Life as I know it..

This past year has been one of happiness and times of not so much.  Roy finally made full-time with Toyota after being employed by Kelly Services for not quite 2 years.  Which allowed me to leave UK and take some much needed time off.  Sometimes you need to breathe and appreciate all that has been given to you. Plus I had enough in retirement to pay off the pacifica and pay rent up until July 2014.  Lacey had made her school dance team, she was doing percussion for her school band and still doing softball.  My days stayed busy even though I was off.  We still don't see Todd.  Erin we see every other weekend.  Erin turned 14 in October and Lacey turned 12 in November. Christmas came and because of retirement money they had a great Christmas which was nice because the last few we haven't been able to do that for them.  The new year dawned and Roy and I celebrated 10 years. I got my new ring.  Which was nice.  When we got married we used my residual checks from school to buy my engagement ring and I got a 1/5 carat which was nice but I wanted a bigger one so now I have a 1/3 of a carat.  We basically kept the same ring and switched out the stones.  I am sentimental about the ring.  After that came the unhappiness.  We had a horrible winter for snow and the kids missed a lot of school.  Aaron was due to come up during President's day.  We hadn't seen him since June 2011. Well Bourbon County schools decided to shorten their break from 4 days to 2 to alleviate some of the snow days.  I told Joe about it and he decided to have Aaron come home sooner. It made sense to me.  But to Lacey she had a meltdown. Why can't Aaron come over more, Why does Joe always do this, This is ridiculous, He is off school so why can't he stay? Just screaming and losing her mind.  Lacey never has tantrums. Well not since she was real little.  Then after I get her calmed down she looks me plainly in the face and says when I was six and the last summer I spent with Joe he made me touch him and do things with him.  I was dumbfounded and didn't know what to say.  I had always asked her when she came home, "Did anything happen while you were there?  Did dad do anything to you? Did he make you touch him?"  This is the man that abused me and cheated on me.  I had always hoped he would never touch my daughter but I didn't trust him.  My next question is why she waited and of course she told me she was scared of him and that she would never see her brother again.  I explained that I would have to tell social services and that she would have to tell them what happened.  She hasn't seen Joe since she was 9.  That was when she cried the whole time she was there and in retrospect now I know why.  When I told Roy he was about as upset and not surprised either.  We decided to wait until after Aaron left to report because we were afraid that if social services showed while Aaron was there he would tell his dad.  So Monday came and we called them and they visited Lacey at school. I was instructed to call Tennessee social services and then we had to go to TN and do a forensic interview which is basically where they interviewed her.  The snag we hit is where it happened.  This is the one summer he was not with his current girlfriend. Lacey being six didn't know the address and apparently Joe didn't list it anywhere.  All Lacey could remember was a barn, a bridge, a white house, and that the girl lived on the property with her parents.  She knew the girls name also.  So the detective drove us around addresses of Joe's but that didn't help because those were addresses that did not include this girlfriend.  So after 3 hours the detective gave up and we went home.  That night sitting at softball practice I randomly started typing last names into whitepages.com and found an address for a possible match, pulled it up on Google earth and Lacey said it was the right one.  The other snag was the county we did the forensic interview was in was Cheatham County. The incident happened in Davidson. It took almost 1 1/2 months to get the case transferred.  Apparently in TN, then all they can do if you don't have a warrant is request you to come in and talk.  They can knock on your door, you can turn off all your lights but you don't have to answer your door.  Well in May after Aaron graduated 8th grade we got to visit with him again, on the way to our house he started telling me about how he didn't believe all the stories Joe had been telling him about how awful I was and that Joe treats Tisha(his current girlfriend) so badly.  The day Lacey finished school which was June 5, Aaron and I come back to the house and (he is due to return to Joe on the 9th) he tells me he and Joe got into a fight and Joe pushed up to a wall and made his elbow bleed and another time he was trying to stop a fight between Joe and Tisha and he pushed him up against the wall and tore his shirt.  He tells me he is scared to go home. SO again I called social services and they advise me to go to county attorney and file for an emergency protective order.  I do that and they set a court date.  Joe brings an attorney who rips me up one side to the other.  Attorney says if you were so worried about your child, why didn't you try for custody when you had a domestic violence order in 2003? Weren't you worried about his safety then?  I stood there silently because I knew the attorneys job was to make me look unfit but I really wanted to tell him because I knew if I did, he would hunt me down and kill me and then he would be molesting both my children because we all know the dvo is a piece of paper.  Then the atty brings in Tisha and asks her if she knows anything about the allegations which she denies.  I know at this point I am screwed.  The judge asks if we mind if she talks to Aaron.  Aaron tells the judge everything. He tells her he is afraid of his life when it comes to Joe, he loves Tisha and that he is afraid for Tisha's life.  Judge asks Tisha if she would like to change her testimony because perjury gets 1-5 years in jail. She says "No Ma'am"  Then Judge gives me permanent custody for 3 years and tells Joe to stay 500 feet from Aaron at all times. Aaron went this past Wednesday to do his forensic interview on Lacey's case and they said they will push it to the District Atty.  So it should go on the docket for October. Assuming they can find him, now he hauls those camper trailers.  But at least now the case is moving.  I also am trying to get child support.  Whether I see it or not is a different story.  I also went back to work in August at UK through their temporary service.  I am at pre-op doing EKG while a girl is out with surgery. So that is all of my drama.  Maybe on of these days it will be drama free.