Visits

I do get to visit my son and I cherish every single second of these visits. I get to have a daily phone call now. I enjoy whatever time I have on the phone that my son is actually paying attention to me. I often get interrupted in my conversation because my ex decides now is the time he has to ask a specific question. It cannot possibly wait until my son is done talking to me. The super important things like did he get his laundry picked up. Isn't that earth shaking and an absolute necessary thing to ask right now? I will have to deal with all of that when we go back to court I guess.

We do have lots of fun on our visits. We have gone swimming, water sliding, hiking, shopping, cooking out, treasure hunts, video games, watch t.v., even gone to a local pumpkin patch a couple of times. We started out by going to a hotel and checking in early Saturday morning after I picked him up. We of course had to unload the van and take everything in. Then unpack the cooler into the fridge and put stuff away. We would then play all day. We would go swimming or climb the hill in the back of the hotel, play video games, play in the rain and splash in the puddles (that was really fun and obviously wet!). We just found all sorts of ways to have fun. We also brought my nesco cooker so we could cook food. We even had a Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel. What a feast that we had. My son loved helping us do all the cooking. It was sure strange though cooking everything in a nesco cooker or a slow cooker, but boy was it tasty. All the more enjoyable because I was with my son and my mom. When it was nice out, we cooked out on the grill that is out by the pool area at the hotel. My son really had fun with that as well. Then on Sunday, we would have to pack everything up and start loading the van about 2-3 hours before I had to take him back (to his dad's-not "home" though). It really was stressful and it kinda felt like the visit was over even though we had time left. Usually we went to the park and fed the ducks and geese or went to grab a bite to eat and then play on the park playground.

One visit we found out the campground down there has a water slide! We totally had to go and check it out! It was pretty expensive but it was really fun. My son really had a good time with it. I had to go on the slide with him because he did not want to go under the water in the pool at the end, but it was fun for me too!!! Then we drove around to check out the campgrounds. I talked to my mom and we decided to give camping a try. Now mind you I have no camping equipment...I am not really sure why I thought it would be a good idea, just knew it would be a huge difference in price. I was right. It was about 1/4 of the cost of the night in the hotel. And we could come as early as we liked on Saturday and stay as long as we liked on Sunday. Now we can get there and put stuff out before we get my son and don't have to pick anything up until right before it is time to go back. That really helped the visits seem longer than they had. I really felt like I had all day instead of a few hours in the middle of the day.

I have a full size van. The seat in the very back lays down into a bed. The two seats in the middle swivel around or come completely out. There is really nice carpet with a thick padding on the floor of the van as well. We have tried out many different ways of doing the weekend in the van. I think that we have found a winning combination now of how to have things arranged to allow maximum space and enough seats for all of us. We bought a cheapo gazeebo to put up and allow some protection from sun and rain. We bought tarps to lay on the ground with an old sleeping bag so we can lounge outside on the ground and play games or watch t.v. TV?!?! Of course I have t.v. I have a combo t.v. and vcr and a portable dvd player so we can watch any movies and plug in video games to play. I strap our bikes on so we can ride bikes around the park. We can play tennis or basketball, or we can lay around and just veg out. We have been having campfires now that it is not 95 degrees and my son has enjoyed cooking hotdogs over the fire. Recently we decided to let the fire do all of our cooking. We just wrap the food in foil lay it in the fire ring, light a fire and pretty soon- lunch! All sorts of things can be cooked that way, even pork chops!

We bring fans when it is hot, and I have a little space heater to plug in when it starts getting cold at night. I found out that we did not need a ton of camping gear. My son doesn't care about that anyway. He just wants to have fun and have someone to give him some positive attention. We have plenty of that to give him. We have lots of hugs and "I love you's" to fit in during our visits. Since I do not get to tuck him in at night, I make sure to give plenty to store up for the days I am not with him.

I hope to find a small motorhome, preferably with a generator, before it gets to cold out and we cannot camp in the van anymore. I have not found anything yet, but that is okay. I will find one when the time is right. I firmly believe that fate has a hand in all our lives. So when I am meant to find a camper, all the things will be right and it will just fall into place. Now if only it was time for my son to come home.