August

Well, August is here. July is finally over. It was a big month for me. My birthday, and separation.

My dad arrived in town last week, and is staying for the whole month! Yay! This is the longest he has ever visited. I think it is a result of two things. 1. He isn't working anymore (first time in forever, and he is 81) and 2. the split between Don & me. Funny, when I picked him up from the airport, I explained how we have been working things, with Don coming over several days each week, and that he is pretty much normal now again. My dad had been hoping he wouldn't see Don at all! Nice thought, but unrealistic. I reminded him that he is the kids dad, and that he needs to be a part of their lives.

We are on a break from swimming! Well, technically Marisa has been on a break since July 18, as she didn't qualify for the big 13 & Over State Meet. However, she starts up High School Swim on August 9, with 2 weeks of 7-9am practices! Devon is off as of Sunday July 31, until Monday August 29. His goal is to do as little as possible of physical exercise. LOL. So far he has been staying up until 2am, sleeping until 10-11am, and playing on the computer. He still does chores when he needs to, but other than that, hasn't left the house!

Next Monday we have HS registration. I'm not looking forward to writing out that check! Also I guess we need to start thinking about back to school shopping. Ugh.

I'm working hard to try to really get a handle on my financial situation. I've set up a spreadsheet where I track my recurring bills, but I'd really like to analyze all of our spending. It is hard with the kids, and $20 here or $20 there. But I need to do this for myself. I know that my salary can cover our living expenses, but I'd like to know just how much I have left over for incidentals each month.

Wisconsin State Fair starts today. My ex-BIL sent me some free tickets, which was very nice of him. Marisa is using one of them today, but she is also using money to spend there, which of course way exceeds the cost of admittance. I'd like to get down there at least once, just to walk around and see the animals, etc. Maybe catch a local band.

That's all for now. What a nice boring post!

Another chapter begins

As of today, I am officially not married. Our legal separation was granted today. They plan is to hold it as such for 2 years. He gets health insurance, some money from my IRA, I get the house and we have joint custody of kids with me having final decision making power. It's agreed upon to last for 2 years (at least the health ins part) and then we'll go from there. I have 4 years to either refinance or sell the house. Hey, guess what happens in 4 years?? My youngest graduates from High School. Hopefully the market will be better then, and I can sell the house.

15 minutes to wipe away 23+ years of marriage.

I'm relieved, sad, empowered, scared and more. I don't feel much will change at face value at least at first. Not until the kids graduate. We kind of agreed he can continue to visit the kids at the house. As long as he is "normal" meaning not drunk or high, I'm ok with that. The kids feel more comfortable with that too.

He tried to talk me out of it 2 weeks ago. Suggested he move back in. That his relationship with the gf was "mostly over". WTF does that mean? no idea. Nope, I'm not his caretaker. He is worried about seeing the kids if he loses his license. I think he should worry more about if he goes to jail. But that's just me.

Anyway, I have a few lose ends to tie up, and that is that.

Funny, everyone who has worn my wedding veil has had a failed marraige. That makes 3 of us.

more later

Ok, not much time to write, but I will say this.

Don is really pissing me off.

Please say a prayer or 20 for me. Court tomorrow at 8:30.

More to follow.

PS-my sister overmedicated herself. Seems she is fine, although they did find some small amounts of "white matter" in a brain scan. They think it is smoking related, but are checking further. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

update

Wow, it's been over a month since I've updated. That's good, right? No news and all that.

Really, things have leveled off. Don is acting a little more normal nowadays. He still comes round the house, but it isn't quite as creepy as it was, nor is it as stressful. We've had several talks about things, and he realizes he really screwed up. Especially with the kids. He is working to reestablish those relationships, which is good. As long as he stays 'normal'. But the kids, while they are following my lead, have definitely separated from him. They accept that he comes around, but they are hesitant to put any trust or reliability to him. That's fine too, because as we all know, he isn't trustworthy or reliable at times.

