Sugar Bunny Boulevard

What Makes A Good Story?

I don't have much to blog about today.  I'm very upset.  My children in Texas are very distressed.  There have been more "events" causing this.

You know how in a court room there's a side for the prosecution and a side for the defense.  The prosecuting side sits to the judge's right as he faces the courtroom.

Last year in court that's where X and his wife sat.  Behind them was a large group of their family and friends - about a dozen people.  Actually - ten people.  I think that's all.  Anyway, it seemed like quite a group.  We had no one sitting on our side behind us.  This year we'll be on the prosecuting side.

So many things have happened in the past year that we will be bringing to the judge.  Things that X and his wife should be feeling incredibly shameful about.  Friday afternoon was just another shameful event with the stepmother causing slight injury to my 10yo daughter and upset to everyone in their household.

I cannot imagine how they could possibly want those ten people to be sitting behind them this year.  Those ten people are ten of the nearest and dearest family and friends they have.  Yet those ten people do not know the shameful things that happen in their house involving my children.

I am sick to my stomach, flushed in the face, and shaking right now thinking about what happened - less than two weeks before the upcoming hearing.  I am seriously wondering if the stepmother isn't intentionally doing these things because she wants the children to be taken away so she doesn't have to deal with the responsibility that is obviously stressing and overwhelming her.

I subscribe to the Writer's Almanac email that is put together by Garrison Keillor.  Today's Writer's Almanac told that it is the birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald.  He once said "What people are ashamed of usually makes a good story."  That's so true. 

These people are writing quite a compelling story with the shameful things they are doing - X and his wife.  I will be so happy when the children are away from there.

Please keep the kids in your thoughts and prayers.  They have 11 more days to wait until the hearing and they really are counting the minutes.  We all are.

I hope when the drama is over you'll keep coming back for the knitting and baby pictures.

Tuesday

UPDATE:  If you read the comments you already know from my husband's note that court has been postponed until October 5th.  To our surprise this is not some evil plan orchestrated by X and his attorney.  The court currently has a jury trial going on that will not be over before our hearing so we had to reschedule.  Of course we didn't know this until about 3:30 this afternoon.  So two weeks.  We wait.  I hate to make the kids wait - they're going to be very disappointed when they learn that there is no hearing tomorrow.  But we can wait two weeks. 

After all of this emotional stress I seriously need a day of rest with some quality knitting time.  I've somehow strained my back doing housework (or lifting a 37lb toddler?) and was anticipating a miserable 8hr drive in the car tonight with back pain.  Now that the plan has changed I'm doing some serious knitting and resting.  Maybe even casting on for a fair isle sock to whet my appetite for the upcoming cardigan.

Hi everybody.  No more waiting.  Today is the day we leave.  Unless we hear something in the next three hours telling us that the hearing has been postponed we're leaving this evening between 5-6pm.

I was greeted with three more beautiful morning glories this morning and the vines promise at least a million more.  I. Can't. Wait.  It's really interesting to look at the dead garden with the tall sunflower stalks all yellow and brown and bug-eaten and withering and dry.... and here are these beautiful blooms.

Here are some pictures I've taken lately and not shown on the blog.  Y'all take care and we'll see you some time on the other side of Wednesday.

Take a wild guess why Lila Pearl has to be in the crib.  hehe

Monday FO and Another Surprise!

Yay!  We have a finished Spindle Bag!!  Yippee!!  It's really cool to know that I turned several clouds of colored fluff into a functional object.  Very very cool.  Emeline, however, was not interested in modeling the bag.  The siren call of Sesame Street is too great.

And Lila Pearl had an agenda of her own.

So here's the spindle bag.  I'm so happy with it.  The finished dimensions are 8" wide by 10.5" high.  The I-cord straps are strung through holes and can draw the top closed but I'll probably leave it partially open most of the time.  The straps are long enough that I can put it over my shoulder if my hands are busy with... you know - other stuff like babies or something.

Soon after taking these photos - and after Sesame Street finished - a van pulled up to our house.  I wondered who it was and thought maybe it was someone visiting the neighbor.  But no.... a man got out and came to my door with flowers!  What a nice surprise!

