Well, we almost had a default judgement against BM except she showed at court today and the judge gave her another chance. She has 28 days to file a response and has been ordered into mediation. She stormed into the courtroom escorted by the two teen boys. No lawyer. Her face was purple and her fists clenched. The judge asked her if she knew why she was there, that her husband was seeking a divorce. She was ordered into mediation, and ordered not to bring the children again or speak to them about the divorce (what an idea!!) She had huge envelopes with papers and who knows what.

I need some impartial third party opinions. BF and I have been bouncing an idea around for awhile but I am nervous about it on both end. Should I quit my job and become a stay at home step-mom/freelance artist or deal with sitter issues and a stressful possibly dead end job?

First the issues with the job.

They can all just go screw themselves because I'm not going. My DH, his ex and her fiance are the fuck-ups. NOT me. I have a clean record. I'm the oldest of 8 kids and have taken teacher/student observation courses. I was peer certified and currently a mentor on a girls website. they can all kiss my ass. Corrupt mediator too.

Since finding out I've been pregnant- I'm at 9 weeks. Major whirlwinds of nausea day and night. Wishing for the slightest relief. I've been at the doctors office weekly to keep in check since going to the hospital. I've lost weight since I can't keep food down. This past week I've been really pushing it to stay down so I've put back on 2 lbs. I try to keep myself calm and little stress as possible which at times gets hard. I'm frustrated at having married a man who has experienced childbirth twice now because we don't share that same excitement and enthusiasm, concern even.

My SD that's turning 7 in a few weeks has nightmares every night. The other day it freaked me out I heard her screaming so I ran in her room and she jumped out of her bed and looked at me with Horror on her face asking me WHERE'S MOM? over and over again. I told her to lay down she was having a dream. She laid down but then started to shake like she was freezing teeth chattering and everything. This went on for a few min and during she kept sit up and look around the room still looking for something.

Do you ever think your DH has some strange deep feeling left over for BM? I sometimes do and it drives me crazy. Right now SS it trying to get DH BM and SS (and maybe his SD) to have a family day, a few months down the road. DH says he doesn’t want to do it, but will since SS (who is freaking 18) wants him too. Its all about SS don’t cha know. I won’t be there due to work.

And I mean it, I hate him. Drug addict apologized to my DH as part of his recovery and there is no mention of what he did to ME! I was acting like his parent for years - he lived with us for years. Now I know from Day 1 he only pretended to like me because he wanted money.

I told DH he will not be at any family functions and he has to pay me back for the money I gave him for school.

Now I am going to focus on moving on. I will NEVER lay eyes on the loser ever again.

what ever you do, you must not ...

Do not denigrate your ex in front of or to the children, this should have already been the case anyway, but now it is even more important. I personally believe that you should not build the ex up to the children either, as this may be seen as you confirming to the children that the ex is wise and correct, and indirectly, that they in fact should believe in what the ex is saying. Remain neutral in the children's minds.

I don’t post often even though there are numerous things that have come up in the last couple of months (SDstb13 refusing to visit, FDH having screaming matches with BM etc.), but since FDH has not been falling into the “Guilty Daddy” or “BM Puppet” role, I am leaving it up to him to deal with his issues.

This issue affects me directly, and it is my upcoming wedding – next Saturday, the 16th.

SS did not come out the whole day, not even to eat. He disappeared again last night. Then, around 12 midnight (we think), he snuck out. He comes back in at 6 am this morning. He was drunk. Are you kidding me?? Thank god my kids were asleep. My husband asks him where he has been. You know what SS says? "just been whoring around again". And then the next second he starts crying and locks himself in his room. My husband tried getting him to come out and he would not. We wanted to remove the door.