Revisiting... Visitation

My attorney emailed to let me know that my X has finally signed the order to have his wages deducted from his paycheck... and they changed the order to also include visitation for him every other weekend... where he will pick up the kids on a Saturday Morning and drop them off Sunday evening.

I told my attorney no problem, provided we had a couple of stipulations

#1) My kids won't be staying over night at his house if he is renting out rooms to his bar buddies... nope.
#2) If he gets called away to "emergency over time" at the jail, then he needs to pack up the kids and bring them back to me before he goes in to work.
#3) He can't drink alcohol while he has the kids and he can't smoke in the house or in the car with the kids
#4) He can't leave the kids with someone else for any reason unless he has to go to the emergency room

hhhmmmmmmm let's see... what else..... I think that was it...

Ooops I have to go...
Have a great day.

Hunt for a clean table at the Rat

Is it slander or liable if I say bad things about a fictional character? HA HA HA HA HA Well I don't care. I'm going to vent... and vent big!

As you may know, I am currently on day 10 of 3 healthy kids. I flirted with disaster by taking the kids to McDonald's on Sunday (the one in Dover that has a big huge PlayStation). I don't know when I became a germophobe... but I am.

There was a little girl there who was coughing all over the joint! At my kids as they walked by, on the slide as she went down... in the little elevated bubble car... cough cough cough. I didn't hear any worried mother chiding her for not covering her mouth... it was excruciating... but we made it through, and whatever bug that child had, has had 2 days in incubate in my kids... So far, so good.

Yesterday, my oldest had an allergist appointment (which was GREAT! Her smaller airways are not operating up to 78 percent! That's up from 50. That means, no permanent lung damage and we need to figure out how to keep her lungs clear... The Dr. finally gave her prednizone for 4 days, which cleared up the cough she had had for 4 months... but prednizone is a steroid and they don't like to give that to kids too often) Anyway, the kids were good at the allergist and I had promised them Chuck E Cheese (actually that's where we were headed on Sunday, but there it was so crowded that there wasn't any parking, so we settled on the McDonald's... temporarily settled... because my youngest - Hair Cut Henrietta... has a memory like an elephant, and as soon as we left the McDonald's, she was like.. you promised Chuck E Cheese... is that today!?)

So, off to see The Rat.

Tuesday evening is a great day and time to go see the Rat. I got parking right in front of the door... The only problem is that the staff is a little less attentive.. Of course, as in most restaurant type places, the staff are all under the age of 20... but this was really bad.
First we had to wait at the podium for someone to come and let us in (if you've never been they stamp your hands and your kids hands, they are supposedly supposed to check before you leave, but I've never been checked at this chuck e cheese) I ended up actually yelling... "HEY! Is there anyone there?" Because there wasn't ANYONE, but the handful of other guests milling about.

Finally, young Ichabod comes and let's us in (yup, Ichabod for obvious reasons... you can figure it out) I go to the counter and I order the family pack... comes with a pizza, 4 drinks and 100 tokens. That's when it all went down hill. The tables were a greasy mess.... I don't know if they hadn't wiped them down since Sunday... or if they decided that using butter was better than soap.. but they were disgusting.

However, I had already doomed us to whatever virus the child in McDonald's was carrying, so rather than start making a fuss again (after all, they hadn't brought out our pizza yet, I'm always a little leery about making a fuss when there is food coming... you know know what they might do it... ) Anyway, I picked the best table I could find, and plopped our stuff down.

The kids had a great time then our pizza arrived... we went into the ladies room to wash up before eating and there weren't any paper towels... again, my guess. They used their weekly quota on Sunday... because folks... it's TUESDAY, I can't imagine that there was a mad rush during the day and they simply ran out of paper towels!

That's ok... OK... I grabbed napkins and away we went, with clean quasi dry hands.

The pizza. uuuugggghhhhhhhhhh

Now, I've had the rat pie. It's usually about as good as a dominoes... which some people like (me and my kids) some people hate (my friend Mar) Granted it is obvious that they don't have Anthony & Son back there in the kitchen... but where ever their frozen things come from... it's usually pretty good. EXCEPT for yesterday. My Guess.... again, I think they used up a lot of supplies on Sunday... Because this pizza had no sauce. It was a half cooked pizza crust, and cheese... kind of like something you would cook at home as an experiment.

YES, I said experiment.

Once again, the kids like it. (of course they liked it... they would like chewing gum scraped off the sidewalk if I let them eat it!)

So... for the children, the experience was fantastic and everything they hoped and dreamed of... for me, more like a nightmare.

