Serendipity: It can't rain all the time....

"It can't rain all the time" (really it hasn't rained in a long time!) one of my favorite quotes from The crow (The other is "Mother is the word for God on the lips and hearts of little children" there ya go, some useless trivia for you....) to remind us that there are always down times, but they don't last forever. bear with me, this is a long one....

This last week was rough. It was a rough rough time.

Last friday Roman came home from school to tell me that a kid kicked him and called him "a piece of Sh*t". I asked him if he told the teacher and he said yes, but that she didn't do anything,. So I e-mailed her, and said I was giving her the benefit of the doubt, because maybe it was the end of the school day, maybe she got around to it later, maybe she talked to the kid without Roman ever knowing. But that Roman often got teased and bullied for being the different kid, and although I don't accept verbal abuse either, I do uinderstand that kids are mean, teachers aren't everywhere and that it happens. I feel like I can give Roman the tools he needs to deal with verbal abuse, but that this was physical abuse as well, and THAT I would not tolerate, so I wanted to know what she did about it, or planned on doing about it, to make sure it was taken care of and didn't happen again. She replied monday morning with "I handled it appropriately" and that was it. Not the answer I was looking for. I replied, saying how she probably noticed that day roman got a feather extension, and that he expressed some concern that kids would pull it at school, and how I hope she would be able to prevent this from happening. She replied tuesday saying she didn't notice anyone touching it. (This story is continued.....)

tuesday evening Bourbon went outside to feed and water the dogs, to discover a horrible tragic accident had happened. :(

Ever since we gave Snowball away, the dogs had been getting out of the yard, houdini like, several times a day. We had neighbors bringing them back, we had to drive around looking for them, no matter what we did they kept getting out. I'm pretty sure Bonita was out looking for Snowball, and Tex just went along for the ride. So we had to chain them up until we could figure out a way to keep them in. They both had a chain, near the shed out back so they could go in and out of it for shelter.

Somehow they got sooo tangled up, that both of their chains got wrapped again and again around Tex's neck and he was strangled. :(

Poor Bourbon, who has such a heart for animals (I think he likes them much more than people, lol) was the one to discover it.

Poor Bonita now has no puppy and no companion.

I didn't want to tell the other two before Alan had a chance to get tex out of the backyard. Alan got home late from taking his taxes to Duncan to his dad, and learned his puppy had died. He was VERY distraught. I'm not sure who took it worse, the kids or Alan. :(

I didn't have the heart to tell them the next morning before school, sending them to school sad, so i thought I would wait until they got home from school.

So Wed. Roman comes home with his feather in his hand (a girl at school had pulled it out), so sad anyways, and then we had to tell him tex was dead. Poor guy.

I asked him if he told the teacher, and he said "yes, but it doesn't matter, she never does anything, why should I tell her?!" He had actually told me both monday & tuesday that kids had been tugging on it each day at school, but that he hadn't told the teacher, I told him if he didn't tell her that she couldn't help him and get it to stop.

Of course I was one mad momma that this had happened. His teacher e-mailed me to say she was sorry, there would be consequnces, it had happened between classes. I asked what she was going to do about it, since not only was that painful for it to be ripped out of his head, but he spent his own money to put that in his hair, and it was supposed to last 2 months and didn't last a week, so this was destruction of property. She replied saying she couldn't disclose what she was going to do. This did not set well with me. I know the FERPA privacy laws regarding education and what you can tell & what you can't. And I came back and said that, and that I wasn't asking for the other child's name, nor her personal behavior or disciplanary record, I simple wanted to know what she as the teacher was doing to make sure it was taken care of and that this bullying would stop. I e-mailed the principal.

That night was youth group at church, and it was crazy hair night, and Roman wouldn't even be talked into participating. He was too upset.

Isn't she cute?!

needed to throw a bit of sunshine into this post, between all the thunderclouds... lol

Thursday was Starla's open house at school. She had been practicing for a couple of weeks, so excited she was going to get on stage and sing. She talked about it with anyone who would listen. I took her Wed. night to get her bangs cut, and she sang the songs to the lady that cut her hair. She sang them in the car, she sang them in the store. She was just SOOO excited about this program. Her teacher told me she hoped Starla sang just as well during the show as she did at practice, because she was so into the songs and just did the movements to them so well, and just was awesome.

