We all just had an awesome time. Spent 9 days in the mountains of Georgia swimming, tubing, hiking, eating, and just plain relaxing. We rented a huge cabin with a beautiful mountain view and a hot tub. Almost every night was spent in that hot tub with wine glass in hand watching the sunset. It was gorgeous, we all feel recuperated, and FDH and I feel closer than ever. Bonus is SD not coming with us!!! I spent two weeks without her and it was great. He never brought up about her coming with, but I found out after the fact that she was in her aunt's wedding as a flower girl so it wouldn't have happened anyways. }:)

FDH and I talked about many things during our alone time which wasn't much b/c my kids and the rest of my family were there (my mom, dad, brother, and my 2 nieces and nephew). Everyone was always so tired at the end of the day though so we did get some time. We talked about marriage, about each other, and most of all about the kids. What the problems are, what to do about them, about writing up rules with consequences we BOTH feel comfortable following through on if the bio parent wasn't available for w/e reason(ex. in the shower).

One thing that was good to see, was how my brother and his kids acted. My niece is the same age as SD6 and is a hell of alot more independent. All my brother's kids went with us to hike to Tallulah Falls. There are 2200 steps with a warning about the difficulty. Not once, NOT ONCE, did any of the kids complain during this hike. FDH's brat? Whines about having to walk around the block and not getting a stroller ride to the park. This kid doesn't even dress herself. My six year old niece? She gets in the shower on her own, brushes her hair on her own, and even makes simple sandwhiches on her own. I think it was a real wake up call to FDH about SD6 and her behavior and attitude.

This kid thinks she's a true disney princess and should get everything handed to her and everything done for her. When we came back, FDH has since laid the smack down. He is sick of being her butler and activities director. I'm really curious to see what happens in the next couple weeks. I've said that statement many times; its starting to sound old and redudant. I'm willing to help him work out these issues if he truly wants to do something about them, but I'm not doing it for him. Not that he would allow me to. Its a cycle of sorts...he does good keeping her in check and then it gets tiring and he "gets sick of yelling at her all the time" so he slips back into doing everything for her. Kind of like he agrees to w/e BM wants b/c its easier than fighting. Sigh.