Afterwards, we went to the ice cream parlor... where with hands wrapped around homemade ice cream and the choice of cone, they all proclaimed that "Today was the best day ever"

Good for me! I am going to remind them again and again how much fun they had while I am nursing them back to health... from what ever bug or virus I am sure will rear it's ugly head by this weekend!

And that... is my Rant about the Rat.

OH, I got a new camera... so, you know what that means... right? MORE PICTURES!

I don't think I told you that my old camera was broken.. but I suspect it had something to do with my youngest who's middle name is Mischief. My fault, I let her use it... usually when I am supervising, so she probably just felt like she could play with it... riiiiiiggggghhhhttttttt.... anyway, the new camera is 100% off limits... and it's NICE! I can't wait to take some great pictures!

OH OH OH OH OH OH OH

I forgot to tell you. REAL QUICK

My oldest (1st grade) was really good in class, so her teacher let her pick some things out of the prize basket. She came home with 2 tattoo's. She put the butterfly tattoo on her cheek and the heart on her forearm.

She came home from school yesterday and told me that... are you ready for this!?! Yesterday was class pictures! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH AH

I said, WHAT? She said, Yup, they took our pictures, and the lady had me cross my arms and tilt my head so you could see the tattoo and my dimple.

I said, WHAT? -- too stunned to say anything else.

Well, I didn't see any notice come through, maybe it was something else... who knows. Once I thought about it... I realized that it would be one heck of a cute picture! and TRULY..

OK. Gots to go!
Have a good one!
As a special treat to you and yours... I'm going to spell check this entry! (your welcome B)

Oh, I heard it through the grapevine..

Let me preface this report, by explaining that I heard this from my friend... who heard it from her boyfriend, who bumped into an old friend... who had bumped into my ex-husband at his favorite watering hole.

Having said that... I really didn't hear anything that sounded like something I wouldn't actually have heard if I had been sitting next to the original conversation. Sad but true

Let me just set the mood.

I'm not sure what day of the week it was when this conversation occurred... but my X still gets out of work at 3:30... so he would be in the bar by 4:00pm.

Sooo.... let's say the first Vodka Orange Splash of Club goes down by 4:05.... we would find him finally slowing down around 4:30 with drink number 4.... He's getting loud. He's in full "woe is me" mode.

IN walks... "old friend", fresh off his own divorce, temporarily living with his parents, he sidles up to my X and after 5 - 10 minutes of catching up and a round of drinks... the story unfolds.

(This is the part, where I urge you to either sit down... or stop drinking your coffee... because I wouldn't want to be responsible for you spitting your coffee all over your keyboard and monitor)

Upon hearing that this "old friend" is living with his parents, my X informs him that.... he is renting out rooms in his house on a month to month basis. He can have one of the rooms for $700.00 a month... He has 4 people currently renting, but 2 or more are moving out so he will have an availability at the end of the month. (but wait it gets better....)

He said that the reason he was renting his out out was being he was paying his ex-wife 3500.00 a month and every time they had an argument he ends up paying more money!

$3500!

That ontop of the cool Million he told everyone I got when I divorced him... would put me on easy street... (don't let me start daydreaming about that money... because I might just go out and buy a lottery ticket... )

Yup. I think the friend of my friend, indicated that the old friend decided to decline the offer of a room at the chalet slage' which is a good thing.. because I would have urged him to run... not walk... back to his little free room at his parents house..

My friend, however, was infuriated... (she is fiercely protective) and she said, "If you don't do it... I will." I said, "Do what?" She replied, "take out a pull page ad in the local paper down there and put the record straight... name names... list lies... basically let everyone know what a jerk..."

We were both silent.

Who believes him?

Even if the whole population of the town he lives in... believes his lies... I don't care. I dont' live there and ... I have all of you... who know the truth.

Have a great day!

Picture is worth a thousand words

As you can see she is soooooooo proud of her new hair cut.

Many who have seen this picture, have noticed the family hairline finally revealed

This is the child... who even on a good day looks like one of the waifs on the 2:00am infomercial to feed the children of appalacia. Now (as my friend Mar has pointed out) she looks like one of the off-spring of Billy Ray Cyrus.

Look at her trying not to smile.

Gotta love 'em. I know, I'm in trouble. I better start saving now for the 3 & 4th bathroom I'm going to have to install trying to raise 3 teenagers... Let's see... I have 11 years before the oldest starts driving... OH I AM SOOOOOOO IN TROUBLE!

Have a great day!

The Hair Trail

OMG (that's text talk for OH MY GOD!)

Today my youngest did... what every child at one time or another does... and that's take a pair of scissors to her hair.

