Last Night

Last night my husband and I were arguing about money, which isn't uncommon for us as he has just started working full-time and for the past 5 years I've been paying for everything while he's been in school. This was only made worse when he announced that his mother would be "stopping by" in a little while.

We haven't seen her since a week before Christmas, well except for the time she "stopped by" my office two weeks ago to drop off some mail that my husband had received at her house. This visit I'll write about in another post.

I had about 15 minutes advanced warning and therefore was going to leave and head to my office just so I didn't have to play nice with her, but my husband really wouldn't let me leave. He doesn't like her either and likes me to help negotiate around all the uncomfortable topics she brings up. Her visit went like this...

We were in the bedroom when she arrived laying on the bed petting our cat. She walked in, no knocking, no door bell, no phone call. "Your favorite mother is here..." she yelled, not joking. "Do you have dinner made?"

Ugh. I finally got up and hugged her tiny self as she said "it's about time you came to say hello to your mother in law". It'd only been 20 seconds.

In her arms was a portable ice chest/bag thing that keeps food cold that she sat on our kitchen counter. My house is small, 1000 square feet and my kitchen is probably only 20 square feet. One of my biggest pet peeves is when she comes over and takes over my kitchen. Luckily, I already had made dinner for my husband and I and she could see me as a responsible housewife taking care of her son. Several times in the past she has said things like "you really should have more spices in your house" or "I can't believe you don't have half a cow stored in your freezer." She loves to start phrases with "you need to". I'll write 2 more blogs about that soon.

Back to the ice chest/bag thingy... she started unloading the bag and putting all kinds of food on the counter. "I brought you the last of stuff in my freezer." She does this every month. Really, it should be seen as a kind thing to do; however, her intentions are "When are you going to cook this so I can come back over and haunt you some more?"

I should mention that 90% of what she gives us is expired.