Baby Whisperer / Grammy Gifter

My friend Heather asked me to watch her two little girls for the day while she did some job shadowing. When Harrison got home from school, I asked him to keep an eye on them while I ran to the restroom. When I came back, he had the older one sitting on his lap, the younger one watching him with rapt attention, as he read a Winnie-the-Pooh board book to them. Too bad he doesn't want siblings. He'd be a great big brother.

We were going to take Mom to Olive garden for her birthday on Tuesday, but she decided she'd rather go to the Metro Buffet, so that's where we ended up. Here are some pictures of the evening:

Harrison helps Grammy open his gift to her

a frame that says "you're a superstar"
hand-painted by HD

the other gifts wait to be opened
(the mini-bonsai tree in front was a gift
from our friends at Metro Buffet)

a hug for the birthday girl

pre-inferno birthday brownies
(candles by HD)

the brownies ablaze

Congratulating Mom

Today is another milestone for the Shaffer Family. It is the anniversary of the birth of our reigning matriarch (aka "Grammy"). For women, being reminded that you're another year older can sometimes make us feel less than celebratory. So instead of dwelling on years accumulated, I thought I'd focus on a small sampling of the many accomplishments Mom has achieved during her relatively brief time here on earth.

So, here it goes:

Congratulations, Mom!

During your years as a teacher, you touched the lives of thousands of children, and inspired many to become musicians, teachers, and the best citizens they could be.

You instilled in your children and grandchildren a love for music which has carried all of us through both good times and bad.

You were part of a parenting team which provided a solid family unit through years when blended families and children of divorce were in vogue.

You have a lovely home filled with decades of memories, which continue to be built on with visits from grandchildren.

You successfully raised three children who have become (for the most part!) productive members of their community, who were able to stand up to peer pressure as young adults, and who were thus prepared to provide good homes for your grandchildren.

You have an uncanny knack for knowing exactly what to do for a person who is hospitalized - how to make the experience more bearable, whatever the circumstance.

You retired in time to take care of your mother and were there for her when she needed you most.

You were there for your sister the same way, by her side as she battled cancer, and providing a comfortable place for her, surrounded by family as she moved on.

As tempting as it can be to mourn the passing of another year, better we should celebrate the blessing of life, with gratitude for the year gone by, and with hopeful anticipation of future blessings.

So, Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

Hope

We called a Family Holiday yesterday. Julio stayed home from work, Harrison stayed home from school, Mom and Dad came over before 8:30 - AM, and we spent the entire day watching Inauguration festivities.

Julio made a delicious breakfast casserole, and we gorged ourselves as we lived through history together in our family room. After the ceremony was completed, GW made the most dramatic helicopter escape since the fall of Saigon, and when the news teams were turned away from Statuary Hall so the Obamas could eat lunch off-camera, Julio and I raced to KFC and brought back lunch, which we devoured in our own "private luncheon" as we watched the reporters scramble for information about Ted Kennedy's seizure. Deedee even volunteered to pick up my daycare kids at school and bring them over, so we could stay put and watch the parade, which we did until the shoddy coverage and redundant punditry got so annoying we finally switched over to The Simpsons.

Since November 4, I've been trying to imagine the best way to orchestrate this historic time to make it the best possible memory for Harrison. This is the kind of event that you talk about the rest of your life. You are supposed to remember exactly where you were and what you were doing "when the Chief Justice screwed up because he wouldn't just read the oath". What stories will he tell friends and family when he is my age?

Unfortunately, my efforts were thwarted by Harrison's sorry excuse for a teacher. He had another run-in with her yesterday, which resulted in him spending the last part of his half-day of school talking to the school counselor.

