Portal 2

My wife beat Portal 2 tonight.

She was ecstatic. I don't know what happened during the end video (she was wearing headphones), but Carrie started cracking up while Shane and I looked on, puzzled.

I introduced her to Portal maybe a month ago. She'd already memorized the "Still Alive" song (and recorded herself singing it), bought a t-shirt, and then she made me buy the sequel when it was on a 75% off Steam sale.  Me?  I'm on Chapter 3 out of 9. I'll catch up now that she's not going to be playing it much more!

Flashback: They Don't Make Them Like They Used To

Flashback post. (Aka, one of the many posts I wanted to do, but the pics were never uploaded or I got distracted.)

Before school started, Carrie and I took our first (and still only) vacation from being parents. We dropped Shaney off with Carrie's parents, went to an amusement park, and WE TOURED A WW2 BATTLESHIP!

(Note: there are videos and other things that need to be uploaded but it's late o'clock and I'm not doing it tonight.)

Do you smell burning?

Thursday was not a typical school day.  It was the last day before the break, so it was filled with children asking "What's the point of having school today?" and teachers who are thinking the same thing.  Of course, if there was no school on Thursday, everyone would just say the exact same thing on Wednesday and we'd have to make up the Thursday at a later date.

So basically, Thursday was supposed to be an easy day where everyone was just going through the motions and some families decide to pull their kids early for vacation. There was even a hour read-in scheduled at the end of the day! Sweet!

Of course, when do things ever go as planned? (Was Murphy divinely inspired when he wrote his law? It feels like the 11th commandment sometimes).

I love my wife

After a long day for both of us, Carrie decided she wanted to watch some Monday Night Football. San Francisco is playing Pittsburgh.

The lights are out.

The game is set to start, and the lights are a no-go!  A transformer blew and delayed the start of the game.  Minutes ago, that same transformer blew again!

My wife's response?

"I find it ironic that the lights are out at Candlestick Stadium."

I love my wife.

Placeholder post

I was just working on my resume a little and browsing the news on CNN and saw a headline stating Kim Jong Ill 2 has passed away. Thank God. The man has helped suppress a whole country and set up a cult of personality worshiping himself. It's a momentous occasion for the Koreas, so I figured I'd post a quick blog entry stating what I was doing when I first heard the news. It's 10:30 at night, I just got done washing baby bottles and picking up, and I was working on updating my resume to try to get into the entry pool for a type of job in the county I may want to try one day. In other words: I'm doing nothing terribly exciting. Oh well! I hope this will usher in a chance for peace and stability in a habitually rocky region. The ego-maniacal loony is dead, long live the next if he's not more trouble than the sire. 

My computer problem has been fixed. No, I didn't fix the old computer. Instead, I've retasked Carrie's laptop into my electronic play-pal. It was just reimaged last weekend when windows had a catastrophic failure, and I've customized it and uninstalled much of the HP freeware that was sucking up processor power.

It's funny, but gaining the laptop shows how far my marriage has come along! In the beginning, Carrie didn't want me messing with her laptop or trying to fix it if broke. I offered to help a few times in the beginning, realized she'd rather do it herself, and then gave a mental shrug and only offered suggestions if she was ever really stuck. My wife never was for long. I chuckled a bit when I pointed this out, and I got my wife to roll her eyes. I'm sure she has plenty of similar stories about my quirks, and we'll leave it at that.

I took video of Shane today tearing around the basement. He got to see Chuck E Cheese's for the first time yesterday and there were some good photos there as well. Over the winter holidays, I WILL upload some of this stuff.

I love tutoring

Tuesday was business as usual for me at tutoring. I came, I worked, and then...then the unexpected happened. I got a Christmas gift! There was dark chocolate, P.F. Changs gift cards, and a card offering a free night of babysitting!

Have I mentioned I really like the family I work with? If not, I want to mention it right here, right now.

Tutoring is a job yet a hobby for me nowadays. The money is nice, but it's mainly just going into savings or Carrie going fan girl and buying a Bazinga! shirt. After a week of dealing with kids with extreme academic difficulties crowded en mass, legal papers, and upset parents, it's nice to work with a single, bright kid, and a nice parent. The kid actually reminds me of myself in regards to many of the things he struggles with. He's ADD, unorganized, and apathetic. He does like success, he's got a good sense of humor, and after some initial resistance we bonded and crap gets done. I've even forgiven him for being a Cowboys fan! Ha! I feel like I'm making a difference. That's more than I get from work most days where I just feel rushed to get everything done. It's great to just focus on one student and make an impact.

That is all for tonight. I need to go try and fix my computer so I can write longer posts and upload some Shane-annigans. I didn't get a chance last night with coming home at 5:45 and then having to rush Carrie to an urgent care, but that's another story. Life is definitely busy and exciting.

Computer kaput

The desktop is dead for the moment. Safe mode loaded, but a system restore and a scan disk did nothing so it's a deeper set problem. Carrie wanted to see how it was broken while I was watching Shane and she said safe mode wouldn't load for her.

One of these days I'll have time to fix it. I put Shane to bed, checked in with Carrie and then I've been doing chores since.

And do you know what? I'm not the least bit stressed about my comp dying. Video games are a nice time kill, but I get so much more dine without them. Plus, I'm looking forward to fixing my comp. I like discrete problems with a clear solution to puzzle out. I'm thinking it might be fun to try a technical position in my county at some point for a break from teaching, but not a break from education. I like learning new things and it could be refreshing.

That's all from me tonight. I have pictures and videos I want to upload at some point, but I've done more than enough touchscreen typing to desire a real keyboard. Carrie's work iPad is a cool little doohickey, but I can't imagine buying a personal one at the prices they go for. Any totally strange typos and word substitutions can be blamed on Apple and my fat fingers.

I was writing a post...

I was writing a post until a certain kitten who shall remain unnamed jumped on my keyboard. You may remember him attacking the mouse cursor from here: A new obstacle. The screen froze, the monitor became non-responsive, and I had to do a hard shutdown to even reboot the thing. When windows started to load, the monitor went black again, so I'm calling it a night.

Oh, and go Broncos! The first chunk of your game was boring to watch but that was an exciting finish! My Redskins lost today, but it beats the days when they struggled to put up double digits points.

Shane's 1st Birthday Week!

Shane turned ONE this week!

On Sunday, we gathered at my parents house for cake and presents! Shane thought chocolate cake tasted horrible, but that it look great smeared all over his face and clothes. Pictures will be posted once I get my hands on them.

Nana (my mom) turned the birthday party into a "birthday week" for Shane whenever he was at Nana daycare. He was sharing the house with three emergency foster care kids, so they got to join in on the festivities. She took the kids to the mall, and who knows where else!

I stole a page from her book today and took Shane down to a play area at the mall before the stores open. Shane was shy for a change. It took him a while to start running and crawling around. I think there was so much to see and look at that it took him a little to take it all in. After 35 minutes or so, we strollered around the mall, got Dad's lunch (that's me!) and I drove Shane home where he took a really long nap. I felt like a million dollar dad. I need to take Shane out to see other kids more often. It's good for my sanity and his development.

More Shane-annigans and updates will be coming.

A Note on Parenting

Yet another thing people told me while Carrie was pregnant has come true. I was warned that parenting would introduce me to new "highs and lows" in my life.

Allow me to explain.

When your child is upset, you're upset. When they are excited, so are you. The difference is that you cannot control your child's emotions, so you get to ride along whatever roller coaster they drag you on!

Parenting is definitely an endurance sport. Once that little one takes his first breath, you're on duty until the day you die. Sounds morbid doesn't it?  (I tend to look at things in a "what's my duty?" sort of way sometimes.)  Even when Shane's asleep, I have a monitor nearby in case he may need me. The whole parenting gig started off with broken and missing sleep, and even though Shane's sleeping well now I've had to redefine what rest and relaxation means to me. Many times, I spend my off time doing tasks and chores that need to be done so that my  on time will be easier to bear. There are some days I feel burnt out and drained of energy by evening. Those are the days I lay on the floor counting down to baby bedtime and supervising Shane by letting him crawl all over me and manhandle my ears and hair. Those are the days I wonder if I'm a good parent or not.

On the other hand, parenting can also be a rush. When my boy smiles, I feel like everything is going to work out fine. Watching Shane learn a new task or get really excited about something is contagious. Things that I find mundane and boring (like opening a door), become entertaining to watch when Shane's the one straining to reach the handle. I'm really looking forward to the discoveries he's going to make in the coming year! Hopefully, I'll get lots of pictures and videos too, because they're a joy to flip back and look through. Secondly, Shane's instilled in me a strong sense of duty and purpose when it comes to his care. I've never worked harder around the house or at work now that everything I do I feel as if I'm not doing it just for me. I'm doing it for my boy who's counting on me. There's some stress associated with that, but I feel like it's "growing" stress instead of the "tear you down" variety. Finally, being a parent has taught me A LOT. I've read and read, and thought about a lot of things in new ways. For one, I have infinitely more empathy for anyone who's a parent now! Plus, I know that being a homemaker is not the racket I once thought it was. I'd rather be working (unless of course the boy were to be in school most of the day and then I'd reconsider!)

The bottom line is: would I do it again knowing what I now know?  Yes. I'd take a second child if the opportunity came along. I feel like being a parent has been a growing experience for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing my son grow more.

