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A Little About Me/Us

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Hi, My name is Lisa. My husband is Pat. And my MIL is Nancy.
My husband and I have been together for 9 years, but only married for 9 months. We recently bought a house on 3 acres in rural Missouri so I could breed and show my bantam Silkies (that's a type of chicken) without our neighbors complaining.
We lived in Fort Worth, Texas where I could have 12 chickens according to city code. That didn't seem to matter to our neighbor though. He would call code compliance or animal control on us just about weekly. We were never cited or ticketed because we were completely legal. It finally got so bad that I moved all the chickens into the spare bedroom of our house. If he couldn't see or hear them, he didn't complain.
That worked for a while, then we decided that in order to effectively breed and show them, we needed to expand. So we looked around the Fort Worth area for a house with a little land. We were trying to stick within an hour of Fort Worth because the MIL lived 3 miles from our house and my husband wanted to make sure he was at least nearby. I can understand that and was ok with it. Long story short, land is expensive as heck in Texas!
Well, my MIL had lived in a college town in Missouri for 25 years before her other sons convinced her that she should move to Texas. They bought her a house 2 miles from our house in Fort Worth. The brothers' houses were 45 minutes and 90 minutes away. So, basically, they dumped her on us so they wouldn't have to take care of her. She HATED Texas! Didn't like the traffic, the people, the weather, you name it.
Anyways, my husband and I went to a poultry show in Sedalia, Missouri. I told him as we were driving through that I thought I could like in Missouri. It was nice and green where Texas was always brown. So we looked, and looked, and looked. LOL. Now, MIL didn't like the idea of us moving away and leaving her there (and neither did the brothers.) We were told that if we were moving to Missouri, we had better take her with us! So now, I had to find 2 houses within 30 minutes of each other in Missouri. Not an easy task.
Now, my MIL has diabetes, has had 2 strokes, a heart attack, high blood pressure, and fell into the street and ended up with bleeding on the brain and a broken eye socket. When she fell into the street, she went into the house and laid on the sofa and called us (not 911 like she should have.) When we walked into the house, I took one look at her and said she needs to go to the hospital. Fast forward through 1 1/2 weeks in the hospital, surgery for her eye socket, etc. Then one night while my husband was out at a gig (he plays the drums) she calls him and says she fell in the house, but didn't hurt herself, but that it took her 30 minutes to get to the phone (dragging herself across the floor because she couldn't get up.) So he calls me, I run over there and she's sitting in her recliner like nothing happened. Won't go to the hospital, so I went back home. Strange thing, she never did act sore or anything from that "fall."
My husband decided that instead of 2 houses, now we should just look for 1 and have her live with us. He doesn't want her to have to go into a nursing home, ever. I'm ok with this too. She seemed an ok, if nutty, religious fanatic. Oh, yes. She is a Jehovah's Witness. Which meant, we had to get married, even though we hadn't planned on it, ever.
I found a nice 2500 sq foot house on 3 acres in rural Missouri for sale. Great price, we could pay cash and not have a mortgage. It had a full basement that we could finish for my husband's drums, and a full attic that I could finish out for my library/sewing room. We bought it!
My husband had a job he had to finish in Texas (sticking around until they hired and trained his replacement.) So we moved my MIL and I to Missouri.
She has taken over the house!!!!!! She has her crap stuffed in every room. Because my husband was still in Texas, most of our belongings stayed there with him. I moved my clothes, the animals, my sewing machine, and a few books. We rented a U-Haul and moved all of MIL's stuff. She had decided that she wanted the smaller room due to the paint color (dumb, I know.) She has so much crap. And I can call it crap...When it has been packed away in boxes for over 15 years, and has not seen the light of day in all that time, it is crap. But NO! she won't get rid of anything! So now, we have to fit all this stuff in the house. No problem, right? WRONG!! She has to have all this crap arranged a certain way. Which means that now there are boxes stacked 6 high in every room!
When we bought the house, she agreed that the attic was mine, the basement was my husbands, and that we could have the media room. She got the living room, the family room, the dining room, the kitchen. Well, there are now 3 bookcases full of her books in our media room. Plus a display cabinet, a blanket chest, 2 stupid little tables, more boxes of books, boxes of pictures, picture frames, fake flowers, candle holders, etc. stacked up in our media room.
After filling every inch of floor space in her bedroom with her stuff, she decides that her closet isn't big enough, so she takes over 1 of the 2 in my bedroom. Then tries to take over the 2nd one! The dining room has no dining room table because she gave hers away before we moved and was going to use ours. Well, she has the dining room filled with baskets, rocking chairs, more boxes of crap, quilt tops, a dresser, another blanket chest, chairs out the wazoo!, more display cabinets, and tons of cat toys. The family room is stacked floor to ceiling with boxes of material, yarn, craft supplies, etc. Some of these boxes, she has no idea what is in them.
My attic in now getting filled with boxes of yarn, sewing patterns, material, books, and everything else she tried to shove in my 2nd closet.
All of our belongings have to either fit in our bedroom and closet, in the attic, or in the garage.
My husband collects antique radios. He has to put them in the attic and the garage because she will not get rid of anything and will not move anything from the rooms we are supposed to have.
That's my rant about the house, LOL!

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Mother-In-Law Blog

Comments

  1. Whoever's Avatar
    I'm sorry for what you are going through. Is this woman paying any rent? Please tell me she is not listed as an owner on the title.

    You and your DH need to sit down and get on the same page. Then sit MIL down and tell her she does NOT get to take over your entire house. The two of you (you and DH) can either go through all her carp with/for her or she can put it all in storage and SHE pays every penny of the fees. Put a very short time limit on this. If MIL refuses, you can send her to Texas with one of DH's brothers.

    It seems you and DH give in to MIL far too much. His brothers as well. The two of you are adults and should not have others dump their decisions on you. MIL makes the two of get married, his brothers dump their mother on you and DH and then tell you that the two of you have to take their mother when you leave Texas? You and DH might want to get some counseling to help you stand up for yourselves instead of doing whatever everyone else tells you to do.

    Whoever


    You might want to consider some counseling for the two of you
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