A Good Transition....Hopefully.

So, I know I havent blogged in a while, and Im sorry...especially to you Lacey. I know you like it when I blog.

Things have been rough lately. Really rough. Dorin and I have been staying at my dads house together but it hasnt been working out well. He has been unemployed for over 2 months now, and its really starting to frustrate me. There has been alot of tension and anger on my part...I feel like we need to be a team...and I feel like Im the only one doing anything. I mean, he is looking for a job, but not as hard as I think he should be looking.

I have decided that I think it would be best if he moved back in with his parents. I cant handle the burden of supporting him without having a bad attitude. I think he feels the same way. He has been at his parents for the last 2 days and it has been wonderful. I dont have to "take care" of him anymore, and its such a relief.

I dont know how things are going to turn out in the long run. His mother and I are still not speaking, nor do I EVER have the desire to have a relationship/friendship with her again. Its all just a big roller coaster with that woman. One day she loved me, the next she hates me, and I have just given up. I have expressed these feelings to Dorin, about me not ever wanting to have a close relationship with his mother again, and he hasnt really said anything about it.

So, in the end, I think RIGHT NOW there are just too many things stacked up against our relationship. Im not sure where it is going to go. I love Dorin, but Im not sure I can handle the drama of his mother and his sons mother forever.

I'll keep you posted.

Update.

Okay well I just wanted to update everyone on the past week.

Dorin and I are still doing great together, no new drama has started, but the old existing drama hasnt gotten any better either. Either way, we are happy to be together and are doing awesome as a couple.

Dorin and I havent gotten to see Tanner since before Christmas because of all this drama and chaos....but he is going to try to get him next weekend. He was going to try to get him this weekend but Dorin just got his wisdom teeth pulled out on Thursday so he is still recovering.

His recovery has gone pretty well. He isnt in too much pain and seems to be healing well so far.

Anyway, Im still just working away at Red Robin and Dorin is trying to find a new job since his boss is injured and he cant work. So...yeah thats where everything is right now.

Not the best, but things could definately be worse.

Doin' Great.

I don't have alot of time to blog since I am at the library (my computer is broken at home which is why I havent been blogging as much anymore).

As I wrote a few days ago, things arent good with Dorins mom, but this whole situation has made Dorin and my relationship SO much stronger. He told me the other night, "This relationship is only about me and you. No one else. As long as you and I are together, everything will be fine."

I think Dorin just finally "snapped" that night that his mom got in the middle of our conversation over the phone. He finally got fed up with her always in the middle of EVERYTHING that has to do with him, me, or Tanner. He told her exactly how he felt, his dad even agreed with him and backed him up, and all she said was that, "This is MY house and I can do whatever I want. If you dont like it you can leave." So he did, and seriously it was the best thing he ever could have done.

My family loves him, him and my dad get along so good, and now neither of us have to deal with his mom and her nosiness. My dads girlfriend Cheryl had to go into Jodys (Dorins mom) work yesterday (she works at Ace Hardware) to get something for my dad. Well, when she went up to the counter Jody rang her up. Jody didnt recongnize Cheryl but when she asked if she had an Ace Rewards card Cheryl said, "No but my boyfriend does, his name is Bob Herrett."

Well, right when Jody heard that she started asking Cheryl a million questions about us, how we are doing, if we had "told her about the situation", blah blah blah. Cheryl just said, "Oh they are doing so great!! We love having Dorin around, he is such a big help. And no, they havent told us about anything and we havent asked." (which isnt true, they know everything about what happened).

Cheryl could tell that Jody wanted to kind of "gossip" with her more but there was a line of people waiting by the time they got done talking, so Cheryl just left.

I am just so glad that Dorin and I dont have to deal with her anymore. We are so much happier...and we are so excited to move into our own house soon. My mom is looking into buying a house in either Graham, Orting, or Puyallup and then we will just rent to own from her.

Things are so much better since he has gotten away from that toxic woman, I just hope that one day everything can get worked out, but right now, Im happy with the way things are...and so is Dorin.

Times Are Changing

So, I know I have posted on here for a while and I apologize...things have been crazy around here. Alot has happened...the holidays weren't the best.

There is alot of drama right now with Dorins mom and Kristen (Tanners mom) against Dorin and I. Sometimes I feel like they are a team out to ruin our relationship...but it will never work.

Once again (a few days before Christmas) Kristen told Dorin that she had heard that we had broken up and told him that she still wanted to be with him. He told her that we were absolutely still together and that ONCE AGAIN he still has no feelings for her. Well, in addition to telling Dorin that, she also went to Jody (Dorins mom) and told her that I had went to Kristen and talked a whole bunch of trash about Jody...which is absolutely false.