When I confronted her now 1/2 bald little head, she matter of factly told me that, "My hair was too long and I had to get it out of my face"

How did I find her... my 6.5 year old came running in... yelling, Terri is cutting her hair, Mom Quick.

I skidding the turn in the hall... and noticed the 4 inche clump of hair on the ground... I followed it to the next one... and then called her name... I needed to stop the destruction, and she came out of her bedroom.

Her bangs were cut all the way to her head.

The sides of her hair, were sloping down in the fashion of a staircase.

She is very proud of her hair cut.

I don't think she will have any problem with her bangs getting in her eyes... in the next year or so! HA HA HA HA HA HA

We're Still Healthy

OK, well... the kids are and my terrible cough seems to be resolving itself slowly but surely!

I figure by spring I should be healthy! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

The X called the kids yesterday and explained to my oldest that he wasn't available over the weekend, because he had to work...

You may remember, he works in a prison in the maintenance department. I told her that someone with a truck drove into the gate and he spent all weekend fixing it... you know so the prisoners don't escape. So, my persistent little 6.5 year old said, "But Daddy, Mommy called you all weekend to find out when you were coming!" to which he replied, "Oh, well I left my phone at home"

One more comment, then I'm not going to waste anymore space on this jerk. But let's think about it for a minute.

I just can't wrap my brain around it. Based on what I know about him, somewhere, sometime this weekend he did a little extra work.. that way, he would be able to say he worked OT and feel like he wasn't lying. So, even if he didn't return my calls (which were basically... "Hey when are you coming") You would think that a) he would call his children who he hadn't seen in a week or b) actually come to see them on one of the weekend days or c) call and make arrangements to see them for a couple of hours during the week --since I only live 30 minutes from his work. OR d) none of the above, which is what he chose... proving once again... that he is a jerk.

ok, I don't really feel better, because I really wanted to add some more curse words to that little paragraph.. and I wanted to rant and rave... but... here's the thing. I DON'T HAVE TO LIVE WITH THAT EVERY DAY ANYMORE! Yipppeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday I am going to the eye Dr. where I will try to convince the physician that I am NOT getting older and therefore do not need to have bi-focals. NO ONE BELIEVES ME.

Let me lay out my case.... You tell me...

#1) I never had a problem reading small print like books or package labels until the last pair of glasses I got. The Eye Dr. told me that my last prescription was wrong and that I would get used to this one...
#2) Same Eye Dr. told me the reason that my contacts weren't working as well anymore was because I was getting older... then I pushed and pushed and he finally let me try the contact lenses made for astigmatism... and that fixed my contact lens issue. duh

That's all I got... but here's the thing. That Dr. was sooooooooo wrong about the contacts... and he admitted to giving me a different prescription for the my glasses... and once I got the new prescription all of a sudden I had to take my glasses off to read things close? Doesn't make sense. However, I had already paid for the glasses and since I'm the opposite of "made of money" I have been using them....

Enter Rosie the Wonder Dog. Yup. During my 10 days of sickness... I must have taken my glasses off while dozing on the couch and she... well she chewed them. I have been stabbing myself behind my ear ever since.. and have decided to go have another check up. This time, I live in my new house in my old neighborhood... and I am going tot he Eye Dr. that gave me the BEST PRESCRIPTION IN THE WORLD! in addition to the snappiest glasses on the planet. You won't recognize me. I am going to be so thoroughly hip and cool... I'm a SUPERSTAR!

Dexter is doing well. did I tell you that I think Rosie and Dexter had a little tete-a-tete.. Dexter has a litle wheel with some long paint brush looking things. These things spin and push things into the bigger brush that sucks them up. One day I noticed that one of dexter's brushes was snapped off. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

I emailed Irobot and they actually sent me a new brush kit, mostly because Dexter was only like 2 months old. Well, I use Dexter ALL THE TIME. He does a great job of vacuuming my house... the other day I got an email from iRobot about a Scooba. That's right folks! It's a floor mopper!

I was in heaven! until I saw the price. It's a $500.00 vacuum! I couldn't believe it... Could you imagine? COULD YOU!?!

I could start with Dexter and when he is done with a room, send out Wilma (the Scooba) and let her mop the ever-lovin life outta my hardwood floors!

I am waiting patiently. Wilma will be on sale eventually... and when she is... I am going to pick her up and add her to my family of robots! You laugh... but I gotta tell you, these little guys pick up the HUGE pieces of dolls and other things that Rosie chews... it's amazing. They are a little loud, but not as loud as a regular vacuum... they seem loud, because they take longer to vacuum everything... but I gotta tell you, Dexter goes right under the couches and the TV stand... and won't stop until the room is all done, or his little basket is full. I love him.