Emeline said, regarding a yellow rose, "Nummy num num num!"  I said, "Num?"  She said, "Eggs!"  heheh  I guess she thinks it looks like the eggs she had for breakfast??

Emeline and I enjoyed looking at and smelling the beautiful flowers that were sent by my dear and thoughtful friend Kelly.  Isn't that the sweetest thing?  I have made so many nice friends through this blogging experience.  The encouragement and support through the past several months of legal mess has been .... well, there just aren't words.  I just know that I get a lot of my hope and strength to keep on from your comments and emails and kind gestures.  And having my spirit and attitude in the right place is what supplies a lot of the hope and strength to the children and Jeff.  Thank you all so much.

I'm focusing so much on what I/we have to do in the next few days so I know I probably won't be reading or commenting on blogs or possibly even returning emails until some time next weekend.  Unless we get word from our attorney tomorrow that there has been a cancellation or delay of some kind, we're leaving tomorrow evening to drive to Texas.  The hearing is Wednesday at 1:30pm Central Time and will probably keep us until past 5pm.  I will hopefully do a very brief post on Wednesday or Thursday so y'all won't sit around on pins and needles until next weekend wondering what happened.  I'll do my best to let you know.  And I will probably have a post tomorrow.

Have a great week!  :)

Eye Candy Friday

Nearly every time we take the babies for a walk we go across the street and down the sidewalk to visit a cute little pair of dogs that Emeline likes to converse with.  Every time we go that way we pass the lovely home of Mr. and Mrs. W.  Mr. W stays very busy in his retirement keeping a garden, lots of beautiful flowers, and generally enjoys being outdoors working in his yard. 

This morning after the babies went down for a nap I popped in for a visit with Mr. W to get permission to photograph his pear tree.  A truly pleasurable part of our walks to visit the dogs includes passing the pear tree.  I really should have taken a photo of Mr. W with his pear tree but I'll save that for when I get lessons on propagating his antique roses.  He had about ten new rose bushes at the side of his driveway that he has been growing from others that he has had in yard which he states "you just can't buy 'em any more."  I would love to learn the skill and patience (it takes about two years to get them started!) of propagating roses from Mr. W and have antique roses growing next to my own driveway.  He says "they're just so fragrant" with a big smile.  :)

So back to the pears.  Mr. W chuckled when I asked if I could photograph his pear tree and said "well, they're not very good pears.  You can have 'em if you want 'em."  I insisted that I didn't come to ask for his pears but just to photograph his tree.  But then I couldn't resist shaking a branch and collecting a few of the pears to take home and see what becomes of them after sitting on the counter for a day or so.

No babies for ECF today - they're napping!  Maybe a bonus during the weekend.  :)

In other news, the KnitPicks Palette Fair Isle Cardigan Knitalong blog is up and running!  Yay!  WHEW it's a lot of work starting a blog for a knitalong!  All the things to think about - details you want to include in the sidebars, etc.  I just ordered the last few skeins of Palette yarn I need for the sweater and it should be here about the time we're out of town in Texas next week.  Working on the blog made me get the pattern out and read through it again.  The needles I need for the majority of the knitting are in my Memory Blanket right now so I have to figure out something else for the Memory Blanket (need a longer one anyway for that).

So - on the heels of starting a knitalong featuring patterns and yarn exclusive to KnitPicks...

I've heard great reviews of the new KnitPicks knitting needles but ya know... they don't have bamboo circulars.  And they don't have wooden or bamboo DPNs.  Nor do they have a wide range of sizes in the DPNs they do offer.  And do you realize they don't have a 40" circular in sizes appropriate for sock knitting?  I've heard their cables are flexible but there will be no Magic Loop socks on KnitPicks "classic circular" or "options" needles for me because their cables aren't long enough and the "options" line doesn't offer tips small enough to knit socks.  And to top it off..... they stopped selling Addi Turbos, Addi Naturas, and Clover brand needles as well.  This is incredibly disappointing to me because I was buying all of my knitting needles from KnitPicks.  Unless they widen their range of sizes and selection I probably won't be buying any of my knitting needles from KnitPicks.  Sad. Sad. Sad.  No place else could possibly be as convenient.  KnitPicks - I'm very disappointed in this change!!!!  I think I need to write them a letter.  Surely someone else already has.  I think it's great that they have their own line of knitting needles now but their selection is now so narrow that I can't seem to actually find what I want/need there any more.  If I have to go somewhere else for knitting needles.... and that other place offers free shipping on orders over $XX.00, I'll be buying yarn there too.  Less need for me to buy KnitPicks yarn too.

