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Family Room...Very Incomplete

Here is my family room. It is, perhaps, the most undone of all the rooms in my house. It's a work in progress, but the progress seems to be going slowly. I'll include what I want to have happen as well as what's there.

First, though, this is a picture I forgot to include with my kitchen. It's just above the bar / fridge looking up to the 2nd floor landing. I LOVE my clock. I found it in a great store for about $20. What a steal!


Our family room is at the back of the house, just off of the kitchen / dining room.


It's very bland and boring, but we are slowly working on it. Couch, chair, table. Isaac's "office" behind the couch. We are working on the back wall as our photo wall. I bought a big mirror that will go in the middle and then we'll have all of our family photos around it (as soon as I stick more in frames!). As you can see it's a little anemic right now!


From the photo wall looking into the kitchen. The door just to the left of the door to the kitchen goes into the downstairs bathroom. It's completely unpainted (a project for sometime this summer) and we'll replace the fixtures as we did in the upstairs bathroom. The ugly gold light fixture will also be replaced sometime in the next week or two.


Nothing highlights how bare my walls are in my family room as taking pictures of them!


This last picture is the family room closet (food storage, blankets, games, etc). It is also the current home of the replacement light fixtures for my dining room & family room. The big box is for the dining room.


This post has taught me: a) There is not a good way to photograph my family room, b) the walls in my family room need serious help! and c) I just don't love this room as much as the first two. Sad.

P.S. I Love You

We watched P.S. I Love You Saturday night. I went into it with pretty low expectations, but we both ended up really loving it. It was 2+ hours and sad, but we still really liked it. Although, that makes back to back movies about losing a spouse that we've watched. Maybe we should pop in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday tonight and make it a trifecta! Heaven forbid our movie choices are a sign of things...(shudder!).

I was married previously to a film critic (film snob) which made it difficult to like most mainstream movies. He had, um, very strong opinions on what was good and what should be abolished from the land. Sometimes I still feel weird watching a movie like P.S. and loving it because I still hear his opinions in my head. Not overly so, but with film being a big part of our marriage, that's an area that's still hard to ignore. A lot of good came out of his love, though. It deepened my appreciation for old movies (my love of Myrna Loy and William Powell movies especially). I can appreciate things I never thought I would. However, I also got frustrated when I wanted a mindless flick and had to deal with mocking tones. Just one of the many things I'm grateful for now. A hubby who loves mindless flicks as much as I do and has no discerning opinion about films...(ok, mostly kidding! Although Isaac is pretty easy when it comes to watching movies!).

I think ex has been on my mind lately due to the move. While moving back here has mostly been great, he is one area that is taking its time washing over me and playing with my mind. While it's true that I met Isaac here and this is where we had our first home, it's also where I met, married and lived with my ex-husband for three years prior to meeting Isaac. So moving back means dealing with memories I had neatly tucked away for the last decade.

It was almost exactly 14 years ago that I met him, though it seems almost another life time. When I think hard, I can see those early days clearly. Sitting up on campus talking about movies and music and t.v. Eating homemade crepes. La Patisserie. Beautiful summer nights.

We were engaged in August, maybe September that year. Married in November (yeah, I was one of those people...). The week leading up to the wedding was beautiful and warm. There was a freak blizzard the day of. Maybe I should have taken THAT as a sign! It was a crazy three years and I still remember the day in April he came home and told me he wanted out; couldn't be married anymore. I don't think I'll ever forget that night. The feeling of not being able to breathe and the darkness crushing around me.

Now, I turn a corner and I see our first apartment. I see our friends' old house next door, minus some trees. I remember summer nights on their porch, talking and laughing, back when we were all unaware of what was to happen, before kids and divorce and death separated us all. I pass by the theater where I escaped an argument by watching Sabrina by myself. He was waiting for me after it was over, to talk. We walked home in the snow together. I sit in the Tabernacle and remember that the last time I was there was the day before we really decided to get married. I remember that afternoon, listening to music and watching the breeze blow the curtains softly. I see our second house and resist the urge to knock and see who lives there now. See if they have somehow managed to outlive the curse. It seems any who live there break up. I want to warn them.

I live in a town rich in my history. It's funny to come back and relive them, slowly and one by one. I can't imagine that many more are waiting. Everyday different memories are made here and the old ones fade a tiny bit more. Soon I won't remember them at all and even movie opinions of old will be silenced. It's good to remember and change and grow and understand yourself. It's also good to face your past and move on. Happy. Content. Ok with where you have been and what's on your horizon.