Category: Family Matters

Kind of an ongoing journal about my family, including the four-legged variety.

chillin’

Yesterday, Dingy and family came over early – Dingy was going to court with me, as support, while my favorite son-in-law mowed my yard [and oh my gosh it looks good!] and installed my new security door knobs – real pretty ones, too.

Dingy and I left for court; I got pulled over right across the street from the courthouse. Apparently during the beginning of James’ craziness and Mommy Dearest’s initial attacks, I inadvertently forgot to renew my tags. Well shit, I’ve been driving on expired plates for seven months! :^O  So I got to court 20-minutes late. No biggie, since Mommy Dearest’s attorney was over two and a half hours late! Dingy had to change an appointment for D, because she didn’t want me to sit there alone.

The GaL said we could leave at noon, but be back by 2:30 and my portion would be heard. So Dingy and I went home and ate lunch with the family. Saw rain was moving in when we were about halfway back to courthouse; it rained like cats and dogs, it was a bit difficult to see but we made it safely and only three minutes late – both of us soaked to the gills. I felt so guilty at 4 when I realized D was coming home from school to no one there – Dingy and I were still waiting for the case to be called. We also noticed Mommy Dearest wasn’t there for the afternoon session, as well.

I was finally called back at five, and believe me I felt guilty for tying Dingy and family up for the entire day! The DFCS attorney was asking for a 3-month continuance, and the case workers were not pleased by this, and asking that everything remain the same excluding a need for new attorney’s to represent Phillip, Joe and James. It seems this was a ‘special hearing’ to terminate all parental rights. The DFCS attorney also mentioned another child had attempted to commit suicide – little Bella tried to kill herself! Man, I feel so sick… James almost succeeded, now Bella… they are both in mental institutions.

Long and short of it, I dropped a suitcase of Joe’s clothes off at DFCS; Judge once again thanked me for trying to help children not related to me, and granted my wish to not be Joe’s guardian any longer; GaL said he’d stay in contact with me and I stated the same and hugged him. Mommy Dearest’s attorney was visibly surprised when I stated the GaL was correct, I plan to list my home for sale and move because I cannot tolerate living in the same state as that woman anymore. The damage she has done to her own children, and my family, is unforgiveable.

DFCS said they will likely initiate an investigation into S and his custody of Squishy, since he is allowing Mommy Dearest unfettered contact with the baby. They said I will likely be the first contact – no matter where I am living – to get Squish to safety. Dingy will likely be the second contact, as his only ‘normal’ [i.e. no mental illnesses in family] blood relative after me.

My tag was renewed. Truck passed emissions with no problem. Purchased new headlights because driver’s side is burnt out. Filled the truck. Came home and played with the dogs; they were acting closer to normal, they know mommy isn’t stressed anymore – even though I do have a ticket to pay for the expired tags [$169, best I can figure out – ouch!] and we ate dinner. Texted with Dingy off and on for a bit; now, back to schoolwork. I’ll finish packing Joe’s crap later.

For now, feeling a bit more relaxed, so I am so outtie….

update part deux, too

So I’ve gotten a few phone calls from DFCS concerning Joe. They have been informed I plan to rescind my custody on Thursday and tell me I do not need to go to NC to pick him up, especially since they will have custody in two days. They once again thanked me for all I had tried to do with these kids and apologized I had had such an awful experience with Mommy Dearest’s children.

Right now their plan is to have a transporter go pick Phillip up, and leave Joe there – apparently with NC’s blessing – until after the hearing on Thursday. Then another transporter will go pick him up. He should be miserable without his brother, Internet, and no Mommy Dearest contact for a few days… totally alone. I hope he looks back and tries to appreciate what he had here – he always did, until Mommy Dearest started phoning and texting so much.  Poor kid.

Oh yeah, also roughly another $150 poorer – purchase of new security, keyed entry door knobs for my house!