So bottom line, Jody was/is really mad at me because she believes was Kristen has said, she talked trash about me to Dorin and pretty much told him that he shouldnt be with me anymore, and he FINALLY stood up for me and our relationship and told her to stay out of our business. He told her she is way too involved in every area of his life and that she needs to back off. Well she said, "Well this is MY house and I am going to do whatever I want. If you dont like it you can get out." So Dorin left.

This was December 23rd. He has been staying with me at my dads house for a little while, but my mom is in the process of buying a new house and we are going to rent it from her...so we are REALLY excited about that. We have only seen his parents once since this whole incident, which was Christmas night for dinner, and Jody did not say ONE word to either of us the entire night. We ate dinner (with some other people that were there also) and then everyone else left and Dorin, his parents and I all opened our presents to each other. She didnt say one word about anything that we got her...she just sat there silently and would occasionally say something to Dorins dad.

It was just super awkward. When we were going to leave Dorin, his dad, and I all said goodbye and thank you to each other, and Jody was laying on the couch and she didnt even look up at us and she mumbled, "Thanks."

So, thats it. Thats the story. Dorin hasnt even been able to see Tanner since before Christmas because of all of this drama. Its just ridiuculous.

Overall, Dorin and I are doing really well as a couple, this has only made us stronger together, but I hope that one day soon everything will get worked out.

God always Shines....even when your car breaks down.

So, I spent most of the day at Dorins today. Dorin, Jody and I took Tanner to see Santa which was cool. We went to a local Animal Feed Store which has an outside covered area, and they had this Country Christmas theme set up with Santa, and of course a professional photographer to take pictures. It was nice though because they had bails of hay on each side of Santa (and Santa was sitting on one too) so a child didn't HAVE to sit on Santas lap to get a picture.

First off, I took him up to Santa, I then sat down next to Santa and put Tanner in my lap and Santa got out a book and we were all reading it together. The photographer got some really good pictures of that. Then Dorin came into the picture and we had Tanner stand up next to Santa with Dorin standing behind Tanner and me standing on the side of Tanner and we got a couple cute shots of that, then I got out of the picture and Jody got in and we got cute shots of that too. Jody is so generous. I knew she was going to be wanting to buy a picture, but she totally bought the most expensive package so that I (well Dorin and I, but Dorin just told me to pick what I liked) could pick a picture that we liked of all of us and get a package of it. The package that she purchased was called the "Best Deal Package" and it came with any 2 packages and a CD of all the pictures taken from the sitting with Santa...all for $40.25....which I thought was kind of expensive, but then again I have never bought professional pictures before.

Jody completely included me on all the choices, she asked me what two packages we should get, there were like 5 different packages (1 package had just 1 8X10...another had 2 5X7s...etc), so I suggested to her that since Dorin, Tanner and I are already going to be getting our Christmas pictures done soon, we didn't need an 8X10 but that maybe she should get an 8X10 of her,Dorin and Tanner since she wasnt going to be going to the Christmas pictures with us. She totally thought that was a good idea and chose the picture she liked the best of the 3 of them in an 8X10...and then she was just like, okay so what package do you want? So I got to choose what picture I liked the best of Dorin, Tanner and I and picked the package I wanted, I contemplated getting some wallets, but I knew that we would be getting plenty of them when we get our Christmas pictures done, so I just chose the package with 2 5X7s. I told her I had cash, but she told me not to worry about it. It was so sweet of her.

After that we just all went home and Tanner was completely ready for his nap, he went right to sleep when we got home. I decided to also take a little nap before I had to work at 4:30, So, when I woke up, I got ready for work, and said goodbye.

Well, I was like 2/3rds of my way to work, on Meridian, and my car starts to die...thankfully slowly. I noticed because I couldnt accelerate, so I got in the slow lane, noticed that my engine light was on, and turned into the first turn off I saw (which was really hard because all of a sudden my power steering wouldnt work either!)....and lucky for me...it was an auto parts store! I almost made it completely into the parking lot before my car completely died, so a couple of guys that worked there pushed me the rest of the way in. I immediately called my work and told them that my car had died, but luckily I was at an auto parts store, and that a guy from the store was looking at my car so I would probably be late.

