Sistah Pat

 I hab a code.  Node is stobbed ub an I can’t breave. 

Still taking Dayquil and Nyquil.  I’ll be glad when it runs it’s course. 

Yeah, Chickies, it’s nice to know that I can retire in four years.  If I can bring myself to do it.  At this point, I can get another $220 per month for each additional year I work.  I can just see myself hanging in there for “just one more year” a few times.  We’ll see.  If nothing else, it makes me feel good to know retirement is a real possibility.  Now I have to take the figures I have from Kentucky Teachers Retirement System to Social Security to see how much (if any) social security benefits I’ll get.  I think DH is going to make an appointment to talk to his “people” next Friday.  I get these “last minute” offers from cruises, airlines, and hotels all the time.  “If you can leave by next week, you can get a 7 night cruise through the Western Caribbean for just $399.00 per person!”  I’d love to be able to just pack my bags and go.  In fact, I’d love to be able to just jump in the RV and take off for places unknown whenever we feel like it.

No further news from DIL’s mother since the message she left on DS’s phone yesterday.  I’m sure she’ll be calling today to try to “talk about this”.  I had a fleeting moment of sympathy yesterday evening but then I remembered when I took temporary custody of the kids five years ago.  MIL went to court with us and told the judge DIL had some “serious problems” and she didn’t think she was able to care for her kids.  The judge gave me custody until the whole issue could be decided (turned out to be 1 1/2 years) and MIL told me she’d “help out as much as possible by taking the kids and giving me a break whenever she could”.  She picked them up from around 4:00 to 7:00 one evening during the first week and then she took them to a movie for a couple of hours the second week and then she never picked them up again.  I might be a bit more sympathetic to her if she’d shown more involvement and committment to the kids in the past but I think she’ll be able to hang on a couple more weeks until we can work out details for visitation.  As I said, I don’t think it’s really about her wanting to see them anyway.  I think it’s about DIL seeing them.  I know she misses them.  I understand that.  In her own way, she really loves them.  It’s just that she has always placed her wants and needs above theirs and she always will.  That’s not what a mother does.  If it comes to a choice of what she wants and what they need, it will always be what she wants.

Alright, guess I should get this day moving.