Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Nightmare

My dream last night could have been prompted by the phone call I received from my younger brother earlier in the evening. About a month ago he came home to find out his house had been broken in to. They took his PlayStation, computer and some cash he had. I had warned him to wait a bit before replacing these items as sometimes they strike again. He replaced both about a week ago and yesterday his house was broken in to again. Of course none of the neighbors noticed anything. He's a bit creeped out now, knowing that someone is watching him. It may be time for a move toward a better area.

I woke up about 2 am in a cold sweat and my heart was racing. The dream was so vivid and seemed so real that I was a bit nervous to go back to sleep. But then I thought maybe I could go back to sleep and make my own ending.
In my dream I had gone to the bank and cashed a check for $3700.00. I had paid a few bills and bought some groceries on the way home. Later that night we were sitting in the living room watching TV and our door was kicked in. These two huge AA men and a woman burst in to the living room with machine guns pointing at us. The guy demanded the $3700.00. We were all pretty calm and I told him that I didn't have any money like that in my house. He claimed he saw me cash the check and come home. My husband accused me of not paying the bills and started looking for the money. I showed receipts to him and the robber. The robber & his side kicks then sat down and watched the end of the TV show with us. Upon leaving he told me they'd be back in a few days and I'd best have the money.
I called the robbers wife and she came over for a visit. I explained that I didn't have that kind of money and she needed to have him leave us alone. She claimed she'd try. What seemed to be a few days later they both appeared with a basket of food and an apology. It seems he'd gone straight. We were all sitting around talking when we heard a loud car and he screamed for everyone to drop to the floor. I grabbed a baby (I assume it was by daughters) and ran to the hallway. Our house was immediately littered with bullets. I heard my dog yelp and handed off the baby to go get her. I I was dragging her to the hallway and saw the wife of the former robber sobbing over her husband who was down. I peeked out the window and saw an orange and black hopped up car with guns pointed at the house. I picked up the phone to call for help and the phone line was dead. I woke up wondering why my neighbors weren't hearing or seeing any of this. I realized that going back to sleep and hoping for a better ending didn't always pan out. This stupid dream is so stuck in my head.

Monday, June 13, 2011

She's Back

As parent's we're supposed to give our children advice and hope that some of it sinks in. I mean, we all listened as children right? I listened but usually not until it was to late.
Back in late October when I said "Don't move out with this guy yet" it fell on deaf ears. It was to soon and I also felt that it wasn't fair to her kids. But he had a house and all this room and he had his two kids and they were going to be one happy family. Three months later all seemed well and she also announced that she was pregnant. Foolishly I thought that things would be good. The pregnancy wasn't planned and we can all think about how it wasn't very smart, but what's done is done and it'll be dealt with. Outwardly they seemed like a big happy family.
Then I began to see some odd things. She was the one picking his kids up from school and mentioned a few times that he kept changing around his schedule to work later at night. She'd ask him to run for something from the store and he'd be gone for 2 hours. He didn't concern himself with his kids schoolwork or discipline them.
Prior to my daughter getting pregnant she had had several back surgeries and had been weaning herself off pain medication. He was all for it at first, but she would still have some days where the pain was bad. She had no intention of taking or doing anything that would be harmful to the baby. She had been pregnant twice before and lost both early on, and wasn't taking any risks. He was constantly pushing her to have her prescriptions filled and mentioned that they could wean the baby off the meds when it was born. This sickened her (and me when she told me).
Well little to know it was then discovered that he had a pill popping habit and if she could get her prescriptions filled it would be cheaper on him. She was done with him at that point.
That is when we got the call. At first she was looking in to renting an apartment. After some discussion my husband and I felt she should come back home until after the baby was born. Save some money-get her self together-find a job and then go. She has a pattern of doing things in haste but I don't see her going back. He's not really made any effort to try and hold the relationship together. Just mentioned that he hopes she doesn't rake him over the coals for child support. I guess we don't have to worry to much about him wanting any custody as since she left he has only seen his kids once, and hasn't yet told them she was gone.
So the past several days have been spent cleaning out rooms to make room for them. Nine bags of stuff went to Goodwill and the attic is once again over flowing. I joked that she must come back every time we accumulate to much which helps us in ridding ourselves of junk. Similar to a spring and fall cleaning.
So we had a little chat yesterday about her getting her life together. I took into consideration her three back surgeries, her divorce and her recent happenings. I mentioned that she had a choice to sit around and wallow in self pity or do something about it. What's done is done so get up and go from there.
My husband tried to be funny in quoting from a television commercial "Don't leave us with the babies". This would be my nightmare. I do give her more credit that that.