Kayley’s been giving me a lot of trouble lately. Mostly typical teenager stuff. She’s had a hard time moving and starting high school with thousands of people she doesn’t know. She’s made some friends, which is great, but she’s had a really hard time figuring out how to make her way as a freshman in high school. Hard to watch, honestly, but I know it’s something she has to go through, just like we all did when we were fourteen.

But! I’m writing today to tell you something she’s doing that’s completely awesome. After a schedule adjustment, she ended up with an open period – and during that period, she’s going to work as an aide for the special needs kids at school. She’s SO excited about this! As you know, Kayley has a real way with Pablo, and she’s finding that it’s easy for her to relate to the older kids who are similar to him. I think it’s going to be win-win. Kayley will get credit for working there (which she desperately needs!), she’ll gain some sense of how good it feels to be kind to those who are often treated cruelly, and the kids there will have a blast spending time with HER. She’s patient and compassionate and funny, and she’s already really popular among the kids she’s going to be spending time with. Today is her first day, and I can’t wait to hear how it goes!

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• October 20, 2009 — Apple: 1, Tooth: 0.
• October 2, 2009 — Bendawhat? Bendawho? Bendafan!
• August 17, 2009 — We’re Fresh, We’re Fine, We’re the Freshmen of ‘09!
• June 4, 2009 — Purplicious.
• May 28, 2009 — Fish oil, fish oil, eat it up, yum!

And, I’m having lunch with my sister. Yippee! Have I mentioned in the past five minutes how grateful I am that my sister is such a huge part of my life? We have the best sisterfriend relationship. She’s my best friend, and I’m soooooo happy she’s right down the street instead of two states away.

I thought to myself, surely I have a picture of my two favorite people together, just sitting in my Flickr account. Well, I did, but it’s from Halloween. Ha! I know I have better pictures of Kim and Paul together, but this one cracked me up!

Love them.

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• January 18, 2007 — Happy Birthday, Little Girls!
• October 26, 2006 — Reminiscing days gone by…
• April 20, 2009 — Pablo on Autism 151
• March 2, 2009 — Let’s hear it for MONDAY! Woooo, hoooo.
• January 3, 2009 — It’s 69 for old people.

I saw the flyer for the Powder Puff Derby a few months ago and thought, fun! Mallory and Paul can decorate a little car together and race it with her troop – it’ll be a great activity for the two of them. They even have a sibling heat, so Pablo can race a car as well. So, I ordered two car “kits.” Imagine my surprise when I opened the boxes and discovered that it consisted of a block of wood, four nails, and four plastic wheels. Um…that’s it? What the hell do we do with these?

I actually found a site full of Derby Secrets and Tips – but the topics are more in the line of, “Make Your Own Reflective Windows from Old Credit Cards” and “How to Make Sure Axles are Straight.” I don’t see any articles titled, “How to Make a Little Car Out of a Piece of Nondescript Wood.” I have a feeling our cars are going to be the hoopties of this race!

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• January 25, 2010 — Powderpuff Derby Update

In other news, my nephew Casey spent several months in South America, bumming around with a friend of his and taking amazing pictures of the scenery (and women.) He just got back into town a couple of nights ago and the kids and I went to see him last night. Gosh, we’ve missed that kid! Not that we would have seen him more often than we did if he hadn’t left town, but he just seemed so inaccessible and FAR away when I knew he was in Argentina! I’m so glad he’s going to be home for Christmas and get to spend time with his family.

And all of a sudden, it’s noon. Guess I’d better do some of that stuff I mentioned!

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• March 2, 2010 — Wow, a year already, huh?
• May 6, 2009 — Spring Cleaning! (Sucks!)
• April 17, 2009 — And now I’m drinking my dinner.
• April 15, 2009 — Wednesday already?
• February 12, 2009 — Wiped out.

I figured I should, y’know, pop in and post something of actual content here on the ol’ blog. It’s been awhile. I know. I’ll do a quick bulleted list.

• Thanksgiving was delightful. My sister came over the night before and we drank wine, watched TV, made pumpkin pie, and had some nice sister-time. That’s really at the top of my “I’m Thankful For…” list: my sister being back in my life.
• The big twins are going on a field trip to the museum soon. I don’t think they even realize this yet, but I do, and I’m SO EXCITED FOR THEM! I remember being a little kid, growing up in Denver, and taking the annual field trip to the Museum of Natural History. (Now it’s called the Museum of Nature and Science. I have no idea why they changed the perfectly fine name, but they did.) My kids will be thrilled about riding the school bus across town. I always hated that part, since I rode the bus over an hour each way to and from school. My kids aren’t growing up in the age of mandatory bussing, so it’s still a novelty to them. Bring on the dinosaur bones!
• We’re coming up on ONE YEAR in our new house. I guess after December 27th, I won’t be able to call it The New House anymore. It’s been fun celebrating all our first holidays here. Now that I’ve got Thanksgiving under my belt (went off without a hitch, except I never did find my turkey platter) I’m ready for Christmas. Bring it on! I’ve already got my tree up, and we’ve got the house decorated with brand new LED lights. I think it’s safe to say that while we may not have the most lights up, our house is definitely the BRIGHTEST on the block! Those LEDs are kind of crazy bright, aren’t they? I love it.
• Speaking of Christmas, I went out on Thursday morning (at 10 am, not 3 am!) to Christmas shop at Walmart. Scored a few good deals, I did. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to embrace the notion of leaving my bed in the middle of the night to stand in line out in the cold with a bunch of strangers so I can save a few bucks. But hey, whatever works for you.

