Hayley's Sweet Sixteen!

She's driving now! Yikes!

Lexie Bedell, Hayley and Haley Bedell. The two Ha(y)ley's have known each other since they were six weeks old!

Catwoman!

Power to the People!

Opening gifts!

Mermaid in the lily pads!

Trying not to fall in the lake!

Trying to catch a baby duck in a bucket!

Haley and Hayley taking the plunge!

Rylie and Arlie

Stephanie Church, Hannah, Hayley, Haley Bedell, Harrison, Lexie Bedell - these kids have grown up together since babyhood!

Laura Gerber, Hayley and Maddie Turner. Friends since childhood!

Arlie takes the plunge!

Most of the party group getting ready to make a huge splash!

Jeff!

Playing in Martha Lake

Her first $100 bill!

Stunner shades!

New scarf!

Her "cake" - Bismark donuts!

The birthday fairy came!

We had a great 16th birthday for Hayley. It started out, as usual, with the "birthday fairy" table in the morning, including presents and Bismark donuts. Then, we went to get pedicures, opened her first checking account and later, headed to a big party at Martha Lake complete with hot dogs on the grill, swimming (even though it was not even 70 degrees!), and cupcakes and presents. Afterward we headed back to our house for s'mores, movies, ice cream and a big sleepover party. Pancakes in the morning and then lunch with the Bedells at The Rock followed. We then came back and reminisced over old home movies, watching the Bedells and Gordon kids growing up together. It was a great couple of days! Hayley is driving with a permit now, and soon to get her license. Scary! Can't believe my baby girl is 16!

Hayley at Camp K

So, I have so many pictures of the weekend, I decided to do a post on each kid. Hayley is a total princess camper! She took her hair dryer and flat iron and took a shower each day (after sleeping in till noon or later). She even took her makeup! On the first day there, she attempted to get into the hammock. You can see the results here. Fail! She did spend some serious outdoor girl time whittling a stick. And she was in charge of the camera for a while, which resulted in this nice shot of her flippie floppies! The sitting pretty photo was taken by yours truly and shows my pretty 15 year old "little" girl!

National Honor Society

Hayley was inducted into the National Honor Society last week. She had to have a 3.5 GPA and show "character" in her essay. Way to go Hayley! Here are some photos of her and her best friend, Laura, at the ceremony.

My babies.....

How cute are they?

Sisters!

Loved these..........

A Few Faces of Hayley!

Hayley!!!

Vampiress!

Hayley tried out her makeup last night for her vampire costume and it was great! She won these "real" looking vampire teeth in a trivia contest at Hot Topic and they were a great match. They looked so real. Here are some photos of her trying out her vampire look for Halloween......

Pan de Muertos

Hayley is in second year Spanish this year and for extra credit last night she made pan de muertos (a 3 hour process!). Today is "El Dia de Los Muertos" - a Mexican holiday meaning "day of the dead". So, she brought home a recipe for pan de muertos and went to work on it around 7 p.m.! It turned out great (basically a braided bread topped with "bones" of bread and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar). This morning I whipped up some Mexican hot chocolate for her to take along with it to school for their celebration. This was Hayley's first attempt at bread! A lot of her baking efforts haven't been so successful (like the time she used powdered sugar instead of flour in a cookie recipe!). But this one was good. I failed to get a photo of the actual bread after it was baked, but I did catch come great ones of Hayley (the flour on the face was added for comic effect!).

Proud mama!

I was thinking this morning that parents are always eager to feel pride and a sense of accomplishment when their child does something great, but quick to avoid responsibility when their child does something wrong. So, I'm not sure if parents can take a lot of credit for the way they've raised their child (because good parents can raise a difficult child and rotten parents can somehow manage to produce a responsible child from time to time), but I have to say I feel so proud of my daughter right now.

