Mediation update 

Made it through 2 hour mediation on Monday.  Joel and I are decent when in front of one another -- almost both equally frustrated that there's not enough money to make ends meet.  The major detractor from Monday's meeting was that the mediator called me by Joel's 1st ex-wife's name SIX TIMES in the 2 hours we were there.  She apologized profusely, of course, but it was obscene.  One more time & I was ready to walk out the door....

Still no agreement reached about spousal support, but the overall "feeling" was that 1) I will be staying in the house w/ the kids for a length of time (5+ years); 2) Joel will be taking over the unsecured debts (plenty); 3) I will probably be going back to work a little more than my current 21 hours/week schedule, and; 4) I still need a little more $$ from him monthly to make it all happen ($300-$500/month).

The good news is that I talked w/ my boss already & I can come back to work 1 more day/week during the school year & cut back to 2 days/week during the summer & get an $11K raise.  I don't know about you, but I think that's a decent deal.  So that will ease some things -- but I'm still going to ask for the extra from Joel.  If I have to work more, I'm going to need a little extra to cover gas, clothing & cleaning help.