Well, the guy couldnt figure out what was wrong with it, he said the only way to find out what was wrong was to get it towed to a body shop. I thought, Great!. So I called my work again and said that I was pretty much screwed, that the guy had no idea what was wrong with my car, and that I didnt really know how I would get there without having to call someone from Graham to come and get me (and then leaving my car in the dark for the night!), and that I wouldnt have a car to get to work with tomorrow (for a double shift) if I didnt get this taken care of. I really didnt want to leave my car just sitting there all night, and I thought they would tell me to just get my car taken care of and not worry about coming in, but for some reason they said, "Well, we will just worry about tomorrow tomorrow, but we need you to get here as soon as you can." And I was kind of like, "Okay, well its gonna be a while, I need to call someone to come and get me." and blah, blah, blah.

I was irritated that they really still needed me to come in (when in my mind, I knew I wouldnt even be working for very long anyway), so I called Dorin, told him what happened, and asked him if him and his dad could come and get me and take me to work. He said they were on their way. I then called my dad, told him what happened, and asked him if he could call his mechanic to come look at my car. Luckily, my dads mechanic was home and my dad said that him and the mechanic would come look at my car while I was at work. Thank God.

So, Dorin and his dad get there and look at my car for a few minutes, Dorins dad guessed it was the timing belt.

Once I get to work, I have to worry about somehow finding a ride home, because I didnt want to have to make Dorins dad come and get me again, and I knew my dad would be busy working on my car so he couldnt come get me. Thankfully, a super sweet friend and co-worker of mine Chloe told me that she would give me a ride home, and she didnt seem annoyed by the idea either. She is just so super sweet.

Anyway, I only had 3 tables and then Chloe got phased so I had to find someone who also got phased to stay for me so that I could get a ride with Chloe (who by the way, only lives like 3 minutes from work, so it was totally out of her way to take me home but she was still super sweet about it anyway). Thank God, I found someone.

So Chloe, her dad, and I all start on the way to Graham. We stopped at Auto Zone (the place my car was) to see if my dad and the mechanic were still there, but they werent. So, I got into my car to see if it would start, and it still wouldnt! I was so frustrated because I knew that it had to be something kind of serious then.

I then immediately called my house and my dad had just gotten home. He told me that the timing belt had snapped and it would take a couple of days to fix, plus we have to get it towed to the mechanics house. I asked him if he could pick me up at Safeway so Chloe and her dad didnt have to drive me all the way home (because the farther we were going towards my house, the more it started to snow harder!) and he said yes.

So I gave Chloe some money (which I had to force her to take) for gas and waited at Safeway for my dad. Once him and Cheryl got there I felt alot better, like everything was going to be okay. I was with family, and my dad said that I could use his van (or even his new truck!--which I would never drive) to drive to work and stuff until my car is fixed. That was such a relief.

I dont have a day off until Friday, but atleast I have a vechile to get there until my car gets fixed.

In the end, I realized that God was definately still in control of the situation even though it sucked. He blessed me with the fact of breaking down right next to an auto parts store that also gave me premission to leave my car there overnight, he blessed me with amazing people that took time out of their own days to drive me to and from work, he blessed me with a great dad who took care of getting my car diagnosed while I was working, he blessed me with someone at work who was nice enough to stay a couple extra hours so that I could get a ride home, and he blessed me with a vehcile to drive while my car is out of commission.

God is awesome, even when I think the situation sucks, He still shines through.

Night Night.

PS. I will put up the Santa pictures as soon as I get them from Jody.

Great Day!

This day was wonderful (Friday). Both Dorin and I had the day off, along with both his parents, so Jody and I planned to have a "cookie day" and make cookies together all day. The purpose of this was for a few reasons: 1" She is really sincerely trying to help me learn how to cook and bake more (my mom never taught me), 2) Having cookies made for her upcoming Work Christmas party on Sunday, and 3)to just have fun and make cookies together.

I got there around 11am. It was perfect timing, as soon as I got there Jody had just gotten home from the store where she picked up the rest of the ingredients we needed for the cookies we were making. We planned on making 4 different kinds of cookies today: these cherry bars Jody loved as a child, peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip, chocolate no-bake cookies, and fudge.

Well, we only made the cookies and saved the fudge for another day because the peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies took alot longer than expected due to the thickness and cumbliness of them while we were trying to form them into cookies, but once they baked they were perfect (we were fearful that they would fall apart).

While we were making cookies Dorin and his dad were outside doing some things together. Once they came in and we finished the cookies, it was time for a little bit of housework. Dorins house is NEVER messy, but its that way because we all keep it really clean and straightened up. I decided I would vacume the entire house (like I have done many times) because I thought that would really help Jody out...I know she doesnt enjoy vacuuming the carpet and floors, so I did it. She didnt thank me but I think she really appreciated it because like 10 minutes after that she came into Dorins room where we were both making the bed and folding laundry, and she said, "So, would you guys like to go pick up Tanner together and then go to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner?" and we both were like, "Yeah!" I just thought it would be super nice and fun, plus its one of Dorins alltime favorite restaurants and we have never been there together, so I was really excited to go.