Last night Hayley went to the mall with a friend. This particular friend has been troublesome from the start, with ups and downs happening all the time. Just not an easy friendship. But Hayley went with her and was planning to spend the night at this friend's house. At one point, Hayley called me, all excited, because she had won a "Twilight" trivia contest at Hot Topic (the prize - authentic looking vampire fangs! HA). She had to borrow her friend's phone because hers wasn't working. About an hour later, I get a call from an unknown number. It's Hayley again, this time on a stranger's phone. She's calling me to say her friend has just stolen a wallet from the store and after repeated attempts to get her to take it back, Hayley finally took the wallet and returned it to the store herself. She was calling to be picked up because she no longer wanted to hang out with this friend. I was so happy she had done the right thing, and so disappointed in her friend for putting Hayley in this situation (not to mention for making a really bad choice!). I immediately went to pick her up. Hayley's wallet was still in her friend's purse, so this friend and her mom stopped by a few minutes later to return the wallet. The mother apologized and I told her Hayley could no longer hang out with her daughter. This was the final straw for me. I've almost never interfered in my kids' friendships figuring it's their job to work things out, but this time I drew the line. The past history with this girl has been nothing but trouble and she has never been a true friend to Hayley. It's just not worth it. I told Hayley she needs to set her boundaries and seek out true friends. And people who are like-minded (clearly shoplifting and juvenile hall are not part of Hayley's plans!). Sadly, this friend may be sent to live with her dad as she has been in so much trouble. I feel very sorry for this girl and hope she gets the help she needs (and the firm parenting she needs). And I'm very proud of my daughter for doing the right thing and being ok with it, even though she was ridiculed ("you're such a mom") and told she was uncool. She's a good kid with a good moral foundation and I know it will take her far in life. But you don't often get opportunities to see your kids' moral side in action and to know she did the right thing makes me think we must be doing something right. Way to go Hayley. Mommy loves you!

A Day in the Life of.........me!

So today was a barrel of monkeys. First, I took my van in for service - an oil change, tire rotation, and replacement of my defective stereo system. The dealership is located on the infamous "highway 99" which, if you're not from around these parts, also doubles as the main drag for streetwalkers and drug dealers (not that I have personal experience!). So, there I was, faced with two hours of waiting time, when I decided to take a jaunt down to the nearest Starbucks (several blocks away) and bide my time. On the way, I decided to stop in at "Value Village". Again, for those of you non-natives, Value Village is basically a thrift store, set up like a department store. I perused the racks (and for some reason, it seemed really skeevy, not like my favorite rinky dink thrift shop up the street). Anyway, I bought a couple of things and continued my journey to Starbucks. As I clomped down highway 99, swinging my Value Village bag a guy in a sports car honked at me and gave me a big smile! Can you believe it? Solicitious jerk. Oh well, I made it to Starbucks unperturbed and bided my time.

After, I had just enough time to get to the high school and pick up Hayley. We were off on an adventure! It was "Get your driver's permit day". Oh joy. The DMV is dismal on ANY day, and apparently Friday afternoon is the most popular and busy day, as we pulled our number (496) and they were serving somewhere in the 420's. So, we waited. And waited. Thank God we brought books. Our literary reverie was broken by a sudden, vivacious rendition of "The Mexican Hat Dance". It was a cell phone. Belonging to Juan. Or Pedro. Or Enrique. Minutes later, another cell phone rang (this time to a lively country tune) and was answered by a woman (older than me, remember that because it's important later) who had a very loud and personal conversation. "Did you know I was pregnant? Oh, yeah, but I miscarried it, and it freaked me out a little bit, even though I didn't need it. Oh, and then? They removed this cantaloupe sized tumor in my ovary! Yeah, my ovary. They're gone now. They took out my ovaries." And so on. Soon after, the very large gentleman next to me started to make small talk. Apparently he had been waiting since noon to have a driver's test (this was 2 p.m.) and was "bored". He said the seats were killing him and turned and twisted until he adjusted himself comfortably. Unfortunatley, his comfort was my undoing! As I turned toward him to answer his question, I shuddered to find that I could see his........ahem........MANHOOD hanging out of his shorts. Oh yes, the family jewels. The nads. The boys. In all their glory (and let me tell you, it was NOT glorious!). What I would not have given to have a (large) pair of Fruit of the Looms in which to house this guy's junk. But how do you, politely, tell a very large man that his stuff is better off contained in whitey tighties? Ick. Thankfully, he soon ambled off and was out the door. Poor Hayley. I'm pretty sure she didn't glimpse the indiscretion (although I whispered the infraction loudly to her as it happened). But on the way home she speculated what would have happened if his guys had gotten stuck to the plastic seat in the heat of the day (haha - kudos to her for having a sick sense of humor!). Hard to beat (pardon the pun) the flasher, but then a lady appeared. I'll call her Dottie. She sported a bright red dress with white polka dots, a matching polka dot belt, a black and white polka dot purse, and matching polka dot earrings. She was spot on (hahaha!)!

