Category Archives: My beautiful child

Twenty Ten…

Well Christmas has come and gone.† Thanks to the coolest friends in the world, we had an amazing Christmas.

We left Santa cookies and milk.

Ho Ho Ho...
Ho Ho Ho...

We then spent a very restless night.† Kei could not sleep because she was so excited.† She started at 1:00 am asking me if she could just sneak down and check and I said no.† She asked me every 30 minutes until 5:30 when I finally said yes.† I have to have a bath before I function <hey some people need coffee, I need my bath!> so we have started a tradition of her opening her stocking on the bathroom floor while I am waking up in my bath.

Kei got everything on her list!† And more!

Wonderful Christmas
Wonderful Christmas

We went to Eddie and Heather’s for Christmas breakfast.† Daddy and Marlene† came too.† We had a yummy breakfast casserole, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, orange juice and coffee.† Then we opened presents.† Good times were had by all!

Kei and I came home she played for hours while I took down the tree! I know, I know, but I was sick of that puppy.† So down it came.

Then we went to Marlene’s for Christmas dinner.† We met her son and his wife and their adorable little girl.† Everything was delicious and it was a nice night.† You know, traditions sometimes change.

Saturday we went to Laura’s for traditional Christmas dinner.† The food was excellent and the company was awesome.† I laughed so much my stomach hurt.† We love you all so much!

Suzette had everyone over to her house for our !st Annual Homeschooling Christmas dinner.† We had the best time ever!† We had fajitas and beans and rice and tons of sweets.† We also played Trivial Pursuit.† It was a great time with great friends.† Suz, you are the best.

Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit
More Trivia
More Trivia

We spent New Year’s Eve quietly at home.† I had given her an early birthday gift and she played Wii sports for hours!

kei-bday-wii

I played WoW with Carla and a friend from Canada.† We laughed so much and had so much fun.† Here is a screen shot of Carla and I waiting on Paul to figure out how to get me on a zeppelin that I was 7 levels too low to go onto.† It is a hilarious story but you have to play WOW to understand. :)† Yes we did it!

Happy 2010 on WOW!
Happy 2010 on WOW!

The 3rd was my beautiful girl’s 10th birthday and she was SO EXCITED. She is such a blessing in my life and I thank God for her every single day.

Sweet Child of Mine
Sweet Child of Mine

She told me she was going to be the Big ONE OH!

10th Birthday
10th Birthday

We went to church and then we went to IHoP.† This is the 6th year in a row we have gone to eat breakfast on her birthday.† The waitress’s all sing to her and she loves it!

Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday!

Then we came home and Daddy and Marlene came over.† Marlene had made Kei a beautiful birthday cake. It was yummy too!

Yum Yum Yum
Yum Yum Yum

Then she opened my gifts.† She loved everything ….

kei-bday-giftsbut nothing as much as the Johnny Depp bag I found for her.† I took 5 pictures and they were all blurry because she kept jumping up and down!

Kei & her future husband
Kei & her future husband

Eddie, Heather and the kids† came over and brought her a Zhu Zhu complete with a house.† She loved it!† Later on that night, she was playing with it and I was on the computer.† Everything got very quiet.† I said “What’s up?” and turned to look at her.† She had her Zhu Zhu dangling from her hair!† She said, “I was laying on the floor and he just backed up and ran over my hair!”.† Only Kei.† I got one wheel out but I could not get the other one.† We called Jerri and went to her house for assistance.† Everytime you touch the dang thing the wheels would turn and it would make crazy noises.† Jerri and I were laughing so hard we were crying.† We finally got out all but about 10 hairs and we just had to cut it out.

Zhu Zhu of Death
Zhu Zhu of Death

Kei said, “Please don’t blog or Facebook this Mom”, but…it was too good to resist.

Now we are in the middle of a huge FREEZE! It is cold, I mean COLD, didimentionCOLD?† My Southern blood isn’t up to this kind of weather.† We are in the house and not going out until the temperature hits at least 40!

So, here we are….2010.† Hang on tight because the best is yet to come.

Bump in the Night…

Halloween has come and gone.

Kei loves Halloween!† Almost as much as Christmas and her birthday.† Remember when we actually looked forward to birthdays? 🙂

We started the Halloween week by going Trunk or Treating at our friends church.† We had a great time.

Then Kei made a witch nose and finger with Play Dough.