I’m outtie….

update part deux

So I got an email from the GaL, Mr. Daniel, stating he sent a Notice to the Court to revisit Joe’s placement with me; I go to Court this Thursday at 9a.m. Dingy is going with me, for support. I spoke with several people in NC – where Joe is being held, and they assure me they have it on record that I attempted to do my legal duty to pick Joe up – but as they have him listed as in the custody of DFCS and not me, they are waiting to hear from a GA official concerning his release. The GaL is hoping the DFCS transporter will pick up Joe as well, instead of me incurring the expense, especially since I plan to have my custody of him revoked. I have no clue what lies Mommy Dearest will spit out on Thursday, but I have been making sure to stay in contact with all legal authorities. Hopefully I’ll be okay and only come out of this with the ongoing financial ding, and the new hardening of my heart towards helping others. *frowns*

Once Joe is no longer in my custody, I will log onto Facebook and block every single member of Mommy Dearest’s family from my account, and then send a brief message to my family members concerning everything she has done to me – they can block or not, as they wish, but I will warn them. Then I will block S&S on my telephone; S is not the son I thought he was, and as much as it hurts, I do not want him in my life while he is connected with that viper.

Hopefully any future ‘Family Matters’ updates will be fun and positive ones, after Thursday. I do not plan to update my blog again, until Thursday at the earliest – I have homework to do. I’m also hopeful that future updates will be concerning the material this blog was originally created for – writing.

Until then, I am so outtie….

update

I hesitated to update, hence no posts for what, six days now? So last Sunday, the 23rd, I went to bed after 3a.m. and woke up at 8:15a.m. Monday morning. My last post on Monday sort of covers Joe leaving again, I guess, but not all of the phone calls and running around I had to do. So Monday I went to Juvenile Court and filed for a runaway warrant – they included the previous two attempts on the same warrant. I’m getting phone calls from cops, asking if I’ve found him yet, from Monday through Wednesday; I get a phone call from DFCS asking me if I was aware Joe had been found – realized she was talking about the Chattanooga pickup and told her she was way behind times; spoke with Sheriff’s, Social Worker’s, and psychologists – told them all he was still gone, no new word and I would contact them if I heard anything.

S phones me to get an ‘update’ from me, he was actually pumping me for information. I gave him only what I was willing to share. When he realized I wasn’t going to simply spill everything, he hung up and didn’t call back. I was already aware Phillip had run with Joe this time, S begrudgingly told me Phillip had left a note for Mommy Dearest and his foster mother stating he was moving to California to live with Jade.

Joe took all of his game disc’s with him, presumably to sell for cash… he also took the first disc of season four of my True Blood series! Didn’t take any cash from me this time, but who knows what else he stole from me… *sighs* It’s been six days and Goddess help me, I hoped he made it to Canada so I could easily get his custody rescinded. I am sick and tired of the upheaval and drama from him and his mother! Been a bit difficult to concentrate and get back into the swing of things at school, but fortunately I was actually ahead on homework.

I get the dreaded phone call around 5p.m. today – he’s been picked up and I need to come get him. This time he made it to Beaufort, NC – over eight hours away! Beaufort Sheriff transfers him – and Phillip – to the juvenile detention center in Greenville, NC – still a seven hour drive. Dingy is making the calls to NC for me, while I am phoning our local Sheriff to give them the update; local PD states Joe is ‘missing’ and there is no runaway warrant. I argued with her about that, cause I filled the paperwork out on Monday [the 24th] and the sympathetic court guy ran it right up to be signed by a Judge while I was still there.

So I’m worrying about the cost to pick him up; had to pay around $100 last weekend for the Chattanooga pickup and that’s only two hours away. How much is this one going to cost me? And you know damn well he’s going to run again. I live on a fixed income, disability retirement – my son earns six figures annually. So Dingy called him to see if he’d help me out with the finances for gas. His response? I need to cancel my planned trip and use that money to pay for the pickup. The first trip I’ve planned in years, mind you… I told Dingy it’s been over twenty years since I planned my weekend dog show trips; it’s been twelve years since my last ‘fun’ family trip – back to Toledo for my Mom’s 75th birthday party. My planned trip next month is to go to North Dakota for my niece’s wedding, meet her husband and see members of my family I haven’t seen in over a decade. But S feels I should cancel that to use the funds to once again pick up Mommy Dearest’s problem child… oh, and he says he ‘tried to prevent all of this.’ I call bullshit!

