My Old Cottage

First, I want to thank those of you who left comments yesterday with condolances. I appreciate the sentiment and the time it took you to write. I was not very close to this family member, but I everyone is shocked by what happened and my heart is broken for her immediate family. This person died in another country so we're all waiting to hear about plans for arrangements back here in the states. I'll be gone for a few days to attend the funeral in NY once we know when.

Ok, on to happier things ... I'm busy organizing shelving in my basement for toys and pictures.
I came across these pictures while I was going through the albums and stacks of photos ... I apologize for the quality. I was too lazy to scan them so I just took pictures of the pictures. This is the house I lived in before Mr. T and I got married. I loved that little 840sf house and I will always miss it. It was tiny and cozy, but it was so perfect for me. We moved to be closer to work and because we knew that it would be tough living there with a family.

This is what it looked like when I bought it ...

Kinda scary. It was a foreclosure and lemme just tell you the inside was worse than the outside. Nasty carpets (I gag just thinking of the tear-out), ugly wallpaper, and one room had some interesting marijuana leaf graffiti all over the walls (that took 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint to cover). But, I saw through the ugliness and realized that what was needed was mostly cosmetic. The kitchen and bathroom were fairly new and there were original hardwoods under the filthy carpet. I painted every room (have no good pictures unfortunately) and over time Mr. T and I painted the outside. I also added a ton of plants where before there was nothing but rocks and dirt. Ahhh, memories!

I didn't have time to scan the pictures because its been a little chaotic here today. Here is our front door ...


It might be hard to see, but up until yesterday, we had a glass storm door covering the front door. Yesterday, when Mr. T got release from jury duty, he came home to mow the lawn. When he was doing the edging, something flew up and hit the door. The door broke like a windshield - just a hole, but the entire door was shattered. Mr T started knocking out the broken glass (I didn't get a chance to take a picture, but there was glass everywhere) but I stopped him because it was very loud and the girls were napping. Here's what's left of the glass ...




Today, I made a mommy mistake and forgot to check the safety latch on the front door. The Wild One knows how to open the front door which isn't an issue normally because they like to look out. We got the safety because they were constantly slamming the door. Anyway, when I went up to put Happy Girl down for a nap, the Wild One must have opened the door and not realizing there was no glass there, fallen out onto the steps. The glass is not very sharp, but it is jagged and she got scratched up pretty good. She's fine with a couple of Dora band-aids, but she was traumatized and seems to think she broke the door even though I tried to convince her otherwise. She finally calmed down enough to fall asleep. Ugh, such is the life of a mommy!