Well, we FINALLY got to see the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie. YAY! There were parts of that movie that were so great that I really almost cried a little. I didn't even mind that they took a few (ok, more than a few) liberties with the story, the Oompa Loompa guy made it all OK with his little shiny pants. Did you know his real name is Deep Roy? That kills me.

The best part, though, was at the end I asked Romy what her favorite part was and she said the beginning when all the little singing wooden puppets light on fire. :) My kind of kid.

Speaking of Romy, I hope you all page down after this riveting entry and check out all the great pictures I posted yesterday. I didn't get any comments on them so far so I'm assuming everyone passed out from all that cuteness.

And on the subject of the pictures below, a quick happy birthday to the Bevandos. What's a day or two late amongst friends, right? <:D <-- That's a sideways smiley face wearing a party hat, by the way, in case my genius is eluding you.

Anyway, I ought to get to work at some point here, so enjoy the pictures and email or comment or something.

Please.

Seriously. Do it.

OK, those of you with slow internet connections may hate me for this, but I've got some pictures up finally. We've got some cute ones of the Bevandos' visit and the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, but first the long-awaited kindergarten picture ...

Ramona Kindergarten 2005

Kayden, Romy, Sadie and Polly.

The cutest picture ever taken in the history of the world.

Super cute picture of Mandi and Sadie.

All the kids had a great time. ;D

Kelly and Mandi got into town last night. It's great to see them again after so long and especially to see all the kids together. Romy could seriously barely contain herself, and she still doesn't seem to realize she doesn't actually know Kayden at all. :) The last time they saw each other she was just turning three and he was two. But last night they were laughing hysterically and throwing paper airplanes ("the Magic of Chaos" -- and no, we don't know where that came from!) and just having a total blast.

Hopefully today we can hit the dinosaur museum and I'll try to get some pictures taken. I've been really lousy about pictures lately, and yeah, I know I still haven't posted Romy's super-cute Kindergarten picture.

Other than that, not much new here. Oh, Susie joined the ranks of the way-too-early-Christmas-prepared brigade yesterday. I'm seriously getting a complex over this. What happened to shopping the week before the holiday? I thought that was the traditional way to do it. Oh, and no one else is to get us anything or even threaten to this year. We are so poor I really am making everyone those tube-top poncho things this year. And not in good yarn either. Squeaky, scratchy Wal-Mart yarn all the way. Actually I should just send those to people who don't send us a card this year. That'll be my revenge. I love Christmas cards, I don't know why exactly, but I really do. So if you don't send me one this year, watch your mailbox! Oh, and if you send us anything MORE than a card I'll make you a matching pair of legwarmers.

OK, so I was talking to Jill last night and she's already getting her Christmas shopping taken care of -- yeah, in October. So I got inspired and thought maybe I'd try to get motivated too so I can relax and enjoy the holidays this year. So basically I need you all to send me your measurements and favorite colors, because I'm knitting every one of you this super useful "thing" pictured below. Joyeux noel, mes amis!

So yesterday was industrious. Dane's working super late this week so I had to keep myself entertained for the night and ended up making a breathtaking lentil soup from the stinky German cookbook (great book smelly pages). I've never used parsnips in anything before but wow. So that was good and then I made the old-style oatmeal scotchies recipe from Nestle. Retro cooking or something like that :) I did change it a little but it was strange because it called for a tablespoon of water. Have you ever seen water in a cookie recipe. That weirded me out slightly but they're still good.

Also I did manage to survive yesterday's reading at Romy's school. Yeah, for those of you who didn't hear me whine about this already I had to read to a classroom full of kindergarteners. I had sort of a minor panic attack but survived it and did pretty well. I took a good book and that helped. I read Monster Munchies and the kids LOVED it. And Polly was there, too, holding my hand. Sort of funny that a two-year-old can be so comforting to me in my old age. I'm supposed to be the stable one, not her. But yay for her for getting me through it.

So that was yesterday. Oh, and also I sent a card to Aleen. Some of you know her, and if you hadn't heard, she lost her husband last week to a heart attack. He was a sweet guy and they were just married at the beginning of the summer.

On that sad note I suppose that was my whole day yesterday. I'll try to get Romy's school picture posted tonight and maybe throw on one of the new back patio -- even though it's a little on the bland gray rectangle side. So, till then...

I'm such a disaster lately. Finally gave up on the door and it's now sort of a plummy dark lavender purple. Close but not what I wanted. Sort of like my hair. Color on top of color on top of color on top of whatever the hell I started with some 20 years ago or whatever sort of equals rainbow. Then there's the sweater. I've been knitting the sweater of all bitchen sweaters now for like MONTHS and once again something bizarre happened somewhere near the beginning and now my cool skull top-down in-the-round sweater looks sort of like a blousy puckered mess.

I have sooooo many projects to do/finish right now and everything I touch turns into a total mess. I'm scared to make the Roman blinds I got the fabulous fabric for (I love you Jill), I'm scared to fix my hair, and I'm scared to finish the sweater and endure the horror of actually trying it on.

Oh, well, I'm sure it'll pass. Anyone want me to paint their door? I've got lots of paint left. mwa haaahaaaaaaa...

So they poured our patio yesterday. It poured rain the whole time and of course last night was the first frost of the year. So far, though, it looks as if everything's going to set up just fine. I was mostly worried about the rain, though, cause I had strict instructions not to let the guys leave without covering the patio first. But what happened was the guy came to the front door (yes, the hot pink one) and asked me for more money. He didn't really demand it or anything, just kind of nicely asked for an extra hundred and twenty dollars to help pay for the concrete. Apparently prices have gone up, but we had to pay for the concrete up front, straight through the dealer. So I called Dane and let him talk to the guy. I don't know exactly how that went but we didn't have to pay a cent more than we were quoted at originally, and the guy was nice to me but was pretty visibly pissed off when he went to give the news to the other guys. So, yeah, when they packed everything up including the plastic sheets to cover the patio in case of rain I felt too weird to go out and say anything. I was mostly just glad they finished working this time before they left.

I hate all this home-owner crap. >:(

OK, so if it's not one thing it's another. Now it's the door. So you know how those dark maroonish purplish doors are super trendy right now? Well, we thought we'd hop on the bandwagon and do what everyone else is doing, but that's never really been one of our strengths so I don't know why we try. Yeah, ours is magenta. You know, like Willie Wonka/Cheshire Cat oh-my-god-fiery-bright magenta. Now, this is three days into things, too, because for some reason the door rejected our primer. By that I mean it pulled off in large sheets. So I did it again and now it's sticking but I kind of wish I could pull it off. So now we're trying a layer of dark grey and then one more magenta layer (maybe) to see if the grey knocks it down a few (hundred) shades. Scary.

Anyone with a better idea that doesn't involve stripping all the paint off and starting over???