klickitat street.

So Monday night my mom and I went and watched Ramona and Beezus and I'm pretty sure it's the best movie I've seen in a very long time. I don't care if you think I'm a pansy, but I cried like four times. If I could name any movie that mostly sums up my childhood, this is it. Every time her imagination got the best of her, every time she misunderstood a "grown-up" term, every time she argued with her sister, every time she looked up to her sister and every time she cried, I could pinpoint a moment in my life when I felt exactly the same way. Well, I'm sure we all could, but Ramona is special to me. I grew up reading Beverly Cleary books -- especially the Ramona books. One summer, Jacob and I made a chart of every single Beverly Cleary book and made it our goal to read all of them. I think we got through every book but two (because they weren't at the library).

Anyways, the movie wasn't a play-by-play of the books but it was still amazing and I loved it. I've always felt like I could relate to Ramona Quimby better than any other fictional character -- probably because we both live such awkward lives and are usually too caught up in our imaginary worlds to realize what's happening in the real world.

My favorite childhood memories include hot summer days in shorts and a t-shirt, hiding with Jake in a huge pile of branches pretending we were spies, dressing up as Batman and Batgirl trying to convince the neighborhood kids we were legit, and making swords out of sticks and "healing potions" out of leaves and water.

I'll never forget those moments when I tried so hard to do everything right but instead I just made things worse. And I'll never forget the times my older sister drove me crazy or tried to boss me around or gave me less ice cream than I hoped for. But I'll also never forget how she would comfort me when I cried or the way she hugged me when she left for college or how every moment with her is the right moment to quote a Disney movie and laugh till tears come out of our eyes and we can't breathe. So, if you think I'm a pansy for crying in the movie, maybe it makes more sense now. I miss those days. My sister is married and about to have a baby. And I'm more excited than I've ever been but it just blows my mind to see how quickly we've all grown up and changed.

Anyways, Baby Evans (aka Sharkbait) should be arriving any day now and she already has a wardrobe about twenty times the size of mine so she should come into this world a happy baby....Not to mention the fact that she has a huge family that loves her and can't wait to meet her. =)

<3 Auntie Lulu