As a result of me having to be a full time parent (you know what I mean) the kids and I are doing lots of stuff together. They still have swim, and Marisa is in summer PE for her first high school credit. Devon is really doing well in swimming the past month or so. Twice his coach has approached me unsolicited and complemented Devon on how hard he is working. That is great!

Last weekend I took Marisa and a friend to a little town about 1 1/2 hours north of where we live, to see a free concert by Cody Simpson. Cute little 14 year old boy. Better than Justin Bieber (shudder). The girls had a great time at this Chickenfest, and it was enjoyable for me too.

On a not so nice note my sister is having some issues lately. First, she is having a hard time closing the door on her relationship with her boyfriend. This is the one who committed suicide 2+ years ago. The estate is finally settled, and she is the primary person for that, but she isn't dealing with it well. Then on top of that, last week she was walking the dogs and passed out in the middle of the street in her subdivision. Went for all sorts of tests to no avail. I just got a call from my dad that she just passed out again, this time at a patient's house. UGH. I really hate living 1400 miles away from them! So please keep Michelle in your thoughts and prayers.

Ok, back to work. It's month end, and I am overloaded as usual...

FML

I really wanted to post that somewhere, but I don't want to draw any more attention to myself or my family than is already happening.

Don was on the news last night. Just lovely. For stealing a fucking cookie. Must've been a slow news night.

Even harder to deal with now, as he is seemingly back to closer to normal now. Stopped drinking the cough medicine. But now he is dealing with the consequences of his actions, and they are getting worse and worse.

Jail is looking like a real possibility now. *sigh*

Please keep my kids especially in your thoughts and prayers. This is so hard for them.

update

I'm having a little bit of a bad day today. A little pity party has been building up inside of me, and is leaking out. I'm sick of everything right now. Especially always being upbeat and smiley and happy, when I'm not. I know most of it is for my kids benefit, which is what gets me through these little episodes.

I had a nice little chat with a friend who has gone through this, and she compared dating to looking for a new hairdresser. You are always worried that no one can take the place of your current hair dresser, because he/she does your hair just they way you like it, and whenever you try to explore other alternatives either it turns out not as nice or you just chicken out. So when I'm ready to explore dating, I will have to have my tag line be "looking for a new hairdresser". lol. Ok, it seemed more funny last night after a glass of wine.

As for Don and his craziness, not much new has happened lately. That is good, right?!
Don is seeming to be back to a little closer to normal lately. He seems more stable, and reality is hitting him smack upside the head, pretty hard. He has dug himself a pretty large hole in life, between financial issues and with the kids. They really don't want much to do with him. Never bring him up, and obviously don't "enjoy" his visits. I mean I think they are glad he comes by, he is their dad, as long as he seem normalish. But neither really miss him when he is gone.

Seems Don's gf had to get a 2nd job, since her salon business took a dump after she moved out of the city she lived in. Not sure where they are living, but I don't really care. You'd think he would just cave and get any job, but I guess he is above that. Never knew what a snob he was. Shoot, if the roles were reversed, I'd be pounding the pavement getting whatever job I could.

He is still hanging around the house quite a bit. It is annoying at times. I continue to be amazed at his lack of understanding what divorce means. He asked the other day if he would still be able to come by after it is final. Um, no. I reminded him that divorce means 2 people go their separate ways. The only good thing about him coming to the house is (well there are a couple of things) a. he does little odd jobs like dishes after dinner, and putting the patio furniture out, etc. b. I can monitor what he is doing with the kids. c. the kids don't have to go anywhere. But that being said, at some point in time I will be moving on with my life (I shudder to even think about dating) and there really won't be room for him to be there anymore.

Thanks again to all of my supportive friends and family! Most of them will never know this blog exists, but it is nice to see it in writing.

PS. My new obsession is the Decorah Eaglets. I watch them whenever I possibly can. They will fledge around July 4, and I will be happy, yet sad.

surprise for me!