Moving on to court news.  The hearing date is rapidly approaching.  So far X hasn't acknowledged to the children that he is aware of anything going on, and his attorney hasn't contacted my attorney.  Somewhat odd - I have no clue (and neither does my attorney) as to what their reason would be for not contacting him but whatever.  Because there has been no contact, more papers are being served because the children will need to be taken to the courthouse to speak with the judge.  They will not be with me so I can't be the one taking them - so each of the children are being subpoenaed and X is being subpoenaed to bring them.  A lot of extra trouble just because for some reason "they" aren't acknowledging that any of this is even going on.

My travel knitting next week will be the moss green alpaca Branching Out Scarf.  I'm looking forward to it.  In the mean time I must get Katie's sweater finished and resist stringing the Memory Blanket onto a piece of yarn so I can cast on for the Palette Fair Isle Cardigan.  When I get back I want that scarf and Katie's sweater to be finished because I have a feeling it will be Fair Isle Cardigan knitting all the time - I won't want to put it down!  Well... of course I'll put it down sometimes... like when I'm getting the kids up in the morning for school, taking them to school, picking them up from school, taking them to ball practice and gymnastics and piano lessons and picking them up from.... I might never get a chance to knit again!  heh

Have a great weekend everybody!!  :)

Random Wednesday

In no particular order of importance (but don't go all the way to the end if you don't want to see something PRETTY Miss L):

1.  It's two weeks until court.  I found out today on the kids' school calendar that Sept 20 is an early release day.  They get out of school at 1:30 - our court time is set for 1:30.  If there's any reason for them to appear (talk to judge or something) they won't have to miss a minute of school for it.

2.  It's incredibly easy to transfer the kids to a new school.

3.  Two sick babies + one sick mommy = no sleep.  We must be getting better because I didn't get up in the night to help a baby who couldn't breathe through her nose but didn't want to sleep without the pacifier in her mouth.  I really don't feel much better yet and now Daddy's feeling a bit *bleh*.  Sorry dear, blame us - not your crazy work schedule.  *smooch*

4.  I like starting new knitting projects.

5.  Picture of Emeline not feeling entirely thrilled about showing off the new scarf:

6.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Or the knitter.  My friend Miss L, who is selling that darling PomPom yarn + pattern on the Destash blog, which I just discounted today SOLD.... yes, that friend.... Miss L had a major stash building splurge when she was vacationing in Wisconsin in July and brought home some very interesting stuff!  She brought me a big-o bag of beautiful yarn including two skeins of Trekking XXL and two balls of Cascade Fixation sock yarn and also two 50g skeins of K1C2 Wick!  Wow this is so soft and really really cool - it's 53% soy, 47% polypropylene - color 516 (chartreuse).  Wowee.  Pretty color - I was thinking I'd like more for a summer tank or something like that.  Chartreuse is a pretty extreme color for me but if you call it Apple Green it's much easier on the brain. 

So Miss L bought all kinds of cool yarn for herself too - one skein in particular was very very *interesting* and very expensive.  This stuff was $50 for one ball.  Probably about.... oh maybe 100g... no.... 75g?  She brought this ball of yarn on her show & tell day after the vacation and was fascinated with it.  It's 100% novelty yarn - we suspect 100% synthetic materials.  The skein is made up of about 20... 30.... 40.... I don't know how many different novelty yarns in various lengths, all knotted together into one long piece of what Miss L calls "trash yarn."  She was absolutely smitten with it at the yarn shop where they had a scarf made up with it and little charms tied on at various locations (probably with the tails where the yarn knots joined each random length of novelty yarn).  The colors here are varied - pinks corals golds, blues greens violets.  Nothing harsh, yet lots of metallics, eyelash, chenille, rayon, shiny stuff, fluffy bits, one mock feather, ribbons, tapes, cables, tubey stuff - various glittery bits here and there.  All completely random novelty yarn, mostly variegated.

