Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Ex-husband vent.

I'm needing to send my ex a letter of my intent to move....one of those things in our divorce decree, so that I can give him "adequate" time to file for a change of visitations, etc....either 30 before I move or up to ten days immediately after my move, whichever is most doable.

As it stands he's allowed visits on the 2nd Saturday of the month, under the supervision of a court mediator, between the hours of 2pm and 4pm. He also is not able to change the visitations from that until after he has participated in a divorce counseling seminar (judge's decree, I had to attend that too). So I'm not worried about my ex who won't show for court on child support matters to attempt to take me to court to change the visitations. Furthermore, my ex has only seen Mikeal TWICE since I left him when Mikeal was 13 months old....he's now 7 1/2. He saw Mikeal for a few hours during Easter when Mikeal was about 18 months old - my ex's adopted dad took Mikeal and I up to Kansas City to visit him hoping that I'd reconsider getting the divorce. And then he didn't see Mikeal again until he was 3 years old, and hasn't since. During this time my ex has also only sent 3 letters, and has made a few phone calls to my mom's house, or rather, had his mother call. Now, my ex-MIL started calling in early October of this past year, would call and talk to Mikeal on a regular basis...then stopped calling altogether, about the time my ex was picked up again on the failure to pay support...haven't heard anything from them since outside of the courtroom while my ex was sporting the county jumpsuit and silver bracelets.

BUT as a responsible, law abiding mother I am still required to do my part to inform my ex of where I'm going to be taking Mikeal.

I have to provide address, phone number (don't have one yet), and the reason for our move.

I haven't actually written one of these letters because prior to this move I thought I just had to update with the child support officers and the court, plus my ex was in either jail or a halfway house, and I'd just call his grandma (who absolutely hates him and his mother's side of the family for all the lies and stealing they've done to her) let his grandma know that I was moving, she'd in-turn tell her son (ex's bio father) and he's in turn tell ex's mother, and she'd tell ex...I'd know he got the message because I'd get a letter from him telling me what kind of horrible person I was for keeping him away from his son...as if his being in jail 600 miles away, BEFORE I moved another 600 miles down the road, didn't have anything to do with that anyways... But I found out today from my lawyer I have to send the notice to him since the protective order is no longer in place...it expired on Mikaila's first birthday and there hasn't been enough probable cause for the courts to renew it.

I really wouldn't even bother with sending a letter except for the fact his grandmother is in her 90s and she's already had to deal with physical assaults from him, threats, and the like, so I don't want her to be put in such a position, at least not because of something I told her and she passed along. She's a great lady, now that she knows I wasn't making up all the stuff I'd told them about my ex and my reasons for leaving him...my ex in a drunken state one evening, while living with her, went on and on about a lot of the things he'd done to me....prior to that everyone thought I was the horrible lying cheating whore he'd made me out to be, because there's no way that ex would ever do such things, he's made good money, he's the first one of that family to actually graduate high school, he'd never been arrested, and blah blah blah....VERY high marks for that family, let me tell you.

So my problem now is how do I go about writing this letter and then sending it so as to keep my ass covered with it all. His family is the sort that will use any chance they think they have to make life miserable for me...such as trying to bring me back to court to get custody of Mikeal...granted they haven't tried that since spending almost $20K to several different lawyers when Mikeal was 2 and the multiple judges laughed them all out of court, but still it worries me.

In also don't have an address for my ex...I have one for his mother and I think his bio father, but not for him personally...he hasn't lived at his sex offender registered address for at least a year, and it took the courts over 8 months to actually find him to arrest him, only to release him again.

My lawyer's secretary just said that I needed to send it certified mail, in the care of his mother to him and leave it at that. Again, I haven't talked to his mother since he beginning of November and then she claimed to have nothing to do with her son because he's tried multiple times to kill himself, she caught him shooting up in her house, so kicked him out, the like...yea, whatever, he probably just wouldn't share with her so she kicked him out, but that's something for another day...

