SO confused

I met with the architect Saturday morning and picked up the sketches. We gave him a ton of constraints to work with and he was unable to meet them all (surprise, surprise). Unfortunately, the ones he didn't meet were the ones we really wanted. I have had a few days to digest and think them through and I feel like what he designed for us works really well for us now and gives us a lot of room to grow into. There are two huge issues in my mind, though. One, I think the house is too big for the lot and I think it is going to be too expensive to build. He did nail the exterior- we love the way it looks from the front of the house.

Hubby finally got a reprieve from his job and came home last night. He hates the plans. He thinks they are too complicated and way more than we need. I am going to let him digest them today and see what he thinks tonight. One of the activities I spent most of Saturday working on was creating to scale representations of our furniture. It really helped me understand the plans spatially.

Yesterday, my folks finally got back from their second vacation of the month (first to France, now to Colorado), so I gave them a few hours to rest and then took the kids over and spent all day at their house. We went to the little, old house and marked up the trees on the plans. Unfortunately, the 80+ year old elm tree is not going to make it. The location is right in the middle of the lot and it would block the driveway. I do think we can save the huge pecan in front.

I would like to meet with a builder who made our short list and see if he can give us a rough estimate. I am extremely nervous to hear that number. It still seems surreal that we are actually building a house, a house exactly like we want and a house that we plan to stay in for many, many years. It feels good.

Stupid people post

Driving home from the in-laws last evening, I was amazed to see a grown man walking in the middle of my lane with headphones on in the dark. He didn't even hear me come up behind him. There are perfectly good sidewalks on either side of the street and at the very least, why not walk facing traffic? It did cross my mind to get up really close and honk.

Comedians, trampolines, lions

I had a lovely post written about this weekend and blogger crashed on me. I will briefly recap the weekend:

Friday was an off day for work, so I managed to tick off items on my to do list that I had rescheduled for months. The boy's summer program had a talent show Friday afternoon which included singing, dancing, comedians, and an art gallery. We visited with my aunt and uncle and cousin who came into town Friday evening. The kids were very excited to see my cousin as it has been months since he was in town last.

Saturday was the girl's birthday party. It was at a gymnastics studio and they sang songs, played on the rings, the balance beams, and the trampoline. The kids seemed to enjoy the party and I loved the fact that I didn't have to entertain 16 kids in my house.

Sunday evening the four of us went to dinner and then to watch the Lion King. It held their interest for nearly 3 hours, which is a testament to the entertainment value. I would highly recommend seeing it.

Work sucks!

Not my job! Last week was hubby's birthday and this week was the girl's. And since we have so much extended family in the area, I have to throw a separate birthday party for family and for friends. I decided on last Sunday for the family party since hubby would be home and I could lump him into the party- you know, so he doesn't feel shafted :)

Saturday evening we find out that his @#$%# job has moved his days off and now he has to be at work 1 hour before the birthday party was due to begin. I begged him to call scheduling and explain the situation. No one makes the guest of honor miss his own party, right? Right?

In the company of men

I hate it when I am the only female in the room and during a meeting someone will use an expletive and either excuse themselves or make a comment such as "we'll have to ask Courtney to leave the room". It offends me more that it is assumed that because I am female I have sensitive ears than an ugly word ever could. Besides, I've been know to cuss like a sailor at times. I just don't get it.

Disturbing

Does anyone else find this disturbing? Please keep in mind that she is 3.

Dream vacation

This coming September is our 10th wedding anniversary. I would like to go some place special, but there are several obstacles in the way. We already have travel plans the middle of the month with the entire extended family for a long weekend. We have concert tickets to Queensryche that I have been dying to see for years 2 days before our anniversary. And hubby doesn't have any vacation this year. Since we are in the process of building our dream house, it will have to be fairly cheap.

Any trip that we take will likely be short, last minute, and relatively inexpensive, but I really want it to be special and different. It is not enough time to go overseas, but I don't want it to be within driving distance either. Any ideas?

