Ironing

For some reason, Kayleigh enjoyed doing the ironing. I don't know why, I personally cannot stand doing the ironing unless it is for a special occasion, or to do my work jacket. It was only in the last year that Kayleigh started doing ironing - but it wasn't everyone ironing - she was very selective. Mainly she would only iron her things and some of Kiaras'. She refused to iron any of the boys stuff - after all they probably didn't really need ironing - and because the boys annoyed her. On occasion, Kayleigh would iron some of her Dad's shirts, but mainly if she wanted to make herself look good, or if she wanted something. Kayleigh also ironed the pillow cases for her bed so they looked perfect, and, for some reason, the table cloth.

Photos from the school

I noticed that the Calwell High school website had a photo on it that had Kayleigh in it. A big thank you to Shane Harris for then finding a couple more. These photos were taken at the bushfire appeal at the start of year 7 (2009) where the students paid $$ to throw water at Mr Haidon. Kayleigh is the girl in pink.
We didn't take enough photos of Kayleigh over the years and we never got any school photos - I guess we thought we had all the time in the world . . . . .

Year 8: Maths

Kayleigh had Mr Greig for maths in Year 8. Kayleigh was still in level 3 Maths but her teacher said she was showing really good progress. For the first semester, Kayleigh was learning algebra and trigonometry. Both of these Kayleigh really seemed to 'get'. Her test result at the end of the first term she got 87% - which was the highest mark in any maths test Kayleigh had ever taken. Kayleigh was really proud of this and I was so proud of her because she had worked hard, and she had done it it by herself - she hadn't even asked me along the way how to do it. The funniest thing however, was that Kayleigh hated her maths homework and would slyly get her brother Terry to do it for her - he is a bit of a maths whiz and loves doing maths work. However since he hadn't yet come across algebra, Kayleigh had to teach him! That was a big buzz for Kayleigh - finally she knew something about maths that her younger brother didn't - and she had great joy telling him he got it wrong!

Year 8: Technology - sewing

Kayleigh was not very good at sewing - at all. We don't own a sewing machine and I am just not into the whole sewing thing, so Kayleigh was unfortunate to not actually know anything about sewing before she took this class. For sewing, Kayleigh had Ms Deo (?). The first task of the year was to make a cushion cover. Kayleigh, wanted to be different asked if she could make a cushion cover for a large cushion she got from her Nanny - it was 4 times larger than a normal cushion. Her teacher was OK with it as long as she bought enough material to use. They went on an excursion to Spotlight Queanbeyan and Kayleigh bought a very nice dark blue cotton material. Her reasoning for the colour - her doona cover was 'Chelsea' (English football team) and she wanted it to match. The teacher was even going to try and get a transfer to iron on. Kayleigh put a lot of effort into the cover - unfortunately when it was finished it was slightly too small, which meant the cushion peeped through and the stitching was a little strained, some of it was even started to give way.

The second task was to make pyjama bottoms. The day of the excursion Kayleigh was sick, so I went to Linmark in Civic and bought a nice pink flannelette material for her. When the teacher measured Kayleigh to see how much material she needed and what size she was going to have to make, her teacher was astonished to see how small Kayleigh was. She remarked to me that they normally don't have to make clothes that small around the waist in high school. Kayleigh caught up with the class quite quickly after she got the material (I was over a week late to get it), but she didn't quite finish them when she passed away. Someone did a quick job to complete them, but I am not sure which sewing was Kayleighs and which was someone else’s - either way it wasn't very straight around to cuffs. Kayleighs pyjama bottoms have never been worn, they sit in her cupboard with her other things and I don't think they ever will be worn.

Religion

Another subject that can cause contention between people - religion.

Now as a family we are not 'religious' people. I describe myself as probably atheist where as Terence believes in a 'god' but not sure. Kayleigh, I think, gave a lot of thought towards religion. She had a lot of questions about different religions - Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, and other religions. I think Kayleigh wanted to know which one most closely fitted what she believed. Kayleigh did believe in a higher being but was not happy with a 'god' that allowed children to die, mass killings because of religious causes and general mayhem in the world. Kayleigh thought that if there was a 'god' it would look after everything in the world, not just humans.

On all of her questions and reading into religion she choose Buddhism as probably the closest match to what she believed - although she didn't follow any religion. Kayleigh believed that you should be nice to everyone, that you were responsible for your actions and if you were nasty that it would come back to you. Kayleigh believed you should after the environment, and above all, your family came first.

Getting Kiara to Sleep

Kayleigh was the only one that could get her little sister Kiara to sleep - she seemed to have the touch. Each night she would lay down with her a sing to her and tell her stories. The songs that she sung to Kiara were not traditional lullabies or even childrens songs, the one Kayleigh sung to Kiara were:

• Castle on a Cloud (from Les Miserables)
• I dreamed a Dream (from Les Miserables)
• The Rose (Bette Midler)
• Eternal Flame (The Bangles)
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ( and our silly versions)

Around Christmas Kayleigh would sing Kiara Christmas Carols - with the favourite ones being:

• I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus
• Silent Night
• Away in a Manger

We all miss Kayleigh getting Kiara to sleep - especially as Kiara is now awake until 10pm because she won't go to sleep without her Kayleigh.

