It's All My Husband's Fault

  Sunday afternoon we took our younger kids to go ice skating.  Daughter had said she wanted to go but open skate only went until 4:30pm and she wasn't supposed to come home until 5:30pm; she said that if her grandpa was bringing her back, he might be willing to bring her earlier and meet us in the local city rather than coming all the way to our house.  Well, he didn't bring her.  The Ex brought her, so of course, she wasn't early.   We left the skating rink around quarter to 5; I texted Daughter and Husband called her.  Daughter said that she and The Ex were at Walmart.  Husband asked if she could get dropped off at Kohl's because that's where we were heading.  Daughter asked The Ex if she could do that and she said yes.  Daughter said they were still going to be about 10 minutes; Husband told her that was fine.   At 5:16pm, Daughter sends me a text: "We said ten minutes so we went to get a wiper blade and they don't really know wh...

  Somehow, amidst all the insanity that The Ex causes in her life and attempts to cause in ours, I haven't blogged about some weird stories involving her and dogs.  I brought up one story in the last blog post and decided this would make for some good fodder.   I've written before about the dog that The Ex decided to get shortly after she moved in with Boyfriend.  That dog had no training whatsoever and would constantly jump on people; the kids were always coming by us on the weekends with scratches on their arms, faces, and legs.  The Ex once told me that the dog jumped on Boyfriend's sister while she was pregnant and hit her in the belly, so The Ex said she "threw the dog across the room."  A few months later, The Ex decided they were getting rid of the dog because she couldn't "risk" the dog jumping on her while she was pregnant.   We got our first dog in 2012; one month later, The Ex decided that she and Boyfriend were also getting a dog,...

  Daughter started talking again last week.  I don't remember how we got on the topic, but she said that The Ex's daughter "wants [Ned] to adopt her." ( This girl is 10 years old.  You know what I was doing at 10 years old?  Wondering when I could next have a sleepover with my friends.  The Ex was asking Son and Daughter if they "could see [Ned] as a father figure" when she'd only been dating him for a few months.   Knowing The Ex and how she is, I don't believe this is a genuine thought that this child had on her own; I think it's an idea that The Ex planted in her head and continues to feed. ) I was kind of surprised and Daughter said, "Well, I mean...I get it.  [The Ex's two youngest kids'] dad isn't around, so..." ( A friend of mine commented, "Yes, their dad is not around.  So for all intents and purposes, Ned is already her 'dad.'  Why would she be thinking about adoption?" )   Then, in what was pr...

  The court order has read since 2005 that both parents will provide health insurance for the kids, contingent on it being available at reasonable or no cost.  The Ex used to have a job that, in addition to paying her quite well, offered decent health insurance; she got fired from that job on purpose ( She told people she wanted to get fired just so that she could get her child support reduced. ), lost her health insurance, and collected unemployment for a full year.  After she had exhausted her unemployment benefits, she then got a part-time job and wasn't eligible for employer-sponsored health insurance.  After the judge ordered her to do so, The Ex finally got a full-time job that also paid well and also offered insurance; when she left Boyfriend and moved to Tiny City, she quit that job and lost that health insurance as well.   The Ex doesn't really care about this because she and her two youngest kids are enrolled in state insurance that she doesn't have...

  Since Son graduated and moved into Girlfriend's parents' house, he's contacted Husband a few times.  The only communication they've had that was decent was on Son's 18th birthday; Husband wished him a happy birthday, Son said thanks.  Every time Son messaged Husband, it was always because he wanted something.   The first time Son reached out was to say that he needed his Social Security card and asked Husband to mail it or bring it to Son's court hearing for his disorderly conduct citation.   The second was because he wasn't able to update anything on his phone, so he accused Husband and/or I of turning on the parental controls to his Google account and demanded that we turn off something we didn't turn on.   The third was the message over Labor Day weekend, which I'm still convinced was authored by The Ex, and was when Son told Husband that Girlfriend's dad more of a dad to him than Husband is, and how happy he was now that he was with ...

  Husband emailed a copy of Daughter's basketball schedule to The Ex and let her know about the scrimmage that was on the 10th; he also reminded her of the medical bill balance, that her last payment had been almost two years ago, and asked when she'd be making another payment.   The Ex logged in, read the message, and said nothing.   Husband emailed her again, reminded her that she agreed to respond to any questions within 48 hours, said it had been five days with no reply from her, and asked again when she would be making a payment.   The second email was sent one week ago.  The Ex hasn't logged into 2houses for 10 straight days.   But the holidays are coming, so I'm sure there will be something coming in the next month or two.

  The Ex has been quiet.  We haven't heard anything since the end of September when The Ex had a hissy fit because we wouldn't let her rearrange the placement schedule on her terms. I blogged about it ( You can read about it  here . ), but the summarized version is that The Ex wanted Daughter the weekend of September 29th, asked to switch for a weekend she wasn't even in town, announced we were switching because she was going to leave Daughter here on her weekend, and adamantly refused to switch for the weekend of November 10th that Husband had offered so that The Ex could still have Daughter when she wanted.   Volleyball is officially over for this season, which means basketball is about to start.  We haven't gotten a schedule yet from Daughter's coach so I called him the other day, asking if he had an idea of what days and times practices would be so that I could let Daughter's work know what her availability would be.   Daughter's coach called b...