On a sadder note: I received an email this week that hurt to read. I further highlighted to me just how blessed and what a privilege it is that I even have a son. I'll copy it in here, but delete the names so you can read it if you wish. It's an announcement from someone I know that they've discovered their unborn child's brain and spine never fully developed and life outside the womb is not viable. Carrie and I didn't announce her pregnancy until we were sure we'd gotten past the most common miscarriage point (because they happen far more often than people think), and I spent most of the pregnancy praying that my son would be born healthy (working with all of the exceptions to the rule in special ed does wonders for the imagination of an expectant father).

Anyway, click if you want to read the email and remember: kids are a blessing if you have them....no matter how tired you are at any given moment! I'm still amazed it's been over a year for me.

My apologies

My apologies to the two people who may read this, all of the Russian ping bots, and myself for not updating in a while.  Shane skipped walking-walking and he's more into a power-walk and opening doors. I've had to focus more on watching him than typing while he plays.

The little tyke just went down for a nap a little over half an hour ago. Instead of taking a break, that was my cue to RUSH and get as many chores in motion as I could, so that I could take the latter part of his nap off. I've hung up laundry, showered, shaved, carted down new laundry, washed dishes, washed bottles, and grabbed clothes to change Shane into when he wakes up. No single task is extraordinarily difficult or time consuming, but it's hard to do while Shane's awake.

I'm going to try and update a bunch this week, but we'll see if I hold true to my word. I need to keep getting things ready right now, because we're going to go celebrate his first birthday at my parent's house!  It's hard to believe it's already been that long since Shane came along.

Adios for now.

Crayfish!

What better way to end a week of dealing with crayfish than going to Popeye's after work to buy a box of fried ones?  The history teacher I work with mentioned it on Wednesday. Then I saw the commercial on Thursday.

I had to have them.

As I was teaching kids how to safely hold crayfish (behind the arms), and how to tell if it's a male or female, I kept thinking "How do you suckers taste anyway?" I couldn't help but find it a little ironic as I gave the kids the "humane treatment" talk at the start of the lesson as well. I'm all for not torturing and terrifying my animals before I eat them.

Another Week Bites the Dust!

Another week successfully passed. Friday marked the end of the 1st Quarter of my school year. It's been one of the busiest quarters of my career!  Instead of my job getting easier the longer I've done it, I keep discovering new and better things I should be doing and I end up working harder and harder. There's been drama aplenty behind the scenes with parents and teachers, and I have a student who I think is getting expelled (rumor mill and unverifiable, but it fits). And it just entered November! Maybe this year will come roaring in like March does and end on a calmer note.

Today marks the 3rd Saturday in a row Shane's decided to wake up at 5 AM. He doesn't do it on the weekdays (thankfully), but he seems to know when it's my day on duty. The stink took a nice long nap around 8ish after being a crabby patty up until that point. I'm really wondering what Daylight Savings is going to look like for us. Will Shane adjust? Will I be waking up at the same time I've been waking up only the clock will read an hour earlier? Only time will tell.

Good news on the job front amongst the family. Ka got a 6-month engineering job ending her unemployment and Patrick got a job working for a movie theater. The job for Ka is the perfect length because of her pregnancy and Patrick working is a blessing in general. If it were for Shane, I'd visit him and get free tickets! Megan and Billy found out this week where they're going to be posted overseas for a year with the state department. They'll start their 'cultural/language' training in January. Great news all around!

I'd post more, but Shane keeps popping up from his nap. I laid him on me for 10 minutes to lull him back to sleep. There's still cleaning and laundry to do and some cat vomit that's on the floor. I got to step in it in the dark. Kids and kittens make for a fair amount of work.

13 Days Later...

I have survived another two weeks. Wednesday was the watershed "field experience." That's teacher code for "we're going on a field trip, but not really because we're going to make the kids work some." I suppose 'experience' makes the trip sound more meaningful and learn-a-riffic. Personally, I'm a-okay with anything that mixes up the daily routine. It was a lot of work, and we got rained on for the last twenty minutes, but breaking the daily grind was priceless. I would've shown up to work sick and vomiting to make the trip and then used sick leave for the day after.

After the trip, as I was cold and wet and supervising kids, I had a craving for a drink Carrie fixed for me yesterday: Irish Coffee. Coffee is the devil, but the Irish make it in a way even I'll drink it! Specifically, when I'm cold, wet, and tired. I would've loved one in that cafeteria...especially because I was out of my true love: tea. Don't worry, tea.  I haven't forsaken you..., but I may be adopting a special coffee for special occasions. Carrie's thrilled she finally got me to admit to liking a coffee. She made homemade cream and she made one for her mom yesterday to show off how she converted me to the 'dark side.'

It's been a while since I updated, so I guess I'm going to do a 'bullet dump.' That's where I throw up a 'click to read more' and drop a bunch of bullets about random crap that's been going on the past 13 days so that no one has to read it unless they click.

The Turning Point

Maybe "veteran" parent wasn't the right word in the last post. As a new parent, it was like I didn't trust my son to survive. I read books; I watched his chest to make sure he was breathing; I counted every ounce he drank. Now, I wonder if I'll survive!

This morning, Shane woke me up at 5 AM. Carrie was still asleep, because she'd fallen into a NyQuil induced coma on the couch downstairs. The tone of Shane's cries weren't hungry or hurt, but he was definitely unhappy. I didn't go into his room at first, because his cry was intermittent and I was worried that opening the door would fully wake him if he was slipping in and out of consciousness. Truthfully, I was also dead tired and praying that he would go back to sleep so that I could follow suit. Eventually, I went in and his room felt colder than I expected. I slipped some socks on him, an extra pair of pants, and then sat rubbing his back until he went back to sleep...sort of. He would doze off and on but he'd make enough noise that I never got back to sleep while listening to him on the intercom. Around 6:15 AM I went downstairs to make a bottle and fully wake the boy up.   His hands were cold, so it must be time to switch my A/C frame of mind from cool to heat.

As a new parent, I would've been panicking. As an at least somewhat experienced parent, I was hoping I could snatch five more z's before the boy needed me. Hence, the "I used to worry he wouldn't make it" to the "and now I wonder if I'll make it." I don't know when the flip happened, but happen it did!

Seriously, the boy is worth it all. Even when I'm exhausted, when he smiles I can't help but be filled with pride and a sense of accomplishment. Hopefully, I'll live long enough to enjoy many more years of it....at least until the teenage years. Then I'll really wonder if I'm going to make it through parenting sanity intact!

You know when you're a veteran parent when...

You know when you're a veteran parent when you hear your son gag on a baby puff and you're first reactions are to pat him on the back and cup your other hand in front of his mouth.  I caught a handful of throw-up.

Hands are much easier and quicker to clean than carpet.

In other news, my son is working out! He likes to climb up the stairs with Daddy shadowing him. He's tackled four stories worth today! Shane is quite the trooper. He just keeps on trucking.

Early Thanksgiving

The whole house smells of sweet potato pie. Carrie's sick so she's using baking as a means of distracting herself. Everyone who eats her cooking will benefit from her illness. Sorry, Love!

Tomorrow is going to be an early Early Thanksgiving for my family. Jama flew up from Texas to visit and meet my son, Shane. Since she won't be able to be here in November, we're having a whole turkey, stuffing, and pie-o-rama tomorrow! I get two Thanksgivings this year!  Good food, and it's greatly convenient, because my mother-in-law wanted to have Thanksgiving down at her house this year because my brother-in-law's family moved nearby. The bash for Jama prevents a schedule conflict for me, so I feel extra blessed.

Shane's got a sore nose at the moment. He was at Nana Day Care, and Nana had to run to another room for a moment. Jama was with Shane, but he's getting faster and faster by the day. Megan just happened to open the front door, arms full of groceries, and step through when Shane was closer to it than Jama. The little tyke raced over there and before Jama could get him had a little spill. His nose is a little scraped up, but he's not much worse for wear, the poor kid. Bumps and bruises are a necessary part of the learning process. He's getting old enough that he's capable of learning these sort of things, but I'm just happy it didn't happen on my watch. I always feel super guilty when he gets hurt around me like I'm a failure as a parent. Well, at least until I see if there's a mark or not and I'll have to fess up to my wife!

My SMART Board came in at work today. It's awesome. I'm looking forward to learning how to fully use it. I just need spare time and energy. Oh wait... That's the rub in my life nowadays. There's a lot of things I want to do or learn more about, but without spare time and the energy to do something in that spare time it's hard to innovate. It's almost counter-intuitive that I could be a better teacher if I did less at work, so that I could have more spare time to think and reflect.

Life has been moving quickly over here. It was a three-day weekend where I got to catch up on a lot of laundry on Columbus Day. I didn't get much done on Sunday, because Carrie had four riding lessons. She was gone for nine hours, and Shane requires more attention nowadays since he can go out and find trouble faster and faster. He's napping less, too. He's down to two naps a day, and sometimes he tries to go for a one nap marathon (he's extra cranky by bedtime on those days).  I'm still working, tutoring, and I'm going to wake up extra early tomorrow to go with the science teachers and tour the watershed field experience site before school starts.

