Lack of posts

Im not really a huge fan of typing on the iPad. Short sentences are fine, but a journal entry? I want to feel the keys as I hit them. Like my knee and complaining about the extra d in 3d movies, it's just another sign I'm getting old! Heh.

A lot has happened this week. Shane's learned a few new tricks, we had the home inspection of our new house, spotted lead paint, and now we're in the heat of negotiating. We may end up walking away. For the inspection, the family I tutor for agreed to babysit Shane! I really like them. They remind me of my family in some ways with how high-energy they are. Shane fit right in. Everyone who's seen him at work or otherwise thinks he's the cutest thing. Handsome, too.

I will try to post a real post when I get a better video of one of Shane's new tricks. I got one but Carrie didn't like how she looked in it. I got vetoed! I'm sure he'll do it again.

Until then, enjoy your weekend!

Fleeting Fame

At the risk of revealing my identity to the internet at large: I had my picture in a newspaper.

Good luck finding me! Bonus points if you can figure out what event was going on, too. It should be easy to figure out if you're up on current events and you read this post before too much time passes.

Hopefully I don't forget what this is from. It was a historic day!

Anyone on the internet can figure out a lot about me pretty quickly from my posts. You can figure out certain stores I'm near, landmarks I've mentioned....if you're determined enough at least. I figure I'm not entertaining enough to entice anyone I don't already know to track me down. I can't imagine anyone who's simultaneously that bored and motivated stumbling across my page out of the millions out there.

Deadtop

My desktop died a while back.

Today, Carrie's laptop bit the bullet.

We've got a lot going into the closing of the house and everything, so it's going to be work laptops and iPad only for a while. That means no games and no access to older photos and videos. Rats.

It's not that a new computer isn't affordable, but we don't want any large purchases that would raise a flag in the mortgage approval process. For the time being, we just need to stay the course.

Korra Prediction

My wife is calling it: Amon is really Aang's non-bender son Bumi (or however you spell it.)

Apparently, I'm unobservant. I didn't realize different benders had different colored eyes based on what their element is. Carrie said she thought Amon had grey eyes on a close-up, and she made her prediction.

My wife is normally pretty impressive with this sort of thing, so I'm not betting against her.

Three Guilty Confessions

Shane's been a total wrecking ball on my old priorities.

This is a good thing. I believe that when you have a child, you have to live for the family instead of yourself.

That said, I'm only human. I make mistakes I know about and mistakes I won't know about until later. It's impossible to list the mistakes I don't know of, but here are three things I do know of I'm trying to do better.

Brushing Shane's Teeth - I've done a crap job of this so far. I can play all day, do bottles and chores, child-proof, time and mask medicine into feeding, but I can't remember to brush my son's teeth. The few times I have done it, I've felt more like it was him chewing on the brush than actually brushing. This is something I've really got to get better at. Half the time, I remember it AFTER I've put him in bed and I've snuck down the stairs.  Nana would be horrified. (She once laid behind my car in the driveway to prevent me from leaving without brushing).

Waking Up - I start many mornings with a guilt trip. Whenever Shane wakes up at 5:30 AM or earlier, I tend to lay in bed for a while and listen to him 'sing.' As long as it's not a really distressed cry, I just lay there and wish my wife would get up so I could sleep in. Now, there's actually nothing wrong with letting Shane play in his crib for a little bit in the mornings. The books I've read said that up to 30 minutes is fine. However, those days when it takes me closer to 40 minutes? It's amazing how long I can lay somewhere and keep hoping "maybe he'll go back to sleep in 5 minutes." My average wake up time to Shane 'singing' is probably around 20 minutes. (I almost said 15-20, but if this is a confession I should lean towards honesty).

Ignore the TV - My son and I both zombify when a TV is on. Carrie can have it on as background noise. Me? It doesn't matter if it's Judge Judy, or some other crappy show. I start to zone in to it and zone out my son. It's got to be the ADHD. When I'm home with Shane, I do my best to keep the TV off entirely. I still stray towards checking my email on the computer, but because it takes energy and effort it's easier for me to avoid. The TV is Mike-trap. It just ensnares me if I'm not careful.

