The Week from HELL!

I can't believe the last week (and now almost 2 weeks on 6/22) has been so crazy. And, it's all from one guy. Yep, my friend, Dan.

Last week (since it's now 6/22 that I'm writing thing), we kept Alexis, his daughter almost everyday. Along with Alexis, we also got Morgan for a day (his other daughter). Last week, he had finalized his divorce.

Monday, I spent all day at court with him, in case he needed me to testify. Rob, the dearest man in the world, worked all night. He came home and tried to keep the girls all day. We figured we would be done by lunch, but NO! At lunch, I came home to get the girls. He was so tired I had to take them with me back to court. To sit! They were so bored. But, there was nothing I could do. Rob couldn't make it any more. And, I didn't want them by themselves.

So, off to court we went, but side tripped at the park for an hour. You see, Alexis's mom and dad were never married. They live in separate homes, having joint custody of Alexis. However, both of their discipline style leaves a lot to be desired. Alexis was doing a lot of acting up at court. She just didn't want to be there. Mom kept warning her to stop or else. But, never doing the "or else." However, I didn't care which adults were there, since Cassi and Alexis were under my authority, I was disciplining both. And, it didn't fall on deaf ears of grandparents. Dan's mom and step-dad, step-mom, and step-sister all agreed that Alexis listens to me. And, believe me, she does.

I've told Dan if it came down to it, and I had to spank Alexis, I would. And, he backs me up 100%. But, I think he's worried if he does it, he would get in trouble with the court. But, I've never had to spank her. But, I have had to grab her once and make her sit in timeout where I wanted her to sit. She tried to run away in the opposite direction, knowing that I can't run very fast to catch her. In that one instance, I knew she was tired.

But, Tuesday was my birthday. Will talk about it in a separate post.

Because we spent the week helping out Dan, the third layer of poly didn't get on the floor until 6/20 (Wednesday). And, because Rob had to put off the floor, the can of poly crystalized and the brush was ruined. Luckily, because we did help Dan, he gave us the money to replace what was lost because of helping him.

Saturday and Sunday was spent at Dan's house. His ex-wife was coming to the house to get the stuff on her list that was hers in the divorce. I can't believe how petty she was. She was looking for over 7 pages of hand-written stuff. Let's just say she was looking for petty things like: tampons and jewelry cleaner. Saturday, they came with 10 people and expected to get into his house. Rob solved that by making sure the house was locked. But, the police came and called Dan. To our salvation, they were not allowed in the house. They had to take what was there.

Sunday, being father's day, Dan had both of his girls. And, like we thought, all the way to Morgan's house, a police officer followed him. They must have friends with that town's police department. They've got his license plate and his mom's plate on file to follow whenever they are in that town. But, Sunday, Rob, along with Christine (Alexis's mom) and Ryan (Christine's boyfriend), went to Dan's house to allow the ex to come into find whatever else she could find. And, again, she brought a crowd. Before anyone went into the house, Rob took pictures of the entire house. Then, he told them that only the ex, ex's dad, and two other people could enter the house. They weren't going to have all those people and only a few sets of eyes to watch them.

Of course, this didn't fly with ex. She immediately called her lawyer who called the police. When the police arrived, Rob explained to him what he told the ex. The officer agreed with Rob. That was not an unreasonable request. She was fuming. And, Rob also told the officer, there's china in the hutch in his dining room that just was acquired through his grandmother's death. He just got it in a will. The china would not leave the house. Agreed. And, Alexis has a bedroom at dad's house. In the bedroom are collectible Barbie dolls dad got her for birthdays and Christmas. Also, there were collectible Precious Moments figurines. He also said none of them would leave. The officer also agreed to that too.

She was so mad. I know she figured she would leave the house empty after coming. She didn't realize who she was dealing with. Rob and Ryan told her if they didn't follow the rules, the house would get locked up and they could resolve any issues through the court.

They tried to leave with a bottle of change. Nope. Rob made them return it because it wasn't on the list. There were a lot of items she took that weren't on the list. That night, we printed out all the photos for Dan that Rob took. And, I haven't removed them from the memory chip, still original in case they need them.

All I have to say is, I NEVER want to get divorced. But, I love my husband and would never want to leave him.

So, Rob finished the floor on 6/20. It looks beautiful. It's already ready to walk on, but we're waiting long enough for the poly to set completely before moving the furniture. Plus, since everything is still gone, and he's about half done, he's going to finish painting before putting everything back. But, he's just got next week to get everything done.

With that, I'll close. I'll get the final pictures posted soon.

Lots of love,
Cathy
8^ )