Shane - 10 months

Has it really been this long? My boy is almost a year old? It's hard to believe sometimes.  I remember dealing with Carrie's pregnancy, or sitting upstairs on a January afternoon with a 1.5 month Shane sleeping on my lap, and a laptop playing Zulu, Sanjuro, or some other random flick on Netflix streaming. Now, Shane weighs more than a small barbell, sleeps less, poops more, and is standing up! The days are long, but the months are short. I was frustrated this morning, because the boy woke up crying and then wouldn't take his bottle! I bolted out of bed in boxers, tore downstairs, came back up, and I got no cooperation. He's ate like a trucker after a long haul since then and is napping peacefully behind me (How else do you think I'd get time to type?).

Parenting is a lot of work, but I've learned a lot:
1) No one was kidding when they said "your whole life is about to change."
2) Grandparents are even cooler when they're your child's grandparents than when they were yours.
3) Any time you think you've got the routine down pat, you're already a step behind. It changes that quick.
4) Which is probably why everyone always says "they grow up so fast" and I've always shrugged it off thinking old people like to reminisce.
5) I'm officially one of those old people now.

On to the Shane-annigans:

Great Teaching Moment

After a talk with my co-teacher today, it was decided that I would kick off the lesson on Observations today. I have a PowerPoint I made for my self-contained kids, and I figured I could breeze through it with the team-taught class in half the time.

The lesson kicked off really well. The kids liked the PowerPoint, my colorful word signs, and really appreciated the chance to yell in school (I like to do some 'call and answer' techniques to keep kids awake). I think my co-teacher liked it too, because she got to see a different teaching style than her own.

I was high on a lesson gone right when we hit the practice examples. The first of which, is a picture of a squid attacking a piece of bait. The kids ooh'd and aah'd and thrust their hands up eager to participate.  The first couple gave me good Qualitative examples (color, etc), so I asked for a few Quantitative observations next (counting and measuring). One girl in the front of the class almost bounced out of her seat trying to volunteer, so I called on her.

"IT HAS EIGHT TESTICLES!"

The class was silent. I stood there for a blink or two, processing.

"You mean tentacles."

A Few Notes on Teaching

There was an article thrown up on CNN stating teachers had 49% of their rank and file leave the field within the first three years. Every job has it's difficulties, but some are more physically strenuous (not teaching) or just more asinine than others (definitely teaching).  

Thankfully, they make for some hilarious stories. From severely handicapped children pulling fire alarms, ("Well, it does say 'PULL!' At least he was reading!"), to a kid asking me if "there are special classes for special kids" when he's quite special himself, it feels like I always have something I can laugh about if I can just survive long enough that it becomes funny. Some years, so much stuff happens that it all blurs together and I lose more unique moments than some careers have in a lifetime. 

Then there's the parents. Ah, yes. Those silly parents. A math teacher I used to work with still walks around quoting me whenever she runs into a 'special parent ("Appletrees!").  

Three misnomers about being a teacher:

1. You don't get paid for summers. I'm on a 10 month contract. I have to go out and find work over the summer if I want a paycheck. No, my job is not some sort of dream job where I get paid for two free months. It's a job like any other - you only get paid for what you do.

2. You don't get respect. You get blamed for everything (especially by the parents). I'm not even going to mention all the things I've been accused of, but they range from racism, to purposely ignoring a parent's emails (because I didn't reply within an hour) and withholding textbooks. I love when I tell a parent what a kid did in my class and then they turn around and ask their kid "Did you do that?" like I'm making the whole thing up for my own nefarious purposes.

3. Yes, there are bad teachers out there, but there's a lot more good teachers that never get any credit. I'm sorry you didn't like a teacher you had as a kid. I hated plenty myself. However, a good teacher isn't always a kid's favorite and a teacher who's "cool" sometimes doesn't teach jack because they let the kids run the classroom. It's like parenting: the kids don't always want what's best for them and they're not happy to hear otherwise.

That sounds close to complaining, and I guess it is! On the bright side, teaching is a gold mine for comedy. If you can't laugh off some of the crap you're put through, then you don't belong in the field. Teachers certainly aren't in it for the money. I want to write funny anecdotes, but since I'm a special educator, I'm supposed to keep things confidential and try my damnedest. 

That means I can write stories from waaaay back when! One time, I had a blind girl threaten to bring a gun to school and shoot the principal(the principal replied "Good luck finding me!" - True story!) Another time, I had a kid wear the same shorts to school for a week with a giant wet spot over his crotch (though I guess it was more crusty than wet by the end of the week).  His mom thought he was a genius and that he belonged in more challenging classes. At another school, I had another student who was terrified of flies, because she thought they were poisonous. I had one student call me Stalin because I wouldn't let him wear a hood over his head with the drawstrings pulled tight, and another student who I had to have a serious talk with about picking his nose in public and why he couldn't get a date. 

It's sad, but so many of those stories happen they blur together and fade from my memory like I mentioned earlier.

I don't know where I was originally going with this post, but it's past bedtime.There will be plenty to do in the morn.

Congrats to Cammy and Erwen!

I actually had a life this weekend.  

I went to garage sales, Section 8 housing to do some computer work, church, a bar and my parents on Saturday. Then, I got to go to Cammy and Erwen's wedding celebration Sunday night! A big congrats goes out to the two of them. They've been together since I first met them some 7 or 8 years ago. Technically, they were already married before Sunday. The two of them ran off to Aruba to get married back in March or April if memory serves me. Sunday was supposed to be the more traditional Chinese wedding for their families.

The wedding was awesome. For one, it wasn't a wedding. It was a nine course Chinese dinner at the China Gardens! I came home stuffed to the gills with authentic Chinese food for the first time in my life. There was no sweet and sour sauce or General Tso's to my initial dismay. Instead, there was some sort of fried crab meatballs, lobster, chicken, duck, and some other things I'm really not sure what I was eating. Most of it was superb, and anything I didn't like just caused me to reach for one of the other courses.  I couldn't help but laugh when they brought out the 'traditional' Chinese food takeout boxes for food that was clearly above and beyond anything I'd normally stuff into them. The only wrenches in the works were when Cammy told me the wrong time to show up (I was early to being an hour early), and then the interstate was going through massive construction on my way home.

More bullets from the weekend follow...

A few thoughts

The current CEO of HP, Leo Apotheker,  is getting fired to the tune of $7 million in cash and $18 million in stock options. His annual salary was supposed to be $1.2 million, plus he got a $4 million signing bonus.

Now, I'm not saying that a good CEO doesn't deserve a healthy sum for running a successful company. Their success will translate to success for the company's employees and their customers.

I am saying that I wish I could get fired for over 20x my base rate of pay. Seriously? The guy must have had some insane contract. For 20x my salary, I'd quit my job tomorrow and take a week long cruise to celebrate losing it. Then I'd look for a job in another county and hope to get fired from that too!

Second thought: tutoring rocks!  The family I'm working with fed me pizza last week, and then it was spaghetti and meatballs and roast beef tonight. Back To School Night is much better when I'm not stuck at work for 3.5 hours of downtime and a commute that doesn't make going home to rest an option. Instead, I drive over to work tutoring for an hour, spend an extra half hour working and talking to the family so I don't feel guilty about eating their food, and then drive back to work to take care of business there. I'm pretty committed to making sure this family gets their money's worth out of me.

Third thought: I wish my commute home at 5 o'clock was as fast as my commute home at 8:30 PM. An average speed of 60 mph is much nicer than an average speed of under 20 mph.

Fourth thought: I've posted three times in three days. See you next month?

Role Reversal

Sometimes, I find it funny that my wife prefers to have me do the childcare so that she can attack projects.

Carrie's mom is coming up to visit tomorrow, so I took over Shane-duty after eating a quick dinner of leftovers. Carrie proceeded to attack any areas of disorderly muck that she could find for the next couple of hours. 

Okay, okay, so cleaning and caring about the presentation of a house is "stereo-typically" female. My wife will hand me the baby to tackle projects for work, conference calls, painting rooms, assembling furniture, disassembling a laptop, you name it! The one thing she won't touch are the cars and electrical problems, so those remain firmly my realm. Anything from IKEA becomes a race to see who gets to put it together (because it's fun like Legos!), but I normally draw the baby duty.

Of course, there are divisions with baby duty as well. Baby baths, for instance. I don't do them. I'm not really sure how that started, but Carrie is the baby-bather. Solid food has been my thing. I was the one pushing that earlier and am usually the one to feed Shane non-bottled foodstuffs now.  

Just a little insight into the weirdness that is my family. 

It's after 10:00 and I should be sleeping. I have another Back-To-School Night and tutoring tomorrow, so I won't be home until later.

Update from 2012: Guess who is the only baby-bather now, Past Mike? Hint: It's not Carrie! Just a random update as I go back and tag a couple of hundred posts.

Work is in full swing

Work is in fuuuuullll swing.

Right now, I tend to leave home around 7:10 AM and get home around 5:30 PM. Parent night last Thursday kept me out until after 9:00 PM but I managed to get home at 4:45 PM the Friday after as a consolation. Actually, parent night wasn't all that bad. I went to my tutoring job at 4, worked for a little over an hour, and then the family fed me a pizza dinner before I had to rush back to school and finish getting ready.

Have I mentioned that I really like tutoring?

Whoa

My 45 minute drive home in the pouring rain was not in vain! School's been rained out?

I'm in complete disbelief.

Tomorrow was supposed to be a Team-Time day and our first fire drill....talk about an easy day to get rained out, but....well, it is a day off! Huh. Go figure.