Kayleigh's Asteroid

Kayleigh's Grandpa is a amateur astronomer, who through the course of the years has discovered several small asteroids. The discoverer of asteroids gets naming rights of the asteroid after it has been conformed as a new discovery. After Kayleighs death, her Grandpa decided to name one of the asteroids he discovered after her - 202614. We chose that one because the asteroid number had a '14' in it - the date Kayleigh was born. So every time I look into the night sky, I say a silent hello to my girl.

Official notice of the asteroids named in July 2010

Valentines Day

I know I should have written this on the 14th of February.......

Valentines Day has never been a 'big' day in our house - flowers, a box of chocolates to share and dinner with the kids. It never meant much to Kayleigh in primary school either - she didn't have many friends and only spoke to a few of the boys about common interests. When she got to Year 7 however,  it changed a bit for her. Valentines Day is very early in the year, she had only been at school for a couple of weeks, not enough to really get to know any one new and she received quite a few things from several different boys for Valentines day. There was a couple of roses, a box of chocolates and , from one boy, a very nice silver butterfly clip for her hair. I think Kayleigh said the boys name was Brendan who was in her Aspire group. He also gave her a matching hair band. Kayleigh wore it everyday - it was quite a nice hair clip , until i explained that by wearing it she may give the impression that she ''liked'' this boy. Kayleigh quickly gave up wearing it everyday.

For Valentines Day in Year 8 again she got a couple fo flowers and chocolates - I don't know who from, but it did make her feel welcome at the school, something she had never felt at Primary school. and I think she liked the attention!

Tomato Cricket

We moved into our current house when Kayleigh was 2, the next summer we planted tomatoes and vegetable in a vege patch where our carport now is. The vegetables grew really well there and the tomatoes, Terence grew them up and over several trelleses. Over time the tomatoes were ripening beautifully, it looked as we were going to get a great crop that year....then...........

Kayleigh and Natassja got a small cricket set for Christmas with a bat and a set of stumps. They didn't really get the game of cricket, but they got the idea of hitting round balls with the cricket bat. One day Terence came outside to find tomatoes all over the vegetable patch, and thought 'thats weird'. We originally thought it must have been birds or something until the next day we walked around the corner of the house to find Kayleigh, cricket stump in hand, practising her ball skills on the tomatoes. as soon as she saw Terence, she dropped the stump and bolted. Alas it was too late for for poor tomatoes :(

Those little physical charcteristics

Sometimes I think about those physical characters that made Kayleigh unique. And that's on top of sticky out ear, the big freckle on her nose and her big hands. Things I remember are:

* The bridge of her nose was the same level as her forehead, it didn't dip in before coming out for her nose.
* Her chicken pox scar on the edge of her eyebrow
* A freckle on her nipple (yes a little odd!)
* Her second toe was much longer than her big toe - and I mean LOTS longer
* Her eyes slanted up slightly, which was even more noticeable when she was asleep
* Her 6 pack and flat flat stomach - genetic from her Dad
* The gap between her front teeth and the unevenness of colour on her front tooth
* Her fingers didn't bend backwards at all, they were quite stiff, unlike mine, more like her dad
* When she made a fist, her index and middle fingers stuck out, the fist was not flat

It's funny what you think of......

Hands and fingernails

Kayleigh had big, strong hands , not petite slender ones that I thought she should have had considering her size. I always commented every time she held my hand on how big they were. Kayleigh, from the age of about 7, always had callouses on her hands from climbing and playing on the monkey bars. Her hands were rough and the skin was tough. She was strong enough to crush her Dads hand with her grip. Playing mercy with her Dad was one of her favourite games as there was a good chance she was going to win!

The one things that always annoyed me though, was that Kayleigh was a finger nail biter. I don't think i ever cut her fingernails as she was always biting them down to the smallest point. In fact she bit her finger nails so much in primary school that she got infections in her fingers and I would have to use a needle to pierce the skin around her nails and get all of the infection out. You would have thought that this would have stopped her, but no, in another 3 months she would get another infection. Kayleigh finally stopped biting her nails about half way through Year 7 - i think it was because she was happier, but her fingernails didn't grow much by then. Kayleigh proudly showed off her 3mm of fingernails that she had managed to grow - without them being bitten or broken.

Going to Calwell before School

When Kayleigh started at Calwell High, we clearly said that she was NOT to go to Calwell shops, but as we found out she was not the 'good' girl we thought.

About a week before she passed away, Kayleigh told me that she  was going early towards the end of year 7 to meet a boy who walked with her down to calwell shops and he would buy her things from Woolworths like Zappos and other lollies. I have no idea who this boy was, she did mention a name but a never had a chance to ask her again.

Natassja then told me that on the first day of Year8, Kayleigh convince Natassja to walk with her down to the shops before school so they could buy some lollies (they were cheaper than the ones at Theodore Shops). They went down and got back 5 minutes late - but that was OK as everyone was meeting in the hall and lots of people were late. Kayleigh convinced Natassja to go a couple of other times, but not many as we only let them leave home at 8:45, not leaving them enough time to go.