I’ve already wasted half my morning dicking around on Facebook and trying to figure out my new Electric Cookiepress. I guess I’d better embrace MONDAY and get my shopping list made. Have a wonderful day!

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• December 12, 2008 — How much do we love Santa?
• October 17, 2006 — The Pumpkin Patch

Halloween was SO MUCH FUN. We had blizzard weather here in Colorado last week, and the kids were home from school on Wednesday and Thursday. I spent all day Thursday making their KISS costumes, and I think they came out super cute!

Friday, the weather was gorgeous, and they went back to school, thank goodness – didn’t want to miss the Halloween party at school! The weather was so beautiful all weekend, the kids did lots of sledding, snowman building, and just outdoor playing – in shorts and snowboots. Got to love Colorado!!

Here’s one of Pablo out in the backyard, BAREFOOT in the snow. Little stinker! He learned how to climb that tree in the background too, and I had to get him down from it about five times.

Oh, and here’s one of Paul and me at a Halloween party…festive! Look, even the hoax balloon from the Heene’s made an appearance! Yay, Balloon Boy!

Fun, fun weekend, but mama is Halloween’d out! I took down all the Halloween decorations yesterday and I’m SO ready to settle back into our boring everyday routine! Bring on Christmas!!

Edit: Whoops! Just realized I didn’t post any pictures from the other Halloweenie stuff we did…lookie here:

From our neighborhood Halloween party:

Kayley really enjoying herself:

And K and T carving pumpkins:

(She was annoyed at the kids’ school party, because little kids kept telling her they liked her “costume” and her funky hair!)

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• September 25, 2009 — Fall Break!
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• November 14, 2008 — It’s snowing!
• November 3, 2008 — Frankenberry and Count Chocula.

Besides Kayley, Nikki has been the sickest little one in the house. Her temperature hasn’t dipped below 100 since Monday. Right now, it’s just hovering around 100, but it has been up near 104 a few times. She’s been down for the count! Poor bug. The other kids have been a little sick – pretty up and down, really – but not too bad. And I’ve had a rough few days myself. Basically, the only one who dodged the bullet is Paul, since he gets to LEAVE every day!

I think we’re turning a corner, though. It’s beautiful outside, and the kids are feeling almost 100% like themselves again. I think we’re going to drink in some sunshine and fresh air while we rake leaves. I’m certain the exercise will do us all some good. Kayley disagrees with me on this, but I’m going to bully her into it. Girlchild is NOT a fan of the rake.

Get well, everyone! Come on, now! Halloween’s a coming! I’m not making four KISS costumes for nothin’!

Edit: Whoops, forgot to mention the whole reason I sat down to post. Pablo is NOT sick. I repeat, Pablo is NOT sick! My boy who always gets SO sick all the time, who is never far from the nebulizer when illness strikes – he didn’t get sick this time! The pediatrician gave us a prescription for Tamiflu, as a preventive measure – due to his reactive airway disease. I read about the crazy side effects (including, ack, hallucinations!) but ultimately decided that the benefits outweighed the risks. He’s taking the Tamiflu, and we haven’t seen ANY bad side effects so far – not even a tummy ache. He HAS been a little wired, though. Anyway – just wanted to share that, in case you’re wondering about giving Tamiflu to a child with autism, or to a child with reactive airway disease. He’s doing great.

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• January 22, 2010 — Why can’t I be like Allison DuBois?
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• April 1, 2009 — Reactive Airway Disease SUCKS!
• October 7, 2009 — Meh.
• April 10, 2009 — Shouldn’t I be losing my mind right about now?

Yeah, so those of you who have read my blog for the past nine years, who watched Kayley graduate from Kindergarten and head off to 1st grade…it’ll blow your minds to realize that Kayley is starting her freshman year in one week!

We stood in endless lines getting her ID picture, her locker, and having her hearing and vision checked. She took freshman placement testing last week, since she’s new to this school. Today, we picked out her classes and electives. And in a couple of days, she’s going to go hang out with the other SEVEN HUNDRED incoming freshmen at orientation.