Shane's 9-mo Check-up and A School Update

Shane topped the charts today at 95th percentile height and 90th percentile weight!

Wow! That's a big baby!

He must be getting his size and weight from Carrie's grandpa. I never knew him, but he was over six feet tall and used to take on a fake name to play for football for the Steelers when he was in college (back in the 20s or 30s).

Unfortunately, today was also inoculation day. Shane's already been waking up at 3 in the morning crying from teething pains, and he got shots today for good measure! My fingers are triple crossed that he'll sleep tonight.

Work is unique as always. I have one kid I'm worried about who was plucking his eye-lashes out one by one, and I got observed on the 2nd day of school. Thankfully, I was kicking ass when I was observed, so that was a bit of a morale boost. Then again, I apparently drive children to pluck out the hair on their eye lids, but I'm willing to bet there's more going on there than my teaching.

More and less is going on, but I'm going to call it a night here.

First Day

I went to bed early and woke up to the tangy smell of cat urine. An unknown perpetrator decided to fill Shane's old infant tub with yellow water.

And so it begins...

And so it begins. Tomorrow is the first day of classes.

Early to bed, early to rise.

Shane - 9 months

Teething sucks.

Ask Shane. He'll cry you a note.

Fantasy Football 2011

Fantasy Football draft tonight!  I'm psyched.

We don't play for money, it's more just of a fun, bragging rights sort of thing. Plus, I suspect it's another 'rebuilding' year for the Redskins so it gives me something else to cheer about. I'm more than willing to be proven wrong about that, though.

Carrie and I are doing an online draft this year since it's going to be held out of town. She rescheduled a riding lesson to prevent me from picking Donovan McNabb in her name. My wife is far more pumped than I am. She made her draft roster a couple of weeks ago. She got bit by the fantasy sports bug ever since she took over Matt's team last year and reformed it to third place in a league of twelve. This year, she's looking to beat me out!

I texted my brothers and sisters to see if they'd be interested in having a family league this morning. I think it would be a fun way to keep in touch and compete with each other, but who knows if it'll get off the ground or not.

It has been funny hearing about all the sports players who aren't so fond of fantasy sports. While I think there are many people who lose sight of things and put fantasy above a team winning or a player's health, I think it would be hysterical if a group of pro players formed their own fantasy league by picking out their colleagues.

Back to work 2011

I survived the first official work week. Meetings, meetings, more meetings, and then trying to set up classrooms in the time leftover mark the beginning of any school year. School don't want to pay teachers more than they have to, so we have one week to organize, get our head in the game, and then go for it! The school has been open until 9 PM each night this week, and they're opening in up on Sunday as well for teachers who need more time setting up. I did everything I could to have my room ready to go, and I'm going to work on my lesson plans and IEP reading at home this weekend.

Allergies

I am allergic to cats and horses. I found out after visiting an allergist today.

My wife and I have three cats and she trains horses as a side-job. Ironic, no?

I've always said irony is proof that God has a sense of humor.

Horse Sold!

Chilly has been sold, and the check deposited successfully yesterday!

The sale was delayed, and took place last week while we were on vacation. Then, there was a hurricane. Carrie didn't get to drive out and meet with our broker until yesterday, and you can bet she deposited that sucker right away. We got half of what we were originally asking and the broker got to keep 15%, but it's a huge blessing to not have the financial burden of supporting the horse. God is good!

Raise a glass for Jazzy T...

RIP puppy...

The family pup

Jazzy T, aged 14 years, passed away tonight.

We all knew she was going to pass sometime soon. Jazzy was diagnosed with rectal cancer last May-ish. The family started to prepare itself then, only to have a subsequent checkup say "What cancer? I don't see anything." Jazzy has been having trouble for years with her rear legs, standing up, and moving around. When I still lived at my parents, I would have to carry her up and down the basement stairs to prevent her from falling. Her mobility has degraded greatly since then. Something caused her to fall today on her back legs. The poor pup dislocated her hip. Then, the bone didn't want to reset properly, because her muscles around it had atrophied so much. The vet didn't think she stood much of a chance recovering.

I believe my mom made the right decision to put her down while much of the family was with her. I didn't hear about it until it was almost too late, and the twins were out of town, but Mom, Dad, Patrick, Matt, and his girlfriend, Renee, were all around. They put the phone up to Jazzy's ear so I could say farewell. That's when I felt it the most.

RIP Jazzy. You were loved and will be missed.

Rough-housing long ago

Home, home, again

Home, home at last.

Carrie, Shane, and I got back late last night from our first family vacation. Carrie's parent were gracious enough to host us for a night and then watch Shaney for the next couple of days while Carrie and I went off from R&R. (That stands for roller coasters and restaurants this vacation!)  We really enjoyed the time off, and Shane really enjoyed some time in a new locale with all sorts of new trouble to get into.

Wednesday, the earthquake hit. It was a 5.8 magnitude shaker than was felt up and down the east coast. People in Canada felt it, and the epicenter was in central Virginia!

I never felt a thing.

Last week off

I report back to work next Monday. I'm ready and I'm not as is the usual.

This summer has been full of work, work, and more work. I love my son and I wouldn't trade him in for another, but babies are a lot of workity-work. It's not always bad or overly draining work, but it limits what you can do. Almost every morning this summer I've been woken up to help Shane start his day, and then almost every night I've gone for a half-hour plus walk before easing him back down into his crib for sleep. In the middle I've been doing chores, watching Shane, working ESY, and tutoring. And you know what? Even when I'm bone tired and frustrated, I have a good feeling of accomplishment once I'm able to rest for a bit. It's taken a lot of adjustment, but I feel like my capacity to do work and take care of chores has grown exponentially over the past couple of years. I do wish I was better able to keep up with all of my old friends, but everyone is busy and when they're not, they live a different lifestyle at different times of night and day.

I know for certain that my life is not something the younger me would've envisioned. Of course, each year I look back and the prior me seems a little bit dumber to the present me who's had a little more time to figure things out. I suspect I'm being an idiot in some way even now as I type this! I know when I was younger, I used to dream more. I would envision being part of cataclysmic event or maybe doing something completely and utterly bonkers. Back then, I think I was drunk on the possibilities of what my life could become. Now, I'm busy living (and enjoying) it. It's an odd perspective change. Being an "old man" that is.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting back to work and feeling productive. Fatherhood has made me feel a little uneasy when I'm not doing some form of work to ensure my family is provided for. I need to keep bringing in the bacon.

As I was typing this, Ranger jumped up on my desk and starting mewing at me. He jumped in my lap and scaled my chest to nuzzle my beard. By some gravity defying mechanism I cannot begin to understand, the kitten managed to sit just below my neck so that he could bunk me and demand attention. My teeth clattered from his purring. Do you think the kitten has adopted me? Or maybe he's just trying to prevent me from typing and using the computer. He's sleeping in my lap now, but that's probably because I'm sitting in 'his' computer chair.

Nerd Moment

Nerd moment.

I just discovered you can do verbal searches on Google. Tons of fun!  The wife and I were trying it out. It was highly accurate, but there were some fun mistranslations! Well, or maybe it was me yelling out funny things whenever Carrie would finish talking...

A new obstacle

There's a new obstacle between me and my writing. His name is Ranger.

The cat is obsessed with my computer! He walks on they keyboard, attacks my mouse cursor, and even likes to play with pens while I'm writing. What? You don't believe me?

 
It was hilarious the first time. It was pretty funny the second time too. By the third time I'd pulled him away, I thought he'd give up, but the kitten just keeps coming back. He's relentless! (Relentlessly stupid anyway, heh.)

Labels

Mike's Blogging Level Increased!

Mike gained skill: Use Labels.

Next level up: 200 posts.

What in the world is THAT?

There's a new addition to my family. Are you shocked? I know I was.

My wife is no longer allowed to go into any PetSmart unattended.


The kitten's name is Ranger. He was found in a box with two other kittens outside of a pound. All three of the kittens were severely malnourished and the smallest one did not survive.

ESY

Summer has begun again! I changed my last adult diaper today, and there are two full weeks before I have to report back in for the new school year.

What is ESY?  It stands for Extended School Year. It's not summer school -- it's only for special education students whose IEPs indicated that they would have a severe regression in their learning if they did not receive any schooling throughout the summer. Our goal is to "contain and maintain!" (I admit, I made that motto up, but it does do a good job of summarizing things).

This was my second summer working ESY. I was an IA (Instructional Assistant) in a Cat B classroom. In English, that means that I was assigned to help a teacher with students who are much more severely affected by their disabilities than your typical special education student. For example, during the school year I work as a teacher with Cat A LD/ED. I still teach from the same textbooks and lab guides as all of the other general education teachers in the school. Over the summer, there was one student I spent a whole day with trying to teach her how to recognize the number six.

Overall, I'm very glad that I did it. Working with a different population of kids can be refreshing and eye-opening. Plus, being an IA instead of a teacher allows me to work with kids and not worry about the mountains of paperwork and non-instructional work teachers are required to do.

[FYI - this is going to be a long post. I've been meaning to write about my summer job all summer, so there's a lot of things to say. I wrote notes about every day of my first week down way back when! I'm going to condense everything (of course), because I don't want to be too brutally assaulted by an overabundance of words when I click 'read more.']

