Our day in Court

We put up our seizure inducing flashing snowflakes

Christmas cactus all abloom

my lone blooming orchid

Cooper's hawks surveying my feeders. They saw him coming

Yesterday was the worst day so far this year. Ugh! And as I knew it was coming, it sort of spoiled the week before in anticipation. Naomi filed a motion to change her joint custody arrangement to sole custody. She wanted both physical and legal. She also filed several other motions full of cross outs. For instance, since she was making the complaints, one would think she would be the plaintiff but in the original divorce trial, she was the defendant so going forward, anything to do with custodial arrangements, she has to be the defendant. Due to incompetence of the many involved, the only motion the judge saw was that for parenting time. He said that was for the Friend of the Court to decide, contact them and see him only if there can't be an agreement. Naomi said she was there really to change the custody arrangement as Don'tae moved 150 miles away and is out of state much of the time and she wants the child support to reflect that. She then said she wanted sole legal custody, which I warned her about. The judge asked, on what grounds? Naomi didn't have an answer. Possible answers: not agreeing about the AHDH medication; not helping with homework. Don'tae then (we were really hoping he'd be out of state again) made this impassioned speech about what a good father he is and how he is there every weekend (not true!!!!) and how Naomi doesn't agree to share in the driving. And then the judge went on some speech how kids need their dad and at least Naomi could drive half way. This I didn't expect. Don'tae is the one who decided to move, why should Naomi be punished but Naomi was too shy or dumbfounded to counteract that. So nothing was settled. They have to file all sorts of stuff with the Friend of the Court and meet with them.

So Naomi was left in a toxic mood screaming at me. I couldn't wait to get her out of the car. And as soon as I do that, her ex husband is on the phone screaming at me. Said I wouldn't talk until he lowers his voice. He said he is willing to compromise but that turned out to be false. And he got married just the day before just in case Naomi mentioned  in court that he was living with an unmarried woman. He considers his 3 step kids to be Maya's siblings. Naomi most definitely does not. He thinks Maya should be up north even when he isn't there to bound with this new family. I said her school and social life are here. Classmate birthdays are on weekends. This is an important part of a little girl's life. He was asked to drive her last year to one of these parties and he conveniently forgot, which he blamed on Naomi for not reminding him more than once.

It seems to be a no win situation. It made my head hurt. Since I didn't get to run more than a few miles in the morning since we were due in court, I went off on a bike ride to clear my mind to return to Naomi feeling hopeless about the bad choices she's made and little way out of her dead end life. This is what usually happens to teenage moms even with ones with a big safety net such as herself. This is why I was in such despair when I learned she was pregnant. She seemed so sad and hopeless I invited her over. Fortunately she was in a better mood by then.

Once my lab results were in, my new physician decided 2 months ago I was hyperthyroid, which made some sense as I continued to take the same dose of synthroid as I did when I weighed 60% more. I really had no clinical signs though of being hyper. She recommended that I skip one dose a week and be retested. This week I was reading whether I could drink coffee before the blood test or not (yes I can; I could eat a pound cake if I wanted) and noticed that taking aspirin can lower TSH results leading to false diagnoses of hyperthyroidism. Wish I knew that before! I take baby aspirin daily as it presumably cuts down on breast cancer recurrences and colon cancer occurrences along with reducing heart attacks and maybe strokes. So my lab results were in this morning. TSH is on the low side of normal but more importantly, my thyroid hormone levels themselves are smack in the middle of normal. So I guess she was lucky guessing the dose.

I now have gold sparkly nails for our Moms Christmas party this weekend. Extra bonus, I got the best nail person at the place where I go. And it has been warm so I can run without ice and bike somewhat comfortably. November is almost over. And for each winter month, I have an escape planned. A week from today, we will be in sunny Espana. Yay!