So I'm sitting at my desk not eating my lunch, and our receptionist comes in and dumps this large box on my desk. I looked at the box, and saw it was from Boo!!! Wow, was I surprised! Inside the first thing I see is a little card explaining that the OT crew got together and sent me this wonderful gift of their love, thoughts and support, along with some goodies! I was completely overwhelmed. Had to actually close my door for a bit.

I slowly opened up the packages and cards. Wonderful gifts I got! I know I'll forgot some, so I will have to go back through and update. Maybe a picture...

So many dragonfly items! I got a need choker necklace, a mini garden stake, book mark, magnet. A lush bomb, bunches of cookies, some yummy English candy and tea!, some cute little books and mittens! Hey, it better be a while before I have to wear them. Also lots of cards, and I could just feel the hugs emanating from the box.

Love you all, even if you didn't actually send me anything physical. Just knowing our family is in your thoughts are prayers is the most priceless gift we could receive.

all about Don

Ugh, why are my posts all about Don? One day they are going to be all about something else. haha.

So he made it back finally. Flew back last week Wednesday morning. Showed up at the house right away, after I left. By himself. Saw the kids for a few minutes, and then left before they got home from school. We didn't see him again until Sunday. I guess he was visiting with his dad up north. He mentioned he had to take his dad back home.

He's been acting almost normal. Kinda scary. Very nice, considerate, asking about the kids, showing me how to do stuff that I ask about. I'm thinking either he had a little epiphany, or someone told him he better start sucking up. He did mention his gf's family is giving her a lot of grief. Won't let her see the grandkids. One of her sons wanted to go to Don's court date to confront him (or her?) but he wasn't there. He said her kids are in their 20s. One thing he mentioned was that he wouldn't be bringing her to anything where the kids are, "until they officially meet her". I hope he means it, because they have both expressed to me in no uncertain terms that they do not want to see her, ever.

He has his 2nd court date on the arrest issues. It should be interesting. I plan to go, to show my support. (ok, not really, just to hear what happens, because I probably won't get the whole truth from him anyway).

I met with my lawyer last week. He feels this is going to drag on. Could be several months. Fall/end of year, before it's done. UGH. It makes sense from a financial standpoint though. The longer I don't have to pay him anything court ordered, the better. The best case scenario would be that I get primary placement, which would mean theoretically that he has to pay me child support. But I make more than he does (well, anyone who works does, as it's all more than $0) so I would have to pay him maintenance. We would then say that he doesn't have to pay me if I don't have to pay him.

One decent thing out of this whole thing. I have lost 13.2lbs since February 15. I'm happy with that. I want to lose more, so really watching my intake.

As to having a sense of humor, it is a dark humor. I think that is my defense mechanism. Sarcastic, disbelieving laughter as opposed to crying. Then again, why waste my energy crying over something I have no control over, and realize is over anyway. In other words, I'm moving on. Just wish I could close this chapter and move on to the rest of my life.

PS. Rob Thomas is hot.

Tuesday

Usually I don't really like Tuesdays. The weekend is over, and any rested feeling is gone. But the upcoming weekend is too far away. Tuesdays are my least favorite day of the week.

Today is a nice Tuesday though. It is my last day without Don around. He comes back tomorrow. He is such a contradiction. He called me on Saturday and when we talked about a few things, specifically that when he comes home on Wed that Marisa will probably be there since she has a day off of school, and that he should come home alone. He agreed, and said he wanted to do a better job of that stuff. Not sure just what he meant, but I think it was regarding how he has been interacting with the kids. I wonder if he realized that he is pushing them away with both hands, and at this point they don't care much about dealing with him at all. In fact they have both told me they don't want me to tell him about certain events that are coming up because they don't want him to embarrass them. Sad.

