Today was the last day that the judge would accept a signed stipulation regarding the placement schedule. BM has a long history of waiting until the day (or at times an hour) before scheduled court to quickly settle (or sign) documents. It happened when she was in contempt for kid expenses and when she had to pay child support. I guess the judge got tired of this and clearly stated in the order that an agreement can be reached NO LATER THAN 10 DAYS PRIOR TO COURT. (that would be today).

You can read previous blogs regarding the entire situation. We have 50/50 and the schedule revolves entirely around BM's job. (she works 24 hr shifts) A GAL was appointed who essentially agreed that the supermom's job was sooooo vital, that the skids should bounce back and forth every other day between homes to accommodate BM. BM said ok, that she would agree to that schedule but only if DH agreed to a laundry list of crap like going to parent teacher conferences together (she doesn't ever go), or notifying about medical appointments (we do anyway). DH and I decided that though we don't like the schedule, going to spend thousands of dollars that we CAN'T AFFORD wouldn't be worth it. So DH's attorney drew up the a stipulation that agreed to the GALS schedule as well as the crap that BM wanted. The only other thing mentioned was that DH wanted a set Holiday rotation (year 1 vs year 2). BM even said in a different email that she had no problem with the holiday rotation.

So keep in mind DH's stipulation was sent to BM's lawyer on November 16th. On December 1st, our lawyer sent a letter and another copy of the stipulation to her lawyer (and cc'd the GAL) saying...ummm can you tell us why you aren't signing this?? We heard nothing. Crickets. Today our lawyer essentially said....well we have not heard anything from BM's lawyer so we have to go to court.

WTF????!!!!!! So now we HAVE to go to court and spend the freaken' money anyway????? Why did we even bother to try to settle this. I really don't get it. The only thing I can think of is that she and her lawyer forgot about that little deadline thing.... and will proudly call our lawyer the morning of court to "settle". The only consolation I have is that she will end up having to pay for her stupidity. DH plans to ask his lawyer that if she walks into court with the stipulation signed saying "oops", that we want her to pay some of our attorney fees for going to court because she's an idiot. UGHHHHH