Miss L started a scarf with the yarn on an angle, you know - like a diagonal scarf - increase one side, decrease the other side - probably 20-25 stitches wide.  The varying textures made it irregular in width, blah blah blah.  She was not feeling the love for this skein of $50 yarn.  Not at all.  She emailed me and said "if you want it you can have it - otherwise it's going in the trash."

GAH!  NO!  No - throwing away a $50 skein of yarn is not happening if I have ANYTHING to do with it.  So last night she brought it over, handed it to me and said, there's just one rule - if you turn it into something pretty I don't want to know about it.

hehe

Time to turn away Miss L. 

Chartreuse Wick..... Meet Funky Novelty Yarn.

I was just looking at this thinking OH wow, GRAY yarn for a main color would look incredible and give it an entirely different appearance.  I'm actually thinking of giving this to Suzannah for Christmas.  It's right up her alley and she loves this color of green.  It'll go with her powder blue coat very nicely too!!  Making this scarf is giving me all kinds of ideas for using random balls of same-type yarn mixed with novelty yarn for scarfs (think knit longways!), summer tanks, oh, lots of things!  I know.  There are no new ideas.  People out there at the trendy knitting shops are already doing cool things.  I'm just out here in the middle of Kansas with a boring LYS where they've had the same exact knit samples for the whole 10 yrs I've been going there.  Bleh.

I haven't seen too many of various scarves being worked on for the Funky Scarf Swap but this would definitely be something I could see working there.  My first thought about that swap was "I don't want a funky scarf" because it's not very practical for me.  This, however, has helped me a little to think outside of the box.  You really have to be able to take a leap beyond the obvious when you're a designer and when you're trying to find a way to make one man's trash into another man's treasure!  Does it sound like I've been watching too much Project Runway?  hehe

One more word about this novelty "trash" yarn.  As random as it appears, I think the creator was very thoughtful about how she put the random strands together.  No two eyelash yarns too close together, nor metallics, etc.  Thick and thin are at random intervals.  A lot of work goes into making things appear random when they're actually very intentional.  A lot like quilting and sometimes knitting too (thinking of Jon's Rosetta baby blanket).

I hope everybody out there is feeling well.  No word yet on whether papers have been served to X.  I talked with the kids last night and it didn't seem that it had happened but we won't know until the guy tells our attorney it's been done.

Weekend in Review

Hi everybody!  I hope you all had a happy and safe holiday weekend and that everybody is ready to get back to school.  Some have already started (like my kids) and some are about to.

It was awfully sad for us to hear about the death of Steve Irwin.  One of Emeline's favorite videos to watch is "Wiggly Safari" with Steve Irwin so he has been part of our everyday life for quite a while - actually we sometimes watch him SEVERAL times per day.  Thank goodness Emeline is too little to understand about a loss like that.  So far everyone that goes away in her life comes back again at some point.  I can't stop thinking of his children ages 8 and 3 and how they'll miss their Daddy.

Rest in Peace Mr. Irwin - you have made a lot of people happy in your lifetime.

Our Daddy stayed home with us all day Saturday and Sunday - that was like a holiday for us!  He usually works 6-7 days per week so having him with us for two days in a row without having to go out of town was so nice.  He did work on Monday so it was kinda like any other day - just without mail.  Sunday we took the girls to a park nearby.  It was so so SO pretty out and a really nice temperature.  Emeline didn't sit still long enough to get many pictures but Lila isn't running yet so I got a few of her.

