The Final Countdown....

Do you have that song stuck in your head yet? Sorry about that...

Well Thursday is the big day. My BLT will be here Thursday evening for five whole days. Sadly it's the longest block of time we've had all alone. I'm so looking forward to it.

I'll also be introducing my BLT to the kids for the first time. We've been seeing each other since last summer, and I'm not going to let the fact that the divorce papers aren't signed yet keep me from moving forward with my life.

I love him, he loves me, he knows I'm a package deal - hell if I were fast food I would be the super sized, jumbo lunch! I mean four kids and two dogs is quite the family to jump into the middle of.

He's not looking to be anyone's daddy. His parents were divorced, and he had an excellent example in his stepmother. When his dad and stepmom got together he suddenly got three siblings, and he's fully aware of the ups and downs headed his way if we decide to stay together.

But right now, he's a big part of my life. I want my children to know who I'm with when I they visit their auties or grandparents and I go away for the weekend. I don't want them to feel like I'm ashamed or keeping secrets - because I'm not.

Final countdown until BLT gets here is 5 days. I need to get my house in order, clean out my car (because the odor of sweaty kid's socks and french fries is not sexy and I want to spare him that when I pick him up from the airport!) Wash all my bedding, pick out what I'll wear to pick him up in, get the yard tidied up and all the toys under control, bikini wax, pedicure, give the dogs a bath, wash the slip-covers on the furniture, hit the market for something yummy to cook him for dinners, pack up the kids stuff and make sure they're ready to go to their aunties for the majority of the time he's in town, and order tickets to the comedy club we want to go to.

So far I have managed to book a hotel downtown for us for two of those nights so he can see the city and we don't have a 2 hour drive back to my place. I've also searched high and low and managed to find his favorite beer, and it's chilling in my fridge. I'm such a nice girlfriend huh? :)

Whew... wish me luck! I figure if I'm busy I won't have time to be too nervous. Not sure I'm right, but hey, it's a theory I can work with.

Maybe the Tides Have Turned

Today was an amazing day. At work we signed a new Warehouse up in Canada to carry our product. They've agreed to a place an initial order of 26k... yes, as in thousand. That's HUGE for us. HUGE. My father has been working for over two years to get this Warehouse to carry our line. Hallaluja they can continue to pay my salary!!

When I got home after work there was a message on my phone from my lawyer. She received a notice that a nice sized sum of money I've been owed for 6 months has finally been paid out. I should have it by next week at some point. Oh My Freakin' God...thank you, thank you, thank you. I need this money in the very worst way. I have bills to pay and I owe my parents a large sum for helping the girls and I get into our rental.

I have a cracked molar that needs repair, but w/o any insurance there was no way I could afford it until now. My kids all need clothes and new shoes, badly. I need to license my pets so they are legal. Just...well life. I need to finance our life.

Without any child support bills have been piling up. I'm so excited to get a few monkeys off my back. It's such a relief!!

This is the type of Sunday I remember

Today wasn't perfection or anything, but it was the first weekend since August that I felt was normal. It was as close as we've gotten in the past several months to a normal, stress free, drama free family Sunday.

We all over slept to begin with. Something I never do. I have a very hard time sleeping in general. I fell asleep some time after 3am, and I was dead to the world until 11 am. 8 whole hours is double what I normally get, and I'm a light sleeper too.... not today. I was in a coma, dead to the world until I woke up.

We walked to the video store to return a movie, then over to the park. It was cool out, but we had fun playing on the big toy, playing with the dogs, jogging a little bit around the paths. Then we took the dogs home and walked back to the video store to pick up Planet 51 we had on reserve. Back home for sub sandwiches for dinner, our movie, and then we played a couple games of Clue.

Laundry, and getting ready for school the next day, then bed for the kiddies. All in all, very normal. Normal feels amazing after all the upheaval and craziness we've had in the past 7 months. Normal feels like a gift.