Thursday was just one of those days. I was e-mailing back and forth between roman's principal and his teacher that morning, so we were running late, roman got to school a few minutes late, and Starla & i were about 10 mins or so late to work. I had baked one of my pillsbury creations that morning and brought it to school because it was one of my co-workers, Brigette's, last day of work. She had worked there 6 years, but got a better job as a Special ed. aide and they needed her to start right away to help with testing. We had a going away party of sorts that morning before classes started. My cake apparantly wasn't completely done because the middle collapsed. Then on the way to work, the cake dome fell over and frosting and blueberry juice ran all over my car floor. I get to work, get my bags all in, go clean up the mess, and realize I don't have my purse, i have forgotten it at home. Sigh. So my boss lets me leave and go back home and get it. The day continues to just be frantic and chaotic, i burn myself with the glue gun making our easter craft in class, I am in constant back and forth e-mails on my phone with Roman's school trying to deal with that, etc. etc.

Right after school we have time to go get the boys, get Starla into her dance gear and head out the door for dance....

Dance class!

After dance we rush back to school, get her changed and ready to go for her program.

This is Brigette & Myself.

Carol, our director, decided to start the program with a video farewell tribute to brigette.

So after the 20 min. video montage of pictures of the last several years of Brigette, the program starts. First the 2 year old sing 2 songs, then the younger 3 year olds get up and sign 2 songs...

then it's time for Starla's group, she walks on stage and instantly I see that her face is crumpled up....

And I'm thinking "oh my goodness, what is wrong with her?" and I scan to see if she has her bracelet on (it kept falling off so I thought maybe she lost it) and I am at a total loss as to what the heck could be wrong (of course everyone assumed it was stage fright, but anyone who really knows this child knows THAT is not the case, lol)

Mrs. Laura escorted her off stage before her group even started singing, where she ran to me, and I tried to figure out what the heck was going on! between frantic sobs she managed to say "I want miss Brigette to stay, I don't want her to leave!" She had no idea this was Brigette's last day until she saw the montage at the beginning of the program, and cried from the moment it started and didn't stop....I guess she didn't realize her going away party that morning, meant she was going away. And i didn't think to stop and explain it to her.

This was where she stayed the rest of the program....

I had no idea I should have prepared her for that, she rarely sees Brigette, i didn't think it would be that big of a deal!

this was back in her classroom a good 30 minutes later, STILL crying...sheesh my emotional drama queen!

All that time spent working on the songs she was SOOO excited to sing, the songs my in-laws drove from Duncan & my parents drove from Lake Eufaula to watch her sing and she didn't even sing a note.... sigh.

Friday morning I had a meeting set up with Roman's principal, whom I have known and liked for the last 4 years, he is a good guy. I had already e-mailed back and forth with him about the entire situation, as well as copied & pasted all the e-mails from the teacher & myself to him.

He said he had not been notified about any of it until my e-mails, and that he was so sorry, it should have been brought to his attention much sooner. He agreed that the teacher's replies were dismissive and unhelpful, and that he planned on having a discussion with her about it that day after school, about how all physical bullying was to be brought to his attention. He said how much he loved Roman's uniqueness and creativity and always had, and that he would not allow other kids to pick on him because he was different. he had already had a meeting with the girl who pulled the feather out of Roman's hair, and was in the process of contacting her parents, and was going to tell them that they must pay roman back for the damages to replace the feather. It was a good meeting, I felt confident in his actions to get things taken care of. He asked about Bourbon, and how my job search was going, and we chit-chatted. I hope Roman doesn't continue to be bullied, but I know that the principal will do whatever he can to prevent it.

Friday after school we ran up to the velvet monkey and got Roman's feather put back into his hair, and Starla decided she wanted one too (I was so glad Estrella said she wouldn't charge to put Roman's feather back in, and Starla could have the $5 price too, which was really just a special for the live on the plaza last weekend, normally they do a bunch of 7 feathers for $35, they don't normally do singles)

Of course it had to be pink. :)

Then Roman & Starla went to go spend the weekend in Duncan with Alan's mom & sister. Bourbon got to go spend the night at church with the youth group to go fix up a school, and then spent the next night with his friend Christian (who had also stayed at the church event). So Alan & I got to enjoy date day, woo hoo.

The twins from Starla's class, Grace & Elizabeth, invited us to their easter carnival at their church on sunday. They had bouncy houses, face painting, games & prizes, cotton candy, popcorn, and of course the easter bunny and an egg hunt. We had fun!