We Found the Dress

So today I took off work and pulled Caitie out of school and we went shopping for a Homecoming dress.

Now I know you probably have two questions (if you didn’t just pretend you did)

1.           Seriously, you pulled your daughter out of school to shop for a dress? How hard can it be to buy a dress that you need a whole day?
2.         What does this have to do with living life on purpose?

Let me answer those questions for you. Yes, seriously we needed a whole day. I ended up having to work all 7 days last week, so our original plan of going to the mall last weekend didn’t happen and since the dance is tomorrow this was the only way to get a whole day.

You see, my daughter doesn’t wear dresses. She wore one for 8^th grade graduation and that was the only time she has worn one since she was 4. She just doesn’t. She wears skinny jeans and band T-shirts. She adds a hoodie when it is cold. The end. She just doesn’t do dresses. So I knew that getting a dress she would wear was going to be a long process.

She has some “rules” for the dress. No sequins, no jewels, no glitter, not too puffy, not too short, not too long, not orange or pink. I think I got them all. If you have ever shopped for a semi-formal dress you know she just discounted 90% of everything available.

Now lets add the shoes. She said absolutely no heels. Sandals would be good. It is October ever tried to find sandals in October? Her foot is very wide so add to that ever tried to find wide width sandals in October. Just don’t.

However, we found the dress, we found the shoes, we found the jewelry, we even got her hair cut. First time in a couple years. So yes, it took all day.

Now for what does that have to do with living life on purpose? Guess what I did with my phone yesterday. I turned off the ringer. I put it in my purse. I left it there. The only time I pulled it out was when we needed to google for another shoe store. I allowed myself one Facebook post while she was in the dressing room putting her clothes back on announcing that WE FOUND THE DRESS! But aside from that I was present with her all day. I purposefully chose to just enjoy the day with my wonderful daughter without the interruptions of Facebook, twitter, text messages, and friends calling to chat.

So yes, I used a day of vacation time and yes, she missed a day of school. But it was so worth it to shop and laugh and talk with this walking talking piece of my heart. The opportunity to listen to her music and learn about what matters to her right now was for sure worth it.