There are fourteen nieces and nephews in my Amaro side of the family. Seven older ones, and seven little ones. As I was a mother of two of them in the older batch, I was too busy being a mother to be able to relax as I do with the younger ones. Now that my children are young adults, I can kick back and have fun with the little ones in a way that a Grandparent can profit with their grandchildren.
Three of my nieces: Marie, Maci and Gina, plus me.
Two of my nieces Molly and Maci, and the youngest in the family four year old Warren.
These are some of my son Sacha's favorite people in the world: his cousins:
Jack, Sam, George, Joe, and Andy.
My mother looks as young as her grandchildren doesn't she! Standing in front of her in my Godchild George (named after my father). Andy, the oldest (20) grandson is the TALLEST guy in the family, he is only 6 feet 6 inches.
My niece Patti (on the right) is the oldest (22) grandchild. Patti picked me up at the airport in San Francisco two weeks ago. It was her first time driving to San Fransico by herself. Impressive!
My niece Marie wrote a short story for her school. I asked her if I could post it to my blog, she agreed.
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"I slouched in my seat, waiting for the teacher to assign partners for the animal science report.
All my friends had already been assigned to their partners. I anticipated another partner I didn’t know
“Let’s see, who we have left, “said the teacher, “Oh yeah, Sari and Bree.” I slouched even more.
I looked up and saw that she was standing at my desk. Bree was the mysterious no one knew.
“You can sit right there,” I said flatly at the seat across from me. She shuffled over to the empty
chair and sat down. Then she started to play with her pencil.
“Do you have the brainstorm papers?”
I asked. She replied
“Oh yeah, you get them.” I got up and grabbed two sheets of paper.
I handed her one as the bell was ringing.
“Okay, so we just write and fill out these fact sheets.
Tomorrow we will create a rough draft.” I Explained to her. She snatched the paper out of my hand and
was out the door. This was going to be a long week. The next day, I dreaded sixth period which was
usually my favorite. I had filled out the worksheet, hoping she had too. The day went by so fast, the next
I knew it, it was sixth period. I walked in, and sat. Soon Bree appeared in the doorway. I faked a smile
But her expression didn’t change. She seated herself in the same chair.
“ Okay! Now everyone get
In your groups and work on your rough draft!” Said the teacher.
“Did you finish yours?” I asked her.
“Finish what?” She replied.
“The paper we got yesterday.” I Said back. She shook her head no. I sighed and handed her my paper. She took it and filled her out paper
out. We worked on the rough draft, hardly saying anything. When the period ended, I asked her if
she wanted to come over to work on the report.
She said, “Yeah, I guess.” We walked to my house
silently. When we got to my house, I took her into my room and we got out our stuff. As we talked and
wrote, the tension and silence had lessened. We soon finished with the rough draft. We then moved
on to the presentation poster. I had soon realized that Bree actually wasn’t a bad person. I reread our
rough draft and corrected it after she left. This project wasn’t going to be so bad after all. The next
day at school, I talked about our project and how nice Bree was. My friends stared at me like I was
crazy.
“You get along with her?” they all asked.
“Yeah, she’s actually very nice!” I said back.
“Okay! I’ll take your word for it!” said one of my friends. The bell rang and we said goodbye. I started walking
to sixth period, our rough draft in hand. The wind had started to pick up. All of a sudden, the papers
slipped out of my hand.
“No!” I yelled. I ran after it, chasing the packet. It rolled to the other side of
the street and a car ran over it. It was too late. I sulked and walked back to class. As I walked into the
door Bree smiled brightly at me. I walked over and said,
“The papers, they’re gone!” I explained
what happened.
“Well, let’s rewrite it!” she said. I got out the brainstorm and we wrote it all over
once again.
“There, now let’s meet at my house again to type it,” I told her. She nodded yes. After
school we proofread the rough draft and started to type. Even though we were behind we started
to catch up. We finally finished our report. Now we had to practice. We read it over and over, getting
used to reading it. During this time we got silly and broke out in laughter several times. I was really
beginning to enjoy this time with Bree. We decided I would read it, and Bree would present the poster
filled with quick facts and photos.
“Sari, I think this is going to be a great presentation!” Bree said.
“I think so too!” I replied while nodding with a big smile.
After Bree went home I practiced reading our report. I wanted to do a good job for myself as
well as my new friend.
The next day at school, hoped it would turn out. When sixth period arrived,
the teacher gave us time to practice.
“Okay! You guys have five minutes to go over your reports! I hope
you all practiced.” Me and Bree read our report over, giving each other a smile of
encouragement. When the teacher called us up, we read our report with no mistakes! Bree high fived
me at the end. I walked back to my desk knowing I had an A plus on my paper. Even more important I
had a new friend!"
By my niece Marie (12).
Where the Willows grow.
