Today my FDH left to go to GA for court and will be back next Monday. Custody and child support modification on June 2nd. To recap: FDH's XW's mom is a retired judge in a small county. Add to that the fact that his chain of command thought the SCRA applied to all legal issues and thus would not allow him time off to go to court. XW got *everything* she asked for. The vehicles split the way she wanted, $732/mo CS, full custody (FDH is allowed to visit with FSS5 within the state of GA as allowed by his military schedule), *all* of their joint property, *all* of the money in their bank accounts, FDH got stuck with *all* of their credit card debt (that she ran up while he was serving in Iraq), etc. Luckily for FDH, I guess, XW forgot the fact that they bought a home together and didn't bring it up in court appearance #1, so that's seemingly on the agenda to be decided as well. He doesn't want it; she picked it out; he doesn't even live there anymore; she lives about 5 miles away from it. She's trying to stick him with the home debt as well just to be an a$$, frankly, because her mom let's her live w/ her for free.

I guess what really blows my mind about it all is the fact that she point blank tried to extort money from FDH (demanded $1000 per pick-up of FSS), and he has the emails to prove it. His lawyer showed them in court appearance #1 and the judge had the gall to say, "I don't blame her, I'd probably have done the exact same thing." Are you effing kidding me!!!!

So, after that, FDH's lawyer got the jurisdiction moved over to a neighboring county on the hopes that the XW's mom will not have influence there. The lawyer also set it up so that XMIL is barred from so much as entering the court house. That all looks nice on paper, I suppose, but the reality is that both parties are already aware of who the judge is, and if XMIL has ties of any sort to him, she won't have to show up the day of court to influence him. After All, there are these new fangled technomological gadgets called phones.

I am a worrier; it's just what I do. So, I'm worried about how all of this is going to go down.

In the mean time, to try and give the kiddo a leg up on next year (and to try and keep my mind occupied), I've started home summer school. My district puts the curriculum up on line, so I know already what she'll be required to learn in 4th grade. I'm focusing on Math, Science, and Language/Literature. I already think I'm loosing my voice and possibly my mind. Because we took FDH to the airport, we didn't get started today until after noon, but still, we didn't finish up until 3:40. It's like she purposely doesn't listen. Which I know isn't true and I know she's trying, but I still feel like ripping my hair out. I also think the jump between 3rd and 4th grade curriculums is crazy. She finished out 3rd at the top of her class, but is seriously struggling with this new material. Mostly in Science. I remember having to know what a cell was. I do not remember having to be able to name and define the 13 parts of an animal cell and the *22* parts of a plant cell. Seriously, I remember quite vividly my introduction to endoplasmic reticulum . . . in 9th grade Honors Biology. The fact that it's now required for 4th grade Life Science just kinda blows my mind.