Terrorists, Grandma and coughing teenagers beware!

Not only do terrorists and your grandma need to be aware that they may be booted off a plane, but now our teenagers need to be worried. There was a sixteen year old girl who was booted off of a plane because the pilot felt that "she was a risk to the other passengers". She was on a class trip to Washington D.C. and New York. She caught a cold while she was there and when she boarded a Continental plane to come home she fell asleep. She woke up and started coughing and couldn't catch her breath. After a few minutes she was fine. Her friend said it was just that annoying little tickle that you just can't seem to get rid of. She was examined by a doctor that was on the plane and was determined not to be a threat to the other passengers. But the pilot insisted that she leave anyway. She had to spend an additional night in New York with a teacher. Continental left them to find their own lodging and they had to pay for clothes and toiletries because all of their things were on the plane on the way home. Continental said they would pay for the hotel room only. The mother talked to someone from Continental who said the matter would be dealt with internally. If any of my daughters were treated this way I would sue Continental for everything I could get. You just don't boot kids off of a plane because they have a cold. You best be sure you don't have allergies or asthma if you fly on this airline. Especially after they have been examined by a doctor and deemed not to be a threat. You can be I will never use Continental Airlines.

Hot topic

We have a very sensitive topic around here. It's called illegal immigration. There are several states that are on the front lines as it were in dealing with this growing problem Texas, California and Florida. There is a small city where we use to live called Farmers Branch. There is a large Latino population living there and local law makers have put a ballet forward to make it illegal to rent apartments to undocumented immigrates. Now I am of the opinion that if you are here illegally, then you have no business being here. What sort of ticks me off about this is that there are people who don't live in Farmers Branch who are contributing large amounts of money to the against camp. Which means that these people are tipping the scales toward making it legal to rent to illegals. Somehow this seems wrong. If you live in Farmers Branch and are swimming in the bucks then by all means contribute how you feel toward this ballet. But there are rich cities around Farmers Branch who are sticking their noses in business they have no real right to be in. If you feel that strongly about illegal immigration then start your own ballet,. Now I know that what happens in Farmers Branch will set a precedence for the rest of the country, but it seems wrong that other cities can and are swaying the outcome. I have also read that a person who is working in the against camp was arrested for removing for signs from businesses and some people who live in Farmers Branch are afraid to put signs in their lawns for fear of reprisals. I feel for the people who live in Farmers Branch and I am glad we no longer live there.

Trying a new angle

As you are aware Sandy is in JROTC and wants to join the Air Force. You are also aware of some of the problems we have been having with Sandy. Today we had some rule breaking, snotty attitude, disrespect, ect. Mike & I have decided once and for all that we are sick and tired of all this "typical" 15 yr old behavior. So we are going to implement a military household. She will respond with "Yes sir/Ma'am-No sir/Ma'am". And we will call her by Cadet or Cadet Bacon. We are going to start implementing Non Judicial Punishment. Which basically means that she will be written up and treated as she would be if she was in the military. Since I am the Commander in Chief I get to decide what her punishment will be. At first it was 24 hrs without her computer as a night light, 5 push-ups, 5 sit-ups, 50 jumping jacks and running around the block once. She took this pretty well. Then I was reading a report that she has to do in ROTC. It has to be 8 minutes on any subject. I suggested that she write about wolves. She has been working on this since Saturday. She had three pages computer typed. As I read this I realized that most of what she had written was taken directly from the information she got off of an internet page we printed for her. I made the comment that I should make her do it over completely when I came across a sentence that went something like this. Pups will pounce on each other and old bones to practice their hunting skills and as people say practice makes perfect. Add that to a statement about wolves hanging out together after they have hunted just didn't work for me. When I made that comment she stomped off in a huff and it went down hill from there. Mike was talking to her like a DI (Drill Instructor) would and all she could do was stand at attention and laugh. That ticked him off more. She was not taking this seriously and we were very serious. So her punishment was doubled and she was told that she would get it added to if she kept up the stinky attitude. It will take a little time but she will come to realize that we are serious about making this a military household and anything she does that breaks the house rules will be dealt with in this manner.

Where NOT to go to school!!!!!

