it's the little things in life

Dear Em,
When I was young, it was hard for me to appreciate the little things when the big things seemed to hold all the glitz & glamour. The little things seemed boring & my dreams were filled with big, big things. I still do have dreams, but to be honest, owning a home with my little family in my very favorite state fills me with a happiness I can't describe. Things like new light fixtures excite me. It would have seemed incredibly normal & boring to me as a child. It's funny how my perspective has changed with each new experience.

What has me giddy & smiling from ear to ear today? I was able to fix my hair & get ready for the day in my very own bathroom! To many, that wouldn't seem like a big darn deal, but to me I could do cartwheels all over our backyard.

You see, a few years ago when we renovated our upstairs bathroom (otherwise known as my bathroom), we bought & installed a beautiful KOHLER brushed nickel medicine cabinet. I loved how big the mirror was & that it was mirrored on the inside of the cabinet as well. Unfortunately, the medal hinges started to go & the front mirror looked like it was going to wobble off after six months. When the front mirror did dangerously break off, I just lived without the front mirror for almost a year. I fixed my hair & put on my make-up with the mirror that sat behind all the things that filled our medicine cabinet.

It started to get a little embarrassing when we had people over. Because I loved how it looked & functioned, & because I thought it was a fluke that it broke, we bought the same medicine cabinet this spring. The new one went in & looked pretty & worked well for all of one day when the hinge broke & the front mirror seemed like it was going to fall off as well. That's when I did what I should have done in the first place & looked at the online reviews. Apparently the poor construction of our medicine cabinet was a huge problem for a lot of people. I was frustrated & bummed. I love, love, loved the way ours looked & worked when it was working, but it was really a piece of crap & I knew if we bought a new one that was just going to fall apart too.

So, I set out to look for a replacement that looked similar, was of sturdier construction, & had better reviews. I finally found the perfect replacement medicine cabinet, but it was out of stock for a month. When it was finally in-stock, I ordered it from Home Depot. We picked up the box from the store, took the new cabinet out of the box at home, & found that the mirror was broken. Augh. Back to Home Depot we went to return the broken one & order a new one. Of course by the time we got there, it was out of stock again. I felt like I couldn't win.

At this point my frustration level was starting to peak. We had no mirror in our bathroom. How do you live without a mirror in your bathroom?! I searched the internet & found the medicine cabinet available from Wayfair. Not only was it in-stock, it was less expensive than Home Depot, & was scheduled to be delivered in less than a week. Hooray! There was light at the end of the tunnel.

Unfortunately the medicine cabinet we ordered broke before even leaving the warehouse, & it was again out of stock. We were put on backorder for a month, & then the new shipment of medicine cabinets was delayed. BUT then at last our medicine cabinet was delivered to our house! I could almost hear angels singing. And then your daddy's drill was dead & we couldn't install it. Seriously, at this point I was starting to wonder if I was being punked. I think I might have cried...a lot.

After probably almost two years of living with a broken medicine cabinet & 3 months of living with no medicine cabinet/mirror in our bathroom at all, last night our medicine cabinet was finally installed. I'm a little afraid to even touch it for fear of breaking it. I think it's fair to say I've been dreaming about the day we would have a working medicine cabinet/mirror, & now that it's here no one can wipe the smile off my face.

So, these are the things my dreams & happiness are made of these days. I'm telling you, it's the little things in life.

I love you so,
Mommy