So, we went to pick up Tanner from daycare at about 2:30-3pm, and headed to Tacoma for dinner, Dorin and I thought it was a little early for going to dinner, but his dad likes to eat kind of early, plus we didnt have to want to wait forever for a table, so we headed to Tacoma. Well, when we got there, we realized from the sign on the door that the restaurant didn't open for dinner until 5pm...and it was only 3:50, so we decided to go to Freighthouse Square right down the street for a little while, and just walk around and look in the little shops until it was time for dinner.

When we got to Freighthouse Square, Tanner was definately ready to get out of the car, he wasn't fussy or anything but 45 minutes is definately longer than he is used to be in the car at one time (atleast when he is with us), so we started to walk around. The place was really empty, like almost zero people, which I thought was kind of weird, but also good because we had lots of room to run around. We walked around for a while but got bored kind of quickly, Jody said that the place had really gone down hill since the last time she had been there, and I could understand why. There wasn't much to look at, but it was still kind of fun and it wasted time.

So, finally we go back to the restaurant for dinner and there are tons of people in the lobby already waiting, thankfully there is still one bench open (right next to a lightened-up Chistmas tree) to we all sat down, I sat right next to the Christmas tree with Tanner so he would stay entertained (we still had like 20 minutes until we could get seated because it wasnt 5pm yet). The tree worked as a distraction for a little bit, but then we had to get some his toys out of the diaper bag so he could play. During this time, I also took him to the bathroom to change his diaper just for something to do to waste time...lol.

Once we were seated, Tanner started to get restless for a little while but he quickly calmed down. He is alot more behaved than some other children I have seen his age at Red Robin. He just played with his toys and stuff until the food came. We were happy because he really liked his food (sometimes he will hardly eat anything), but he ate pretty good. We got him milk to drink, spaghetti with meat sauce and applesauce (which they brought first, which was good). Then of course we all got spumoni ice cream for dessert which was so yummy! Tanner didnt eat one bite of his (he isn't really into sweets, he would much rather have fruit than a cookie or ice cream). Overall, it was such a nice dinner. But I have to say, I have noticed that going out to dinner once you have a young child to take care of and be responsible for is ALOT different than just going out to dinner with adults. Most of my time was filled with making sure than Tanner was behaving, not eating his crayons (LOL), and not choking on his food (I have a phobia about that). I mean, I really did still super enjoy myself, and of course Dorin helped ALOT too, but its just different once you have a child, your focus is more on your child than on conversation.

But like I said, overall it was such a nice dinner.

Once we got home, we showed Tanner the lit up Christmas tree and all the Christmas decorations and then pretty much immediately gave him a bath. We knew he was getting tired (even though it was only 7pm), he had had a long day at daycare and then was out with us for the night so I thought he would really enjoy (even more than usual) a nice bath, which he did. He loves his baths. He loves to play and just be in the water. After that was jammy time...so we got him in his jammies and then we all decided to rent "Fred Clause" off of On Demand and watch it. Whenever we watch a movie all together out in the living room Dorin and I take most of the blankets and pillows off his bed and make a bed out on the floor for him, Tanner, and I.

It was such a good and funny movie. Tanner had grapes (his absolute favorite) while watching the movie...and played for the rest of the time while we were watching it, so I didn't get to catch all of the movie, but I got most of it. It was a really good Christmas movie...completely funny but also a good Christmas movie.

After the movie, Tanner said goodnight to Nana and Papa and we went into our room for bedtime. Tanner and I now have a tradition that I sing him Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (his favorite song) to him while he is falling asleep, and if I stop before his is asleep, he will say "Please" which means for me to keep singing. It really works good for him falling asleep, the past couple weekends I have started singing it to him and he has been falling asleep alot faster.

After Tanner fell asleep Dorin and I just snuggled and watched some TV.

Overall, it was a really, really good day.

I really consider Dorins family my immediate family more than my own family right now, due to some things going on at home. I am always at Dorins, the only time I am here is when I sleep. I guess my dad and I have a kind of relationship where we just cant live together, so Im really looking forward to saving money like crazy after Christmas and moving out with Dorin on our own again. We have already started looking at houses and apartments. We would prefer to rent a house, but we like some appartments too.

Okay well goodnight.

