You Just Think You Know Me

Moving Back To North Carolina

I was excited to be moving back to NC with all my friends from high school. We ended up moving on March 11,  2013. It took 17 hours to get there. So, we stayed at a hotel on the way. We ended up getting there on March 12th. When we arrived, we went straight to O'Charleys to meet up with Lisa and some other friends. We stayed with Lisa until the power and all was on at our place.

We finally moved into our home and enrolled the kids in school. Aundrea was going to Kiser Intermediate and Eli was going to Battleground Elementary. Their first day at school was a success! They had already made friends, loved their teachers, and loved the school. Fred had a job washing windows, and I started working. Life was going good again.

You know what they say, "when something good is going for you, just wait - it will change." That's what happened one night when Fred was asleep and his phone went off at like 2am. I didn't know who it was, or if it was work related. So, I checked his phone and it was a woman named Pam! Why was she messaging my husband so late? Then I read the messages. Turns out he was hitting on her, telling her he'd like to get her in the van, he'd like to see her in a bikini, etc. I was beyond hurt. I went and woke him up right then. We got into a heated argument; one of our first. I ended up just leaving. I had to get away for a while. I wasn't sure what to do. I went back and we talked, and I told him I wasn't sure if I'd ever forgive him. He said it was just all in fun. But I wasn't sure about that. You don't message someone like that when you're married, you just don't.

Several months later, we started having everything go wrong at our home. The floor was falling in, windows and walls messing up, and there was sewage backing up in the yard. The people who owned the house didn't want to fix it, so we were forced to move. Fred was lucky enough to find a beautiful log cabin out in the woods. This place had 43 acres, two ponds, several spots for Fred to hunt, and lots of room for the kids to play. However, it was located in Iron Station. This meant the kids would have to change schools again. But we didn't have a choice. We moved and transferred the kids to their new schools. It was summer time when we moved, so the kids had a little time before starting a new school.

School started in August, Aundrea was going to East Lincoln Middle and the boys were at Iron Station Elementary. Aundrea made friends right away, and so did the boys. In October, Ethan kept coming home saying this giant was hitting him, and sitting on him. I asked him who it was and he said it was a girl. I called and talked to his teacher as well as the principal. They told me things would change. However, they just got worse. So, after several attempts of trying to let the school handle it... I took it to the news and the school board. Still nothing was done! We even launched a page on Facebook called, "Ethan's Bully Free Zone." We done this to raise awareness and see how many other children were getting bullied in Lincoln County Schools. It was an eye opener. After our story hit the newspaper, the Facebook climbed to over a thousand likes. People were posting all kinds of stories about where their child was getting bullied, and the system was turning a blind eye to the situation. They ended up switching Ethan out of the class to another one. Even though it wasn't his fault, and no - nothing was ever done to that girl. All they ever said was she didn't understand English. After Ethan moved classrooms, he loved going to school.

That following summer, I decided to take the kids and go spend some time with my friends in SC. I also wanted to check on my mom, dad, and granny. We left on June 27th and was coming back three weeks later. Fred stayed at the house because he had to work. We still of course stayed in touch. The trip to SC was fun, but I got tired of my mom because of the way she was doing me and treating Ethan and I missed Fred, so we left early to come back. I didn't tell Fred I was coming back early, I wanted to surprise him. When we pulled up, Fred's son Korey and his girlfriend were there. Of course, when they saw us, they acted like they had to hurry up and leave. Fred seemed excited and glad we had come home early. I was just glad to finally be home.

I know Fred loves me, but when we got back, he was acting kind of strange. So, I checked his phone messages and found out he was inviting like three different women to the house. He was inviting them over and telling them he would be all alone. I confronted him, as this was the second time something like this had happened with him. He had just earned my trust back from the first time. At first, he denied it and then deleted the messages. However, I had already written everything down. So when I started reading them to him, he admitted it. He also swore that no one ever came to the house. Still to this day, I'm not sure if anyone ever did. But he was my husband. So,  again I decided to let it go and gave him another chance.