Stories from school

There are always stories when you're a teacher.

Always.

Most of the time, there are so many 'plot lines' going on around me that some incidents blur and fade together. They become indistinct and lost memories before I have a chance to write them down. Others rely on knowing the characters (students) involved to the point that the stories just aren't as funny to someone not "in the know."

I've got a few stories this week I'm actually going to try and write down before they are forgotten. We'll see what I can get down before Shane wakes up from his late nap.

Contracts, I Love USAA (for now), and The Pursuit of a Detached Home

Life moves fast when your wife falls in love with a house.

Over the weekend, Carrie researched and whittled down a list of a 100+ houses into a favorites list of 15. Monday, she whittled it down further and picked 7 houses she wanted to visit on Tuesday.

Six were busts. One was "the one."

Wednesday, Carrie made arrangements to visit "the one" again with me in tow. I showed up at 5:25 PM after tutoring. Thirty five minutes later we left talking about what our offer would be. That night, our agent came over at 8:15 PM and we spent the next hour filling out paperwork. Our agent left, and we ended up on the phone with USAA talking loans. Bed time came just short of 11 PM.

Today, Carrie woke up feeling sick. It's crunch time at work for me, so staying home to help wasn't an option (5 IEPs in three days). I go to work, and I receive an email from home. The appraiser is en route. I can only imagine the panic my wife went into! That afternoon, Carrie calls to tell me about the counter-offer. I get home from work around 5:40 PM and Carrie and I hop on the phone with USAA for another hour plus. 7:20 PM, our agent is back and we're initialing a modifying contract. It should be faxed off and USAA should be ordering the appraisal.

Carrie and I are going to own a house! It's smaller square footage than what we have now, but it has a yard, driveway, street parking, and no shared walls. Quaint, homey, and modest are the best words to describe it.

It took a week to put the townhouse up for sale, a week to sell it, and it took less than a week to find a home and put a contract on it. The time in between was waiting for inspections to clear and fixing random odds and ends. Our inspection of our home-to-be is scheduled for next week, but hopefully that'll be the last bit of work as we settle in to the long lead-up to closing in June.

Throughout the process, we've worked like dogs. Carrie was never happy with how clean the house was, and Shane going to bed just meant it was time to clean or do chores most nights. It feels good to know it wasn't for naught.

We also had a lot of support from our families. Carrie's parents have held on to the cats since we put the house up. My mom volunteered to hold on to Shane for a couple of extra hours of child care on Wednesday so I could view the house. I want to travel and live somewhere far away one of these days, but it's hard to imagine not having my family nearby.

From this point on, we're going to be praying that nothing comes out to throw the contracts out of whack. The HOA still has to look this house over, and tomorrow we should hear what the appraiser reports.

I'm saving my excitement until more of our ducks in a row. Carrie's ecstatic enough for the two of us!

Focus!

I really should focus my blog posts more.

This blog is really more of a journal for me than it is for entertainment purposes, but I have a tendency to want to say everything. You're not reading that, because I already prune my wandering train of thought pretty relentless. Maybe it's the ADHD, or maybe it's just I feel like way too many things are entertaining or interesting.

If I was writing for a specific audience with a specific purpose, it would be easier. Because I'm writing for myself and my attention and interests wander all over the beaten path, I'm tempted to put more and more in to each post.

I wonder if coming up with a specific blog schedule would help me. Shane updates every Sunday? Work story of the week on Friday? That assumes I'd be writing regularly on those days, though. Carrie and I share this laptop, so I don't always have access when I want.

Or maybe I'm reading into a problem that's not really there. It's something I'm thinking about, at least.

Also, this seemed like a quicker post to write. I want to take my daily 30 minute video game break. It hasn't been a super stressful day or anything like that, but I'm ready to be done with work and have some pure down time.

Oh, Saturday.

It's great to have a Saturday where things aren't moving in high gear.

