Talking in Parenthesis

I am currently hiding in my room watching Cops ( I can't help it, I love that show. I actually have a friend who is an officers that has been on Cops, pretty cool huh?), doing laundry and playing on the laptop. Ah the glamorous, go-go life of a mom. Pretty exciting huh? It is finally going to get above freezing today. It has been sub-zero the last 3 days or so. We even had rolling blackouts on Saturday because the power company wasn't prepared to handle the cold. Great, nevermind that it is not unusual for it to be that cold in Denver in Feb. Had us worried at work when the power went off, we didn't know about the blackouts and were a little concerned. The cold is not good for the birds, not to mention the employees, lol. But back to why I am hiding. Clay has a friend over, he spent the night last night and they are engrossed in a game of Star Wars, Empires or something like that. Sort of like Rise of Nations and Age of Mythology, but within the Star Wars universe. It is pretty neat and involved. I am so glad Clay has friends. He is one of those kids that doesn't make friends easy and tends to get hurt because he gets taken advantage of all the time. Most of the "cool" kids think he is weird. Well yes I guess if you go by the sad MTV standards he is weird. He cares more about his family, his goals, his animals and likes his rather unruly afro of hair. I personally think he is an amazing kid, of course I think that of all of my kids. But I love his independence. I love he does his own thing regardless of how much he is teased. And he has been teased and bullied. There has been lots of tears, his and when I am alone or with Ron, mine. But they have never broke him, he has stayed true to himself and his goals. And now he has found a friend like him. One that has goals different but similar than his. One that cares if he does well in school and doesn't think it is cool to get in trouble. One that likes the weird, be it animals, sci-fi or dragons. Or that thinks his hair is cool and could careless. And the coolest of all one that will stand up for him, one that has his back and when the going gets tough circles the wagons and digs in with him. I spent years telling him that he would find a friend, hugging him through the tears, that there would be a friend like this. And truthfully I didn't know if he would find a friend like this, just knowing how middle school kids are. The different, the unique are not welcomed for the most part in middle school. And having that one person, somebody in your corner besides your family, has made a big difference for him. It has been wonderful to see him open up, to be completely happy. To not be so sad when he comes home from school. Such an amazing and wonderful transformation. I love being a mom.