Shane - 8 months

August 6th - 8 months old! He is growing fast and A D Highly Delightful! (I'm very proud of that term btw. I'm also scared to Google it and see if someone came up with it before me)

Many things have changed, but other remain the same. Whenever Shane is sleeping and I can't clearly see his face, my heart stops for a moment until I see the rising and falling of his breathing. He's old enough now that he can easily roll and crawl around if something did obstruct his airways, but it still puts me at unease.

The biggest update is about Shane's crawling! It's more of a full-body drag than an up-on-his-knees sort of crawl, but this kid is mobile! He can crawl the entire lengths of rooms, turn, and get in to trouble with frightening ease (you may recall the jaws themed pursuit of the cat's tail). Whenever the boy sets his eyes on something, he's bloody determined to get it. I find I'm constantly dragging him away from something by an ankle only to find he resumes course the moment I let him go. Shane still doesn't have a good grasp on what to do with obstacles between him and whatever it is he wants. He'll ram head first into things and cry if I let him. The boy has also been a bit more fussy in general as of late. He's still a happy baby overall, but he can get quite unhappy by the second and third time Daddy has yanked him away from a tasty wire or power cord he was homing in on.

Hooray for Fridays!

It's been a long week at home and at work. Thank God It's Friday!

This week, the DOW dropped close to 300 points one day and then over 500 points another day after a debt deal was made (Congress was arguing whether or not to up the spending cap and the deadline was this week). I had just invested a chunk of my summer paycheck as Shane's future college fund a month or so ago!  Long term, I'm sure it will recoup, but damn I wish I had waited a little longer. I had been expecting that reaching a debt agreement would've upped the market a little or kept it more or less in the same neighborhood as before. If I had been expecting it to take off, I might have invested even more, so hallelujah I didn't do that.

I still owe this journal a post on ESY.  I will do that! Tomorrow is the day Shane turns 8-months old so I'm going to want to do a Shane update then. That means I'll talk about ESY....eventually!  There are only four days left of it.

Speaking of work, I have to go to it. I woke up to Shane this morning and I've been working ever since. Time to go to work and relax, right?

I think it's going to be a good Friday.  Time to go find out!

Cats!

My wife was having fun with Shane this morning! Apparently, he'd already tried for the cat's tail three or four times before she pulled out her cellphone. He's a determined little booger!  I love this video.

Shane and the cats are going to have problems at some point. He's fascinated by them. That means he wants to eat them.

The cats have never been nabbed by Shane. Whenever he reaches out with a twinkle of baby mayhem in his eyes, Carrie or I pull him back before any fur is ruffled. Until recently, Shane's been immobile (at least as much as a hyperactive baby can be). Before that, he had such bad aim that the cats were able to walk up to him, sniff, and walk away before he could get a fist full of skin or fur. With no injuries to report, Max and Min have grown complacent. One of these days, Shane's going to be a little too fast, or we're going to be a little to slow and he's going to catch a cat. It won't be pretty. Max is de-clawed, but Min is a fully equipped. Shane will eventually learn the "don't rough up the kitties" lesson, but he may learn it the hard way.

In return, the cats will learn the "don't stick your tail in the baby's face if you want to keep it" lesson

Carrie and I are in a world of trouble!

Carrie and I are in a world of trouble! We're going to have to baby-proof EVERYTHING! Ha, ha!

My boy is crawling!

Wednesday night was the first time. I almost didn't believe what I saw. I don't think Shane believed it either because he only did it once or twice and then seemed to forget or lose interest in the whole experience.  Thursday, he was at it again!  Only this time, the lesson stuck!  Carrie would put her phone on the floor and Shane would traverse the open expanses of carpet separating him from a Macintosh snack. She then used her phone to lure him into crawling under and through his jumper.  Friday, Carrie emailed me this video while I was at work. I had been complaining that we didn't have enough photos/footage of the boy lately and she was obviously listening!  Great video of a great boy!

Shane had been on the verge of crawling for at least a month and a half.  Mostly, he'd just been rolling around like a pig in mud to get wherever he was going.  I was able to safely set him down places and do chores as long as I made sure there were barriers he couldn't roll over. The little stinker can tackle straight lines now! It's baby-proofing time! Shane's always had a love for finding 'forbidden fruit' like paper, cardboard, and cell phones, but now he's been upgraded to a baby cruise missile of gnawing destruction. It'll be a miracle if the cats survive.

7 Months, 21 Days - Shane crawls.

Heat wave mostly cancelled, nightly walks resume!

The heat wave is finally subsiding!  After a week of temperatures that sometimes topped 100 degrees F and heat indexes that hit as high as 115, summer is feeling a little more like summer and less like Death Valley. What a wonderful period of time to be driving a car without air conditioning, no?

The Jetta is dead. Long live the Prius!

...yes, I'm driving a Prius. It used to be Carrie's, but she's upgrading to a Tuscon that will hopefully be our version of a miniaturized mini-van. I do not need a new car, so I'm driving around the old car while my wife gets an upgrade. I was fine driving the Jetta around in the heat even without air conditioning, but with Shane around I don't want him cooking in the baby seat if I had to drive him somewhere. Plus, there was one night where Min kept burying her head in my armpits and trying to lick them. If that's not a sign that I need a car with air conditioning, then I don't know what is! Thank you for the advice, cat-who-loves-bad-smells.

Of course, as I pronounce the heat wave as 'subsiding' Weather.com tells me the rest of the week is going to still be in the mid-90s and there's another day topping out at 100 coming up. It almost makes me want to take Al Gore more seriously.

Thankfully, it was only in the mid-80s tonight. Shane and I have been going on nightly walks for the past couple of months. We had to put them on hold during the worst of the heat, and it's nice to be able to enjoy them again.  Every night around 8:00, I strap Shane in to his stroller. We cruise around our neighborhood for anywhere between 15 and 40 minutes to try and tucker him out before bedtime. He really enjoys being outdoors and rarely fusses while underway. Shane doesn't really laugh or giggle through the walks either, though. I suspect it's because he's so busy looking at everything. I try to use the time to learn all the paths and streets in our neighborhood and learn the faces of some of our neighbors. It's funny how little I know of so many people who live so close to me, but seem so far away. I keep hoping I'll bump into a fellow nerd, but I know it's unlikely. Nerds fear the sun. The odds of bumping into an outdoor nerd are limited to the few seconds it takes them to park and then run into their domiciles to begin nerding. That's what I like to do the moment I get home from work.

Speaking of "nerding," I think I hear Shogun 2 beckoning me to feats of conquest again...

A New Goal Every Year

As a teacher, I'm dedicated to the idea of creating life-long learning. I believe that you're never more alive when you're learning something new. It could be a new skill, or maybe something as simple as learning whether or not you like a new restaurant or discovering a new TV series. Learning rocks.

Also, if you're not growing, you're stagnating. Maybe even dying. Everyone needs rest periods, but trying to live in stasis is an unattainable goal in an ever-changing world.

Here's where I segue into my title about goals.

I try to come up with a new goal every school year. It's something to grow myself outside of the "go to work and then come home to rest so I can do it again" doldrums. I came up with this when I realized there's really no "career advancement" in the teaching field.  Once you're a teacher, you're a teacher. Hopefully, you will become a better teacher as time passes, but unless you transfer into a different section of the schools: a teacher is always a teacher.

Previous goals:

Shane update - 7 months and keeping us busy

One day last week, Shane was being incredibly fussy for Carrie. He wouldn't take a bottle. He didn't want to sleep. His diaper was clean, and no toy was the right one. I figured Shane just wanted some outside air, so I scooped him up and we went to play in the garden.

Shane loves being outside. We looked at the sky and plants, and he tried picking up pea gravel between his toes. After a little bit, I laid down on the porch and laid Shane on my stomach so we could look up at the sky. We were laying there when I had a revelation: I knew what was bothering Shane. Right then and there, I thought up of a funny line for how to tell Carrie. I was wearing a big grin on my face when I realized my stomach was feeling wet.

Poo.

My son poo'd on me!

I quickly brought Shane inside. Carrie rushed over to help with the overflowing diaper. I took off my shirt with the Kansas sized wet spot and realized Shane's diaper must have also leaked from his leg holes, because my pants had poo splatters as well.

The irony of the situation was hilarious. I had been planning on walking in and telling my wife why Shane had been so fussy. "I would be fussy too if I hadn't had my poop of the day!"  Instead, I came running in to the tune of "Help! Our son just crapped on my chest."

Shane just smiled, happy at last.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other Shane stuff:

Time for an update! ESY begins

Well, I've been bad about updating again. I blame my busy chore/babysitting schedule! I am being way too productive!

....ok. If you bought that, I have some stock in Blockbuster I want to sell you. I have been busy busy busy with tutoring, starting ESY and taking care of my son and house. All of those things shouldn't have stopped me from writing an occasional sentence or three. The real culprit has been Shogun 2: Total War.

Turn-based games are the devil. I don't play any multiplayer games anymore because I need to be able to drop whatever I'm doing instantly if Shane needs me. Real time games with a pause function are doable, but hopping back and forth every couple of minutes can give you mental whiplash. With turn-based games, I just leave the game running and click around a little bit whenever Shane or my chores gives me a chance. Steam swears I've wracked up over a couple of days worth of play-time, but the reality is far less. Between home and son-ownership, I wonder what I used to do with that luxury called time. It seems like there's never enough of it to actually leave the house for outings.

