My last post was almost one year ago and it is still basically the same old crap.

But I have reached the boiling point again and I really don't want to start a fight with my husband right now. You see, he and I are the babysitters for our grandson when SD works on the weekend or if she works in the evenings when daycare is closed. The problem is, she has been working mostly evenings, so we have been babysitting a lot. Tomorrow, she is working 12-5, but she doesn't know if daycare is open. (I would have asked long ago about that, but that is another story.) Now, DH has invited her and her boyfriend, and 2 other couples over for New Year's Eve. He plans to go over to his buddy's store for 4 hours tomorrow to help him with something, but should be back by 2. What is the problem? Well, I had a few plans of my own based on my NOT babysitting tomorrow, but guess what? And before you say, "Well just tell DH to stay home," he is already being pissy about it and I am very tired of being the bad guy. I am also tired of babysitting. DH watches him a lot, but I am tired of having him at our house all the time. Yes, I know how selfish I sound, but I chose not to have kids of my own for a reason. I like having free time to take care of stuff around my house. I like not having to make sure that no one is spilling things or breaking things. I like not watching cartoons and I like not changing diapers.

Since SD has moved out, the tension level between us has steadily decreased. For the first few weeks, I could feel myself tense up when she came to visit, but lately her visits have been very pleasant. Even our friends (the ones I mentioned she had pissed off in an earlier post) have said that she is easier to be around now. I have even done a few things for her and gotten thanked for doing them - ie made her 2 sets of curtains and offered to make her son's birthday cake to save her some money.

SD has had our cell phone since she moved out because she can't afford to have a land line put in. It has been a bit inconvenient for us since we use that for long distance calls (they are free), but she needed a phone. Before you ask - no, she hasn't gone over the minutes we have so it hasn't been more expensive for us. The original plan was that she would keep it until she got her financial aid money, then she would pay the extra fee and we would add another phone to our current service. If she went over our allotted minutes, she would pay those extra costs, too.

It has been so nice not having to deal with SD except on a limited basis. She comes over a couple of times a week, stays for a few hours and then leaves. She occasionally talks to me while she is there and I don't really go out of my way to talk to her, but everyone seems to be ok with that arrangement. A friend of ours pointed out that, while she truly is not a pleasant person to be around, he believes that she simply is unaware that she treats people badly. For example, she came over for her dad's birthday, sat beside me on the couch, but kept her back to me for almost an hour. She finally spoke to me when her dad went upstairs and didn't seem to be angry or hostile. I think our friend is right when he says she simply wasn't raised to think about other people, but I am not willing to just give her that as an excuse. She is very upset when people treat her badly, so at some point, wouldn't you thnk she would see a connection?

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary. It doesn't really seem like it has been that long. Even with everything that happened with SD over the last few months, I can honestly say that I would marry my guy all over again. The good parts have made the bad parts tolerable. I truly can't imagine not having him around and I plan to show him that as soon as he picks me up from summer school today.

I really do wonder if SD is a pathological liar. When I first met her, she was around 8. I thought she was cute and she would sit on my lap, talking to me. One night, she told me a great story about her mom taking her to Disney World and about all the rides she went on, characters she saw, etc. I told her dad about it and he said it was a cute story, but she had never been to Disney World. I thought "that is odd, not cute," but I didn't say anything.

As I read through the site tonight, I realized how many of us have the same story with slightly different players - the clueless DH who either spoils his children and wonders why they are brats or the clueless DH who can't see that we and his children are not going to get along, the BM who should be committed but somehow manages to look sane when she needs to, the SKs who can be charming when DH is home, but who will make us look for the 666 on them the minute he leaves the room.

We moved SD's bed to her new apartment last night. She is finally out of our house. You have no idea how quiet and calm last night and tonight have been.

Today, being Sunday and my only actual total day off from school since Memorial Day, I decided to sleep in past 8. Since I am a teacher, sleeping in for me now usually means I get up at 7:30 instead of 6:00 am. I went to the bathroom and found a note on the mirror saying that SD had a 7:30 am meeting this morning and would be back at around 11:00. I went downstairs and heard my grandson screaming hysterically for his mommy since he had woken up all alone GOD KNOWS WHEN.

See, it is already Friday and SD still doesn't have her bed outta here. I mentioned to DH that she would probably need his help tomorrow if she plans to be gone before the weekend is up. She works at 5 tomorrow evening and starts at 1 on Sunday. I won't be home to help and frankly, she doesn't want my help, so he will be the one to bear the brunt (no, she won't be concerned about his health.). His response: "Then I guess she won't be out of here by the end of the week." ARGH!!!!! If you are wondering why I think she doesn't want me to help, she whispers to him what she wants done and ignores any of my questions. DH doesn't seem to/want to notice this behavior.

She is in the process of moving her stuff to her new place. I feel like such a mean person, but I honestly can't wait until she is out of here. Our bills will go down, I will be able to buy treats for DH and me again without her eating them all before we even get a taste, DH and I can enjoy a quiet evening watching TV or go out in the middle of the day if we want, I will have my quiet weekend mornings back...ok, it won't be quite this blissful because there will be the occasional and I do stress OCCASIONAL babysitting favors, but still!

SD went to see the apartment yesterday and will be signing the lease on Friday! Her rent isn't too bad and she will be responsible for gas & electric (which means she will have to learn to put on a sweater instead of turning on an electric heater). She will also be applying for food stamps (I know...why didn't she get them when she lived with us to help? I have no freakin' idea.)

DH got a phone call today from HUD. There is an apartment opening up!!! She may be moving out sooner than we thought! This may be one of the best days of my life! WOOOHOOOO!

I am really starting to hate weekends. DH and I couldn't do anything on Saturday because we had to babysit. We made plans to go out early on Sunday, but he had misread her schedule. She started work at 10 a.m. so we got to babysit all day. I left the house at 11:00 and told DH that I needed to go anywhere, alone, because I just realized that this would be our lives for the next 13 years at least. He didn't say much.