First Daft of Children's story

color legend purple=new ideas
green=pictures, black=original text, red=page numbers


Billy's Mom the Superhero (or just Super Mom?)
Pg.1- Billy Loved his Mommy. She was amazing.
PG.2-One day Billy overheard his mom telling her friend that she had special powers (this is where in the picture shes saying something like I wish I had special powers but he doesnt hear the I wish part or something.)
(or should he hear her friend say Wow you must have super powers.?)

pg 3-"Did my mom just say she has powers" he thought, "she must be a super hero"
(pictures his mom in a superhero outfit)
Pg.4
As Billy pondered what this could mean he decided to get a second opinion.
pg5. He went to ask his wise older bother timmyif he thought their mom had super powers-
pg.6-"Sure Mom has special powers, and hippos can fly"
(in picture he sees hippos with wings flying over his yard and he's waving to them)
pg.7-"what kind of powers?" Billy asked
"Well with each kid mom gets a new powers. How else do you think she could tell when we are lying? She got that power with me,
pg.8-And when you were born she got the power to be in two places at the same time,
pg. 9-And with Maggie she just touches something and money appears" (of course pictures little maggie maybe 8 months old sitting, playing and eating toys and also pictures mom touching the kitchen counter and all these dollars and coins appear.)
pg.10-Billy thought it over, and it seemed to make sense but he decided to ask his most trusted adviser, his best friend Joe.
Pg.11-Joe said-"I never thought about it before, but I bet it's true. I think my Mom('s power is that she) can just zap up messes. That would explain why yesterday it took me, like, forever to clean up some blocks, and she had finished cleaning the whole house before I was even done"
pg.12-That day while Billy was at the park he thought he noticed something different... something he had never seen before.
(This is where he sees one mom with three kids in a line one is sparkling clean, one is half sparkling clean and half dirty as the mom is zapping of the dirt and the next kid is dirty, one mom is talking to her friend on the side of the playground and has her arm stretched to be able to help her kid up the playground, one mom has eyes in the back of her head, etc.etc.)
pg.13-Billy knew that if anyone would know if there mom had super powers it would be his dad.
Pg14-Billy asks his Dad if his Mom has super powers "Well son I think your onto something, there are a lot of things you mom is magically (mysteriously, strangely?) good at. And it definitely takes a super power to be a mom. Every mom is for sure a hero to her children. Maybe you should go talk to her about all this.



pg.16- So it was time to confront his mom and let her know he'd figured out the truth, but as he was walking into the kitchen he noticed she had burnt dinner -again. This made him think, surely a superhero would never burn dinner. Now he knew he really needed to talk to her and get to the bottom of this.
pg.17-As Billy shared all of his feelings, his Mom just sat there with a loving smile on her face.
pg18-Then she gently said, "Billy as much as I would enjoy having all of those super powers and trust me I would, I simply dont. The one power that I do have and that grows more and more everyday and with every child is how much I love you. And my love for you is the power that makes ANYTHING possible.
pg19 She gave him a big hug and as she did he knew that was the truth. (In the picure as she hugs him they glow, or green beams shoot out of them like a radar, to show all the love!)
pg.20-And Billy decided that love was the best super power of them all!
Pg.21-as the kid is turned away the mom does something with one of her superpowers, is picking up the couch to vacuum under it too predictable? or maybe the couch could be hovering, shes vaccumming with one hand and has her finger up to her mouth as if to say "shh" to the reader like its a secret.
pg22 what super powers does your mom have?


Optional second ending?

pg.16- "Every Mom has the power to love more and more everyday and more and more with every baby, a love that is so big it could fill the whole world and will never end."
pg.17- Billy gave his Mom a big hug and as he did he could feel that love his mom was talking about and knew she was telling the truth.
pg18-And he decided that love WAS the best super power of them ALL.
pg.19-What super powers does your mom have?

This is what I have come up with for the first draft of the book, all points are open for negotiation. Please feel free to use this as a jumping off of point, and lets see how we can make this work! Steve Holleman suggested that maybe you leave it a little vague because moms really do have super powers and the kid doesn't need to be disillusioned. What are ou thoughts on the two possible endings. Sequels could possible be My Dad the superhero, and make him a fireman, or police man or something, or my dad the something else like a superhero. And then my grandma the fairy godmother, and my grandpa the magician, or I dont know something like that, it may not have to be quite so correlating, as long as the titles are similar, people would know that they are together. Or whatever the title is, or maybe there is something else to make a series out of, or maybe not. It may be a one hit wonder.

I'm a blogger

This is officially my first blogging experience ever. I think i've always been scared of Blogs because the name makes me think of Swamp monsters.

This concludes my first entry. thank you.

Gerald

Shaws visit Utah

I'm not sure how well this will work with dial-up but I thought I'd at least try to upload one picture. This is from our recent visit to Utah. Our only exciting news since then is that I was released as RS President and now teach gospel doctrine. Anastasia sleeps better than Alexander (and better than me for that matter) she seems very happy most of the time and already has a brilliant smile - with cute dimples like Clint.