As I've mentioned, Miss Margene has been a generous spinning enabler and fiber stash builder.  A while back she sent some gorgeous EXTREMELY RED merino wool to practice with.  There was 45g of it which when you're a new spinner seems like an endless supply of fiber.  Whew it's pretty!!  If you like red you would LOVE this stuff.  I don't know this for certain but I think it's by Judy Jackson and is called Simply Red.  Is that right Margene?  So late last week - Thursday or Friday - I pulled out this fiber - oh, it was right after I spun that blue mohair that I showed a picture of.  Anyway, at that time, I got the red merino out and started spinning it in a medium weight single.  It seemed to go along so FAST!  The spinning is very mesmerizing and before you know it.... Poof!  The fiber is spun and on your spindle!  Wow.  I didn't want to ply this - I didn't want it to be barber poley - you know what I mean.  I wanted it to be just as I saw it there on my spindle.  And I swear I could hardly wait to dig some knitting needles into this stuff!!  This yarn wanted to be a scarf!!  Yeah.  A scarf from 45g of fiber.  Right.  Like feeding 5000 with a few fish and a loaf of bread.  Uh hum.  So I immediately skeined and washed and dried this red yarn.  And looked at it in my knitting basket in a little skeinette for about half a day before winding it into a center pull ball.  45g makes a good sized ball ya know!  Sure there's enough yarn here for a scarf.  Doesn't matter that every other scarf I've made was more like 200g or more.  This one ball.... sure - a scarf.  I cast on and knit until last night.... when it was gone - as in used up.  When it was about half way through Emeline decided that whatever it was.... it belonged to her.  No pictures, but I'm tellin you it was cute.  So last night I used up the yarn and washed the scarf.  And here it is.

Yarn:  Judy Jackson "Simply Red" merino - Handspun by me - approximately sport weight
Pattern:  Single Cable - no pattern - 16 stitches wide (6 stitch cable)
Needles:  US6 bamboo
Dimensions:  3" wide x 48" long (Perfect size for 2yo)

And so that was the weekend.  The only thing I haven't mentioned is that the girls and I are somehow.... sick.  With some kind of cruddy coughy hacky crusty boogery runny nosey watery itchy eyes nastiness.  It started with Lila Pearl having a fever on Thursday-Friday which I do think was a mild case of rubella - then Emeline and I also started feeling yucky.  It might be allergies - maybe a cold.  I don't know what it is but none of the medicine I've been giving the girls seems to be helping.  No more fevers but I'm achey and generally feeling rotten.  I've also thought that maybe we all three have rubella but I really don't know and we would just have to ride it out anyway.

Court Stuff (talked with attorney this morning):  To our knowledge, X was not served on Friday.  I'll know later today or tomorrow when he got the papers but I think he'll get them at work today - maybe.  Possibly at home tonight (the building he works in is not very approachable if you don't work there).  But I think he'll have them today.

Saturday Sky - Sunday Surprise - and ECF Extra!

Happy Holiday Weekend Sunday Everybody!  Isn't is awesome when you wake up on Sunday and it's not the last day of the weekend!  What a great feeling.  :)

SATURDAY SKY

So - I didn't post for Saturday Sky yesterday.  But I DID take the picture.  So SORRY if I worried anyone by not posting after the news of papers possibly being served, etc.  I was busy with my husband at home all day (for a change!), dyeing yarn, knitting a bit, making yarn balls (obviously necessary if you're knitting with your handspun or dyed), taking care of babies, and reskeining yarn.  I did a LOT of reskeining yesterday.  If y'all don't know, I reskein every bit of yarn I dye by hand.  Not with a swift - not with a skein winder - with my arm going around and around and around.  I've been wanting to save up for a couple of skein winders but it's so easy to use my yarn dyeing money for other things (like buying yarn for myself! hehe) so I don't have them yet.  Anyway, I spent several hours reskeining yarn yesterday and I'm not even finished!

Without further adieu (huh?  isn't that French for "goodbye"?)... maybe it's ado?..., here's the Saturday Sky from yesterday.  If you were a morning glory vine on my fence this is how the morning sky would look to you.  :)

I planted these seeds late - as in 4th of July weekend or something? - so they don't have any flowers yet.  I do think I've seen some tiny flower buds starting so hopefully we'll get some pretty blue flower pictures before the weather gets cold.

SUNDAY SURPRISE

I mentioned doing some yarn dyeing - here it is!  The Sunday Surprise is that I have two skeins of yarn for sale - one skein of merino sock yarn and one skein of.... laceweight merino!  Yes!  Laceweight!  People - this skein of laceweight merino is the first skein of yarn I've dyed that is VERY DIFFICULT for me to put up for sale because I think it's so beautiful.

