I have to vent. I am completely stressed out and overwhelmed with my life right now. this is likely to be long!

First we have had our house for sale for almost a year which is it's own ball of stress trying to keep it in condition to show at all times with 3 teenagers, 2 cats and a dog. As we were negotiating a sale on it we had severe flooding in our area and had our yard and basement filled with water causing us to lose our furnace. So that throws a flood insurance claim in the mix which is a horrendous process. We finally have made our way thru all that to the point of having a closing date so then it's on to the stress of packing and moving. We can't get into the house we are buying until we close on our sale so it's like pulling off a major magic trick for it all to come together.

Last week we are down to the last of our packing, everything is set to close, and due to incompetence on the part of the so called 'experts' in this mess the close is delayed and might be another week out. Now I'm living with my mom and dad, dog is in a kennel, cats are stranded in an empty house and I'm shuffling around all the utilities to push out another week. My belongings are in storage split wherever we had room to store them.

Mind you my mother is a very strong personality. Opinionated, critical, controlling. Very intolerant of divorce and blended family. We've had our issues in the past. Bad enough that when I divorced we didn't' speak for a year. Things have gotten better and she has mellowed toward my situation. When we thought we needed somewhere to stay for a week or so I thought we could manage so I asked her and she agreed. But her house is small and and it's obviously a stretch to think it can work without someone killing someone else. We have a lot of renovations to do our our new house and I had hoped to stay with her for a few weeks while we did the really messy stuff but I think it's best to rough it !

DH got SD on his regular day last week and we shuffled sleeping arrangements around for everyone to sleep. It's not the best situation but for a week it's manageable. She was only in the house for about an hour before bed and he left to take her home before anyone was up the next day. Well my mother cornered DH the next day and told him that it was just too much and that he should make other arrangements for SD to sleep elsewhere until we move. And she wasn't very nice about it. It came across as if his child is not welcome. I can't blame him for being upset. On the other hand, if I wasn't married to him I would tell him the same thing as SD acts so badly towards me in my own home. She makes everyone uncomfortable.

So I'm caught in the middle. DH expected me to defend him to my mom but I choose to stay out of it. Much like he ignores the way SD treats me. Believe me if we had anywhere else to go we would do it. I also think that it's too much with SD there, more for her than anyone else. SHe is visibly uncomfortable, she doesn't really know my family, she doesn't care to. Why put her thru it when it' only a week? I asked DH to pass on one weekend of visitation due to our situation. I'm not sure he will. And now there's this chill to the air with him and my mom. And I have too much other stuff to deal with to pay attention to it.

Than early yesterday BM calls to talk to DH. It seems SD and her friends snuck out of her friend's house and walked miles to town in the middle of the night, to meet some boy. They got cold and called BM for a ride in the very early morning hours. Now these girls are 13!!!!! So he had to hold BM's hand thru being a parent and how to handle the situation. She decided on the consequences of taking SD's cell phone for a week and she is never to stay with this friend again. Ok. So last night DH is sitting on the couch and texting someone. I ask who. It's SD. I say "I thought she had her phone taken away?" He says, "Well her mom is going to start that tomorrow so it's monday to monday" WTH! I'll be surprised if she sees any consquences from this. And she was on facebook last night. It must be brutal being grounded like she is !!!

Well I have to get back to calling and pushing our realtor to get this close moving so I can get my life back to some sort of normal !!!