Are you imagining horrible things? I was too. It turns out he forgot to put his name on a paper he handed in. The teacher gave him a dressing down, and he hurried to correct his heinous lapse in judgment. In his haste, he left out the "i" in his name, which drew him an additional tongue-lashing "Harrison, get back here! You forgot how to spell your own name!". This is not an uncommon occurrence in that class, but it happened right before lunch and his blood sugar was low, so rather than just keep his head bowed and retreat to his desk, Harrison also started to cry. Bad move. She called him up again and asked him to explain himself, and goaded him to speak up, until he blurted out "I just don't like you!" This led to "serious conversation" and the trip to the counselor. They scheduled a "meeting" for today, with the counselor acting as mediator between Harrison and the teacher.

So rather than enjoy time with the family, and really being able to celebrate and absorb the historic events unfolding before him yesterday, he spent the day engulfed in anxiety and worry about today's meeting.

Harrison is a very forgiving person, and generally very diplomatic. He made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he wants to handle this situation himself and not have me step in on his behalf. I have faith that he will handle things today better than I would, and I hope it doesn't turn into the "two against one" scolding that they seem to have set him up for. I'm praying that it resolves the issues he's been struggling with all year long, and that he'll be able to look forward to going to school the way he did for his first 5 years of school.

But even if things work out for the best, I myself am going to have difficulty forgiving that woman for robbing Harrison of the full experience he should have had yesterday, and for creating a learning environment so toxic that Harrison no longer enjoys reading or doing homework, and has had more sick days in 4 months than he had the prior two years combined.

HeeHeeHee

Can you tell I don't have time to type a nice blog post? Snow days mean relaxing at home with the family to many people, but for me it means a house full of stir-crazy kids!

The weather warmed up today, so we took Harrison and his friend, Avery, to Planet X - a very expensive outing, but they had a great time! They climbed the rock wall, did bumper cars twice, played spaceball, mini-golfed, won 400 tickets each on the video games (that they turn in for prizes at the door) and Julio & I joined them for "adults v. kids" laser tag (final score: Adults -675, Kids 5200).

Now I've got to get to work preparing a kids' message for church tomorrow, so in lieu of something entertaining to read, I thought I'd post this mariachi tribute to our President Elect - your toes will tap and you may giggle a bit. I enjoyed the musicality of the group and the singer - most mariachi groups I've heard struggle with their instrumentals a bit and usually have at least one very loud vocalist who goes slightly sharp or flat and sings with the timbre of the drunken mouse from the Speedy Gonzales cartoon. This group is much better.

This One's for You, Dad!

Check out the cameo performances in this clip from "Alias Jesse James". Julio could name almost all of them. Can you? (I can't - but I do recognize Bob Hope and Bing Crosby!)

Magic Powers: Not All They're Cracked Up to Be

I have discovered a mystic talent that has apparently remained dormant until it suddenly stirred to life, beginning last winter: I can control the weather.

Oh no, I can't guarantee a sunny day for your wedding, or clouds for a funeral, but I have a nearly 100% rate of accuracy causing extreme snowfall. How, you ask? Merely by sitting at my laptop and sending a message to my students that there will be speech practice at a certain time on a certain day.

With that one move, I can ensure at least 2 to 5 inches of snowfall within 3 hours of the scheduled rehearsal, and I throw in an 80% possibility of bitter cold and biting winds, just to spice things up.

So far, the only way I've found to circumvent these powers is to watch weather reports and make an early decision to cancel rehearsal. If I cancel rehearsal more than 2 hours before it is to start, I can undo the effects of the original scheduling, and the weather will be sunny and clear. However, if I wait until the last minute to cancel rehearsal, the weather will be fine until rehearsal would have been over, then turn bad enough for Cedar Rapids to call off school the next day.

Behold my awesome powers! I thought I could guarantee bad weather this Thursday by scheduling a daytime rehearsal, since the kids had an inservice day scheduled. Instead, I was able to cause the school to RESCIND the INSERVICE DAY! I do not just control the weather anymore. I can actually influence an entire school board (or at least a Superintendent or two).

My New Year's resolution was to not let things beyond my control stress me out.

But I didn't think to include roadblocks created by my own unexpected mystic powers that manifest themselves in January and February. *sigh*