Here's a shout out to Brooklynn. She entered this year's reflection contest at school in the Literature category and placed first in her grade. Now she moves on to the District competition. She wrote a story called "World's Largest Rubber Band Ball."
Here is her story for those who want to read it:
World’s Largest Rubberband Ball
I didn’t mean to make history as the worlds largest rubber band ball maker.It’s weird at this new school surrounded by adoring students. At Longview, my old school, I got adored for about two weeks then they left me alone.I think they were able to see me as a real person because to them I was. I grew up with them. These students never knew me before I became famous so they think of me as a famous person.
The bell rang and the last of my “fan club” finally slunk away when I did not give in to their puppy dog faces and agree to tell my story. When we got inside the teacher announced that it was time for math. Today we were doing one of my favorite things, greatest common factors. It’s odd; work time is my favorite time of day now, not recess. It is the time I have to myself without the entire school gathered around me as joyful as can be hoping I will finally give in and tell them the story they are so dying to hear.
After lunch I decided to talk to Miss Okewood to ask if I could tell my story. Miss Okewood was astonished.
“Bu…bu…bu…but Allie, you’ve been turning down students about that story since you got here at the beginning of September.”
"I know. That’s why. I’m tired of turning down people and it’s like a physical weight and I need to get it off my shoulders.” I said.
Miss Okewood agreed and told me good luck.
The day went by in a blur. I didn’t even notice the two-dozen people following me around the track during recess. Finally it was 3 o’clock and Miss Okewood was saying, “Allie has something interesting to tell us, so listen up.”
As I walked up to the front of the room there were excited mummers all around me.
“Ok,” I said, letting out a gust of air. “I am going to tell my story. I am asking you guys to tell it to your friends so I don’t have to.”
“It started as a regular rubber band ball about the size of those big bouncy balls. Then I added about 6 inches in width and length. Then one day one of my friends said, totally joking, ‘That’s the worlds largest rubber band ball!’ That’s when I was inspired. I worked on it for a couple of years, adding to it almost every day. When I finally finished I rolled it outside to show it off. One of my mom’s friends was outside talking to my mom. That’s when the ‘WOW!’ came. It happened to be that my mom’s friend worked for the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not book of world records. She asked me how many rubber bands were on my ball and I told her 7,521 (yes, I’d been keeping track). Then she pulled out a notebook with tabs. She went to the R’s and looked up and down the page. ‘Congratulations,’ she told me ‘you just beat the record for the world’s largest rubber band ball. The last one had 7,411. You beat the record by over 100 rubber bands.’
“Coolio. Sweeet. Wohooo! Then I got my picture taken and in the next edition of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not I was in it.”
“WOW!” came from all the class members.
“Now spread that around and I will never have to tell it again.” I said.
Then Miss Okewood spoke up, “Now we should all thank Allie for finally sharing her story.
“Thank you,” came from all around.
Then the bell rang and I was free as I was never free before. Everyone held back other students and I ran like I had never run before. My ‘WOW’ was finally off my shoulders.
So here is the newest member of our family. This is Gizzy. Giz is basically a mutt - a mix of a Shih Tzu, Pomeranian and Lhasa Ahpso. This is Giz's third home in his short 4 months. He was purchased by my boss at work, who decided after a couple of weeks that a puupy took a lot of time, time she did not have with working full time and going to school, so she passed him down to one of our Xray techs at work. Well Janell's lease was coming due and she was looking for a new apartment, but was having trouble finding a nice place that would allow pets, so she called us. Brooklynn is ecstatic!!! Jason is tolerating, Braden is laughing and I can't believe I agreed to take on another kid, and one that still pee's all over the place too. Actually we all love him. He's been lots of fun to have around, and he's just about the dang cutest thing you've ever seen!