Unappreciated Help

Tonight was frustrating, but I'm learning to not let things bug me as much as they used to. Here is was happened.

Dorin and I both had today off, I called off of work because it was going to be slow and his boss was having surgery so he didn't have to work. So, I slept in for a bit, talked to Cheryl for an hour, got dressed and went over to Dorins house.

Well, when I got there Jody was home because she didn't work til' 3 pm (she worked 3pm to 7 pm tonight). I got there about 1:30. Dorin and I decided to go out to lunch about 15 minutes after I got there so we went and got teriaki, ate, and came home. Well, I had leftovers of my fried rice because they gave me so much, so I asked her if she would like to take it to work so she could eat on her break, but she said no because she had just eaten.

Anyway, on our way home from getting lunch we saw a "For Rent" sign on a house at the end of Dorins little road (which is super, super close to his parents house, like probably 10 seconds driving distance) but I got the number anyway and called when we got back home. I called on it and got the information about it, but later Dorin told me that he thought it was too close to his parents house and he didn't want to schedule an appointment to look at it or anything. I agreed after thinking about it.

Well, right before Jody left for work she told Dorin that she wanted him to take out the garbage and recyling, clean up Tanners room, clean the guest bathroom, and clean up his own room (which wasn't even messy at all), put up and assemble the Christmas tree (its fake) and she also mentioned, "And the carpet couldn't hurt being vacuumed either." It kind of irritated me that she told him to do all those things because she had been sitting at home ALL day on the couch doing NOTHING. Why couldn't she vacuum? But, I understand that Dorin had the day off and she had to work (on of the 2 days a week that she works) so she wanted Dorin to do housework. Also, she likes Dorin to help out around the house ALOT which he does.

So anyway, she left for work. Well, we decided that we wanted to go down to Orting to look at houses down there that were for rent (we are planning to move within 2-3 months max). After we were done looking at the houses, we decided to go to town to Costco to get this cookbook for his mom for Christmas that she wants.

While we were there, he was very considerate (in my opinion) and called her at work and asked her if she needed anything at Costco. She told him to get milk and to get something easy for dinner. Well, he got the milk but we really couldn't find anything for dinner that she would really like, so we left.

We came home around 5:30pm and started on the list of chores. I took out the garbage and recyling bins, cleaned the guest bathroom, started to clean up Tanners room, he put up and assembled the tree, vacuumed the floor, we cleaned up his room together, and did everything else that she asked. In addition to that, I also took the clothes out of the dryer for her and folded them, I started a load of her laundry for her that was in the alundry room, I put the dishes that were in the sick in the dishwasher and started it, I put away the clean dishes that were in the dish rack (that we hand wash), I wiped down all the counters, I tidied up the living room, I fed the dog, Dorin fed the outside dog, and I fed the cat. I pretty much did EVERYTHING I could think of so that the house was completely SPOTLESS when she got home so that she would be in a good mood, and I was happy that I had done something nice for her.

Well, when she got home it seemed like she didn't even notice all the work I/we did. Instead of being appreciative for everything that we had done, she was automatically in a horrible mood because there was nothing made for her for dinner. She was in such a bad mood, she even said to Dorins dad, "Well it pisses me off that I come home from work and have to figure out something to eat for dinner." Well, its not like she had to make dinner for all of us. We had all already eaten. Dorin and I had leftovers from our lunch, and Dorins dad made himself some chili when he got home from work about 20 minutes before Jody.

I was just so frustrated, she was in a horrible mood for the rest of the night. Not one thank you, not even one ACKNOWEDGEMENT that we had done anything, even though we had done everything AND some. But I know for a fact that if we HADN'T done EVERYTHING on that list of chores, she would have completely bitched about it, its like she will totally complain if it doesn;t get done, but doesn't even say thank you for it getting done.

I mean, I don't even live there and I was doing her household cleaning chores for her..and she acted like I didn't exist because Dorin and I didn't pick up anything for dinner. Its like instead of being grateful and appreciative for everything that we DID do for her, she immediately is negative and pissed off about the ONE thing that we DIDN'T do.

I don't know, it just kind of bugs me. I know it shouldn't. I have done tons of cleaning things in her house right in front of her before while not living there and NOT ONCE has she EVER said "Thank You" or even acknowledged that I did anything.

Whatever. Another Day in the Life I guess.

Dorin is amazing though, he is the sweetest boyfriend in the world and I am so grateful and blessed to have him in my life, so even if I have to deal with these kinds of things for the rest of my life (because I know I will), its okay because to me, he and our relationship is completely worth it to me.

You take the good with the bad I guess.