The first picture wasn't to painful - so I guess I'll try a couple more.

Our camera's flash doesn't work anymore - but the night setting seems to help keep the pictures light enough to see - unfortunately it also seems to make them more blurry. Still - I think you can see what I mean about her smile (though this smile is a little crooked).

Oh yeah, we also went to Six Flags New England last week with our friends, Rachel and daughters Jessica & Briana.

We enjoyed the waterpark. In addition to the waterpark, I enjoyed a couple water rides, Cory tried some rollercoasters (Later he said, "I think I'm getting too old for rollercoasters."), and Alexander tried some rides he liked and some that scared him. As long as they didn't move too fast they were fun for him. Even Anastasia tried the train ride, the carousel (on a bench), and the lazy river (her least favorite - especially because of the waterfall).

from josh

marie said i have to put some stuff on the blog so here it is

Fair Warning

Blast From the Past!!!!
I figured you all had seen enough of my family now, and maybe youd like to see a little "then" pictures.

How about this walk down memory lane? I thought this picture (minus all the exes) was quite an entertaining picture. Complete with green shag carpet!

Hey everybody, or at least you everybodies who decided to be cool and participate in the family blog. I talked to Mom and she said that for those of you who dont participate, shes gonna give me all the dirt and I will be the one to post updates about your family. Those are the kind of things we want to hear, whatever you would tell Mom, and then some!!!
So if you want to be the one to tell us all the weekly news, (and make sure its all correct), then Id say make a post!!! Its easy, its fun, and its a great way for us all to get to know each other even better, now that we are all adults. So...the waters fine come on in!!! You never know what you might find! And many thanks to Clint for being the brave one and diving right in. Cant wait to see posts from the rest of ya, and thanks Jana for jumpin in too.

Need advice about a girl

OK, so this is when I open up and ask for advice about a girl that I am smitten by. Thing is, she is not really reciprocating. I have been pretty persistent in trying to get to know her, but either she is not interested or the timing is really bad.

I just typed out a lot of details but then deleted them because they were kind of embarrassing. The essence of it was that I get the serious vibe she is not interested.

The question I wonder is this: how persistent is too much?
If I am more persistent in trying to get to know her, will that convince her that I am interested (because a girl wants to know most of all how treasured she is) so she will eventually want to spend time with me? - Or the more persistent I am does it make me seem more desperate and like a stalker and make it less likely she will want to spend time with me?

It is kind of a crazy thing how I don't even know her that well and still feel so strongly about it. Perhaps it is just because it is so rare for me to feel the kind of initial chemistry and to be as interested in getting to know someone as I have been with her.

The other problem, however, is that I think we are both kind of guarded and more difficult to know on deeper levels, and if she is so busy it is hard to spend time with me now, then how difficult will it be to get to know each other when I am living across the Atlantic ocean in Europe for the next four months?

Any Dear Abbey's out there that can give me some advice?

Thanks.

Idea for a new children's book - need your feedback

OK, I've already talked briefly to Marie and Gerald - and I think this would be a good book for the whole family to contribute to. Share your ideas here.

So - everyone likes superheros - right?

Why not a story about how every time a mom gets pregnant and has a new baby - she also gets a new superpower.

Maybe it is written from the point of view of the imagination of a kid. He hears his mom say she has "eyes in the back of her head" since she had him, and that she can "hear things a mile away" since she had his little sister, etc... - and somehow he gets the idea (because she jokes about it, or because an older kid tells him) that every time a mom gets pregnant and has a baby - she gets a new superpower.

So the book is then a series of pictures (or stories) from his imagination about his mom (or different mom's) with different super powers.

He slowly becomes disillusioned as he realizes his mom doesn't have the superpowers he expected - but it is a heart-warming book because he finds out at the end of the book that she does have the most important superpower ever - her ability to love so much!

Ahhhh - cute!

So: here's my questions.
What should be some good superpowers to include?
What would be some good stories that he could imagine his mom being able to do with her superpowers?
How should he become disillusioned?
How should we work the ending with him discovering the most valuable superpower (love)?

Feel free to leave comments with your suggestions. Get your kids to help you think of ideas.

Thanks

The First Blog

Hey Everyone, I welcome you to our family site. I haven't tried this out yet, but we all should be able to post as much as we want. You can start posts, add to posts, put on pictures, movies, or tell us what your week has been like. We can make it a goal to each post one thing once a week. It will even be nice to keep up with Clint while he's out on adventures, and keep tabs on each other while we are having our own adventures. Even if you arent sure theres anything worth reporting it will be nice to know what everyone else is up to. Feel free to tell us all anything, triumphs, challenges, jokes, or what it may be. We keep trying to think of something like a newsletter, to keep us all connected, so Im hoping this will work. But one of you has to accept my invitation and try it out! So lets see where this takes us. Feel free to change anything you want, new format, font, pictures, its all up for interpretation.