Friday, August 11, 2006

This empty house...

The rules...I pick the kids up after work, and find a note on the door and wait at my ex-husband's residence. He shows here to get them over an hour early. Instead of the hour of sitting with my sons, spending the last few moments of quality time I can fit in, he's sitting in the driveway, kids are ready to get to the beach and I'm left feeling cheated in a house that has gone from crazy to quite way too quickly.

I miss them.

Custody

It's a very pleasant and very chilly morning. We had an unbearably hot spell, but even during the worst of it, the nights cooled enough to put a fan in the window and cool our rooms down a bit. Lately it has been cold enough to feel the onset of fall. I'm not dreading fall at all, but lamenting the end of summer a bit for the end of free days like yesturday, where the kids and I wore ourselves out with recreational activities.

This is what is happening in my world at the moment. I took the boys to their makeup appointment for the psychological evaluation. It was tough. We had to drive over 2 hours first thing in the morning to get there. They were antsy, especially after the testing started which took exactly 4 hours. At one point the psychologist, who was a very sweet and kind older gentleman, came out, looked at me and said quietly and discreetly "I hear youre a saint" while pointing to the boys. I had packed a multitude of activities to keep them busy. I smiled and thought, I'm just a mom who knows my kids. But now, the psychologist and his assistants were uncomfortable with the situation, they were asked to make a reccommendation without having seen us, the parents, since it was a different office that did mine and D's evals. So, they got an order to have us meet with them before making that call. So here I go again....The costs of this whole custody dispute are piling up. But I'll do whatever needs to be done and it will be over soon.

Derek has been plopped in the middle again. D is angry about his vacation. The custody situation for summer has been the same for almost three years now. He had a chance to ask for a revision from the judge on the 28th and did not. I would not accomodate it myself, as I had done previously. Derek, after Daddy asked him too, began to hound me about his vacation with his dad. Again, another situation where he scheduled a vacation that did not entirely include his two sons, then blames me. It involved two messages from Derek, then a horrible scene when I picked him up. Complete with some angry comments from his new wife. I wanted so much to tell her to butt out, your turn is coming...but I didn't. And so it goes. Hopefully the end of this will come on September 13.

I'm off. I have to pick up my client, take her to an appointment, pick up Derek from the sitter, take him to the doctor, take the client to her golf thing, wait for D to pick up kids, take client home and go to work at the Steakhouse. Its gonna be a rough day.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

A Post, Finally...

I have been oh so busy this summer. I have been working 6 days every other week at the Steakhouse and three a week for Concern. I'm sucking up as much free time as possible with the boys on my every other week I have with them and filling it with summer stuff. It's gone sooo fast. My weeks with them are going fast. They leave for their dad's tomorrow and as usual I'm feeling the blues creeping up.

I'm maintaining limited hours during the school year with Concern and taking on a third job, sort of. I'm leaving 2 days a week free for substitute teaching. I'm not sure how well it will work out, and am concerned about making enough, but if I don't get my foot in somewhere I'll be stuck in this cycle of applying with no experience for teaching positions. And although I'm officially off the schedule at the restaurant, I'm finding there are more than enough nights I can fill in. It's been a profitable option, the last weekend I worked I made 180 in one 4 hour night.

Still dragging the custody thing out. Settled our financial situation, even with a prenup and after three years, I finally got the title to the wrecked car..lol. I think that I'm probably not going to get the 1800 for the insurance settlement since it has been two years since the accident. I also got 20, 000 cash and a modest alimony for two years, in addition to the child support I receive. At least its something. There's a ton of issues with the custody thing and will not be settled for another month. That will be a post for another day.

Still having strange dreams on occasion and I believe its stress related. Mostly mother dreams, in one I'm holding a calf as if it were my child before realizing that it can walk on its own at birth. Weird. I'm so tired...and I have a really, really long day tomorrow. I miss my blogging friends! I'll post again, when I have a free 10 minutes or so....