I wrote the GaL an email and asked him to submit a petition to rescind my custody. I can’t deal with this anymore, nor can I afford it. I also informed him I planned on placing my home up for sale as soon as Joe was no longer in my custody, that I cannot stand living in the same State Mommy Dearest lives in. I told him I do believe my grandson, Squishy, will eventually wind up back in DFCS custody [since Mommy Dearest is his main caregiver], and as his biological grandmother I would be willing to take him so I will keep him apprised of my current contact information at all times. Once Joe is removed from my custody, I will block everyone of those people from my Facebook, and telephone. Including my own son. He’s gone.

I have prophetic dreams at times; back when he was arrested, I had a few dreams of him in prison. Perhaps they were a warning of things to come. I love my son, but this person living with Mommy Dearest is not him. He’s as nuts as she is.

I’m so outtie….

no time

I had no time to post over the weekend, but Joe was picked up in Chattanooga, TN on Friday. The Sheriff called me while I was downtown at Juvenile Court filling out the run away warrant paperwork. The warrant was cancelled, obviously, but I requested we continue on with a court appearance since they will assign a probation officer, and I figure that can only help me. So Dingy, the girls and Jonathan went with me to pick Joe up, and D asked to spend the night – she wanted to make sure I was safe.

Joe spent half of my money, drank all the Cokes, I later found out he stole two decorative lighters too – they were thrown away by the police. We went in Dingy’s truck since mine is acting up; so I paid for gas and dinner for everyone. By the time Joe was processed into the juvenile facility and they phoned that I could pick him up, it was dinner time – we got there about 7:30p.m. D, Joe and I got home around 11 – he went straight to his room, came out a few minutes later and asked if he could use the WiFi. I told him no, consider yourself grounded.

The next morning, I heard him get up and eat breakfast, go to the alarm panel and check to see if it was armed – it wasn’t – then I heard the sliding glass door open. I jumped up and came to see what he was doing and found a note on the floor, “You can go to the party I’m staying at a friends house for a day PS. Joe“. I ran out the backdoor and yelled for him, then heard a car peel out of my driveway. I did not see the car. So I went inside and called the police. Two officers arrived to take a report; the female officer didn’t seem to understand the problem, she kept saying – but he left a note. The male officer understood – he did not ask my permission, he just left; it didn’t matter if he left a note or not, he did not ask my permission and it was just a few hours after I had to drive to TN to pick him up from the detention center.

Apparently Joe has a police scanner app on his phone, because just as the officers gave me the case number, he came running – from the direction of S’s house [I was positive it was Mommy Dearest that peeled out of my driveway]. He was disrespectful to the police, cursing at them and ended up needing to be restrained at one point. He was kicking my door until the female officer opened the door and the male shoved him inside the house. I heard Joe punch a wall.

I made him go with me to the party – it was my 3-year-old granddaughter’s birthday party. I told Joe he was to stay in my line of sight at all times. If I could not see him I would not look for him, I would simply call the police; he was told to be polite or not talk at all; he was to tell the baby ‘Happy Birthday’ nicely, since she is not aware of what is going on. Jonathan let me know that Joe told him he’s planning on running again. Over the weekend, Jonathan got further information that he planned on leaving Friday with his brother Phillip, that their father was sending $1000 to Phillip to buy bus fare for the two of them. Now, although he’s grounded, I did tell him if he went to school and did not skip he could talk to Phillip today when he gets home.

