A week in review....

I now have a 7yr. She had a great birthday! She got to take treats to school, had a small birthday cake on Friday, and a bigger cake on Saturday with the rest of the family. We went up to my sisters to have the party, so my grandma could see the baby. Everyone had a great time. The 7yr received her new bike for her birthday and she loves it. Rides it when ever possible. She is so tall that a new bike is in order almost every year, but I think I have found one that will last for quite sometime, it has a lot of adjustments on it. Now I have to take the old bike and make it usable for the 4yr because she is also very tall for her age and needs a new bike as well. It all works out in the end.

I help out with the computer at church and put the music in so that it is ready to go for the Sunday services. Well they have upgraded the program that is used, so Sunday the people running it were pretty much doing it blindly. But it was not to bad. I could not figure out everything I needed to figure out on it, in the 2 hours that I had to work with it. I have since figured out more stuff, so hopefully tonight will be a piece of cake getting the music in.

Besides the birthday this weekend was great. The girls and got to swim together. They have swim lessons on Saturdays so while one is having a lesson I swim with the other one and visa versa. They enjoy it. They have been swimming since before they were 3yrs old. We also stopped by my grandma's house after church on Sunday so she could see the girls clothes the she got them for the birthday party. She was so excited to see us again. I grew up seeing my grandma everyday, she lived only 5 miles from us and in town so we had to go to her house after school, while my mom and to finish up stuff at school as a teacher. Out of the 7 grandchildren and 9 great-grandkids, my sisters and I are the only ones she gets to see often. We try to see her as often as we can just because she enjoys it.

I have decide to take a little mini vacation next weekend, and my mom and grandma are going with me. I am just going to spend the weekend at the family cabin and grandma has not been up there that much this year, and mom won't let me go by myself, so they are both going. I usually ask grandma anyways, being 94 and the original owner of the place it is only fair to take her along. She already has the meals planned out for the 2 days we are going to be there. That will probably change some, but you can tell she is excited to be going.

I usually plan a lot of stuff to do, but not this time. I only have a small road trip planned and that will be no different than going to town anyways for a few groceries, so life will be good. Just sit down by the lake and watch time pass me by for two days. Weather permitting, and a few house winterizing projects to do first, nothing to big though.

Annoying/Applause

What really annoys me are people that always see the negative in everything. When someone just wants a friend to listen, the friend seems to have to take the other side and criticize what you are saying all the time. Luckily I do not have friends that do that anymore, I erased them from my Christmas list. But there are still people out there that no matter what you do or say it is never right in their book and they may not even know the entire situation, which doesn't matter to them you still are in the wrong in their eyes. I personally think those people do it to escape their issues what ever they maybe.

I do not even watch the news anymore, one I do not get any local TV stations and I do not watch the national news either. Someone told me that one "Cable" news stations letters stand for Continuous Negative News after listen to it for awhile I had to agree. I am still up and the news locally, regionally, and world wide. I take what I want and leave the rest.

I am glad that my "venting specialist" is the way that she is. Listens, doesn't really criticize me or tell me that I should have done it one way or the other. She makes suggestions and I take them or leave them, usually when I leave them, turns out I should have taken them. But some "venting specialist" tell people what they should be doing and turns out that made it worse, but that is the way they are. Not saying it is good or bad, and that is what makes this country the way it is. Everyone gets to have an opinion.

So I applaud those people that just listen, but sometimes that is all a person wants is a pair of ears for awhile. To those that do not know when to just listen, eventually you will know when you should have just listened.

Mountain out of a mole hill.....

Well my life the past month or so has been stuck in a legal battle with my former spouse. According to the final papers he has to pay me half of the medical bills after I pay so much first. I used up my allotment back in April. I gave him the spread sheet of everything he asked a few questions said he was going to have to talk to the insurance people...blah blah blah. A month later I sent a certified letter stating what was 30 days past due, he signed for it...fine. Later I sent another certified letter and he never picked it up nor did her picked up the other 3 that I sent over the course of the summer. I asked him in person when I picked up the sprouts if he was going to reimburse me his share of the medical bills and he said yes that he was waiting to hear back from the insurance company. Which now is 2 months later. When I got back from vacation I filed a contempt of court at the court house and got a court date in August. I received an email from him a few days after I filed that said that he had heard from the insurance company. Great now I might get to see some money which is almost half way to 4 digits now. Court arrives almost 30 days after he has heard from the insurance company, no money yet, and he is a no show because he did not sign for the certified letter. Judge sets a new date, and has his papers served by sheriff. A week later I get an email saying that I am going to be getting a check for so much and that the rest he will figure up and get to me at the end of the year. I sent back the spread sheet he attached and filled in the stuff he was missing, and never mentioned anything like "that will be fine to get the rest at the end of the year." I just let the time frame go, no point in beating on it. I figured that he got his papers. A few days later I pick up my certified letter from him, actually his wife did everything, wrote the check addressed the envelope wrong. It was part of the money, and I received a little more the next week.

During this whole time he has changed the visitation schedule to his liking without discussing it with me, of which I told him I did not like that schedule but would be glad to sit down with him to work one out, and he wants other things changed, because he would have to pay for part of it now. Then another email comes wanting to know why he got served papers. Because I did not have any money from you at that time, was my response. He came back with I told you I will get you the money when I get the insurance papers back. I did not respond back, I hate getting into an email "fight" with him, he just sends it to his wife to respond, not worth my time to go there.

