I liked mine so much I hunted down a pair in her size. She was SO excited to get a package…and even more excited to see what they were. She wanted to put them on immediately but I made her wait until after dinner. And then I put mine on, too.
“I love being twins!”
I forgot to post the picture of us in The Brickington Post from the Brickfair this past weekend! 🙂
She taught herself how to retrieve rings from the bottom of the pool!
Now we just need to go out somewhere I can wear this!
This is what I walked into to pick her up:
And this is her craft (the crown) and treat (fairy godmother finger puppet).
We finally went to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch after swim lessons and errands. I’m not sure how Owen looks so angelic here. 🙂
So we checked around the car at the expo center. Nothing.
We checked in the car. Nothing.
We checked the driveway and grass when we got home. Nothing.
We checked the entranceway, the living room, and kitchen. Nothing.
We checked the stairway. Nothing.
And then I walked into our bedroom and there it was, plain as day in the middle of the floor. PHEW. Of course I was happy and Tom was elated. I didn’t call to let the owner know about it right away because I wanted him to stew about it for a bit (if he even was—who knows, he probably didn’t give it another thought).
A few hours later I did call and let them know and said I could come in then if it was convenient (if it was just a matter of me looking through some books and picking a similar band and having it sent out, we could get the ball moving ASAP). Of course they were having an event that day and parking (and service) would be a little crazy, so I just said I would wait and come in during the week. And in our brief conversation, when I asked what would happen if we couldn’t find a similar band or one that I liked, she said he could mold one from my ring. Um, NO THANKS. He’s not touching my ring again, thankyouverymuch. If he messed it up the first AND second times, what makes you think he won’t mess it up the third time?
So then I started thinking about all possible outcomes.
What are the chances he would give me a refund and then I could take it somewhere else? I feel like he needs to make this right, but at what point do I cut my losses and move on? But even if he did refund me and I took it somewhere else, I’m back to the original “resizing” cost of $1200 or so. Maybe a little different since it would be a totally new band, but I just know if he deals with it, all the cost is on him. If I have to deal with it, I have to wheel and deal with the future jeweler to take my old gold and give me a new setting for $0. Which I don’t see happening.
I had to have the stone reinserted a few years back (it came out after 13 or so years after I got it caught badly on the sliding door) and that jeweler had no issues…but they weren’t altering the setting.
I may take the pieces to another jeweler in the meantime and see what they say…though I will likely have the same issue I had originally—they don’t want to mess with a tension setting. And this is not just putting a diamond back in because it obviously isn’t the right size so I would assume the band still has to be adjusted. And that’s where the problem comes in.
I’m thinking that if he has to order the new setting, the diamond will be shipped out to the company and that company will do the specialized work…which I’d be perfectly okay with since that’s how I got the ring in the first place. But I need to make sure that’s what actually happens—and NOT that he orders the setting and does the diamond himself. If he thinks he’s going to do the work, I will see what my other options are. He mainly designs jewelry so I can see why he’d want to keep his hands in the process…even though he really should have learned his lesson.
I’m just afraid they won’t be able to find a similar setting (or that I will find one I like better) and then he will want to cast my ring and make it himself. I will have to be adamant that we find the right setting and get it sent off. I want to hear what he has to say before I make a final decision. I know he wants to handle it himself and make it right so he may put up a fight about a refund (so I just need to be prepared). I won’t hand over my ring until I’m confident.
All I know is I am NOT looking forward to dealing with this…and we obviously won’t have anything done by our 15th anniversary in 12 days.
There was no traffic so we made it to Dulles in record time…which was good because at 9:30 there was already a line for the early 10:30 entrance! So I was a good mom and held our spot while Tom and the kids hunted Pokémon. 🙂
Then the ring thing happened so that put a bit of a damper on things for us. But we tried to forget about it because there was exactly nothing we could do about it at the moment.
So we looked at Legos. And wow, was it cool.
Rapunzel’s tower with mermaids swimming beneath!
