Mediation take 2

Well, this is moving right along. Saturday was our 2nd session. We got all $$$/property figured out. Poor attorney, I'm not sure he knew what to do with a couple that WASN'T fighting. He was going into detail about the equity in our house, condo and 2 cars and doing his best to make it fair and even. D and I just looked at each other and then him and told him we didn't really care about the equity. I'll get my car and the house, D will get his car and condo. D is foregoing taking any of my 403B (to which he's entitled) and instead will take my Roth IRA, which is minimal. Otherwise, we'll split our trust 50/50.

He said several times that he doesn't care about the money and his main concern is that I have enough to take care of the kids.

He's on a roll and doing really well. Not staying sober necessarily, but being really productive. He spent several hours at our house on Saturday after the appt, and then all day on Sunday and spent the night Sunday night. I asked him to do so, in the event our sitter couldn't make it Monday morning, due to 14" of snow. Plus, he was with S all day on Friday b/c she was sick. He's not been drinking while he's with us.

He probably WILL move into our condo asap, instead of staying in his apartment. It will cost money upfront (to get out of lease and out of our contract with leasing company), but in the long run I will REALLY appreciate not having to play landlord. And at least this way, D isn't throwing money away into an apartment, it will go towards his equity. I hate that he'll be farther away from our house, although not much, but I do think it will be a relief for me. And once he re-fi's (we have a year to do so), it won't be my property anyway and he can do anything to it that he pleases.

So, the question of the day is what in the world will we do for our TENTH anniversary, which is this Friday. At mediation, he asked "when is the 29th?" I knew what he was getting at and told him it is next Friday, and asked sort of tongue in cheek, how we should celebrate. He thinks we should take the kids to an early dinner. I'm not opposed to that. I think neither of us will want to be alone and as he said "technically, we're still married." I'm fine with it, looking forward to it actually. He's my friend, the father of my beautiful babies, and I LIKE him (most of the time!).

Also, the lawyer brought up legal separation vs divorce. Apparently there is really no difference, except that with legal separation the couple is technically still married, so the spouse without insurance (D, in this case), would still be eligible for insurance.  I'm ALL about the legal separation, so long as it helps to keep him insured. My HR rep is trying to figure out the specifics and see if this is even a possibility with my employer. I can revise to "divorced" at any time, if I want to remarry (gasp!), if he gets disability (and then qualifies for Med.icaid), etc.