So, now the court date has been changed twice by his lawyer and the court because he has filed a motion to have the visitation changed and the child support lowered. Now I really have no money, and grow deeper in debt to my parents for the lawyer fees, and I am not all that confident that the child support isn't going to be lowered. At least my lawyer thinks it won't so that is a good thing I guess.

I have everything in order, have had for almost 2 months now. The new court date is on what use to be my wedding anniversary, hope that isn't a bad thing again. I will be glad when it is all over with, then maybe I can get some sleep and back to my normal life.

The sad part about this, is that most of this could be solved by just simple communication of which will never happen as long as he is married to her. I have sat down with the two of them before and tried to work some stuff out, but that just turned into her telling me how everything was my fault. Not doing that again.

The Verdict part 2

Once again it has been changed. My ex called my yesterday morning to tell me that he was having the oldest ride the bus from daycare to school because of the three hour fog delay, he could not take her to school because he had to be somewhere else. I was not happy because she has to transfer buses to get to her school which he was not aware of. She made it, but the story she told me this morning about it did not have any enthusiasm with it for getting to ride the bus to school for the first time. Anyways, when he is all done with that information, he then says that the court date tomorrow (meaning today) has been change and he gave me the time and day of the new date. Not pleased about this I call the court, which had no knowledge of the change but the person was out and I had to call back this morning to confirm. So, I did and yep he changed it, because he has retained counsel and he of course was on duty today and probably did not want to ask for the time off as well, which pisses me off because I have to get the time off no matter what. SO, I have an appointment with my lawyer soon as well. I am sure he is going to make a mountain out of a mole hill, and I might even try to get the lawyers to work it out now, which would be in the best interest of my ex since the judge is not all that thrilled that he did not show up the last time. Time will tell I guess. What is another couple of sleepless weeks, it is only time anyways, except now it is money.

Hodge Podge of stuff!!!!

The last couple of weeks have been a whirl wind of stuff going on...

1. My nephew has arrived finally, last Sunday 8/27 in the afternoon sometime. He arrived by c-section because he was 11 pounds and 6oz. That is 3oz less than what my twin sister and I weighed together. Mom and baby are doing just fine. His big sister loves him, despite him being a little sister for along time. She is over that now. :) He is a cutie with chubby cheeks and a head full of dark hair.

2. I finally have received some money from my former spouse. I thought it was because he got served his papers for court, but these came before he got the papers. He has brought up a few new issues that I am not happy with so we will just let the court decide on them. I am tired of negotiating with him so that he gets what he wants all the time, to change later because they do not work to his benefit later on. What he tells me in one email changes the next week in another email, so the man in the black robe can make the decision for him as far as I am concerned right now.

3. My oldest has been in school all day now, first grade and loves it.

4. I am going to vent here about my younger sister "red". We do not get along very well, and I will be cordial for the most part. I do not call her up to see how her day is going or anything like that. We have never really seen eye to eye on things for a very long time. She is divorced x2 and has a daughter, the oldest of the grandkids. She pretty much lives off my parents, even though she has her own place in an adjacent town. She works for my dad which is fine, but she seeks handouts for everything. Granted my parents have helped me out during my divorce and continue to do so if I need them to. I paid for my divorce, my parents paid for her 2 divorces. Anyways, my parents took out a lone for me to pay off my spouse from the divorce settlement. I would not be able to refinance my house and car if I had that loan in my name. I make the monthly payments on that loan so all is well. I clean my parents house most everyweekend for mom. She only has one third of a knee cap on one leg and cannot bend it hardly at all, and has been like that most of my life, so she cannot get on her hands and knees to clean stuff. She shattered her elbow a few years ago, rods and screws were required to put the splinter like pieces of bone back together with the hope that she would have at least a 10% movement in it. She lacks about 10% of full movement from it, but is still limited in doing stuff. So, instead of paying someone to come in to do her cleaning, I get paid to do it. Which usually is taken off of my loan payment for the month. I do not mind cleaning the house, I mind cleaning after "red" when she has spent the night at mom and dads. Mind you she only lives 20 minutes at most away. I have to always put away the blankets and pillows that she drags out of the closet in the room she sleeps in. I have to take care of all the stuff she gets out of the bathroom drawers and just leaves them on the counter when she is done instead of putting them back. It is just annoying. She was offered to clean the house for extra money but never did it. Go figure.

5. An exciting moment happened this weekend. 8 of us went to a county fair in an adjoining state on Sunday. This fair was my moms and grandmas fair many years ago. Most of us usually go every year, but this year we piled into an RV and took grandma along. She has not been there for many many years. She was dressed in her Sunday best for a 93yr. We pushed her around in a wheel chair, she only has 50% of her heart working from a heart attack a few years ago so the walking is out. We took her through a long cabin that her brother help build and had some items in it from her grandfather. She was in seventh heaven there. I glanced at a large quilt in the corner than had twelve or sixteen squares on it. Each square had a circle with a name on it and a wagon wheel of names embroidered around it. I asked my mom who a couple of names were and she said they were her grandma and grandfather, then I spotted my grandmas name on it. This quilt was made back in 1927 and the names on it were from the members of a small community back then. The people were so excited that my grandmas name was on it and that she was still living. Someone came through a couple of hours ahead of us and said that no one was still living. They took a picture of my grandma in front of the quilt and she was in her glory.