My first born........

I did a quick scan at my blog posts and realized I have not yet had one dedicated to my first born (well, not this year at least!). So, here's a little bit about my Hayley.

Hayley made me a mother and that is the single best thing in my life so for that, I thank her. She was a great first baby - a gift, really. She was happy, chubby, cute, and pleasant. And in the blink of an eye, she grew up.  How did my little baby girl go from this:

a sweet little Raggedy Ann (the outfit was made by my sister Monica and she used my actual Raggedy Ann doll's dress as a pattern) to this:

A grown-up girl, in a relationship, living on her own, working full-time, and generally being an adult? 

It's preposterous, is what it is. One day I was propping her chubby little form in a baby walker (you know, the dangerous kind with WHEELS before they invented the Exersaucer), and the next, this:

She's her own person, my Hayley. Always has been, always will be. When she was nine years old, she sat her dad and I down at the dining room table (the kitchen table was not formal enough) and calmly laid out a list of pros and cons as to why she should get her own room. 

She's always been a free spirit - outspoken, loud, trying new things and making new friends. She was very social as a child but now prefers more solitary pursuits, like binge-watching Netflix and playing with her cat. She begged for a cat from age two, so it's no surprise she's ended up a crazy cat lady! 

Hayley has never been one to shy away from the spotlight, and she maintains many friendships and "fanships" in her online world. 

She loves her family deeply...........

She will be a wonderful mother one day, but has recently been questioning her desire to parent a teenager. Ha! She's so good with babies...........

She's strikingly beautiful. Even though she came over last weekend wearing a Micky Mouse sweatshirt, fuzzy fleece pajama pants, hair flat and limp and wearing her glasses. I said "did you just get up?" and she informed me she had just run an errand. Gah!

She's always been comfortable on stage, so it was no surprise that she was a drama kid in high school!

She's my first born. I love her! 

Happy Birthday Hayley!!!

Hayley's birthday morning table....with Bismark donuts as her requested morning treat!

Make a wish! You're 17 now!

Harrison found a new use for the bow....

Her big present - the entire collection of "I Love Lucy" DVDs....

We spent the entire day watching I Love Lucy and just hanging out. We ate Ben & Jerry's ice cream in bed in my air-conditioned room and had a totally lazy day. We had mac and cheese for dinner and Jeff and Harrison went crabbing. They brought home a red rock crab and cooked it up for Hayley. Can't believe my "baby girl" is 17! Where does the time go?

Hayley's First Paycheck!

Yes, that's my daughter, holding her first (of hopefully many from here on out) paycheck! She was hired to do the nanny job I've been holding for the past year and a half after school gets out for the summer. In the meantime, she's picked up a few extra jobs nannying and thus earned her first paycheck. She wisely put most of it in the bank and kept some for spending. Yay, Hayley!

Relay for Life

Hannah and Tiffany

Hannah is tired!

Arlie just ran a few laps!

Jeff saying "hi"

Hannah, Arlie, Rylie and Hayley ready to relay!

Hayley and Hannah are participating in Relay for Life this weekend. Emphasis on the "lay" since it appears by these pictures that they are spending most of their time laying down! But they are actually walking, with a team, around a track for almost 24 hours (someone from the team is on the track continuously for the entire time). It's a big party, with live bands, food being sold, fundraisers, a luminaria ceremony, and a big sleepover in tents. Mostly I've only heard complaining about teenage girl drama and I ask myself, WHY do they do this? Oh yeah, to raise money for the American Cancer Society. But the money is already raised by Relay time, so the walk is just the icing on the cake - the celebration. And year after year, it's all about friend drama, someone's feet or knees hurting and them being cold at night. Sigh! I'm just glad I didn't volunteer to chaperone!

Just a quick trip......

Hayley, waiting in the car for me to finish shopping......

Today I went to pick Hayley up at school (because she still has not procured her own driver's license, thus I am still her taxi!), and as I left the driveway, sneaky Shade had slinked out and was about to go on a walk by himself in the neighborhood. I put the kebosh on that and lured him into the car - just a quick trip to the high school and a stop at the store. Well, upon arriving at the school, Hayley and I switched places so she could drive and she drove me to Fred Meyer to get some things. As usual, my list of six items grew to several when I realized I had several coupons about to expire which I wanted to use, so my trip took a little longer than expected, but all told I was in the store about 40 minutes. When I came back out, Hayley was hanging out, arm out the window, listening to some tunes. I tossed in the bags of groceries, which included a LOT of ice cream (coupons!) and she started the car. Well, she TRIED to start the car, but the car would not start. Huh? Dead battery? Just then a lady pulled up in a truck and I had Hayley ask her for a jump. She politely obliged and I decided this might be a good time to teach Hayley about a roadside emergency. Or not. First off, she got very loud and dramatic when I handed her the jumper cables (Oh my God, I am going to die! I'm going to get electrocuted! Do you really think I should do this? It's very dangerous! Mommy, mommy, mommy!). The lady suppressed a grin (or a grimace, I'm not sure) as I showed Hayley how to attach red to positive, black to negative. I sent her back in the car to turn the engine over. She exclaimed "the brake isn't working!" Duh. Tried to turn the car over and......nothing. I let the poor lady off the hook then, knowing it was going to take a lot longer to deal with. Next step? Call Jeff. After leaving the cables on and letting it charge a little longer, we were able to get it started. That's when we discovered Hayley had been listening to the radio, running the AC, AND had the lights on during the entire 40 minutes I was in the store. Hmmm.....lesson learned? The car battery is not an endless supply of power. It does get drained. And ice cream melts on a warm day in a hot car.

