Dance, I say!

Yesterday was horrible. Mike dropped Shael off at my work, again. Foiling my plans to go to the grocery store alone. I was still miffed at her about her grades so I wasn't too happy to see her. Poor kid. I tried my best to keep my cool. Mike came in and said he had to pee and I was nagging on him all the way into the bathroom. He looked over at me and said "Well, shut the door if you're going to come in here!" So, I shut it and just paced back and forth in that big one hole bathroom. He stood there for the longest time trying to go and I finally told him I wasn't looking. Ha! I thought he had stage fright but it turns out that he was so cold that he had to "find it" first before it would come out. He'd driven down there on his bike and it wasn't as warm as he at first thought. But, enough on Mike's peeing habits, he told me he'd just take Shael back with him and I told him to forget it (why do I do that?) that I'd just take her home and get groceries some other day. On the drive home, I turned the radio off and we had a nice heart to heart talk. Mostly it was me asking her questions and her mumbling "I dunno". When we got home, I didn't even walk inside, I went around the side of the house to the back yard, and got me a switch. Shael was watching me from the back door, I could see her out of the corner of my eye, just watching and looking generally scared out of her wits. When I got it all cleaned up and ready for action, I went in. She had taken off to her room. I had to call her back into the living room. She was crying already because she knew what was in store for her. First before I did anything I would regret, I got out her report card and had her look at it and tell me if I was looking at it wrong. Did I make a mistake? I mean, it's hard to look at it wrong when it says Teacher: Pugh Class: math Grade: x . She shook her head and said her grade was what I thought it was so I told her to turn around and don't put her hands in the way. She still had her coat on and had her hands in her pocket for that first swat. "Ooooowwwww! That hurts!" Why do kids always say that? Of course, it hurts, that's kind of the point, right? That's what I told her anyway. She kept putting her hand down in the way and I eventually whacked her across her right hand in the process. When I was done I told her to start bringing home her math book every night and any time she forgot then she could look forward to another switching. And if she didn't bring her grades up by the next grade card time, she could expect it again. Then I sent her to her room and told her not to come out until I told her she could. I sent her to her room so she wouldn't see me collapse on the love seat and bawl my eyes out. Later when she got to come out, she was all lovey dovey to me, hugging and kissing me, like nothing happened. After she went to bed last night, Mike found the switch over by the wood stove and he laughed saying she was probably going to try to nonchalantly throw it in the fire without us noticing. That's okay, she can if she wants. We have 5.5 acres more where that one came from.