August 17, 2007~~7:47 p.m.
Elle's party...

::sigh:: How sad my "un-gold" diary looks... but if I'm barely using it, spending anything for more features seems kinda silly. I guess I need to change the template so I don't have a bunch of broken images.

Elle is having a back to school party on Sunday. I'm glad we have a life and a house that she wants to share with her friends. It is exactly what I always hoped for my children.

I hated the house I grew up in. It would have been an okay, small house on a tremendous lot, but my parents bit off more than they could chew when they bought it as a "fixer upper". I think my mom was starry-eyed about her new marriage and thought it would be fun to turn the house into a home together, but my stepdad isn't much for follow-through. He loves to buy tools and materials. Loves starting projects. Never. Finishes. Anything.

And so I was mostly ashamed of where I lived and only had my closest friends come over. In fact, in junior high I was so embarrassed by my house that I would walk right past it after school and keep walking until all of the other kids had gone into houses, then I'd turn around and walk back home.

I never really talked with my mom about it. She never had any friends come over, either. I'm guessing she felt the same way I did... maybe worse because it would have seemed within her power to do something about it.

Shortly after Elle was born, my parents moved back to northern California. They bought a model home. My mom always seemed really happy there. My stepdad sold the place while we were in Hawaii the following year. Seriously, put the house on the market while we were on vacation; my inlaws took our kids over to visit him and swim and called us to tell us there was a for sale sign in the yard.

I'm sure it would be hard to continue living in the house you'd shared with your wife, but it seems like it would be harder to leave it. I guess men are different from women. I'm lucky he didn't rush into marrying someone else; that is not something I am prepared to deal with.

So anyway, Elle is having a party. She has invited in the neighborhood of 30 teenagers. I'm wondering if we seem like "cool" parents or just "stupid" ones.

Maybe that should be determined after the party.

~Alice