We just had our temporary orders hearing and got the ruling.

We are joint conservators. My wife is primary custodian but is restricted to live in our county. All out of network medical bills she has to pay for. Any non-covered in network medical bills we split 50/50. She has to “meaningfully” (whatever that means) consult with me through OFW before doing any medical stuff with kids. I get “expanded standard” custody of kids which is 1,3,5th plus Thursdays plus 30 days in summer and split holidays 43%. I am ordered to attend family counseling with my oldest but I can pick the counselor.

She gets to move back in to our primary home but has to pay the mortgage. :) I have to move into our brand new rental home where there is no mortgage and it has a pool. It is a smaller house though. Each of us have to pay any other property related costs for the property in our posession such as utilities, maintenance, etc.

I have to pay $1950/mo in child support (3 kids) and $198/mo temporary spousal support. Which is not bad considering I don’t have to pay mortgage so it is basically a wash.

We have to communicate through OFW.

So that’s basically it. My wife tried to claim I was a domestic abuser and that I shouldn’t get custody hardly at all, and wanted me to pay the mortgage and the whole shebang. But in the end she didn’t get anything except a couple family counseling sessions with counselor of my choosing which is like 2 extra date nights with my oldest a month. She wanted the court to order counseling with the one that called CPS on me and determine what custody I should get. My lawyer basically ripped her apart on that in the court room which was fun to watch.

She is so pissed she has to pay mortgage. She Just got a job that pays $15/hr. We showed that her parents were going to live with her and could pay $1900/mo because they had been paying that each month in rent at our rental house. So the court assumed they could still pay that while living with her. But I guess now all of a sudden she is not getting along with her parents and they want their own place. Not my problem.

I wasn’t getting to see my kids at all hardly so the expanded std custody is a win for me. I work 50hrs a week and is all I can handle anyway.

So ruling was fair but neither of us go everything we wanted. But is a better outcome than what I would have gotten settling with her. All she wants is more money.

When asked questions on the witness stand I just answered yes and no and kept open ended questions very short. The lawyer was trying to push my buttons and open up about how I felt but I didn’t let him. My wife was trying desperately to throw in things to paint me as an angry and violent abuser. She brought up me throwing the tv out the window 5 years ago. She brought up me smoking pot which I quit 2.5 years ago.my lawyer objected to all of it as hearsay or non-responsive which was sustained. One time the judge had to shut down her attempts to bullshit and told her just answer yes or no.

Next up is pre-trial and mediator selection.