My life IS a nutshell
Peter's dad came out of the hospital was home three days and went back in again - relaps. Now it looks like he's given up. Peter's sister is down there and calls Peter every day or so to preach doom and gloom. Things like - "You know Dad's on Morphine..." and "He's sleeping all the time now.." and "He's lost control of his 'plumbing' now..." When Peter hears the other side of it he's told.. "Yeah, they gave him morphine because he was having pain in his leg and knee that was keeping him from sleeping." And "Yeah! He's finally catching up on his sleep - He hardly slept at all for about a week there." and "He Hadn't had a BM for a few days so they gave me an enima - wow things are clear now.." So who knows what's going on. sometimes it seems like Peter's sister WANTS him to die she spends so much time predicting that he's going to. So who knows what the whole story is. Peter seems to be doing ok. He's refusing to be on 'death watch' and has basically said, "It'll happen when it happens. We've been lucky to have him this long." He's more worried about making sure his mom is taken care of 'after'... while all his sister seems to want to talk about is how much the two of them are going to inherit. I guess everyone deals with this stuff differently.

Peter's job is going great. He's been in training for two weeks and will be for two more. He waffles back and forth between how easy it is, and how complicated. I'm sure he's going to be fine and MAN the extra money is a BIG help.

I had a job interview last week. It'll be at least another week before I hear if I get called in for the second round. It sounds like it would a challenging position, and it would be closer to home, and has a possiblity for more money - keep your fingers crossed for me.

Lastly -
Richard called me last night and displayed his 'I'm never resposable for my own actions' attitude. He never did come out and say exactly what he wanted, but suggest we 'talk' about money. It seems he's desided that if I had given My Daughter "C" the Jeep as I said I was going to, she would have been driving IT when she had her accident and HE wouldn't be stuck without a car. How's that for rich? He let me know that he had paid for C's Insurance with the understanding the _I_ would provider her with a car. I not sure he desided that was fair, but ok. so? But now he's not going to pay for her insurance any more because she's had an accident and he can't afford it. Ok so? I guess he wants ME to pay for it? Or give HIM the jeep? I don't know he never said - just other day in Richard Cranium land I guess.

He's BACK!
Peter's back - I'm back - we're back

Live is good good good.

I flew in Friday night and got to to have an excellent reunion with my honey. He met me at the Airport and then drove me to the Hotel Room he had rented for the night. I was SO GLAD. It gave us some private time to enjoy each other before going over to his parents house.

His dad continues to improve and his mom seems to be doing well. In all I would say our prayers have been answered. In fact, his dad is doing better now then before he even got 'sick'. W're all really grateful and excited about this improvement in health.

AND - Peter starts his job tomorrow! YAY! He's excited about his opportunity and we're both so relived to have a second income once again. With this seperation fresh in our minds to remind us how much we NEED each other, Peter has a renewed enthusiasm to make our trip to Scotland to get married a reality. Who am I to argue??

Probably the only negative in all this is that it's made Peter just a little bit scared. Scared because he realized how much he needs me, needs US and afraid that something's going to happen and he's going to lose me. Rather ironic that that's how I felt when he went away last time. SO INSECURE. I'm doing everything I can reassure him and giving him a TON of love an attention.

Honestly, some days I can't belive how lucky I am. In spite of all our recent throubles: health, money etc we never had problems with 'us'. Through everything the one thing we could count on was each other. I swear there are days I feel like I'm living in a fairytail. If I am - please, I don't ever want to see "The End".

Two more sleeps
Mood:  celebratory
Just two more sleeps until I see my honey again! Yay! In the meanwhile I guess I better clean the house... I kindof let things go while he was gone.. heh.

Updates
Mood:  a-ok
My sweety is still out of town. This is the longest we've been apart EVER and it's killing us. The good news, only three more 'sleeps' before we're back together.

