We went out to the mall today. Twice. (Yes, I know I’m insane, thanks.) Emma came with us this time. She was somewhat perturbed by the stores displaying Christmas decorations – not just on the shelves, but on the outside of the stores, too.

“But it’s Halloween time…” Clearly, this is upsetting (slightly) her sense of order. She had fun looking at the displays, though, and we talked about how we’re going to decorate our house for Christmas.

Then we came home, had lunch, and I got her dressed up in her Halloween costume.

The local mall had a party and some stores were participating in trick or treating, so we went because I asked her and she wanted to go.

It was a lot more popular event than it was in previous years.

And this was halfway down the line. It was sheer and utter chaos, with only a minor sense of order, because someone did have the foresight to make up a list of participating stores, and had them down *in order* so kids weren’t cris-crossing the mall willy-nilly. Emma insisted we read the list at every stop, very carefully, and she made sure the words on the paper matched the signs on the stores.

Yes, passer-bys thought she was adorable. One lady even said to her, “And I can tell what you are!” Plus we saw one wolf, two Tiggers, three Batmans, six Spidermans and approximately fifty-seven witches.

An hour later, we were on our way home again. We talked about some things she observed, like how the big kids never said thank you, how some kids had no costume at all, and how we overheard one kid complaining in front of the clerk handing out the treat that it was something she didn’t want.

“I wouldn’t take a fit about it.” Emma told me, quite seriously. But she had fun, and when I came home the hole in the kitchen wall was all covered over.

First off, Emma is loving the words. She thinks they are all pretty funny.

I’ve been in the dining room all day, and not just on the computer. I took down most of the plates off the plate rail (ther’e s a set going back to Mom’s, but I’m borrowing some decorative Christmas ones), cleaned off the fireplace mantel, took half the items out of the china cabinet and packed them, cleaned out the tablecloth & napkin drawers, and have most of the homeschooling bookshelf packed up and sorted.

Yes, I have a box of homeschooling books up for grabs for the locals.

Our dining room is used as a computer room / office / work room / school room (as close as we get) so there are many things in here that you wouldn’t expect to see in a dining room. Like three computers and two desks. And a table, two bookshelves and a tower of plastic drawers with small photocopier, a filing cabinet, craft supplies, and a spare monitor.

It’s actually kinda scary how much stuff is in the room, and how huge it’s going to look when we are ready to show the house. When we do the Christmas house tour, the table will be set and a tree will go either in front of the fireplace or in the bay window area. Haven’t decided yet. The desk has to stay here, as we have nowhere else to put it that we can run wires to without drilling holes in the floor.

I only have a couple before pictures so far, as our rechargable batteries are all dying and not keeping their charges.

The girls have introduced me to some of the latest in netspeak: lolercoaster, lollerskates and roflcopter.

And I am still rotflmbo at it.

See? Teenage girls *can* be entertaining to their parents occasionally. And check out the ascii art… Oooo! And the flash game!!!

LOL!!!!!!111