A few years back I decided that I wanted to improve my lot in life and to that end I initially decided that I would attend Capella College online. I went there for about 8 months and for various reasons I decided that this college was not for me and that I needed to take a break from school. I recently decided that I wanted to take up the college torch again. Mike & I had looked into the possibility of going to Kaplan online. We contacted them and the admissions rep, one very nice gentleman by the name of Dwight Fields contacted us. We started the looong process of filling out the initial entrance paperwork (online). We went in and changed our FAFSA and sent the confirmation to Dwight. We then talked to Trica, the financial aid adviser. She then transferred us back to Dwight. We talked to him for a bit longer. Then we got transferred to a Donna Herman, who was suppose to be our school adviser. This broad was, for lack of a better word, ditzy. At one point she bubbled "Isn't this fun?" Uh-huh, yeah right. We were then told that to insure that we were "serious about going to school we had to come up with a $95 admission fee which would not be part of our tuition and would this be a problem". We said it would be a major problem as we are on disability and can't afford that kind of a fee. We were then told of a scholarship that is available to students in financial need that they would be more then happy to help us get. We said sure, why not. We were told that we had to write a 250 word minimum essay on why Kaplan College, why now and why we needed this scholarship. OK, no problem there. At no point was it indicated that this essay had to be done today. We filled out more forms then told Dwight that we had to break for dinner. Our first phone call from him was at 2:00 p.m. and this was now after 6. We broke for dinner and I wanted to go for a walk. While Sandy was doing the dishes, we get an email with someone Else's information on it. Very sensitive information like SSN, address, phone ect. Whoops! Someone frucked up big time there. Dwight said he must have sent the information to the wrong person. NO!! Ya think!!!!???? That should have been our first major clue. He seemed to be alittle put out that we had to break for dinner. There was more information that he was trying to send to us but was not showing up in Mike's email fast enough. More phone calls ensued. He said he would call us back after checking on something. We waited a bit for him to call back, but finally decided that we would go ahead and take our walk. The phone was ringing while we walked out the door. Sheesh! Talk about over enthusiastic. I wondered aloud to Mike if perhaps he was working for a commission. I've dealt with used car salesmen who weren't as pushy. We get back and by this time I am mentally and physically exhausted, so while Mike was occupied with other things, let the phone ring......and ring............and ring. Mike calls Dwight back and he is wondering if something was wrong. We told him we had to run an errand. He starts pushing us to get the essay in right away. At first we reluctantly agree then decided that we needed to take a break and emailed Dwight that we would get to the essay later that evening and he would have it on his desk in the morning. We get another phone call from Dwight, again saying we HAVE to get this in immediately. Mike trys to tell him that we have hit a brick wall and need some down time and he puts the director of the admissions scholarships on the phone. Mike talks to her for a minute or two then says to me "You talk to her, maybe you can get through to her" and hands the phone to me. She trys to tell me that this damn essay just HAS to be in right now, that her staff is already working overtime to get us processed and that this is a one time only deal and if we don't get it in right now it won't be available later. I ask for just an hour, that this essay needs to be good and if it is going to be good we need to recharge our batteries and she tells me that if I give her a chance she will walk us through it to make it easier for us. Now how is she going to do that I might ask? All she is doing at this point is pressuring us to do something that we are willing to do if she just backs off and gives us an hour. We did not ask anyone to stay over and work overtime. I told her to forget it that we are no longer interested in going to Kaplan and hung up on her sorry ass. We get one more phone call which we did not pick up and whomever called did not leave a message on our voice mail.

We have since received a very insulting email from this lady saying that obviously we were not serious students if we needed to take a break. We have written an email to the head of Kaplan informing him of the practices of his Florida office (where we were going to go), the email we got with someone else's sensitive information on it and that we have no plans of ever going to Kaplan. We have also emailed the gentleman whose information we received by accident, telling him what happened and we are also going to try phoning him tomorrow. It just amazes me how hard these people were pushing us to get this one little thing done. Makes me really wonder if these people do get some sort of a commission if they get students in by a certain deadline. I mean, we were not going to be able to start classes until April 18, so what was the all fire rush to get us to submit an essay in less then 20 minutes? Did they wants us to do a sloppy job so they could say no to the help we were getting? Did they think that if they turned us down for the help on the admissions fee we would be able to cough up the money after all? Did they not want to give us the assistance? Gotta wonder.