I rushed to finished what I was writing because the school police officer just called to let me know Joe is not in school, again. He has skipped first and second period so far, the social worker I am working with is double checking and going to go to each classroom to check herself, to be safe. The school officer advised me to call the police and report him again, but wait till the social worker calls me back. I had sent the social worker and the GaL [Mr. Daniels] a lengthy email detailing what happened over the weekend, including the information Jonathan gave me. I ended with stating I knew he would run away again. He did.

I’m outtie….

oh.my.god!

Joe got up at 5:30 this morning, highly unusual; he typically doesn’t get up until about 15 minutes before the bus is due.  I listen to him puttering around the house, but eventually fall back asleep. Woke up again at 8, thought I heard a noise, so I double-checked that he actually left for school. Check his door as I walk by, it’s locked. I grab my keys and check, but he’s not there. I go back to bed.

I get up at 10, my typical time since I normally don’t head to bed until after 3a.m. anyways. Pottied the dogs, checked email, ran the dishwasher, swept the living room then sat down to check on my Clash of Clans. Did a few searches after I had collected my gold and elixor in CoC – school related and still trying to find a psychologist for Joe. After twelve, so I settle in to do homework – I have school open house at 6:30, so know that’ll cut into homework time.

S phones me at 12:42 and asks what I’m doing. His tone of voice is buoyant; I told him what I was doing. He then asks if I’ve talked to Joe, I say no, he’s in school. He says the school called Mommy Dearest and told her he wasn’t there today. I asked why would the school call her when I have custody of him…? He got a bit flustered and back-tracked, said maybe it wasn’t the school, but somebody called her to say Joe was planning to run away. He asked if Joe has been upset, I told him he’s been very upset since Mommy Dearest talked to him on Sunday. He asked if I knew how badly the teacher was treating Joe – I interrupted him and said she wasn’t, that I had spoken to her Monday and her only concern about Joe was that he was reading so far ahead, he was way ahead of everyone else and she was worried he might get bored. S, in a shocked tone, said, but that’s a good thing! I agreed and said I had also explained to the teacher about James, and she apologized to me for being too hard on Joe! So he asked if the GaL had talked to Joe, I said not as far as I knew but he had sent me documents to work on Joe’s citizenship and I was waiting for my appointment confirmation. [S let out a shocked ‘wow’.] He asked if anything else was going on, I said the V.P had phoned to say he had been told about what Joe was dealing with, so would only have a ‘talk’ with him concerning his argument with teacher and leaving school grounds on Monday; that is, until he heard the shock in my voice that Joe was not in school that day again. I told S that Joe left school grounds with Mommy Dearest on Monday morning and neither informed me; I didn’t find out he wasn’t in school till I spoke to his teacher at 3, then I tracked Joe down. Even after I told him to come home – they still waited another 37 minutes! And now the V.P informed me he skipped again on Wed. S said he needed to call Mommy Dearest and he would phone or text me if he had any more info.

I hang up and call the school; attendance office confirms Joe was absent second and third period and it was third period when I phoned. I decide to give Joe a chance and wait to see if he comes home on the bus. Last bus goes by around 4:30 or so, I phoned the cops and reported him as a run away. Cop arrives and listens to me, takes a description – he remembers being the cop called in three years ago by the RCMP’s to do a welfare check on the missing kids from Canada! I give him S’s address as well as Mommy Dearest’s apartment address – even though she lives with S and not in the apartment. Then I go to grab a Coke – Joe took all but one; I get a funny feeling and go check my wallet – it’s open, he stole $53 from me, too.

Dingy and Bill come around 7 or so and cut my lawn [thanks guys!] and I fill them in on what’s happening. Oh, I also spoke to my brother Ron and gave him a very truncated version of what’s been going on and that S and I no longer speak, really. Dingy and family leave around 10-ish, D has school tomorrow, after all. About 10-15 minutes after they left, a DFCS worked shows up to say she had had a very lengthy talk about me abusing Joe; him not being fed, housing is inadequate, etc. The worker confirmed pretty much that Mommy Dearest accused me of abuse.

