Growing Girls With Purpose
May 17th, 2011 — Family Life
In beautiful April,
Flowers Bloom,
And babies are born.
Summer is almost here.
It’s getting even hotter,
As spring passes by.
The sun stays out,
while gloomy clouds go away.
Kids run around playing,
Instead of inside their houses.
Birds start chirping,
The snow on the mountains melt,
Grass gets greener every day.
And school is almost out!
Ainsley’s poem was chosen for the National Young Writers of America Anthology. I am a proud Mama.
September 14th, 2010 — Family Life
Ainsley saved enough money to buy herself a mini laptop computer. She’s been emailing her friends and cousins, since we moved from Texas.
I didn’t want her emailing from my new Macbook. Nor did I want her using my computer to play Justin Beiber songs all day long and surfing Justin Beiber YouTube videos. So, I encouraged her to save her money and buy her own.
I am inclined to pay her for doing chores that I adamantly dislike – vacuuming for one. Can’t stand it. Bathrooms don’t bother me so much, but I get too much on my plate and need someone to help me out before we entertain guests.
So, she saved, for about a year, and bought a new knock-off on ebay a few weeks ago. The trouble is, buying a mini-laptop because it is cute and pink is an amateur mistake. She’s used to the lightening fast speed of my computer, so her slow as a turtle laptop has proved to be a disappointment. The other day I caught her checking her email on my computer, and changing my Pandora station to Justin Beiber. Annoying.
She has been talking about selling her new mini, for $200. I try to explain that once you open a computer package, the sell price – the fair market value – plummets, not rises. So, she wants to lower the price to $130 (she paid $105 including tax).
She’s saving for a faster computer now. (She mentioned that if someone wants to donate one – a fast one, a cute one – that she’d be happy to accept such a gift for her upcoming birthday Oct. 9.)
March 15th, 2010 — Education
There once was a weird looking lady.
She had two heads, two arms and no legs.
She had to roll everywhere!
She had a Kitten.
It was normal.
And very cute.
The End.
~ Ainsley
Ainsley won her first media contest, a original Dr. Seuss-like Poster. She beat out everyone in the 2nd Grade.
We’re so proud of her.
February 4th, 2010 — Family Life, Mother-Daughter Emotional Osmosis
Today my Mom yelled at me.
So I cried until the room was a lake.
~Ainsley
(The cartoon mother (me) is screaming Get Off The Table!) I’m certainly not proud of the yelling and I did apologize.
Still, as a writer, I can’t help but show you my parenting flaw, so you can see the artfully-crafted verse my daughter has written.
November 11th, 2009 — Family Life, Mentors, Role Models, Peers
My extended family likes a good practical joke especially, one that involves fear and a few screaming children.
Poor Ainsley still won’t walk down my Grandmother’s hall because of the time her Great Uncle Nelson jumped out of the closet screaming when she was three. She was terrified.
When Uncle Nelson made his annual pilgrimage to Texas this weekend my daughter was afraid to go on the traditional night-time hayride after the scrumptious chili.
“I’m not going on the hayride,” she declared. “Last time Nathan jumped out of the bushes with firecrackers and scared us!”
“You’re going. It will be fun,” I told her.
She shared a hay bail with me on the back of the trailer.
“Listen everything they say on this hayride is a lie,” I told her. “Don’t believe any of it.”
Minutes later . . . .
“I just saw a bobcat,” shout a few cousins.
“Don’t believe it,” I told her. “Besides a bob cat is like a baby kitten, not scary at all. They’re afraid of people.”
Driving by The Shirley’s place we were chased by a pack of vicious dogs, that was a little scary, but they stopped as soon as the trailer made it passed their territory.
Just in view of the house, about to breath a sigh of relief, Great Uncle Nelson starts up a story:
When I was a kid, my Uncle Don told us he saw this thing out here. It was huge, bigger than a man and really hairy. He said it could leap from one side of this road to another like a Kangaroo.
He called it a Sasquatchian. Look there he is!!!!! It’s Big Foot!
We turned toward the woods and there was a Giant Black Gorilla.
Ainsley became hysterical, crying that she was scared.
We immediately knew my cousin Bonnie’s husband was the one missing and therefore had to be in the Gorilla suit.
“It’s just Barry,” I told her. I took her face in my hands and told her to look at me, “It’s just Barry in a Gorilla suit. Barry isn’t scary. It isn’t real. It’s a joke.”
My husband, Jeremy, tried to calm her, but she would not be calmed. She was carried away in a fit of fear. Zack was paralyzed with silent fear. Ainsley was just screaming and crying.
Suddenly, my husband got up, leapt out of the trailer and charged Big Foot.
Big Foot Barry wasn’t expecting a real confrontation. He turned around and blindly hightailed it for the woods.
Jeremy tackled the giant Sasquatch to the ground.
Bam! They hit the narrow oil top road.
Ainsley, Open your eyes! Quick! You gotta see this! Daddy’s beating up Big Foot! He tackled him to the ground, he’s punching him and kicking him! Daddy’s protecting you from a giant Sasquatch! What a hero!
Ainsley opened her eyes long enough to catch a glimpse of her Daddy kicking Big Foot in the stomach and in final defeat Sasquatch lay on the ground, unmoving – dead.
Daddy brought the giant Gorilla head back as a trophy.
I hope Ainsley never forgets her Daddy is willing to attack the Sasquatch from Sascatuan for her.
