Miss Karlee

Halloween 2011

I need to write this down so I don't ever forget!  Our Karlee continues to bless me with learning and growing experiences.  Karlee loves to be creative and will google ideas for crafts and so forth.  She loves make-up and fashion... and lately she has really been into nails and hair. (By the way, Karlee loves change, I on the other hand try to avoid it.)  She found an idea for making nail tips out of paper, and softening your hands.  So most of my baking soda and canola oil have gone missing - no harm done.  Then she wanted to change her hair.  She started with different kinds of "hair ornaments" but that wasn't enough.  One day, after coloring and highlighting her hair had been a topic of discussion, she appeared in the kitchen in McKenzie's white bathrobe to retrieve 2 packages of red kool-aid.  My thought, "She has dark hair, is it really going to matter?"  (I am trying to learn to pick my battles.)  The kool-aid didn't work on her hair.  So, despite some red kool-aid crystals on the bathroom walls, no harm was done and Kenzie's white robe is still white.  She then tried a regular red magic marker to literally color her hair.  It colored her neck, and clothes, and fingers. All washable - no harm done.  One day I walked into the kids' bathroom and the counter was sticky - super sticky.  Then I noticed the walls were sticky.   Then the more I moved around, even the floor was sticky.  My thought, "What in the world?"  I opened the cabinet under the sink to see if there was a clue - my spray water bottle - usually found under the kitchen sink.  Hmmm - I open it - smell it - mmmm...lemony!  She had used lemon juice in a spray bottle to try and highlight her hair.  She helped me clean the bathroom.  And everything including her hair and the bathroom mats have stayed the same color, no harm done.  One day she came home from school (now I am at Seminary, so I do not see the kids in the morning) with some serious greenish, grayish, teased hair.  I asked her how her day was and about her hair.... "I used a yellow highlighter!"

The more I think about it, the more I laugh.  Karlee is strong minded and strong willed and my patience is often tested.  We have very different opinions - and I am trying to learn that that is okay with so many things!    I pray everyday that I can have patience to love Karlee like she deserves to be loved.  And I am so thankful that I can think about Karlee, and be with Karlee, and know how blessed I am to have her!