Covering Books

Another year, another load of school books to cover. Last year Kayleigh covered the school books in secret for two reasons - 1. to help me and 2. she had never ever done it before and wanted to have a go.

I must say she didn't do a bad job either - she covered her books, Lucas' books and Terry's books. She even do some of Natassja's. Kayleigh did stuff a few and make them all crinkly, but she tried to swap these with the ones that Natassja had done perfectly but they got into a huge argument which ended with me threatening to throw all their school books in the bin!

I had never really let Kayleigh cover her books previously as I knew what a pain in the arse job it was and I didn't want my kids get as frustrated as I did when I had to do it. I hate contact - - - with a passion. Kayleigh somehow had the knack of doing it it well without swearing at it. I do remember however one year I bought Kayleighs and Natassja contact early and then they found it and played sword fights with it. By the time I had there books to cover it was next to impossible! Kayleigh spent a lot of time that year popping the bubbles on her books!

Helping Dad Build speakers

As most people know Terence builds speakers as a hobby/obsession and all through her life her Daddy was always in one project or another building or improving on his speakers. A few times she was naughty and poked the tweeter, but mostly Kayleigh enjoyed getting in and helping out. She would pass Terence the screws and glue when he needed them, hold the wood when required and give her dad the drill when needed. The thing she most like though, was listening to the speakers after they were finished. She would sit there with her eyes closed and tell Terence which speaker sounded better and the reason why, then Terence would make some modifications to the crossovers and then Kayleigh would sit down for another listening sessions. Kayleigh enjoyed these times she spent with her dad and Terence enjoyed his special girl helping him.

Kayleigh and Terences Speakers

Some photos of Kayleigh

There were taken by Kayleighs nanny the last time they went to the Carillion. I think Kayleigh was in Year 7 - towards the end of the year.

Roast Pork

Cooking a roast pork at the moment and brought back a few memories . . . .

Kayleigh LOVED roast pork - especially the crackling. In fact, one time she loved it so much that while it was cooking, she opened the oven and picked bits of crackling off. Eventually when I came to take it out of the oven, all that was left of the cracking was enough for the rest of us to have one piece of crackling each - Kayleigh had managed to eat ALL of the crackling on the pork, and she didn't even feel sick for it.

Kayleigh always helped when it cam to preparing the pork for roasting. I would slice up the skin and Kayleigh would oil and then rub the salt into it. She was always so keen to ensure that we had crunchy tasty crackling and moist tender pork ........

Alcohol

Terence and I have a rather open view on alcohol and children - I guess I got it from when I was growing up. We felt that if you allow children to taste the alcohol you are drinking then it isn't a mystery or 'taboo' to them and they are less likely to go out getting drunk as a teenager as they can taste alcohol responsibly in their own home, in a safe environment.

Kayleigh attitude towards alcohol depended on what is was. She didn't really like the taste of beer, unless it was a corona with lime - which she only had the bottom centimetre in the bottom of the bottle (the warm bit). Kayleigh quite liked the taste of Kahlua - mainly because I made Kahlua balls last christmas and she ate almost all of them. She also didn't mind the taste of Baileys. A couple of months before she passed away, I had bought a pack of citrus Vodka Cruisers - not something I buy many off, but I felt like it at the time. I came home and put them in the fridge and went outside with one while Terence had a beer. After finishing it, I cam inside to find that one had been opened and was half gone!!!!!!. I sat down with Kayleigh and Natassja and told them how disappointed I was, and they only had to ask first if they wanted a taste. Neither admitted to it, although I did suspect Kayleigh at the time (she wasn't a very good lier). I went back outside and did a bit of gardening and came back inside for a cold drink and low and behold the half empty bottle now only had a centimetre in the bottom!!!!

I looked Kayleigh straight in the eyes and asked her how the cruiser was - she said 'Yum!' and then realised what she admitted to :) I told her off again and she was a little remorseful - but not really, she liked that cruiser. I never did buy another one and Kayleigh never really drank anything else without asking first.

Creative Writing

I found this story that Kayleigh wrote today - I thought I might share it with you. I have left all her spelling mistakes in, and it is clear that the story is not quite finished.

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There I was on stage just came first in a gymnastics competition winning a trip to Hawaii.  I got home and packed everything in to my bags by 11.30am; I was out of the house and had just arrived at the airport.    

I got on the plane, it was really boring, I fell asleep for 7 hours and 53 minutes. Over the Pacific Ocean, the plane started to make funny noises, the pilot lost connection to the radio tower, and the plane went down straight into the ocean at incredible speed. The impact of the plane crash knocked everyone out. The plane started to sink really fast. All of a sudden one of the emergency windows opened and washed me out, the pressure was immense and I lost consciousness.

I don’t know how long it has been but I’m on this mysterious island, I walked for a couple of miles found this weird place with strange cows with funny patterns.   old fisher man approached me, I was thinking what strange tattoos where on him, he said ‘a long time ago there was a curse put upon this place making it strange and different’. I tried talking to the man . . .

I ran seeing more Animals lizard, cows, elephants, fish, dogs, koalas with wearied patterns than the fisher man said ’ now you know what I was talking about it is in the water a bacteria called Giardia’ I was really thirsty I ran to the pond drinking the  water with Giardia changing different colours I am  one of them.    

Starting School

Kayleigh, when she first started Pre-school was not scared and certainly was not afraid of her mum and dad leaving her - in fact she just walked in and said bye mum, bye dad and kept going. She did the same for Kindergarten too.

One thing I do remember clearly is how she encouraged and was happy when her brothers and sisters were starting school. She told them how great it was going to be and and how much fun it was. Kayleigh never made negative comments about it. I know when she started High School was the day that Lucas started Kindergarten and she she told him that she really wanted to be there when he started and was disappointed that she wasn't go to be there. When Kiara started Pre-school last year, Kayleigh got her out of bed, got her dressed, brushed her hair and made sure she was already to go, even before we got out of bed. Her enthusiasm and happiness is missed so much, especially as Kiara started Kindergarten this week and didn't have her big sister to hold her hand.

Keeping Warm

Kayleigh had a thing about being warm, I am not sure itf it was because she was small built but she had trouble maintaining tempertaure when it was cold. In Winter, Kayleigh would put on as many layers as she physically could- which normally meant a tank top, a t-shit, a jumpoer, a jacket and her scarf - and that was just in the house. At night she had two doonas under her and a minimum of two on top plus her hot water bottle and her little sister. Kayleigh had to have her bath hot - even in the middle of summer (and after had a cool shower to go to sleep).

Keeping Cool

The hot weather lately has reminded me of all those years of hot stinky nights when Kayleigh was impossible to get to sleep. After all, without the Air Conditioner which we installed 2 years ago, the house was really hot even at midnight. One day Natassja and Kayleigh were over heating while trying to go to sleep and got into a rather heated argument about nothing. I had had enough so I grabbed Kayleigh and dragged her into the shower and hosed her down with straight cold water - Natassja got the same treatment. Kayleigh squealed like a girl and tried to escape the shower but I closed the door and kept going until she calmed down. I then let her out, told her to 'drip dry' and go to bed. I must say that it worked and both the girls went to sleep quite quickly. Kayleigh learnt then that if she was too hot to sleep, she just jumped in the shower and cooled down and then went to bed still wet. Every hot summers night, she would be in the shower cooling down about 9:30 or else she couldn't go to sleep.