Anyway, those "idyllic" days of doing laundry, diapers, and staying home all day with Shane are gone. ESY has begun. Carrie's mom is coming up today to spend the night and take care of Shane for a couple of days because both Carrie and I are working full time and my mom is in Beaumont taking care of Jama. The laundry/cat-room got a supreme make-over into a guest bedroom. I think it looks great, but we'll see if it passes the test soon enough!

I plan on doing a Shane update and an ESY post later this week. This update was to get myself back into the habit again.

And on a totally unrelated note: I can't believe Penny hasn't been kicked off Food Network Star yet. I think Vic would be a hilarious frontman for a show, because he looks like a friendly tattooed Vin Diesel.

Daddy Dumb-butt

Being a parent has made me dumber.

Or at least it feels that way sometimes. I've run into more walls, stubbed my toe frequently, and put on more clothes in a backwards rush than I ever did without a son. I was much stupider around when Shane was first born, but some of that could be attributed to sleep deprivation. Now most of my foibles can be attributed to focus deprivation.

Whenever Shane is anywhere within my vicinity, a portion of my brain seems to be devoted to baby status checks. Is my son breathing? Are there any munchies close to him that I wouldn't classify as munchies? How clean is the area around Shane? If I'm actively playing with Shane, another part of my brain shifts into parent paranoia and warns me of situations I want to avoid at all costs. Situations such as making sure I can easily put a hand behind Shane's back before he arches so far back he falls or making sure I don't bump him into something as I turn or walk around.  As far as I can figure, the portion of my brain used for status checks and parental warnings is large enough to impair my already limited cognitive capacity. The amount of moronic and klutzy things I do when my son is around is a hundredfold when he is not. Thankfully, the stupidity that struck during my working hours was always my typical idiocy rather than the baby-enhanced variety.

I've definitely been less baby-impaired as Shane has aged, but I'm pretty sure the condition is going to be permanent. What do you think?

The whole situation brings a quote from one of the coolest American authors to mind: Mark Twain.

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years.”

It's not the same context, but I'm sure once Shane hits fourteen it'll be a battle to convince him I'm not a babbling idiot.

PS - Every time I find a severed cricket leg on the floor, I love my cats just a little more.

Poo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I could ask God one question, I know what it is. How in the world did my son poo through his cloths onto his elbow! It was all down his left leg, his clothes, and the bouncer too (which I just disassembled and washed a couple days ago).

I also want to take this time to thank God, that the trash pickup is late today. I didn't want that diaper-bomb marinating in the house for any longer than necessary. One of the local squirrels also ate a hole in one of the trash bags I put out this morning, so I was able to shove the stinkbomb straight in.

Peek-A-Boo

I think Shane just learned how to play Peek-A-Boo! While lying on the floor, he would pull his favorite blanket up over his head. I'd ask "Where is Shane?" and whoosh!  Shane would yank down the blanket and smile at me.  I thought it a coincidence at first, but at least 10 tries later....

My son knows peek-a-boo!

I'm sure he's just listening to the tone in my voice rather than the words, but it must've been exhausting work. He's passed out on the floor. I'm so glad we installed carpet down here.

Crawdads in the house

At 2 AM last night a revelation struck me: I had left an active aquarium in my classroom.

Wednesday, I'd broken down my class for the year and walked out of my school for the summer. Shane had come with me due to a lack of child care options with Mom visiting Jama in Texas. My son garnered lots of oohs and ahs for his pretty eyes and damned cute demeanor. Away from admiring eyes, he was full of fussitude and stretched half an hours worth of work into two. This caused me to forget about my aquarium full of mutant fish and crawdads. I didn't want my classroom to smell in September from a bunch of dead marine animals marinating over the summer, so I drove up to my school to clean out the watery graveyard.

They weren't dead.

I've never had this problem before. My school aquarium has no filter. I put no food in it. It's supposed to be a self-sustaining micro-ecosystem for kids to look at and measure. Invariably, the heathens end up killing everything. Sometimes it's from tapping on the glass. Sometimes it's from eutrophication. Sometimes I think the fish are just sick of the students. No matter how hard I try, they always die. Last year, my co-teacher's kids were horrified at the mortality rate of my fish, so they tried to rescue some of them. All the fish died within a week of being put in their home aquarium (that had a filter and everything!). This year, the water turned green, the plants died, and I have mutant crayfish and guppies that refuse to succumb. Go figure. Of course, that was before I left them in a pitch black classroom with no windows to the outside world for a couple of days. At 2:05 AM I laid back down to a guilty sleep knowing I'd have to clean up fish corpses in the morning.

Imagine my surprise to find everything alive. There wasn't a single guppy belly up. The water had evaporated over the past month so that the crayfish could raise their claws and the tip would break the surface, but both Lefty and Psycho were left running around. They refuse to die.

The names?  Lefty is the big one with only a right claw. Psycho is smaller and equipped with both arms. He's also a murderer. He used to be in a separate tank with another crayfish, Victim. I came in to school one morning to find that Psycho had chopped off all of Victim's arms, legs, and one of his antennae. The poor bastard was just laying on the floor of the aquarium and would bat his tail around if poked at. That's no way to live (plus, I bet Psycho would've earned the name Cannibal if I left Victim in there), so I did a mercy kill.

I now have mutant crayfish living in my house. I'm not worried about them mutating further and escaping. The cats have been stalking the tank since they arrived.

Of Tooth and Tutors

Shane has not one, but TWO teeth. They're front and center on his bottom gum line. Neither one is a "white monolith" yet, but they at least count as sharp protrusions. I can run my finger over them and there's absolutely no doubt. Last Thursday, the doctor noticed the first one while Shane was getting his vaccinations. The second one appeared shortly thereafter. I'm just glad the little incisors are here. I relinquish my title as the "father who called TOOTH!"

Carrie objects to one of the findings at the doctor's office. The nurse weighed Shane in at 20.5 pounds, measured him at 27 inches long, and then found his head circumference to be something like 45 cm. Shane is hovering around the 80th percentile for weight and head circumference, but he dropped from the 80s to somewhere around the 60th percentile for length. Carrie swears that Shane is longer than 27 inches from her own measurements. She thinks he is perfectly proportioned and on track to out-grow his car seat!

I think Shane's getting a little bit of baby pudge. Sorry, son. I'm calling you out! You're by no means a totally tubby baby, but I've noticed that when I try to pull you out of your bumpo seat that your thighs stick and the seat comes up with you. You've also managed to hide scrap of kleenex in a fold of skin between your chin and neck. Then your wrists are starting to look like there are little rubber bands around them that puff out the skin on both sides. Grandma keeps mentioning that she loves and oh so wants to pinch your chubby cheeks too!

End of the school year

Ding, dong, the beast is almost dead.

I have lots I could complain about. Lots. I actually started to complain, but I just deleted it all. Suffice to say, this has been more of a year about surviving and damage control than it has of feeling fulfilled and like I'm making a great difference in the lives of my students.

I was angry and thinking about the unfairness of it all earlier today when I happened to talk to someone I normally don't. He's an older gentleman and a computer tech. The conversation started with him making a joke about how a school year is like a pregnancy: after 9 months you're ready to kill something if you're not delivered from it! Whatever he said, it was damn funny. I told my sprinting analogy of how I view teaching and somehow we managed to start talking about a man at the tech's church. The man's wife died and he'd been laid off from Verizon where he'd worked for many many years. He ended up becoming a substitute teacher and then an instructional assistant in the county, because he couldn't find any other work. The sad thing: Instructional Assistants aren't paid jack. I was one of them. I know (it was $18k a year when I did it). The man was thrilled about it though! The IA job provided benefits for the man AND his daughter.  Benefits which had been costing him $1200 a month while working part-time.

At that point, I figured my problems (while stressful and annoying to me) really could be a lot worse and I should be thankful for what I do have. A loving wife, a healthy child, food in the pantry, a good place to live, and no insurmountable debt. There are still some lingering, self-centered 'woe is me' thoughts rattling around my head, but the whole encounter planted a different perspective I'm praying is nurtured. I'm not going to get all preachy, but we're given choices in life and choosing to be positive is almost universally better than choosing than to be negative.

On an entirely different note: my first official father's day was yesterday. I'm looking forward to many more.

Is that a.....

Shane woke me up at six this morning with a surprise.

Is that a tooth? FINALLY?  I've been predicting one of those things would erupt any day now for the last two months. I attempted to take several pictures before it occurred to me I was probably blinding my son.

Shane and I also did a formula run this morning. As I was hauling him around in his carrier I couldn't help but think: "Do they mix a little brick dust in with his formula?"

I think I'm going to start using Shane in his carrier for curls instead of my dumbbells.

Yet another Shane update

About a week or so ago, we started trying to feed Shane solid food.  I must say, he looks rather amused by all of our efforts.

Feeding Shane by spoon is messy to say the least. Half the time, he won't open his mouth. The other half the time, he tries to grab the spoon and shove far back into "gag me with a forklift" land. This is followed by him trying to stick his fingers in the mouth to see if they help flavor the food (or just add a little crunch), or by Shane opening his mouth in a huge smile that pours food all over him. Yes, he enjoys laughing at his minions struggles. We minions are in turn enthralled by his laughter. I love my son.

Other Shanetricities

Surprised!

My wife surprised me!

