Sometime you just need to have a party . . . .

The weekend started out rather uneventful. We had Courtney and Christie this weekend so I picked them up Friday afternoon and we headed to Cameron's birthday party at Pump It Up. Cameron is the son of our friends Tia and Steven Surles.

Saturday, it was the bi-annual Buchanan family reunion. Larry had to work so the girls and I headed to Owasso, OK to spend the day with the family. It was nice to see everyone. Unfortunately, it seems the only time we see everyone is at the holidays or reunion. Once again, luck was on my side. I won the candy bouquet being given away at the reunion.

My luck has been almost scary lately. Every time I turn around, I'm winning something. I won't complain . . . but I find it very interesting.

The candy bouquet must have sparked something in Kayla because as soon as she realized I had won it, she decided we needed to have a party. When I asked her what the party was for, she said, "It will be a girls party!" She seemed so excited about this party she had planned in her head . . . I just couldn't bring myself to burst her bubble so Sunday afternoon, we had a party.

I made a quick trip to Dollar Tree and $5 later . . I had hats and blowers and plates and cups and balloons and a tablecloth. I picked up some sugar cookie dough and icing at Walmart as well as some chips and dip. We made sugar cookies and the girls decorated them. We snacked on chips and dip and passed the balloons around. It was a fun time for all of us.

Today, I head to Los Angeles for our annual Tax Return Review Meeting. Kayla was such a big girl when I dropped her off at school. She was trying to be so brave and not cry. Her eyes were all red from holding in the tears. I'll miss her.

It's BACK TO SCHOOL!!

Well . . . my sweet Kayla entered the world of First Grade today!! Wow how time flies! I LOVE her new teacher . . . Mrs. Chatman. She's a sweet lady with a very friendly disposition. Kayla seems to like her.

Her face looks kind of odd in this picture. Not sure why. Anyway, this is Kayla sitting at her spot in her new classroom. This day is big for another reason. It's the first class where she and Maddison Surles have not been together. They have been in daycare, preschool, Kindergarten, dance, and swim together. Now they must face the fine halls of Liberty Elementary on their own. Kayla was quite worried about this and upset when she found out that Maddison would be in Mrs. York's class. Of course, the first thing she noticed on "Meet the Teacher" night was that Mrs. York's classroom is directly across the hall from Mrs. Chatman's classroom. That seemed to make things better.

Today they had to take their favorite teddy bear to school. I'm interested to find out exactly what they did with the teddy bears they brought. In fact, I'm can't wait to find out how she liked first grade.

Unfortunately that will have to wait a bit longer as I have to attend a business dinner tonight. Thank goodness for my understanding husband. I feel so bad when I have to go on a business dinner on nights he is off early. Of course, he never complains and understands it just comes with the territory. I'm certainly a lucky woman.

I'm boring . . .

That's what Kayla told me this weekend. Lovely, huh? Guess Daddy gets to be the fun one.

This weekend was pretty relaxed. Saturday Kayla and I got up and ran some errands. Her Nintendo DS is "ghosting" (per the middle-aged video game nerd at Game Stop) which is gamer speak for "the screen ain't workin'". Anyway, the guy recommended a place that fixes these things so we took it there on Saturday. It's going to cost $55 - $65 to get it fixed. Ridiculous!! That's 1/2 of what the darn thing cost.

Then it was off to get Kayla's new dance shoes. She starts dance up again next week and this year she'll be doing jazz and ballet.

Then we headed off to the Broken Arrow library. I was SO excited to finally find the local library. I don't know why I hadn't looked for it sooner. I just always went to the one in Tulsa. Kayla and I had so much fun browsing the books. Kayla checked out 5 or 6. I love that she loves to read. It's always been a passion of mine and I hope that she finds the same joy in it that I have. While we were at the library, we saw a flier announcing that McGruff the Crime Dog was going to be at Walgreens. A local company was doing child identification kits and had brough McGruff along to entertain the kids.

So . . next stop . . . Walgreens

Kayla use to be so afraid of things like this. Not any more!! She saw McGruff and her face just lit up. She ran to hug him. It was so sweet. I love her innocence.

We left there and FINALLY headed home. Later that evening, our friends Tia and Steven Surles came over with their kids Maddi and Cameron. We all headed down to the neighborhood pool for a little (much needed) relaxation. The kids had a ball splashing around. Kayla and Maddi have known each other since they were babies. They've been in daycare, Kindergarten, dance, swim . . . . you name it . . they've been in it together. This year will be the first year they are not in class together and Kayla has already shed tears over that.

So . . that was Kayla's weekend with her BORING mom!

Kayla . . The Early Years

I've really been racking my brain to remember all the funny details of Kayla's life that I want to document. I've come up with a few more.

When Kayla was a little over a year old, we were living in an apartment while we waited for our new home to finish being built. Kayla had such fun there. She would sit is the one cabinet constantly.

She would walk around with a bowl on her head.

She would drag all the laundry out of the laundry hamper and just laugh and laugh . . .

and she'd run around in her hooded towel with it completely covering her face!

She's such a funny little kid!

Today on our way to camp, Kayla told me that I should let all the camp kids come to my work for a tour. She doesn't quite understand that an office full of tax accountants isn't exactly exciting. I guess one of the parents of one of the kids at camp is a judge so the kids got to go to the courthouse for a tour and it was "so cool". I hate to break it to her . . . but the only remotely interesting thing in my office is the candy jar.

We're Changing Directions Here . .

On my way to work this morning, it occurred to me that I've done an AWFUL job at documenting things about Kayla that I want to remember. Sure . . I have the photo albums and preschool art . . but I'm talking about the day-to-day stuff she does that I want to remember. So, I've decided to use this blog as my journal to remember all those "funnies".

