The only Christmas tree I need this year....

These are pictures of the Butterfly Tree some of our students put together. Members of the FCCLA sold butterflies and the contributions went to support First Candle/SIDS Awareness. The butterflies were $1.oo each, and they raised $638.00. That's a lot of butterflies. They decided to use the butterflies to decorate a tree at the Greenville Convention Center. I went by there yesterday to check it out. They did a great job:

This is my favorite butterfly. Look closely; you'll see why....

I'm so proud of these kids. I know that Ayden was a big part of their decision to do this, but they also wanted to honor all of the babies who have fallen victim to SIDS. They did research and projects for SIDS Awareness because most of then had never heard of it before. Sadly, a lot of people don't know much about it. I don't understand why the #1 cause of death for infants each year (although SIDS is not a cause...it is just a conclusion because there is no real "cause" that they know of) is still so mysterious. It's as if people ignore it....pretend like it isn't real just because they know so little. It doesn't seem right that money has to be contributed in order to further research on this. It should be a primary focus; it should hold precedence. I know not all babies who pass away are affected by SIDS. The loss of a child, whatever the cause, is terrible. I just wish more was known about SIDS, and I wish more attention was given to it in medical research. Maybe it is given a lot of attention. It just doesn't seem that way to me. They have all of these "risk factors", which are no more than suggestions. They don't KNOW that these suggestions will prevent SIDS. I can tell you....they don't; they won't. We took every precaution. Every. single. one. So, when I hear people say, "Back to sleep", I get extremely frustrated. They make it seem like, "If you do "x", your baby won't become a victim." Well, we covered all the bases.....explain to me how it still happened and how these "suggestions" were supposed to help.

Okay, I've gone off on my tangent again. How about I leave you with some cute pictures? My sister, Megan, and I went to visit a friend of ours yesterday, Jill. This is Jill's daughter's dog, Marzipan "Marz". She really likes Megan, so got some pictures of Megan and Marz having a moment. Many of you proably didn't know I had a sister. She's 25, and she is a NICU nurse. She is awesome at her job, which is why I never, ever worried when Ayden was in her care. She's single...waiting for the perfect guy to come along. He's going to be one lucky guy, and if she loves her future children as much as she loves Ayden, they're going to be some blessed kids. I think Megan reminded Ayden of me because he would respond to her much like he would to me. Not exactly. I was still the only one who could calm him down. You can't compete with the "mom touch", but she could get pretty close. We look more alike now that we're older, and we sound alike sometimes. I would have never told you 10 years ago that my sister would be my best friend, but she is, and I love her dearly.