The Sausage Turns Two

I can't believe it, but today is the sausage's birthday. And that's not an April Fool's joke - we've really had her almost that long. We're buying her some sort of gift tomorrow night. I did have a doctor's appointment today, but it's snowing off and on, and I don't want to get stuck on the mountain roads if it decides to snow hard. So I'm lounging around in my ratty old jammies, knitting away on whichever pair of socks strikes my fancy.

The big news this past week has been Amber. As you all know, she left her husband and was living with some meth head. Well, she kicked him out and tried to come back to her hubby. Fortunately, he was aware of her proclivities towards lying and only doing what benefitted her, so he turned her away and wrote her a rather nasty letter, going so far as to call her a lying whore. He had a long conversation with Hubster, and I think that helped him realize that his decision was the right one. So what did the kid do? She moved the meth head back into her apartment and told her soon to be ex that since Hubster and I had chosen his family over her, she didn't want anything more to do with us, that she was doing just fine without us, blah blah blah. It's nothing she hasn't said before, so my feelings aren't really hurt. In fact, I'm not really hurt by anything she says or does anymore. I think it's a protection mechanism on my part. I had to do that in order to save my sanity. Otherwise, I tended to dwell on it and cry a lot. I've got enough going on in my life that's hurtful or painful, let alone having her add to my problems. I think she figured we'd come crawling to her. Since it hasn't happened, maybe she's finally realizing that nobody really gives a shit about what she's doing. It seems that she can't live alone, so she moves in whoever shows any interest in her. Of course, the kids are well aware that different guys are coming and going, and it's beginning to traumatize them. I'm really worried about them, and if Mom gets permanent custody, she's informed us that we'll be getting them soon because she's getting too old to raise them. That's great, except we've got that little health issue of mine. If we're able to qualify for a new house (more on that below), it's got to be a large house to accommodate them. Oh well - things will work out the way they're meant to.

As far as the kids go, Mom goes to court in July for the final hearing on custody. With Amber living with that creep, I don't think it's going to be a problem to take the kids away from her. We also found out that she was definitely pregnant and had an abortion - the ex took her to get the pills for it. That's going to hurt her standing with the court. It makes me really upset to think about the kids around that guy, so I'm hoping the court sees things our way. Mom has spent about $23K so far fighting this battle, and we can't help her monetarily. All we can do is stand by and wait to see what happens.

We did have a bit of bad news. As I said in my last post, we were trying to qualify for a house loan. Well ... we didn't get it. I wasn't surprised, since our credit report isn't up to date, and there's a lot of shit on there that's long been paid off. Now we get to go through the agony of trying to update the fucking thing. Our mortgage guy is really difficult to get ahold of, so I don't know when we're going to start the process. Fortunately, we love the house we're in right now, and I don't think our landlord is going to kick us out. There are worse places to be stuck, so we feel fortunate that we're here. It's just so difficult to save money, especially with Hubster's salary cut, but I suppose I should be grateful that he's even got a job. What pisses me off is that there are programs for people who are about to lose their houses and people who are first-time buyers, but nothing for people in our position. Once again, the middle class gets shit on. We make too much money to get help from any agencies and not enough to be rich. Oh well. At least we're not on skid row living in a refrigerator box on the sidewalk.

The hate mail continues to flow in, so I've taken to making Hubster read my email. Some of it I can deal with; some of it I just can't. The piles of shit I've got in my studio are slowly but surely disappearing, but it's the stitch markers I just can't figure out. Most people didn't mark them in any way, so I have no idea what belongs to whom. I just don't want to send the wrong things to the wrong people. That would be a nightmare. Then I'd have to have things going back and forth until I found their owners. Sigh.

That's really about it. Nothing exciting has come in the mail, my socks are making progress (but not enough to take any pictures), the sausage has stopped limping and has taken to barking all day because Hubster isn't paying her constant attention, and I'm exhausted. I think I'll go knit, take a nap, and then go rummage around in my studio. Maybe I'll have good luck and find things.

Now that's an April Fool's joke.