The last few days have passed by in a blur. It’s like life jumped into overdrive and has been whizzing on by since Wednesday. Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m sick. I have this cold… thing… that is just messing with my head. I feel like I’m walking around in a fog. I feel sluggish and sleepy. My throat itches and burns, and I keep sneezing and coughing. All we have is the drowsiness-inducing Theraflu. Lame. I begged Dan to pick up something daytime-friendly on his way home from work, but he won’t be home for at least another three hours. I hate his late nights, though by now I’m pretty used to them. 
Wednesday was fun. Long, but fun. I was up and in the shower before 9am (impressive for me, since I normally don’t even get out of bed until 10am or later), and my mom and I had made the hour drive to where my thirteen year old brother is at by 10:30am. We spent four hours with him and my eleven (god, eleven? Where did my baby brother go?!) year old brother. A CPS minion transported him to where my thirteen year old brother is at. Although I really shouldn’t call her a minion, because she isn’t. She’s an aide. While the social workers are busy rescuing a few legitimately “in need” children and ripping apart normal families, the aides get stuck with the grunt work and facing angry, devastated families like ours. She was really nice though, and actually had an unbiased perspective about CPS. And… that’s all I’ll say about that, because I wouldn’t be surprised if CPS is keeping tabs on my blog!
I brought homemade brownies (complete with icing and those red and green swirled white chocolate chips), homemade M&M cookies, stockings overflowing with chocolate candy and my mom brought a birthday cake (my youngest brother turned eleven on the 29th of December), but the boys were so excited over their Christmas/birthday presents and seeing each other for the first time in three months that they hardly ate anything.
Yes, I said three months. That’s CPS for you. Lying while testifying for a judge, claiming that everything is in the “best interest of the children” and somehow justifying eliminating all communication between two siblings for months on end.
By the time the “eve” of New Year’s rolled around, I was getting pretty sleepy. As soon as my mom and I got back from seeing my brothers, I took my sisters-in-law home (they came over the night before to watch Alyssa and Ryan while Dan was at work and I was visiting my brothers), and then my mom went home. Danielle and Matt arrived around 7, bearing food and alcohol, Jason came around 8ish, with more food and alcohol, and Dan got home by 9pm.
The kids were in bed by 10pm, and as soon as midnight hit we popped the cork on the champagne, and spent the next three hours enjoying it, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, cherry lifesaver shots and gummi bears. Somehow I managed to down five or so shots and a mixed drink and remain conscious. I attribute that to drinking water in between alcoholic drinks, and building up a better tolerance. I still remember feeling the room sway and tilt after just one mixed drink in an hour’s time!
We all crashed around 3am. Dan crawled off to bed, and after I screwed with his computer (1 & 2), I dumped the alcohol, put away the bottles, and dragged all of the cups, glasses and dishes into the kitchen and dumped them all on the counter. I was in bed by 4am, and woke up at 10:30am long enough to make sure Dan was up with the kids and to take some Tylenol Cold Severe. Then it was back to bed for me until 2pm. Even after close to ten hours of sleep I was feeling pretty shitty from being sick and having what was probably a hangover. Can you believe I was ready for bed by 11:30pm on Thursday night?!
We didn’t do anything on Thursday. Or Friday. Heh. We all just lounged, watched TV, played on our laptops and computers, talked, and played with the kids. Today Danielle and Matt left, though not before I made an attempt to come up with a decent breakfast — homemade French toast, oven-baked, scrambled eggs and sausage. Dan refused to eat anything, which, despite knowing how he is with food, hurt my feelings, but I got over it. The French toast was soggy, but delicious. I think next time I’ll use thicker bread slices…
Sigh. My PayPal card went missing again. Dan took it out of my wallet last night to renew his game subscription with, and left it on his desk. Dumb move, because between kids and cats stuff is always getting displaced. Well, we realized early this afternoon that it was gone. No big surprise there. Dan and I spent close to two hours ripping through the house looking for it, and I’ve been going through rooms and cabinets and drawers tonight, but so far the card hasn’t turned up. This is very frustrating, because I know it’s here!
Anyway, I think I’m done with this blog entry for now. ;) I want to do some computer maintenance, and then I have loads of work to do… close to 90,000 words worth of writing projects. It’s going to take for-freakin’-ever to get it all done, but it’ll be SO worth it. Whee!