I told the worker that Joe had run away, police had been called and I have a case number and that Officer Harris advised I go file a run away warrant tomorrow. I tell her exactly what has been going on – and she remembers the old case where all children were removed from Mommy Dearest’s custody and recalls that she had to do a home visit to check on Christian and Squishy – and remembers I was the caregiver present, along with S! I told her that after talking to Mommy Dearest, Joe suddenly believes James’ suicide attempt was his fault because ‘he wasn’t a good enough brother.’ The caseworker looked like she was going to be sick. I told her how Mommy Dearest had told James that with me having custody he could live with her whether DFCS or the court liked it – caseworker looked a bit upset until I told her that’s when Mommy Dearest really turned on me cause I informed her that is not what will happen. I had custody and he would live with me – but I would be freer on visits than DFCS was… and James got worse with more contact.

I told her I had an emotional breakdown and while working with a psychologist, decided to have my custody of James rescinded – which it was, on April 22 of this year. Joe was doing okay, so I kept working with him. Told her he had stayed at Dingy’s for part of the summer, earning money doing lawn care – until he started talking to Mommy Dearest more again, and ran away.

I told her I would file the run away warrant tomorrow, and that as much as I hated to give up on Joe, would ask that he be removed from my custody. I told her I cannot work with him, help him, when Mommy Dearest has so much influence over him and advises him to do such bad things, bad decisions. She felt bad for me, and Joe, but understood my reasoning. I told her that woman not only destroyed her own family, she has destroyed mine as well. Once upon the time I had been close to S. But he’s still drinking the Kool-Aid.

She thanked me, said she was putting it in her report that it should be dropped but a daytime worker would contact me. I said that’s fine, and she left.

I so wish I had never met that toxic female, or any of her children! Oh, I also told the worker I am concerned about Squishy since she is in his life… Mommy Dearest may have tried to initiate legal trouble for me, but the caseworker plans to look into why this case is still ongoing and why she has contact with any of the kids. Who knows, they may even start investigating to make sure Squish is safe….

Oh yeah, and the child psychologist phoned but I basically had to tell her ‘never mind’ since he ran away….

K, I’m outtie….

hmmm

Okay, so today I got a phone call from one of the Vice principal’s at Joe’s school; he was letting me know he planned to deal with Joe concerning his behavior on Monday, but when he called him down to the office – he asked if I was aware that Joe was absent today. I know he heard my shocked tone as I said no; so now he plans to deal with that, as well, when Joe finally returns to classes.

I spoke to a Truancy Coordinator and gave him Joe’s name; he plans to show up at the school tomorrow – if Joe is there. He also advised I bring the Cobb County social worker in, and phoned her. She will be at a different school tomorrow, but with my permission, she is sharing what I told her has been happening since the weekend with the actual school counselor. She apparently checked also and found Joe was absent – but I told her I wanted to wait till his bus went by and see if he came home then.

Joe came in after the bus went by; he was talking very animatedly and seemed happy, pleasant – like he was when I first got custody of him last January. He told me about his day, no homework, that all of his teachers were great and they finished all work in class today… uh-huh. So I asked him why the Vice Principal would have called me to say Joe was absent today…? He said it must have been a mistake cause he was there, but that he spent the majority of the day with his new counselor. I didn’t mention that counselor’s would notify teachers/admittance office if a student was with them. He claimed the counselor was brand new – according to the school website he’s been there at least since the start of the school year, not brand new as of today as Joe said.

So I informed Joe that the Truancy office and social worker’s had been called in, he said, “Oh joy, that’s just great.” Waited like three seconds then bolted to his bedroom; I heard him talking fairly loudly on the phone. According to his phone records, he then called someone for 22 minutes in Roswell. He has also been calling Jade in CA, and the Canadian Embassy in Washington yesterday and today. Joe is planning to run away and I think Phillip may be the Roswell number; maybe Phillip is going as well.

Just fucking lovely. I’m sure Mommy Dearest helped plant this in his head.

I’m outtie….

