Moved Out Dec. 17, 2008

Hello family,

Well, I did it. I moved out. In a manner of speaking.

The 3 kids and I spent last night at a Red Roof Inn in Champaign. Strange… Kinda felt like a party. I was thinking, is this what the beginning of separation looks like? Matthew and Timmy slept in one bed, Jenna and I (and sometimes Timmy) in the other. We brought a joystick/Ms Pacman game with us, and plugged it into the TV and played many games of Ms Pacman, and it also has Galaga, which we also played.

Lesley has made arrangements to move in to a house with 3 Uof I students, on Saturday, so we 4 will probably stay in this hotel room for 2 more nights. Then we move into our townhouse, and Les moves out.

But now that I think of it, the kids don’t have school again till Jan. 2 or so. We may just buy a house in town and move in, thus increasing our space and creating a small investment instead of just paying rent.

We did okay last night in a small, 2 double-bed room, with a TV, but no coffee maker, and no free breakfast in the morning. We went thru McDonald’s drivethru for breakfast, eating egg mcmuffins on the way to taking Timmy to his school by 7:45 am. Then Matthew at 8:40 and Jenna at 9:40.

I wrote a 3 paragraph letter yesterday, for Les, entitled Separation Agreement, basically saying we separate for 3 months, then meet to renegotiate, that I get the kids, and that the main purpose of the separation was so that we could both get some time and space to work on our ‘stuff.’ I printed and signed 2 copies, hoping she would sign one for me. But, No...

She ‘revised’ it, writing all over the page, front and back, with additions. She had one edit, which I agreed with, which was that the main purpose of this separation is to protect the kids from her rage. The main purpose is NOT that we can work on our junk. I agreed. Then she added, ‘and to protect Lesley from Greg’s personal and financial irresponsibility, passivity,’ and etc.

Her version came to 13 points. I told her talking thru that was probably a two-hour process, which we could not undertake last evening, before the kids and I moved out. So we have no written, signed agreement, although we did talk it thru for about 30 minutes.

Les and I sat at the kitchen table with Matthew and Timmy (Jenna was babysat) last night, for about 10 minutes, the limit of their attention span, and told them as best we could what was going on, and what to expect. They took it fine, no tears, no drama. As we were talking, Matthew asked one or two irrelevant, off-topic questions. Typical. They both understood the ‘plan’ for the next few days, and were okay with it.

We explained how it was different than Foster Care, which is their biggest concern, fear.

Well, that’s it for now. Thursday, 10:45 am. Thanks again for caring. I’ll do my best to keep you informed.

Hope all of y’all are doing great and having good Christmas time stuff going on.
Love, Greg