The Verdict is....

Postponed until both parties appear at the same time. I had a court appearance this week to try to get some money from my former spouse that he owes me for medical expenses for the sprouts, all of which is stated in the divorce decree. He did not show because he did not pick up the certified letter that the court set him stating the date and time of court. I know this because one the court did not have a record of it, and two he has not picked up any of my certified letters to him since he signed for the first one back in May. I still have one at the post office which I will probably get back this week.

I showed up at court and apparently was the only case for the day. The clerk came in and asked me if I knew if he knew he was to be there today. I did not know but told her that I doubt he knows because of the mail situation. She said she was going to have to talk to the judge. She came back and told me to have a seat, that the judge wanted to put in on record that he was not there. It was a quick proceeding, and I have a new court date. So, I get to wait almost 3 weeks, and after the sheriff visits his employer I am sure I will get a phone call after that. Why is it that when the consequences of your actions are not to your liking, you blame other people for them? The judge did not seem very happy that my ex did not pick up his mail. He did not seem happy with the snail mail system either. :)

What can brown do for you......

Take care of a package that is not mine that is what they can do for me. A week ago, there was a package on my front steps when I got home from work. I was thinking to myself, I have not ordered anything to have a package delivered, but my birthday was the next day so maybe it was a gift from someone. NOPE, it was a package for my former spouses business, from the same people that tried to pick up something from my garage about a year ago, luckily I was home when that happened.

I put the package in the car and was headed out for my birthday plans with the sprouts, and find a guy in brown still working so, I turn around and make my way back to see if he can help me. I give him the package and explain that it was delivered to my house today and that it is not mine, it is my address but that person is my ex and has not been there for over two years now. He says not a problem I will mark it moved away, and off we go on our merry ways.

A few days later I get a postcard in the mail, for the same address as the package saying that they have a moved notice and where the package can be picked up at. I write on it not here anymore like the rest of the mail I get that is not mine and send it back thru the system.

This morning I get a phone call from my ex, "Did you have a package delivered to the house recently?", "Yep", "Did you send it back?", "Yep", "I told them the address had changed and gave them the new address a long time ago they just never changed it!" "I do not know what to tell you, you might contact the hub, they might be holding it there." Off he goes on his adventure to find his long lost package.

I have no idea if he got it or not. It was coming from the same town that his parents live in and is only 40 miles away from either of us, so I am not that concerned about it. He could have picked one up himself at some point and time, I have been there to do just that for him before the end of our marriage.

I did not feel that it was my responsibility to deliver it to him either. Either one of us apparently is not that thrilled with having contact with the other person, why I have no idea. I still inform him how doctors appointments go, dentists appointments and such, if I take them. If he takes them, I have to call him and find out how things went. If it was someone else's package that was not my neighbor I would have done the same thing, sent it back.

Awesome Weekend!

I had to fill in for my twin sister in her spouses company golf outing this weekend. She is expecting and due anytime, doctor says she is at 2cm today. A good time was had by all, at least for the 4 of us that made up our team. We took first place! Mind you my brother-in-law and I, and sister have golfed in tournaments before mostly just for fun. Anytime we can get out on the course is a good thing for us, so we really do not care how we do. He came in last place last year, and maybe the year before that, so first place is awesome for us. We were hooked up with his plant manager, and a sales rep. for one of the vendors. The sales rep is a competitive guy, but that did not bother either of us since we had only been able to make it out once so far this year. We rolled right along all day and it truly was a team effort. Everyone contributed off the tee at different times, and we all made putts and some point as well. When all was done we shot a 12 under, and that was good enough for first place by 3 shots I believe. We received 2 rounds of golf at a nice course near Detroit some where. Another road trip for me, but always a good road trip if golf is involved.

I won free gas for getting closest to the pin on one of the holes for the women. That was cool since I was the first name on the list. It was pretty close and we were shooting over a huge pond which was the courses signature hole. That paid for my gas up there.

I even got a door prize, everyone received a door prize.

The down side to the weekend, was that it took me 3 hours to get to my sisters when it normally takes 2hours or less. I got onto 96 and came to a crawl so I got off, I knew there was construction coming up and I knew there was another major road that ran parallel to 96 not far away, so I headed for that road. Thanks, to cell phones my mom helped me find the road I needed, with no problems. After a bit I got back on 96 to go about 1/2 mile and be at a crawl again, for what reason I have no idea but after about 4 miles of it, I got off and went back to the other road for the rest of my trip which took me to where I would have gotten off 96 anyways. That was a fun and exciting time.....NOT! I left work early to arrive at the same time I would have if I didn't leave early. And there is nothing like a 4yr back seat driver telling me where I can get off the highway to go faster and take a "shortcut" to make your evening.

We did arrive safely, and you cannot ask for more than that.

Woo Hoo!!!

I finally got the results from the bowling tournament I was in earlier this summer. That was part of my vacation out west. I did well enough to get some money back, WOO HOO! Not enough to cover the travel expenses and all, but it is better than nothing.