Lazy Sunday

Today we were kidless so decided that we would sleep in a bit and just go to church. I was surprised at how few people showed up. I tried to call Tara & Elisa today but nobody was home. I tried calling yesterday but the first time I got a busy signal and the second time I got no answer. This is typical. I keep a phone record of when I call and when he calls. More often then not I am the one who makes the calls. Which is in contempt of the Missouri court order. He is suppose to let my girls call me every other week. I find myself lucky if they call me once a month. I checked the log yesterday and discovered (not to my surprise) that it had been a month since I had called and talked to them. I don't know if I can do anything about this right now seeing as the Missouri courts threw out my petition for a GAL. I think any other legal work that needs to be done will need to be done with a lawyer and that will require us to wait until we have more free money available. It really makes me angry that he gets away with so much crap.

Mike and I have started walking again. We only walk around the block but ya gotta start somewhere. I feel good about starting again. Another exciting day in the Bacon household.

Happy & Sad

Today we had a health fair at church. It was very good. There were several booths with various health topics. They had some senior citizens come in and play ukuleles and sing. At one point a gentleman's dentures came flying out. He made a good save and went on with the song. Too bad I didn't have a camcorder and could have sent it to American's Funniest Videos. There was a labyrinth that was very relaxing and enlightening. Basically it was a huge sheet that had a winding path painted on it that you followed to get into the middle. There was a basket with pieces of paper that had little scripture saying in it. You could journal if you felt the need. They served healthy lunch which for the most part wasn't too bad. Sandy has next week off for spring break. Our friend Mary offered to take Sandy for a few day to give everybody a break from each other. Mary use to teach ADHD kids so knows how to deal with Sandy's temper tantrums. However she did confide in me that their elderly Shetland Sheepdog Nikki is dieing. Neither one of us took that news too well. I don't know at this point if Sandy knows or if Mary will have to put Nikki to sleep. She is an old dog and lived a good long life. She is a sweetheart and just loved going out into the back yard and playing with Sandy. She will be missed. It brought up memories of when I had to put my dog Max down. He was as old as Nikki is now, but sometimes I wonder if I had done enough to save him. My parents went back east to settle my grandfather's accounts after he died a year before. I was going to my fiancé's grandmother's birthday party. We put Max into a kennel and they did not follow our directions on how to take care of him. I got him home and he had lost a lot of weight. I went back to work the next day and found that he had made about four messes (most of them in my parents room), justice if I ever saw it. I had asked that he be put down knowing that he would not survive being in a kennel, but my father couldn't do it. One of the few times that my so called mother didn't over rule him. So I took him to the vet and she gave him some fluids and he seemed to perk up, but she couldn't tell me if that would have been enough to keep him from making more messes and my mother was very clear that when the dog started messing her carpet up that she would put Max down. So I figured it would be easier to do it then rather then hear my bitchy mother complain about all the messes. I wouldn't have put it past her to take it out on the poor dog. But sometimes I wonder if I gave up on him too soon.

Thursday grocery shopping

Every Thursday Mike & I (or one of us) will go to an organization known as CCA. It stands for Catholic Community Action. It provides all sorts of help to people who need it. They have helped us get caught up on our utility bill and provide food vouchers. The food that you get there for the most part is pretty good. The amount of food you get is determined by the income and number of people in the house. They have frozen meat like hamburgers, chicken, turkey rolls, sometimes diet food and today gallon containers of ice cream. I was really tempted to pick up some of the ice cream. But we are allowed three frozen items and I figured it would be better to get actual food as opposed to junk food. Besides our freezer was filled to the brim with bread. Each time we go we are allowed five loaves of bread. Which is far more then what we normally eat. We have tried to tell them that we don't need that much but they are very insistent. We finally got to the point where we pulled out what we thought we would not eat and gave it away to the neighbors across the street. So we did our good deed for the day. Now our freezer isn't as full and we can put other things into it (no not ice cream as much as I would like to) we can go out and buy some meat on sale to give us a little more variety.