I'll Get you my Pretty..
I'll Get you my Pretty..

Saturday morning [Halloween] we went to our church for a Halloween celebration.† It was awesome!† We ate hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans and all the trimmings.† Our church rocks!

epic-corn
Epic Corn Hunt
Epic Train
Epic Train

When we got home my brother brought us a pumpkin.† We then carved it.† Ok I am not the best carver in the world.† Kei wanted a vampire.† What she got was…a big mouthed something or other.† She did better on the eyes and nose than I did on the mouth!

Vampire?
Vampire?

Saturday night we got Kei decked out in her Mother Nature costume and were off to get candy!† Some of the people around here really get into the Halloween spirit so there were spooks, Mass† Murderers, scary music and fog at every turn.

Mother Nature
Mother Nature
Don't fool Mother Nature
Don't fool Mother Nature

When we had collected our fill of candy and half freezing to death we went out to my brother’s house where he had a Scavenger Hunt for the kids.† Heather and I drove the kids around to various locations for clues.† You haven’t lived until you have been to a graveyard on Halloween night with a full moon!† Also did you know some people put lighted crosses on graves?† I couldn’t believe it.† The kids loved it and the only complaint was that it was too short.† Thanks Eddie for inviting us!

And now it is November.† EEP!

Enjoy,

K

September days….

“Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain so yellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a young and a callow fellow
Try to remember and if you remember
Then follow–follow, oh-oh.”
-† Try to Remember, Lyrics by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt

my-kei

I can’t believe it is already the middle of September.† Where does time go?

We are in full swing with homeschooling.† Loving it with very few meltdowns by either of us.

We missed the “Not Back to School” picnic and the 1st skate day because Kei was very sick.† We both hated missing it.

We did go bowling which was fun.† I got to see some people I hadn’t seen all summer.† Kei broke 100 which is a 1st for her.

kei-bowling


She has been in a coloring mode lately.† Every night after dinner she colors and colors and colors.

hello-kitty

We are learning about Kingdoms, etc.† Even though I think it is a little silly.† I mean how many times have you been asked for the Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Genus or Species of a mushroom???† Kei has memorized all of them which is more than I know.†† We did an experiment about “Opposable Thumbs” and it was a hoot.† She had to try to do all these things with her thumbs taped down.† Some she accomplished but it took forever and some she could not do at all.

opposable-thumbs

I love homeschooling.† I love spending so much time with Kei.† I love learning right along with her.† I have learned relearned so much!† We are doing American History and I have never been so fascinated by Explorers and the first settlements.† In a perfect world we could go to visit Jamestown after studying about it.† But…with the internet that is almost possible.

Kei is now working on a play about Virginia Dare. She is convinced that the Indians got her and they all lived happily ever after.† She still believes in that…..

Live, laugh, learn,

K


Berries From the Past…

We have been studying about Native Americans the last couple of weeks.

Today Kei and I went on a bike ride to gather wood for a fire since the weather has been so awesome.† She saw some berries that she had to stop and pick.

She knew that Native Americans used berries and such for dye so she decided to make a picture using her collected berries.† She got a rock and started pounding the berries into pulp.† The color was amazing.

berries

Then she got paper and preceded to make a great picture.

picture

Obviously, flies love berries too!† Then she got a great idea!† “Mom, can I paint on my legs with this?”.† I, being the cool mom that I am, said “Of course”, thinking she would paint a flower or something similar.

kei-leg
The Declaration of Keilee

After a bit, I told her to go inside and jump in the tub.† I then called my brother, nature boy extraordinaire, to ask him what this berry was.† He wasn’t sure, so I looked it up online, found out it was Pokeweed and called him back to tell him.† He then told me it was poisonous!

I freaked out and called Kei’s doctor. I went in the bathroom and scrubbed her off with soap, then made her get out and I put rubbing alcohol on her legs and arms and gave her Benadryl.† The nurse on call finally called me back and said she wanted me to call the poison control.† I got a sweet lady who told me that Kei would be fine and I did everything right.

Sheesshhh, I bet the Indians never had to deal with this kind of thing!

We did learn something interesting which I shared with Poison Control; the Declaration of Independence was written with Pokeweed ink and it was used often during the Civil War as ink in letters the soldiers wrote to home.† She told me I had taught her something today. 🙂

450px-pokeweed1

Beware the berry!

Dress Up and Fires…

It has been crazy hot here the past few days.† Summer has definitely reared its head.

