It's All My Husband's Fault

  This year has been pretty quiet.  Not so much arguing, although I don't really have a specific thing I can pin it to.  Boyfriend is in jail, so maybe there's less fighting in The Ex's house.  We sent a summer calendar a couple of months ago which outlined who got the kids which days, so there would not be arguing month after month about who got which holidays and who got which weekends.  It might also just be due to the court order requiring emails to be read and replied to; it's easier to track what was said, when it was said, etc. so it's harder for The Ex to pick a fight when we can go back and prove what actually happened.   We'll start at the beginning of January.  Husband emailed The Ex on a Friday night about Daughter's basketball tournament which was the following weekend, and Son's ear piercing. ( That experience was covered in the previous blog post. )  Husband asked if The Ex was planning on taking Daughter to all of her games or le...

  It's been quite awhile since I posted.  Things have been unbelievably calm and quiet in regard to The Ex.  I don't have an exact reason for it but there could be any number of reasons:  The Ex is quiet/happier because Boyfriend is in jail right now so there's less arguing in her own household; The Ex doesn't have anything to fight about right this second; The Ex doesn't want to email Husband because she looks stupid every time she clicks "Send."  I don't know, but I'm enjoying the peace and quiet we've got over here.   Going back quite a few months, Son started asking if he could get his ear pierced.  Husband told him that he would talk to The Ex about it and was not going to take Son unless The Ex was okay with it. ( Even though The Ex took Daughter to get her ears double-pierced at the age of 7, right before we picked the kids up on a Sunday afternoon; she called last minute and said to pick up the kids at the mall instead of her house, D...

  I can't remember off the top of my head how much detail I've gone into regarding The Ex's siblings and parents.  We used to get along very well with her oldest sister, the one who always said the kids were better off with us.  Then she got all mad at us for withholding the kids, quit talking to us, deleted us on Facebook, re-added me but we don't really talk the way we used to.  Previously, we would text each other or even get together and hang out at the kids' events ( Hers and ours ).   Saturday night, I get a text message from this sister after I haven't really spoken to her since December when we wished each other a merry Christmas.  The sister wants to know if we have the kids on June 8th.  I say yes, we do.  Sister asks, "Do u think they can come to [her son's] graduation party?"   Let me pause for a moment and explain this.  This woman posted on Facebook in March that she was looking for halls to rent for this party.  She...

  So after all the baloney with The Ex changing the date on the stipulation, we finally had court.  Our Attorney told me to email Attorney 4 and make a proposal in an attempt to settle this faster than having everyone testify.   Attorney 4 emails Our Attorney well after hours, says she is not going to communicate with me because "[Our Attorney] is the attorney of record; not her." ( I think Attorney 4 is beginning to get irritable because she feels very foolish knowing I understand her client's case better than either one of them does. )  Attorney 4 goes on to complain that Our Attorney sent a subpoena to The Ex's employer and that Attorney 4 was not given notice; Attorney 4 says she was never asked for updated paystubs and writes, "Had I been asked I would of provided them." ( That should read, "I would HAVE provided them," not "I would of provided them."  I cannot fathom how this woman earns the type of money that she does. )  Attorne...

  After the "Want to get together?" email that The Ex sent, Husband replied saying he'd like to keep communication in writing and asked The Ex to answer four direct questions.  The Ex didn't reply, so a few days later Husband emailed her again and reminded her what the court order said about replying to each other's emails.  He also let The Ex know which two full weeks he would like in the summer with the kids and said he was still waiting for an answer about whether or not she would let him keep the kids on Labor Day weekend for the family wedding.   An hour later: "Did you not get my email I sent you. Maybe you should look again. [The Ex]"   Husband replied that he did get her email, replied to it that day, and said he would forward it to her again.  Upon forwarding, Husband realized that he had replied but sent it to The Ex's old email address ( The one that "locked her out" because it "said it was open on a phone somew...

  As stated in the blog posted just before this one, we had entered into the court order that emails would be acknowledged and answered no later than 48 hours after they had been sent.  The Ex literally violated this less than a month after it was ordered.   Beginning of April, Husband sent a receipt.  The Ex did not reply.  While this is "technically" a second violation of the court order, but Husband wasn't really asking her a question so we're not too concerned with that one.   Two days later, Husband emailed The Ex and asked her about us getting the kids on one of her weekends for a family wedding.  The Ex didn't answer. ( Third violation of the court order )   Husband emailed The Ex on Monday with some paperwork that the school had sent home, asked if she wanted to participate.  Husband also asked if The Ex had insurance through her work yet.  Husband asked The Ex to please let him know, she hadn't been answering his emails an...

  After the court hearing in February, Attorney 4 emailed Our Attorney and said that The Ex was willing to sign a stipulation so we wouldn't have to go back to court over child support.   Attorney 4 also asked for copies of all of the variable expenses so that she could discuss them with The Ex.  Attorney 4 said that The Ex was "concerned" about certain variable expenses:  Son's contacts and the kids' tuition.  Attorney 4 said The Ex had emailed Husband saying she couldn't afford contacts for Son.  Attorney 4 said that school choice was not a joint decision, Husband never asked The Ex to help pay tuition before, and that The Ex "cannot afford to make lump sum payments on tuition."   I emailed back and said that Son's eye prescription had changed and he was not able to use his old glasses - since he was in tackle football, contact lenses made more sense and Son's contacts were cheaper than Daughter's glasses that had been purchased only ...