update

An Update of sorts

So Spring and family came for a visit on Sunday, Feb 21, for my birthday. Spring intended to bake a sheet cake for me – chocolate, of course, and let the girls each decorate half of the cake. Hope was having none of that, huh-uh no way nosireebob! Apparently, Hope told her mommy, “I’m gonna dec’rate the whole cake!” Naturally, Spring tried to reason, cajole, beg and bribe Hope to share decorating duties, to no avail… so she came up with the idea of splitting the batter and baking two round cakes. Now the girls could decorate a whole cake, each! Chocolate cake with white icing, blue and purple decorative icing and black sprinkles… yummy! The girls giggled and argued as they decorated their cakes, until both were ready to present them to me.

Teen D gave me her cake first; she had written Happy B-day on it in blue, sprinkled black sprinkles all over, and used the thicker blue mixed with purple icing to decorate the edges… they looked like spiky points. Teen D kind of blushed and started to say something when I interrupted and said, “Oh wow, look at what you did! You know how much I love dragons and you’ve created dragon scales and claws! Thank you, babe.” Teen D beamed with pride as she squired a bit; I could tell she was embarrassed and trying to figure out how to tell me the “scales and claws” were an accidental creation, but I just winked at her and she realized I understood. Well, not to be out done by her big sister, Hope presented me with her decorated cake… it also had purple mixed with blue icing ‘scales’ and a big blob in the center where Teen D had written a message on her cake. Before I could say a word to her, she pointed to the blob of icing and said, “That’s dragon poop.” All of the adults burst out laughing. Who knew dragon poop was so tasty?

On Monday, my actual birthday, I went to Starbucks for my free birthday drink, and decided to head to Springy’s house from there. I wanted to visit longer – we hadn’t had much time together the night before – plus I wanted to see Elsa’s litter of twelve. After evaluating the pups and tentatively selecting the one I’ll be getting [me, a pitbull, wowsers!] I finally was able to talk with Spring for about fifteen highly interrupted minutes. [Hope is very competitive concerning Mommy’s attention and Grammy’s attention. It was like a double whammy!] I told her about the problem I was having with Chapter 13, that I was stuck and had no clue where or how to go about getting unstuck. I had also given her details of the various changes I’d been making, due to peer critiques, and how the very thing that caused my current dilemma was because of the only Instructor critique I had used. *sighs* It was a good critique, but with other interruptions, I had forgotten how I planned to implement the new direction and I became totally and completely stuck. It was like I was locked out of my story, and it was driving me batty. Add to that the way a character completely changed as I wrote in her voice, from how I had originally envisioned her – she surprised me the way she was in the story, but I wanted her to somehow move closer to what I had envisioned… well, Spring gave me an idea I had not thought of and I came home and wrote for hours! It’s safe to say I’ve moved past the block and am now heading towards the finish line. Yay, me!

So, with that said, I am so outtie….

Fiction Thesis Part One – Update

I passed. *smiles* Got an ‘A’ on my final paper and overall ‘A’ for the class. Woo-hoo! I have a 3.84 GPA currently, so I’m happy; I figure I should graduate in February with slightly better than a 3.90 GPA.

I’ve started Fiction Thesis Part Two already, we’re in our second week but on holiday break until January 3, 2016. I’ve already completed my homework – which isn’t officially due until January 3, but it’s done and online and I’m planning on doing some extra work, as well.

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong with Scrivener – I had an issue adding images to my research area and knew it was a matter of me not understanding what to do and not a problem with the program, and I was right. I knew I just needed to have a chance to study the program when I wasn’t totally swamped with homework, NaNoWriMo and family matters, and that chance finally came a couple of days ago. And I was right. I figured out what I was doing wrong, inserted the images into my research area and have begun restructuring my paranormal romance within Scrivener. I’ll be putting the other novel in Scrivener soon, as well. I think it will be an extremely useful tool once I am more comfortable using it. Bottom line, I’m pleased I purchased it!

K, I need to update another area, 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….

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….