I’m Dreaming of a White… Thanksgiving?

Happy Thanksgiving, friends and family!  I hope your day was full of turkey, tryptophan, and plenteous servings of stuffing and green-bean casserole.  As this title suggests, it’s snowing today here in our corner of Alaska.  This is nice, as we’ve had several days of icy rain, which isn’t fun at all. 

 

Being Thanksgiving, I want to list the things I’m thankful for.  This may be cliché to do on this day, but it’s a good cliché.

• I’m thankful for my wife.  Hot dang! am I lucky to have her – she is everything!  Not only is she the Laundry Fairy, the Food Fairy, the Dishes Fairy, and the Keeping-Order-and-Sanity-In-Our-Home Fairy; she’s also the Good-Advice Fairy, the Inspire-Me-To-Be-a-Better-Man Fairy, and the Best Friend Fairy.  And she’s gorgeous. 

• I’m thankful for my kids.  They’re crazy.  They’re totally hyper (I haven’t seen Adam be still, except while sleeping, in over two years – there is always some part of him in motion).  They’re “creatively disobedient.”  They’re also inquisitive.  They’re creative.  They’re fun.  They’re naturally open to the Spirit.  And they’re two of my greatest teachers.

• I’m thankful for the rest of my family, here in Alaska and scattered throughout the country.  What fun would life be without you?
• I’m thankful to live in Alaska.  True, every time I see pictures of Julie and Dusty’s tropical paradise home, I yearn for warmer climes.  But these yearnings usually leave once I get outside and take in the mountain scenery around me here in Alaska.

• I’m thankful for pasta.  I love all food, but I especially love pasta.
• I’m thankful to be a teacher.  I seriously have the best job in the world.  I enjoy myself every day, and when I leave my classroom to go home I feel like I’ve done my small part to make the future a better place.
• I’m thankful for the Church.  The Church is, as my bishop always says, the Kingdom of God on the earth.  A big thing to say, but true.  Need I say more?
• I’m thankful for my Savior.  Without Him, I would not be able to enjoy any of the blessings I listed above.

Shorn

Well, I finally did it. The day had to come eventually. I know there are those of you who will say I waited too long, and those of you who will say I should have waited longer, but here are the before and after shots:




The haircut experience was a bit traumatic for Seth. Even with a sucker crammed in his mouth, sitting on my lap, both of us draped in capes he managed to cry the whole time. But I think it was the cutting of the hair he didn't like, not the result. Now he doesn't have to endure the tangles being combed out in the mornings, and I don't have to hear "Don't play with my hair, Mommy!"

Little. Super. Men.

Halloween is already over a week in the past, and we are yet to post any pictures of the boys in their costumes.  Mea culpa, and may I offer these late pictures of the boys in their costumes.  Also, may I make a special note to our friends that these are quite manly costumes, without even a hint of anything remotely like a tutu. 

True to form, the boys both had to have the same costume, since whatever one has, the other has to have, too.  And since Adam is in his superhero phase, and since no superhero can match Superman (Come on, as adults we can admit that all the rest only have limited powers or cool toys, while Superman only needs the absence of kryptonite to be awesome.  I mean, Spidey’s webs only last an hour, and sure he has spider senses, but can he freeze things with his breath?  And Batman - what would he be without his gadgets?  That’s right, nothing, just a rich guy who likes to hang out in a cave and has a butler.  But Superman, he’s got it all, and he doesn’t even have to hide behind a mask!  But I digress…), the boys were Superman.  I think Adam chose it first and Seth followed suit, but it could have been the other way.

So, here they are!

 

Our heroes!

 

In this shot, we told the boys to make muscles with their arms.  Adam may have misunderstood and thought we wanted him to do “I’m a little teapot.”

 

 

As you can see, Seth was really into doing splits, or trying to, anyway.  I think he thought that’s what Superman does.

 

Hey, even Superman needs to pick once in a while…

Shameless Use of Children as Political Tools

 

Am I a bad father because I used my son as a political tool?

