A Pretty Bad Week with Some Beautiful Highlights
Monday was picture day. It's a fun day but I kinda hate getting my picture taken. It was a chaotic day with my wild student but I was so glad we had a beach day planned. We went straight down to Linda Lane and met up with Jon. The kids and I were so happy and didn't want to leave! We can't wait for Summer Break!
Tuesday, Ray started a tennis class which she loved! She did so great, too! But my back had a spasm. My back hasn't had any issues like that since I had my ovary out which happened to be exactly a year ago. It really took the wind out of my sails and I was pretty sad. I texted Colleen that I just wasn't going to be able to chase or grab Nicholas anymore. She encouraged me to stay home and get a sub but there's just so way I could do that- Nicholas is too much of a wild card. Coincidentally, she threw her back out too! So the both of us were hobbling around. We basically hit our breaking point.
Wednesday was synergy rally again and Nicholas was ALL over the place. Because we are both injured, the responsibility of chasing him fell on the security guard- if that gives you any idea of how crazy the situation is. After school we enjoyed an afternoon of swimming at Jill's for Activity Days. It was so hot that I got in the pool in my clothes! Parker went to San Diego with Gavin to spend time with Emerald. They went shopping and to the beach and he was able to spend time with her parents and meet her grandparents too. He went to her house and was so happy when he got home.
Thursday was absolutely horrible. Ray was bullied so badly that she locked herself in the bathroom. It took admin over an hour to finally make the choice to come get me. I was on the playground for recess with my trusty security guard and I heard something come through on his radio about a girl crying in the bathroom but he didn't know who it was. Then 2 people from admin came out looking all awkward and concerned and told me it was Rayleigh. Immediately I went down there and sat on the bathroom floor with her. My heart broke. I took her down to kinder with me and was ready to just take her home but a man from admin suggested we give it a little time, maybe have her talk to the counselor, and see if she would go to lunch and back to class. She was about to meet the new counselor and then I walked her down to lunch. On our way, we ran into one of her friends who I talked to pretty firmly about being kind. But unfortunately, the bullying continued at lunch. She was pretty messed up when I picked her up from school.
I contacted Landon's mom and Jillian's mom to address the bullying. Landon's mom got right back to me, called me to talk, and has been so supportive and helpful. Landon was super nice to Ray on Friday. Jillian's mom was not so much. She didn't get back to me until super late and was quite defensive. I made the decision to let her go. I've tried so hard to get on the same page with her, but she really has been nothing but awful to me. Jillian is a sweet girl and has been a good friend to Ray... but she is not wanting to be friends anymore and unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that.
Thursday night, Ray was able to rent a trumpet to play in the school band and she was soooo happy! She saw so many friends and so many kids were friendly to her- I had a BIG talk with her about being proactive instead of reactive and told her it's not a good feeling to have your heart broken, but Christ can heal all our wounds. I also encouraged her to reach out to new friends. If things don't improve, I'll pull her out of school. Because this is NOT OK.
Friday, the kids all had good days and Ray's day was much better. I, on the other hand, did NOT have the best day. Luckily, I was able to see the chiropractor the day before and my back is feeling better. But Colleen and I are refusing to chase Nicholas around and have to constantly push the panic button in our room. We've pushed it so many times that they finally brought us a walkie talkie. BUT, at recess, I had one kid run out the front gate (the one that does directly to the parking lot) so I banged on the door to get help from the TK teacher and when she came running out, Nicholas ran into her room. AND I had another little friend get hurt and was crying for an ice pack. I slammed on the panic button and admin came running. Then, Colleen came out and we filled her in on everything that was happening. THEN, recess was over and the other class was coming out which meant Nicholas ran into THIER room and went down the hall. So I followed him and luckily the security guard caught him half way down the hall. Nicholas was out of control so we took him down to the office where he continued to spiral so we had to call his mom. It was insane. The only thing that calmed him down was counting down from 100 and then counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, ... When his mom arrived, he took off down the hall again and I took the opportunity to give her some advice about getting him a 1:1 aide.
Anyhoo, it was nuts. And Tanner wasn't able to balance me all week because he was dealing with a crazy survey that came out of no where. His last survey was SO good that they sent another team out to double check. He was toast by Friday so he went to a movie all by himself. Parker took my car to my parent's house to kick off his birthday weekend. And I invited Shannon over to swim and chat. We sat in the hot tub until way too late and talked about the kids and church and I hope she felt the spirit. If anything, I hope that these problems with Rayleigh can be a good missionary opportunity.
So that's it! If I didn't have my amazing family and the beach, I think I'd need some sort of drugs or something. Life was way too hard on my heart (and back) this week. Please bless next week is better!
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