**EDIT** Btw, I am waiting to hear back from a child psychologist; I am waiting to hear back from Catholic Services about helping get Joe’s citizenship; and, the school social worker is helping to set up specialized school counseling. I’ve been working on all of these details instead of doing my own school work, mind you.

Never again.

Again, outtie….

continuum

And so the saga continues… I apparently had a phone call just a few hours after I fell asleep, around 9-ish. I didn’t check my phone for texts and calls until after I’d been up a while, around 3-ish. I have a VM from one of Joe’s teacher’s, so I return the call.

She tells me Joe had his head down on his desk and she told him it wasn’t time to sleep, it was time to work – this was his first period class. She told me he escalated rapidly, telling her he didn’t feel like working today and leave him alone. [He said she cussed him out at this point. Joe, like other members of his family, has a flair for drama and embellishing to make himself look better – he thinks.] She told him she would call home, he applauded when she called and left me a message. [He said she cussed him out again at this point.] She said he told her he couldn’t handle this crap and walked out of her class. [He said he stayed near by and saw her yelling and berating a student not in her class, so he walked out of the building.] After she relayed all of this to me, I told her about James and that I suspected his mother was filling his head with the possibility James’ actions were Joe’s fault. I said I knew it was no excuse for his behavior, but she agreed – it made it more understandable and she felt bad for pushing him so hard. She asked if I would kindly call or text if I suspected Joe was in a bad mood, in the future, and she would alter how she handles him, which I agreed to do.

She then checked and said Joe was absent all day. He didn’t just leave her class, but the entire school. Well, she said he wasn’t there for block two – I didn’t realize block two meant the entire school day, I had thought his day was divided into 3-4 blocks. When he didn’t come home at 4:15, I texted him and asked where he was… did I forget an activity, again? I knew I hadn’t, I was giving him an out, basically. He texted back that he didn’t miss the bus and would call me shortly.

He said he called Mommy Dearest this morning and she volunteered to pick him up, let him spend the day with her. Joe, trying to make this sound better for his mother, told me she did say he should not skip school… yet, neither one called to let me, the custodial person, know what was going on. He said he vented to his mother’s case-manager and felt better – but stated if he’d been a better brother, James wouldn’t have done what he did.

At 11:05 he still wasn’t home. I texted him and said he had not checked in for three hours, it is a school night and he needed to come home now. He was dropped off at 11:37.

After putting his school bag up, Joe came out – wouldn’t look at me, definitely had attitude and said, “I don’t know how you’re going to take this but I can’t go to school tomorrow.” I asked why; he said he just couldn’t wrap his head around it. I told him since he told me he was upset, I’d let him stay home tomorrow and would make sure it was excused – but he was on his own for leaving today, he’d made bad decisions and had to face the consequences. I did tell him I had already spoken to his first period teacher and let her know what he was dealing with, and she would not push for punishment concerning his actions this morning. [He didn’t thank me, either.]

More proof of the toxicity of Mommy Dearest… Joe thinks James’ suicide attempt is his fault! He hasn’t seen or spoken to James in over three months – yet Mommy Dearest has had visits and phone calls with him. That woman is so sick!

I’m outtie….

aww shit

I’ve been sitting on this information for a couple of hours, although I did text Dingy about it. I had hoped after telling her, I would be able to, I don’t know, remove myself from it, I guess, and get back to homework… but it’s not leaving me and I’m getting angrier and angrier by the minute.

A few hours ago, Joe came out of his bedroom. He looked upset, so I waited. I knew he’d eventually tell me what was bothering him. And he did. He had been on the phone with Mommy Dearest and she gave him some information about his brother. I’m sure she poured on the tears and quavery voice, geared to get Joe up in arms…

Maybe I should insert a little side note here. I’ve been getting a phone call, daily, from the Crescent Pines mental health facility asking if I was James’ guardian and that they needed to discuss his meds with me. Daily I would tell him that I had gone to court and had my custody of James rescinded, back in April, and that he is now in DFCS custody.

