Respite

After a very difficult couple of days with James where we ended up with a smashed window and other broken and destroyed belongings I made the snap decision to have him stay at respite while we went away for the weekend. This was our long awaited trip to the ocean. It was such a crazy busy start with Vanessa graduating from nursing school on Friday and us trying to get all our ducks in a row to be able to leave. Mostly we were trying to get the water automated on the gardens and packing for the trip. Packing for a trip for 12 people is no small feat.... especially when it comes to food, and then especially when you have the bright idea that it would be a good idea to feed the whole church (100 people) breakfast Sunday morning in honor of Vanessa's graduation! :-) Yes, our whole church was going on this retreat on the beach. Someone anonymous had rented every single cabin at Rosario for all of us. It was wonderful. Missy somehow is not half as intense when she's not with her twin so it was like have two less kids.  Our next leg of the journey took us to San Juan Island... We stood on the whale watching point and watch more orcas then I have ever seen. It was truly spectacular. We are home now. James was no worse for being left behind. He's matter of fact about it all and helped me clean the garage this morning. Missy on the other hand was as crabby as all get-out and screamed and cried MOST of the day over a 20 minute task I asked her to do. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. And you guessed right, I did not give in. She eventually decided to sweep the porch. It would have been easier before it got to almost a hundred degrees, but that was her choice.

My sister-in-law suggested I really needed to write again... You can see I'm really into it.  Ha! Sorry. I tried.

The kids.

Drakie was so into the whale watching!!

This girl. She was SICK, SICK... lost so much weight and was kind of sedate to say the least, but she is recovering.

I'm watching Drake run from the waves. I don't think he had ever seen the ocean before. He expected the water to stay put.

Stuck in the Pound and Stuck in Jail

I only hear from her when she WANTS something. I've been hearing a lot from the 4 kiddos' mom lately. She was calling me multiple times a day from jail. I couldn't answer every time. It costs me $5 a call. She wanted someone to post bail.... The bond was only $250, but NO one was willing to pay it because none of us believed it would be in her best interest. The charges were stolen vehicle and a burglary, etc... It's all drug driven. At the last moment she found someone to pay it. She is a great manipulator and at court she convinced someone she would do good even though her rap sheet is as long as my arm.  She promised to go to treatment, but her promises are nonsense. A few days later she called me again. Her dog had been taken to the pound and it would cost $190 to get it out and she wanted me to go get the dog and she would pay me back later....  Before the day was over she was back in jail for 3rd degree theft. I did not go get the dog and felt some guilt about it, ugh, I did not want a wire-haired terrier who might chase chickens and is 8 yrs old and has seizures. Her Ex was willing to pay the $ if I would take the dog, but Steve and I agreed we didn't want it and who knew when the gal would get out of jail to claim it again.... so I didn't. Surprisingly she got out of jail the next day (three pending charges) and called to get her dog from me, which I didn't have.  When she went to see the dog at the pound someone had already adopted it.  UGH! I feel bad. She loved that dog more than she loved her kids. She is slowly being stripped of everything of her own doing but she accepts no responsibility for any of it. It's always someone else's problem and this time it's my fault she lost the dog.  It feels yucky, but we're walking a fine line of helping and enabling and sometimes it is hard to know which is which. Here's hoping the dog is with a good family who wants it and will care for it.  I'm pretty sure her old master will be back in jail for a long time soon. One of these days her manipulations will no longer work for her.  It's a sad, sad, deal....  The thing she needs to do the most she will not do.

The view from my garden.