Could you vote for Susan?

BELIEVE IN THE RUN Sponsored by Visit NIKE USA

Could you take a minute to vote for Susan? If she gets the most votes she gets a free trip to Hawaii.
Thanks!
Laura

Future writers?

Family Pride - by Luke
There’s my aunt a uncle who teach me spanish.
My omie and opie who teach me to be polite.
My grandparent’s who like golf.
My grammy and pop pop teach me about nature.



Mama Cat - by Sam
I’ve had a lot of experiences with animals, but there is one I’ll never forget. It began in March of 2004. My brothers and I were in our backyard playing tag or something when I came across a small cat, almost tripping over it. The cat was mostly a dull, darkish gray. Its stomach was snowy white, and it had bits of black here and there. It was a tabby, so it had stripes. It was a thin cat, so it looked a little smaller than most cats. My brothers and I stopped whatever we were doing and went over to pet the cat, but the cat hurried away as though I had pulled its tail. However, for the next couple months, I would notice the cat hanging around our house. On one particular day, while I was eating lunch on our back porch with my mother and brothers, the cat leaped up onto the porch and started to nibble on our food. My mother shooed it away.

Two months later, the cat gave birth to only one kitten. I came home from school and found the kitten in a little box in our garage. The kitten was about the size of a mouse (I wasn’t surprised that my mother thought it was a mouse when she first saw it). Its fur was a grayish color, like its mother. Its eyes were barely open, and it continually made these squeaking sounds. I could hold it in one hand and felt its razor-sharp claws digging into the palm of my hand. My father was gone on business at the time, and when he found out about the kitten, he said both the cat and the kitten had better be gone by the time he got home, which was two weeks away.

We started out feeding the cat tuna, but its stomach hated that the way people hate Jerry Springer, so we switched to buying cat food at Meijer. Meanwhile, the kitten could open its eyes complete-ly, and could take millimeter-length steps on my hand. Two weeks passed and we still hadn’t found a home for the cat. The day my father returned was a stormy one. Rain was coming down sideways, thunder was so loud our house shook, and some kind of storm watch or warning was issued every two minutes. And it the midst of all the lousy weather, and the fact that my father’s flight would probably be delayed, we gave the cat away to an old friend. It was so hard to give up the cat and kitten, but we knew they were in good hands.

And for my birthday....

...my wonderful husband got me an amazing surprise. While we were out to dinner for my birthday, our friend/neighbor came over and hung portraits of the boys that James had taken, unbeknownst to me. They are absolutely beautiful. And I was totally surprised. And the boys were totally excited to be in on the surprise.

I don't have the photos on my computer yet but you can go to www.brettmaxwellphoto.com to see them. Scroll down about halfway to "birthday portraits" and you will see my three handsome men.

Thank you James, Sam, Jay and Luke!

Happy Birthday with Ruff Ruffman!

For Jay's birthday he wanted a "Fetch" party. "Fetch with Ruff Ruffman" is a show on PBS that Jay LOVES! Jay dressed as "Ruff" and we had a few activities that a contestant might participate in on the show.
Like a scavenger hunt....

a science experiment (blowing up a balloon without using your own breath)...

and creating the image of Ruff out of duck tape.

And here are a few of the creations.

The part that touched me the most were the gifts his friends gave him. A few of the kids got him some sensory toys because they know he uses things like that in school. They all know Jay has a kind of autism and really love him and accept him exactly as he is - which is really not hard to do because the boy is so fun! All in all it was a great party - very creative and everyone had a good time - including the birthday boy!

Another One Bites the Dust

Yesterday our sweet boy Jay came down with something. He spent all day in bed. And for those of you who don't know Jay - this is highly unusual. Jay is always moving and imagining and enthusiastic. But yesterday, and today, he just layed still and quiet all day with glassy eyes and flushed cheeks. I hope he starts to perk up tomorrow.

I usually kind of like it when one of the kids (or James) is home sick. I can just clear my schedule and take time to care for them, read to them, make them chicken soup and jello and usually catch up on laundry. That's how it was today. But I didn't like seeing my boy all wiped out on the couch.

Sadly, for Jay, today is his 12th birthday. He got quite a few calls from family wishing him a Happy Birthday. He took each call and mumbled a few answers to their questions and then said he thought he'd better go. He was all bummed out that he didn't get to bring treats to school 'on' his birthday. But I promised him the first day back he will. Thankfully he's having a party with friends for his birthday next weekend. Something for him to look forward to.

Happy Birthday Jaybird! We love you!

Quote of the Day

James: "So you're having Fruit Loops for breakfast today..."

Jay: "Well, my toast fell on the ground and I tried to wash it off but then in got soggy. So I decided to have Fruit Loops."

James: "Gotcha!"

the fears of motherhood

*WARNING*

*The following is not to be read by the squeamish*

So one my biggest motherhood fears came true last night.........Luke vomited in the middle of the night. (I warned you!) I think this is what all parents dread. Dealing with puke.

Luke comes into our room around 1:45am and says, "Mom, I just threw up in my room." I think I wasn't fully awake and my husband repeated it to me. At which point it sunk it and I jumped out of bed and began pushing Luke toward our bathroom. He threw up again on the floor in our bathroom....and then again in the toilet.

But what gets me is what plays in my mind as this occurs and I am cleaning up. First I thought of my mother and I soooo appreciate her! I really can't remember specific instances where she had to deal with this but I do remember her holding back my hair while I was leaning over the toilet. She was a saint!

Then I thought "How am I going to clean this up off the carpet?" That thought dominated my foggy mind for a while. I began thinking of custodians at schools who get called in on a regular basis to clean up puke - of other people's kids! I figure they have a plan for how to clean this up. I wish I knew their secrets.

Then as I am in awe of all the places this stuff has splattered, I begin wondering: When one of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's kids throw up in the middle of the night, who cleans it up? Do they take care of the task themselves or do they have live-in help who they wake up in the middle of the night to care for it?

So this morning Luke climbs into bed with us. He begins saying how glad he was that he didn't "barf" at school - that would be embarrassing. (although his father and I were thinking that puking at school didn't sound like such a bad idea to us!) So then he proceeds to tell us about the kids who have barfed at school - because this kind of thing is etched in the minds of all elementary school kids. He tells of of one kids who wasn't looking too good - "all sweaty and red like someone had just punched him in the stomach." He can also tell us exactly where it happened in each instance - like on the carpet in the music room or on the floor by the blackboard. He had us in stitches laughing and was so confused as to why we were finding this so funny.

But if we didn't laugh about it, we'd cry!