How to Treat Your Kids Like Dirt

Tonight Hayley yelled at me "You treat me like dirt!" This was in response to a twenty minute tirade about how I was going to meet HER needs tomorrow by taking her to the DMV to renew her permit (I'd rather poke my eyes out than spend hours at the DMV and am only doing it because it's one of those unwritten crappy duties of parenting, and besides, it's HER fault she let her permit expire and hasn't shown any initiative to get her license yet!), then get her to school for an event she apparently volunteered for (she volunteered my punchbowl, too, wonder if I'll ever see THAT again, plus told the committee they could borrow our tricycle - WTF? We have not had a tricycle nor a kid who was small enough to ride one for over seven years now!). She then prattled in my ear about not having a bag big enough to pack all her stuff in for our trip to Idaho (hello? five days.....you don't need a steamer trunk!). THEN, when I politely asked her to please quit bugging me (ok, I said "you're intruding on my time" and "shut up" when the word hole kept flapping), she said "Why are you so mean to me? You treat me like dirt!" What the F? Let me think this over. Last Sunday we had a lovely mother/daughter jaunt to Target where I spent nearly $250 on clothes for her (we went there to get a birthday present for her friend! AND she overspent on that too....). I'm taking her on a vacation for spring break. I bought tickets to see CATS while we're in Boise. I brought her presents from my recent trip to San Francisco. I pack her a lunch every day. I drive her EVERYWHERE even though she's going to be 17 in July and could easily have her license by now. I cook her dinner. I give her money when she runs out to Jamba Juice with a friend. I pay for untold amounts of t-shirts, school spirit gear and fees for plays, ASB and the like. I let her have sleepovers with multiple friends, AND I buy snacks. For those things I receive incessant screaming, insults, drama and the inability to do chores. Hmm.......I do believe things are out of balance here. But hey, if that's getting treated like dirt, I'd like to try it!

The Wild and Woolly West!

In the green room getting ready for the show.....

Hayley and Carly transform themselves into Thalia and Althea......

Hayley's fan club!

Althea and Thalia in character!

Carly and Hayley, BFF's......

Harrison gets a hug from Aunt Suzanne......

Arlie gets a hug from Hannah.........

Tonaiya and Harrison ready to enjoy the show!

Maddie and Hayley, friends since age 4!

Hayley receives flowers for an amazing performance!

My amazing kids!

Hayley gets congratulated by Aunt Suzanne......

Ma Judkins, Thalia, Rosemary and Bruce.............

Thalia gets her revenge on Effingham Leffingwell for poisoning her with arsenic!

Second night present - Diva, Ready for the Red Carpet!

Hayley goes to homecoming!

Mommy and Hayley

The back of her pretty dress......

Front of dress!

See how pretty?

My beautiful grown-up girl!

Jumping for joy!

Woot-woot it's homecoming!

I'm a gansta, I'm a straight-up G, the gansta life is the life for me!

Such a pretty dress, thank you Katlyn and Aunt Laurie for sending it!

Check out the new kicks!

Gorgeous girls Hayley and her friend Hannah Norton

Pretty girls, ah to be 16 again!

Hayley, Micheal, Hannah N.

The trio!

Looking good!

Hayley went to her first homecoming dance tonight. She's still not home as I write this and it's kind of weird to have my kid staying out past MY bedtime for a change! Her dress fit her like a glove and we got it from cousin Katlyn, who also wore it to homecoming. Her jewelry was borrowed from me, and I did her hair. She went with good friends Hannah and Micheal. They had dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse (like Benihana's) and then stopped by our neighbors' house where the rest of us were enjoying a potluck dinner and early Halloween celebration. Then, they went off to the dance, followed by movies at Micheal's house. (Should I be worried that Micheal's college-aged brother is there and he said Hayley was "hot"?). I trust she'll have a great time. She had to work pretty hard this week getting everything set up, since ASB is in charge of putting the dance on at the school. So, she spent last night cheering on the football team at the game (they won, 55-0, what a stomp!) and then decorated until midnight! She was back at the school at 8:30 a.m. decorating some more. And tomorrow she goes back to tear it all down. She will need some R&R after that! I can't believe she's old enough to go to a dance, to drive, to have her own life and stay out later than I can stay up! Geesh, where did the time go? My beautiful girl............