Phone calls from the school are never good news, right?
As I went to answer my cell, tapping the screen illuminated with the name of Miss Priss' teacher, I braced myself for what might be on the other end. It's too late for a pick-up, school's almost over. Please don't break anything, PLEASE don't break anything....
"Hello?"
"Mrs. Hilton?"
"Yes."
"Mrs. Hilton, Prissy was throwing one of her shoes into the air and it landed on the roof of the school...," the teacher told me casually, as if hurling shoes onto rooftops was part of the daily curriculum.
"What?!?!?"
"The maintenance man is not here to retrieve it right now, so I wanted to let you know why she is coming home on the bus with only one shoe."
"Oooh. My. Goodness. Please tell him that I am so, SO sorry. I swear, she knows better than this!"
"It's alright!" the teacher responded brightly.
Well, it was not alright by me.
As it turned out, Priss had been wearing her brand new, light-up Skechers to school that day. The ones she had just received as a gift from her grandparents.
Luckily, the girls have a long bus ride home, giving me a chance to cool off a bit and collect my thoughts.
So, what was her punishment, you ask?
Well, she had to listen to a ten minute lecture entitled The Reasons We Do Not EVER Throw Our Shoes, with subtopics covering The Possible Dangers Of Shoe Throwing and You Don't Have To Follow What Everyone Else Is Doing.
She had no television for the rest of the day.
She had no sweets for the rest of the day.
And, just to make sure she understood that this did not only affect her, but also the man who had to climb up on the roof to retrieve that shoe, I made her write a Thank You card, reminding her that the recipient, most likely, only speaks Spanish.
Here is what she conjured up:
To translate, she is saying, "Thank you very much for my shoe! You are very good at this!"
And for those of you who are wondering, "gracias" and "zapatos" are not spelled with an 's,' but still very good First Grade-esque work!
And now, for the accompanying graphic (because what card doesn't have some kind of picture on it?)
As you can see, a likeness of Miss Priss is enthusiastically watching the maintenance man climb up the ladder for her shoe. She is saying "Thanks a lot!" along with the word "Me" and an arrow pointing to herself. You know, in case there's any confusion as to which one is which.
The maintenance man, happily perched atop his extremely tall ladder, has the word "you" with an arrow pointing to him, and to the right is Prissy's adorable little shoe, ready to be rescued.
So this is the kind of stuff that happens around here in EverAfterLand. We're not always perfect, but I believe we have definite strengths in Lecturing, Shoe Throwing, Card Making, and the Arts of Apology and Appreciation.
And judging by how tall that ladder is, Priss has got quite an arm! Perhaps there's some softball in her future?