Then on Sunday he called asking me to wire him some money. Um, no. He took plenty of money with him to last this whole time, plus he has been staying at the houses of some family in Phoenix for the past few days. So after I said no, he called back a little later and threatened me that his lawyer was going to file a complaint to have me pay him $2000 a week cash. Yeah, right. I don't make $2000 a week! I love how he said CASH. He also said he is going to take it all because he has been more than fair, and I haven't been fair at all. Like that was going to make an impact or something. If he is going to threaten me, he should at least try to be a little reasonable in his threats, make them sound credible! haha. As for being fair, I'm sure you all agree that having an affair, racking up legal expenses, taking about $5000 of our family money in 6 weeks and blowing it on who knows what, driving recklessly, not finding a job or a place to live is all considered being totally fair. While continuing to work, take care of the kids, maintain as normal of a life as possible is totally not being fair. Yeah, he is so delusional. I sometimes wonder what the gf thinks, if she thinks at all.

Then yesterday he sent me a text picture of the Rio hotel in Vegas and said see you Wednesday. I don't really know why. Is he bragging, trying to throw it in my face? Is he just trying to maintain contact with me? No idea.

I still think that Don feels that everything in our relationship is going to remain the same, except that we won't be legally married anymore, which gives him the right to do whatever he wants, while I take care of everything else. Like asking me to change his flights. Or to check in his flights and print his boarding passes. Or to wire him money. Or whatever. He is in for such a rude awakening.

On a personal note, I'm kinda mad at couple of people at work for defaming me a bit. The spread some bad rumors about me to someone that doesn't even know me, but feels threatened by me because I'm friends with someone else. I'm afraid it has ruined a friendship with someone that is very special to me. At a minimum it has strained said friendship, for now. :(

Unrelated. I heard this song on the way into work today. Reminds me how much I like Natalie Merchant.

3 Yays!

Having a nice peaceful week. Don is in Las Vegas/Phoenix area. He went on OUR vacation, although I decided to stay home. He took the gf, which I'm sure made it uncomfortable for my SIL, BIL and their spouses. I heard a few things from extended family about him being really wild in a bar, and spending money like crazy. No idea where he got it from. Nothing is showing up on my radar at this point. Probably got a new credit card and took a cash advance. Well, if I end up paying for it, it will come off of his tab at the end.

He was supposed to come back on last Wednesday, but called on Tuesday that he was extending his stay. All I can say is YAY! Stupid that I had to remind him to change his flight though. The only thing that is bad about that is Marisa misses her daddy. She told him that when she talked to him on Tuesday. When I talked with her about it, she clarified to me that she misses her "old daddy", not the one he is right now. I let her know I did too. ugh.

Our first court date was supposed to be this week, but it was postponed. Rescheduled to end of April. I wasn't really happy about that, but at this point it works. I can't get an official ruling to get him to stop coming by the house, but I also don't have to pay him a court mandated amount either. I can pay him whatever I think he needs to live. Which right now is nothing. LOL

The money is starting to worry me though. If I end up having to pay him maintenance, but don't get a similar amount in return for child support, then I won't be able to continue in the house. But I'm not going to worry about that for now. I'm letting God take care of that one!

The kids and I are heading to the Dells tomorrow for a visit to a waterpark. I have a meeting to attend for Wisconsin Swimming, so the room is paid for by the swim team. Another Yay!

Later next week swimming starts up again. 3rd Yay! It has been a nice 3 weeks for us off, but I am ready for them to get back into the discipline of practice. They have too much free time right now. LOL. Marisa is doing volleyball with school too. She made the "A" team! Thankful for that, since practices are right after school, so no conflict with swim. The only conflict will be games, but she only has 6 nights of those between April 4 - May 13, so not bad. Not like basketball, where she missed close to 50% of swim practices! But she is in 8th grade, and this is her last chance to play these sports for a school team, so why not!?! She is really good at volleyball, has a huge height advantage. But in HS volleyball and swim season are the same time, so she has picked swimming. I guess she could still do intramural if they offer it a different time, or just wait to until a little older and do a rec league, like I did.

update

Ok, so the past 2 days have been so nice. NO DH, as he has been on a little trip to Michigan. The kids and I have really enjoyed the peace, quiet, non stress. DS even posted something like that on his FB status. It's been really hard on him. He doesn't really want to talk, and about the only time I get anything meaningful from him is when I see a FB status post. He is really mad at his dad. UGH. Too bad DH just called, while I was typing this. He informed me he is back in Wisconsin, and acts like we just are one happy family, asking for updates on our day today/evening, and letting me know he has a doctor appt today as well.