That's about it. Oh, did I tell you I am daring myself to lose weight this week. I lost 8 pounds since I started Weight Watchers and it came off so easily, that I really felt like I wasn't trying, so now I'm worried that I'm losing weight because I'm actually sick... (not so much anymore now that my chest is not so heavy with congestion) but anyway, I have been eating like it's no body's business... and if I lose weight this week... then frankly, I am making an appointment with the Dr. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA -- of course, I may wait another 20 lbs before doing anything about it! HA HA HA HA HA HA

Gotta Go!
Shout out to my friends in Idaho
B in M (not to be confused this B&M the baked beans! )
Traveling Sis
And all my friends, that are so happy they are not me!

Have a great day!
Spring is right around the corner

5th day with no sick children!

That's right... ah ha
My kids are healthy... and it's day 5 of 3 healthy kids.
(of course, I'm still coughing so much I can barely hold my bladder and have gazed longingly at the depends adult diapers as a relief of my constant leg twisting coughing spasms... too much information?)

Anyway, in the tradition of ... winter, we in New Jersey has some snow. We had about 4 - 6 inches, which was nice, and the kids have ventured each day into the yard looking for areas of snow that they have not yet trampled upon... ah to be young again.

I have also almost gone through a whole big container of Chocolate Quick... because, when there is snow... there must be hot chocolate...

Things are going well... my new ebay store is in full swing.... You can visit my store at

Visit My eBay Store: New Jersey Garage Sale

right now I've listed mostly books... I DREAD... absolutely DREAD... listing the clothing. It's time consuming with very little profit.. the books, although also low profit, are easier to list because they have a ISBN number which will fill in the detail about the book so I just need to write up the condition of the book.

let's see.... what else..... Rosie has a UT infection. or something. She had 2 accidents in the house, so I took her to the Vet... he gave me some anti-biotics and took a Pee sample to send out to check for an infection. I am hoping that it is... otherwise, the other explanation would be some kind of nervous behavior.. which I'm hoping she hasn't suddenly acquired, however I doubt that because she is such a mellow dog.. (after the initial exurberance of your appearance at the door...) The vet tried to tell me that the stress of loud children... blah blah blah, causes ... blah blah blah. I say... what? After 9 months? She never ever had accidents before.

So far I have gotten around Rosie jumping the fence by only letting her out long enough to perform #1 or #2. I stand on the deck and diligently watch. Having said that... she still goes out frequently, because she asks... so nicely. I thought this might be why she was having problems, but she really does go out A LOT... so I ruled that out.

Well well well... the vet just called, her sample came back from the lab. She has "some crystals" which could eventually turn into kidney stones, but there aren't a lot now and it's not what is causing her problem. He sd that her sample looks good, but he suggested we continue the anti-biotic and bring her back in when she is finished with another sample and they will see what's going on. Of course, if she isn't having the "accidents" anymore then whatever it was resolved itself... right?

let's see... let's see... what else.

Last night I babysat for my sister and her hubby so they could go out to dinner at a friends. SO... my house was FILLED with kids. My three, and their 2. I had a 6 mos. old, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 6 year olds! AND... they were great! It probably helped that they weren't dropped off until a late-ish dinner time.. and everyone was tired and watched TV then went to Bed!

OH YEAH... remember my X? Slaggy. He's MIA He probably got served with the papers to go to court to get the child support and alimony deducted from his paycheck... He must think he is punishing me by not returning my calls (which I made to see if he was going to see his children this weekend) I personally don't care. When the kids ask where he is... if he is coming, I can honestly tell them... I don't know, he hasn't called ... Of course, they say, "Oh he must be sick or working" which... because I love my kids, I simply say... "you might be right".

AND because I love my kids, I called him 3 times yesterday to find out if he was coming this weekend.. I left cheerful messages on both his home phone and cell phone... asking when he would be coming. He has not returned my calls.

AND because I am human, I am not calling him again...

I think that's it for now.

I got a phone call from B, he had been checking the blog and because there were no updates, he wanted to make sure I wasn't in the hospital.. having succumbed to the pneuomia I am sure I led you all to believe I had... (smile) I informed him... I didn't write, because I was tired of complaining about how sick I was... how sick my kids were... how sick I still was... how sick my kids were... again....

TODAY... The kids are well. I haven't hocked up a luggy in about 3 minutes.... LIFE IS GOOD!

Have a great day!

Enjoy the snow, because Spring is right around the corner!

Don't forget to check out my ebay store!

Visit My eBay Store: New Jersey Garage Sale