The Good Day That Almost Wasn't

Disappointment, a photo by northwoodsluna on Flickr.

Today was a good day that almost wasn't.

I woke up happy, excited about Tom and I having the day away by ourselves. I nearly let my joy be robbed. Last night John and I were texting on Blackberry Messenger, he'd had a rough day, I'm not sure what had happened, all he said was that he had felt "like Ralph is trying to steal my daughter too." I texted back some encouragement and affirmation for him and told him I was still planning to come down on Sunday to spend some time with Ashlyn while he was down the street at his fantasy football draft. When I woke up this morning there was an answering text from him, he said that was a "sore point". Evidently Angie wasn't happy about me spending time with Ashlyn and arranged for Ashlyn to go to HER mother's house instead. Karen lives 20 minutes away from Fargo and can see Ashlyn anytime she wants, John loves his ex in-laws and they love him so that's not the issue. The issue is that Angie is being hurtful and knew it would bother John and that it would hurt me. I dissolved into tears of disappointment. She's still trying to control whether or not I see Ashlyn. I guess that by nature of being the ex mother-in-law I'm the enemy, and somehow a threat to her. I was a good mother-in-law. It hurts. I did have to smile though, when John also said that both her sisters are in *his* fantasy football draft/league along with all of the neighbors, Ralph and Angie were part of that group for the past several years too. That has got to make her angry. I suppose that it hurts her, and that's part of why she controlled what she could about the weekend by taking steps to ensure that I didn't get to spend the time with Ashlyn. What a miserable person she must be!

So I spent some time journaling and doing a page in my art journal to get rid of "the ickies" as best as I could before we left for Grand Forks ND. It helped some and I felt better by the time I got to Grand Forks. Along the way we saw a field of sunflowers, and Tom stopped so I could take a picture. I'd forgotten our camera I intended to take but I was able to take a picture with the camera on my phone. Sunflowers always brighten my day, and a whole field of them...well it's just like magic! :-) It was a gorgeous day for a drive, sunny and warm. By the end of the day I'd managed to reframe the coming weekend as "well now I can have a 3 day weekend at home to work on some art projects." That sounds lovely too!

We did a bit of shopping when we got to GF, at Best Buy (a movie, Just Dance game for Wii, 2 Adele CDs and a collection of some of our favorite "new age" artists on CD), Michael's (beads for the wall hanging I want to make and beads for bracelets that clients will make in sessin and for Becca to make next time she visits and Bath & Body, then went to lunch at Space Aliens http://www.spacealiens.com/front.php a fun place, it's a chain in MN and ND. The portions are huge, Tom and I shared a meal and even then we couldn't eat all the food. Delicious! We did a little more shopping for sundries, coffees, spices and Morning Star vegetarian items we can't find up here. Before we left town we stopped at Stone Cold Creamery. We'd never been there before. What an evil place LOL So good! We enjoyed the ride home going yet another route cross country, and we enjoyed a lovely sunset. We got home about 8:30 tonight, both of us really enjoyed our day away. :-)

We did miss a call from Julie while we were gone, She said on the message she left on our machine that she and Matt had really enjoyed seeing my mom and my sister while she and Matt were in Dubuque for Matt's friend's wedding over the weekend. :-) I'm so happy she got to see them :-)

When I got home I had a message on FB from Melanie Sage who in addition to being an artist friend is now a professor in the Social Work Department at UND my alma mater. She asked me if I had a webcam and microphone and would I be willing to be a guest speaker, to speak about my work and how I engage with families, via webcam for the Social Work With Familes class she's teaching. Wow!! Cool!!

Tomorrow I am getting back on track for real with my fitness and nutrition plan. There's a new biggest loser challenge starting September 1, the pot is currently $260. I want it! :-) Today I bought a mini blender, individual sized (hot pink!) to make smoothies and other nutrtitious drinks for meals on the run when work get's busy. The blender top is a travel cup so I can mix and take it with me. Very cool! And much less expensive than the immersion blender I had intended to get to make smoothies etc.

Time for bed!

Good night all! Sweet dreams wished to all of you!

Life is good! Really!