Happy Halloween!

I am taking Ella out to beg for candy tonight. It should be fun and I really hope it does not rain. I also hope she is going to be warm enough. I promise to post some pictures soon!
Happy Birthday Michael!

I Woke Up Thinking About Taxes

After I woke up at 5am I started thinking about taxes. Specifically home improvement write-offs. I did some web surfing, but did not get any "real" answers to my question. Can we write off our new furnace, roof repairs, and new windows? It cost us about $8k. Anyone have some good news for me? Sal? Ron?
I spent the night with vivid dreams. Strange encounters with people from the past who haunt me often. Maybe I am just trying to find a resolution to things. I also have terrible dreams about dangers to my daughter. Those are the dreams that propel me out of bed and on to house work to clear my head. Or, in today's instance, I started thinking about taxes. If the world were a more peaceful place would I still have these dreams?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RON!!!!

I love you!

The Wisdom of Older Sisters

I am officially thanking Sally for her WW words of wisdom. Thanks to her suggestions of bagged frozen vegetables and (ugh) whiskey with diet coke I lost five pounds this week.

Wonder Woman Ready To Save The Day

Here is Ella in the Wonder Woman costume I made. We are getting ready for the Home Coming Parade and it is a chilly rainy day. Too Bad for us. She is very eager to be in it, though, and has a nice big bag of candy to give to all the people.

Don't Rain On My Parade!

Here is Ella and Ron at the Parade. Did I mention that the theme this year is Super Heros? I must say that after the grandeur of the Tulip Time Parade in Pella this was a VERY poor showing... But all the students had fun making and parading their stuff. I was surprised at how few people showed up to watch... Maybe the weather kept them away.


Ella is waiting to start her march!



And Here she is with Daddy










And with her good friend Henry




And passing out candy.


She had a ton of fun! Too bad it was so rainy. But Ella managed to bring a little sunshine to the whole event!

Halloween Past...

This is "BatGirl", Halloween 2003

And this is "Pretty Witch", Halloween 2004
This witch costume is actually a silver dress on bottom with a shear black over dress. And it looks much more impressive in person. It has a black velvet cape with matching velvet candy bag.



Here is Ella in the "Super Girl" costume I made in 2002. She liked it so much that she wore it for two more years just for fun times (this pic from 2004). It was getting so tattered that I finally put it away for safe keeping. I can't find a picture of her in it from 2002, but she was a cute little super baby. The cape has a gold cord trim that held it kind of stiffly so that when she crawled it seemed to flow behind her.
This Halloween is "Wonder Woman". I think it's the best costume I have made and I hope to get some great pictures of her in it. If the weather is good this weekend she is going to be in the UWO Homecoming parade, which has a Super Hero theme! How Great!

The Dining Room Revisited

Okay, so I thought I had found the perfect color for the dining room, Dusted Carrot, but now I am leaning back towards brown. I was at a friends house last weekend and they used this fun faux finish sandy type of paint in one of their rooms. I think I might try to prime a small section where the wallpaper has a seem, then paint it with this textured paint and see if I can avoid stripping the whole room. An easy way out? I hope so!!!
If they don't have the sandy finish in a color I really like (brown?) then I might opt for something like this. I am sure pictures will follow... If I ever get it done.

Wilma

My parents left Iowa this morning to fly into the path of a hurricane. I understand why, they want to go get their R.V. and boat out of the danger zone in Florida, but I am a little worried. Their plan is to get to Okeechobee by 1:30 or so today and drive out immediately. They are just going to head north then wait to see what happens to their usual winter camping grounds. When the mud and debris settles they are going to figure out where to leave their Fun Stuff and then fly back home. I am certain they will be safe, because that's the way it has to be. And hopefully hurricane Steven does not ruin their house while they are gone.

Frozen Vegetables

After talking with my sister about WW, I have decided to use her "ease and convenience" method of buying bags of frozen vegetables. I like fresh, but she told me how she just nukes a serving of veggies for a quick breakfast. So I shall try it this week. I was down a measly .6 pounds this week, but am still thankful that I lost it instead of the reverse.

Slow Down

When we asked Ella what she wantd to put on her war protest sign, she replied "Slow Down". She's so darn cute.

Funky Christmas

How about this little number for under the Christmas Tree? You can chat away in true Pimped-Out style! Call up your honky pals, your bitches, and your homies for a house partay! I wonder if ring tones are provided by Bootsie Collins? It's sure to be a hit with the wee ones. Ron, http://www.babblemur.blogspot.com has some other nice gift choices from the Fleet Farm catalog. I think Ella is going to have a Merry old time this holiday season.

*Note: None of these toys will actually be purchased for our child.

Fabulous!

Yes, I am fabulous! I am a Star!

I'll sign autographs for you, but please, hands off the feather boa.

Super Princess Power

Sailor Venus and the Tiara Terror

Autumn has Fallen

Sunday was a super nice fall day. We did some house cleaning and then some yard work. Ella wanted to have a "camp fire" so we fired up the pit and got out the mini "shmarshmallows":

Here is our girl roasting away...