Invasion of the kitty snatchers

I don't know if any of you have seen the old movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"? But it's a movie (and I am sure I will get this wrong as I have only see it once and that was in 8th grade. Memory is not what it use to be and SOME of us don't have a brain filled with useless movie information) about these plants that suddenly appear on earth and these plants change you while you are asleep. You look the same but don't act the same. Now you are asking what this has to do with our four footed kids. We currently have two cats and one kitten. Jenny, our Calico, is the oldest at 4 and is the "typical" cat in that she will give you affection when she deems that SHE wants it. She views her humans as people who are here to cater to her.....i.e a cat. Shadow is our black Siamese mix and he is 3. He is a talker and thinks he is a dog. He will wag his tail and play fetch with you for as long as his toy will hold out. He use to be the lover of our family until we brought Mac into the mix this past June. Mac is an orange Tabby who will purr the moment you pick him up. He loves to make bread on me and the down side to this (other then his claws that need to be clipped every two days it seems like) is that while he is making bread he will also make a puddle of drool. He is also the resident bully. He loves to torment Shadow to distraction.

Now the past week or so Shadow and Jenny have traded places. Shadow has turned into a butt head. He has been growling at Sandy (something he has not done in about a year) and he wants very little to do with me (which is unusual). He will stiffen up when he gets picked up and he complain when you pick him up and put him down. He will not sleep next to me at night, he might sleep next to Mike, provided that Mac hasn't chased him off. Jenny on the other hand has been super affectionate to me, jumping in my lap, sleeping next to me (which in very rare) and following me around the house. It's like these two cats have traded places.

Rain, rain please come again another day

As Mike mentioned we got a storm that moved through about 4 p.m. The sky got all dark and soon we had rumble booms (my name for thunder) then it started to pour. Our little town even got on the news as one of the areas that got the most rain. Usually when we have storms we are missed. If we are lucky we will get some gusty winds and maybe some sprinkles and that will be it. I use to be terrified of thunder and lightening as a kid but somewhere along the line I find them fascinating. I will stand under an overhang or porch and just watch the storm move through. I love the smell of rain and hearing it on the roof is so relaxing. I do have some concerns as we are living in tornado alley, so in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning I will stay up just to be sure that there no tornado warnings I should be aware of. Until we get a decent underground shelter, not a basement, I won't sleep easy from the months of March through November. But then who am I fooling, I don't sleep much anyway, so there is not much difference.

Oldie, moldy poems

I have dredged up some poems I wrote way back when I was in high school. Some of them are upbeat and others are...................well...............a bit depressing. But what can I say? I was in high school, I was a walking hormone. I hope you like.

Rain:

Down came the rain in sheets of dismal gray. To fall upon the earth, to bring forth new shades of green. Spring has come, life has begun. The cycle is renewed, life is complete.

Glory:

Laying alone in the dark I let my mind and soul rise above the strife and poverty. And as I drift over the crowded tenements and crime infested streets, my heart is saddened at the thought of leaving. But there is peace in my heart also. For at last I have triumphed over all.

Awakenings:

Standing on the hill facing the rising sun, my heart flies like a soaring eagle. As the horizon slowly turns crimson, my soul is freed to roam this land. As I drift above the earth I see the boundless beauty that can only improve with time. Beauty that will last for countless generations.

Spring has arrived in Texas................for the moment

I noticed while out doing yard work yesterday that the trees and birds think that spring has arrived. A few trees in our neighborhood had burst into flower. We have a male and female Cardinal feeding at our feeder and sitting in our big tree. I heard the first lawn mower today and the balmy air feels nice. But there is a motto here, if you don't like the weather in Texas just wait five minutes. This could change, after all it is only March. And the old saying goes March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. I have to say my favorite season is Spring. I have a poem about spring that I will have to post soon. However I am not looking forward to summer's heat. Oh well, at least it doesn't last as long as the heat in Phoenix.