The house inspection was yesterday from 4:30-7:30, so there's no pressing need to watch Shane and clean-up after him at the same time. This week was full-on busy mode at work, and the looming inspection meant Carrie and I spent most of our home-time working as well. All of that's done now! At least until the appraisal, I suppose.

You know what sucks?

Giving Shane medicine sucks.

He treats it like you're killing him and he'd rather die than swallow. I tried giving him some of the Claritin he was prescribed tonight. Shane fought, and fought, and then upchucked. It's like trying to hold down a thrashing bull. We were able to mask the Tylenol and Amoxicillin for his ear infection in some strawberry puree, but he decided he didn't want to eat the whole serving.

That boy is trouble. You really want to help him, but you become the enemy if he sees a baby syringe or if he tastes anything slightly off. Sickness is preferable to giving in. My friend, Igor, made the joke that I'm "raising a little alpha male," because it's Shane's way or the highway. I predicted Shane's going to have a stubborn streak to him way back when and nothing I've seen has changed my mind since.

That could be a good thing.

A stubborn child now, could mean a young man later who won't give in to peer pressure or wimp out of doing what needs to be done. It could also mean a total jackass who refuses to admit he's ever wrong, but there's always two sides to every coin. You can't get the great without risking the other.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to think of more creative ways to get Shane to take his meds. It doesn't do the turd any good if he spits it all out or throws up because he's trying to thrash and swallows wrong. Carrie and I need to set up the appointment to meet with the allergist, as well. Two weeks of constant clear snot are what brought about the ear infection. Shane's had trouble sleeping from the snot, too. The boy is probably allergic to pollen, which really sucks because he lives to be outside. We'll have to play it by ear.

Almost time for rest. I've been around throw-up twice today.There was puke on desk in school and Shane winged me with some upchuck tonight. I need to sleep so I can deal with Shane while Carrie's at work. I don't want a vomit threepeat on the morrow!

I feel sorry for several students

Today was a busy day (as usual). What made it different from most was hearing about some things that happened to students over the break. There was the kid who didn't get into a certain high school and his parents threw a phone at him; or there was the girl whose mother decided to cut off almost all of her hair. I don't know all of the details on the haircut (I'm hearing it second/third hand), but I did get it verified that the student sat and locked herself in a staff bathroom for most of Tuesday rather than be seen. The counselor is working on that one, rest assured. I'm not exactly sure what will be done with it, though.

My wife asked me about CPS, but I had to explain that it feels like they're pretty slow to act in many cases.  Especially if the abuse is emotional. The system is very cautious to make sure it's not infringing on anyone's rights: parent's or child's. Many times these cases can be pretty murky. Plus, the standards in the law can be pretty minimal in some regards. Physical abuse can have clear evidence and gets dealt with quicker.

There were other stories of other things I won't post, but I can't help being saddened by hearing it all. Part of it is the nature of Special Ed. You hear many strange and sad stories. My students often have not had a 'normal childhood.' I don't like it when I'm a situation where I have to react to a student's behavior, but I know there's more going on that I cannot change.

It sucks.

Every teacher wants to believe they can make a difference. The day I feel like I can't make any difference is the day I'll walk away from the field. I feel a little guilty I've already started my own countdown to the end of the year. I also need to talk to my chair to see if I can add her as a reference on my resume. A few opportunities came up I want to apply to. The deadline is coming up, so I need to get moving on that one.

For now, sleep beckons.

Sign #12,497.6 I'm old

I don't use an alarm clock.

Either my son gets wakes me up, or I wake myself up.

Go figure.

Humble Pie Moment

I can be a turd.

I know it. Anyone who knows me knows it. 

I was raised in a family that did a lot of teasing and bantering. We all enjoyed it (I think). We also got pretty good at it. I would needle the twins and Matt, and they'd tease and joke right back. As adults, I'd tell you that I no longer enjoy any advantage from 'advanced age.' I'm outmatched in many respects. I may have Kathleen beat, because she's plain nice, but otherwise I can't make any claims to greatness. 

