It's All My Husband's Fault

  My assumption is that there's trouble in paradise (i.e. The Ex and Ned are fighting) because The Ex is suddenly firing off messages to Husband and telling him what he's going to do.  Wait, no.   Trying to tell him what to do.  The Ex has a history of attacking Husband without provocation whenever something else is going poorly in her life; in the past, I've been able to match the incidents of her blowing up at Husband to police reports/Facebook posts/whatever else indicating that she and Boyfriend were fighting.   After not discussing her plans, The Ex announced she was dropping off Daughter on Sunday and declared Husband was taking her to her physical.  Husband and I have a wedding to attend on Sunday; we're not going to leave our home unlocked all day long.  After the incident 2 years ago when The Ex showed up unannounced when we weren't home and in essence told the kids to unlock the house after we explicitly said not to do so, neither of the kid...

  It's come to be expected that anytime you try to talk to The Ex, she will act like you are inconveniencing her in every way imaginable.  Even if it's something that affects her, she will act like it's a burden for her to have to try to discuss anything about her children.   Back in June, Husband emailed The Ex to let her know that Daughter wanted to play volleyball and basketball this upcoming school year.  The next day, The Ex replied that she would like to see a schedule.  Husband replied, said he attached the volleyball schedule but that the basketball schedule had not been put out yet.  The Ex did not respond.   On July 18th, Husband created calendar events on 2houses showing all of Daughter's volleyball activities: practices, games, tournaments, etc.  The Ex said nothing.   On July 29th, I scheduled a sports physical for Daughter with her doctor; now that she's in high school, a physical is required for her to participate in any school...

  I feel it's important to acknowledge each child on their birthday; I want them to understand that they're important to me in their own unique way.  I probably feel more strongly about this than I should because between the six kids that we and The Ex have, four of them have birthdays in July. It's easy to feel like you got thrown together with everything else so I always try to make an acknowledgement of each individual child. On the other hand, this is what The Ex has done since she joined Facebook: 2012   No post on Son's birthday.   Posted 34 words about Daughter's birthday.   Uploaded six pictures of her niece's baptism, THEN posted 39 words about Son's birthday which included making sure to let us all know that she "wasn't on Facebook" on his birthday. ( Yes, she was )   Posted 64 words about her daughter's birthday and another 22 words about her niece/goddaughter's baptism. Uploaded a photo of her daughter with her birthda...

  The Ex took out a restraining order on Boyfriend over a year ago.  Immediately following this, Boyfriend continued to try making contact - my guess is not because he wanted to see her, but because he wanted to see his children that The Ex essentially stole from him.  Boyfriend was charged and recently convicted on two counts of violating the restraining order; now that the case is closed, I can get copies of documents from the case.   The one I really wanted to see was what is referred to as a "victim impact statement."  This is how the victim can explain to the court how they were affected by the crime, what they would like the sentencing to be, etc.  You should probably get some popcorn, because I'm going to type this entire thing out and, as always, give you my opinion on it. " State of [Our State] vs. [Boyfriend's Name] Case No. [case number] ( Random fact:  you're supposed to clarify which county the case is in.  Looking over this ...

  The whole "I'm-Her-Favorite-Adult" thing put aside, I really do love Daughter.  Don't get me wrong, I also love Son.  But the fact is that Daughter and I have an undeniable, unbreakable bond - which The Ex hates me for, but that's for another blog post.   Daughter complained earlier this summer about having to go back to The Ex's house; she wanted to stay here, go swimming at the pool, and hang out with her friends.  When she is at The Ex's house, it becomes her job to watch The Ex's two youngest children and occasionally Ned's child. ( The Ex has told other people that Daughter does not want to watch Ned's child; both kids have told us that Ned's child is extremely naughty and misbehaves constantly, so it's understandable that Daughter would not want to deal with this on a regular basis. )   Daughter can see through The Ex's lies and deception a lot more clearly than Son can; she doesn't buy into the whole "Your dad and ...

  The word "stupid" is described as dictionary.com as "dull", "foolish" or "senseless".  There are other definitions that are more in-depth, but I think everyone here gets the point.   Back in May, Husband logged into 2houses and updated the calendar to reflect Son and Daughter's orthodontist appointments at the end of June.  The Ex had asked for at least three weeks' notice so she could request off of work for whichever date their appointments would be; this gave her six weeks notice.   The day of the appointments, The Ex texted Daughter a screenshot of the appointment on the 2houses site and then texted the word "Stupid" and nothing else.   I told a friend of mine about this and she is utterly perplexed; she kept questioning what exactly was "stupid."  Was it stupid that the kids had an appointment?  Was it stupid that The Ex had to take them?  Was it stupid that Husband put the appointment on the calendar?  None of ...

  This was The Ex's year to have the kids on July 4th.  They all went to watch fireworks and she had one of her family members take a picture of her and Ned with their collective five children.  She then posted this picture online with the caption, "My family!"   Now, some of you might think this is a nice sentiment; you might think that they're making a blended "family" work.  I, on the other hand, have been exposed to The Ex's poison for just over a decade so I know it's only a matter of time before this "family" unit is dissolved and The Ex has moved on to her newest partner.  If you think I'm being catty, let me break down for you the evolution of The Ex and her "family": 2000-2001   "Family" is The Ex, Husband, and Son.  Not a strong marriage, lots of arguing and separation; at times The Ex's "family" consisted of only herself and Son.  While on an upswing, Husband and The Ex decide to have an...