Back to Joe’s story… Mommy Dearest said that awful place where James is living, wasn’t paying attention to her baby and allowed him to climb twenty feet up a tree, with a rope or something – and he hung himself. Staff found him immediately and cut him down, called paramedics. James, according to Mommy Dearest, went into full cardiac arrest – the whole needle of adrenaline injected into the heart muscle type of arrest. They brought him back. James was then stabilized and sent to Crescent Pines. Which likely explains why they have been phoning me daily for the last three days.

Mommy Dearest went on to tell Joe that, according to James [and it is a known fact that boy lies continually, lives in a dream world] the staff at Crescent Pines abuses kids and steals their school supplies money. Mommy Dearest said they are under investigation [hmm, wouldn’t the news have mentioned something about this, as it would be a major story…?] She claims DFCS is doing a major investigation on all Crescent Pines staff, based mainly on James’ claims, and ‘some other kids.’ Upon several searches, there is absolutely no mention of the facility being under investigation or having any issues – the only things coming up on the searches are reviews – a mixture of good and bad – and several job openings.

Her claims of the staff being investigated are yet another way of her deflecting any and all responsibility for how truly fucked up each of her kids are, because of her [lack of] parenting! Ten children, and each one of them has some kind of issue – even my little Squishy; most have some type of anger-type issue, along with some of them having mental/behavioral issues. Occam’s Razor, what is the single thing all ten children have in common? Their mother. There are three different fathers involved, with the eight showing the worst behaviors/issues all having the same father. Mommy Dearest talks about the long history of mental health related diseases in his family; she also talks freely about her own mother’s mental health problems – but kind of skips over her own like they are nothing. Squishy and K each have different fathers separate from the remaining siblings, and are the closest to ‘normal’ out of the ten – but even they show some signs of problems.

When I got custody of James, Dec. 2014, I allowed him to have pretty much as much contact with Mommy Dearest as he wanted… by the end of January, beginning of February 2015, he was making comments about me ‘stabbing his mother in the back.’ He also was making comments that his mother had told him what a liar I was and that he should record me; by the end of February he punched a kid at school and got into some legal trouble… I had the police statement, as well as statements from several witnesses that James attacked this boy for no reason. He admitted it. Mommy Dearest talked to him and his story changed to the other boy being a bully – the other boy was an Honor Roll student, never in trouble in his entire 13 years on earth – and James now believed he was the victim. I got him an appointment with a counselor, but the school asked I take him for a psychological evaluation… the place kept him after his interview. He spent all of March in and out of different mental health facilities… he was cutting himself now, too. Small wonder, Mommy Dearest is a cutter as well. She only ‘stopped’ because S told her he would leave her if she continued that behavior. I tend to think she just got better at hiding where she cut and didn’t inform S when she did, anymore. By mid April, James was in another facility and making threats against me – of harming me. I got an emergency hearing with Juvenile Court on April 22 and had my custody rescinded, placing James back with DFCS.

James apparently was allowed weekly visits with Mommy Dearest at this point. Funny how all of this contact led to him almost dying some time within the last three days… his Facebook is filled with comments about him ‘going home.’ Mommy Dearest continues to fill him with false hopes – she will never get custody of any of these kids. She is toxic. Perhaps she thought she could convince S to try for custody… once upon a time I would have stated he is too smart to do something that stupid, after seeing what James put me through… but as he had been in legal trouble and lost custody of Squishy back in March of 2012, I highly doubt DFCS would consider placing James with him, either. Legal trouble that Mommy Dearest’s children brought about, mind you – and she spent four months in jail, over it. S just happened to have the finances and decent family to speak up for him, is why he didn’t rot in jail too.

No wonder I’ve been getting angrier and angrier; Joe’s information share brought a lot of history back to the surface. I remember how scared S was. How hard I fought for visits, and then custody, of Squishy. How I had to prove that I am a decent, responsible person that just happened to raise a child that got in trouble once in his [at the time] 35 years on earth… trouble after she came into his life. How I worried about his finances along with him, and whether he would be able to continue to work after all this crap hit the Internet. How I am the one that convinced him to give her another chance – I was so stupid! How I wish we would have simply gotten Squishy back, and left. Forget her and her kids….