Soon enough Hayley was up for her photo. Minutes later she was presented with her learner's permit, which she inspected and promptly said "eww, that is a disgusting picture!" I reminded her that having a horrendous photo was a requirement of the DMV and we exited that stale, horrid environment, FINALLY. Whew. Now, we have to do it all again in a year when she gets her "real" license. As we got in the car, she asked "can I drive home?" to which I gave her a resounding NO! She has not even been behind the wheel of a car. She has no idea how to drive. And I just got her legal permission to do it! What was I thinking?

Hayley "tris" not to fall off her bike!

A couple of weekends ago, Hayley fell off my bike while riding it around an RV park. She had to push the bike back to the camper while bleeding from her knee and hand. A few years ago, she fell off her bike and took all the skin off her leg from knee to shinbone and refused to ride her bike for a year. So, you can imagine the bike was Hayley's biggest challenge (staying upright, that is - haha, just kidding Hayley!). But Hayley had total confidence in the triathlon. No worries for her! She bravely refused a wetsuit for the swim in Duck Lake (ewww........part of the reason I wear one is to NOT touch the ickies!) and pulled ahead of everyone to be the first swimmer out of the water. She transitioned fast to the bike (watch that towel fly!) and quickly led our pack of kids in the biking. I barely saw her transition and then she was off for the run at lightning speed! She came in first overall of our kids, sprinting across the finish line to receive her medal. All in all, a pretty professional race - she looked good in all events! When asked if she would do it again, she said "maybe" a little hesitantly. C'mon Hayley, after that performance? She's ready for a sprint tri!

Happy Birthday Hayley!

Hayley turned 15 today! Time flies.........I can't believe I have a child going to high school next year! I still remember so vividly the day she was born - what I ate for dinner just before I went into labor, the drive at 5 a.m. to the hospital, the part of the labor when I grabbed Doug by the hand and said "go get that guy who was sweeping the floors out there - he can deliver my baby!" I remember the intense pain (drug-free!), and "back labor". I remember my sister's boyfriend asking me, after it was all over, "did you see God?" - ha! It was not THAT bad, but........well, ok, it was. I was sure I might die. But mostly I remember when I found out I had a little girl! I was SO excited. All my life I wanted a little girl and the realization that I now had one was amazing. I was so sure I was having a boy, I almost had a hard time conceptualizing a girl. I just remember how happy I was and I remember dressing her in her tiny, all-white outfit to bring her home. I remember walking in the door of our duplex and thinking "now what do I do?" I remember taking her out for the first time (5 days old, we went to Coco's to eat lunch and I was so paranoid about putting her down on the booth!). Now she's almost driving age. She wants a My Space. She wears eyeliner and miniskirts and texts faster than any person I know. Sigh! She's my girl. Happy Birthday Hayley!!!

Hayley

This is how Hayley spent our camping trip away. She read and re-read the same book (which she had already read!) and didn't even get a drop of water on her at the water park! She did spend a lot of time riding my bike around and around the RV park. That ended abruptly when she came limping back, pushing the bike, and explained she had crashed! She got cuts on her hand and knee and her hip. Good thing we have a first aid kit in the camper! She was a champion when it came to packing up and unloading the car when we got home. Thanks Hayley!