Carrie has been trying to accomplish this for a while. Our first Christmas, she was going to surprise me by learning how to cook sushi. I ruined this, by sneaking up on her in the grocery store (trying to scare her, because I'm a turd) while she was looking at a "make your own sushi kit." Then there was the time she took off work to surprise me at my apartment and my ADHD senses heard keys jingling and I opened the door and surprised her with a 'hello.'  Then there was the surprise birthday gifts. The only problem was she ordered them online. I have the credit card set up to alert me whenever an online charge is made to prevent identity theft and quickly tracked down the errant (and no longer surprising) charge. The list goes on and on. Surprising me has become something of a challenge that my wife takes on from time to time.

Today was one of those days. 

Political Pursuit

Random story I meant to mention.

It's a Saturday about two or three weeks ago. Shane and I are visiting Dad while Mom is visiting Jama and Zanne in Texas. My parents own a huge house (10 people lived there comfortably once) and it can feel borderline oppressive if it's completely empty for too long. Plus, Dad is good with Shane and I don't mind the break right before going to church!  Anyway, Dad is playing with Shaney when the doorbell rings.  Naturally, being the one unencumbered by a baby, I get up and go answer the door.

At the door, are two gentlemen.  I say gentlemen, because one was in a suit jacket and neither one looked like the typical door-to-door salesmen or lawnscaper that my parent's neighborhood seems to breed.

That's surprise #1. It's not much of one, but my first thought is that the Mormons are walking around again.

Then, one of them speaks.

"Are you [my name here]?"

Surprise #2. I haven't lived at my parents' house in years. Why would anyone be asking for me?  I blurt out a "yes," but I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out what's next.

Productive

It's funny how productive I can be when there's something in particular I don't want to do.  I don't try to avoid work or escape into movies/video games....I try to do other odd jobs so that I feel less guilty about not doing what I know I need to do. So far, I've spent the morning playing with/babysitting Shane, vacuuming, laundering clothes, and trying to pick up in general.

What am I trying to hide from? Long, long, long overdue thank you notes. I found them never sent a little while back, but putting pen to paper makes me feel like a boot heel. I need to do them; I'm going to do them, but I'm procrastinating. The world knows it; I know it. I can't hide behind semi-colons that I don't even know if I'm using correctly. I'll start working on it for real after Shane takes a nap and I move the laundry. I already confessed to one of the people and I'll feel (rightly) worse if I don't follow through.

School is finally winding down. I turned in my VGLA binders Tuesday to be shipped off Wednesday, received an email confirming VGLA scoring duties, arranged subs and made plans, received another email telling me to cancel the job on a sub I'd just talked to, and then a girl spent my class hurling in the bathroom. Honestly, it was a fairly typical week with the exception that I tried to teach my math class Yahtzee on Friday! We've been working on probability and doing problems involving dice ever since the SOLs finished AKA 'Yahtzee training.' Half of my kids were out due to the band field trip, otherwise it wouldn't have worked with all of the questions and blank stares I got about the rules.

Shane is 'grabbing with intent and accuracy' nowadays. He's been reaching out for a while now, but he's definitely better about getting what he's reaching out for. The little man has also become a pro about rolling from his back to his belly. He just gets stuck there. My son seems to have forgotten how to roll from his front to his back like he used to do around the two month mark. Use it or lose it, I suppose. Shane had me cracking up this morning when he rolled over onto his belly and then the momentum kept him going right back to his back. His eyes bugged and his jaw dropped in astonishment. My son rocks and rolls.

I should probably post something

I should probably post something.......

....and done.

Things I wonder about who Shane will become

I'm very curious to see what kind of person my son will become as he grows up. Here are just some of the things I think about.  Shane, if you're reading this 10 years from now: 1) I hope you've learned how to read (if not, get your butt in gear at school!) and 2) I hope you get a kick out of it.

Left-handed?
   Shane often flails around with both his arms, but he tends to use the left more.  I don't know if it's because I'm right handed and I used to always hand stuff towards his left (since that's my good side) or if I'm just dreaming. He definitely reaches out with his left more often and more accurately. 

Yoga or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
   I think my kid is made out of play-doh, rubber, or some other malleable substance.  He spends most of the time he's not sleeping on his back trying to jam one (or both) of his feet into his mouth!  There were four out of five of his toes wiggling around in there this morning.  I've joked with my friends that he has a good rubber guard, because he's the only person I know who's likely to lose an eye to one of his toenails.

Morning person?
  My son does double duty as my alarm clock. Sleeping in on holidays? Nein, Father!  Shane consistently wakes up between 6 and 7 in the morning. I can always tell by the vibrations rocking my house as he thrashes around happily. Seriously. The kid lifts both his feet straight up in the air and then brings them crashing down. It reverberates through our wall so that our neighbor hears it. Where does he get the energy from? And the singing! You'd think my son was in some sort of singing and dance production listening to him through the baby monitor and praying for him to go back to sleep for another fifteen minutes.


A profession that involves kicking
   See above post. My mom worries that he's going to break his heels. She tries to put pads or distract him when she's baby-sitting from pounding a hole into whatever he's laying on.  So, what do you think? Soccer? Karate? 

Saturdays with Shane

Every Saturday, Carrie goes off to work and I suit up to play stay-at-home Dad. Today is no different. Shane and I play until I'm dead tired or he drops off to sleep and then I split my time between chores and some R&R.  Since it's a three-day weekend (followed up with my birthday!) I've decided to skip out on the usual laundry and I've watched some Castle and played some Starcraft 2 instead. At the moment, Shane is zonked out less than five feet from where I sit typing this.

I'm always amazed at how hard Shane sleeps. I can bang around working on dishes, meddle with the washer and dryer and crank up the volume on the TV or my computer and he pays it no notice. If the phone rings, I answer it. He just keeps on sleeping. The kid used to really scare me on car rides. He still does!  Sometimes Shane will fall asleep and lull his head forward in his car seat. It looks hugely uncomfortable and I imagine it could cut off a kid's air supply or at least give him one hell of a crick in the neck. To top it off, Shane goes completely unresponsive.  I can call out his name, drop the windows, and crank the music and he'll just snore away. Plan B is I reach back to rub his hair and gently poke him some. Shane still won't respond.  It's on to Plan C. I put my hand on his chest or under his nose to feel that he's breathing while keeping my eyes on the road. As long as he's breathing (and he has never not been) I keep on driving and gently prop his head up or pull down on his car seat some to make his head lull back against it. When I was a newer parent, there were times I almost pulled over on the shoulder to check on him, but now I'm a little less paranoid (but only a little).  Whenever Shane crosses his eyes or makes a funny noise, I run to Dr. Google or Baby411 to see what's what. I love this kid. He's a lot of work, but he's my son! That's the way it's supposed to be. I am looking forward to when he can entertain himself a little more and when he can start running around so we can play outside together.

It's been a busy week in Shane's father's life. SOL tests have been going on all week and Jama had a mini-stroke. I stayed late a couple of days this week working on my damned VGLA binders. I'm going to out of my way to find a good cigar to celebrate the death of that assessment when it passes (next year! WOO!). I'd write more, but then I would probably never want to re-read this post ever again. I think I'm just going to bury the memories and crank them out years and years from now in sentences that begin with "You think this is tough? Back in the day..." I'm just thrilled school is winding down. I'm ready for a new year and a fresh start. Plus, this summer has ESY waiting for me and my new tutoring job. More on those in a later post!

The boy is awake and looking up at me. That's the signal to stop blogging!

Shane's first cold

We knew it would happen one day. Dr. Google tells me that this is normal. Kids get colds all the time. That doesn't mean it's been fun.

Shane woke up with snot gurgling and burgling in his pipes. He was coughing and unhappy overall. The boy has been fussy since. As I was getting ready for church, I stopped to feed him. He greedily downed four ounces and then when I went to burp him, Shane projectile vomited all over me. It was my second shower of the day (and the couch's first).  I don't know how, but the boy soaked me so thoroughly from head to toe that it soaked through to my underwear. Gross, eh?

It's been a rough day, but I'll be telling all of this as a humorous anecdote come...well, come this blog! I think it's a pretty funny story! Originally, I was going to write a long detailed post, but then I remembered: this is the internet! If it's longer than a misspelled sentence fragment involving several acronyms most of the denizens of the net will pass it on by. (Does that mean writing with correct grammer and complete sentences will prevent 'undesirables' from reading something? Hmmm....)

Hopefully, my misfortune is good for a laugh or some of you older types can fondly remember raising your own children with all of the bits about throw-up, pee and poop conveniently whited out of your memory.

UPDATE:
I've been doing laundry since I got home (in between running back and forth to meet the demands of my tiny master), and I had a prophetic moment.  The washer wasn't quite full and instead of running it, I figured "I'm sure I'll find some dirty clothes if I look around."  I went upstairs and decided to change out of my church clothes and throw those in since they were wear-to-work quality and Shane has been using them as tissue paper. It's over 80 outside and most of my shorts are already being washed, so I donned the kilt (there's nothing better for hot weather if you're man/confident enough to wear one).

It lasted about 3 minutes.

I was holding Shane in one arm and I had just poured a drink to take downstairs in the other hand. Shane started a coughing fit. I remember feeling sorry for the boy and then another thought popped into my head: "Man, that would suck if he sneezed right into my tea."  I remember holding him close in my arm and lifting my drink hand up so that the drink was over his 'sneeze threat zone,' but the rest of my arm was in range if I need to hug him or re-balance.

