Please Tell Me If I Am Becoming a Creeper...

This Saturday, Nick was so good to watch Collin all morning so I could have some much needed independence. Any other stay at home moms out there who can relate to how amazingly freeing it feels to do something simple like running to Target without kids? No carseat battles, no trying to figure out what they can play with to keep them entertained long enough in the shopping cart, no unexpected diaper changes in public restrooms. Yeah, it's pretty luxurious, I tell ya. I absolutely love staying home with Collin, but can't help but wish I had truly savored my carefree days a bit more! 

I had the best morning out-- armed with a grande, non-fat Caramel Machiatto, I spent some time getting lost in a local antique mall. Soon you will see my fun finds displayed in our new house. I scored a pair of crosstiched, silhouette cameos of George and Martha Washington, a kitchshy wall plate for my planned wall of plates in the kitchen and for $2 a crumbly, old, hand-painted Kodak finishing sign which I took to Hobby Lobby for framing. I then ran a few errands and stopped off at the library to see what I could find out about our old house.

I met the sweetest old man named John who is in charge of the reference section. Although there was no specific information on the house itself in city records, he did show me how to search through the old city directories which started in 1925 and yielded me a long list of previous owners. In some of the earlier directories the owners' occupations were listed as well.

Turns out, our house was home to the former Assistant to the President and General Manager of Eagle Picher Lead Co., the Secretary Treasurer of R and S Motor Sales Co, and an Episcopal Minister, whom my new friend John knew of from back in the 70's.

I'm hoping to get back to the library some time soon to look through newspaper archives for any of these residents. Now that I have names, I can search the census data and find out the names of their children-- many of them should still be living. How cool would it be to invite some previous residents over for dinner?! Maybe I'm being too much of a creeper here. Please intervene if you think I'm going to far!

Before I left the library, I thumbed through a book on American house styles and while I really don't think our house is a Federal style home, it does seem to have a Federal style door like this one:

See our door here:

Hmm... I feel as if our house has identity issues. Craftsman? American Foursquare? Federal? Maybe if we can meet some of its previous owners, they could give us some insights as to whether or not it was built this way or later altered. The mystery continues!

Saturday night we were invited to a dinner at Nick's boss' house. It was neat to meet the team Nick works with, including their spouses. Collin, of course, was a totally ham. He loves people, like his mamma! What a great group. I look forward to getting to know them better. 

On Sunday we braved the morning weather for church. 'Twas a snowy Palm Sunday in Missouri. I really do hope Easter won't look like this! My brother, who is doing a grad program near Springfield, will be driving out to join us for the day. Fun, fun!

We received word today that we'll more than likely close on the house this Wednesday afternoon! Although our stuff will take a while longer to get here, we'll at least be able to start working on a few projects-- including painting. Lots to look forward to. Stay tuned, dear friends!