Harry Potter’s Quidditch Field (both kids recognized it)!
One of my favorites:
This train had a camera on it. Check out the video feed toward the back!
The flying car from Harry Potter. Something like this was just on a random street scene, with maybe a Starbucks storefront and other random characters or cars. So it was fun to spy the things we knew.
I took these pics for Gramma Jean who saw this in real life. 🙂
The kids didn’t know these but we did! Iconic scenes from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory!
Of course there were lots of moving sets—trains and carousels and whatnot. But this was my favorite!
Then we did some quick shopping and we got Owen a Lego with his name on it.
And Tom got a marine. 🙂
By the time we were leaving it was really crowded and was a lot harder to look at the exhibits and it wasn’t nearly as fun…so I’m glad we were there early. The kids had a blast and spent almost the whole time saying “Come look at this! Look mom! Over here! OMIGOSH!” 🙂
Standing in line for Brickfair in Dulles, I look down to see this:
What. The. Hell? My stomach dropped and my heart was beating out of my chest.
Needless to say I called the jewelers immediately. Remember, he had assured me it would be secure. Well, the first words out of the owner’s mouth were “I guess I owe you a diamond.” Long story, he will “make it right,” though the solution depends on if I find the diamond or not. If I find the diamond he’ll buy a totally new setting. If I can’t find the diamond, he buys a diamond…and I’m assuming a new setting because he’ll likely just F it up again…?! But his tone implied he was just incredulous that this happened. I think he thinks he’s better than he is…or likely he’s good at some things but not this.
So we’ll see.
Breathe. Breathe.
I have no idea where the diamond is. It may be in the car or at home but…we won’t know until after Brickfair when I can search. I’m pretty sure I had it this morning so am hoping it’s in the house somewhere.
I am just sick.
I don’t walk to hatch eggs (alone) but I will open the app to grab balls at a Pokestop…and grab a Pokémon if it’s convenient.
Owen was impressed. 🙂
This went pretty well. She doesn’t really ever want any help but Owen really wanted to do some (he generally doesn’t like puzzles so I hate to tell him no when he’s interested). There was one small screaming match but otherwise they worked well together.
We watched two movies today. They spent a lot of time like this.
It’s easier to get them to walk with me now that Pokémon is involved. (And the rule is it’s only used on my phone when we’re on the trail—if they ask about it any other time it gets deleted off my phone. This is daddy’s thing.)
And then of course there were more berries.
After Owen finished building, he made fast friends with another kid and they were running around the store like this.
Me: Do you kids want to recreate this?
Owen: Sure!
Katie: No.
But she did it anyway. 🙂
The weather this morning was great for walking (72° with low humidity) so I made the kids go on a walk. Amazingly once I got them out of the house there was no complaining!
There are lots of blackberries on the trail so whenever we found a ripe bunch we’d stop and I’d pick them. And when I say bunch, I mean 3-4 edible ones. This was our fourth stop!
Our sixth stop!
Now the kids are somewhat excited to go back on the trail to see if there are any more blackberries!
She also did a new 48pc Olaf puzzle (for ages 6+!) in a short amount of time. Of course, I just got rid of a bunch of puzzles at the garage sale…now it’s off to find more!
If you remember back then, it posted your name followed by “is” so this should read Jennifer Hudson is
Nope, doesn’t surprise me. 🙂
Every once in awhile we find a video like this from the camera in Katie’s room. Cracks us up.
This is what I came downstairs to this morning: Ben on his iPad, Owen on his iPad, Katie on Emma’s iPad, and Emma waiting and half watching Pokemon on TV.
They’d been on long enough—and they really needed to play with each other—so I took them away and suggested Legos. Of course they had a blast. Sometimes I hate the iPads. 😐
This weekend was our ritual Tivo Patio Party (when there’s a new Star Trek movie) at a local friend’s house so with friends coming in from all over, we all went out for dinner Friday night. We never seem to take the amount of pictures we used to, so I made sure to at least snap one of us!
Owen: Katie, I like playing with you.
