Open Mic Night

So- since I have been terrible about writing lately, I figured I would open up the page to other contributions.  And it turns out, Noah wrote a great poem at school last week and Zoe just spent some time putting together a great little book earlier today.

First I will start with Zoe's work (Zoe is 5 and in kindergarten).  I will type her words and translate in parentheses.

Nobrs dod sop. (Numbers don't stop.)

Its fon to kat. (It's fun to count.)

I lik Nobrs. ( I like numbers.)

Doy yoy lik nbrs (Do you like numbers?)

3, 7

Som peBl dod no haw to kad (Some people don't know how to count.)

I like Nobrs 1 2 3 4 5 6 ( I like numbers. 1,2,3,4,5,6)

It's really cute- she even cut the little pages and taped them together in book format.

Now, on to Noah's contribution.  In class last week, his teacher asked them to write a poem about spring. (Noah is 9)

Spring Dream

Drip, Drip Drip

Can you spot the rain's tip?

Will it ever stop?

I sort of want to hop.

I'll be entertained by a bunny

as it hops around and acts funny.

I'll sling-shot myself off the swing

When I hit a cloud, I will cling.

I'll pull myself on the cloud

then I'll yell very loud.

When I came to the ground

you won't believe what I found.

"Hooray!", I cried

"The rain has stopped, everything has dried."

I woke up from my dream

and let out a little scream

I have not found the rain's tip

but still...

drip, drip drip.

A big thank you to Noah, 9 and Zoe, 5 for contributing to my blog and keeping it from falling into complete and utter derelict status.

Taking Chances-Simply Valorie

I don't remember how I wound up on Valorie's blog, but at some point, I clicked that little "follow" button and never looked back.

You see, Valorie reminds me a little of myself when I was her age (except she is WAY more driven). When I found her, she was a junior at Texas A&M University and knew that she didn't want to stay in Texas. Her dreams and aspirations were much bigger than that. I have watched her struggle with personal relationships, kick butt in college, spend a few months in China for her studies, earn her Aggie ring and finally- this past December- graduate. She wasted no time in getting started on the rest of her life. She lined up an internship and an interview for a part-time job in Washington D.C., packed her life in two suitcases and boarded a plane a few weeks ago bound for a place where she knew only one person and still had no place to live. (She is crashing on her friend's floor while apartment-hunting) She is an incredibly smart and talented young woman and I know she will do great things.

A few weeks ago, she asked for guest bloggers to write about making a big move; and since there was a time I left everything I knew to move to another country, I thought I could submit my story. Today is the day my story goes live on her blog. Head on over there, leave her some comment love and I suggest you follow her. I can't wait to hear what her future holds!

For some reason, I cannot get the button to work- but you can find her HERE: Simply, Valorie

Winter Wonderland- by Noah

Noah came home with another one of his writing projects the other day. They are so funny! His writing is really coming along but he is struggling with keeping the stories short. He gets caught up in this elaborate story he wants to write and the details which have the potential to stretch on for pages. His teacher is trying to get him to rein it in and tell the same fabulous story in a few short paragraphs. When this happens, I can visibly see in the story that he has a whole thought process going on and then suddenly sees the end of the page coming and thinks, "Oh crap! I have to wrap this up!" and he ends the story abruptly. I am going to type this story out exactly as he has written it- with his spelling and punctuation. (Noah is 8)

"Yay!", I yelled excitedly turning off my TV. " A parade is coming down town!", I cried gasping for air. The next day we made our car into a sleigh and the front of the car is atached to a cardbord cutout of reindeer on weels so the car can push the cutout around. Then we took the car to sign up for the parade.

The parade came and the "best car contest" was first. There was only three cars at the contest. A judge announced that the winner will ride behind Santa's float and get pictures with him. "We won!", I yelled!

There were millions of people at the parade. Santa was waiting for us at the end of the parade. I forgot what I had on my wish list so I took the picture and went. It felt like an hour before Zoe got done with Santa. We all went home happy.

The End

Guest Post- "Chaos at Camp"

I am very excited to announce that I have a guest-poster today. I can't really call him a "guest blogger" because he isn't a blogger. The person I am referring to is my eight-year-old son, Noah.

Noah's homework the other day was to write a paragraph including his "no excuse" words for the week- children, form, until, food, important, keep and going. Noah wrote a story. It came home in his folder Friday with "Wow! I love this!" and "You're a great writer!" written on it. This is a big deal, because Noah rarely applies himself. He always just does the bare minimum required of him to get by, so to go above and beyond and to be recognized for it is a big deal.

We wanted to encourage him, so we said we would scan it and send it to our family members and I told him I would put it on my blog. As much as I am itching to correct some things.. I won't. I will type this exactly as he wrote it- grammar, syntax, spelling errors and all. For an eight-year-old, I still think he did a wonderful job!

Chaos at Camp

The children at camp had to fill out a form to not be kicked out of camp. One kid thought that if you do not sign the form and you get kicked out of camp that you actually physically get kicked. He started to bawl saying unclearly, "I-I do-on't want t-to get kicke-ed." Mr. Mos the camp leader stared at the kid on the floor for a few seconds, then he called his mom. The kid cried until he saw his mom, the kid's name was Gorge. Gorge yelled "Mommy!" Gorge's mom said that if he keeps crying he will not have fast food. Mr. Mos looked at her with joy for making Gorge stop crying. After a few seconds Mr. Mos returned to what he was doing. Gorge heard Mr. Mos saying, "Welcome to survival class you all know why survival is important." Gorge told his mom "I no keep crying... I'm not going to continue." And he returned to his group.

I was impressed with his sentence structure, his use of complex sentences and most of all, with how he simulated Gorge's crying by typing out the quote as if her were stuttering." Perhaps I am just a proud momma, but it is my blog and I can show him off if I want to. ;-)