Both skeins are in a new colorway - GRANDMOTHER'S LILACS.  The colorway was inspired by my friend Amy of Sea Anemone Knits who really liked the roving I started my spindle bag with - she said it reminded her of her Grandmother's Lilacs.  After telling me a few sentimental stories of her childhood in an email I just could not resist creating this colorway.  And I am completely in love with it.  I would like to drop every project on the needles right now and start a shawl immediately with this laceweight yarn and if I could slow down long enough I'd make a pair of socks to match.  It's just breathtaking to me.

100% merino sock yarn - 100g - 440yds

laceweight 100% merino - 100g - 880yds SOLD!  I'll be getting more of this ASAP so let me know if you would like to special order laceweight merino in any colorway!  :)

Both skeins of yarn are for sale on my blog only until Tuesday morning.  Whatever remains will be listed in the Sugar Bunny Blvd etsy shop on Tuesday morning.  Each skein is $20 plus $2 shipping to the US or $7 shipping to Canada.  If you are interested in either skein (or both) send me an email or leave a comment.  :)

EYE CANDY FRIDAY EXTRAS!

How in the world, after doing it LAST week, could I possibly forget pictures of pretty girls for Eye Candy Friday???  It's crazy.  Crazy to imagine that I could forget something as critically important as that.  So here ya go - my ECF Extras.  :)

Yesterday morning while I was taking Saturday Sky photos Emeline wanted to come outside and join me but didn't like getting her feet dirty - so odd because she typically doesn't notice.

From what we can tell, Lila Pearl will be as crazy about books as Emeline is.  This one seems to be her favorite right now.  It was a birthday gift to Emeline from Miss L but Lila has claimed it as hers.  She will pick it out of a stack of books - I guess because it's the one she likes the best!

Regarding the children - as of yesterday afternoon they couldn't tell if their dad had been served papers yet or not.  Our attorney won't hear from the process server until the next business day after service has been done so the soonest we will hear something is Tuesday (Monday is a US holiday).  The documents make it clear that the children know about this legal action and have been keeping it secret, so it's possible that he is choosing not to let them know since they're probably watching for a response/reaction from him and stepmother.  Benny and Katie are old enough to sign a statement of their preference of what parent should choose where they live and that has been filed with the court along with the petition.  I am staying in pretty close contact with the kids - at least talking to them every other day - so if there's anything to worry about they'll find a way to let me know.  They all have my phone number and address memorized so they can contact me if they need to.  Unless we get some other information during the weekend we'll just be waiting to hear from the attorney that papers have been served.

Have a great holiday weekend!  :)

Eye Candy Friday

Is it bragging if all I want to do is show off my spinning for Eye Candy Friday?  I don't mean to brag.  That sounds so very negative.  I am just having so so SO much fun spinning.

And after the events of the past few days - oh my gosh - I have so much nervous energy to burn!!  I have been typing about 200wpm and spinning like a madwoman!!  It's crazy!  And I want to spin THICK!  Isn't that weird and cool?  I just got my 2nd spindle in the mail yesterday - it's a tiny bit heavier and has a larger whorl than my first spindle (where the additional weight comes from) and so far both fibers I've worked with just want to be thicker.  I'm loving it!

So first up - the sunflower "Evening Sun" roving that I dyed and spun was plied and washed yesterday.  I did NOT spin it as tightly as the last two batches of yarn and it still came out very sproingy and squishy - just what I was hoping for.

Last night I was pacing the floor thinking about a lot of stuff - my mind was so full of THINKING about the court stuff.  I had to find something to do and calmly sitting in a chair knitting wasn't going to be it.  I got into the "roving drawer" in the kitchen and pulled out some fiber that Margene sent me - I've been petting this stuff since the day it arrived, knowing it would be the next thing I would be spinning.  Oh my gosh it was heavenly!!  The fiber is a 60/40 mohair/wool blend - the color is like faded denim or maybe stonewashed denim?  The mohair glistens.... this is truly beautiful stuff.  I paced around the kitchen a bit while I was spinning but really it did a good job of calming me down and erasing the crazy stuff going through my mind from the tornado of information I've been dealing with.  It wanted to be thick singles - Margene made some beautiful 2-ply yarn with this roving - for me it just begged to be thick and loosely spun.  Here's how it turned out.  Probably a sport weight single.

