Father’s Day Means Memories

So my dad works for a company that sends him to far away countries and I worry that sometimes that means he doesn’t get around to sending his dad — Grandpa Barrett — a Father’s Day gift on time for Father’s Day. That’s how come I always remember to make something special for my Grandpa Barrett. But it’s not fair to make something for one grandpa and not the other, so I also make something special for my mom’s dad, Grandpa Two Rivers.

This year I wanted to make something superly special both of them would want to use and I came up with this idea to make accordion memory books because when my mom showed me how to make them, I though it was a great way to have a memory book that isn’t the whole size of a scrap book.

Anyway, the accordion memory book opens up just like a accordion fan. It’s really easy to do and all you need for the inside accordion part is three big squares of paper. When you fold them up and stick them together, they make six envelope sections that are big enough to put all kinds of things in like photographs and brochures and stuff like that. Then two more pieces of square paper make the front and back covers.

My mom let me use the Coca-Cola scrapbook paper she’s had in her craft room for like since forever and there was enough to make one accordion memory book for each of my grandpas so that was good.

Probably you’re wondering how come the thee accordion parts look so fat in the first picture. That’s because of what got put on the other side of the accordion memory book.

On parts one and three, I made two booklets with covers to go in, and then I sewed them inside those parts so they stay where I put them. It was kind of hard to do that but I used dental floss to sew them in and the waxiness of the dental floss made it way easy for it to go through so many pieces of paper. That was good news for me. And plus,there were zero zip knots I had to worry about because who knew dental floss doesn’t get all knotted up the way regular thread does?

In the middle part, I made a envelope and then slipped a long piece of paper in it that said “Special Memory.” That way a special memory can still be a secret because the only person that maybe might see it is the grandpa with the accordion memory book and who he shows it to. Then next to that was a different kind of booklet that I did boatloads of research on and that’s because I looked up facts about life in 1965. I don’t know why I picked 1965. It just seemed like a way cool year that had lots of neat things happening in it like the United Nations said it was the International Year of Cooperation and they stopped printing $2 bills in America.

That got stitched in, too, and I used more dental floss to do that because it worked so good with the other two booklets that already got stitched in by me. Then if you closed up that informative booklet by me, there was a three insert pouch I made for a three-inch tall special memory, and a five-inch special memory, and a seven-inch special memory. I made it so their “Special Memory” tabs stuck out so it would be way easy to pull them up and read them and then slip them back inside.

I took pictures of everything except I forgot to take a picture of the booklet on part three, so in the picture I just took the picture of the booklet on part one and put it upside down in the collage, but trust me, the booklet in part three got put in upside right.

My mom said she really liked how much hard work I put into making the accordion memory books, and she was proud of how nice they were. I’m superly proud, too, because I always want everything I make to look professional even though I’m not a professional. I’m just a kid (just so you know, being a kid is fine by me, too, so don’t think I’m sad I’m a kid because I am not sad about that at all).

I hope everybody has a very nice Father’s Day on Sunday, and even if your dad isn’t at your house on Father’s Day, don’t worry. You can make Father’s Day special just be thinking of something special to do for someone special.

Take time to let people know you love them. And remember, twenty twenty one isn’t just numbers that happen one after another: It’s this year!

Ten Minutes Could Change The World

Today I did a lot of work trying to get people interested in doing the “One Hand Tied Behind My Back” challenge to raise awareness of Myasthenia Gravis which is something my brother Josh has. It really matters to me to have people kind of understand what he has because a lot of people think that people with MG are just lazy or unmotivated or pretending things are way worse than they are so they can get out of doing something (even things they really want to do like play baseball or have a picnic or walk down the street without falling down without knowing you were going to fall down until you fell down).

I saw this meme on Josh’s computer and I asked him if I could share it on my blog today. He said if it helps people understand what Myasthenia Gravis can be like for someone living with Myasthenia Gravis, then yes, he said, share it.

Here’s what most people don’t get. Sometimes a person with MG can eat snacks and meals just like everybody else and sometimes a person with MG has trouble chewing their food and trouble swallowing.

Sometimes a person with MG can smile, and sometimes a person with MG cannot smile and if they cannot smile it’s not because they are in a bad mood or angry or don’t want to smile. It’s because the muscles that make them smile just are not working.

Sometimes a person with MG can talk just like you and me and sometimes a person with MG has slurred speech. Josh really hates that one a whole lot because sometimes other people think kids with slurred speech but that have MG are just deciding to talk sloppy, and they get told sternly to … USE THEIR GOD GIVEN MUSCLES WHEN THEY TALK!

Josh also said he’s worried now that he’s a teenager when he has slurred speech because of MG that people maybe will accuse him of doing drugs or drinking alcohol. I know the police officers where we live won’t just think that because I already met a lot of the police officers in Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, and they are not like that. But other people maybe will maybe think that, and that makes me so sad knowing maybe some people will believe that’s true about my brother Josh when it’s totally not true at all.

Sometimes a person with MG all of a sudden has double vision or blurry vision, and that means they can’t see things so easy. Sometimes people are mean and tell them to put their glasses on when it’s just MG acting up and it has nothing to do with wearing glasses. If they have droopy eyelids, sometimes people make fun of them or tell them to open their eyes or tell them if they keep doing that, their face is going to stay that way.

Sometimes a person with MG has trouble breathing. That’s usually when someone who doesn’t get what MG is says something about the person with MG being out of shape or just not wanting to go to where everyone in their group is walking. Sometimes a person who doesn’t know anything about MG will point to someone with MG who is sitting down and trying to rest so they can breathe better and say, “Boy that’s one lazy kid right there.”

I know because I’ve heard some grown-ups say that about Josh when he has to stop and rest because he’s having so much trouble breathing.

So here’s how you can help me raise awareness of Myasthenia Gravis this month when it’s Myasthenia Gravis Awareness Month.

1. Video yourself doing something with your not main hand (you know, if you’re right handed, use your left hand and if you’re left handed, use your right hand) like pouring water from a pitcher or putting on make-up or cutting shapes out of a piece of paper.
   
2. In your video, tell people that sometimes this is what it feels like to have Myasthenia Gravis that’s acting up.
   
3. Challenge people and business and organizations to video themselves doing something with their not main hand and do what you’re doing.
   
4. Post it to all of your social media pages and share it on pages of people and businesses you know (and plus challenge them to do this, too).
   
5. Tag your video with these hashtags:

#MGchallenge
#MGawareness
#MGstrong
#IHaveHeardOfMG

That’s all you have to do (and plus share it with me on my Facebook page), and that’s probably going to take maybe ten minutes out of one day of your life to do.

Think of all the people with Myasthenia Gravis (and their moms and dads and brothers and sisters and grandparents and kids and grandkids and friends) that are going to appreciate that you took ten minutes out of one day of your life to help other people understand what life feels like for them on a tricky day.

I really, really, really, really hope everybody that reads this is going to do this superly important challenge that is so eash to do and plus costs zero zip money!