Let's start with a few of the old memories I have. Kayla use to refer to nail polish as toelash. Guess she just combine "painting toes" with "nail polish". She's come to me and say, "Momma, I need some toelash." What's even funnier is she had me saying it too. I must have made a fool of myself on more than one occasion.

Sheeting - This is Kayla's term for holding her blankie (which is a 300 thread count pillow case) up to her nose. Apparently this is how toddlers and young children get "high". My mom about busted a gut the first time she heard Kayla say that. I specifically remember being in the parking lot of Walgreens getting ready to get out of the car and Kayla said, "Hold on. Let me get one more 'sheet'."

Of course, we can't forget Kayla's Starbuck's obsession when she was around 4-5 years old. She HAD to go to Starbuck's for chocolate milk. It might of had something to do with my coffee addiction.

One of my favorite memories of Kayla is the first time she cursed. I know . . bad mommy . . . but it really was hilarious. We were in the parking lot at Albertson's and I was trying to get her in the car. In the process, I dropped my keys and then proceeded to drop a whole bag of groceries. Well, without thinking, I yelled, "Oh shit". Trying to cover my tracks, I quickly said, "Oh . . er.. . I mean shoot. Oh, shoot!" Later that evening Kayla was playing in the living room and I believe she dropped something she was playing with. All of a sudden, I hear my precious 3-year old yell, "Oh shit". I quickly went to her and explained that that was a bad word and she should never use it again to which she replied so innocently, "So . . that's only a 'mommy' word?" My reply? "Yes Kayla. That's only a 'mommy' word.

And today (and what inspired me to start journaling these things) Kayla was in the back seat on the way to camp counting how many peace signs she was wearing. Kayla is currently obsessed with anything with a peace sign on it. She can spot them a mile away. Currently, I would guess that she no fewer than 10 shirts with some form of peace sign on them AND a pair of sandals with peace sign metal embellishments on them. It's so cute to watch her develop her own style (even though I secretly want her to get all her clothes at Gymboree until she's 20).

That's all for today. I plan to update this blog as I remember more things. I look forward to being able to look back one day and smile about all the silly and crazy things she does.

Could anything else go wrong??

Seriously.

Ok . . let me just get the Weight Watcher thing out of the way. This week was NOT good. My mom was here so I ate out a lot more than I should have. Gained a pound. Of course, I'm in that period before the period so some of that could be water. I'm going to be VERY good this week and get back on track.

Mom was here all last week and we had a nice time. We did a lot of shopping (as usual) and ate some of my Mom's good home-cooking. I do not enjoy cooking. In fact, I bought a hand towel this week that said "I have a kitchen because it came with the house". That about sums it up right there. Poor Larry!

So . . on to the crap that went wrong. There's the ongoing saga of Larry's van. He's been trying to fix the problem himself but he bit off more than he could chew. We are now $400 in and the problem is still there. I finally convinced him that it would be smart to take it to the shop and have them diagnose the problem. THEN . . if it's something he can fix he can do the work. Much better than just throwing money at an unknown problem.

Of course, the icing on top came on Saturday night. The underground drain decided to get clogged . . and back up all over the hallway. It was a M-E-S-S! After spending over $50 at Lowe's trying to find the right tool to clear the clog . . . we ended up having to go to Home Depot the next morning to get the "big guns" (i.e. commercial grade rooter). That solved the problem. In the midst of all the chaos, Larry tells me to turn on the washer so he can see if the water clears. What he didn't tell me is he never put the drain hose back in the pipe in the wall so water went all over the laundry room. Lovely. I seriously wanted to shoot myself.

And on top of ALL this . . . we had to fork over another $800 for Larry's dental work this week . . . another $125 for Spring Break for Kayla . . . and yet another God knows how much to pay our tax bill!! Oh . . and of course . . . we just bought 1700 square feet of flooring for the house.

Can you hear the echo in our checking account?? I told Larry that we are going to trim the fat in April and May to catch up from all this craziness. We've done more than our share to stimulate the economy. Now someone else can take a turn.

But . . today is a new day. This week WILL be better!

I'm in such a weird place right now . . .

I wish I could explain it better . . . but I just can't find the right words. I'm just all jacked up right now. I seem to go from feeling ok one moment . . . to feeling anxiety the next . . . to wanting to cry the next. I wish I could get some sort of control over this. It certainly doesn't help that I've been in constant pain from these darn kidney stones FOREVER! By the way, you ever seen one of those rocks??

Those things freakin' things hurt!!

On the Weight Watcher front . . the weirdest thing happened. So . . I weighed in on Monday and was down about 1/2 pound. Nothing to write home about . . but a loss none the less. Tuesday and Wednesday were not exactly my best WW days . . . and I went over a bit on my daily allotment. No worries . . . I still had my weekly allotment of 35 flex points so I dipped into that. All I can say is THANK THE LORD ABOVE for WW popsicles. They got me through my munchy phase without totally killing my points. Anyway, this morning I get up thinking, "I better just weigh myself now and assess the damage." I normally NEVER weigh but once a week but this morning . . . the weight loss gods spoke and I felt compelled. And . . . . .

I LOST ANOTHER POUND!!!

Now . . how the heck did that happen? Eat like a pig for two days and LOSE weight? I don't know how that worked out . . but I'll take it.

Mom is flying in on Saturday to stay with us for a week. I'm super excited as is Kayla. It's going to be big fun. Of course, it would have been even better if she had been here during Spring Break . . . but that's a LONG story.