There isn't much more to say about court stuff at the moment.  I'll probably talk more about it over the next few weeks.  I spoke to the children last night on the phone and warned them that the papers had been filed and their dad would probably be served today (Friday) so they should be prepared for anything.  We agreed that he would probably completely freak out.  We're all good with that but a little afraid that Suzannah will take the brunt of their frustration and stress over this.  It very clearly states in the Petition that there is a concern for her safety "as there has been evidence of physical abuse of the child and injury or marks on the child apparently after discipline.  Petitioner requests the court to modify the parent that establishes the residence of the youngest child, and enter such orders as the Court deems necessary to protect the child from abuse.  It is requested that the Court enter such orders as are necessary to insure the protection and safety of the children."

It's there in black and white - in the document we filed yesterday.  This is GIANT in the scope of our lives.  I'm nervous.  For the kids - for us.  This is a big big big thing.

And to anyone concerned that I am saying things on my blog that could be "found" by my X - I don't have anything to hide.  If he finds it, I don't care.  If they've been reading my blog they haven't done a thing to indicate that they know about the action I've been trying to take - and it hasn't changed the awful way they have been treating the children.  There ARE things I still won't mention on my blog - things not mentioned in detail in the court documents.  But at this point I haven't revealed anything on my blog that they could use against us or know that we are using in our court strategy.

So X.... Stepmother.... if you're reading this - we'll see you in court.

In the mean time, I'm spinning and knitting.  :)

A Lady Named Phyllis

UPDATE:  The motion is filed and the hearing to establish temporary orders has been set for Wednesday, September 20.  Less than three weeks.  (And I still have nine pounds to lose.)  A private process server will be picking up the papers tomorrow and hopefully X will be served tomorrow.  Whew.  I better warn the kids to be ready for anything.  The hearing to establish temporary orders is MAJOR.  It's the biggest hurdle we have to clear in this whole thing.  Less than three weeks away.  Nerves are kicking in.  I'm ready to puke now.  Nine pounds should be a breeze considering how I feel at this moment.

There is a lady named Phyllis in Waco, Texas who is my favorite person on the planet today.  I just got done telling her that and it seemed to really make her happy.  I guess it's the little things, like doing your job, that bring people joy.

Wednesday Afternoon

Laura:  Hi Phone Answering Girl - is Mr. Attorney's Secretary there?

Phone Answering Girl:  No - call back in five minutes - she's at the courthouse.

Laura:  (five minutes later)  Hi Phone Answering Girl - is Mr. Attorney's Secretary there?

Phone Answering Girl:  No - not yet.

Laura:  I'll call back in five more minutes.

Laura:  (ten minutes later)  Hi Phone Answering Girl - is Mr. Attorney's Secretary there?

Phyllis:  This is Phyllis.

Laura:  Hi Phyllis - it's Laura.  Mr. Attorney said you would be putting together a form to email me....?

Phyllis:  Oh, I won't be getting to that today.  I work for two attorneys and one will be out on Friday so you know what I've been doing the past few days......

Laura:  Umm.... sure, yes.... I used to work at Big Firm Down the Street, I really know how that can be.  I'm so sorry to be bothering you... we sure are hoping to get this filed... the thing is that my husband leaves around nine in the morning.... do you think it might be ready by that time?

Phyllis:  Oh, I don't think so - we don't get in until 8:30 here.

Laura:  Ohh... well, okay.  I'm so sorry to bother you about it...  Mr. Attorney has just been dragging his feet for so long on this thing and.... well... maybe I'll just call in the morning around nine and see if you're almost done - my husband could leave a little later if you thought you could maybe...

Phyllis:  Well, it's not really that long.  I could probably get part of it done today and finish it in the morning.  Maybe even all of it this afternoon.

Laura:  Oh that would be so so nice Phyllis.  You just don't know. 

Phyllis:  I'll do my best.

Thursday Morning at 9:00am

Laura:  [signing on AOL to check email]

(phone rings)

Phyllis:  (very friendly tone)  I just emailed the document to you.

Laura:  Oh Phyllis!  I was just signing on to check my email!  You're so wonderful!  Thank you thank you!!

A few phone calls exchanged regarding typos - Phyllis emails corrected document.  Laura signs - Jeff takes to office to get notarized (the notary knows me!) and faxes documents.

