My Single Mom Life

School schedule pick-up day.

Good morning!
It's been awhile since I've posted this early in the morning eh?!
Today is school schedule pick-up day, so we all have to get up early despite the late hours we all kept las night.
I think it's going to hurt them a whole lot more than it hurts me, I'm used to not getting more than a few hours of sleep.

We'll be heading up to the school with Mindy and her son Jeff, getting their schedules, and then getting back here because I have a lot of things to do that I've been putting off for a few days.
I have work to complete, a house to clean, dishes to finally do.
I just haven't felt like doing much of anything, and now I have to do all of it because I have a lot of things to take care of.
I'm hoping that some partial supply lists will be laying around by a few teachers too.
I hate not knowing what they need until the first week of school, and I might be a bit busy with a lot of different things.

Some major news.

I have posted some very major news on my other blog, KatScan.
Just click that link to be taken to it.

Won't open.

I haven't been able to find the kind of screw driver tool thing to remove the cap off of the lawnmower in order to fix the thing.
It takes a round shaped tool of some sort, I tried a bunch of different tools I had in my toolbox, but none of them worked.

Mark is borrowing the neighbors lawn mower for now, our lawn is very tall thanks to a couple of days of rain.
He's not happy about it, but I've been working on trying to fix that mower for over a week now, and I just can't get the stupid cap open.

Oh well.

The girl in the window.

Quite possibly the most heartbreaking story of child abuse and neglect, in the St. Petersburg Times, on their Tampabay.com website on July 31st.
The article was titled, The girl in the window.

The family had lived in the rundown rental house for almost three years when someone first saw a child's face in the window. A little girl, pale, with dark eyes, lifted a dirty blanket above the broken glass and peered out, one neighbor remembered. Everyone knew a woman lived in the house with her boyfriend and two adult sons. But they had never seen a child there, had never noticed anyone playing in the overgrown yard. The girl looked young, 5 or 6, and thin. Too thin. Her cheeks seemed sunken; her eyes were lost. The child stared into the square of sunlight, then slipped away. Months went by. The face never reappeared.

Child Protective services had been there twice in just a few short months in 2002.
They never took the child, and what's even more disturbing is that they never even interviewed her.
If they had, they would have found that the 4-year old girl couldn't speak at all, warning bells would have sounded.
But DCF never spoke to her, they offered the mother child care help, but it was refused, and they went away.
If only they had investigated further, if only they had kept the case open longer and made more visits to the home over a few more months.
Maybe Danielle, now known as Dani, wouldn't have ended up as a feral child.
When two Plant City police offers entered the house on July 13th 2005, one of them came back out and vomited in the tall grass of the yard that hadn't been cut in months.
Things crunched under their feet.
Large German cockroaches were everywhere, under foot, on the walls, in the lampshades, in the freezer.
There was trash everywhere, dirty laundry, broken curtain rods holding up tattered and yellow stained curtains from years of smoking.
The house was full of, and smelled of feces from cats, dogs, and humans.
It was in the carpet, on counter tops, splattered on the walls.

The police were there to find and remove the little girl that neighbors had reported as being abused and neglected.
She had never been outside, she was only ever seen wearing a diaper.
She was 7 years old.
Detective Holste looked around at the filth, he asked the woman living there, the mother, where the little girl was.
She pointed down the hallway, and he went down the dark, dirty and moldy hallway, turned the handle on a door, and he found her.

