Common Sense......A Thing of the Past?

I received a call from Taylor yesterday about noon. Mom he says I'm in the office- why I ask. I got in a fight, Oh great here we go again. I tell him I will be right there. I arrive at the school to find him still waiting in the office. The principal calls us into the office, she looks puzzled as to why he would not talk to her alone. That's another story. (Most of you know about last year and how rotten it was.) Anyway Taylor tells his side of the story, I know there are two sides to every story, however the other kid was asked who else was there, if you had to pick out of 15 other kids which were all playing football, who would you pick? Needless to say, some one tackled break Brock, I tried to break them up, next thing I know Brock is chasing after me, he tackled me to the ground and wouldn't let go, so I punched him in the stomach. That's how I ended up here. To me it says not really a huge deal. Tell the boys to quit, maybe end the game, and move on. Instead, they get hauled into the office, where they each tell their side, In the mean time as Taylor is waiting for me he is getting baited, I guess in an effort to get him to change his story. It went something like this.
Principal-"So you tackled Brock?"
Taylor-"No"
Principal-"Well that's not what Brock said."
Taylor-(He can sense what is happening, it's not his first time) "No, I did not tackle Brock he tackled me"
She asks again, this is when he freezes, refusing to talk.
He does get a chance to talk, she says I talked to Brock, he said these other kids probably saw. One said Brock started it, one said Taylor started it, so now we have 4 different stories. So she decides they each get a discipline referral and they will miss recesses today that to me is not really to bad of a punishment. He will take it and manage. She also banned football for the whole 5th grade.

Here's my issues--I ask questions to the principal about why no one seems to want to find out the truth, I am told that she doesn't have the time to find out nor do they have enough duty teachers to find out who started it ect. She states that usually the duty teacher only see's part of the incident. I can see this, but come on when there are 20 kids involved, how can you pinpoint 2 to discipline? So then I ask "since you are banning football due to this "fight" are the other boys going to take it out on these two?" She replies "no I don't think so" of course. As soon as I return to pick up Taylor, I hear Taylor was being bad today, now we can't play football anymore. I am saddened by this I just hope he can deal with it better than I can. I guess we will see what today brings.

I remember when we were in school, these kinds of things were usually easily resolved. People were given the chance to talk and if it took some investigating, that's what they did. Now it seems like they take the easy way out. It is so frustrating. If some of these people had some common sense, things could be resolved right on the playground. Maybe these administrators need to go back to preschool and take lessons on being fair to everyone.

Schydi-Doo

A quick pic of Schydi with her new haircut. She had been begging me for days to let her get it cut. She was so happy at the barbershop, all she could do was sit in the chair and giggle. She says she wants to keep it like this for the whole year! I am so glad she liked it. It sure made this mornings get up routine faster! I will post another when she has it fixed for school, this is the all day flattened version :)

Picture Day!

This is DaNell on picture day. I tried taking the pic before school, but the batteries were dead. So I waited until after school, she wasn't in a very great mood as she had just returned from the dentist and had 3 teeth pulled. She humored me as I snapped this pic. I am going to try and get more pics soon!

Grief

We learned yesterday of a tragedy, a young man named Caleb Williams whom two of my children were friends with was killed in an accident at the sand dunes. Now Caleb was an amazing athlete, student, and friend. He has one of those infectious smiles which made you smile everytime you though of him. I will always remember Taylor's first year of baseball, the boys were on the same team, he was one that Taylor looked up too and wanted to be like, he wanted to hit like him, pitch like him, field the ball like him and just be like him. Caleb would watch and then pull aside any player struggling and give them pointers on how to do whatever it was they were trying to do and making it all make sense. He cheered for everyone on the team, he kept the team cheering and focused. He has also been in DaNell's class for their last 4 of elementary, she never had any complaints about him. Some of the other boys in her class would tease her or make rude comments, but not Caleb he was always kind and respectful to her. Both, DaNell and Taylor are taking things pretty rough and as a mother I am searching for ways to take away the pain, to make it all make sense, to help them realize how precious life is, and for ways we can honor this life that has been cut short. Right now I am not sure how to do any of it. I think for today we will try to come up with an idea to honor Caleb somewhere in the community maybe at the baseball field, and then take it day by day adding him and his family to our thoughts and prayers daily. I have read some comments posted on some of the news websites, yes there are some heartfelt comments but there are also many that want to blame everyone else for this accident, I don't understand, why, in a time like this, people have to post hurtful things, this family is in enough agony without all the blaming and negativity. I know we will get through this, but it sure is hard watching your children grieve and not really being able to Take Away Their Pain, as a parent that is all I want to do. God Bless Caleb and God Bless his family.

Dog Days Of Summer

Here's Schydi and Leyton racing up the road and down a little hill. They were so cute I just had to snap a pic.

Tradition

Taylor's passin' down the torch of the

Mighty Elk Dance...There's no excuse why

they shouldn't get something this year

between the callin' and the dancin' !

Leyton Callin' in the Elk....Watch Out for the Stampede!

Like Papa....Like Grandson

Here's Leyton and Papa. We went and picked choke cherries over the weekend, Leyton had to show us his latest trick Papa taught him when they were hunting last Friday. He's ready for some more huntin'.

Leyton

This is just one of Leyton riding his most prize possession, the trusty old trike. He was having a lazy day wearing his pj bottoms all day.

Can U See Me Now?

The kids decided that the playhouse needed a paint job, of course the boys won out and picked camo....they are all happy with their work. Who knew you could have so much fun with spray paint?

Slide

Here's one of Schydi and Leyton after they climbed a steep hill....they enjoyed the trip down more than the climb up.

Mud Man

Here's Taylor after he got himself stuck over at the hills the other day. I had to go and pull him out, so we were all muddy by the time it was over. I hope he learned a lesson......yeah right, mud is his favorite thing.

Introducing....

LEYTON THE FLAME THROWER!!

He's magic.

This was a piece of bark that he threw, the lighting must have been just right, because it looks as of he was throwing fire.

Progress...

This is the progress so far....Taylor and his friend Nash put the shingles on the house, designed the awning, and tried to make a door. We still have work to do, but we are making progress. I will post pics of the inside when we get it done :)