Visit to the Principal's office

This morning took much convincing to get Samantha out of bed, dressed and even a tiny bit motivated to go to school.  She just kept telling me, "Mom.  I don't want to go to school.  Please don't make me go to school."  How sad is that?  That girl LOVES school!  I finally told her that we were going to go talk to her principal and that we'd talk about staying at school after that.  After I told her that she was a bit more cooperative.  On the way out the door she said, "Mom.  If I stay at school, please don't make me go to recess.  I don't want to go to recess."  It about broke my heart.  I told her again that we'd go talk to the principal and then discuss it.
When we got to the school we walked Nash to his class before going to the office.  When we got to the office the principal was able to take us right in.  I asked him if he had a minute because we had an issue we needed to discuss with him.
Principal: "What's going on?"
Me: "Well, the 3rd grade girls that got called in here yesterday for bullying.  One of them approached Samantha at recess and told her she got sent to the principal's office because she went home and tattled to her mom."
The principal looked at me with very big eyes and said, "Really?!"  "Not only was her name NOT mentioned, but the last thing I said to them before they left my office was that they were NOT to discuss this with anyone.  If anyone asked them why they were in the principal's office they were to say nothing or 'none of your business.'  Which student was it?"
So, I told him which one and who's class she was in.  He told me that he'd call her AND her mom into his office this morning.  He told Samantha that she did do the right thing and she had the right to be at school without feeling scared or bullied.  I told him that it had been quite a struggle to get her to school this morning because she didn't want to be there because she felt like all the kids knew who told and they all hated her now. I could tell he felt really bad about that.  He told Samantha that if anyone said anything else or if anything else happened to let him know immediately.
I felt better after we left his office.  Samantha still wanted me to walk her down to her class and tell her teacher to keep her inside for recess.  I was willing because it was an improvement to not wanting to go to school.  So, we walked down to her class.  I asked her teacher if she got my email from last night - I sent her one telling her what happened and that we'd be in the principal's office in the morning.  She said she did.  Lucky for me two of the other 3rd grade teachers were in the room, one of which happens to be the teacher of the student that approached Sam.  Sam's teacher asked which student it was so I told her.  I told the teachers what the principal had said about calling her and her mother into his office this morning.  Then I told Sam's teacher about the struggle I had getting her to come to school because she didn't want to be there or go to recess.  I asked her teacher if she'd keep her in from recess because she really didn't want to go out because that's where all of this keeps happening.  She was more than happy to let her stay inside.  All three teachers again told Sam she did the right thing and that she shouldn't feel like she can't tell someone.
So, I'm a bit anxious to see how school went today.  She's going home with her friend Samantha after school so I won't be able to talk to her until I pick her up at about 5.  Hopefully today was a much better day for my girl.

Bullying

So yesterday after school Samantha got in the Expedition and turned to me and said, "Mom.  Today at school, at recess, there were three girls picking on this boy."
Me: "What did they do?"
Sam: "They were teasing him about his dad being in jail.  They kept asking him if his dad was in jail and his dad isn't in jail.  But they wouldn't leave him alone and he felt really bad and was sad."
Me: "What did you do?"
Sam: "Well, me and Sammie (her friend) were there and they saw us and they walked over to us and said, 'What are you going to do?  Are you going to go tell on us now?'"
Me: "So, what did you do?"
Sam: "We were like 'uhhhh' because we were scared and didn't know what to do.  He was really sad all day.  Sammie & I kept bugging him until he told us what happened.  I felt bad because he was really sad.  So, I colored him a picture and was nice to him."
Me: "That was nice of you.  You didn't tell your teacher though?"
Sam: "No."
Me: "Sam, that's bullying and it's not ok.  You should have told your teacher right after it happened."

I get why she didn't tell her teacher.  She felt threatened and intimidated.  I'm glad she told me.  I told her that if she was to do anything different she should tell a teacher right away.  I told her I was going to email her teacher and let her know what happened because it wasn't ok that the girls were doing that and it needed to be taken care of.  So, last night I emailed her teacher and told her about what happened.

