Did u?

Wow, has it really been almost a month??? I can't believe it. Sorry I haven't been around much, life's been a little hectic lately. Plus, it's been busy at work, which is where I normally get online.

I hope all my blog friends are doing well and I know I haven't been around to your blogs so long, I'm so far behind and I apologize. I miss ya'll (said with true Texan accent). So here goes, I'm going to try to do a quick update.

• My sister - in jail, likely for up to 75 more days then it's off to treatment facility, yay! We visit her every Sunday 35 miles away, I'm always needing to write her a letter, call her lawyer, call her bail bondsmen, call her boyfriend, get her money, give her money, send her money, pay my outrageous phone bill, call her friend for money, send her books, it never ends.
• My mom - my mom had back/neck surgery on the 13th was released on the 15th, re-admitted on 16th and re-released on 20th. worry, worry, worry. I visited her as much as possible 30 minutes away, take my girlfriend back and forth to school at night so I have the car. get to sleep around midnight. my mom is out now but could possibly be going back. She's been coughing a lot, to the point where she can't keep anything down.
• Kids - 13 year old's good friend was in town visiting family so i've been running her all over, back and forth, up and down. 13 and attitude... need i say more?
• EX - had to have another discussion with him last week about custody of the kids. He thinks they would be better off with him full time. Go figure. Asshole.
• I was on vacation last week and a good friend of mine, I'll call her Turtle, came to visit (had to prepare house while 3 kids are running around, impossible) She came in on Sunday, as soon as I picked her up have to drive 13 year old 2 hours away so she can then be taken 5 hours away to visit with her Nana and cousin for the month of July (at least i don't have to drive her all the way there). Anyway, I had a wonderful vacation. We did so many things, yet it was relaxing at the same time. We stayed up all ours of the night and slept in each day, we went gambling in Shreveport (C was the only winner of that trip with $200 on the penny slots), Turtle and C got tattoos, did a little sight seeing, went tubing on the lake (Ouch! boy we were sore the next day), went to the waterpark and rode the SkyCoaster (that was the coolest!!!), went to the horse races, drove to Houston and went clubbing, stayed up all night watching the sunrise on the Canal in Galveston, and loved every minute of it!!! I definitely need more vacations like that.

If you could escape to any place in the world, where would it be? If you select other please specify in the comments just exactly where other is.
	Alaska
	Amsterdam
	Aspen
	Australia
	Bahamas
	Cozumel
	Dublin
	Dublin
	Greek Islands
	Hawaii
	Hong Kong
	Jamaica
	Las Vegas
	London
	Madrid
	Moscow
	New York
	Paris
	Rome
	Other
Free polls from Pollhost.com

I had an amazing weekend. Do you know that it has been over a year since I have had the house to myself? Or that C and I have never before now been able to spend a weekend without anyone else around? Well this was that weekend. My oldest daughter and my niece went out of town to visit at Grandma for a few weeks. Of course, my sister is still in jail/treatment facility. My mom went to spend the weekend with her boyfriend and my youngest two were at their dad's. Wow! The whole house to ourselves, no interruptions, no distractions, nothing! Let me just say, it was bliss.

As soon as I found out that we would have the house to ourselves over the weekend I told C not to make plans for Saturday night. It was time I put my romantic side to work. So Friday night my BFF and I went all over town gathering some things to aid in the evening I had planned. We drove all the way out to north Dallas and when we were done shopping, we headed back out to the car. Only problem was BFF locked her keys in the car. So she called her husband and while trying to explain to him where we are, her phone dies. So here we are just sitting in the parking lot joking around not letting this unfortunate turn of events ruin our time hanging out. Of course we got some very curious looks, but who cares!

Finally a security guard drove by and I chased him down. He had a slim jim and helped us out. So 40 minutes after walking out of the mall we are back on the road. Problem now is BFF's phone is dead and the directions to the next place we wanted to go where sent to her phone. Oh well, at least I was smart enough to write the phone number down and take it with us. I had a vague idea of where this place was but we still got a little turned around. Here's how the conversation went:

Me - Ok, we went to far. Pull over at this gas station and I will call them from the pay phone
BFF - I have no idea where we are. How do you know we went to far?
Me - Because the the jail is 2 blocks down this street.

