Kaylea is a Martha Stewart in the making...

Yes, I have a mini-Martha at my house. Kaylea loves to cook; I can't get her out of the kitchen when I am preparing a meal. She, also, loves to decorate; she is constantly rearranging the items in her room or the pictures in the living room (and of course I am OCD enough that I have to change them back). And now she has developed a love for Crafts and Crafting. She is attending an Arts and Crafts camp this week at one of our local churches and they have the kids doing all kinds of crafts. She has learned how to weave; she made an ink stamp by carving a block of wood; she made sun art; and the list goes on and on.

I am very excited about Kaylea's latest love because I, too, love to make crafts. I lack the creativity to come up with ideas on my own, but I can copy almost anything (with the exception of knitting/crocheting).

Next week, Kaylea will return for the second session of Mrs. Jackie's Art Camp. She is really excited about that one, as well. Not too much crafting going on there, but definitely a lot of art mediums being used.

I suppose I need to close for now. Mini-Martha and I have to get ready for our dinner party.

To Do List:

1. Pick cotton to weave for table linens
2. Gather bees wax to make our candles
3. Kill and clean the chicken for Coq Au Vin
4. Pick and stomp the grapes to make the wine
5. Gather fresh vegetables from the garden
6. Pick apples for the pie
7. Milk the cow to make whipped cream and butter

Welcome to Skid Row

*****Warning, if you don't want to read about laundry, husbands, kids and skids, this isn't the post for you*****

Several weeks ago as Kaylea and I were doing laundry we stumbled upon a pair of Bub's underwear that had a lot of brownish black marks all over them. I mean ALL OVER THEM (they were more brown than white). At first glance, it looked like there had been some sort of explosion in or around them. But, I was quite sure if he had made a mess of that nature in his drawers there would have been a wrecked car, paramedics, savage animals, paranormal experiences, crazed psychopaths or something of the sort involved. So, since I had not heard him speak of any of the above mentioned horrific events, I assumed the stains were not what was originally suspected.

When he got home from work that evening, Kaylea was quick to give him the inquisition about his underoos. She was just certain that her daddy had skids and she was ready to tease him unmercifully. Unfortunately, Bub explained away the stains by telling us that he had used the underwear to clean his work boots. (He is frequently on construction sites and his boots are always covered in dust and dirt). Too bad for Kaylea, she wasn't going to get the opportunity to razz her Daddy.

Now, let's fast forward to last night. I was doing laundry, AGAIN! As I was folding the white cloths I found a pair of Kaylea's panties that were a little (how should I say this?) streaked inside. I took them to her and asked, "Um hum, was there a problem?" Without skipping a beat she looked up at me and said, "No, I used them to clean my boots!"

I thought I would fall over I laughed so hard.

20/25 - Hey We'll Take It

As I have written before, Kaylea suffers from Amblyopia. Her left eye decided it wanted to get "lazy" and left all of the work to be done by the right eye. Since 2006, we have been working with a phenomenal Pediatric Ophthalmologist trying to improve the vision in her left eye, before she reaches Visual Maturity ("VM") and her visual acuity becomes 'locked-in'. When we began this process, Kaylea's visual acuity in her left eye was 20/200 (she was legally blind in that eye). As of her check-up yesterday, her visual acuity in her left eye is 20/25. Just to give you perspective on how much of an improvement that is, here is an eye chart:

Now, we are trying to get one more line of improvement before she reaches VM, which normally happens sometime before a child reaches 10 years old. Seeing as Kaylea's 10th birthday is in September, we really have our backs against the wall. Hopefully, she hasn't reached VM, yet. But if she has, we will be pleased the progress she made.

As for Kaylea, she is just happy that the patching process is almost over and that she will be able to say goodbye to her glasses, very soon.

More Cheese, Please!

Today, Kaylea and I were in Wally World doing a little shopping. We were walking through the dairy section and there was a worker emptying a center cooler case to change out the featured product. He was removing Kraft cheese packages and had filled an entire shopping cart and was bent over with his head and half his body inside the cooler to get the last few packages. Kaylea saw him tossing the cheese packages over his shoulder into the cart and replied, "Man, how much cheese does that guy need?"

This post is brought to you by the letters O H N & O

Oh noes... it's a guest post... from Auntie M!!!! Mwahhhh ha ha ha ha!

Oh there's nothing too bad, yet. But I'm sure we'll all come back from the Great White North with lots of Kaylea-ventures to share and compare... in fact, I'd count on it.

Apparently the first one started in the car today when Mommy discovered that instead of going through her vast movie selection, Kay-bug decided to go the easy route and bring all the same movies that she took to Hilton Head. So now Mommy is listening to Ice Age II, for the 8,432,236th time. So, maybe they'll make it to Kizzy's house, that is unless Mommy's head explodes from sheer joy!

Okay, that's enough out of me... gotta go deface Mommy's blog too!

Weird Pride!!!!

Last night Kaylea and I ate dinner at popular little local Mexican restaurant. For our meal we ordered our regular favorites. Kaylea got 2 soft tacos - meat and cheese ONLY, please, and I ordered the chicken chimichanga. And of course, we had to indulge in the chips, salsa and cheese dip while we were waiting for our meals. When our dinners arrived, I coaxed Kaylea into trying a bite of my chimi. She was less than impressed and I couldn't figure out why. She likes chicken; she likes cheese; she likes four tortillas; and she likes anything fried. So what was there not to like. She never could tell me exactly why she didn't like it; just that she didn't like it.

So the following conversation ensued:
Me: "Do you like it?"
Kaylea: "Yea, it's ok."
Me: "Then why aren't you eating it?"
Kaylea: "Well, it's not THAT good."
Me: "What don't you like about it?"
Kaylea: "I dunno."
Me: "There is nothing in there that you don't like. It should be a new favorite."
Kaylea: "Well, it's NOT."

Me: "You know, your weird!"

Kaylea: "Yea, I know! And I am proud of that!"
Me: "Well Baby, that's you, so own it!"