*yawn*
Well, it's 1 a.m. and I really should be sleeping, but it's just not working tonight. I'm not tired enough to overcome Dan's snoring. I've been updating our Melissa journal so at least I've been doing something constructive for the last hour now. Melissa called a few weeks ago to get our address because she had something to send Ash and something to send Dan. He got a bill on Thursday, saying that he was responsible for a $3000 medical expense of some sort that she accrued in 2001 or 2002. Now, at that time, he had the kids and did not have her, and we think that might have been when she was claiming to have the kids to have her gall bladder removed for free. Dan called the collection agency and they are investigating the situation.
I have finally come up with a solution on how to deal with this. Since it is legally the responsibility of the visiting parent to make visitation work and pay the expense for it, I figure, either we can continue to meet Melissa in Salina once a month OR we can pay her bill and she can come all the way up here on Friday to get Ash and all the way back on Sunday to bring her home. We will, of course, start making her sign a form that she will bring Ash back by a certain time so she won't be too tired for school the next day. I think this will encourage her to pay her own bill. :) If not, we don't have to travel anymore. Either way, we win! :) I have also thought of mentioning the child support that she really should have been paying us for Avian, since "Dan's not his dad" anyway, and babysitters charge around fifty bucks a day if they keep a kid for 24 hours. So, I figure that over a year and a half, she owes us $22,150 for the 443 days that Avian lived with us. I guess we could subtract out the once a month, maybe, that she had the kids for 28 days off bringing her total down to $20,750. I mean, if we were getting that, I guess I wouldn't mind paying her bills for her . . . I'll have to see what Dan thinks of my new plan. :)
I have finally come up with a solution on how to deal with this. Since it is legally the responsibility of the visiting parent to make visitation work and pay the expense for it, I figure, either we can continue to meet Melissa in Salina once a month OR we can pay her bill and she can come all the way up here on Friday to get Ash and all the way back on Sunday to bring her home. We will, of course, start making her sign a form that she will bring Ash back by a certain time so she won't be too tired for school the next day. I think this will encourage her to pay her own bill. :) If not, we don't have to travel anymore. Either way, we win! :) I have also thought of mentioning the child support that she really should have been paying us for Avian, since "Dan's not his dad" anyway, and babysitters charge around fifty bucks a day if they keep a kid for 24 hours. So, I figure that over a year and a half, she owes us $22,150 for the 443 days that Avian lived with us. I guess we could subtract out the once a month, maybe, that she had the kids for 28 days off bringing her total down to $20,750. I mean, if we were getting that, I guess I wouldn't mind paying her bills for her . . . I'll have to see what Dan thinks of my new plan. :)