First he saw the girl's eyes: dark and wide, unfocused, unblinking. She wasn't looking at him so much as through him. She lay on a torn, moldy mattress on the floor. She was curled on her side, long legs tucked into her emaciated chest. Her ribs and collarbone jutted out; one skinny arm was slung over her face; her black hair was matted, crawling with lice. Insect bites, rashes and sores pocked her skin. Though she looked old enough to be in school, she was naked - except for a swollen diaper. "The pile of dirty diapers in that room must have been 4 feet high," the detective said. "The glass in the window had been broken, and that child was just lying there, surrounded by her own excrement and bugs." When he bent to lift her, she yelped like a lamb. "It felt like I was picking up a baby," Holste said. "I put her over my shoulder, and that diaper started leaking down my leg." The girl didn't struggle. Holste asked, What's your name, honey? The girl didn't seem to hear. He searched for clothes to dress her, but found only balled-up laundry, flecked with feces. He looked for a toy, a doll, a stuffed animal. "But the only ones I found were covered in maggots and roaches." Choking back rage, he approached the mother. How could you let this happen? "The mother's statement was: 'I'm doing the best I can,' " the detective said. "I told her, 'The best you can sucks!' "

The little girl has been permanently taken away from her birth mother, she's been adopted, but she's never spoken a word, she doesn't know how to speak. No one ever held her, talked to her, sang to her, played with her. She was left alone in that room, in dirty diapers, in a room full of dirty diapers and filth. You have to read that story, the whole thing.

I was ok reading it, not crying but my heart was just breaking, and then Sebastian came out and asked me what I was reading.
I lost it.
I just completely fell apart.
I sobbed barely breathing, trying to explain to him what I had read, I could barely speak.
I simply can't fathom how someone could do that to a child.
To just place her in a room in the dark, in dirty diapers, with more dirty diapers around her, bugs eating her skin, in her hair, never ever speaking to her, never loving her.
My heart just broke in a million pieces for Dani, and I am so glad she has found wonderful new parents who are loving and patient, and a 10 year old brother who is the most awesome little boy.
His heart is huge, it's amazing the sacrifices he's made for his new sister.
Really, you must read that story.
Just get your kleenex ready, you're going to need them.

Now I need new sandals.

Thanks to Kali and Shahiro, I now have to buy new sandals.
See, they are always rubbing on, licking, and chewing on my sandals whenever I come home from anywhere and take them off.
I'm not exactly sure why, but I think it may have something to do with my diabetes.
When I get even a little bit sweaty, my skin smells very sweet, like candy almost, it's weird, I've heard it's not a good thing to smell like that, but it's not an unpleasant smell at all.
I find it rather pleasant myself.

Anyway, the two cats have rubbed on, licked on, and chewed on my sandals, so when I was at the grocery store I was having problems.
I couldn't figure out why my right one felt so weird, it just didn't feel right, and I was so busy walking around and getting what I needed, I didn't stop to take a look until we were almost done.
I finally looked down and the left side of one of the sandal straps on my right one, was completely unattached!
I couldn't very well leave it like that, it was driving me crazy, so I had Sebastian undo the stitching on the other side of the strap and take it off.
I placed the strap into my purse, and maybe I'll fix it or just go and buy some new ones if I can remember where I got them.
They are Dr. Scholl's, and they were so so comfy!
I loved these sandals!

I can't be having the kitties destroying my shoes all the time, so maybe I could find and take them to some kind of sneaky vet or a charlotte north carolina dentist, and get their little incisors filed down or coated in like rounded plastic caps or something.
I can't lose good and comfy shoes and sandals because they like the taste of my sweet sweaty feet.

She needs to be on a diet.

This is Nova the fat cat after we just gave her a bath.
I had to give her a bath because she is so fat that she cannot clean herself.

The funny thing is, she really doesn't eat all that much.
Shahiro is the piggy kitty, Nova gets whatever crumbs Kali and Shahiro leave in the food bowl.
Sometimes we do slip her some people food, she is the one who likes Corn Pops cereal, spaghetti, Gold Fish crackers etc, but we don't give her people food all of the time.
Part of her weight issue is her breed, every cat who has been the same as her, has been a big huge fat cat, it's something in their genetics.
She's a combination of Egyptian Mau and standard alley cat.

They need to make a special cat food with diet pills in it for super fat cats.
Like, Purina Fat Cat Chow, now with Fenphedra!
"Help your special fatty kitty lose weight while they chow down like the piggy kitties they are!"
Hahaha!
Some cats do need the help, Nova is seriously a huge fatty, I weighed her the other day and she is BIG.
I held her in my arms and stepped on the scale, and then I put her down and stepped back on the scale, and then deducted the weight of her and I together, from the weight of just me.
Nova weighs 26.5 pounds.
She needs some diet pills!