Anyway, I was chasing Shane around the kitchen today and saw our "To-Do List" whiteboard again for the first time in a long time. The ink had dried to the point it didn't wipe off easy. I had a little flashback to when it was first put up and recalled my prediction about how often it would be used. In my infinite wisdom, I made a smart remark to Carrie. 

I admit, that while I said it in a joking manner, I was going for an "I told you so." Carrie got a little annoyed and let me know it. Then she agreed the board hadn't been used much, and promptly forgave me for being me (Have I mentioned I love my wife?). My first reaction to all this was, "can't she take a joke?" That was followed by me stopping and thinking for a moment.

I ain't prefect. I hate admitting when I screw up, but I'll admit it. My stooping to an "I told you so" isn't a major confession in any shape or form, but it's enough of one I don't mind posting on the internet. 

Little irks me more than when someone refuses to admit a mistake. If you don't admit it, you can't learn from it. If you don't learn from it, you'll repeat it. 

When I thought about it, I made sure to apologize to Carrie. I'm not going to change my clowning ways, but this time it wasn't a mutually funny comment. Jokes that are funny to you and annoy another person...well, that's an insult. "I told you so's" always look like a good idea at the time, but even if there's some sort of valuable, life-saving lesson to be learned, the wrong delivery will leave the other person feeling sour.

I don't want Shane to grow-up as a person who cannot admit to his own mistakes. I need to be very aware of my own mistakes and make sure I model this for him. It won't be too hard, because Nana always called me "the poster child for ADHD." There will be plenty of mistakes I'll be making!

This post sounded a lot more eloquent, funny, and all-around awesome in my head. It's funny how actually writing something down can spoil some of that. 

Shane's new trick

Shane's always learning a new way to jailbreak. Over spring break, he perfected the "crawl under the chair and run like mad."

Carrie's parents' house is not childproofed. It's big, wide, full of expensive stuff, and they have no kids so there's no child-safety anything. What we used to do to contain our son was make a makeshift, half-moon barrier out of his playpen, the couch, and a few chairs in the living room. It gave Shane enough room to roam around, but he was secure enough that it was safe to make a bottle or run to the bathroom.

We cannot do that anymore, because the boy has rediscovered the commando crawl. The grandparents blocked him off once, and turned their backs for a moment. They were shocked when Shane ran by chasing the cats shortly thereafter!

Shane may not be saying many words or willing to fiddle with his toys overmuch, but he's bent on applying his intellect into finding new ways to roam and discover the world around him. The boy lives to roam. If there's an open door, he's running. If there's a corner, he's peaking around it. My weight has been in the decline ever since he started walking. Parenting Shane is a munchkin marathon. The boy is always on the move. "He's the busiest boy, I ever met!" according to Nana.

Last night, Shane and I were roaming the neighborhood playground. He was convinced he could climb the chain ladder.

You know what?  He can get up the first couple of steps. Sometimes, he'll also try to grab handrails and walk up the stairs to the slide. No crawling. Walking.

Happy Easter All!

The Lord is risen!

It's a beautiful day, and I'm looking forward to visiting my family after Carrie and Shane wake up from their naps.

I have reason to be extra thankful today!  Carrie, Shane, and I just got back from our Spring Vacation last night. The goals were threefold: 1) Visit Carrie's parents, 2) get a little alone time and free childcare, and 3) stay out of our house so we wouldn't mess it up now that we got it all pretty for prospective buyers.

Mission accomplished!

While driving back late yesterday, the cell phone range and woke Shane up half an hour from home. It was our agent. We had an offer! Carrie squealed. Shane looked on baffled. I just smiled.

After Shane went to bed on Saturday, we got a second call from our agent. Forty-five minutes later, we'd waded through the contract and electronically crossed all the t's and dotted the i's. Our buyer offered our full asking price! We're ecstatic. Now, it's just got to appraise well and we'll be well on our way to closing June 6th. Thank you, God!

One member of my napping family just woke up. I can hear the singing. I'll leave it to you to guess if it's Carrie or Shane.

Signing off!