my trip

I had such a good time back in old town with my friends. I was invited to a cocktail party Friday night. It was supposed to be an adults only party so I left mine at home. There were a few other kids there but no one under the age of 17. And I wouldn't have enjoyed myself as much if mine had been there anyhow. I got to spend lots of time of Little Bit. He cut his first tooth and is working hard to get the 2nd one thru. His poor little gums are all swollen and he's running a fever and not very happy some times. Now other times, he's just as happy smiling, cooing as can be.

Old neighbor and I got all her wrapping done. I really feel for this woman. Her daughter is living there with her 2 kids and a 3rd one part of the time and 6 months ago, her son moved back home with his fiance and his fiances 2 kids. The daughter has lived at home most of the kids lives and she wouldn't really know what to do if they ever moved out as she's basically helped raise the kids. Even when daughter was married, her old man was more interested in doing drugs than paying bills so they'd move out - live somewhere else for a few months and then end up evicted. Ex has been to drug rehab at least 5 times that I know of and is still using. His parents are very wealthy and so they just keep throwing money at the problem. Attorneys to fight his possession charges, trips to rehab, and as a reward for completing the last failed rehab attempt- a trip to hawaii. Meanwhile, when she tried to file the divorce, they got an attorney to hold up the process and so its still pending. Of course, while its all pending, there is no child support. They did finally agree to help pay the day care costs for the 3 year old. Notice I said help pay. These are people that live in a million dollar home and run a multi-million dollar business. The son is on payroll with a 6 figure salary. They pay under $100/week on 2 kids. And nothing to her. They have refused to give her any cash at all and have managed to drag the divorce out for over 2 years now. The kids don't have visitation with him per se- they do go on a regular visitation schedule to his parents house. Sometimes he shows up to visit with the kids, most of the time he doesn't. The kids were so very glad to see me. The 3 year old climbed up in my lap and refused to leave her perch. She ended up falling asleep on my lap. The 8 year old ran up and hugged me and spent the time I was there trying to babble off everything he'd done since my last visit at Thanksgiving. And the oldest girl who is almost 12 sat and talked and talked to me until she was sent to bed. I have plans with her to take her to the movies next month for her birthday. The poor 3 year old is so confused. I was asking her if she wanted to go to my house and she told me "can't u house all gone". She is freaked out by the fact that my house disappeared. She doesn't quite know what to make of it all. I really need to bring her down here while she's on break from pre-school one of these days and let her see that I still have my house. The first night I was over there, she wanted to go home with me and spend the night with me. But that was the night I was heading out to the cocktail party.

I went out to lunch with some friends, went to dinner with some others. It was hectic and busy but a really good time. Things were good with Hurricane till the last day and then he had another melt down but I don't even want to think about it again. The last word I heard from him was to lose his phone number. Basically, he ordered me to listen to him and do what he says or don't talk to him. Well, bad idea on his part. I'm a scotch irish aries and a red-head to boot. I don't take well to orders or threats to begin with. Definitely not from a child who doesn't even have his own life together and really has no business trying to give anyone advice. Donna, of course, spent the visit irritating the boys. For some reason, she thinks she's their boss and just won't leave them alone. But, that was the glitch in the visit. And it all started the last day we were there. Ice Cube and Ruth are already blowing my phone up asking when we're coming back. This makes me feel good. I told them that I'd be back either tomorrow night or Weds morning with the food and presents for Christmas dinner.

I have spent the day today doing things that my neighbors probably think I'm nuts. The Christmas tree is down and out to the burn pit to be torched. The back end of my car is filled with presents. I still need to get the stocking stuffers out of my closet. My mom's last box of stuff arrived today and I still need to get that stuff in the car too. I still need to call my mom and let her know that the delivery came. The boys have spent the day outside putting a secure door on the chicken coop. Our redneck rig wasn't doing the job and the new puppy played with a chicken to death today. I am not happy with said puppy. All my Christmas decorations are down and there is no sign in this house that we even celebrate Christmas anymore. Isn't that sad? I still have to get all the food together. We will be taking very small bags of clothes as there is no room in the car for any of it. I still have to put the normal pictures and decorations up around the house. Vix and Cal are making another trip down this way the day after Christmas (?) I think. I will finalize the plans with them on Christmas Eve when we're all there.

Back to the grind. My poor vacuum got plugged up with somewhere over a million pine needles so I'm busy cussing the live tree (that only I wanted) out right now. If I'm going back to Ice Cube and Ruth's house tomorrow night, I will have a whole bunch of things to get done within the next 20 hours. I'm sorry about my lack of participation over there. They have no tv and no internet yet. All I have is my poor abused crackberry.