I am breathing easier today....in some ways.

I called the court administrator yesterday morning and was told that my restraining order was granted!!!!

The temporary order is in effect for two years. Jim cannot come to my house, nor my office. I am not sure about whether or not he can contact me or not. I did put the "no contact" clause on there, but the lady did not say yes or no on that one. I will have to wait until I get the judge's order in the mail. Which I sure hope I do. I need the file number in any case for my divorce papers. (Now I have to amend my divorce papers to include the harassment order out there.) Jim, of course, can request a hearing and try to get this taken off of him, but I really don't see how he would win that little battle. I have too many emails from him with the abusive language, with the insulting comments, and, of course, the last email I received from him stating that he broke into the house. And, I know that my friend, Paul, will come forward and tell the judge that Jim called HIM and threatened him and said just how unstable I am. Now, WHO is unstable???? Whatever.

I called the sheriff's office later in the day and discovered that Jim was served at 11:00 yesterday morning with these papers, so I know he is aware of the restraining order.

Now, I have conflicting emotions. First of all, I am relieved to know I won't have to deal with Jim harassing me anymore. No more emails coming in and me cringing each time I see his name pop up. No more visits to the house unexpectedly. No more fighting with him over the lawn mower. No more arguments over giving him a house key. No more threats from him about moving back into my house. Whew!!! What a relief!!!

Secondly, I am worried about the next shoe to drop. I am not sure if he will just abide by the order and realize that he has gone over the deep end and let it be, or will he find someway to get back at me? Will he fight the divorce now? Will he come after my car? Will he want the house now? I thought I knew this man, but I do not recognize him anymore. My sister, Debbie, has been emailing me and saying that she just can't believe the way he has behaved over this divorce. And she can't believe that he is only thinking of himself. She asked me what Jenner thinks about all this. I told her I haven't said a word to Jenner at all. She idolizes her father and I did not want her to know what he was doing to me. But, now with the restraining order on him, she might find out. While part of me wants her to know because she thinks Jim is the victim here, having no idea that he has been harassing me, and so I am the bad guy for leaving her father and being so mean to HIM.

Well, I don't know what to tell her. I don't know if I should tell her. I know it will eventually come out and then maybe she will see me in a different light. And see her father in a different light, too. She will see that I have tried to get along and do things nicely, but he just won't leave me alone.

I guess I should sit down and talk to her about it all someday.

I have been living this crap for the last nine months and she has no idea any of it was going on. The phone calls, the emails, the visits to the house, the breaking in, the threats, etc. All this stuff has caused me a great deal of stress but she, the person I SHOULD be closest to, has no idea. All because I wanted to protect her relationship with her father. She's 25 years old. I guess I really don't need to protect her anymore. But it's instinct.

Anyway....moving on..........

Work yesterday was pretty good although I found it really hard to concentrate on my job and focus on what I was supposed to be doing. I managed to get all my work done and get out of here on time.

I went home after work. I would really have loved to go tanning but I forgot my eye protection and my MP3 player, and I NEED my tunes when I am tanning, so that idea was out. It was the perfect, gloomy day for it, too. Sigh. Oh well.

I just did some cleaning around the house last night. I vacuumed and then realized that the beater bars were not turning on the cleaner, so I had to take that apart and fix it. I did some laundry and the dishes. I took care of the doggies. I was talking with Dave on the phone when Indy just went NUTS, barking out the back door. There were a couple of deer in my yard, just munching along. Indy's barking did not faze them at all. They just kept eating. I tried to get a picture of them, but a car came along and spooked them away. So sad. I watched some of my soap opera. I am way behind in that one.

Dave got home around 9:00. I wasn't sure if I was going to see him at all yesterday, and I was thinking about just going to bed when he called me to let me know he was home. He said to come over, that Doug was heading over, too.

So, I went over and sat with them for a couple of hours, just gabbing about the Vikings, the plans for the weekend, and the upcoming guys trip to Myrtle Beach next week.

I told Dave that I was actually looking forward to him being gone because I was going to clean my house top to bottom. And now that Jim cannot come over to the house, he can relax and leave me and not worry that something will happen to me while he is not around.

I talked to Sam yesterday and we are planning a couple of girls nights out while he is gone. Sam is more than ready to get out of the house. Her baby is nearly four weeks old and she has not been away from him for more than a few minutes at a time.

I was asked to go to Soup Town this weekend but I decided to stay home. Not only do I need to decompress a bit from this long, horrid week, but I have a ton of fun plans for the weekend. Every time I turn around, something else is added to the mix and I really can't see going out of town right now.

We are going to watch the first quarter of the Viking's game tonight at either Dave's or Doug's, and then after Brett Favre is done playing, we are heading to Shep's for the first night of the Elbow Convention. I joined the Elbow's last year so I really want to go. There will be live music in the parking lot and there will be dancing and laughing and lots of fun. I hope!! I went last year and had a great time.

Saturday morning we are going to Walmart for the "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes" event. Dave, Troy and Stewart did this last year and are doing it again. Pretty much it's a bunch of guys getting together, putting on highheels, and walking a mile to protest abuse of women. It's so cute to see these guys walking in the highheels. There are all sorts of speeches and stuff, too, but overall it's a positive day and there are more men signing up for this year's event. Should be fun!!!

Dave is trying to get an appointment set up for after that event, so he will be leaving for a while. I will be getting stuff done around the house. Then we are to go to Stewart's for his daughter's first birthday party. Then the group is heading to Shep's for the second night of the Elbow Convention. Again, live music, dancing and general all around fun.

I can't remember what we are doing on Sunday. There was SOMETHING, but I can't remember what it was.

Oh well, I'll get it figured out.

Okay. That's enough of this chatter. Nothing too exciting, except for the relief I am feeling now.

Have a great day!!!!!

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