Perhaps some background is called for.  I am a teacher, and a member of my local teachers’ union.  We’ve been in contract negotiations for about a year, and have been working since August on an expired contract.  Needless to say, negotiations haven’t been going well, or rather, they haven’t been going at all, from our point of view.  The district’s plan was for us to get a pay cut, and that didn’t make us happy.  So, the union called on all of us members to show up en masse at the last school board meeting.  We got bright yellow t-shirts printed with a message letting the board know we wanted to get a fair contract or we would strike.  Somewhere between 500 and 700 of us packed the gym that night, a bright sea of frustrated yellow.

Being that the school board meets on Wednesday nights, and that is also the night Mary goes to Young Women’s, I needed to either bring the kids with me or get a babysitter.  Grammy and Grampa had watched the boys a lot that week, so I thought I’d just leave one with them.  Since I thought Seth probably wouldn’t be good at loudly chanting union rallying cries, I left him with the in-laws and brought Adam.

This would be great, I thought, a real-life chance to introduce Adam to the struggle against the Man.  Before we left, I even printed up a protest sign specialized just for him.  It read “My Daddy Needs A Fair Contract.”  (Good thing I brought three of them, since other parents with kids there really liked them.)  Cute little kids pleading for a fair deal for their daddies – how could the school board resist?

When we arrived, we got our yellow protest t-shirts.  Adam got one big enough to fit over his winter coat.  We were handed a big sign to wave.  Adam was very excited about this, and handled it the best he could.  He ended up spending most of the time perched on my shoulders.  He seemed to enjoy the view from above, getting to see the whole crowd instead of being waist-high to 500 teachers. 

Sitting up on my shoulders, carrying his personalized sign, Adam was a little organized-labor child celebrity.  He got lots of comments about how great he was with his sign, and he seemed to enjoy himself.  When the meeting started, he even paid attention until we had to leave.

So, back to my original question… I brought Adam with me because it significantly eased the babysitting burden of my in-laws, but I got excited about it when I realized I could make him his own sign, teach him how to respond to the call: What do we want?  CONTRACT!! When do we want it? NOW!! and get him an early start in the global struggle of the proletariat for fair and equitable working conditions in the face of increased class differences and global bourgeois anti-labor sentiments.  Okay, maybe I got a little carried away on that last one, but the point is, I knew that having my son with me waving a cute sign would help our cause, not just make it easier on the babysitter.

Was this selfish?  Was this the shameless use of a child as a political tool?

In the end, as I sit typing this, I don’t feel too bad about it.  I think I can have it all ways – I can bring Adam with me, the babysitter gets it easier, I get to teach my kid about participating in politics, and the union gets another cute sign-waver.  We all win!

As a postscript, the day after the board meeting, I got an email from our union president saying that the school board wanted to talk again.  They met earlier last week.  While nothing has been announced, the word is that we’ve been offered a contract and that it looks good.  Finally, after a year of stalling, the school district got serious with us.  It must have been the preschoolers waving signs.

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club

Month 7

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club

Adam Bucaria Wargo

Master Wargo practiced the fine art of collage for his piece this month. Both selections showcase superb cutting skills and attention to detail, note the jagged edges cut into the larger elements of the collage, perhaps an attempt to juxtapose the clear simplifications of the advertised messages with the rough rawness of the real world. In the piece informally entitled “Save the Suede,” Master Wargo was especially concerned with the absurdity of the advertised message “Look at how big the boots are!” he commented. His placement of basic food items near the boots is meant to remind the viewer of life’s true essentials especially when contrasted with the commercialism of modern society. Of his second piece (the original selected for Grammy) Master Wargo had this to say “Why are they dirty?” and “I was showing her that is candy because she gives us lots of candy.”

Seth David Wargo

Master Seth took a severe departure from convention in this month’s mixed media (crayon and marker) mural in Adam’s room. Without seeking the approval of the room’s resident (or his parents) Master Seth created an exuberant swirl of colors against the white palette of Adam’s walls. As Master Seth defied the studio rules here at the Refrigerator Art of the Month Club, he also proclaimed his belief that art should not be limited to a sheet of paper, but that it can be life size and literally surround the intended viewer. Unfortunately, Master Adam was not appreciative of the offering and Master Seth had to learn the consequences that come with defying societal conventions: the disapproval of others and the difficulty of making amends.