before Camryn and I had even met each other.

Mom has really changed over the years. She used to be really ambitious but she's become more and more focused on family lately. She's just pestering us about grandchildren and she even said she's considered retirement!

Mom and dad also had sort of an announcement to make. They've bought a little mountain cabin in Heavens Peak. They suggested that Camryn and I would check it out since the triplets are busy with their studies. Mom can't take days off work right now because she's in the middle of the new town hall project.

The cabin is amazing. It's quite small but there are two tiny bedrooms upstairs and even a sauna downstairs. There's a small pond in the yard. There's no fish but it's suitable for swimming.

I think this vacation will do good for me and Camryn. I feel like we've been drifting apart lately. It started on our last year in university and now we've been busy starting our careers so we haven't really focused on our relationship. Our first breakfast at the cabin was quite awkward. Neither of us really knew what to say to each other so we just ate in complete silence.

We walked down to the village in the afternoon and ate local food and even tried the log rolling. I think it sort of broke the ice because we started talking. We both want to be together so that's a good place to start.

We spend the rest of our holiday at the cabin, just being with each other, cooking together and swimming in the pond. I feel like we're now closer to each other than ever.

On our last night we were having dinner when Camryn suddenly handed me a ring and asked if I wanted to make our relationship official. Of course I said yes!

I got up early next morning and got dressed but then I snuck back to the bedroom and just laid there while Camryn was still sleeping. I couldn't stop staring at the ring. Camryn had told me that she bought the ring during our senior year but then it never seemed like the right moment to propose so she just waited.

Our vacation was a total success. We felt so relaxed and revived that when we got back home and went to work we both got promoted within a few weeks!

We're planning to get married in the summer. We don't want a huge fancy party so we'll tie the knot in our backyard. We'll get some flowers and stuff in the spring so it'll look nicer. We'll only invite my brother and sisters and their partners so it's going to be just family. In the meantime life goes on as usual. We still enjoy a fierce game of chess every night.

Random pics:

Just a little bit of Charlie! He's grown up to be a very handsome young man. I love the lighting in this picture, it really brings out his amazing bone structure.

The pond at night. It's actually a swimming pool decorated with macarossi's waterfall and rocks from the Pond in July set. Unfortunately I couldn't use water lilies because I couldn't figure out a way to get them to the level of the water, they just floated on ground level and it looked really silly.

Love is in the air! I'm pretty sure I saw these two act all romantic back in the days when Ben and Denise went on a mountain vacation! So sweet :)

Notes:

• Title from "Darling pretty" by Mark Knopfler
• I didn't have time to play during the week, except to build the cabin. Alexander has had the want to buy a vacation home for the longest time and now they finally had enough money. I chose the mountain since both Patsy and Camryn had the want to go on a mountain vacation.
• Bobbie rolled the ROS for having a mid-life crisis so I switched her primary aspiration to Family and secondary to Knowledge. She now has the LTW to have 6 grandchildren.