I’m not ready for all of this! And neither is she! The good news is, high school is CLOSE BY. Bye bye, long car rides!

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• February 26, 2010 — My daughter: MADE OF AWESOME.
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• April 10, 2009 — Shouldn’t I be losing my mind right about now?
• February 13, 2009 — Hey, small world.

The party was OUTSTANDING. If you weren’t here, well – you missed out, dude. Paul worked for a solid month building his badass DJ booth, which he designed to match the existing pieces in our finished basement. As you may know, the previous owners put hundreds of hours into finishing this basement, to include custom built-in cabinetry, a wet bar, and a bathroom complete with a URINAL. Total guy zone. The only thing missing was a massive DJ booth that makes the bar itself look like a toy kitchen. And Paul did such a phenomenal job – his work impressed everyone!

And for the party, we went all out! Paul even bought glowstick necklaces and drink stirrers for everyone. It looked like a rave. Ha! I saw kids looking like LL Cool J, covered in necklaces. Well, if LL Cool J wore glowstick necklaces. You get the idea. He also bought a whole set of tooter shot tubes and Jagerbomb shot cups. And did I mention he constructed an actual STAGE for singing karaoke? It was downright delightful.

We invited every neighbor on our street and all of our friends – and this house felt like it was literally pulsating from the energy of all the music and people and spilled Jagermeister. I can’t believe how many people were here, especially considering that dozens of our friends were off camping or celebrating their wedding anniversary or on vacation. It was crazy times!

And someone decided to smash Kayley in the face with her slice of cake, which was really not very nice. She was pretty upset about it. But damned if that incident didn’t result in one of the funniest pictures I’ve ever seen!! I laughed for 30 seconds straight when I got that one off the camera. Sorry, baby girl.

And hey, you’ll never believe this shit. I was cleaning up the day after the party and guess what I found, embedded in the rug near the door? A tooth. A human tooth. Someone lost their TOOTH at my party. How does that even happen? If you were over here and you’re missing a tooth, holler at me. I saved it for you! Check out the party pictures on Facebook right here.

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• October 19, 2008 — Debbie Downer here.
• August 1, 2007 — Rabbit, Rabbit.
• January 18, 2010 — The Itty Bitties Turn Five
• August 30, 2009 — Pablo and Mallory turn SIX.
• August 2, 2009 — Sign of a Good Party: Finding People’s Teeth!

I’ve actually done a few fun things since I last posted. On Friday, my sister came over and we took all the kids to the pool. After we splashed around for an hour or so, the clouds rolled in and the thunder and lightning chased us home. After the rain passed, Kim and I sat in the driveway drinking beer and watching the kids ride their bikes and scooters. And my sister had just enough beer that she thought it would be a great idea to ride Mallory’s bike. I know it’s unfair of me to mention all of this without including a picture, but I haven’t retrieved the picture from my phone yet. It’s coming, don’t you worry. And later that night, one of my dearest friends, John, stopped by for a few hours and we bullshitted with him. He’s known Kim and me forever, although he hadn’t seen Kim in probably fifteen years, so that was lots of fun, catching up.

On Saturday, Paul decided we needed a Family Fun Day, so we headed down to Larkspur for the Colorado Renaissance Festival. That was pretty fun. I have to say, though – it’s set up lame. Especially if you have kids. The bathrooms are few and far between, and they’re RUSTIC to say the least. The food vendors are set up in such a way that you need to plan to stand in half a dozen different lines – Paul stood in line once to buy us all sodas, then stood in another line to get fries, and then in a third line to get us some bratwursts. And the picnic tables are just thrown around, willy nilly, all over the hillside – so you can expect to be sitting at a table that’s literally on a slope, so much that you can’t even set down your (non-lidded, of course) cup of Pepsi. I was annoyed by all of it. I think the kids are a bit young, yet, to appreciate it – although they did enjoy riding an elephant! I know they want to keep it “authentic” and rustic, but for those admission prices, I would appreciate at least a few modern day conveniences. Would it kill them to level ONE area, put some rustic-looking shade canopies over it, and throw some picnic tables under it? Seriously? I’ll be sitting over there with my kids, while everyone else trips on tree roots and gets tangled up in their long skirts and cups of mead. Also? Hundreds and hundreds of cars parked in rows in a field. No waymarkers whatsoever. Wouldst though kindly directeth me to thy Chevy Tahoe? Huzzah!

So, here were are. Tuesday. The kids are doing a fine job of picking up the study so we can head over to the park. And they’re starting to complain about wanting food, so I guess I should go make lunch. Off we go!

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• April 20, 2009 — I’m stalking you, Tokyo Joes!
• April 17, 2009 — And now I’m drinking my dinner.