Well Emma had her surgery, and she’s now home resting comfortably. Poor kid does not handle anesthesia well at all. I’m feeling plum worn out, but I think it’s just the week of stress catching up with me. I know I’ll be fine after I get a good nights sleep.

The school was immediately responsive to my letter. The counselor pulled Emma out yesterday and called me to discuss. They are taking a three pronged approach:
1) Work with Emma to not take things personally.
2) Create a support system for Emma by inviting a handful of her friends to a special “lunch date” and they will talk about how friends support friends. The theory is that bullying happens when kids are “loners” and bullying is about power. If there is a network to disagree with the bullier, then the bullying stops because there is no longer a power base. And Emma did say that most of this happens when she is playing alone on the monkey bars.
3) Deal with the kids who are doing it.

I was pleased with their response and I think Emma was too. This is no get of worry free card for me. I still am wondering how best to proceed. But I am processing a lot of different opinions people have offered and am evaluating what I think the best next steps are.

Now on to lighter fare…

Chana, over at Bunny Burrow, asked what my plans are for the summer. I am excited about our summer. Summer in the Pacific NW is just magical. I’m actually a little bummed we are doing so much this summer because I’m worried I won’t get to enjoy it.

Kids have adventure day camp for the last week of June. This is a camp that takes them to different places each day. An example of a day is ½ day at the water park and ½ a day roller skating. That kind of thing. They are very excited about that.

Then on July 2nd we are heading to Florida. First just the kids and myself will go. John will follow on the 8th. We will spend time with my family who we haven’t seen in awhile, I’ll work on our house, and we’ll attend my cousin’s wedding on Sanibel. Then on July 14th we’ll meet up with my cousins and their kids and we are going to take a short cruise to Mexico for a long weekend. Then we’ll fly back from Miami on the 18th.

Then in August we’ll head to the Oregon coast to stay on the ocean with my best friend and her kids. Not sure if we’ll be there an entire week or just a handful of days. It will probably be a wait and see kind of thing. John will stay here and I’ll do the trek alone with the kiddos. My kids have never done a long car trip like this, so it should be interesting.

August 15th I’ll have to get back into PTSA mode again as I am working on starting a new community/mentoring type program at school and I’m in charge of the first week packets. That will suck up a lot of free time. And the kids have another day camp 3rd week of August.

That’s our summer! Our kids go back to school the last day of August. So it’s a shorter summer this year since they are redoing the calendar. Next year they will get out earlier and start the following year after Labor Day.

Thanks Chana for the question!

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