New things

  Boyfriend had two court hearings last Thursday, which resulted in him having both a good and a bad day. The first case was for him violating the restraining order that The Ex had taken out against him.  The second case was a contempt motion filed in The Ex & Boyfriend's divorce case.

  The bad news was that someone was found in contempt during the family court hearing.  I'm assuming it's Boyfriend because The Ex hasn't gotten a penny from him in child support so he owes her over $2,000 at this point; I am also assuming that he hasn't been abiding by the court-ordered exchange time which is what led to rant against Husband about "knowing by law that she has 24 hours to pickup the kids" because she is "dealing with this with [Boyfriend]."

  The good news is that Boyfriend was being charged with six counts of violating a restraining order, operating after revocation, and bail jumping.  The Ex was expecting Boyfriend to get jail time as part of his sentence. which probably would have made her ecstatic because it would have saved her a 4-hour round trip every two weeks to go pick up their two children from what used to be their shared home.  Instead, everything was dismissed with the exception of two counts of violating the restraining order.  All of Boyfriend's bail money was applied so he owes nothing in fines, his sentencing was withheld, and he was given one year of probation.

  I'll bet you that The Ex is just livid.

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  Daughter was confirmed yesterday.  Our pastor had called me a few days before confirmation and asked about naming Daughter's parents during the confirmation sermon.  He pointed out that Husband and The Ex had been listed, but he felt that I needed to be named also.  I was very touched by this and told him that was fine.  Our pastor suggested just announcing Daughter as my and Husband's daughter; I told him that it would probably be better to include The Ex's name as well, just in case she did decide to show up.

  This proved to be a very good suggestion, as we found out on Saturday afternoon that The Ex was attending the confirmation; we were surprised by this for a few different reasons.  The first reason would be that The Ex had a fit in 2009 about the kids attending a Lutheran school and insisted for years that the kids were Catholic, even though she doesn't attend church, doesn't practice Catholicism herself, and never got the kids enrolled in catechism at a Catholic church.  The second reason we were surprised is because two years ago when Son was confirmed, The Ex never showed up. (My thoughts are that since The Ex had to pick up her two youngest children later that evening, she figured she would drive down for the confirmation and already have half the trip made.)

  We're going to rewind to two months ago.  Daughter and I went shopping to get her a new outfit for confirmation.  Daughter picked out a dress that she absolutely loves and looks stunning in, we found shoes to match, and picked out jewelry to go with it.  She was completely set.

  A few weeks go by and Daughter mentions the dress that she wore to her aunt's vow renewal last summer.  I say it's a nice dress but we've already bought something for her. (This dress was also paid for by New Guy, the one that The Ex was sleeping with when they were both married to other people.  Daughter doesn't know that we know this.  I do not want my child getting confirmed in a dress that was paid for, in essence, by her mother's prostitution.)

  Day before confirmation, Daughter announces that The Ex is coming by stating that she's bringing Daughter's hair straightener.  Um....ooookay, but we're not really going to have time at the church to be straightening your hair. (Daughter ended up waking early and just doing it at our house.)

  The day of confirmation, The Ex shows up with Daughter's hair straightener and also with her other dress from last summer. (I have no idea what the purpose of this was.  Like, we weren't going to have a nice dress for her?  Like we wouldn't be ready when we arrived at the church?  If The Ex really wanted Daughter to wear a specific thing, couldn't she just have mentioned it to us rather than showing up with something else the day of the confirmation?  I honestly don't even know what to feel about this, other than confused.)  Daughter asked what I thought.  I said that the dress her mom had brought was nice, but the one we picked out that she was already wearing was dressier.  (Someone else verified that this was not just me being childish or immature - our dress was much nicer and much more appropriate for confirmation than the dress that The Ex had brought.  Additionally, there was supposed to be a belt with the dress that The Ex brought; the belt was missing so it just had three open hoops on the dress with nothing going through them.  The Ex didn't bring shoes for Daughter, and the only jewelry she brought was one cheap-looking rope bracelet that matched neither the dress she brought or the dress that Daughter was wearing.)

  The Ex's sister & brother-in-law also attended, which was nice of them.  Her sister stood up when the pastor asked the parents and sponsors to stand, which didn't make any sense because this sister is not Daughter's godparent.  Daughter's actual godmother (Another of The Ex's sisters) didn't attend.  Sooo...yeah.

  Overall though, it was a nice day.  We went out for lunch with some family members and the kids had a bunch of fun at the game room in the restaurant.