Kei put on a fashion show for me today.† She loves putting clothes together.† Then she insisted I photograph her as she posed and spun around.† Remember how much fun dress up used to be?

Then last night, we had a fire.† Of course it was about 90 degrees but it was still beautiful.† We didn’t have any marshmallows so Kei roasted a stick.
kei-fire
A quiet Friday.
Happy weekend,
K

If I Were a Rich Girl…

kei-hat-lake

We spent delightful days at our friends new house at Smith Lake.†† The house was incredible.† Over 7000 sq. feet, on the lake front and beautiful.

I could stay there forever and Kei had all the rooms assigned as if we lived there by the time we left.† Complete with a homeschooling room of course.† An amazing house.† Imagine waking up, walking into the kitchen and being surrounded on 3 sides by floor to ceiling windows with a lake view.† The pool was great and Kei worked on her diving skillz.† She stayed in the water for hours and hours.† I swear she is part mermaid.


It was just what we needed.† Of course I got horribly blistered.† Why is it I lather Kei in sunscreen and then half way put it on myself!!!!?????

Happy Thursday,

K

My Girl

I have done so many things in my life and times.

I have traveled across the United States and lived in San Francisco. I have spit off the Golden Gate Bridge and worked for a company that won an Oscar. I have laughed and loved and cried. I have lost a brother and a mother. I have been a wife, a sister, an aunt, a friend.

But none of those things compare to what I am now…a Mother. I never knew how this would feel. I never understood the saying “I would die for you”, not really. Now I do. I never understood wanting so badly to give your child the world. Now I do.

She delights me, amazes me, frustrates me, makes me laugh so hard my stomach hurts, makes me cry, teaches me, makes my heart overflow with love, refuses to clean her room, never stops talking, drives me crazy, fills me with a miraculous joy, lights up my life.

my-kei41

She loves to bake, to dance, to sing, to perform in plays, to read, to play video games, to watch silly reality TV, to eat, to pretend, to swim, to be outside. She prefers mushrooms to chocolate. She loves to snuggle and still believes hugs from me will fix any hurt.

She is smart, caring, beautiful; inside and out, inventive, curious, kind, a champion of the underdog, intuitive, a dreamer. She refuses to use plastic bags, she believes in causes, she wants to change the world. She believes anything is possible.† She is such a good God girl, she has so much faith.† When I listen to her prayers I am so touched by the things she prays for.

She sees the world as a wondrous place and almost every day she claps her hands and jumps up and down with excitement. She believes in fairies and magic and Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. She makes me believe in them also. She has a definite sense of right and wrong. She absolutely hates to hurt anyone feelings. She is not just a “glass half full” kinda girl; she is a ìgive me some water and I will fill it upî kinda girl. She refuses to say bad words; which, to her, is butt, dang, crap. I call her my little nun.

my-silly-kei25

She could have her leg cut off and refuse to cry. She wants to be tough; she thinks she has to be tough. This is not something I have taught her, it is just who she is. She thinks she must take care of me, and I tell her I am the one taking care of her. However, in some of my darkest moments she is there like a light beckoning me to her. I couldn’t have survived my Mother’s death without her.

She can be wise beyond her years one minute and playing with her dolls the next. She is a beautiful mix of young and old. The sound of her laughter is the sweetest music I have ever heard.

I am her teacher, but she has taught me so much. She has taught me how to be completely unselfish, how to love unconditionally, how to put someone else’s well being above my own. She is my life, my world.

I love you so much my baby girl. To Pluto and back…

Mommy

my-kei3

Water, Water Everywhere..

K loves water.† She loves to swim, to splash, to dive, to go underwater, to just sit with water all around her.† She takes hour baths and uses her mask in the tub!† I swear the kid is part mermaid.

She isn’t able to put up her pool this year and at first she was so sad.† But, being the creative kid that she is, she has made adjustments.

One day she played all day on her Water Slide:

Kei Water Slide
Kei Water Slide
Sliding
Sliding

Then she made some sort of train/water track.

Kei Train
Kei Train

Then we went on a Wild Swim with our HS Group.† It was awesome.

Rope Swing
Rope Swing
Chillin' n Relaxin'
Chillin' n Relaxin'

Then yesterday she made a Water House.

Water House
Water House

Thank goodness the rain has left for awhile because she is enjoying every wet second of the SUN!

K