Why me? No really, why me?

My neighbors will be moving, yuppers, gone in just a few short weeks.
Not only will it be good to be rid of them, but also rid of some of their friends.

One of them, her name is Nikki, is always coming to my door trying to sell me stuff, like yard sale type items, but she personally goes door to door trying to unload them.
She just brought over some crib bedding and asked me if I'd like to buy it seeing as I have kids.
For the millionth time, I told her that yes, I do have kids, but they are almost adults now, I have no use for crib bedding.
Oh, she says, I forgot.
Yeah, ok Nikki.

It will be really nice to get rid of the whole lot of them.

]]> *Edited at 11:14pm for massive typos and spelling errors*
Yikes!

Pretty pictures at my fingertips.

I've been randomly surfing around the internet tonight, following links from one blog to a site, then from that site to another site, and then to another and another, and I don't recall what site I was on, but I saw a link for Winter Park real estate, and thought it was for homes in Winter Park Florida, so I clicked on over because it's a really nice area, and if I was going to move to another location in Florida, I'd definitely look there.
It's a nice place.
But the link was for Winter Park Colorado, where it snows, and I don't do snow anymore.
No more cold, no more shoveling, no more trapped in because of a blizzard.
But it looks like a really nice place to live for people who like the whole snow thing.

But I forgot to tell you all that the digital keychain I won from Today's Gizmos, came in the mail the other day, and it's really pretty sweet.

The company that sponsored the give-a-way, Wholesale Keychain, was even nice enough to do custom engraving on them for the winners, so I had them just put my name on it that way no one would want to steal it from me.
Heh.

The menu options look simple enough to use, the screen is bright and very easy to read.
Now all I need to do is load a bunch of photos to it so I can take all of the pictures out of my wallet, and then the next time someone asks to see pictures of my giant teenagers, I can just click and show them in all the beautiful digital glory!

They're moving.

My neighbor was one of the unfortunate people who called me this morning after I had finally fallen asleep after being awake for 39 some odd hours.
These are my duplex neighbors who were planning on suing my landlord.
So I guess I can be thankful that instead of a lawsuit, they are just moving away.
They're going over there tonight to finalize the whole thing, it's a lot more rent, but supposedly everything is included.
Good for them.
But knowing them, they will find a problem or two and start complaining about the new place or the new landlord within a month of moving in.

They will be moving out within 2-3 weeks, and so far she's super excited.
It has a HUGE kitchen she said, huge, all new appliances, the bathrooms all have those rustic looking farmhouse sinks, and big claw foot bathtubs, and there's no carpet anywhere in the whole house, it's all Mexican floor tiles in every single room.
They are renting the entire downstairs of this house, and there are two apartments upstairs, with a few people living in them.
I can almost guarantee that there will be problems with these new neighbors, I pity the new neighbors.
They will be drawn in to their world of anger and issues, and dependency, just like I was.

Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that the next people to move into this other half of the plex will be somewhat sane, normal, friendly, nice.
Keep all your body parts crossed for me.
I've never had a normal neighbor on that side of this plex in 10 years of living here.

49 years ago today....

George and Lois took vows to love, honor, and cherish one another, till death parts them.
They have had their share of ups and downs, lived through some hard times and some amazing times too.
They had their own son and still had more love to share.
They took in child after child who needed a home, needed to be loved.
And love each and every one of them they did.
They adopted two daughters, they would have adopted them all, their love was big enough to love every child who passed through their doors.

All of their children are grown up and have children of their own now, some natural born, some adopted love born.
But Ninny and Pop Pop love each of those grandchildren as much as their own.
Each child is their family, even friends of their grown-up kids are welcome through those doors.
They are Mom and Dad to everyone who comes to their home.
They remember every birthday, every crowning achievement, they never miss a chance to send a note filled with love, hope, and encouragement.