11:15am

Laura:  Hi Phone Answering Girl - is Phyllis there? .... Hi Phyllis - did you get the fax?

Phyllis:  Yes, I got the fax and have already made all the copies and will be taking this to the courthouse in a little while to file.

Laura:  Phyllis, I'm so so happy - you're my favorite person on Earth today!!  Thank you so much!!

Phyllis:  Awww.... well that's so nice.  :)  (I could hear a smile in her voice)

I'll be calling Phyllis again this afternoon to find out the hearing date and make sure everything went okay with the filing.  Apparently Mr. Attorney is extremely busy (or is he extremely forgetful?) and forgot to tell Phyllis that X will need to be served, so she had yet another document to put together with the filing.

Hopefully X will be served tomorrow.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.  This is a very good day.  I need to knit.  Or something.  This morning I have been plying the Evening Sun singles that I spun last week so they'll be off the spindle and I can spin something else.  I'm about half way through the plying and wow - I'm just awestruck with how pretty the plied yarn is coming out.  What's fun is that it will look different when it's knit up too.  This whole spinning thing is so cool.  The stages of appearance.... dyed roving, singles, plied yarn, knit product.  Every stage is a mystery when you're using variegated rovings like this.  So fun and always interesting.

I'll probably do a tiny update to this post later this afternoon when I know the documents are filed.

UCCJEA

Uniform Child-Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act

The UCCJEA is some kind of act regarding interstate custody that helps to define the lines of jurisdiction, or where the "home court" will be when parents live in two states.  There are other things that it addresses, but it's important to cross our T's and dot our i's when doing all this.  I can understand that a detail like a UCCJEA form or formality can be forgotten until the last minute or overlooked completely when an attorney doesn't deal with a lot of interstate custody situations.  As mobile as our society has become, I think it's still pretty unusual to deal with parents who live in seperate states and are bringing custody matters to the court.  You can get a better idea of what it's about by googling it but most of the information is state-specific and there isn't much to be found regarding the state of Texas and the UCCJEA.  I think it's pretty much all interchangeable state to state - that's the whole idea, but the state-specific information is filled with "then what" kind of stuff that applies only to that state.  Pennsylvania had a good pdf that I found.  Most of it is in pdf form.

So this is the holdup today.  A form that has to be completed - a UCCJEA form - that has to be attached to the pleading (motion) that we're wanting to file.

I sent the address information that he asked for yesterday morning via fax within about an hour from speaking with him.  I waited all day yesterday for the email and it didn't come.  I phoned about four times today - he was always with clients or out of office.  I finally just talked to him a few minutes ago - first time today.

Laura:  Hi Mr. Attorney - it's Laura.

Mr. Attorney:  Oh hi - did you fax that information I asked for yesterday?

Laura:  (worried tone)  Well yes - you don't have it?? - I faxed it yesterday morning very shortly after speaking to you about it.  (really thinking "Of COURSE I sent the fax - you think I'm just sitting around here with my thumb in my [insert appropriate location here] watching soap operas?")

Mr. Attorney:  I'm sure it's here - I've been busy with clients and a hearing all day and just got back from the courthouse and was trying to get a bite to eat (munch munch) because I had to skip lunch.  I'll get my secretary to fill out the form.  Did I get your fax number...or did we say...

Laura:  I put my email address on the fax that I sent.

Mr. Attorney:  Okay good...

Laura:  Do you think you could also email the draft of the motion to me?

Mr. Attorney:  .... oh yeah, sure I can do that if you want... but I have to attach the UCCJEA form when it's filed with the court....

Laura:  I understand - I'd be so happy if you could email the motion..... so I should be looking for an email from your secretary this afternoon?

Mr. Attorney:  Well I don't know what all she's working on right now - she'll get it done this afternoon or tomorrow.

Laura: ... so you think it'll be... Friday for filing?....

Mr. Attorney:  Friday at the latest.

Laura:  okay, thank you.  thank you.  that's good, thank you.

I'm knitting.  And dyeing yarn.  And my husband will be home for supper tonight.  These are good distractions for me.  I've been watching a little more TV in the evenings lately too.  Actually I'm really looking forward to the new season of Lost.  Are they having reruns that I need to be checking out?  I need to find this out.