The bad news update is I got a call from a credit card company questioning some charges on a card I had applied for in 2009. It was an American Eagle Card. I thought it was just a AE store card, but apparently it was a mastercard too. It is in MY name only. DH must have confiscated it when an updated card or statement or something came in the mail, and has been using it fraudulently. Racked up nearly $1600 in charges! Of course I had the card canceled, and they are sending me some paperwork to fill out. My lawyer said to wait until I get the paperwork before proceeding further. I am accumulating all sorts of crap on him that we are going to throw at him during the divorce proceedings so that I can get what I want out of it. Basically I want to not have to pay him any maintenance. I just want to keep my income and pay my bills and move on with my life. If I have to pay him maintenance and don't get child support in return (because he is unemployed and a deadbeat), I may not be able to keep the house. That is really important to the kids at this point. 4.5 years until DD is out of high school, that is my goal. Hopefully by then the housing market will have bounced back and I can sell the house for a decent price.

Oh yeah, he had another run in with the cops on Saturday. Speeding. Lazy cop let him off, even though he suspected him being under the influence of cough medicine. (that really does sound stupid, doesn't it?) I called the cops to find out what happened. They couldn't tell me a lot of details, but enough to understand what was going on. You would think the cop would have run his license and seen the recent activity. Curious though, neither of the other 2 tickets he got since the big one have shown up online.

Friday is our scheduled trip to Vegas. We scheduled it a while ago, with DH's sister/spouse, brother/spouse and dad. A couple of weeks ago he asked me if it was ok if his GF came along. Can you believe that? I suggested maybe we should all sleep in the same bed. Ok, sarcasm, but gee. He looked surprised and said no, she would be in a different hotel. At which point I said, NO, this is my vacation, I don't want her to come along. Really though, all along I had planned to cancel my ticket and use it in the future. I was just stringing him along, why not? Anyway, he promptly booked a flight for her on the same flights we are on. God forbid she would actually do something independently. He doesn't yet know I am not going, but I will tell him so that he can stay at the hotel that we already paid for. No sense wasting that, cause I can't cancel it.

bad choices

Really trying to take the high road here, but seriously, DH is making some really bad choices right now. Aside from his mental instability, and delusions, he just doesn't care or even consider how his actions affect other people.

1. The worst lately was having his mistress at our house. I know she has been there, even though I have, several times, specifically asked that he not bring her there. Yesterday our son came home from school, and guess who he ran into while she was sneaking out the front door as he was moving his car??? YUP. Kudos to my boy, he confronted her. Asked her who she was and why she was there. She told him she was a friend of his dad and was visiting. He then told her I wouldn't be very happy to know that she was there, and she replied that she was sure I'd be fine! UM, HELLO, I AM NOT FINE WITH MY HUSBAND'S MISTRESS SPENDING ANY AMOUNT OF TIME AT MY HOUSE. DS tried really hard to shield me, and waited until he thought his dad was gone to tell me, but his dad wasn't gone yet. I am sorry to say I went totally ballistic. I really hate losing it in front of my kids, but that is such BS. But to have a situation where my son has to do that is just wrong on all fronts. He maturely dealt with it, then consulted with his sister about telling me, and I'm sure felt bad about it after. Especially since DS was very clear to DH that he had no interest in meeting her in the first place! UGH.

2. Aside from having her at my house, DH is totally disrespecting me. He is doing his and her laundry at my house, which is one thing. But when he folds it on my bed, and then leaves it there for me to see I draw the line. I called my lawyer last night, and he is going to talk to DH's lawyer. I want to file a restraining order against the mistress, and maybe DH too. They are causing my kids and me undue emotional distress. Realistically I doubt I'll get anywhere, but I had to do something. Our first court date isn't until March 24.