Yard work

Yesterday was Saturday and it was a perfect day for doing some yard work. I raked the leaves in the back yard and Sandy followed picking them up and putting them in the trash bucket. We didn't get the entire yard done, gut it looks alot better. Note to self tho *Self, be sure to do this activity in the fall when you are not fighting with the growing weeds*. Mike & I got into yet another row with Sandy (what else is new). She had decided to spend last Sunday with a friend from church (and of course she couldn't decide to do her laundry on Saturday). She got home too late to do her laundry on Sunday, so it waited until this Saturday. We have told her over and over that doing her laundry while we are still sleeping is not a problem, but she "forgot". Now while I understand she was trying to be thoughtful, we have given her permission to use the washer and dryer to get her clothes washed. Seeing as I was barely awake when she started her laundry I didn't pay attention to what she was doing. About 20 minutes into the wash cycle I look over at her basket and see that it is empty. She had taken two weeks of laundry and stuffed them into my washer. I have showed her over and over just how much laundry constitutes one load and yet she still stuffs all of her clothes into my washer. Well we had more then a few words with her. The washer finished with out exploding or dieing in the process but I will see what happens when I do our next load. Since I can't trust her to do as she is told I will have to do her laundry on top of all the other chores I have to do around here since Mike is laid up with his back. We both cleaned/raked so much that both of us didn't make it to church today.

We still don't know about her World Geography grade as the teacher hasn't posted the test that she took at the end of last week. However we did find one project of maps that was worth 400 points that she managed to loose. She made no attempt to talk to the teacher to see if she could do something to make up these points and there was another project that she had 5 days to complete and in typical Sandy fashion put it off until the last day (probably Friday morning) and she "didn't get enough time to complete it" and did not turn in what she had done (if anything). I think that project was worth 200 points. So while she did thinks she did well on her test and had brought her grade up to just below a D, we don't know what it is at this point. We will have to contact her contact teacher Coach Herrod to see if she can find out what her final grade is in this class. If she has flunked this I don't know what this will do to her chance of graduating from the Freshman class. I can hope that she will be able to take summer school, other wise she will have to repeat her Freshman year, or at least that class which will put her one class minimum behind where she should be through the next three years. We have an ARD meeting in April to discuss her future options. We will also have to contact the Air Force, Army & Navy to see if they have a minimum grade GPA to get into basic. Let's just hope and pray that she makes up her mind to graduate and make a life for herself. Mike & I certainly can't make her do the work let alone turn it in. She has to be the one who wants more for her life then flipping burgers or ending up with 5 kids on the welfare system with a boyfriend who will not work to support his kids and beat down Sandy.

Start of spring cleaning

Today Sandy came home early because she had testing. Mike put her to work washing and waxing our car. And naturally it is suppose to rain on Sunday. Oh well, it needed it. Anyway I took the time that Sandy was otherwise occupied to clean out her dresser and closet. Any clothes that she had not worn in the past three months or was what I determined to be too small was put into a large garbage bag. I ended up with two bags stuffed to the gills (do garbage bags even have gills?). I put the bags in our room figuring that if I put them in the garage Sandy would go through them and pick out what she felt she still needed. However I forgot to take into account that we have two kittys that just love to shred plastic of any sort. So I walked into our room a few hours later to find one bag shredded. I hope no one swallowed any pieces. I guess we will find out soon enough. Mike then tried to get Sandy to rake our back yard. She had no clue and did not get a clue on how to do it even after Mike showed her several times. I will have to go out tomorrow and finish what she didn't do and she can follow behind me and pick up the piles.

We got an email from Sandy's contact and Algebra 1 teacher. It seems she is a distraction in the tutoring class as well as her Biology class. She takes after her father, she talkes too much. She is no longer allowed to have any time on the school computer unless a teacher insists on it. The only reason Sandy is doing and turning in her work is because of this teacher. Both the Algebra and the Biology teacher feel that she can do the work, she is just lazy and refuses to do it. Mike and I feel that it would be better if Sandy was put into Special Education classes, at least for the time being. Until she decides that she wants to pass her Freshman year and eventually graduate. In a strange way this news is encouraging..................to us anyway. It's kind of nice to know that we are not the only ones that Sandy is giving a hard time to.