At this point we just kind of look at her and laugh that unfortunately, I've been to the jail often enough to use it as a point of reference. Go figure!

So by the time Saturday rolled around I was ready to spend some quality time with my sweetie. We went to the movies and saw The DaVinci Code. (I really enjoyed the movie, although of course, the book was better) Then we headed to the deli, grabbed some sandwiches and had a picnic. The rest of the evening progressed quite smoothly, with lots of much needed quality time and some really good conversation. She walked into our room to 35 candles softly illuminating it and a tray of fruit (strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, grapes, honeydew mellon), chocolate, and whip cream. Hmmm... it was heaven!

In honor of Blogging for LGBT Families Day I want to share some of my story as the mother of 3 great kids, ages 13, 5, and 3. Some of this information I have shared before. The focus of this post is mostly about my oldest daughter and the struggle my coming out has been for her and a little about how her father and I co-parent her. I have not been out to my family for very long at all. One year ago this month I separated from my husband and started the steps I needed to take to end that marriage legally, physically, and spiritually. We share custody of our children equally, one week at a time. Within 6 months of my separation I fell in love with a woman. As you can imagine, this has been hard for my 13 year old. At a time when she is struggling with puberty and coming into her own sexuality, not only is her world rocked with the separation of her parents but now her mom is in love with a woman. Unfortunately, her father has not been very, um... we'll say... mature about the whole thing and that just puts her in an even more difficult position. Not wanting to hurt him by trying to accept my life and my choices, she often finds herself at a loss of words. There were many talks between my daughter and I, and my ex and I, but they just seemed to go round and round. After one particularly big blow up, the three of sat down together and said some things that weren't so easy for us to say. My daughter was able to tell her father just how hard it is for her to answer his questions about life at my house because she doesn't want to hurt him. I aired my daughters fear that if she were in some way happy in my home that it would be a betrayal to her father. Turns out those fears were based in some facts. But in hearing how it was tearing her up, he realized that it was not fair of him to put those kinds of expectations on her. As angry, hurt, and upset as he is about my life and my choices, when it all gets boiled down, he really does want her to be happy and is accepting that it is important for her to find some kind of balance and happiness in both of our homes. I was shocked just how much my daughter needed that confrontation in front of both of us. It took away her anxieties about betraying one parent behind their back to the other since we were both present, it really freed her up to talk about some things that even I didn't realize were bothering her. It greatly improved her attitude around home and her willingness to accept my life. My hope is that one day, she will look back on this time in our lives and be proud of who I am and that I stood for what was right for me. I want to be a role model for her. As she gets older I want her to know that it's ok to stand for what she wants and what is right for her, despite what other people think. There is such power in knowing yourself and being true to that knowledge, that's what I wish for her.

Ok, so much has been going on that I haven't had a lot of time to just sit down and write actual content about my life.

So, my sister had court last week in New Braunfels for her sentencing hearing. Yours truly provided taxi service. Honestly, I didn't mind, I really do love spending time with my sister. Court was scheduled for Tuesday morning and I really hoped it didn't take all day for them to get to her. It's about a 4 hour drive from where we live so we drove down the night before and got a hotel room. Austin is on the way so we stopped in and had a few drink on 6th street. I love going out with my sister, she is possibly the funnest person. I'm really glad we got to spend that time together because the next morning the judge ordered her to go into a 6 week treatment facility and she was taken into custody right then. I talked to her probation officer and I've heard good things about this program so I hope it helps her. In the meantime we are just writing back and forth, keeping in touch that way. I already miss her so much!

In other news, my mom has a boyfriend! I'm so excited for her, I just hope that he doesn't hurt her. She is eager to have a good relationship with a worthy man. Unfortunately I got way more information than I wanted when C decided to ask her about her weekend.

C - Is he good in bed?
me - (jaw on the floor) I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT!
mom - (simutaneouly and emphatically) Yes he is! It's been a long time.
me - (before I could stop myself) how long has it BEEN?
mom - 11 years
me - WTF!?!? (other than that I was speechless)

How the hell do you go 11 years without sex? I mean really? Is that possible or perhaps my mom just has superhuman strength?