3. Did I tell you I was supoena'd for DH's first court date about his legal issues? Yup, by the DA no less. I guess I can place him at the spot he was arrested at, or something. At least I don't really know anything else. That is this Friday morning. I'll let you know how that goes.

4. Well, everyone that we are friends with on the swim team now know that he is crazy. Long story, but he was really acting stupid and out of character at the state meet this past weekend. It got to the point that he was asked to leave! Of course he says that I'm badmouthing him to everyone, and that all the moms now hate him, but all the dads support him. Yeah, right. Nope.

I really don't want to bash DH all the time, but he is kinda leaving himself open with all the bad choices he is making.

Ok, back to work.
Thankful for this blog, it is good therapy.
And thankful for my bloggy friends. Thanks for your support.

changes

There are lots of changes going on at the bugmeat house. Some good, some not so good, depending on your point of view.

1. DS got his license on Valentines Day. That was my mom's birthday, and I find that very comforting. Almost like she is watching over him, as they had a special relationship even though he was only 4 when she died.

2. DH was arrested last week. He was speeding 130mph and then fled the police. He has some major legal hurdles to jump over. He has a nice lawyer though.

3. DH has informed me he has a soulmate. And she isn't me. Actually he informed me of this while we were on vacation over Christmas break. Since then he has said that they are taking a break, backing off. No, not breaking it off, just slowing down. Um, yeah. Gee, and I'm supposed to just accept that for the next 4.5 years until DD is out of High School?

4. DH & I are separated. More like I kicked his ass out of the house after I bailed him out of jail. Note I said I bailed him out. His new soulmate didn't. Even though he left with her. It's been working pretty well, considering I cut him off completely from a financial viewpoint. He has no access to our money, although I gave him some cash. He has no access to our credit cards either. He comes over around dinner time for some time with the kids, and gets bored and leaves after about an hour. I won't even go into the myriad of other issues we are dealing with right now. Safe to say I am doing my best to keep him on an even keel, just going along with his lies and delusions. And he has quite a few of those. I think that will change though, based on #5.

5. I have a lawyer, and am filing for divorce. I had a phone conversation with him, and am meeting him on Friday. Of course financially all of these things are strapping me. But it is what it is. Hopefully I'll get the bail money back at some point. I also have a nice tax refund coming. Don't worry though, I have several friends that know the whole sordid story, or most of it. They also know how to contact each other, in case anything happens to me.

I've had a couple of people say that I'm handling this whole thing pretty well. Looking back, I now realize that our marriage was over for me several years ago. Probably some time during what I call the black years. The years of his active alcoholism. But I'm thankful for those years, as they made me a stronger, more independent person. This is the first time in my life I'll be on my own. Thankfully I won't be completely, as I'll have the 2 most important people in my life with me, my children. 2 more years with DS, 4 with DD. Then they will fly the coop, and I can go somewhere warm. LOL

Well, how is that for an update?

The Snow Bowl!

We survived The Snow Bowl, or The Super Snow, or whatever you call it when 12-24 inches of snow fall over a 36 hour period. Really it mostly fell over a 12 hour period of time.

DH was out plowing all day, so the kids and I shoveled the 5 foot drift that was placed directly in the center of our walkway. Go figure.

The kids had a snow day, and I had made sure to bring some work home with me, so I did too!

Wish me luck

Today I have my Manager's Review. That means for me. I've never had a review from the two people that are reviewing me. Should be interesting.

We are supposed to be prepared to discuss various topics, including:

• Goals for Department
• Goals for me as a manager
• Improvements/Needs/Problems in department

Then we will go over the company's goals and expectations for me.

Why not just skip over the first part and go right to the second part?

Anyway, I met with my dept, and got some ideas from them, as well as a few of my own, so I typed up a page long list of topics. We'll see how that goes.