His dad is improving drastically and we're all very thankful for that. Peter has been hanging out at the house getting everything ready for him to come home. Cleaning, painting and generally making himself useful. It's been good for him - passing the time until he starts his new job. And it's allowed him to spend some time with his parents as an adult. He moved out at 19 and never went back. He told me that the past week he's learned more about his parents and thier lives then he's ever known before.

Friday I fly down there so we can spend the weekend and then we're flying back together on Monday. I CAN NOT WAIT!!!

Everything else in my life is status quo.

I feel boring.

Is that - improvement?
So, things have improved here. Peter's dad pulled through. Unfortunatly the hospital is going to hang onto him for a while. This leaves Peter living at home and taking care of his mom. He's really good about it, and he's using the time to learn a LOT about the stock market from his dad, and get things taken care of around the house for his mom. It's hard on both of us. We don't like being apart. In fact we're very bad at it! Peter has been gone a week already and he won't be back until August 1st. He starts his job August 2nd. If his dad isn't home before then, he's asked that I go down when his dad DOES go home so that there is someone there to make sure he settles back home alright. I told him I would do it gladly.

Other then that everything is ok. My job still sucks, but at least I don't feel overwhelmed by bills etc.

I'm picking up my girls this weekend. We're planning a 'girls' weekend - formal shopping in San Francisco and a trip to the Ren Faire. Fun!

But I still miss my honey.

A Day of extreems
Mood:  hug me
We've known all this week that Peter's dad wasn't doing too well. He was rushed to the hospital on Friday night unable to breath, went home, and then ended up back in the hospital on Wednesday. His dad has some cronic issues that makes breathing problems especially hazerdous to him. So this has been worrysom. But Peter's Mom kept telling us that everything was going ok. In the meanwhile Peter had a job interview yesterday. He came away from it feeling good, but with nothing solid. He's been looking for 9 weeks now and I've been doing everything to try to keep our household afloat...

This morning he gets a call from his sister. His mom had broken down on the phone - things wern't going as well as she had been leading us to believe (something I had suspected all along). So, Peter's Sister "Mickey" immediatly bought two plane tickets (One for her and one for Peter) so that they could go and see thier father. In the meanwhile, I'm trying to deal with my situation at work, fend off bill collectors, keep his spirits up, be supportive and try desperatly not to crumple into a heap.

While on the way to the airport Peter got a call. He had gotten the job, and they had been so impressed with his interview that they wanted to call him right away! Suddenly 3/4th of my stress and worries just up an vanished. To tell you the truth I actually got lightheaded. All I could do for about 15 minutes after hearing the news was sit at my desk and cry. The best part is that he doesn't start until August 3rd so he's got pleanty of time to take care of his Dad and Mom.

Thank you God for the job, and look after my honey and his family.

Advice/Comments Suggested
Mood:  crushed out
Peter has an ex-wife. He also has a son. He also has parents. Elderly parents who have money.

The ex-wife seems to feel it's within her rights to contact elderly parents and invite them out to dinner. A dinner that THEY pay for.

Peter is livid. He's asked her several times to stop contacting his parents. He's asked several times that his parents to stop going out with her.

He's told her time and time again...Leave my family alone, you are not a part of it anymore. It's been nine years...

Personally, although I love my ex-mother-in-law like a 'mom' I would NEVER contact her the way that Peter's ex is doing. It's rude, disrespctful and CREEPY. The only time I've ever contacted her is to email her copies of pictures of the kids and THAT was only after Richard asked me to.

Peter of course, thinks that she maintains contact (besides the free meals and nice resteraunts) in the hope that they will include her in thier will.

So, what does the community out there think? Are there people out there who maintain relationships with ther ex-in-laws? (And I'm talking about more then passing by the house to drop the kids off or keeping them up to date on progress/milestones) I'm talking about deliberatly trying to maintain a 'look, were all one big happy family' atmosphere.

(She's even brought her new husband along to these dinners - how sick is that?)

