Shaffer Family Adventures 2009

Our new address is:
The Shaffer Family
1301 West Calle de Cobre
Sahuarita, AZ 85629

Other info has not changed:
BenandWindy@Gmail.com
www.shaffers1430.blogspot.com
(520) 300-6823 home
(520) 203-2328 Ben’s cell
(928) 774-8442 Windy’s cell



Our 7th anniversary was celebrated this year and we have been richer and poorer, in sickness and health… We went from unemployed and miserable to steady employment, homeownership, a baby on the way and a broken leg.



Windy survived morning sickness and is now “great with child.” She is thrilled to have a new home to bring the baby home to at the end of December. The “new” 1969 house seems built for our family and the addition, known as an Arizona Room, is the perfect size for the band instrument repair workbench and tools. It even had a vitally important independent Air Conditioner installed. The laundry room is large enough for the chemical vats, and the 3rd bathroom (aka water closet) in the laundry room has a utility sink rather than a vanity which means we did not even have to plumb one in! Even the buffing machine has a home where it can get things dirty without much fuss. Now Windy is in the blessed position of being a stay at mom with the opportunity to also provide valuable and useful service. The dishes and laundry are never done, but she can finish a flute and send it out the door! She can either solicit business or turn it away depending on the needs of the family. It can be a bit much at times, but it really is the best of both worlds!



Ben has happily settled into a steady job complete with benefits. He is a runner, courier and file clerk at Mesch, Clark and Rothschild P.C., a reputable law firm in Tucson, AZ. He enjoys the fact that he has health insurance, life insurance and even a cash wellness benefit to make life a little more stable and safe. This has turned out to be very important considering current events.





Elnorra celebrated her 4th birthday this February with much excitement. We threw her a huge party with an even bigger cake. She loved her gifts including an imitation snow white dress which she wore for dress up fun many times and for Halloween nine months later. She goes to a co-op preschool and also played soccer this fall.







Cordelia “Dilly” turned two this April and is anxious to grow up. She constantly insists that she is big, so don’t say “Oh what a cute little girl!” in front of her, or you will be promptly corrected by her saying “No! I am a big gir-rul!” In fact she thinks she’s so big she will get the band-aids at all costs and cut her own hair.



We are happy to be expecting an addition to our family. We have chosen not to let the doctors determine the gender of the child, which is due to be born between Christmas and the New Year. Having the privilege of homeownership we did paint one bedroom pink and the other blue. So whoever comes to our family will have a blue room as a nursery.



Full house 11 July 2009



Empty 31 July 2009

Partly in consideration of the impracticality of welcoming another child into our 800 square foot, two bedroom apartment, and partly in realization of the benefit of buying a house when it is most likely to be affordable considering the market upheavals this year, we began a house hunt in May. It was a very frustrating exercise in futility at first, since most of the homes for sale did not meet with even our slightest approval. We are an eccentric family with rather uncommon needs as well as a very small budget, such as the space for a band instrument repair shop, and a general dislike of most modern designs. We then found a home which met our exact wishes but found out when attempting to bid that someone had beat us to it. Windy had said several times throughout this process that, “Either the Lord will pave the way or he will save us a lot of heart break” which turned out to be the case. In spite of the fact that we had been impressed with the property, we found out from our realtor it had a gas leak and was uninhabitable. We also found out that the Lord did in fact have better things in store for us. After suffering the pangs of disappointment for a month or so our realtor, who is also a friend of ours, was not to be distracted from her goal. She daily scanned all new postings including Craigslist for any leads on a house for us. She spotted a classified online for a house, in the same neighborhood as the “one that got away”. It is very close to our church and ironically the same street address (1301) just one block south of the original. The house was being offered “To serious buyers only” as a quick sale. The renovation company that had purchased the house at auction wanted to sell the house ASAP or would complete the planned renovations and put the house up for regular market value, and far out of our price range, a few months later. Upon first glance our realtor told us to go for it! The seller wasn’t joking about a “quick close” we went from seeing the property for the first time to owning the home in just two and a half weeks! That was a whirlwind experience. We thought the other house was wonderful, but “our” house is even better. It has a two car garage; it has a beautiful Arizona room we modified into our shop, a large kitchen and a very nice living room. All in all it is bigger (nearly 1800 square feet), more suited to our needs and more affordable. We love the elbow room, not to mention the yard and rumpus room! We count our blessings every day to have our first house to make into a home.



The Living room



Moving day 25 July 2009



Housewarming day 3 October 2009



After careful consideration and two vehicles dying we decided to invest, not in a new-to-us car, but in the one Windy inherited from her grandmother. We were thrilled to finally get our classic 1967 VW fastback, “Helga”, fixed again and back on the road. It is fun driving the ‘67 VW into the garage of the 1969 house. We even took her to her first classic VW car show, almost…. When we were about two blocks from the show someone pulled alongside us and shouted “You’re leaking gas!” Sadly our first thought was to simply go the last half mile of our 30 mile journey as there was surely someone at the VW car show who could diagnose and fix the problem. About one block later there was an explosion. Ben thought at first that we had been rear ended by the truck behind us. (Old Volkswagens have rear engines.) At that moment someone shouted “That car is on fire! Get the kids out!” We were rescued by family and friends and the car is back at the mechanics awaiting a new fuel pump. All in all a true family memory-making experience and the car should be back up and running before Ben is!



In mid November we had the blessed opportunity to attend the wedding of Ben’s sister, Ann, to Lewis Strasburg. Ben has called Lewis his “Brother” for more than a decade and now it is actually official, though not in a way he would have predicted 15 years ago. They are really the best match for each other, and Ben could not have hoped for a better man for his sister.


Unfortunately, our trip to the wedding was not without one serious misadventure. During the Bachelor Party Ben broke his right leg, badly, on a trampoline. It was a true compound fracture. Both the Tibia and Fibula were cleanly broken in half and needed surgery which removed all the marrow from the Tibia and replaced it with a titanium rod from his knee to his ankle. The real miracle is that just a couple hours after he left the recovery room after his 3:00 am surgery, he went to the wedding at noon. Ben was up till midnight with the bachelor party when his leg broke, then up in the hospital being a very talkative patient till 3:00 am or so, they put him under general anesthesia for the surgery but woke up from the pain only a little after they were done. He then got dressed and told the nurses that he wanted to go to the wedding. They said they would pretend he was taking a long and much needed nap, but that if he was not back before the pain pills wore off he would regret it! Ben went to the wedding and stayed just long enough to get some cake. After 4 days in the hospital in Provo, Utah, we finally returned to Arizona. The trip home could have been worse, but just imagine pregnant Windy T-6 weeks (34 weeks along) driving the whole 20 hours over 2 days. Ben sitting in the back with his leg propped up between the front seats and the girls in their car seats as well as all our stuff crammed into our lovely sub-compact and reliable little Hyundai Accent. Ben missed only five days of work, but is in a more limited role until he can walk again without crutches. He is hoping, and praying, that he will be ready to pace with the baby when it arrives. All Ben wants for Christmas this year is to get into a walking boot and be able to put weight on that foot again!

Trampoline Activity Center


From our family to yours-Have a wonderful holiday Season and a Happy New Year. May you face all of your adventures with gusto and be able to laugh when you look back on your memories.




Sisters



Dilly eating a Dilly bar.



Night Blooming Cereus