I'm not really sure how I fit in to this company right now. The president has been president for 2 years, and he is surrounding himself with people he has hired. I'm not one of them. That has been brought to my attention very clearly, by his actions and exclusion of me in things that really don't matter, like going out to lunch. Still, makes me feel like I'm on the outside of the cool kids club. Whatever.

I do believe they won't push me out until DH at least has a job. They aren't that mean.

Its been a while

So I haven't updated in quite a while. Guess not much to update. Same thing, different day.

Busy at work, busy with swim. I've got to learn to say "no" once in a while.

Work is crazy busy. Our start up company just got a big contract, so that is going crazy. Plus our regular company has come out of the recession going full speed. I finally hired an assistant, and that has helped, but not enough.

I'm now President of our Swim Team. I kind of got it by default. There were 2 of us interested, and since the other person had a swimmer who was a Senior, I let that person have it, and she asked me to be VP. Turns out her swimmer quit swimming, so she resigned, and here I am. Still running the Fundraising as well, but I have another mom helping me, and we've been trying to farm out some of it as well.

I'm also Treasurer of the High School Boys Swim Team. Kind of got that by default too. Some of the Junior/Senior moms met, and turns out no one really wanted it, so they asked me. With my Accounting background, guess I was a natural. Anyway, there isn't much involved with that, so I'm ok. That ends mid February, so again, no biggie.

Also got sucked into a committee with Wisconsin Swimming. They go over the current rules/bylaws and create new ones. There is a lot of upheaval around USA Swimming lately, with some of the scandals, and they really want the individual states to get more organized.

Went to Florida over Christmas Break. That was pretty much a decent time, except for the weather and the big fight DH & I got into. Whatever. At least he is still sober.

Speaking of sober, he reached his 2 year anniversary. Very good news. Too bad he still doesn't have a job. Although that is looking up too. We'll see.

That's all for now.

Following directions

I don't go on OT much anymore, and even less do I come here. But I do follow directions quite well.

Kim asked for an update, so here it is.

You can pretty much see what is going on with me on FB, although I don't really write any private stuff on there, like I used to on here.

Work is busy, although maybe not crazy busy anymore since I hired an assistant last month. After a period of growing dissatisfaction, I am realizing that I actually do mostly like my job. Most of the time. There are some hidden and not so hidden 'perks' too. I got an iPhone4!

Kids are back in school and back at swimming after having most of August off. It was nice, but I actually missed it after a couple of weeks.

Devon has his temporary learner's permit now, so watch out on the roads. Actually he is a very good driver. Most of the time.

I have 2 teenagers now. Marisa turned 13 earlier this month. She is the typical teenager. *sigh*

Don is still not working. 22 months. Not for lack of trying though. *double sigh* However things are good for our family, aside from tight money situation.

As a result of all of most of the above, I don't really do much of anything lately. Well, except visit the library. I've been reading quite a bit, since I'm in two book clubs. Oh and I went to Baltimore on business last week. That was kinda fun.

Now to see if anyone really does read this. Please leave a comment. Maybe I'll update more regularly.

My boy!

This is a pic of Devon swimming the 500 yard Freestyle last Saturday. He swam OUT OF HIS MIND! He took 10 full seconds off of his best time to go 5:00.28 (just a little over 5 minutes). Unfortunately it was just not enough to get him to the next level of his High School career, so he is done swimming with his High School team, and now returns to Club swimming for a month. He is a little disappointed, but happy not to have to shave his head! LOL.

His next goal is to get a qualifying time for a higher level meet called the Speedo meet. He is aiming for a time in the 1000 yard Freestyle and 500 yard Free. I think he can get them!

We are so proud of him!


BTW, I did not take this shot.

My latest favorite song

Boys Like Girls

Heard it on the radio, and had to google it, cause I thought it was Taylor Swift singing. Was right, although she isn't in the video.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all! 2009 was an up and down year for our family, with lots of personal ups, but one major down, the death of my sister's boyfriend. However, aside from that biggie, I would classify 2009 as one of my better years.

Today is a very good day. DH has a special birthday today.