It is about time to start getting back into the practice mode for next years nationals in North Carolina.

Lord's Army....

On the way to dinner Friday night with my mom and the sprouts, the kids were chatting back and forth and then they were singing songs having a great time. The youngest started singing the Lord Army song...I may never ride in the infantry....shout the artillery.....etc...Then this verse comes blaring out....I may never FART in god's army.... I think is how it went I don't remember much after FART I was laughing so hard and trying not to laugh at it as well my mom was trying not to laugh. The tears just rolled down our faces.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Actually, I am celebrating the fact that I survived another birthday on Saturday. This one seemed a little hard to get through, but I had lots of stuff that occupied my time, so it went pretty well.

On Friday, the sprouts and I had appointments at the dentist for all that routine stuff. Not my favorite place to go. Then after work we headed to my parents house. Dad was on his way up to my sisters to work on getting the basement done so they can get the nursery set up before the baby arrives sometime this month. Nothing like trying to beat a deadline and you have no idea what day that is....LOL. Mom and I took the sprouts out for dinner for my birthday a day early. It was their dads weekend to have them, but he was on duty at the fire station and I had things going on for Saturday that I really did not want to have the sprouts at, so I chose Friday to have them for my birthday time. Everyone had a great time, my oldest was disappointed that I did not get sung to. I was not disappointed!

Saturday morning, I got the sprouts up and ready to go with their dad when he got off duty. The youngest ran out and informed him that it was my birthday, not that he did not know that already because we had discussed the change of schedule and why. Of course he looks at his watch to check the date and says "Happy Birthday" "I am sorry" for not remembering it is what he was sorry for. I just smiled and said "thanks". I headed up to my grandma's house because we were having a garage sale during the towns festival days, and it was my day to kind of work it. I hate garage sales, but most of the stuff was baby clothes and toys, of which the new addition will not be able to use. Except I really took on the roll of "go getter" which was fine with me. I went and got the BBQ chicken dinners for lunch, I went a got my niece and we walked uptown and took in the parade, then we went and grabbed ice cream on the nice sunny day. At lunch time when I was picking up the chicken dinners, I came back to have flowers waiting there for me. My mom handed them to me. The card was a happy birthday card, but the name on the card was my moms name that was it. I asked who were they from and she said "who do you think", so I just assumed they were from her, feeling sorry for me not getting anything for my birthday. I found out yesterday that my twin sister ordered them and they were suppose to be from my sprouts. After I help putting everything from the sale away for the day, mom and I went out to dinner and had a nice time. She did invite my younger sister who declined, which I was glad for that because she had been in a mood all day and we just do not get along and I had about had it with her as well.

I was going to go golfing on Sunday but by the time I got everything done that I wanted to get done first, it started sprinkling and I did not feel like golfing in rain so I head home and called it a day. Pretty exciting weekend.

I did manage to get out golfing last night with a friend. We got our moneys worth let me tell you....LOL. We made sure not to short ourselves any strokes or putts...LOL. We had a good time and grabbed dinner afterwards, we have not had anytime to hang out together all summer, so it was nice catching up with one another.

Egg Soap!!!

While entertaining "K" for the morning, I found some bath stuff for kids. There was some soap type thing shaped like an egg and had a surprise in it when it dissolved in the water. It was cheap so "K" picked out a color and off we went. Now being only 4 "K" loved telling "M" who is 6 about what happened during the day and the "treasures" acquired as well. It was like pouring salt in the wound to a 4yr. So after picking them up from camp I was making my way through town, not really paying attention to the conversation but catching bits and pieces of it because they are starting to argue about stuff. I hear .." it is egg soap..." from K and "guess what it smells like" Now I am thinking to myself how does egg soap get into the head of a 4yr and who would use soap made out of eggs. Then I hear " ..it smells like watermelon".. now by this time tears are rolling down my face from this conversation, and M says mom is that true did you buy egg soap.

All of the sudden I realize I did buy egg soap and it was melon scented. Now I have to explain the whole thing to the 6yr.

What a conversation kids can have with each other.

WOW - I finally have landed....

....for the rest of the summer. Last week I spent the entire week in a hotel with the sprouts and my mom. The sprouts had day camp at the zoo all week and I did not want to drive back and forth everyday so we camped at a hotel with a pool for the week.

The kids loved the camp and the hotel as well. We had to time the pool though, there was a youth basketball tournament in town as well and kids from Texas, Kansas, and around the nation where there. Some of the kids had no consideration for others, but we managed to get our swimming in with out incidents.

My "vacation" was from noon until 3 when I picked both sprouts up from camp. Mom and I had to entertain the youngest "K" in the morning until drop off at noon. You can only do so much shopping before a 4yr wants to run and play, so off to McD's for lunch with a playland most of the time. We made a stop at the mall for lunch and a request for roast beef place as well was granted.

Now, I just have to survive the heat and get ready for school to start.