I had planned to tell you guys about our new dog yesterday. She's a sweetheart really. She is really good and has the strangest eyes....blue, almost a clear looking light blue. I've never seen the likes of those eyes. I think I'm gonna like her.

Also my son's birthday was this passed weekend and we went to my mom's house for his party. That's another story. And a sad one actually.

I saw my nephew, Andy, at the party and he is doing well but he had lost more weight since the last time I saw him, which kind of worried me, because he was so frail from the arthritis and the meds to begin with. For those of you that are new, my nephew Andy has rheumatoid arthritis, and until he got it, I thought of arthritis in a whole different light. It nearly killed him, but with the help of all my xanga friends and many people across the nations, I believe that he was healed by the unending prayers of so many wonderful and caring people. He was so sick, and suddenly went into remission.....and has stayed there.

The sad part was finding out that my sister isn't getting any better. When I asked Andy about his recent weight loss, he tells me that it's because his momma won't allow him to eat after 8 pm, and refuses to call him in for dinner. If he keeps playing, which he is finally healthy enough to do, she just tells him too bad, that he should have came in for supper. He generally gets carried away like any normal child and forgets...or probably has no idea when supper is ready. He stays and plays. He wasn't able to play or even go to school for so long there, but he kept trying and trying.

Then my neice and he proceeded to tell me about the beatings Andy was receiving. He is on restriction for the whole summer now. You want to know why? Because a neighbor came to the house while my sister and her husband were gone, and asked to borrow a pack of cigarettes, and Andy let him have one of his dads. When my sister found this out, she beat the shit out of him....by her own admission. I heard her telling my mom this story. My neice went on to tell me that she then asked him a question about it and after he answered, she beat him again, then when she got through yelling, and letting him explain, she beat him a third time. Then when his dad came home, asshole that he is, he straightened out a coat hanger and beat Andy with it again, telling him that if he ever dared to touch his cigarettes again, he would shove it straight up his ass...etc" And both of them told him to go ahead and call child abuse, that then he could just go live with someone else and they wouldn't have to put up with his crap.

I listened to this story and it made me sicker than I already was. I had to kiss my son in the middle of his birthday and leave or I would have killed her! Maybe I should have, but my daughter depends on me, so that is not an option. My sister is bipolar....as if that explains it. Not to me, it doesn't. Yes, I called child welfare AGAIN. What is it going to take?

My sister just laughed to my mom about it and told her they wouldn't do a damn thing about it, that in Texas, that as long as a kid got one meal a day, had one suit of clothes, and they didn't beat him to death, that they wouldn't touch them. I don't want to believe this but it seems to be true so far. I did see an article in the paper about a man going to jail near here for putting a bruise on his son's hand with a belt, when the kid put his hand over his butt to protect it.

Well, they told me they would check it out, but I feel so helpless still. I came home, called my son to explain about his birthday and why I left. Nathan understood. He's a great kid, and I felt like shit for leaving his party.  I tried to make it up to him, but that is so sad to have his birthday ruined by something like that. I cried for hours and hours. About Nathan. About Andy. I cursed my sister over and over, and cried some more. I really, really hate her.