That's when he struck.  Cough, cough BL@RGH! I just stood there like an idiot. Vomit cascaded down my shirt, my kilt, and into a big pool on the new carpet.

Thankfully, I was standing right next to the half-filled dirty laundry basket I'd brought down.

Oh, and the tea was safe.

UPDATED UPDATE:
The kid just poo'd too.

Teething for laughs

Life is marching on here. Shane popped up at 6:00 AM and now he's down for a quick nap behind me as I sip my morning tea.  His weight gain has slowed some recently, but he's still about 2.5x his birth body weight and he's not even 6 months old yet. That's not really what I wanted to talk about today, though.

Shane has been teething like there's no tomorrow.  He gnaws on his hands, anything he can put in his hands, and he air gnaws on anything he can see but can't reach. I wouldn't be surprised if his dreams were full of chewing. Every morning I check to see if a white monolith has erupted somewhere in my son's mouth. I feel like I'm playing the lottery: no winner has come forward! And yet, the boy has been teething for a couple of months. I'm half wondering if instead of one tooth popping in, Shane is going to wake up with a tiny white arsenal. It'll be nice to take my first picture of his first gap-toothed grin. In the meantime, I'll just keep providing new and exciting things for him to chew on!

Lately, the boy has become ticklish. Whether it's from my beard on his belly or cheek, or my wife tickling his toes, Shane will laugh and squeal. It's damned cute. I try not to tickle him more than for a split second, because he's not really old enough to say if he likes it or not. He is laughing and cackling more and more at ordinary things and when he gets excited! I can bounce around and make faces to get Shane laughing sometimes. Indy, my parent's dog, causes Shane to go straight into laughing hysterics. He loves watching Indy run around and chase a ball in his grandparents' backyard. Last week, I was helping him stand at the sliding glass door and he started cracking up when he saw Indy running around and jumping on the back porch. I fear he's going to be terrorizing that poor dog when he's old enough to run around, ha ha ha. Shane's also taken an interest in watching our cats. Right now, they mostly avoid the baby, but they're really lazy about it. They're going to learn the meaning of true terror once he discovers their tails! I predict trouble. It's going to be fun.

That wraps up the Shane update for today. Carrie is out of town this weekend speaking at some event for work.  Whoever was originally supposed to speak dropped out the week before last and Carrie got nominated to replace him/her. I'm going to be doing the single-parent thing until Sunday night. In the meantime, I'm going to catch up with my teacher friend, Many, for brunch, go to Bruce and Reina's baby shower in the afternoon, and visit my folks since my mom's birthday is tomorrow. For now: Waffles and tea.

One of those days...

Today started out auspiciously. Carrie's boss talked to her Monday about a job that may be opening up where she would be able to work from home and have a guaranteed position for up to five years! That would've been incredible!

Would've.

Instead, it turns out that Carrie's boss got fed up with his higher ups and he's decided to retire at the beginning of June. What will happen to my wife's job when he goes is anyone's guess.  Then, there was a phone call that evaporated Carrie's chance of getting the at home job. It doesn't matter that her boss wanted her to have it and that she'd be better at it. It's now "unavailable."

Poor Carrie. We've known that her job would only last as long as her boss kept working, but we'd been expecting him to hang around another year and a half or so.

My day went pretty poorly as well. I forgot my lunch in the refrigerator, had the laminator mangle some lab aides I'd been working on, had a redundant training eat up my planning period, an AP was supposed to speak to the class during my LS then never showed, and right before boot camp I found out there was an "incident" between some students in one of my classes that I have no idea what it is and no one told me. The kid responsible had lunch detention with me today and now he's going to have AIA tomorrow. He's not a bad kid, but he's pretty impulsive so I'm wondering if he made an inappropriate comment.  Kids getting in trouble in a class happens to every teacher. I don't like not knowing what happened and that no one bothered to tell me since it was in my class. Hopefully, that mystery will be solved tomorrow.

The rest of the day passed quietly. I weeded the heck out of my garden and Shane and I took an unplanned nap on the floor when he got home. Carrie said I was knocked out for about an hour and got a kick out of the red marks on my face from sleeping on something. Now, it's time to go up to bed and face tomorrow.

The best thing about a day like this is that it always seems like it's downhill from here on out. It's best to pray for peace, grit your teeth, and get rolling towards the better times. There are two days to the weekend and the start of SOLs! I actually like SOL week. It's the prep beforehand that's rough, but the week tends to fly by. Then there's a two-hour early release Friday, a three-day weekend from Memorial Day, and my birthday.  Carrie will probably be doing more riding lessons over the coming weeks as well. She's found a fair-sized group of people that she really enjoys working with.

Anyway, better times are definitely ahead. I'm making a promise to myself I'll talk about Shane next post instead of boring work stuff.

Busted!

Driving home from the gym, I decided to give Jama a call. The first thing she mentioned: my blog. Aunt Zanne had mentioned me mentioning Jama's Mother's Day gift advice.

Jama: "MIKEY! Do you think my friends will think I'm bad?"

Busted! How do you reply to that?

Me: "Oh, Jama. They know you by now!"

At which point, we both started laughing. "Oh, they know I'm bad!" Jama joked.

"You're not bad! You're fun!" was my reply.

I love my Jama! She's a lot of fun as long as you realize she's got a wicked sense of humor. She's one of those people who lives life fully instead of just sitting around and watching it pass by. I'm looking forward to introducing her to Shane, but at the rate he's growing he's going to be half her size by the time that happens! The kids is nearly 20 lbs now! There was a two-year old at church who was only half a head taller than Shane. He clearly gets that from Carrie's Grandpa Moffat (who sounds like a gentle giant and even played some pro football for the Steelers back in the way early days of the NFL).

Also, if you didn't catch it in my first present participle phrase, I've started going to the gym. I haven't worked out in forever, or hung out with a lot of my friends since getting married, my workload at work doubling when they didn't hire a replacement teacher and I got to teach two subjects, buying a house, going through a pregnancy and now raising my son.

I'm full of excuses aren't I? Good at them too, or I would've found a way to exercise by now. I didn't get too sore last week, because I took it easy, but Igor made sure I didn't slack off today. Sadly, I was half-asleep the whole time I was there. I could've passed out standing up. And yet, I'm awake now. Go figure.

I'm going to wrap up my post here. Looking at some of my old posts, they look like bears to read, so I'm going to try and keep things shorter where I can. It suits my attention span better and prevents rambling.  My next post will be about Shane (of course) and an update on the great opportunities that have come Carrie's way.

Peace out, boy scouts.

Old writings

I haven't managed to write anything for the last....well, really long time ago. I think September. With work, chores, and Shane keeping me busy, it may be a little bit before I start the routine again. Plus, Dexter's gift of Starcraft 2 is eating up my little free time (Thanks again, btw. You totally had me surprised when it showed up.)

It's all amateur work, but I'm still proud that I wrote as much I wrote, so I figured I'd post it here in case anyone was interested.

Here's the first story I wrote. It was an attempt at humor in the BattleTech universe. It actually warranted a "fun read, but I'll have to pass" rejection email from the editor.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6EZPkpi1V2SYzEyNWIyYWItZWViMy00Y2QyLWIyYTctOWNhZWNmYmViZjJj&hl=en&authkey=CODn7MoM


Here's a quick flash fiction I tried writing for a (shock) flash fiction website. Never fully edited this one, so it may read a little rough.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6EZPkpi1V2SNTlhZmI5ZDUtOWYyMi00MjNiLThkNGItM2M2ODU1NjhhMGM5&hl=en&authkey=CMWpx9wH


Finally, here's where most of my time went. I started writing a 'science fantasy' story. I have notes and I'd like to get back to it, but here's what I did so far.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6EZPkpi1V2SYjNlYTJkNDItYzQwMi00YzUwLWIwODQtYjFiMzZiMjc3NTdl&hl=en&authkey=CPSGqP8D

Whoa!

I'm pumped. Confused as all get out, but pumped!  I just got shipped a package of Starcraft 2 from Activision-Blizzard and I don't have a clue why!  I checked the "bill to" part on the packing slip, but it just listed the address of Blizzard in Los Angeles (according to Google at least).  I was too excited at first to think straight, but I started to wonder if maybe it's some sort of delayed congratulations gift. Mike Dexter had mentioned sending me something, but I assumed he'd been talking about something for Shane (since he has babies on the mind in his life). Could this have been from him? Either way, I'm still pumped.  I just played the first couple of missions and it's good fun.

Today was also fun because I got to use a buy 1 get 1 free coupon at a new, locally owned pizza place. The owner introduced himself on the phone when I made my order. The verdict?  Good pizza!  It's not the best I've ever had, but with the coupon it was definitely worth it.

Pizza and a new game....life was nice when I got home!  Carrie had to go to do some riding lessons (she's starting to form a bit of a clientele) so I ended up babysitting Shane for the first three and a half hours I was home, but the weather was awesome and he was in a happy mood. It's work, but I do like to be with my son. It'll be even more fun once I can take him out and play catch and tag.  He's grabbing at things far more often. He reaches out to stuff on his exercaucer and tries to grab or even spin some of the larger objects some. His accuracy is wanting, but the determination to do 'something' with his hands is apparent. He's clocking in just under 19 pounds now and he wears 9 month+ clothing at 5 months. Want to bet he dwarfs Daddy at some point?