Busted again............................naturally

I keep thinking that someday Sandy will learn that she can't get anything past us. This morning I got up with Mike. I was going to my ladies bible study and Mike was going to the food bank to get our weekly allotment of food. At 7:45 this morning (the time that Sandy is allowed to leave to catch her bus) I hear her trying very hard to walk quietly down the hall. I look up and she is about to walk out the door and see that she is walking out with sandals on her feet. It was far too cold for her to wear them to school and she did not ask if she could wear them. So I told her that she needed to turn her butt around and change into sneakers and that she is not allowed to wear sandals to school. She turns around, goes into her room for about 30 seconds and stomps out the door, yelling bye over her shoulder and slamming the door. I turn to Mike and say "She was not a happy camper about changing her shoes". He says "Oh well, she will get over it. I would have considered letting her wear them if she had asked and it was the last day of school". Since we can't trust Sandy to do as she is told I decided that I would take her sandals into our bedroom so she would have to ask before she can wear them. I search her room top to bottom and could not find her sandals. I figured she put them in her backpack. When she walked in the door this evening after school, I searched her backpack, but could not find the sandals. I asked her where her sandals were and she gets this "Oh crap I'm busted again" look on her face. She just gives me a blank look. Mike asks her if they are in her locker and she said yes. I asked her how they got there and she gave me another blank look. I said you took them to school after you were told not to, didn't you? She was honest enough to say yes. I told her to bring them home and that she was going to loose them. She was not too happy but right now she is lucky to even have shoes. I will not tolerate disobedience and lying.

Something I did not know

I have lived with animals, mostly dogs (well one dog) and several cats all my life. I used to work at the Toledo Zoo and have watched all sorts of animal programs. I have also read lots of books on how to take care of dogs, cats, horses ect. So I consider myself, well not an expert, but knowledgeable on the animals that live with and around us. But I have to say that today I learned something that I was not aware of. I guess you could say that a day you don't learn something new is a day that is lost to you, but this was something that I can honestly say that I would have been happier not knowing. I was in the bathroom taking care of a few necessities and our black Siamese Shadow wandered into the bathroom to see what I was doing. After rubbing up against me a few times he wandered into the shower. About three seconds later I heard my cat belch. Yes, a full blown, very rude sounding belch. I was so surprised. I did not know that cats could belch. I know that alot of animals fart, but a belching cat was a new one on me. I moved the shower curtain and said "Goodness sakes Shadow, need a napkin or something"? He ran out of the shower and stopped in the doorway. He had the good grace to look embarrassed. So I have learned something new today.

Huh?

Sandy's high school has been offering a program after school to help students who want help with core subjects-Math, World Geography, English ect. The program offers teachers and students who can help tutor kids who need help. These people are available in the library from 4:15 when school is dismissed to 6:15. Busses are provided to bring students home. Sandy has been taking advantage of this program for the past three weeks or so. When she started staying late she would walk through the door about 6:45. We were not too happy with this time frame but we did notice right away that Sandy was turning in her homework and thus bringing up her grade in World Geography and was getting additional help with Algebra, which has helped keep her grade at a even level. However as time went by she was slowly getting home later and later. At first we thought that she had taken off on us. This was on a day that Mike & Sandy had gotten into a fight before she left for school. As it turned out she was on the bus, it was just that the bus had alot of kids who needed to be dropped off. Well tonite she didn't get home until 7:45. Sandy told us that the bus driver lets off each student riding the evening bus at their home. Mike and I admitted that as much as we like having her take the bus at night, it was time for us to pick her up at 6:15. Thank goodness we now have a car to do this with. For about two months we were without any transportation. We sent an email to the 9th grade principal complaining about the late drop offs and suggesting that maybe a second bus would be advisable. Each grade has it's own principal. That is a first for us. Sandy's principal sent us an email back saying that there is not enough students riding the bus home each night to warrant another bus. Excuse me? This program runs until 6:15. Sandy's bus route is the longest route on the school run. The bus driver lets off each student at their house. Sandy isn't getting home until a minimum of an hour and a half after she is dismissed and I am certain that she is not the last student that is dropped off. By the time she finishes eating it is after 8 p.m. Her bedtime has been moved from 8:30 to 9:00. At this late hour her Adderall is no longer in her system, which means she can't stay focused on her homework. This principal was also yelping at parents the importance of students getting 8-10 hours of sleep a day. You do the math. And she can sit there and tell us that this doesn't warrant another bus? Again, what is wrong with this picture.

