Back to Work

Well, I guess the vacation is almost over. One more week of "vacation" time left, and then it's back to work. I'm looking forward to my new job. However, I am a little nervous at the same time. It is the first contract position that I have taken, and with that, I am not sure of what all to expect. Over all, I think it will be the same as other positions, and can't be any worse than the last organization I was working for. The contract term is for 18 months, so at least it will be awhile before I have to start thinking about looking for another position again.



Anyway, I wanted to give everyone a quick update. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts.

Snow Bunny

I just thought I would share some pictures of our friendly family bunny that lives out front. He has pretty much successfully eaten the remaining leaves off of our bushes out front.


He just stays there when we go in and out. We even bought some carrots on our last trip to the store just to make sure he had enough to eat.

A Good Christmas

I think this had to be the biggest hit out of everything. She loved her princess dresses and is still playing with them all the time.


She is such a little princess. She loves to pose and smile for pictures all the time.


Em had to do a little convincing to get Carter to join in the fun and put on the crown.

... but as you can see once he got started, he had a blast too (even with coordinating his shoes). He even asked if he should take his pants off because they didn't look good showing under his dress!

Those two are pretty much inseperable. They were heading back to the castle to play some more at the end of the day.

All in all, they both had a great time, and the older ones and I all had a blast watching them. It was a great Christmas and I am hopeful that it is a sign of what is going to be a great 2010.

Long Time No Post

It's been a long time, and a lot has happened since my last post. I guess the item at the top of the list is the fact that I finally had my hearing and have visitation back to normal with the kids. Actually, it is a little better than normal. Before I had to put up with Michelle and deal with her everytime I went back to visit them. However, now whenever I go back (which is set at every other weekend just as before), Michelle has to leave the house and can't come back until my visitation is over. The judge took the times I requested verbatim and gave me pretty much everything I was asking. I have no idea where she will go on my weekends, and although it might not be the nicest thing in the world to say... I really don't care where she goes or what she does. I finally get to enjoy quiet time with them without her interuptions or anything else. I had the first of those visits this past weekend, and it was wonderful. I will share some of that in a later post, but wanted to use this as more to catch up with things.

The second major item that has changed since my last post is my dad. Things did not look good for awhile, but he had another PET scan done and things are looking up. They don't think the spots on either of his lungs are cancer at this point. It's been a little bit of a roller coaster, and I know he is getting tired of it (we all are), but we are all happy that for the moment we are on a positive note and plan to enjoy that over the holidays.

Lastly, the other item that has changed since my last post is work. I don't really want to share all the ins and outs regarding that item. However, let's just say that I am thankful the job market is starting to turn around, and there seems to be a few good opportunities out there.

I'll try to get some more posts up soon and include some pictures of the little ones from the holidays. They are always so much fun, and can always bring a smile to your face.

The school play

The play was pretty funny this year. They tried to fit all of Greek mythology into 99 minutes or less. I actually saw it twice. The first time I saw it, they finished in just over their time limit. However, they were able to finish with a couple minutes to spare the last time.


I think Andrew was having a little fun and getting into his role a little bit. What do you think?


He had been shot and people were behind him talking about him like he was dead. He was sitting there saying "Hey... I'm right here, come on... help me up."


This was his big part. He took center stage with the rest of the cast around him. The picture isn't so great. The first time I saw the play I got a video of this portion, but it is too big to upload to the blog, so the picture will have to do.

It was a great play, and overall a pretty good weekend with the kids. However, I didn't know at the time that it would be my last weekend there for awhile. Hopefully, that will all be resolved soon, and I will be able to share some more time with them and create some new memories.

More bad news

I found out over the weekend that my dad's cancer is back. I don't have too many details yet, as I am waiting for another call sometime later this week. His doctor wants to review the results with another doctor, and then will get back to us as to what they think.

At this point, it looks like there are at least two masses that have been spotted in his lung, with the larger of the two being about 3/8 of an inch. Chemo has been mentioned, but right now we are waiting to hear what the doctors have to say after getting together to review his file.

I don't know what else to say for now, so I guess this is another item that I will have to try to keep people updated on as I get more information.

From bad to worse

I have had two separate hearings at this point, and no agreement has been reached in regards to the wonderful little protection order Michelle filed against me. This means that a new date has been set, and this time it is set for three weeks out and will be a half day trial.

I kind of like the fact that it will be a half day trial. It will force her to show what evidence she has (or the lack thereof), and therefore; I fully expect the thing to be thrown out and for me to not have to worry about it anymore. However, in the meantime, Michelle discovered that since they used a standard form for the order, and she listed the kids on the form to be returned to her... there is a nice little clause listed at the bottom of that paragraph that prevents me from having ANY contact with the kids. That's right, it means absolutely no contact with any of my little ones for the next three weeks.

I am currently on day two of that wonderful little time span, and I'm just not sure if I am going to be able to make it a full three weeks without hearing any of their voices, or being able to know what they are up to and how things are going. I can't believe Michelle would do this to the kids. I knew things would not exactly be pretty in filing for divorce, but I did not expect them to be quite this ugly either.

I will try to update periodically as to how things are going, but at this point, I don't know that I will have much to say other than... "I miss my kids!"