Didn't See It Comin'

So last Monday I get over to the middle school for choir practice like I always do and the door to the room we use was locked so I peeked into the room next door and motioned the teacher to open the door again as I've done many times before. She meets me with "how's Fox doing?" "Fine, I guess why," I responded with slight bewilderment. "The kids told me he got in a fight today," she says, "the only reason I know is because they used it as an example for one of their vocabulary words, malicious." Needless to say I was shocked, the principal came down shortly after and had a word with me before we got rehearsal going. Apparently there was a kid who had been verbally harassing Fox during lunch for several weeks. During lunch that day the kid finally pushed it too far and basically made the comment "oh, what are you gonna do punch me? C'mon punch me." The kid got what he asked for, Fox gave him one to the gut and one to the face and took a firm 'ready stance' as used in martial arts. The kid immediately backed down. A little later in the day the kid came up from behind and initiated a sneak attack assault on Fox in the 7th grade hallway as he made his way to band, another kid quickly got a teacher who broke them up before it escalated. Both boys got a 2-day suspension, one in-school and one at home.

My reaction to this whole incident was rather mixed. Fox explained to me that he went through the gamut of responses over the weeks, at first he ignored him, sometimes he fired insults back, and even went to the 'dude, what's your problem, what'd I ever do to you' mode. He opted not to take it to school officials so wouldn't be labeled a tattler or have anyone think he couldn't handle his own battles. Although getting physical wasn't exactly initiated by him I do respect that he wasn't afraid to stand up for himself and did do his best to turn the other cheek and not get into it with this relatively friendless kid. The principal was dissapointed that Fox didn't bring it to someone's attention sooner. The thing that gets me is the whole suspension thing in general, you did something wrong so you .... get a day off of school!?!? I'd rather they gave both boys a bucket and a sponge and made them wipe down lockers, (goodness knows nobody else does) or have them empty garbages, write a paper on how to handle conflict, something other than not having school. Well, one thing's for sure, kids will think twice before messin' with Fox and he will instill greater consideration before taking matters into his own hands. Since the incident the kid hasn't said a word to him during lunches.

Saturday was the perfect sledding weather so Rob and I headed out together, dropped one car off to get new tires and loaded in the van over to the watertower hill with the younger boys and a buddy of Ethan's. The boys had a great time; Rob and I even took a few runs ourselves although we kept tipping over plus I went down a few times solo. I certainly got my exercise in that day climbing back up the hill. Fox was at Birmingham Groves High School with the Forensics team to observe so he could get ideas for his competition piece. He is pretty set on sales but wants to come up with something that can be fun and interesting.

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Ethan is doing really well with his guitar lessons, I love listening to him practice and Ben has quite memory for music (and other random facts), many times he'll run through his stuff on the piano without even having his music book out. My friend's son (and the boys' buddy) has been coming over on the bus after school one day a week and the boys have been trying to 'jam' a little bit. The friend takes guitar with Ethan, loves playing the drum set, and can really rock. They are now starting to work on chords as well as picking songs plus Ethan has ventured onto making up his own melodies which is such a blessing to hear. Ben makes things up on the piano often times as well.

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Alex has also been receiving top marks in her guitar class. She's loving all her classes and is actually working ahead on assignments for Screenwriting; her classmates were really impressed with her story ideas and the instructor has been very encouraging. Today she took the first step in getting things in place for the college she wants to attended in the Fall. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag yet since she still has a process to go through but I am beyond excited that she is taking the initiative. PTL! Breakthrough in the employment department as well, after talking to her manager about working at two different locations she is now on the schedule more days and longer shifts!

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Sunday I went with Ethan down to the Open House at FlipSpot in Orion Twp. It is a great facility and I am so happy for Coach Shawn and his new business adventure. We're going to do drop-ins at open gym for awhile until the weather breaks and soccer/baseball/track season is done. I must be getting wiser because I know not to add something to the schedule at this point. Shawn was very understanding and workable. Ethan is excited to get back into gymnastics and we were there for over an hour as he did roundoff-backhandsprings, pit drops, high bar swings, some ring work, and got kooky in the bounce house. He would've stayed longer if he wasn't so sore from all his sledding acrobatics the day before. We had a nice mother-son lunch together and then headed back home.

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Getting ready to hunker down for the big snow storm that's supposed to be coming....hope everyone has an enjoyable February.