Highs and Lows: Dirty Toilet Edition (aren't you curious NOW!)

It's Sunday: time for Highs and Lows, one of my favorite posts of the week.  And if I may...do you have a blog?  You should join this party!  Every Sunday, you write about the highs and lows of your week.  Then you link up to Life, Crafts, and Whatever.  I've had fun with this...and I've made some new bloggy friends too!  It's not one of those mega-link parties where you're one of hundreds (which I also love, not knocking them)...it's small, manageable, and more personal.  I've totally enjoyed it so far, and it would be nice to see some new "faces" there!

So here are the highs of my week:

1. I got something in the mail yesterday...

Giddiness abounds! I haven't even opened it yet. That'll be today. 

OK apparently my spell checker says that "that'll" is not a word.

2. The ugly $5 dresser...

...was my project for the week, and oh my goodness, you should see it NOW!  I just have to do the mirror, and it'll (that's a word) be done.  Stay tuned.  :)

3. I found out that my kids' former preschool teacher, whose preschool had to close due to all kinds of upsetting circumstances (pre-k program at the public school, and a pre-school board that wouldn't even let her advertise or do fundraisers, to name the big ones)...well I found out that she got a job as the preschool teacher at the daycare that my kids went to when they were little. 

This just does my heart good!  Because she could have retired.  She has been teaching preschool for over 30 years.  But she loves what she does so much, that she went out and found another job...amazing. 

AND, the daycare she will be working at...I recommend it to everyone I meet.  Sending my kids to daycare when they were 1 and 3 was heart-wrenching for me.  But the two women who run it, and all of their workers...they just seemed to genuinely love my kids.  It seemed like they were truly happy to see them in the mornings.  And that was confirmed for me when about 2 years later, when I went back to staying at home. They (the owners) actually cried when I told them that our kids would be leaving daycare.  This place is the real deal.  These people are special. 

And wait until you hear this.  If you haven't been with me for long, and you didn't read my post about the preschool teacher gifts, read it now.  And then come back.  Can you even guess the name of the daycare?  Little Starfish Daycare. 

I tear up every time I think about it!  God is so good. 

LOWS for the week:

1. This can be both a high and a low: we are getting our windows replaced.  We're both SO EXCITED, because our windows are original to our 84-year-old house.  84 years old.  Can you imagine what they are like? 

That's a "new" screen. 

ewwww.

that's one of the original screens.  You can see that it's really doing a good job...and so attractive!

EEEEEK!  Yeah.  That's our kitchen window.  It gets a little chilly in the winter.

Oh, and have I mentioned that most of the downstairs windows won't open?  They're painted shut.  Which makes the house in the summer feel like a greenhouse.  Seriously, it's unbearable.  And the ones upstairs?  They ice up ON THE INSIDE in the winter.  Our western PA winters get cold...you don't even want to know what a heating bill is like in the dead of winter for us, and we don't even keep the thermostat up very high.  I won't even show you how they look from the outside, frankly, because I don't want to give you nightmares.  (That, and I'm too lazy to go outside and take a pic.) But trust me, the word "decrepit" comes to mind. 

So we got a few window people to come in.  The best quote we have so far just makes my heart sink.  But it's a necessary evil, I guess.  And no, we're not going to do the installation ourselves to save money.  Yeah, we're DIY'ers, but we know our limits.  I nearly burst out into uncontrollable laughter when one (Uncle Rico-like) salesman looked at our windows and then actually asked us "why are we interested in replacing our windows?" 

So I'm dancing the dance of joy because we'll have new windows before winter, but I'm also kind of ill, thinking about the cash we're dropping on them.  But then again, if we can significantly reduce those heating bills...it's a good investment. 

I'd like to say that the window thing was my only low this week, but that would be a lie.  

There was quite a big low for me.  But I'm not one of those bloggers who can share her deep dark secrets with the online world.  I just can't!  Or maybe it would be different if I knew that my blog was being read ONLY by people I've never met before.  But it's not.  I'm amazed at how many "real-life" people I know read this thing. So I have to leave it at that, that's about as personal as I can get.  :(

Rambling ahead: Read at your own risk!

I try really hard to be genuine on here.  I try not to "be" anyone else but myself.  If there's one thing I can't stand (as far as blogs go)...well I guess in real life, too...is someone who is super-cute, and KNOWS it, and tries to be even cuter.  It's like cute overkill.  Now I'm all about being cute, but...I'm not talking about that.  I'm talking about people who try too hard to make everything look perfect and all "together."  Life is not perfect, and no one has it all together.  Perfect pictures.  Perfect clothing.  Perfect husband.  Perfect children, family vacation, birthday parties, FINGERNAILS for pete's sake...

Do I sound bitter & grumpy?  I'm really not!  It's just that when I see someone like that in real life, I tend to stay away.  I'm not interested in fake-ness.  I'm not interested in appearances.  I don't have the TIME!  One of my friends, I thought was like that.  So perfect and together, but genuine.  I really liked her.  The first time I went to her (awesome) house, I used the bathroom.  And her toilet was dirty...like, hadn't been cleaned in at least 2 weeks, dirty!  From that moment on, I liked her even more.  She became a real person to me. (A note to those of you "real-life" friends reading: I PROMISE, IT WASN'T YOU.  I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, AND I KNOW YOU'RE FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW.  IT WASN'T YOU.)

Oooooohhhhhh dear.  Where was I going with that???  Oh yeah. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, this is me.  What you see here, that's me.  I don't try to pretend to have it all together, and I'm not trying to pretend that my biggest problem in life is that we "have to" spend money on new windows.  Ew.  I know how that sounds.  It's just that there are limits to what I will share, but it's not because I'm trying to make it sound like my life is just so darn perfect. 

Ugh!  I'm giving myself a headache trying to put this into words!  Oh never mind. You get it, right?