I've been MIA again ... nothing's wrong just very busy with new real estate business (new lisitng, new clients, website, MySpace, training, etc.), and life in general (Jacob, camping, soccer, etc.). I've barely had time to get my work done, let alone sit down and "have fun" on the Internet. (This might be long.)

We had Jacob the week of August 20th ... it was a good week, other than that he drove me nuts with his non-stop talking. He was a good boy though. He learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. Erik had promised to get Jacob a new bike (a big boy's bike) when he learned how, so we bought him his new bike! He was so excited. And almost immediatly he made new friends with boys down the street (ages 5-9). It was so cute to see them racing up and down the street on their bikes! I was leaving one day, and stopped at the corner and said, "have fun boys." The boy across the street waived and said "bye mom." Jacob got an angry look on his face and yelled "she's not YOUR mom, she's MY mom." It was too cute, and of course I loved hearing Jacob say that.

As you may recall we tried to communicate with Andrea about enrolling Jacob in soccer for the fall; she refused to communicate with Erik about it. So we enrolled him. He had an absolute blast at the soccer camp we had him in while he was with us. It continued into the next week, but of course Andrea was too busy with herself to bother taking her son to something he LOVES! At only 4 Jacob had already figured out that Andrea wasn't coming to soccer. After the second day of camp he said, "Trina, mommy doesn't know where soccer is, right? That's why she's not watching like the other mommies." Ouch! Erik and I do not lie to Jacob (may sugar coat, but not lie) about his mother. So we just said, "Yes, Jacob, mommy knows where soccer is. Daddy and Trina sent her a map." He was just silent.

Then Jacob's been on this thing that "mommy's working on a plan to marry daddy again." No big deal, Erik already talked to Andrea about it, and that's every kid's fantasy. Heck, at 22 when I saw my parents together I hoped ... Anyway, Jacob started telling everyone at my softball game that "mommy was working on a plan." It really upset me, not because I thought it to be true, but that he didn't understand why mommy and daddy weren't together (of course he is only 4). Erik took some time on the way home from softball and explained that daddy doesn't want to be with mommy, and daddy won't be marrying mommy again, that he's married to Trina. When Jacob asked why ... Erik simply said "because mommy broke my heart." The smart child Jacob is said, "mommy promised she wouldn't break your heart again daddy." The conversation continued and Jacob asked if Erik's heart was still broken. Erik said no and Jacob said, "then you can be with mommy again." Erik said, "no, my heart isn't broken because you and Trina love me so much it repaired my broken heart." Conversation continued and continued. Anyway, that night Jacob had a nightmare that someone broke his heart. I felt so badly for him. As I put him back in bed I told him, "if anyone ever breaks your heart again, you come tell me and I'll make sure they don't do it ever again, okay?" He was happy with that and webt back to sleep.

So, on Monday the 27th of August Jacob had soccer camp again. Andrea's turn to take him, but we never expected her to; she didn't exceed our expectations. Erik took it upon himself to call Andrea and ask if she was going to take Jacob to soccer. Of course she didn't answer so he left her a message. She TMed him back saying "not going to make it to soccer tonight." Erik called me and I offered to see if she would let him pick Jacob up, take him to soccer, and bring him back to her house. Mind you this would have been 4 hours of driving for Erik, and 3 trips @ 1.5 to 2 hours each for the day, but he was willing to do this. So, I called Andrea at work and didn't give her a chance to object to me calling, just blurted it out. I had sent her an email about 5 days earlier with a map, details about soccer, information that we had left clothes for Jacob at school, and pictures of him riding his bike without training wheels. While she and I were talking she asked where the soccer was. I said, "well, I sent you an email with a map." She said (in a very snotty tone), "I know, I haven't read it." I said, "well that's too bad because there were pictures of Jacob riding his bike without training wheels ..." and immediatly transitioned into directions for soccer. Then she said, "I have a question for you ... (OK) ... why are YOU calling me and not Erik." I said, "well, Andrea, frankly, Erik is tired of the crap he's been getting from you and he doesn't want to talk to you, so I offered to call." Her response, "okay, well I'll have to call Ian and see if it's okay." WHAT!!!???? YOU ARE GOING TO CALL YOUR BOYFRIEND TO SEE IF IT'S OKAY FOR JACOB'S FATHER TO SPEND TIME WITH HIM. OMG!!! I just blew it off, and siad, "okay, let us know." Of course, Erik got a TM, not a phone call, that said "sorry, no soccer, we have other plans." WHATEVER!!!

And the story continues ... that night, I got an email from Ian. That's right ... you read correctly. He was nice, but snotty and bitchy. Said it wasn't fair that we had a double standard and I could email Andrea, but he coudln't email Erik. When I responded I reminded him that my emails are about Jacob, and not about bitching Andrea out (haven't done that in a year). He's sent ONE email about Jacob. I also told him that they too had a double standard, not wanting me to communicate with Andrea, but she has to ask HIM if Erik can spend time with HIS son. Among other things he said they didn't need the clothes we sent (WTF?), and that if we could afford to do all the other things with Jacob (swimming, soccer, tennis, quad) then we could certainly afford to send Jacob to Montessori. Yeah, okay, I broke down the financials for him ... including the quad ... on average it costs us $50 per month to do the things for Jacob he mentioned, AND Montessori would be an additional $200 per month to us - significant difference. Of course he didn't respond, and Erik said that Ian is the type of guy that if he doesn't repsond, it means he knows what you said is right - otherwise, he has to have the last word; we've experienced this in emails before.

So, here we are now ... Andrea hasn't paid August's mortgage, or HELOC ... looking at going back to court about that since she obviously cannot maintain it. OH YEAH! She was two weeks behind on daycare expenses again too. We are not talking to Andrea, but I'm thinking of sending another "reach out" email. Don't ask why, and I know it's a waste of my time. OH YEAH (again) Andrea also sent Erik some psycho babble email saying that until he was over the dissolution of their marriage, and could move on with his life and be happy that he'd never be able to give himself completly to Jacob. WTF!!??? She really is crazy!

We are slowly accepting that there is not a damn thing we can do about how Jacob is raised in her household. HE HE HE we did teach him that belching outloud is rude (it became a problem). Ian does this all the time too, that's where Jacob got it from. Anyway, by the end of the week that we had him, every time someone would belch out loud ... Jacob would say, "that's really rude and nasty." Wish I could have been a fly on the wall in their house when he first said that to Ian! LOL ROF

Anyway, so that's it ... Erik and I had a great camping trip - just us and the dogs. It was so relaxing and peaceful!! We needed it. Dogs were great too.

Okay, now it's time to catch up on everyone else ... gees I have a lot of reading to do.

~ Katrina