How could a mother...?

I wrote this last night, but couldn't get my words right to finish it.  I'm still not sure what those words are, because I can't wrap my mind around how someone could act the way Kitty's mother does.

I really don't understand it.  How could a mother just... BE the way she is?

Kitty went back to her mom's this morning.  Murl talked to her on the phone and she spent the day playing video games.  Her mother hasn't seen her in over two weeks; you'd think they'd spend some time together!

CPS is involved now because of alleged abuse and neglect.  Kitty's brothers are violent to her and other kids.  The house is apparently full of cat feces.  Her (second!) parole officer is the one who had her arrested for alleged drug use and theft.

I'm watching Wolfie sleeping in his swing (he wouldn't go to bed!) and I can't imagine what must go through her head.  How could you let your sons get as out of control as they are?  How can you steal money and pills from your own mother and neighbors?  How can you not put your kids ahead of your wants/needs?

I understand she's got an addiction.  She needs help, but she obviously hasn't been motivated enough to get it.  For her kid's sake, I really hope this helps, otherwise she might not have her kids anymore.

Just before she left.

The Party

I think the party went really well.  I got up early so I could go buy hamburger, charcoal and chips and come home to turn the hamburger into actual burgers and make fruit salad.  Murl made the cake with Kitty and we frosted it when I got home.  Yellow with purple frosting and pink letters.  She originally asked for white cake, but changed her mind, so we just put in yellow food coloring.  Food coloring is expensive!

Someone was very exciting about presents!

Murl set everything up, which he was cranky about, but I planned and prepared the whole thing, so its only fair.  I stayed with the kids at the park until it was time for food.  It was supposed to be raining, but it held off, which was awesome.  It was really windy, though, which made for problems lighting the grill.  We thought we were going to have to pack it in to go somewhere else to grill, but we got it.

His sister didn't show up with the cousins until 2 hours after we started and our old roommate was there and we kind of ignored him.  He owes me $300 for bills, but his son and Kitty have grown up together, so we'll always invite him.  The kids played, mostly in the sandbox, and I think they had a lot of fun.  We decided not to do the pinata because of the wind.  All the little pieces and candy would go everywhere.  So, we'll do that in 2 weekends when Kitty is back.

Throwing kid's parties is hard, but so far they've all come out well.  Probably because we don't have a lot of other kids to invite.  I'm no where near ready to throw a party with other kids.  I imagine that would be pretty expensive.

  

Parking Lot Carnival

This weekend was really busy.  My FIL took us to a parking lot carnival Friday evening.  We met the cousins there and spent a ridiculous amount of money for the kids to ride mediocre rides.  They loved it, though, so its worth it.

Kitty's mother wrote Murl a 5 page long guilt trip about how she can't stand being away from her daughter for 14 days in a row and he needs to think about how it feels for her.  Not seeing Kitty for 14 days in a row is something we now do every month and something that Murl has done quite often in the past, whenever her mother has decided he can't see her.  So, boo-hoo.

Friday was crazy hair day!

Saturday we had Kitty's 6th birthday party.  I'll post on that later, complete with photos.

Today is mother's day and it was OK.  That's really all I have to say about that.  Murl dropped Kitty off at 8am and I got to sleep late with Wolf.  We watched TV and I cleaned up the kitchen and part of the bathroom.  Murl took a nap, since he had to get up super early and I didn't wake him up, which made us late for dinner at a friends.  He woke up two hours after we were supposed to be there to a bunch of missed texts.  So, we headed over there with Wolf and ate some delicious foods.  Burgers stuffed with blue cheese, bacon and spinach!  Yum.