Breakin up with My Dad

Not everyone has the pleasure of breaking up with their dad. I am one of the lucky few.


He has always had sociopathic tendencies. However, the average person (especially children) have very little knowledge of what to look for when it comes to psychotic or sociopathic behaviors. So for the first 15 years of my life I had no clue.

Don't get me wrong, my dad could be great, and he could also be a horridly terrifying person. To go through any amount of occurrences is unnecessarily time consuming. Just trust me, my childhood was less than idyllic.

So long story short, he's spending some time getting three hot and a cot, courtesy of the state of Tennessee. And during these stays, he tends to go through a cycle. We can follow the cycle thanks to my Granny and Nanny (his mom and grandmother).

The first stage is where he wants either or both of them to get in touch with whomever he was hooked up (and "in love")with at the time. The second stage he attempts to get in touch with my siblings and myself, and in contact with some other people he's been "talking" to while doing "business" in whatever state/town/city. Then there's a little depression and everyone would be so much better without him. Then, finally, when he had screwed everyone else over and they realized how much he'd screwed them for, and the only hope he could see was attempting to come back to our family. (Which he'd gladly left multiple times since I was around eleven.)

So currently we are at the very end of this cycle. His boy toy has left him, and he is lonely, and none of his business (or otherwise) partners are willing to help him, be released. So he's writing to my brother, sister and myself. I'm relatively sure my sister hasn't even looked at her letter. I know that my brother read his, and will probably write back something interesting and insightful for his fifteen year old self.

I've read my letter and drafted a reply. The first letter to him since I was pregnant with Cat (and he subsequently called her a mistake, which I didn't take kindly).

I think the final paragraph is a decent summary of my stand on this...

"You've messed with my life as much as you can, and you will no longer be in it. I wish you the best of luck in you relationship with God, however I am not interested in being a part of that either. And you will not be welcome to pictures of myself or my children, nor will you ever be welcome in my home. "

Thanksgiving, Better late than Never

Thanksgiving was delish.  Everyone ate, gave thanks and enjoyed the company. That said I had a helluva experience with my Granny on Thanksgiving.

She told us about when her and my Pa started dating.  They’d known each other a while, and she’d hated him.  He was older and annoying.  Anyhow, she told me there was this boy she’d been seeing and I realized when she was talking about it, that Omigawd, my Granny was a teenager! Somehow in my delusional state as a grandchild I’d forgotten that at some point my grandparents were teenagers.  You know the squeaky kind where the girls are all giggly and the boys are all silent and stoic-y (well Pa was always like that).

For the first time, ever, I saw my Granny like Barbara Jean (Or maybe they called her Barbie. I‘ll call and find out.) not Granny.  I had a revelation, before all the stories of when my dad was little, and while she was pregnant with my aunt, and living here and there, and however many ‘war’ stories (she is so very apt to tell) she was Barbara (just plain ol’ Barbara) (I called and asked like it was out of the blue.  She doesn’t know about blogs. They would only confuse her. No point in going there.)

So above all else this Thanksgiving I am/was thankful for getting a chance to see who my Granny was BEFORE she was Granny.

***My dad’s parents have always gone by Granny and Pa. My Nanny (Granny’s Mother) married my Grand Daddy (Pa’s Father, AFTER the all their kids were born).  So my grandparents are STEP siblings. And all this happened when my Granny was about 12. 

PS- I'm sorry for being so late with this. During the week was Thanksgiving and a helluva head cold.  And then Black Friday came, and the weekend with 2 sick babies. But now I should be back and at 'em. At least I hope so. 

Here Goes Nothin’

Well, I wasn't really sure what to write about. I'm not even sure I know now what to talk about… So probably this is going to be a rambling post. I was looking through pictures on my laptop today and was messing with my photo editing software, Paint.Net. ((Available at paint.net for free)) It has a lot of tools very similar, from what I understand to Photoshop with none of the cost. I was going to attempt to show you some amazing transformation, but I haven't got anything terribly amazing to show. However maybe I've got some time yet this afternoon to wow you… But I'm not making too many promises these days.
Yesterday I took the kids to visit my Great-Grandmother, their Great-Great-Grandmother, who everyone n the family refers to as Nanny because our other Great-Grandmother went by Grandmother. Crazy-A(butt)-Toddler, my two year old, decided that all of Nanny's porcelain cherubs and other angels were her babies and she had to try and hold all of them. And try to eat all of Nanny's after dinner mints, which CAT doesn't even like. But it was 'tandy' and she just had to eat it. No matter how many times I took a still wrapped piece away from her, or she spit out the ones that had been too hot or minty for her mouth.
It was the first time Nanny had seen Baby-Boy, and so I wanted to get pictures of Nanny and BB. I got some of the two of them, and some of Nanny with BB and CAT. However CAT had red sticky candy face and two chipmunky cheeks full of after dinner mints.