This morning when I dropped the kids off at school I told her to ask her teacher if she got my email.  After school when Sam got in the Expedition I asked her if she had asked her teacher if she had gotten my email.  She said she had and that her teacher had gotten it.  I asked her if her teacher said anything else.  She told me that her teacher had passed the information along to the 3rd grade teacher who's class the other girls were in.  Sam left it at that so I left it alone.

After dance, Sam got in the Expedition and turned to me again.
Sam: "Mom.  At first recess today this girl came up to me and said, 'I got sent to the principal's office today because you went home and told your mom."
Now what, as a mother, am I suppose to say?  I'm mad.  Really, really mad.
Me: "Which girl said this to you?"
Sam: "It was O*****."
Me: "But you didn't say anything to me about her yesterday and I certainly didn't say anything to your teacher about her.  Why is she saying she got sent to the principal's office because of you?"
Sam: "Because she was part of it."
Now I'm even more mad.  1-The adults at the school SHOULD NOT have told the perpetrators who it was that turned them in.  2-Even if the adults did mention who turned them in, the students SHOULD NOT have been allowed to discuss it, let alone confront the person.  We all know that as soon as you tell a kid "Don't discuss this." the first thing they're going to do is go out & discuss it!
Sam: "Now I don't want to go to school tomorrow because O***** made me feel bad.  I feel like the whole school hates me now because I told about what happened."
Me: "Sam, you did the right thing and it takes a lot of courage to do the right thing.  Doing the right thing isn't always the easy choice.  I'm proud of you.  I'm angry that that girl thinks she has the right to make you feel bad for doing the right thing.  If she was being a bully she deserved to be sent to the principal's office."
Sam: "I know, but I just feel like everybody hates me now."

So, I ask myself: "Am I being an overprotective, over bearing mother?  Or, am I doing the right thing?"  I fully intend to go into the principal's office tomorrow morning and raise some hell.  Bullying - whether it's my kid or someone else's is NEVER ok.  I'm certainly not going to stand by and let it go with the shrug of my hat.  I'm mad, rightfully so in my opinion.  I was bullied myself in high school so I know how it feels to be on that end.  I refuse to let some little 8 yr old girls think it's ok to start doing it to their classmates.

Santa & Our Most Recent ER Visit

Tonight I left the 3 big kids with my mom while I went out to finish some Christmas shopping.  I had all the shopping done, had dropped off a Christmas stocking order & unloaded gifts into this year's official hiding location & was almost back to my mom's house when my phone rang.  

Mom: "How close are you?"

Me: "Down the street."

Mom: "I need you here IMMEDIATELY.  Nash put a staple through his thumb and I can't get it out."

Great......Apparently Nash had been loading staples into the stapler & it snapped shut on him & caught his thumb in it.  Both ends of the staple had gone through his thumb.  Fortunately, the one end wasn't in very far & my mom & brother were able to get that end out.  My mom was worried that the end of the other side had been folded over when it went in because it was in so deep.  You can kinda see in the picture that there is an indent at the spot where the staple is in his thumb.  I didn't dare try to pull it out because I was afraid it would break off.  Thus, Nash & I ventured to the emergency room.  Nash did really good.  I had to talk him down all the way to the ER because he was a bit hysterical though.  I got him talking and laughing and by the time we got to the ER he was fairly calm.  The dr. was going to give him laughing gas so he could pull the staple out & then found out the gas was in the engineering dept. and not available.  So, Nash held onto my hand and looked at me while the dr. used some small hand forceps to pull the staple out.  He didn't fight the dr. on it at all.  He did let out a yelp and he cried for a minute, but, he survived!  I told him the stapler must have known he needed an adventure and that's why it bit him.  After all, we haven't had a trip to the hospital since Brookelyn was born!

And, for the random photo of this post:  While Travis was home we took the kids to the mall to see Santa.  When I visited my sister's blog tonight & saw her Santa photo I realized I hadn't posted mine yet.  Not the most fantastic photo, but with 4 kids I don't expect I'll ever get the "perfect" photo!  Caleb looks goofy because we told him to smile & he started blinking his eyes like he was having some sort of spastic seizure.  At least his eyes are open & no one is screaming!

