Airing My Dirty Laundry

Last night I actually escaped from my house without ANY children. This was a miracle among miracles, I can assure you! But I did leave a couple of almost teary eyed children behind. Not quite upset, just a little whinny. I told my older boys, Trace and Ross, not to cry I would be home soon and they could handle the younger children for about an hour.

It was amazing what I could notice around me without the sounds of Shrek (our current feature film in the van) coming from the back. As I pulled away from my house I looked over at my neighbor's house. It was somewhat dark outside and I could see through the windows of the 2 story entry way of their house.

"How lovely," I thought. "They have a nice display of family photos at the top of their stairs." I drove off and ran my errand and then came home.

As I pulled up to my house there were many lights on in my house and I got a really good glimpse inside. Whoa baby! I'm currently having engraved letters of apology printed up for my neighbors.

I did try to take some photos last night but they didn't turn out very well so I had to take them today. But trust me-- it was bad.

This is the front of my beautiful house. Notice the LARGE window over my front door. Also notice the bay window behind the trees to the left.

And THIS is what you see through that window, I KID YOU NOT! Yes, I keep this door open most of the time.

This is looking through my front door and up-- notice the door and the small wall section upstairs. This is the direct view that you see looking through that window at night with the lights on, which they are most nights.

One thing in my favor last night was that I had actually folded most of the laundry!!! Instead of my usual 4 or so loads outside my laundry room door in plain sight to all passersby I only had these 2 baskets. So while they didn't have that lovely view last night, they do get to see it most other nights.

My laundry room door is currently shut. But the baskets are still there.

Rome wasn't built in a day you know!

But that wasn't the only sight I saw. This also greeted me:

Of course, this is from inside the house but it looks just as bad outside. This is my dining room bay window which is on the left side of the front door and everyone driving by can see in through the messed up blinds. Not so bad, you say?

Here's a closer look. The slats of these blinds are not connected in any way to the blinds. They merely fit between strings. Ryan and Emma like to look out these windows, as does the dog. You do the math.

What's with the door there? It's my kitchen cabinet door that broke off about a month ago (don't ask) waiting to be fixed. Its on my list of things to do. Far down the list.


Here's another photo of the front of my house without leaves on the trees and bushes. Did you notice the window over the garage? That would be my bathroom window. Its a nice concept, a large window in the bathroom over the large tub. But I have to literally climb in the tub to open and close the blinds. Consequently, they are usually shut. However, occasionally I do open them.

But there's a chance we have made up for it all with another view through our windows.

When I first moved here I got invited to a women's night out in my cul-de-sac,. They were all going to see the new Sex In The City movie. These women are so fun to be with so it took me about 5 minutes to start being the real me with them. If you have seen the movie then I KNOW you remember the scene where Samantha's sexy new neighbor takes a shower in full view of her window. I'm not sure what possessed me, I mean I had JUST met these women, but I leaned over (I was at the end of the row) and said "I know I'm your new neighbor but I hope you don't expect anything like that in my windows."

Then about a month ago Ross had a grueling workout at football and was incredibly sore. I suggested that he take a bath in my jetted tub. He wasn't up there long before he came back down wrapped in a towel. I suddenly remembered that the bathroom blinds were open.

"Did you shut the blinds?" I asked.

"Were they open? I didn't even pay attention."

Maybe I made up for the messy laundry room after all. I gotta go cancel that engraving order!