Ugh, trying to find that card sounds like hell in a hand basket. I always put mine right back in my purse once I’m done with it for that reason. It’s like my life source. I can’t wait ’till Randy and I can come hang out with you guys sometime, it’d be pretty awesome.
Amanda´s last blog entry: Sexy cleaning man
Jenn, I hate to say it, but I want to be honest. I think with just the small window we have of how you describe your mother is enough to show that maybe your brothers were taken away for a legitimate reason. I know you hate CPS because you only see how it’s affecting you, but CPS does not lie to take children away from their parents. I have worked with CPS for 5 years now, and it’s just not like that. We remove children after what’s called the “Three Strikes” rule, which means your mom would have had CPS called on her AND CPS found a reason to remove your brother on three different occasions. Not just three phone calls. Some people have had CPS called on them a dozen times and never had their kids taken away because they really didn’t do anything, and someone was just being overzealous. IDK, but that’s how it is, and here is some honest advice:
instead of bashing CPS publicly (will CAN and WILL work against you if anyone from CPS finds your site, so I would stop blogging about it publicly from now on – but I’m not going to say anything) I think maybe you should be helping your mother become a better mother so she can get your brothers back. CPS is not going to return them until she meets whatever their demands are, and since I haven’t seen you talk about them, I don’t know what they are, but I DO know they must have made demands if they haven’t terminated your mom’s rights. Help her do what CPS wants her to do, help her see how childish she is instead of enabling her, buckle down and do whatever you need to by controlling her money and her bills and getting her into some parenting classes. You need to do it ASAP because if she waits to long to get up to par with CPS’s requirements, she really can and will lose your brothers forever, and unless you hurry up and get the certification you need to be a foster parent, you won’t be able to take custody of them.
Just please listen to my advice. You don’t have to let my comment through and you can even delete it after you read it, I don’t care. But DO THIS for your mother, and most importantly for your brothers, please. Stop blaming the system and blame the right person, you know who she is. And when you see who really is in need of changing, you’ll be able to help her get there so you can get your brothers back. PLEASE.
It was a bit of a cliff-hanger and I’ve been dying to know…are you still worried about being pregnant?
Heather, Entry here gives you the answer. Do you think she’d STILL be drinking if she was…??? ;)
Jenn, we did the vid games with the Wii for our new year’s cele. I ended up passing out, but hubby and some of our friends’ played Price is Right and some others. I can’t help it and I bet it is odd, but I always manage to get really sleepy and just pass out if I’m not kept really entertained while drinking…
Angela´s last blog entry: Obligatory 1st Post of ‘09
I hope your cold starts feeling better, and I really hope you are able to find your card. This week definitely went speeding by. Now I have to go to work tomorrow.
Caity´s last blog entry: 101 in 1001 progress
Seriously, you need to ask Dan what job he plays, and what server he’s on! I know he’s not on Valefor; I don’t recognize any of those names in his linkshell chat. Does he surf BluGartr? I can’t recall seeing the name Kuldin around there.
A CPS Worker from CT, I would like to email you privately, if that’s okay with you. Not to bash you, but to discuss more about what’s going on “behind closed doors”, so to speak. I’m fine if you want to use an anonymous email/name. My email address is x@jenn.nu.
That said, I don’t say very much about what’s going on, because my mother’s lawyer has advised us not to talk publicly about what CPS wants, where the boys are, where her case is at, etc.
Heather, I got my period, nearly three weeks late, right after Christmas.
“CPS Worker from CT” why should Jenn be responsible for telling her mother (someone much older than her) how to run her life, helping her out with her budget etc etc? She has a husband, 2 children, a household, and pets to maintain before even worrying about taking charge of her mother’s household as well. Sounds to me like you are trying to place blame on Jenn & attempting to convince her to “parent” her own mother. I am quite sure that Jenn has told her mom time and time again until she is blue in the face that she needs to get her life in order… Just the audacity that you think you have as a “CPS” worker to suggest to Jenn that she should “parent” her own mother is ridiculous.
Angela´s last blog entry: Errr
You may not agree with CPS worker’s suggestion Angela, but I think she was trying to give Jenn some insider tips towards getting her brothers back, which is what Jenn wants. And don’t shoot the messanger, but she’s probably right on. Even if it’s “not fair,” and CPS is wrong.
Regardless of whether CPS was justified in taking the boys away, sitting on our butts ripping CPS a new one on an internet blog just doesn’t cut it in terms of getting the boys back. Which is actually the point of blogging about it at all.