Well...it's been a while

 Happy Sunday everyone! I hope everyone is well. I have been lurking around reading blogs but not really commenting and obviously not writing on here. Part of the issue is that I am constantly on the go and dealing with life, and the other part it that many times I am reading blogs on my phone during my lunch hour at work or late at night in bed and I hate typing on my phone. So I have been keeping somewhat apprise of what has been going on in some of your lives. 

As for my life... well crazy, busy, emotional, hectic, stressful, and peaceful would all make good adjectives to describe life right now. I knows it's been over a month since I last wrote. It seems like a lifetime ago. I had to go back and re-read where I was at in my life at that point. As a recap, my ex-husband had just moved out. I started a new full time job. I was still recovering from knee surgery. And life was crazy. 

So let's do an update on some of these topics....

As for as the situation with the ex. He finally got most of his things out as of July 28. I told him that was his deadline, as I was going to have a yard sale on July 29 and whatever was left would be put in it. I did have a shortened yard sale that day (for 5 hours as it rained in the morning), got rid of some items, made a little bit of money and donated everything that was left. Felt good to get crap out of my house. 

My relationship with him is still a mess. For some unknown reason he is ticked off that I don't want to be around him. We are seperated, if I wanted to still be around him I would be. That has caused many flare ups of emotional abuse, including him posting defamatory things about me on facebook like I am not a good mother, etc. I had to threaten to get a lawyer involved to make him stop. He still tells people that I am irrational and am keeping the kids from him, which is not true at all. We have our agreement in place that he has them on his 2 days off per week, whether he takes them on those days or not is his problem. It's hard. Like I told a friend, I really wish money wasn't an issue right now, and that I could win the lottery so that I could afford to have our paperwork filed in court and get this process over with. However, money is an issue and so that won't happen anytime soon. 

Moving on to better things.... I became an aunt again! My youngest brother and his fiancee had my new niece Naomi 3 weeks ago. She is the most precious thing and we are all in love with her! Our local hospital told my future sister-in-law that Naomi had tested positive for Trisomy 13 when my sis-in-law was having the testing done when she found out she was pregnant and they were trying to get her to abort Naomi. Well, after switching to a high risk doctor (who said that the bloodwork was inconclusive and not positive), Naomi was born perfectly healthy.

 

I am mostly recovered from my knee surgery. I was released by my ortho who told me that when he went in to do my surgery that the damage was more extensive than he thought and I might need further surgeries down the line if my knee starts hurting again. So far it feels better. It still hurts at times, but it definitely isn't impeding what I am doing. It does not help though that my current job is very physically demanding AND I have several troubled preschoolers who love to hit and kick me. I even had one throw a chair at me and kick me right in my incision site. And guess what, NOTHING happened to that child and his parents weren't even called. My job has turned into a s*** show and I am looking for other opportunities unfortunately. I might write a blog post about the drama later. 

As far as the kiddos go... they have been troopers through all of this. Rebecca has been a HUGE help with her brothers and with helping out. She got to go away to 2 camps this Summer. She spent a week at an academic summer camp at a local college that allowed her to learn about being an education major for the week. 

Then she attended Catholic Youth Summer Camp and had a blast. 

She also passed her learner's permit test last week to learn how to drive so that is an exciting milestone as well! 

Jacob and Ben also attended two camps. They attended a week long day camp at MVNU focused on basketball. Then last week they attended Catholic Youth Summer Camp, which was Benjamin's first sleep away camp. 

The boys are keeping me busy as they are both playing football this year-- Ben for our local colt flag football league, and Jacob for the 8th grade middle school team. (And for those of you who have never had football sons, let me tell you when they come home from practice with pads on, that is a new level of stinkyness!) 

The kids and I attended a family reunion last weekend. I saw family that I hadn't seen in 15-20 years. It was a huge turnout which is wonderful. The kids had fun! 

I also got a surprise visit with my college bestie. She lives in Singapore with her hubby and 2 sons, but was in Pittsburgh helping her mom move to an apartment and selling her house. She made the drive over to Ohio and we got to hang out for the night. It was so much fun and I miss her so much. She really has been a rock to me all these years and it was SO good to see her. The last time we saw each other in person was 2016. 

On July 28, I turned 44. The boys spent the night with their dad the night before as Rebecca was at camp. I worked and when I got home, all 3 kids were home. And on the counter was a handwritten Happy birthday note from my ex and on top was my child support check for August. So tacky. He didn't have the kids get me anything or do anything special for me. In fact, the only thing we did was I went out and got Wendy's for dinner as I wasn't cooking. I know birthdays aren't about things and celebrations but it did suck that there was nothing. I was happy my kids were all home but it still hurt.

Yesterday, was our last event for the summer. Rebecca performed in the youth showcase at our town's music and arts festival. She did amazing and I am so glad I got to hear her sing! Definitely a highlight of my day. 

So that is pretty much the highlights and lowlights of the the last month+. This week the kids go back to school... Ben is starting at the middle school and is super nervous. Jacob will be in 8th grade and Rebecca will be a junior. So we will have schedule pickups and back to school nights, football practices, and more this week. It will get a little crazy, but I am just trying to enjoy the ride. 

I hope everyone is well. I am going to try to be a better blogger, but I am not promising anything! I am still here, still navigating this single mom life and still trying to figure things out.