Ugh...I'm so sick of trying to do right in this whole deal. I just want to be able to be rid of my ex and be able to live my life with my wonderful husband and children without having my ex always in the shadows of everything I do!

blah blah blah

I'm so nervous and excited and sick and aggravated I can't sleep.

Nervous about the court hearing on the 23rd. Any other time I've had to show for court on the child support matters I either didn't HAVE to show up, but did anyways because it's only a few minutes from the house, or if I did have to show up I had some detailed information on what the court hearing was to be about - such as the modifications. The other day I get a letter that simply says I need to show up to testify on behalf of the child support enforcement agency...zero other information outside of the date and time. I know the dumbass isn't going to show up, they released him on the 23rd of December on probation on a felony warrant for failure to pay support and has yet to send a single dime OR report to the probation officer. I told the judge this was going to happen, I'm not stupid, this is the second time she's released him in the last 6 months because he said he had a job and would be paying...hasn't paid anything in almost a year...only $500 in the last 6 years. Now I know if you were to compare me to the judge, the lawyers, the court liasons, and even my ex husband, I'm the baby...by almost 10 years the baby...but I'm not stupid. I was married to the dumbass for 5 years...only lived with him for almost 2 of those 5 years, but still - yes it took me 3 years to get the divorce because of him being in prison, in another state, for child molestation charges... Anyways I have to testify before the judge.

Now we had planned on packing up the moving truck on the 15th or so to move out to Tennessee....but that's been postponed by a week so that we don't have to make an immediate trip back out here for me to go to court.

I'm so excited about moving! I have not been very fond of this area nor very many people in this area. I have honestly hated living in this area since I was 12 years old, when we first moved here. Many of the people here are the most closed minded, racist, uneducated, white trash, sorry excuses for humans that call themselves Christians I've ever had the misfortune of knowing. They put on a good show for a few months - hell Brian fell for it for over two years - and because of the fact Brian couldn't see what I was trying to tell him and warn him about it caused a LOT of BIG fights between us. He didn't understand that I might actually know what I was talking about.

The real catalyst came at the end of last month when his leg got to the point that he couldn't walk on it and we actually had the money for him to get in to see a doc about it. Doc put him on restrictions, and because of those restrictions his paying job wasn't going to allow him to work - they can't accommodate light duty - so because of that he also wasn't able to go to his "job" that he doesn't get paid for. Snowball effect from that is everything that I've been "nagging" Brian about that was going to happen, happened. Dude that he did work for for free didn't take kindly to Brian having to be off work for a while, landlord kept re-nigging on the terms of us being able to buy this house, her husband (who Brian was working with at the other shop, for free) came pounding on our door, threatened him in a roundabout way - that we better not be planning on screwing over his wife because he's not been at work, he doesn't call at the shop to let them know what's going on, etc ... For one, our rent wasn't even due until the NEXT day, which was also Brian's payday, we did have our income tax money cash on hand, no biggie...and had actually planned on paying about 3 months rent in advance because at that time we didn't know if Brian was going to be out of work to have surgery done on his leg or not, turned out to just be shin splints, but with the way the economy and bureaucrats are here there was no way to know if I was even going to be able to find a job, I'd already been looking for a few months....so we were going to pay all of our bills to be covered for the next few months. Because of the landlord's husband's stunt we gave her our 30 day notice, made arrangements and now will be moving to Tennessee. :D

I'm also excited because Brian talked to his District Manager here and everything is ready at this end for Brian to be transferred out, so he'll be keeping the same job. He'll also be getting a cost of living raise, which Brian said will be about $3 more an hour...BUT because the Nashville area has had a lot of growth lately they're looking for persons to run the stores, so Brian might actually get his promotion to management when we get out there - FINALLY - he's only been promised that promotion for the last 2 years...but I'm not going to get my hopes totally set on either of these two prospects until I see it...been kinda burned by hearing this for the last two years....Now we're just waiting to hear something from the Nashville District Manager about locations and offers.