Hospital, graveyard, and airplanes

I have a new niece! And she is a doll. She was born on Friday and mother-in-law went to the hospital Friday afternoon to meet her. The rest of the weekend was quality time with the kids. I was home alone and one set of babysitters was in France, the other tied up with my niece and nephew, and hubby was out of town.

Saturday, I took the kids to the swim school for a makeup lesson. Later that afternoon, we visited a graveyard near our house that we pass twice a day on our normal commute. The boy has been begging to go in, so I obliged this weekend. Some of the headstones were from the early 1800's and the most recent were the 1920's. Very interesting, but a little creepy.

Then we went to Mickie D's to fill the kids full of high fructose corn syrup and trans fats. It was raining and they have a nice indoor playground for the kids to burn off some energy. Then I made a brave attempt at the dollar store for goodie bag treats for the girl's birthday party.

Sunday, we met hubby at the airport as he had 5 hours between flights. Because he had 5+ hours of 'sit' time, per the contract, the company is obligated to provide a hotel room. So we brought a swim suits and had a great time hanging out at the pool, watching the airplanes fly overhead.

Oh, and I have a sinus infection now and I am thinking that cutting my head off might be less painful.

Sick, frustrated, and amused

I have been fighting a cold since last weekend. The kids both had it and I did hold out for nearly a week before it hit me. I spent Saturday and Sunday of last week in bed, resting. We had the in-laws over that evening and that was the most activity I had all weekend long. I went into the office on Monday and what a boring day that was! Almost everyone was out.

Tuesday, we went to my brother and sis in law's house to watch the 4th of July parade in their neighborhood then the kids swam in their pool. I went back to bed for most of the day and then we went for a late dinner and watched the fireworks.

Wednesday was back to work. I am getting a little frustrated because I am learning all of the systems and tools and most of my coworkers will be out at different times this month. I want to be fully on board and useful, but am far from it and that is bothering me. Most of the tools are home grown and have been developed over time and lack any instructions on use. I am afraid it will take awhile to get up to speed.

Today is my off Friday and I am trying to get caught up on everything around the house. My sister-in-law gave birth to baby #3 this morning, so I am going to stop by the hospital later this afternoon for a peek at my new niece.

On an unrelated note, the boy is becoming even more fascinated with religion and god and "bad god" and the word that is a bad word: h e double chopsticks. He asks everyone about their beliefs. My parents are Christian and my in-laws are Jewish, so he is getting quite a variety of answers. My favorite is when he asked the day care manager if she believed in god and then proceeded to tell her that his parents didn't. We've had several conversations recently about boundaries and what is polite to discuss in public and what is not :) I really want to feed this curiosity, but hubby and I are disagreeing on how to do that. I want to send him to church with my grandparents and to also expose him to different religions. I want him to learn about all religions so that we will have compassion and understanding. Maybe we do need to look into the Unitarian church.

I have your pictures

I finally sent out my new work information late last week. I didn't get a computer until Tuesday afternoon and then I was busy trying to set up my new tools. Voice mail on office phone. Activate cell phone. Voice mail on cell phone. Set passwords, install software, remember how to get back to the car at the end of the day. After 5 days, I am fairly comfortable with finding my way through the maze of buildings. My last employer was a maze as well, but the buildings were labeled alphabetically. A, B, C, D. My new building? E, C, T, R.... huh? I hear they used to mean something. My favorite spot is where E, C, and M intersect. One of these days I might fill in the '=" and '2'. I'm a dork, I already know that so no need to inform me.

Anyway, where was I going with this? Oh, yes. I sent out my contact information and almost immediately, I get back a message from my former computer guy. Apparently I'd left a CD in my laptop and it was full of family pictures. Attached to the message was a picture of me, in a particularly goofy pose. Nice.

Update: Might as well post for all to make fun of....