D-Day

So, its now official. I am single (again).

Turned out there was one remaining issue to be resolved and it went right down to the wire. It helped that my attorney knew the court clerk very well - and she basically told us how the court had ruled on similar open issues in the past. This allowed us to craft the remaining language of our Agreement so that we could get it all signed before seeing the judge - which I later found out had to be done if you have an uncontested divorce hearing. The judge even commented how he liked the language we had used on that very issue.

Now, if it wasn't for her attorney being such an a**hole, I think this whole matter would have been completed back in June. But, here we are, one year after filing, finally divorced. Cheers everyone!

Anniversary

So, Saturday was the wedding anniversary - I totally forgot. I was looking forward to spending the evening with everyone at Jake Ivory's and then having so much fun while there I didn't even think about what day it was. I guess September 8th is now just any other day.

Visitation

So, as part of the transitioning in of the new schedule, today was a 'visitation day' for me. That means that the boys spent last night at their mother's place and she took them to daycare this morning. Then I got to pick them up from school and spend the rest of the afternoon and have dinner with them before taking them back to their mother's house for the night.

It sucked.

I mean, I was glad to see the boys - we went to a playground in Watertown, then I found a Friendly's where the boys had their favorite Mac 'N Cheese and ice cream dessert. I was very glad to spend the time with them since I had not seen them in 2 days. But it was tough taking them back to Arlington. Leo complained that he didn't want to go to Mommy's - he wanted to go to my house. And Daniel spent all of dinner giving my hugs saying "Daddy, daddy, daddy."

Once at her house, Leo wanted me to come in - so his mother let me so Leo could show me his playroom. Part of me thinks she wanted me to come in so that I would see how small the place was compared to the house in Hingham. But Leo enjoyed showing off some new toys he got and as I left I got big hugs from both Leo and Daniel. It was hard leaving them after what was only a 3-hour visit.

I guess I'm fortunate that there will not be too many of these types of visitations - our 50/50 custody agreement has an equal number of nights the boys spend with each of us. But because of the way some of the days fall as we alternate weekends, we each will have one of these visitation days each month. I suppose she will find out how hard it is when its her turn.

Schedule

So, we started "The Schedule" today. Was this what I wanted? Not sure, but it is the eventual product of divorce.

The day started with me getting the boys up, getting them to eat some breakfast, then dressed, and into the car. The drive to Allston wasn't too bad - got to use the HOV lane on the Southeast Expressway so we passed all of the traffic that was backed up in the other lanes. The boys watched the first half of "Toy Story" on the DVD.

We got to the new daycare and I was stuck right at the start. I was never told what the security code was on the outside door to get into the building so I had to wait about five minutes until another parent showed up. Once inside, Leo showed me where his cubby was (as he had had 2 intro visits with his mother the last couple of weeks). Then I dropped him off with his new teacher and took Daniel down to his classroom. Daniel was great - I stayed for about a half hour with him (filling out paperwork that their mother was supposed to have already completed) and I just watched him go from activity to activity and get introduced to his new classmates. He was having a great time! So then I went to check on Leo - this wasn't so good. He just wanted to hold on to me - then he wanted to go to Daniel's classroom. I took him down to see Daniel, then had to carry him back to his class as he wouldn't go himself. One of the teachers finally helped me and got Leo to stop crying so he could give me a hug and I could leave. I got to the car and cried.

Finally got to work and sent an e-mail to their mother to let her know how the dropoff went. It was good that it was a very busy day at the office so I didn't have time to think much about the boys. It was also nice to be able to leave at the end of the day whenever I wanted and not be tied to a train schedule. The drive home was easy - stopped at the grocery store, then arrived home - to an empty house. And the house is very quiet without the boys here.

So, this is how it is going to be, half of every week, and every other weekend. I'll give the boys a phone call tomorrow night - let them be with their mother tonight as they adjust to her place. Then I'll see them Thursday night for dinner - then they are back with their mother for the weekend.

I guess this is going to take some getting used to.

Gone

So, she's gone. It finally happened. Now me and the boys have the house to ourselves. She left more behind than I thought she was going to so its not too bad. She even left the furniture that she tried to get me to buy from her.

I've had some of my father's furniture in storage which is going to be delivered early next week. Then I've got to get new bedroom furniture for Leo and a few other pieces to fill in where things are missing. And since she took all of the rugs, looks like I'm going to go rug shopping as well.

But that's all just stuff. The important thing is to make this place a happy home - and that's what we're going to do!