"A little help from Daddy"

"Is it Golden?"

"Mmmmmmm"

I admit that mini marshmallows are a bit small for cooking on the fire, but she got to roast about 30 or so. If they had been the big ones she would only have been allowed a couple. So the experience lasted a lot longer, and we had a ton of fun playing.

Friday, chilly chilly Friday

It is cold. A package came to work and the delivery guy was wearing a full face stocking cap. It's that cold.
I managed to get our web site all prettied up and current. I just need to get my picture and also one for Angela, a student worker. My picture is going to be an odd thing for me. I really don't want it posted on the web.... Why do we have to do this, anyway? I am going to browse all the other campus sites to see if the have pictures up. If they don't then I am going to exercise my right to say "No Way". Besides, I just got a short haircut and I am not used to it yet. It's short. I asked Ella if she liked it and she said "You don't need to wear that black thing (my scrunchie) anymore!" I wore it all the time at home to keep my hair in a bun... Now I just use a cute little hair clip on one side. It's way to short to even put up! Maybe it will lower my weight at my weigh in next week? I am not sure if I really like my hair this short. Maybe it will look better after I lose 10 pounds? Or 30 pounds? We'll just have to wait and see.
I am the only person at work today. Two people have come in, the delivery guy and a visitor for Liz. No one has called. I just sat here all afternoon working in silence. I think next Friday I am going to bring in some CD's or something and borrow the boom box from the Lactation Room. Too much silence is unnerving.
I am glad I brought my mittens. It's going to be a cold walk to the car.

In the Mood for Reminiscing

Ron has a certain fondness for David Bowie...
When we lived in Pella, and Ella was about 4 months old, we decided to get cable for the T.V. Our cable company was expectedly slow... They installed the line, but due to our house being a half a mile from the pole it took them an extremely long time to come out to bury the cable. We had a riding mower because that's really a necessity for 2 acres. Whenever we mowed we had to disengage the blades to go over the T.V. cable sitting on top of the lawn. After about a month it seemed commonplace.
Well, it was announced that Mr. David Bowie was going to give an "On Request" live performance, so Ron was completely jazzed to see him live, acoustic mostly, with viewer and audience call ins to request songs. I decided to mow that morning...
As per my usual blunder rate I ran over the cable without disengaging the blades... No cable... Although Ron was very (and I mean extremely) frustrated, he managed not to yell at me. That man has the patience of a saint. It just so happened that it was a Saturday and we had to call the 24 hour emergency cable hot line for service. They claimed they would be out within 6 hours to fix the cable line and bury it. I tried to put on my happiest face, as well as apologizing profusely, and assured Ron they said they would be there 2 whole hours before the concert so we had nothing to fear.
They never came.
We luckily had some co-axle cable and Ron went down to the service pole. He took the T.V. down, too. We got out some lawn chairs, blankets, and a cooler for bevies, then watched David sing from the very front of our ample yard. It was the best concert I have ever been to. Ella sat on my lap and nursed away to sleep to the dulcet voice of Ziggy.... Under the stars... An emergency save for me that it turned out to be so wonderful of an evening!
After the concert we called the cable company again. We had more assurances the the line would be fixed, at no cost to us due to their failure to bury it for over a month, but they still did not come. I think they finally showed up two weeks later. And they gave us one month off our bill for the inconvenience.

Less!

Although I still have not heard the good word from Minneapolis I did get other pleasant news today. I lost 1.4 pounds. Oh how nice. I should ask the lady at the next meeting to look through my books and tell me what I am doing wrong. I swear I have followed every darn rule! Why only 1.4? I was seriously hoping for 3 pounds. I guess I need to focus more and keep going....

Birthin Babies

Our most excellent friends in Minneapolis are giving birth! We have been waiting for Esther to come out and yesterday I read LA's post that her labor had begun. How very exciting!!!! It reminded me of all our anticipation before Ella was born. I am still waiting to hear about the successful birth... And I hope LA is doing well.
I am going to my WW meeting this morning. I hope I did well, too.

I miss Seattle

Ron and Amy

Gasworks Park 1998

Ahhh, Seattle. I do miss it every single day. Those of you who live there must know how great that place is. Don't ever forget it. Go out and visit a landmark for me, or have breakfast at the breakfast club (Eggs California are my favorite). Stop by the Wedgewood Ale House and get a pint of something yummy and if Heather made Roasted Garlic soup you have to get a bowl. It's fall harvest time so run on down to the Market and get some good produce. Or just stop at Great Harvest and get a loaf of Cracked Pepper Parmesan bread. There are so many wonderful things I miss about Seattle. It's hard to believe I've been gone for almost 4 years! If we ever have enough money for a vacation I am going there. We'll probably have to get a cheap ass motel room up on Aurora Ave, but we'll come someday. You know, Ivars has that restaurant on the N end of the lake. From 4 to 6 they have a great happy hour menu. It's like two fish tacos for $3, or something like that. And it's a great view.