I'm also sick. I don't know completely why, but it sucks! I have puked more times than I care to in a 24 hour period. I've been running a fever, and my sinuses have been draining 90 to nothing since I woke up.

And I'm aggravated because for the last few nights Mikaila has decided that she is ready to get up for the "day" at around midnight. She's also refused to nap during the day. I am quite sure that a lot of it has to do with the fact that her daddy is home or around all day everyday and she's super excited over that, but it is really starting to get old! She started displaying some of the same symptoms as myself this evening, runny nose, etc so I did give her some Benedryl, so that after having the melatonin earlier I'm hoping works to help her get some sleep tonight, instead of going to sleep at 5am and sleeping in until almost noon. She was doing so great there for a while of going to sleep like normal and sleeping most/all of the night, not getting up until about 5/6am...but she's fallen back into her old habits before we started the melatonin. SOOOO glad her therapist comes out tomorrow!

And to top it all off...I think my cat is pregnant...again. I just had her "fixed" in August - or so I thought. I know I paid for her to be fixed, I know she got a few stitches in her belly...but the telltale signs of gaining baby weight are all there, and it wasn't too long ago that I thought she was acting like she was in heat, but blew it off because I knew she'd been fixed. Ugh! I'll be so glad when we're away from the stupid stoned crackpipe doctors and vets around here!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Big Changes

Are ahead of us. We are quite excited! I do not have time right now to go into it, just wanted to not leave you hanging with my previous vague post. I am hoping that by the end of this month I will have time and mental process about me enough to be able to make a full comprehensive post.

Friday, January 29, 2010

At a single drop

of anything a person's world can come crashing down around them. You can prepare for anything, think you have a great foundation, can see the walls coming up, and quicker than you can process it can all be laying in ruins at your feet.

I'm at this point right now. I don't have the time right now to give the whole story of it, I really need to get some sleep. But I *think* I've reached the point today where everything has come crashing down and now I have a whole bunch of pieces of the life I was building laying around me, things are broken, others shattered, some are just barely hanging by threads, but I'm not disheartened about it. My walls and such may of came crashing down today, but my foundation is still decent, in need of only a few minor repairs, but relatively easy fixes.

So from this point I rebuild. I go at this from a different angle, a different floor plan, and stronger building materials. I AM going to rebuild this life and we ARE going to get to the finished project...eventually. I know that all of the overwhelming news brought to our family today could be quite devastating, but I am determined to make sure this family makes it through this patch.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Told ya so.

Yes. I did. Last month I went to EVERY court hearing, while my ex was sitting in our local county jail on failure to pay child support, as well as other charges. There was anywhere from 1-5 a WEEK, no big deal, for me. I told the judge that he was just going to give her false employment information, just like he did last time, back in June, and he's going to give her false information on the place he's supposed to be living at...just like he did in June...he's also a registered sex offender. He's not lived at his "registered" address in over 2 years now...

Well, she released him on the basis he claimed to be working for a siding company, on the 23rd of December. Here we sit on the 26th of January, over a month later, and there has still yet to be a payment made on the child support. There's another court hearing at 10am...I'd almost put money on him not showing for the hearing.

Actually I should of put money up on it last time I said that he wasn't going to pay the child support and that the courts weren't going to be able to confirm his employer...I'd have a child support payment or two worth owed to me...go figure...

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Garden Plans 2010

Yes, I'm already starting to plan my garden this year! I had a bit of success last year with the companion & organic gardening, and I'm hoping to repeat my success, then some this year!

January thru mid-February I'm going to get my garden prepared. This involves bringing in more dirt, stirring the dirt that is there to aerate it, bringing in some compost, etc.

Mid-February I'm going to start the leaf lettuce, spinach, snap peas, carrots, and radishes outside - they're quite tolerate to being snowed on, iced on, and frosted. Inside I'm going to start the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage plants to plant in late-February/early March, they're also cold hardy and didn't seem to mind last year the couple of frosts and freezes we did get.

