Do you feel the heat, yet?

This past year has been tough, financially. Neither my husband nor myself have lost our jobs, thankfully. Nevertheless, it has been a struggle. For 10 months, we made a mortgage and rent payment, and for 8 months, we made child support payments. Also, our child care cost went up, we had to pay for a storage unit, and flights for me back to Omaha 2 or 3 times a month. Oh, yeah, we also paid a lawyer nearly $40,000. Things are starting to swing back our way. I haven't been to Omaha since May (although I've paid for Scooter to go back, and for me to accompany her on her trip back to Portland). But still...that's only 2 roundtrips over 3 months. We no longer pay for a storage unit, and most importantly, we no longer have a mortgage.

Not that this ship is completely righted itself, yet. I still have barely anything going to savings at the end of the month, but at least we're back in black (as they say). We still have lawyer's fees. But they've dwindled from thousands each month to hundreds. We still pay for daycare. We still pay rent and utilities, etc.

I've watched with some smugness as the ex's house has sat on the market. It took us what, 6-7 solid months to sell our house? That was starting late in the summer/fall and finally selling in the spring. His has been on the market since April, so it's evilly satisfying to see it languish on the market through summer (supposedly high time for real estate). In the past 4 weeks, 3 houses on his street have sold. Not his. There are still 3 other houses with identical floorplans as his for sale in his neighborhood.

They moved into their newer, bigger house in July. Pretty soon (September?) they'll have the pain of a double mortgage. They are also insisting on going through with this appeal, of which the majority of the financial burden falls on the side who is appealing. And this time, they have a lawyer that actually requires payment. Also in September...the child support obligation for him starts up. Based on the thermometer readings coming from the midwest of late, I'd say they've been running the a/c, too. That can't be cheap.

Man, I'm a totally horrible person, but I kind of like this. I'm generally not the type of person to wish ill on someone, but I'll make an exception in this case. I mean, it's really just the same thing as I went through last year. I went through financial purgatory because of decisions he made. Now, it's nice to see him have to suffer the consequences of his actions. I can only hope his house sits empty through winter...