Welcome to my insanity. Please keep your hands and feet inside at all times

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. Things have been slightly busy and extremely chaotic around here lately. To those of you who emailed, messaged, or called to check up on me, Thank you. We are all hanging in, but your thoughts and good wishes really helped me.

This is going to be a reaaalllly looonng post. I will try and give you all the thumbnail sketch of what has been going on here lately. I will start with the most recent and move backwards. Hang on, here we go.

Yesterday, we inherited a new member of our family. Mark, you are going to think we are crazy, but we got a kitten yesterday. Today he thinks I am playing a game when I type. He is trying to attack my fingers. The doctor suggested I get my daughter an animal she could be responsible for. Something that would help her feel good about herself. She didn't want a fish or something quiet. She wanted a kitten. Now my older cat is royally pissed off at all of us. Just what I need. Another moody animal to deal with. I hope this works for my girl.

On the weekend, we travelled to the big city of Thompson. (If you have never been there, that was sarcasm). It was an 8 hour bus ride one way. Trees are really pretty, but staring at them for 8 hours on a bus gets pretty dull quickly. We were travelling there because my daughter was competing in the Provincials for bowling. Her team recieved the Silver Medal. Not bad considering after the second game, they were in last place. It was nice to get away for a few days. I think I needed that.

Now onto the crazy stuff. You may remember that I had mentioned that my one daughter was being bullied. It has kind of snowballed since then. I ended up pulling my daughters out of their school and transferring them to another school. It seems crazy to move them with only 4 months left in the year, but it had to be done. Both girls seem so much happier now. I had forgotten ( or maybe it happened so slowly I didn't realize how unhappy my girls were) what it was like to live with happy children. It is so nice to pick them up from school and have them come out with smiles. It has been almost three weeks and I haven't heard " I don't want to go to school" once. Hooray!!

is It all just came to a head one evening and I said enough! and pulled them right then and there. Maybe you remember I did a favor for a friend. I had his daughter stay with us for a week while he was in Mexico for a wedding because his ex refused to take their daughter. It is true. No good deed goes unpunished. I am paying for that good deed. I got a vile letter from the mother. I was just going to ignore it but things got out of hand quickly. I guess my daughter went to school and said we were going to sue this girl's mom. (which wasn't true) Why my daughter said it, I don't know. Kids do stupid things. Anyway, this Mother flipped and sent an email to the school about it. The teacher then pulled my daughter out of class and confronted her about it. She denied knowing anything about it. (I felt the teacher should have called me. It is an adult situation) My daughter was hysterical when she got home. Her Dad called the school and asked them about it. They refused to show us the email but said it was all okay. Fine. The next day, my other daughter was in gym class. (I have never liked the gym teacher and this did not help) My former friend's daughter went to the teacher and said my girl was being mean to her. The teacher pulled my girl out of the class and yelled at her to stop being mean. When my girl started to cry and asked exactly what she had done wrong, the teacher said she didn't know, just stop being mean. I was furious. Her Dad made another call to the school. Again we were assured all was well. It went like this for another day.Then the other girl's father called me and went up one side of me and down the other. He went crazy over the whole suing thing.I tried to tell him it was just kids being stupid and to ignore it. That was the wrong thing to tell him. He went on about how rotten my girls are and how rotten of a parent I was. He called my kids the bullies and that he was going to get the principal to get them. He was acting insane. You couldn't reason with him. Now my girls are terrified of him. Keep in mind, the week before, we were perfectly good enough to take care of his daughter when he was in a jam. It was crazy. The next day, The principal pulled my girls out of class to ask them who their emergency contact person was. It is my Dad a fact she could have looked up on her computer and why she needed to know that, I have no idea. The girls were scared and confused. Hence another call to the school. We were again assured they were just checking in on the girls. 5:30 that night the girls told me that the principal had pulled them out of class later and made them applogize to the other girl. The principal NEVER mentioned this to us. This was the last straw. I saw red. I phoned the school and left a message saying enough was enough. My daughter's health was suffering and both girls hated school. They were being bullied, and intimadated by two students, a parent, the teachers and the principal. I told them that the girls would no longer be students of that school effective IMMEDIATELY! Of course, the next morning, she called and wanted to meet with the girls and us. I told her that I had two infants at home, I would have to ask my parents to drive 50 miles one way to come in and look after them in order to meet with her. I also told her since their Dad had missed so much time at work that week dealing with all of this that I wasn't sure he would be able to meet with her. She wanted us to bring the girls. We refused. I figured they had already done enough damage to them. They were not going to get another shot at them. We went in and met with the principal and the teacher. The principal said how shocked she was that the girls were that upset (HELLO?!?! Where the hell have you been?) We told her it didn't matter what they promised, the girls were not going back. The girl's dad also told her that we should have called the police after the first threat against my daughter. Since the school has done nothing. The principal and the teacher both said how good my girls were and how sorry they were to have them leave. They said they never had any trouble with them and it was a shame for us to leave since we have had kids in that school for 9 years. Basically we said tough luck. We are done. We left that meeting and went and registered the girls in a new school right away. So far, I am very impressed with the school. They are welcoming and when we registered, they gave us a form telling us exactly what their stance is on bullying. What steps they take to deal with it and what consequences there will be for anyone caught bullying. So far our experience has been nothing but positive. The only snag we have is how to get the girls to the school. We cannot find any daycare available close by and we can't get them on the school bus. I love this one. We can't bus them because they live too far away from the school. Well duh. That is why we need the bus. My friend has been watching them in the mornings and driving them to school for me. It is good to have friends you can count on. Anyway, the only solution we have come up with is that we now send them by taxi cab to school every morning and I pick them up after school. It is a little expensive, but it is the only way we can do it. The girls don't seem to mind, so all is good.

I bet you thought pulling the girls out would stop the problems with this former friend and his kid didn't you. Guess again. Last week I spoke to him. He was on another rampage. I guess the rumor around the school is that he is going after my kids. He is blaming my girls for that. I told him that it is true the girls are terrified of him and his crazy wife. He was telling me that I have to stop the rumors. I cannot control what other people say. I told him that the girls have only been in the school once to get their work to transfer to their new school. He told me they were talking to kids from the school and he wants it to stop. I told him that to ask the girls to not talk to their friend from the school is unreasonable. I told him that they already left the school and I didn't know what else I can do. He also said that my girls were the bullies in the school and my daughter was lying about being threated by the boy. Oh well. Funny how the Principal told us we weren't the first people to have trouble with this boy. Not much I can do. I have washed my hands of the whole business. My girls are happier and that is all that counts.

That has been my life in a nutshell. I hope everyone is doing well. I will try to get around to check on everyone. Take care all.