I've got to do something, anything to stop letting BM affect me the way she does. I hear every day about step parents getting on pills or drinking or whatever to make it through their stresses, well my vice is smoking.

My MIL has been up mine and DH's ass about smoking. She recommended a book called the Easyway method and I actually sat down and read it. Was doing FANTASTIC, and then BM got her ass in a twist and started cursing out my DH again and of course, like a typical smoker, I blamed my bad day on my nicotene deprival and got all whiney for a smoke....*sigh*

The thing that ticks me off the most, is that we weren't doing anything wrong. BM has this bad habit of scheduling all the kids doctors appointments within a few weeks so twice a year we get this big lump of medical crap to take care of. Well last week DH took the skids to the dentist. SS had to have a cavity filled. Then that following Thursday, BM took SD to the regular doctor for a booster shot and the dermatologist. There was no co-pays for the dentist, or the regular doctor, however, it ended up going something like this:

BM paid $60 for dermo and $35 for the medicine prescribed for SD's acne. She then LOSES the receipt for the medicine. So she e-mails us her debit card transactions off her work computer (because she works for her bank) and expects us to use those for receipts.

She doesn't think it's a big deal, because we had an appointment that afternoon to take SS to get the cavity filled to the tune of $140 and then she had to take SS today to get an ultrasound to the tune of $60 so basically, it all came out pretty much even for the most part. Well THEN she decided that the $140 was quoted way to high, and we just MUST have gotten it wrong so she freaks out and starts calling the dentist, demanding to know the break downs and stuff.

Now, the dermo co-pay I MIGHT have just let go because the transaction clearly stated that it was for the dermo. BUT, then she makes the comment that you can't buy anything at the dermo (bullshit) and the other transaction just said it was for "townname" and it was for $47.95, not $35.00....

Not to mention! We were just informed by SD that BM had been putting report card money in seperate bank accounts for SS and SD, which is cool. However, SD had saved up $800 and SS had saved up $600. BM took all the money and used it to pay bills and didn't tell them until SD went to buy something off the internet with her debit card and it declined....Even funnier, SD tells me about this conversation where she was giving BM crap about it, WHILE they were at the car dealership to buy a new car and spend yet MORE money (trading in their SUV that is paid off - because MY DH paid it off when they were married - for a van, she already has a two year old car she's paying a note on, because she's having a new baby).

The decree, of course, clearly states that receipts are required. So we tell her, we need receipts, not her debit card transactions. This leads to this big long e-mail where she tells DH to go to hell, we are just being difficult, why do we have to be such pains in the asses, typical BM bullshit.

Then I get home and DH is all "We should have just said okay, just this one time." NO WE SHOULDN'T! Because THIS is the slippery slope that causes all the damn problems in the first place DH! You let that stupid bitch go against the decree "just once" and you set a presidence for us to look like a-holes when she starts taking advantage YET AGAIN and we have to force her to go back by the decree. That dumb bitch drug us to court and we spent 10k on this stupid piece of paper, GUESS WHAT, WE ARE FOLLOWING IT TO THE F-ING LETTER AND THAT'S FINAL...

I had not had a smoke since 10:30 AM that morning. Of course, then I blame my irritation on not smoking instead of on BM/DH where is should be and end up getting snippy and leaving the house at 9:00 PM to buy smokes and start the whole cycle over again....

I'm desperate enough to try hypno-therapy at this point. I KNOW I don't need to smoke. I know I can handle the stress without a smoke. But when it actually happens, and I'm not smoking, I automatically feel deprived and then my willpower kicks up and ruins everything...*sigh*....

And she's never going to get better. Even when the kids get older, she's still going to be crazy and a pain in the ass. And she's going to keep stressing me out, and I'm going to keep shoving smokes in my mouth and die of lung cancer because I chose to marry a man who has a batshit crazy ex-wife. *sigh*