Just a suggetion, I work with a girl who also has a two year degree and does tax work during tax season.
She is a Title I aide at the school where I work and tutors kids on the side. It pays pretty well and would keep you close to the kids.

Denise,
I have looked into getting a job at my kids school and was actually offered a job at their old school but the pay was less than what i made doing taxes and the hours were so where i could not do both. The school here pays less than the other one. The interview i have this week is actually with a college. When i go, i will find out more about the benefits and days off. Would be nice if I didnt have to work on the days the kids have off. But sometimes colleges have days off for the students but not the faculty.

Being a single Mom and working is HARD! I have turned down jobs because of the hours, weekends. I was enrolled in school in September and because of my unspeakable attorney fees had to bail out last minute.
Do you have a restriction on moving because of the divorce? I know you said you have a lease, but most landlords are pretty good at helping you out. I had a year lease that i had to break because my ex was being an ass and had the court order me to move back into the marital home, my land lord was GREAT about it.

Lisa, how does that work? The court ordering you to move back in to the marital home? Anxious to hear the reasoning behind this one. I get so angry that the courts can just order us around!!!

Because I left. It didn't matter to the court that I had GOOD reason to leave. The judge said that I should have never left my ex with out him knowing where I was. Plus my ex cried that I refused to let him talk to his children. I left because my ex tried to kill himself in my house with my children upstairs. I left because when I kicked him out he returned to the home uninvited fighting with me every day for a month. I left because he would get drunk and threaten to kill me.
Funny how they always tell an abused woman to just leave, run and hide. When I ran and hid because this man went NUTS I got moved back. He would call my cell about 30 to 40 times a hour. He filled my voice mail in less than an hour...wonder why I shut my phone off (BIG head scratcher there) In one day I got over 75 emails from him, threatening email not cute kittens in a basket emails. I had page after page of printed emails, PAGES of phone records, written statements from the local bar tender who was willing to testify that my ex threatened to kill me. The judge did not care He told me I had a choice. I could move back to the marital home with my children or I could stay where I was, but my children had to be in the marital home by Monday. It was Friday. So of course I chose to be with my children. But I made it VERY well known I was not happy. My ex's family member drove down the street the day I moved in calling me a F**king Wh*re...I called the cops and filed harassment charges. He was fined $2500 and thrown in jail, he hasn't been driving legal since 1985! LOL!! I told the cop that I was FORCED to live there but I was not FORCED to put up with that. It made a big statement to his family. His sister who lived right up the road never even looked my way when she drove past. It was her husband who went to jail His brother used to throw beer cans in my yard every night. I collected them calmly and then when my garbage bag was full I went to his house and dumped them in the back of his truck with a note that said "You might want to turn these in to help pay your legal fees" Did you know you can by finger printing kits? I did and I took prints off every can.
I may be blonde but I am not duimb
I also got a dumpster and trashed ALL of the stuff he left in the house. Legal because what he left became mine. He tried to sue me for it but the judge told him that because he knew I was to be moving in he should have gotten his stuff out. What he left he must not have cared about.
I got my revenge in little ways. He thought that by forcing me back he would be able to come and go as he pleased but I had an order in place where he couldn't even drive up my road, his father had to pick up the kids for visitation.He is NUTS his family is NUTS and I was stuck because a judge who didn't even want to listen to me decided he had the right to see his kids.

Lisa, OMG. Stories like this scare the living daylights out of me. Why do the fathers have so many rights? I get frustrated, but at least my Loser isn't NUTS. Your little ways of getting revenge, though, make every woman proud!

How long has it been since this has all happened? Are your kids afraid of him? It would kill me to watch my kids go, as I'm sure it does you. You obviously have amazing strength! What an inspiring lady.

