Total Pageviews

Monday, September 16, 2013

Moving Away from MIL! HOORAY!

I haven't posted in awhile, and a lot has changed.

From December 2012 until June 2013, my husband worked in Texas, while I stayed in Florida at my job. I finally got a great job in Texas and moved June 2nd. During his absence, he only came home 4 times. Each time, MIL wanted to see us, but always on her terms. The first time he came home, we moved into a 400 square foot apartment. She didn't help us move. My husband and I decided I would live in a small, simple apartment while my husband was away and wanted to get away from a bad neighbor situation. Most of our stuff went to POD storage.  That same weekend, we sold all of my husband's landscaping business equipment which had been kept at MIL's house.

The second time she came for Easter dinner to eat and left after about an hour. 

The third time we went to a funeral for MIL's best friend's husband and worked an open house for historic homes that her church holds every year. She was incredibly annoying this trip because we had to see her twice and from the funeral to the family visitation afterward she rode with us and couldn't give us correct directions, interrupted the conversation we were having, and just generally embarrassed us.

The fourth time he came home, we packed and moved from FL to TX. She didn't help us pack or load the truck, though my wonderful mother did. My mother helped us unload our POD, pack up our house, and flew to our new city to help me unpack.  In fact, the day we spent loading our moving truck, MIL called and said she wanted to meet us for dinner.  We were on our way to dinner and called and told her where to meet us.  We had already told her we planned to go at 6. She said she had to go to Dillards first to return something and then told us we should go eat dinner somewhere else, a place she wanted to go. We had been packing all day, were leaving the following day, declined a going away party offered by friends, just so we could have that last night to eat dinner with our mothers who came to town, and she wanted to tell us where and when to have dinner.  

She finally shows up as our food is being served, asks/says a bunch of dumb shit about "how busy she's been" and then allows my mother to buy her dinner. Afterward, we go back to our apartment that we're moving out of, she stays for about 10 minutes, and she tears up saying goodbye. It was ridiculous.

Giving and Taking Away


This happened about a year ago, but this post was in draft form and I'm just finishing this story now.

A few days after our 1 year anniversary, my MIL's refrigerator broke. We happened to be going down to her house that Saturday and she was at work by the time we got there. My husband was told by her to take all the food from the freezer and refrigerator because she wasn't going to be able to save it all in ice chests and couldn't get a new refrigerator delivered until Tuesday.

Later that night she called my husband and said, "Why didn't you take more, I'm just going to have throw all this away". There was chicken in her freezer that was still rock hard. I didn't think we needed to take every single thing from her freezer and frankly, based on the past food experiences with her, I didn't really want to take any of it.

The next day, Sunday, she came up to visit us. I had thawed some of the frozen shrimp from her freezer and cut up some crudité. She asked if we were enjoying her food and then opened our fridge and freezer and said, "Oh wow, you took that?" like we stole it from her. I told her we could store all the food for her until she got her fridge installed and hold it until the next weekend. She said, "oh no, that's okay I gave it to you" but then a few days later she called my husband and said she would be in town that Sunday with her friend and was going to "get all her food out of our freezer".  Really?!

All that summer she would make it a point to stop by our house on Sunday afternoons so we could cook for her. She's always show up late and then complain that the food I make isn't healthy enough, that my kitchen is too small, my knives aren't sharp enough, etc.  That particular Sunday that she told my husband she'd be stopping by, my husband was working. She called my cell phone, which made me think she was close by. I quickly left the house and went to Old Navy.  She called again when I was in the parking lot and the conversation went something like this.

MIL: Hey, I'm at your house, where are you?
ME: I'm out shopping.
MIL: Well, you knew I was coming, why aren't you home?
ME: Shawn said you were coming, but he never told me a time and he's working. You can call him if you want.
MIL: I have a friend with me, and we were going to eat with you and get the food out of the freezer.
ME: I bagged it all and left the back door unlocked so you can go in if you want. I gotta go, bye.

MIL did call my husband at work but he didn't answer or call her back until much later and she gave him an earful about how disappointed she was that we weren't at home waiting for her to come by.  

SOOO often she tells us "I do so much for yall". I fail to see how this has ever been true.