Dude, where's my paint swatch?

When you're a kid, part of the excitement of moving to a new place is picking out your new room. My daughter knew immediately which one of the extra bedrooms she wanted to be hers as soon as we walked in the house. Granted, we had not even decided to buy the house yet, but she was bound and determined that she had found her new room. I can't blame her, the windows from that room open up to a wonderful view.

As it turns out, we did settle on that house and so when we went back the other day for the final walk through, she turned to me and said,"Come on, Mommy! Let's go see my new room!"

I have always loved moving into an empty house. It's like a blank canvas ready for us to add our family's personal touches. Whether you love contemporary, country what-nots, or something somewhere in between, personal style adds so much charm and warmth to a home.

Not to mention paint choices.

Long before we even looked at this house, my daughter had selected the new color for her bedrooms walls. Her bedding has a Hawaiian print and the color choices for wall paint are abundant. I told her that she could pick the color of her room this time and she was so excited.

Being the Mom, I was thinking a girly pink or a cool blue. I should have known that a daughter of mine would know, without a doubt, exactly what color she would want. Right down to the hue or shade or whatever Nancy would tell me was the proper term.

We often drive across a bridge where the water underneath is many shades of blues and greens. As we drove across the bridge every morning to school and every afternoon after school, my daughter would point and say, "There it is, Mommy! THAT COLOR! I WANT THAT COLOR!"

Clearly, I should KNOW what color she was pointing to while I am driving and trying to look through those little rungs of concrete on the side rail. I mean, it wasn't like there were, oh about 50 shades of blue, green, blue-green, green-blue, greenish- bluish, bluish- greenish, and even a touch of grey in that vast mass of water.

I mean, it was SO OBVIOUS!

I decided that I would come clean and admit that I had absolutely no idea what color she was talking about. We went to Lowe's to look at paint choices and we took her pillow sham with us. We were standing there in front of The Wall of paint cards made of colorful squares that never, ever look like the same color when you get them home. I think paint stores must have trick lighting so that you will confidently buy an entire gallon of paint that is the perfect color, only to go home, paint it on the wall, and absolutely hate it.

And return to Lowe's to buy another gallon of paint of an entirely different color.

It's a conspiracy, really.

So we were there at The Wall and I asked her which color was the color she wanted.

"It isn't here, Mommy. They don't have it."

"You mean that out of ALL these color choices of ALL these paint brands none of these colors are the color you want for your room?"

"No."

In a pitiful attempt to find SOMETHING, I began to randomly pull color cards from The Wall.

"How about this color?"

"No. That's not it."

"Well, how about this one?"

"No. They don't have it."

She had just about given up. Then she pulled a little pamphlet from the display.

She opened it up, then with wide eyes, she pointed to a teeny, tiny square of a lovely, light green and said,"THAT'S IT! THAT'S THE COLOR!"

I was so glad I took her with me to choose the color. Otherwise, we would be right back at Lowe's buying a second gallon of paint.

Some may say she was being a little too picky, but I love a girl who knows what she wants.

:>)