Ranting

Slowly but surely, I am getting over being fried from our day at the waterpark. I still can not believe how sunburnt I did get after applying 50 block sunscreen three times! Jack is nursing a good sunburn on his shoulders, which he whines mightly about quite often.

We are still in the middle of drama in the Jackaroo house. Laura's mother is enjoying playing with all of our emotions, but especially Laura's, by not making a decision whether Laura can stay here. I have a feeling that she will drag it out until the night before Laura was scheduled to go back and putting all of us through the wringer. Laura is so torn up inside because she really does want to stay here and go to the same school as Jack. But her mother keeps coming up with new reasons why this place is a horrible place. The list is quite long, which includes, she will get fat (her mother tells her she is fat all the time and does not let her eat anything but salads), I will turn into an evil step-monster and eat her while she sleeps, Mississippi is a horrible, humid place that nobody wants to live in, her entire "lifestyle" will change, her father works (doesn't most fathers?), this decision will be a huge mistake that will forever scar Laura in irrevocable ways.

I am so tired of this mess. I really do want Laura to stay. She is a joy to have around. But I am tired of having Laura's mother having control over MY life as she has for the last 6 years. Even my wedding plans to Jim had to be scrapped and we ended up going to Vegas because of her. And here she is again toying with us. It is very similar to the way a cat plays with a mouse - very cruel. Every time we press her for an answer, she comes up with some other BS, the last being she wanted 10 reasons from both Jim and Laura why Laura should stay here. Then there was the time she wanted info on the school and she was going to talk to Laura's teachers to see if they "approve" of the school, even though it is a top-rated private school. Of course they both emailed their reasons off to her two days ago with no response. Jim has tried to call her about 20 times and she does not answer her phone. Again, she holds all the cards and I am sick sick sick of it.

As it stands now, if she says no, we will have to send a very angry Laura back to her mother on Wednesday. At that point, we will probably have to spend thousands of dollars to pursue custody through the court. We have researched and the judge many times takes the wishes of the child at Laura's age into consideration. But it will take time and it will get ugly, not to mention having to cash in our retirement savings.

I know that you should never hate a person, but with Laura's mother, she is at the top of the list if I did hate somebody. I thought that moving 2000 miles away would help, but it is now looking like I need to wait another 6 years until Laura is 18 before she is out of my life. But then I am sure even then, she will find a way to push her nose into my life. Ugh!