I actually do feel for the kids. It’s not their fault they had such shitty role models for the majority of their lives.

I’m outtie….

Hello, Monday

K, it’s only been Monday for twenty minutes, and I’m actually going to be writing about Sunday. Got it?

Earlier today Joe asked if he could go for a jog; I told him sure, I was doing homework any ways, and to enjoy himself. I’m not sure what time he left, but it was well before dinner time – which we tend to eat around 7-8p.m. After awhile I realize I’m getting hungry, so put dinner on to cook; the meal takes an hour to bake, so I figure Joe will be home and I’ll be full-on hungry by the time it’s ready. I get a text about a half hour later from Joe, saying he’s heading back. Cool. I text him back an okay, and that dinner will be ready in about 45-minutes.

Forty-five minutes later I dish out dinner – Joe still isn’t home, so I set his dish to the side on the counter and sit down to eat. About fifteen minutes later I hear him moving the trashcan to the curb, and he comes in. I yell at the girls to quit jumping on him while Joe tells the person on the phone that Grammy is yelling at the dogs to quit jumping on him and not yelling at him. I continue eating my dinner, watching a movie on Netflix, while Joe heads to his room to finish his phone call. He comes out to ask if he can talk to me later about possibly meeting up with Cierra next Sunday, I tell him we can talk.

K, enough of the [essentially] minute-by-minute break down. Here’s the jist of our convo… Joe wants to go to church with Cierra and her family next Sunday, possibly stay for dinner as well. I tell him okay as long as I meet Cierra’s mother first, and they provide all transportation – I am not taking him to Cartersville or picking him up. And, he’s not allowed to be picked up on Saturday and spend the night for their ease, I do not approve of male/female sleep over’s, period. He seems genuinely surprised by that but I am adamant. He says it shouldn’t be a problem but he’ll keep me informed as they work out the details. He then rambles on a bit and says he doesn’t know why he had convinced himself that I was overly harsh with him and not allowing him to live a normal teenagers life. He said that after talking to others, he finally realizes I’m actually pretty darn lenient with him. Uh, I know, and tell him S & Dingy have even commented that I allow Joe to do more than they were ever allowed to do.

Next he tells me he’s going to have a serious talk with S because, no offense, he’s got some real problems. Uh, I do take offense, thankyouverymuch. [The parts about S&S are going to be somewhat jumbled, cause that’s the way he said it to me, so apologies. And yes, the feminine S is also known as Mommy Dearest here on my blog.] Oh, allow me to backtrack a bit here, first… on Saturday, Joe asked if I could take him to his Mom’s apartment – I said it shouldn’t be a problem, just let me know when she gets there cause they, S&S, always run late and I’m not going to drive over and sit in the driveway waiting for possibly hours. In fact, I reminded him they were over a half hour late for Squishy’s birthday party – that they organized. He tells me his mom had been sick, then Squishy caught it and now S has it and she’s just tired of dealing with them both and wants a break from Squish and S – but would like to spend time with Joe. Uh-huh. So it never happens; Joe tells me apparently S is saying they’ll all go over to her apartment if she wants to go over and clean it so badly, he says his mom was pretty pissed off that she can’t go over to her own apartment and have some private time. Okay, back to today… so he tells me he met his mom for the jog and tells me the route they went, and that they stopped at some park so Squishy could play. Then Joe gets all indignant and says they spotted S driving by, twice, spying on them… that S had wanted Mommy Dearest to get her driver’s license, but now is against it… that Mommy Dearest is not allowed to go anywhere without S… that any problems with their relationship are due to Philio and Joe and Jade, etc. Mommy Dearest apparently has inferred that S is afraid of Joe – an adult male afraid of a fifteen year old boy. So Joe says he’s going to have a serious discussion with S and the way he’s treating his mother.

I told Joe he will not talk to S about