Things aren't always so easy now, it's tough times for everyone, but you'll never hear them complain.
Ninny always says that you make due with what you have, and then stretch it out some more.
Pop Pop gives great big bear hugs, a wink and a smile, and tells you it will all be ok.
They are stubborn and set in their ways, if you refuse to take their money for shoveling the cold Maine snow, Mom will make you a couple loaves of homemade bread and your favorite muffins to take home.
They send their love for you in so many ways.

Forty-nine years ago today, George and Lois began a life filled with love.
They still love each other as much today as they did all those years ago.
They have a life filled with memories and love, and they continue to share it with everyone.
If only all of us could be so lucky to find that special person to share all of that love with.
They belong to one another and they respect one another.
They love, they honor, and they cherish, every single moment, of every single day.

Happy 49th anniversary Mom and Dad.
I'm sorry we couldn't be there this year, but next year, next year is the big half of a century, and one way or another, we'll be there to celebrate it with you.
You are loved and missed and respected, far more than I ever told you.
Whenever I think I can't keep going, there you are, showing me that I can, encouraging me to keep doing and keep living, and keep loving.
It's that love that keeps me going.
I couldn't keep doing it without your love for me, and seeing the love you have for each other, continues to give me hope, year after year after year.

Bubba Ho-Tep and some pizza.

The kid next door is spending the night tonight, so we've been playing video games, popping some music on his iPod shuffle, and the pizza he ordered because his dad gave him like $50, just arrived, so we're starting to watch Bubba Ho-Tep now.
It's a funny movie, it has it's moments of scare too.
The kid doesn't like really scary movies, so a combo of funny and scary is the name of the game.
We've pulled the blinds and curtains to block out the headlights of the passing cars that speed up and down the street all night, and a good time will be had by all or else.
I swear, if any of them start fighting tonight, they will all die a slow painful death.

Just kidding, I won't really kill them, maybe just make them do a bunch of chores tomorrow as punishment.

I'll be your hero today ma'am!

So my neighbor and I both had to go to Amscot today, it's not far from our house at all, and she had a quarter of a tank of gas left.
It should have been more than enough to get to us there and back to our street to get gas.

As we're coming back down US41, we swing that left at the huge intersection of 41 and Stickney, the van starts sputtering, dying, it's running out of gas.
Crap.
We manage to make it through the intersection and about another 150 ft or so, when it's just dead, not going to move another inch.
So her son gets out and starts pushing the van, he's 12 years old, he's small, you would think that someone would stop and help push the van to the gas station right?
But noooo, no one stops to help.
I tell her to let me out, that if I get out and just start pushing, we'll actually get a few guys to help us.
She doesn't think it will work, I bet her $5 it will, and I get out and put my hands on the car.
All of a sudden, da-da-da da dadum! I'll be your hero today ma'am! 3 guys are suddenly offering to help push us.
A guy on a bike, a guy parked his Bronco in a lot, and another guy who's walking, are all helping push the van to the gas station, about 30 more feet from where we were.
They were pushing that thing so hard and so fast, I had to stop. I couldn't keep up with them, and it's a good thing I did because her son dropped his Swiss Army knife out of one of his pockets as they were all pushing and running the van down the street.

We get the van to the gas station, her son is now putting the gas in and had gone in to pay for the gas and get us all something to drink, it was so hot out, and I put my hand in front of her, palm up, and said "$5 bucks please!"
We both started laughing, but it's amazing that nobody stopped to help a kid push a car, but as son as they see a woman, big strong men come out to help.
Female in distress! Help! Help! *laughs*
I didn't make her pay me the $5, it was just a funny thing, but it is pretty sad that no one helped the kid, but they'll help a woman.

Hit the one in the middle!

The teens have been watching all the Rocky movies these past few weeks, we are on Rocky V right now, and we have Rocky Balboa on our queue for our next Netflix shipment.
Sebastian is the one who wanted to watch these, he asked for the first one, then when it was done, he asked me to add all of the rest of them to our queue until he's seen them all.

