For my few (eleven) followers who might be curious, no I haven't abandoned my blog.
I went out of town, got sick, dealt with family crap and decided that I would do it all without touching my computer for at least a full week.


I know insane, right?


But I promised the fam-damily I wouldn't blog and I would devote my attention to spending some quality time with them.


Last few posts (somewhere) I believe I mentioned going away to pick up my stepson for a two week visit at our house. I guess I will start there to catch you up.
We went to Ktown to pick up Cole and we were all excited, but the trip wasn't without peril.

DH's check didn't come on time so we had to delay our trip a day or two. We got there and finally had Cole in our arms when it hit me that something was wrong. Call it mothers intuition or whatever. But I could just tell he wasn't feeling good about things.


We stayed with friends overnight, pitching our tent in their backyard, which was perfect since the weather was a balmy 39 degrees and sweltering.
Cole cried a few times for mum. But it was late at night that it got worse. That is when my heart broke.
I held him in my arms while he begged me not to bring him down to our house.

It was awful really.

So the following morning I called hubby's ex and talked to her. She felt good that I was concerned about Cole. I told her we didn't want to make him do anything he wasn't comfortable with.


Cole is six turning seven and hasn't really seen us much in the past two years. So basically we are strangers. He isn't ready to come to our home without mom and dad yet. But all wasn't lost.


Cole spent the next few days camping with us. His attitude changed once he knew we weren't bringing him home and mom was close by. That also made me feel better, though I won't lie (the boys) and DH were extremely disappointed but they understood.


While we were up in Ktown, I was leery about allowing Gamerboy to see his father whom he hadn't seen in two years. But GB's dad had appeared to be getting his life back on track (appeared) that is.


He told me he was making plans on maybe moving to Cali to begin a career as a comedian, talking about what it was like being homeless in BC.
I said nothing, only encouraged him. Who am I to squash a poor man's dreams?
I told GB's dad we were coming up. His cell had been disconnected so he gave me his address and said see you when I see you.


So we showed up at his house. He was asleep when we got there in the afternoon. I expected him to come rushing out and hug his son. GB was so excited to be seeing him. That is until he appeared at the doorway.


Nothing has changed!


He immediately started yelling at me saying I was late or something. That he'd waited two days for his son and now I was expecting him to drop everything. I tried to remain calm and explain to him I had no way of calling ahead of time to a person that has no phone. He should have been happy to see GB.

Instead he acted like I was wasting his time and it was a huge fight.
Finally I left, GB stayed for a couple hours with him. They went bike riding and DH and our friend Happy went to pick GB up but they weren't there. No instead GB's dad brought him to where I was and guess what...? .


You got it, he started up again on how I was late bringing his boy to see him. He yelled at me in front of all the kids and our friends. I finally told him to shut up and leave if all he can do is complain he should feel lucky because I didn't have to bring GB to see him. I was there visiting my stepson not him!


I also reminded him he pays no child support. FMEP has to find him and garnish him because he loses jobs faster than he loses his hair. So it's not often I get any money for GB and yet still I try to make sure they have a relationship with one another.
Finally he left and that night GB told me all he did while they were together was talk about me and how bad I was and GB is sick of it.


The whole entire time while we were away I was ill. It started with the flu but ended with bronchial pneumonia and a sinus infection which hurt my brain and eyes and cheeks. It was awful.

But I'm on antibiotics finally now and getting better soon I hope.
Overall the worst part of my vacation was missing all of you and not being able to blog. Well that and dealing with GB's dad and Cole not wanting to come back with us.

But otherwise we had fun.
We bbq'ed most nights under the sun. The kids swam in the pool and after the sun went down we walked to the beach which was only a few blocks away (SWEET) and the kids all had a blast.
We are going back up middle of August for Cole's b day.

We have presents for him and wish to spend more time with him.
Our family isn't perfect. We are a blended family and those are never easy. I often wonder how pickleboy will feel when he gets older and discovers in reality that GB is his half brother and Cole is his half brother and GB and Cole are step brothers... lol Ahhh the fun of it.


Truth is it doesn't really matter because we are all family no matter how we are related by blood or otherwise.
Hopefully this next trip back up to Ktown will go more smoothly eh?