Good Morning Dear Readers! I am sitting here this morning just so happy I could burst and in a bit of an odd twist also experiencing some sadness and sorrow.

I officially got physical custody of my daughter yesterday! I am so excited to actually have her "officially" in my custody now. Her father will have alot of visits, but her day to day life will be with me. This is like the MOST amazing thing... I have waited and waited for this day, had begun to believe that it would never come. But God is AMAZING and He took care of us.

Life is at one of those AMAZING points... We are moving out of the little apartment, into a house again, we have a car again, we have everything in life we need. Certainly there are some "wants" we are still lacking... but all of our needs have been met.

My daughter is enrolled in high school~ assessment tests show how far behind she is. But with lots of support from the school we should have her all caught up by April. She knows it is going to be a lot of work and buckled right down with her first assignement and got started.

So I now have at home 4 of my children full time and 1 part time. The only one missing from the fold is my oldest. My heart grieves over the choices he has made in his life. I can only hope and pray that when he is released from prison this time that he will make better choices. And if he choses not too, well then I will have to keep him at a distance to protect the other children. It isn't easy being a parent to a child with a serious mental health condition AND with a history of drug problems and violence.

His birthday is on Friday~ my first born will be 24 years old. How did that happen? I swear it feels like it was just a few weeks ago he was the size of my little Allen, a babe in arms. Yet here he is 24... Both of Allen's big brothers are 24 and poor little guy isn't able to know either of them...

That is part of my sadness... my son and his choices...

The other is my Mom... her birthday is tomorrow. She would be 63 years old November 19th. I miss her so very much. There are days when it is easier... days when it is harder. Her birthday is tough. Birthdays in my family have always been special celebrations. We will miss this celebration...

Then there is Thanksgiving coming. Again my Mom will not be with us. Have I ever mentioned I really do not like pumpkin pie? There is something about pumpkin pie that to me is just nasty. So I never learned to cook one properly. Our family tradition has been for YEARS~ I cook all of thanksgiving dinner with the exception of the pumpkin pie.

Now my Mom could barely boil water without burning it. She cooked "good enough" to keep us from starving, but she was never really a cook. But that woman could make the most amazing pumpkin pies! My kids adored them. She made pumpkin pies and pumpkin custard every year. It was her "thing".

This year there is none of Grandma's Pumpkin Pie... I am sad... we are going to do a little different holiday tradition this year to compensate for the sorrow at the lost traditions from Grandma's death... but I am sad and I am missing my Mom a LOT right now.

It was silly, yesterday I actually cried a little when I realized I had thought, gotta get home to tell Mom I finally got custody of Katie back, and of course Mom isn't there to go tell. I choked back the tears and hope that she is able to see... I know it would make her so happy to see that I followed through and did what needed to be done and didn't just give in to my Ex's stupidity...

Well I better go now... life is BUSY!