But as we've been watching them, I have been feeling older and older.
I was 6 years old when the first one came out in 1976, it's hard to believe these movies have been around for 32 years now.
And Sebastian, well he's hooked on these movies.
He just loves them all so far, he keeps asking me if the fights were real, what happened to some of the other people in the movies that Rocky fought, like where are they now and stuff like that.
I figured after he saw the first 3, that would be enough for him, but nope, he has to see them all.
I'm glad there's only one more though.
I do like the Rocky series, but after seeing them so many times over the course of my life, I've kind of had enough of them.
Just one more to go I keep telling myself, just one more to go.

Trusting my gut pays off.

I woke with a start this morning, this feeling of something wrong had come over me.
I laid there trying to think of what it was that was wrong, and then it hit me.
I mailed out the child support interrogatories weeks ago, to his lawyer's address, but I had this gut feeling they never made it there.

I took a chance on my gut feeling, and called his attorney's office to ask if the documents had made it there.
When he told me he never got them, a slight panic attack over came me.
The hearing is this Thursday, the 31st, I don't have time to mail them again, and also don't have enough money to get them overnighted to his office.
So I asked him if I could email him the documents, I don't want to postpone the hearing, it's already been pushed back 3 or 4 times, so would he accept an email from me with an attached zip file.
Thankfully, he said yes, and I emailed him the zipped folder with all of my documents in it.
All he'll need to do is open the zipped folder and print them out.

It would have totally sucked if come Thursday, I was held in contempt for not sending the documents, but I know I did.
It cost me $13.00 to have all of those pages printed out at the Pak Mail down by my grocery store, and then another $2.75 to mail them to him because of how heavy the envelope was.
There were 27 pages of printed out documents, it was a heavy envelope.
I should have gotten delivery confirmation, but I didn't.
But he has them now, and hopefully he has everything he asked for.
I told him in the email, that if he needs anything else to contact me, I have no problem making sure he has all the documents that he needs.

I really hope this thing goes well, and we can just get this over with.
The ex has been making slightly larger child support payments for July, and I am thankful for that.
Instead of $21.00, he made 2 payments for $36.84, and 2 payments for $37.10.
It's a good start anyway, it's been $147.00 this month, compared to the $84.00 a month that we have been getting.
What I'd really like is $50.00 per week, $200 per month, the teens just keep growing and they need shoes and clothes, plus all the back to school supplies.
I have to get Sebastian to an orthodontist to see about braces, that's not covered under their Amerigroup insurance, so I need to find an orthodontist who will allow me to make monthly payments, like really low monthly payments.
If I was able to get and count on timely monthly CS payments of $50, I would be able to make the payment plan for $200 per month until the braces are paid off, which would be years, but at least his teeth would be straightened out.
The lowest orthodontist place in the area has payment plans at $199 per month, so yeah, it would be doable at $50 per week CS payments.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, so many things going on in my head, still not feeling very well, so that's my post for the day I guess.

Check N' Go class action lawsuit settled.

Back on December 6th 2007, I posted about the Check N' Go class action lawsuit, and because I used them for a payday loan advance, that made me part of the suit.
Check n' go was sued because the interest on the loan exceeded the maximum amount allowed under Florida law.
The amount I paid in interest was $530.00

Because I had not been feeling well all weekend and most of today, I just now checked the mailbox, and in it was an envelope about the class lawsuit.
Each claimant will be receiving almost 40% of their excess interest fees, so my check is for $211.05.
And in the envelope with all of the important legal stuff, was my check.
Yay!

I went to the class action lawsuit website to check on any other important news or whatever, and saw that they are no longer accepting any more claimants, and also saw that they mailed the checks out on July 25th.
The total of the settlement was $10,275,000, so based on that number and my pro rata settlement check, it appears Check n' Go screwed over a ton of people in the state of Florida with their loan sharking interest rates.