It's All My Husband's Fault

  Husband got the stipulation filed, the judge signed it the following day, and we got our copy in the mail that week.  After a few days, the child support website wasn't reflecting that support was suspended as of July 1st, so I called to ask about this.   Our state has redone how they handle child support questions.  You can no longer call and speak directly to your case worker.  Instead, you call and speak to a representative who tries to answer your questions to the best of their ability; if they can't, then they send a message to the case worker asking them to call you.  This could be a really good system they have in place, except for one simple fact:  the representatives are idiots who don't know anything.   A week after Husband filed the stipulation, I called to ask if the court had sent a copy to the child support agency.  "I don't know if I can discuss the case with you."  I explain that Husband has already sent over his wr...

  Eighteen days after Husband first sent the stipulation to The Ex, she finally responded: "In the event that child support is resumed the petitioner asks that the respondent resumes his half of the transportation in placement exchanges. ( She definitely did not write this.  I am assuming that she finally coughed up the money to pay her lawyer to read it and give her a valid opinion rather than relying on her friends and family to tell her what to do.  And really, why couldn't she just have said, "Can you write in there that if I start paying child support again, you'll start doing half the driving?" ) The petitioner will not be held responsible for all past debts of the variable expenses. ( Could have just said that too.  This response didn't need to take almost three weeks. ) All other terms as listed are accepted by the petitioner, please add these stipulations and reply for a final agreement. ( Again, "she" is referring to herself in the third ...

  About two weeks ago, I had what I like to refer to as my best idea in the history of ever.  I don't even remember what brought it about but I was thinking about child support, how The Ex always blames her child support obligation for the reason she's broke, how Son is convinced we're just taking all of her money, blah blah blah.  I wondered if there was a way that we could get by without child support - after all, we had already gone a month and a half without a payment.   Then, all at once, every single gear in my brain started spinning.   I told Husband about my idea.  He said it seemed pretty good.  I called Our Attorney; she said it sounded good and if we got The Ex to agree to it, then even better.   I typed up a stipulation and Husband sent it to The Ex via 2houses.  To summarize, we'd change the order to say that beginning on July 1st:      •  The Ex will not have to pay any child support     ...

  Be forewarned, this is a rambling post because it's been really quiet lately.   The Ex was almost half an hour late dropping off the kids last Friday; Husband texted her about it so there's documentation.  I thought about being half an hour late to take the kids back on Monday, but we have a stipulation we want her to sign so we're kind of letting things slide.  If it happens again, then they're definitely getting taken back late.   That aside, The Ex hasn't said much of anything.  The kids said something about her "friend" bringing his jet ski to Tiny City.  I honestly almost asked, "You guys do know that [New Guy] is married, right?" just to see the look on their faces because a)they've never told us New Guy's name and b)I'm sure that while The Ex is acting lovey-dovey with this dude, her teen children have no idea that he's married to another woman.   A friend of mine says she wishes she could just understand what exact...

  I may have already mentioned them, but I'd like to take a moment to quote two specific phrases from the court order between Husband and The Ex:      •  The party receiving the children shall pick them up during the school year.  This shall be reversed during the summer.      •  The summer is defined as the Monday after school ends until one week before school starts in the fall.   That's easy enough to understand, isn't it?  After all, it's been the court order for nearly five years.  There has never before been an issue on our end over who was supposed to pick up or drop off Son and/or Daughter.  There was an issue in November 2013 when The Ex "didn't know" they had switched weekends, failed to pick up either of the kids, and then tried demanding that Husband give her a "make-up" weekend for her screw up.  There was another issue in December 2014 when The Ex left Husband a rambling voice mail and stated ...

  The Ex just shared a photo that read: "One day I am going to wake up, roll over on my side, and kiss the love of my life good morning."   Ummm.....considering that she's dating a married man while living with her parents because she has a restraining order on her second husband who she is still legally married to, I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here and say that maybe she has absolutely no idea what true love really is and couldn't possibly know even if it hit her square in the face.

  There always seems to be some form of contention over shoes.  In 2005 while the divorce was pending, The Ex requested that her child support be increased.  Her reason:  Husband had bought new shoes for himself.   In 2012, we got a court order requiring The Ex to contribute to Son and Daughter's variable expenses.  One month after this, The Ex took the kids shoe shopping right before Husband was supposed to pick them up.  The Ex typically would not allow the kids to wear any of "her" clothing or shoes to our house but if they did, she would call Husband and ask him to make sure it was returned on her next visitation weekend.  But since there was now an order that they split the cost of the kids' variable items, The Ex handed Husband a receipt for almost $95 under the impression that he was going to owe her around $64.  Despite showing her the court order saying that shoes are not covered and that expenses over $75 needed to be discuss...