I told my husband I was leaving him May 2009. I moved out a month later. He was there the day I left. I told him I had to go away for a while to clear my head. Having him there every day was to much stress for me. I asked him to care for my furbabies because I couldn't take them to my brothers house. He knew I was going to my brother's. He did not know where my brother lived, he had just moved and my ex never went to his house. IDIOT that's what a GPS is for.
He harassed me by phone and email. My brother had to change his home number because he called all hours of the day and night. I got a letter from his attorney saying that I had to be in court on Aug 14, 2009 at 10 am. I had no lawyer, no idea what was going on. I got an attorney and found out my ex filed for custody and filed for Special Relief and "Writ of Ne Exeat" I had to move back by August 17 2009. Because he cried to the judge he had NO IDEA where I was. I guess he forget that he was there the day I left, that he called my brother and talked to me and the kids, that his attorney had an address to send me the papers?
Oh and as for my furbabies....he got rid of my precious pit Leroy Brown because his gf had a dog and Leroy didn't like him. He didn't call my Mom who said she would come get both dogs he just gave him away. He called me on my birthday and told me my sweet Cocker BO died. He told me he got up in the morning to find him dead. He said he must have died of old age, he was 14. I had him for 12 year, I worried about him all the time and always took him to the vet for stupid things like he didn't eat all his food in 5 mins. flat like he used too, lol. I had just had my baby at the vet before I left, healthy as a horse. "22 lbs of Sheer Health" as my vet said. I was coming to get him in a week and he knew that. Well when I asked him to let my Daddy come get his body and bury him in my fav. spot at the family farm he told he he would..never called my Dad. He told my son he buried him in the yard. I never believed him about the cause of death. Neither did my son, I found him on day trying to dig up the spot where my ex told him the dog was...broke my heart. I called my Daddy asked him to come check for me. My dog was not here or anywhere else near where he said he buried him. He always hated that dog and I think he killed him. Anyhow.....
I was granted the ability to move in June 2, 2010 and was out of that house by June 7 2010. I was not staying there any longer than I had to.
I am so frustrated with the system. Here I Am trying to just live my life and he will not leave me alone. He refuses to divorce me and lives with his new gf (OW) I just want him to go away. He makes me miserable. He fights paying child support he fight time, place and every other stupid issue he can think of when it comes to our boys. He had no interest in being a good Dad he just wants to come out of this looking like the victim.
I NEVER told my boys about the threats. They have no clue their Dad is a monster. I refuse to down grade him in front of them. I have seen that ruin to many children. He how ever is more than happy to tell my kids all kinds of lies about me.
I have with in the last month got tired of it and started to tell my son just a few things...I will not risk losing my children to protect him. I am gentle in my wording but I have told my son some things. I just told him that Daddy tried to hurt himself and was in a hospital..that night he went to the hospital I told my boys he was away for work. My ex told him he was in the hospital but did not tell him why. GO figure he will give just enough info to make me look bad but refuses to tell the WHOLE truth. He knows the WHOLE truth is he was a jerk from day one and continued to be a jerk until this day.
And all wonder why I pray his harness will break while he is 350 ft in the air?!?

My counselor tells me I can't tell the kids bad things about their dad, but she also says I don't have to protect him. Kind of hard to do both. LOL The system stinks. My stbx is refusing to pay child support but it doesn't affect his visitation rights. So my housing in jeopardized because I can't pay the mortgage but he can take the kids for "his" weekends. His housing isn't jeopardized. Jerk.

Lisa,

We have pets, too. They are such an important part of the family. I'm so sorry to hear the problems you had with that. You'd think that for the kids' sake, if for no other reason, he could have taken care of the pets.

My stbx bought a dog without my knowing, but told me he'd use it to herd cattle at his parents' farm...it'd live there. A few years later his parents got a divorce and the dog ended up moving in with us. Now he has left, moved back to the farm, and guess where the dog is? He's a nice enough dog, but I have 2 others, a house cat and the kids and I each have a horse. Too many pets for an apartment! What to do...what to do...

My ex has the kids, the bank account, and the pets. If I didn't know beyond the shadow of any doubt that he loves the kids and the pets as much as I do, there would have been NO way I would have allowed either to stay with him. My daughter is "human momma" to one of the cats (the boy) and the other one (the female, LOL) has latched on to my oldest son. Probably because of all the kids, he looks and acts the most like Mama...^_^

But it makes me sad - every time I talk to my daughter on the phone, the cats hear my voice and, as she put it, "try to get to [me] through the phone"...and I can hear my Maine Coon yelling "Mama, Mama".

Funny how even the pets seem to suffer during the divorce. I miss my furbabies every day. I know where Leroy is and I know that his new owner loves him but I want to just go and grab him in the middle of the night...He protected me against my husband, I really believe if my Leroy Brown wasn't there hovering over me like an angel I would be dead. My ex was scared to death of him after that. I had never seem my sissy act like the PIT he was. I feel like my BO dying was my fault, I should have NEVER left my babies. It makes me cry, my furbabies counted on me to take care of them and i feel like I walked out on them

The pets usually do suffer. I was very very fortunate. I talked the ex into getting the boy cat, and he talked me into getting the girl cat...it took her a little while to warm up to me, but once she realized I wasn't going to *hit* her like her two previous humans did she was - and is - the sweetest thing. Her first owner had her declawed in the front - the old-fashioned, barbaric way, where the actual *knuckle* was affected. So she is like half-pawed in the front....but I have to admit it is the cutest thing in the world to watch her try to claw things like her furbrother does.

Lisa, cut yourself some slack. You did the best you could at the time with the resources you had. Who would think antoher human would be capable of being so cruel? Jerk-

I try to. It's just hard when Bo was my best friend. When I was in New York not knowing a single soul left alone for a month at a time he was the only I knew.
He knows all my secrets, sat on my lap while I cried. It hurts that my ex could be that heartless.