Missouri, the state that refuses to come into the 21st century

As some of you may or may not be aware we have two other daughters who currently live with my jerk of an ex. I won't go into all the details because that would take all night, but I have filed child abuse charges against my ex. I filed all the appropriate paperwork, was given leave by the courts to proceed as a poor person. My ex was given the same permission. We get assigned a Guardian Ad Litem or GAL. This person works for the state and is assigned to cases of neglect and alleged abuse. This person will investigate the home, talk to people and more importantly talk to the kids without the parents around. They are specially trained to spot the signs of abuse and they are the voice of the kids rights in court settings. Well this, and you will excuse my language as I am still extremely angry, bitch sends both of us a letter stating that she wants the two of us to deposit $500 "to insure that she gets paid seeing as she has been stiffed (not her term) before". Now what is wrong with this picture? You are going before a judge in a court of law and ask that two people who have been given permission by the courts to proceed as poor people (in other words we are too damn poor to pay the courts fees) to pay a grand to do a job that the state pays her to do!!!!!!! I send her a copy of the court order giving me permission to proceed as a poor person and tell her that I am on disability and can't pay her fee. She petitions the court to have the case dismissed. The first court date was set for February 26th. The big day arrives and the only one to show is the person who is having charges of child abuse filed against him. The GAL had a case in another county and could not be there and seeing as her fee had not been paid she wanted the case dismissed. The judge rules that since my ex was the only one who shows, and he can't hear a case with only one person there, the case will be rescheduled for a date to be determined later. This past Saturday, March 3, I receive a letter for this wonderful employee of the state, wanting the judge to dismiss the case set for MARCH 1!!!!!. Say what???? What court date???? Nobody bothered to inform me of this. This paperwork is dated February 28th. Now granted I couldn't be there in person, but I should have been notified of this date. If I had known that the date was set up I would have sent more information to the judge against my ex. And to add insult to injury, I get paperwork from the court informing me that the hearing had been set for March 1 and that the case has been dismissed. This paperwork was dated March 2. Upon further looking at the calender I discover that only three days had passed from the original court date and the second. Hearings only get heard this fast in soap operas. Yet again I try to do the right thing for my kids and the state of Missouri kicks me in the stomach.

As I see it the state of Missouri just told me that unless you are rich and can afford to hire a lawyer don't bother to fight for your kids rights. You will get screwed, glued and tattooed.

Was this really a good idea?

I was born and lived 10 yrs in Indiana and lived another 10 years of my life in Ohio. I grew up in tornado alley and knew all the steps to take if I was in a car, building, school, church or even out in the open to avoid being hurt/killed when I encountered a tornado (and if you live in tornado alley it will be a when). Two days ago a massive storm tore through parts of Alabama, Georgia and Missouri. Twenty people were killed, eight of them students at an Alabama high school. The town of Enterprise was warned three hours ahead of time that the storm would be moving through. Warning sirens blared at 10:30 a.m., the tornado hit at 1:15 p.m. School officials moved the students into the hallways at that time the sirens went off (what you are suppose to do). The officials dismissed school at 1:00 p.m. but most decided to stay. Survivors at the scene told of huddling in the auditorium. Now the way to survive a tornado if a basement is not at hand is to get into an interior room, hallway or bathroom and huddle under a blanket or mattress (yeah like most of us are capable of hauling our mattresses off our beds and into a bathroom). That being said why in the bloody hell did the teachers move the students from the hallways into the auditorium? Why did they even have school in session when the administrators were warned that morning that a massive storm was going through the area. I think it would have been far better (to a certain degree) that the students be left in the care of their parents at home. Yes you still would have had fatalities but you would not have had frantic parents rushing to the school, trying to find their kids. You wouldn't have had distraught parents digging through piles of rubble looking for their kids, and even worse then that, finding them dead. I can't even being to imagine shifting through tons of rubble, wondering if I was going to find the arm or leg of my dead child. I just shudder at the thought. I saw satellite images of that storm, so the people living in that area had to have seen it also. There is no way I would have sent my kids out in that kind of a storm, knowing that a tornado is always a possibility. There is not one state in the United States that doesn't have the capability of producing a tornado. It's just some states are at a higher risk. My prayers go out to the parents of the dead students and the survivors of those storms.