Late-February I'm going to start my other main plants : tomatoes, oregano, cilantro, parsley, chives, bell peppers, etc inside, in my mini green house.

By the end of March the weather should be such that I can transfer all my plants outdoors and get to start watching them all grow!

YUMMY!

When my snap pea plants are done producing I'm going to be pulling them out and replacing them with green beans. Once it gets hot enough that the lettuce, spinach, etc has gone to seed I'll be replacing them with okra & potato plants.

I'm not going to be doing onions or celery this year...last year they just took too long and I was quite disappointed overall. SO I have about another 20 square feet of space to fill in with things I can either can or freeze - most likely freeze, just not quite sure what would go well in that area, unless I build the "walls" up a little higher and get quite a bit more dirt. This is a shallow area (only about 6 inches deep) so I'm not sure yet...

In the fall, after summer has shown signs of cooling I'll be planting my cooler weather plants again: lettuce, radishes, spinach, broccoli, & cauliflower. Well, last year I neglected to remove two of my broccoli plants after they went to seed and the grasshoppers ate them to nubs, but by mid-fall I noticed their leaves had become vibrant again and they were again producing broccoli heads, so I'm going to try to see if that works this year too...maybe...

Dates and such are all dependent on if this Oklahoma weather cooperates!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Cost Cutting that I Use

This is my recipe for laundry detergent. It makes 2 1/2 gallons of detergent, initial cost is maybe $15-20, depending on the prices in your area, however when you break it down the cost is only about $1 per bucket of detergent, and last us - including the detergent I made for my mom, so 6 people - around 9 months. It is also AWESOME if anyone has skin allergies, I can't comfortably use any other detergent, even "free and clear" ones because they all break me out to some degree, I've never had an issue with the stuff I make.

Other things I do that cut down on costs is I buy the whole 5 lb processed ham, at WM and take it to the deli and have them slice it for me, then when I get home I separate it into 1lb freeze bags, freeze all but one bag of it at a time - $7(maybe) for 5lbs of sandwich ham, instead of $3 per 1/2lb.

Coupons - when my printer has ink.

I buy the ink refill bottles for the printer...it works wonderfully until you screw it up and put the colored ink in the black and black in the colored...

I make my own cleaners using vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda, and rubbing alcohol...there's quite a few different ones listed on here : http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/153/1/Earth-friendly-oven-cleaning.html Maybe about $5 a month as opposed to my "normal" $30-ish.

Of course generic items.

I also try to go to the local butcher and buy most of my meats there, they're fresher and are generally cheaper. In the spring I build up a garden and freeze or can a great portion of it - Spaghetti Sauce & Salsa especially. I also bake a lot of my own bread.

I do have a bit of an advantage out here where I live because I have an awesome neighbor who brings me a flat (2 1/2 dozen) of eggs every week or so that his chickens have laid. He also has some hogs & a cow he's going to be taking to slaughter this spring and will just split the processing cost with him to fill our freezer - roughly $400 (maybe) for half an "organic, free range" cow and one or two full hogs, all cuts of both.

I limit my driving to just what's necessary and do all my running in the same day, planning the trip out so I don't have to back track most of the time. We (as a family, I'm quite sure Brian eats out more often than he admits) don't go out to eat more than *maybe* once a month.

I bake something daily, and cook dinner nightly. I also have a stock pile(that needs to be refreshed) of freezer safe plastic containers that I'll fill with lunch size meals, from any leftovers we have, and put them in the freezer for later. Brian then takes them to work with him - when he thinks about it - for lunch there or we'll have them here for lunch - just something we can pop in the microwave, much like any other TV dinner, but without all the "preservatives and sodium". I don't buy many snacky junk type foods - soda, only if we're having a gathering here at the house; snack cakes - not at all, I make them instead - well cookies, cakes, the like; chips are a rare purchase, maybe one or two bags a month, maybe, instead I do buy crackers for those salt cravings, but most don't go through crackers like they do chips; etc etc.