The Tooth Fairy

My friend Jennifer has a daughter, Sarah, who is 6 years old. She told me the following story today at lunch and it was so funny, I just had to share it:

Jennifer: Sarah, you have to clean your room today while I am at work.
Sarah: OK Mom

Jennifer comes home from work and Sarah meets her at the door.

"Mom, I have decided that I like my room the way it is. It does not bother me if it is messy, so I am leaving it this way." To this, Jennifer replies, "But Sarah, the Tooth Fairy is supposed to come tonight. How will she be able to leave you anything if she can't even get into your room?"

Without even missing a beat, Sarah followed that up with, "Mom. The Tooth Fairy has WINGS. It won't matter to her if my floor is clean or not!" After I stopped laughing, I asked Jennifer what her response to THAT was and she said, " The Tooth Fairy nearly broke her neck last night!"

Ya just gotta luv kids!!!

The Purple Dress

Teenagers are a never ending adventure. Take, for example, the purple dress.

Its thursday evening at 7 pm when my 13 year old daughter wanders into the room to remind me that she is participating in the All County Music Festival this weekend. Reminders are good. I have alot to keep track of. "And what is concert dress?" I ask. "Gee...I don't remember" she replies "let me go find that paper". Papers are good. They help be sure that what I remember is actually correct. As she returns with the all important paper, she informs me that she needs either a long gown or long black skirt, neither of which she owns, for a concert that is less than 48 hours away. Oh goody.

"Get your shoes on" I said. And off to the mall we go. Just what I wanted to do at 7 o'clock on a thursday evening...NOT! Now, you need to understand that even though she is 13, Laura still only wears a girls size 12 or 14 due to her diminutive size. Really - how many 8th graders do YOU know that only weigh 75 pounds? Needless to say, anything we found in a girls size looked, well, like a little girl. Not the way a 13 year old wants to look. We did find a size zero in the teens department that I could have taken in for her but it was $80 and neither of us was very happy with it. So we moved on to store #2 where we found a lovely purple dress that was nothing short of a miracle: it pretty much fit and it was on sale for $39! Woo Hoo!

Saga over? No way! Ten minutes after purchasing the gown, she started "what iffing". What if no one else wears a gown? What if everyone wears black or white? What if I stick out like a sore thumb?

Thinking I was being clever, I then suggested she take the really cute black dress and silver grey shrug we bought for the LAST concert with her, just in case. She liked the idea, but by the next morning was texting me with "so and so is wearing black" and "so and so is wearing black and white". By the time I picked her up from rehearsal she had wound back around to it being OK to wear purple. At this point, I needed a score card.

The day of the concert arrives and she has reverted back to the black and silver outfit. Off she goes at 8am with these clothes in her bag. By noon, the phone was ringing: "Mom, I really want to wear the purple dress, but I need it before 1:15. Can you bring it?" Seriously - I should have sent her entire closet with her!

Well - crazy mom that I am, I grab the purple dress and head out. She did wear the purple dress and looked absolutely beautiful among all the black and white, short skirted outfits in the choir! But she was happy. Whew! Crisis concluded.....for now!

Drafting and Enlisting

Phil and I spent some more time going over house plans. We narrowed it down from 7 to 5. Next step: print the 5 out and pick the best pieces out of each one. Then we are going to put together a rough sketch of all the pieces together. We'll give this draft to whomever our NEXT architect will be. Perhaps this will result in a floor plan that looks something like what we actually want!

Starting Over

Well - it is unanimous. We are going to get a different architect. We have discussed this together and with some of our friends. It all boils down to the fact that, while he is a very nice man, we have a significant communication disconnect. And if it's this bad now, it isn't likely to get any better as time goes by. I can't help but be disappointed in the whole experience. Ah well. I am sure that this is only the first of many things that will go awry during this adventure. And, as Phil reminded me, at least we hadn't built the house with his design! Throwing away some paper isn't that big a deal. Too bad the paper wasn't free!

More to come in our saga....

The Adventure Begins

For the past 25 years, my husband and I have dreamed of designing and building a home...our dream home. Well, we are finally going to realize that dream! We spent 2 years looking for the perfect spot. We found it last year and it is now all ours. So, we started to work with an architect. He's a very nice man. I have known his wife for years, as we work at the same place. Phil and I met with him, gave him pictures of homes we liked and a floor plan that was pretty close to what we wanted. He came back to us yesterday with his plans....and they looked NOTHING like either the pictures or the floor plan we gave him. I had to try and politely tell him that I didn't like any of what he had done. This is tough to do when you are so disappointed. But tell him I did. After he left, my husband looked at me and said "Is this what you wanted in a plan?" NO, NO, NO. To which his reply was "Good! I didn't like it either!".

I guess its back to the drawing board for round two. Maybe this time he will remember to put a window in the second bathroom!

Stay tuned on this blog station...I will try to chronicle our adventures in home construction!