Festival of Trees 2011

Samantha got to dance at Festival of Trees again this year with LaShars.  This year we went down on Friday and she actually danced quite a bit earlier than she did last year.  I don't think Nash or Samantha was too upset about being checked out of school after only 2 hours!

The drive down wasn't bad at all.  We took Travis's new truck (yes, his new truck - his recently died).  We got there with just enough time to do a costume change and make up before Samantha had to check in.

Little sister was just as happy as could be the entire time.  She didn't even nap the entire day!  She was up at about 9 am and didn't go to sleep until we got home after 11 pm!  She wasn't ornery at all, she just smiled and jabbered the whole entire time.

This is while we were waiting for Sam to start dancing.  Apparently Nash found some googlie eyes on the floor & decided it would be a good idea to place them on his tongue....DISGUSTING!

After Sam was done dancing we walked around to see all the trees, center pieces, gingerbread houses, etc.  I went through the gift center & found pvc pipe marshmallow guns for all 3 of my boys (yes, Travis too).  Travis took the kids over to the kids corner while I went through the gift center so he doesn't even know about the pvc marshmallow guns....will be a fun Christmas surprise!

Once we left Festival of the Trees and headed home, we decided to stop & see Travis's sister and her family in Farr West.  We had dinner and watched Water for Elephants while all the kids played.  It was lots of fun. Of course, it's always fun to go see Aunt Jamie & her family though.

Travis left about 11 am this morning for his next 2 weeks on.  It sounds like he'll only be in Pinedale for a few days and then have a bunch of shop days.  That's too bad - shop days always make his weeks drag on for forever.  I guess it will give him a chance to do a lot of homework though!

I did a boutique yesterday with my Usborne Books stuff.  I made a whopping $9 for 5 hours of work.  However, all my catalogs were taken & I might have a lead to sell my carseat canopys to some girls who would then turn around and do the selling at boutiques.  Should be interesting to see their proposal anyway.

Last night I was multi tasking and wrapped a bunch of presents while talking on the phone.  Maybe this year I won't be up until 2 am wrapping!  We'll see!  Today it's snowing and since Caleb woke up gasping for air with croup at about 1 am I'm not sure we'll be going anywhere.  I do need to put together a power point presentation for school & Nash has a Christmas project to work on for school.  So, if we don't venture out to church or insta care at least we will have something to do!  Have a great week!

Political Views

Here's my question of the day (and has been quite often lately):  How the heck am I married to someone who has completely OPPOSITE opinions about government than I do?!

1-Travis & I cannot even discuss politics involving education.  It starts friendly, but it ends ugly!  I think part of the reason why is that I feel like he hasn't got a clue as to what he's talking about because he hasn't been in the trenches like I have.  Dude would TOTALLY destroy public education as we know it if he was in office (and not for the better).

2-Gay rights - again, can't even really discuss it.  I think part of it is that Travis tends to joke about certain topics & I don't find it funny.... at all really.  Maybe it has something to do with my brother coming out & the relationship I have with him.  I don't really know why I feel the way I do about gay rights.  Perhaps because I'm human?  I have empathy for others?  I don't care what people do in their own home?  I don't think the government should be able to tell people what to do in their personal life?

3-He listens to talk radio.  This gets him all sorts of riled up & his panties in a knot.  Do not want to have a conversation with him after he's been listening.

4-Apparently the guys Travis works with share many similar ideas so he thinks he's got some support for his ideas.  Dude!  They are all oil workers that work with you 14 hrs a day for 14 days at a time.  Of course they aren't going to argue against your point of view!  Duh.

5-The other day I finally told him, "Look.  If you don't like what we've got, do something about it and run for office.  Otherwise, quit your bitchin'."  His response?  "I'm not running for office!  I do my part...I vote."  Right...like one dude voting is going to change the ENTIRE way the government is run in this country.  I had to walk away.

Like I've told Travis on a regular basis: "Choose your battles.  It isn't always worth it."  I've had to learn to let his political views go in one ear and immediately out the other.  Otherwise it would be an ugly place to live during the entire YEAR before the election!