Been Awhile

It was brought to my attention last night that my blog has been pretty ignored since like... March.  So I figured maybe it's time for an update.

I'm still just as happy as I was back in that last post, which is fantastic.  I was worried that maybe the whole "being happy" thing was like a big glass roof... and one somewhat bad thing could happen at any moment and send the whole thing crashing down.  I still sort of feel like that could happen, but it hasn't yet... so maybe it just won't.  Whatever ends up happening, I'm not as worried about it as I was before... and I'm not in a place where I'm just waiting for something to happen.  My paranoia is still there, but it's becoming less and less every day.

Anyway...

Things with Aden are getting better.  We went to court after his dad served me with a new parenting order - he wanted all visits to be okayed with him, and all company during visits.  He was asking me for child support payments as well.  I'm 100% sure he just expected me to lie down and accept what he wanted, but I didn't do that - I got a lawyer.

When the issue went to court, I got surprised.  I fought back by asking for one day a week plus Sundays - for now - and to my surprise, his dad offered two days a week plus every other Sunday.  Essentially more hours than what I wanted.  So of course, I accepted.  My lawyer couldn't actually be there, and she sent another one instead, so we pushed the child support issue until July, when we're going back anyway.

I've been going to counselling (which is going very well) since last month, so my lawyer and I decided to revisit the parenting issue in July, when my counselling is well under way, and then I'll be fighting for overnight visits, etc.  I know his dad won't easily give that up, since he still thinks I'm a threat, for some stupid reason... but I'll fight hard for it.  And I'll go to counselling as long as I need to to ease his mind, even though my counsellor doesn't think I'll need more than 5 or 6 visits.  I don't care.  I'll keep going as long as HE thinks I need to, because I want my visits.  I want the visits I deserve.

And of course, Aden's dad is in a pissy mood again these days.  He had some girlfriend who, I guess, is nuts.  She was there when we went to court... and she was 18 weeks pregnant.  So I figured, she'd be there a good long time - and, something I do my best not to think about, I realized if she was 18 weeks along, she would've gotten pregnant during the time that I was living with Aden and his dad... so I had my doubts that the baby was even his.  But knowing Aden's dad, he wouldn't care... and would still do anything to keep this crazy girl around.  I guess their glass roof shattered and she left him - again.  So now, he's miserable.  And you can guarantee that if his misery is still present in July, he'll do anything he can to prevent me taking away more of his time with Aden.  Don't get me wrong... it's not about me giving him less time with Aden... it's just about me getting more.  Closer to equal - that's what I want.

And it's possible, now that Richard has his car!  He got a Dodge Journey about a month ago, and it's so awesome.  He's been taking me to Airdrie on my Sundays with Aden, and we even were able to take Aden to see Kung Fu Panda 2, which was awesome.  Oh... I forgot to mention that my visits have to be supervised by my parents right now... which sucks, but if it's a path to getting visits alone, it's fine for now.  They didn't come to the movie, and my sister came instead... which of course caused an issue with Aden's dad... but I don't care.  My parents may be on the parenting order papers, but we verbally agreed that my sisters would be fine too.  He's just more worried that it's not just Richard and I with him... even though Richard is 100% safe.  When that psycho girl (and her kid) were living with Aden and his dad, every time I saw Aden he had a new bite mark or bruise on his body from that kid - obviously shit like that doesn't happen when he's with us.  His dad has nothing to worry about... he's just paranoid.

Things are easier now that we have a vehicle.  I have yet to learn to drive, but it makes visits so much more easy.  I'm very happy with it.

It makes work easier too.

Last time I posted, I was just about to start work at Lowe's.

Well, that didn't last long.  I got very miserable very quickly.  I liked a few of the people I worked with (people that didn't work near me, but people that worked in the store), and I liked the hourly pay... but that was about it.  I hated getting up at 6 to work at 8:00 or 8:30.  I hated the bitchy head cashiers for delaying my breaks and making it feel like I was bad at my job after only two weeks.  I hated that my hours could go from anywhere to 15/week to 25/week.  I hated that they gave me shit for having to stay home for two days for having PINK EYE.  Overall, I just wasn't happy.

So before Richard got the car, he decided that we should call our old manager from Toys R Us, who had moved to a store in the city... and who had promised Richard a job if he ever needed it, when he quit the other store.  At first he was going to call and get himself a job, while I stuck it out at Lowe's... but he told me I'd have to find a full time job, so I figured I might as well ask our old manager if she had space for me too.

Well, lucky us, she hired us both.  I was, of course, worried about working at Toys R Us again together... given all the shit that went down at the last store, but we had a talk about it, and my mind is at ease.  Richard has promised not to add people on facebook or get any numbers and I've promised the same.  Work friends are just work friends and won't be anything more.... for us both... and so far, so good.  I'm really not too worried about it anyway, because a good majority of the people who work there think we're together anyway, no matter what I tell them!  There's even a lady who we used to work with at the old store who insists we're dating, no matter what I say to her.  Richard says just to let them think what they want... especially if they won't listen.  Oh well, right?

The new job is better than Lowe's.  There are only two people I don't like, and for the most part I like everyone else.  I'm making almost $2 less per hour, but I have more hours so it works out for the best.  Well... I'm supposed to have more hours... until they cut everyone's.  It's not so bad, though.  I'm sure they'll be back up before too long.  At least I hope so.

So, that's pretty much the update!