Family oh how we 'love' them
Mood:  crushed out
My mom came to visit this weekend. She lives several states away and I'm always glad to see her. I'm one of those lucky people who's mother is a great friend. She's loving and supportive and I'm incredably lucky person to have her in my life. She also brought along my nephew. We'll call him "Terminator" "Term" for short. He's four and a one man wreaking machine! It's not that he's BAD per se. He's just undiciplined. Unfortunatly my sister has her work cut out for her just surviving. She's a single Mom, works at McDonalds and spends a lot of her spare time dating all the wrong men. Term's Dad is completely out of the picture, one of the few things everyone in the family is thankful for.

It was actually kind of amusing watching my mom be 'Grandma'. She spoiled and coddled and pleaded... all the things she never did to us. I finally got tired of watching her be taken advantage of (and my house be destroyed) and took things into my own hands. Needless to say Term has a newfound respect for Antie S, and his behavior improved as the weekend wore on.

What was even more surprising was Peter. He played and tickled and tossed Term around. He got him juice and crackers and even put him in the 'time out' chair when it was nessisary. I was actually really impressed with his parenting skills. (As I think he was impressed with mine).

So, after a weekend FULL of Term's company we have desided...

We are SO GLAD we arn't going to have any kids!

The joy of parenthood
Mood:  happy
Last night I got that call that all parents of teenage drivers dread. "Your daughter's been in an accident."

Luckily, no one was hurt in either car, but the vehicles, well, they are in sad shape. The real consiquences to my duaghter though are much more then I think she ever expected.

So far, it looks like she'll keep her license. She wasn't cited on the spot, but may still be, we've got to wait and see. She was driving into the sun when the lady in front of her stopped for a crosswalk. There wasn't anyone IN the crosswalk, but the lady stopped anyway. (There are witnesses to confirm all of this). C (My daughter) hadn't pushed the seat up and was driving with her toes, PLUS was chatting with her brother as she drove. She wasn't speeding or following too close, BUT wasn't paying 100% attention either and ended up smashing into the back of the other car. She ended up hitting hard enough to wrap the radiator around the engine and push the front end against the cab hard enough to jamb the doors shut. The other car is pretty much a wreck as well.

Needless to say this has shaken her up, but what her Dad has desided has gotten her even more upset. First - she's grounded for a week because she was driving FROM someplace that she hadn't told him she was going. I have mixed emotions about this. She's 17 - she's got her license, what's the point if you're still tied to a leash. Still a week isn't that bad - considering.

Second he's told her he'll no longer pay for her insurance. THIS in my consideration is pretty fair. They had told her from the begining that they would pay for her insurance unless she got into an accident or got a ticket. So, she's got to pay the concequenses. This again is not a really big deal. She's got a summer job and will probably make enough to pay for at least 6 months of insurance to get her through her Sr year.

Now, let me tell you about the car she wrecked. It's a 1980 chevy stepside. There was little about this thing that would make the 'commoner' go 'wow'. It sounded like crap, ran on a 'good' day and was a 100 footer. (It looked good from 100 feet away). It had neet little quirks like no A/C and a driver's side door that you could only open from the outside. Yeah, it was a great 'project car' and had potential, but it was a project that had never gotten past the 'it would be cool to...' stage. Richard bought it after the divorce with the money he got from selling OUR house, instead of paying off our bills like he was supposed to. He paid $3500. Because of this, (and other STUPID purchases) Most of our joint bills went into default and I have a credit history from HELL that includes a reposessed car. (No, I'm not bitter - really I'm not :P) Needless to say, I wasn't sad to hear that that the damn thing was totaled, though not happy that my daughter was the on in it when it went.

Now, here's the kicker. Although it was her Dad's decision to NOT carry extra insurance on the truck, (after all the thing was payed off) he's now decided that it's C's responsability to replace it! This means that she'll have to spend her Sr year WORKING to pay for a vehicle that she'll never own. To top it all off, it had always been our agreement that she wouldn't get a job (except for small summer jobs) until she graduated so that she could enjoy highschool to it's fullest and concentrate on keeping her grades up.

I just want to strangle the man!

Ok - I've vented. Thanks for listening.

Testing
Just testing email blogging - I doubt this will work.