(no subject)
OK, so on to my issues with sister-in-law. August was Brenna's birthday. She had a couple friends over for a sleepover, and I planned to have a small, family party for her later. My parents were coming in to town for it, and I figured MIL, SIL, and my 2 nieces would be there. A couple days before the party, SIL called my husband to ask if she could bring her boyfriend and his 2 sons, 7 and 10. He said okay, because really, what alternative did he have? I had to go buy extra food because they were coming. He comes over with SIL and says one of his boys isn't feeling well. Great. Let's not forget we've never met, it's supposed to be my kid's small, family birthday party, and you're bringing your sick kid? For dinner, we served BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs, homemade mac 'n cheese, fruit salad, and BBQ corn on the cob. I also had snacks to munch on while we were grilling the food (chips, etc.). At first everyone spent most of their time in the pool. As we were putting food on the table and people were fixing plates, SIL complains loudly about the fact that there were cheese on all the burgers. I told her that Brandon was grilling a second batch, that she should just let him know to leave the cheese off of a couple of them. She runs out to where he is at the BBQ, yells at him about the cheese, then comes back in to stand next to her boyfriend by the kitchen. I am just on the other side of the counter, facing them, at the kitchen sink. Her boyfriend says something about how he really likes vegetables, to which SIL makes a face and says, "Well, there's not really any vegetables here." I just looked at them and didn't say anything, but I thought it was the pinnacle of rudeness - first, yelling and getting upset about the cheese and second, complaining about the food that was there. My mom had to go and talk to his boys, because they were in Grant's room, playing with his toys, and they wouldn't let him play. She heard him crying and had to take care of the situation. Meanwhile, their father was socializing with everyone and didn't even notice. Later they went outside, because Brenna had gotten a new bike for her birthday. One of his boys was going to take a turn riding it, until his fater (SIL's boyfriend) made fun of him because it's a pink bike. Anyway, let's just say they rubbed me the wrong way, and after they left, I discovered all the trash left on the patio from the kids (mostly a half dozen soda cans, and my 2 youngest don't drink soda). One of the boys had been using a cup to drink, not just straight from the can, and the cup had been tipped over and spilled all over the patio. So, we had a horde of ants crawling everywhere (didn't see the spill at first b/c Sprite is clear). Oh, and while they were here, SIL's boyfriend made it a point to tell me that he has the same model house, oh except they have Corian countertops. I thought that was kind of rude, also. I mean, I don't usually go to people's houses and tell them how what I have is so much better.
Two months later, MIL calls my husband (because she and SIL never call the house - they only call my husband's cell) to invite us to my younger niece's birthday. They only gave us 3 or 4 days notice, so I had to scramble, because I was supposed to go to cookie training for Girl Scouts at the same time. I was able to get all the paperwork to our cookie mom so that she could go by herself (they usually recommend that both a leader and the cookie mom attend but it's not required). When we arrived at the birthday party, we sat down, and SIL's boyfriend opened the conversation by badmouthing SIL's ex-husband. Don't get me wrong - I am not a fan of her alchoholic, messed up ex-husband. However, he starts going on about how he got on the phone with him and put him in his place, calling him "Peewee" (he's short for a guy - 5'6"). Then he starts going on about how he's going to watch the door and make sure he doesn't show. From the way he was acting, it was one step away from the primate exhibit, I swear. It made me uncomfortable. I spent most of the party either chatting with another mom whose son is my niece's classmate or running around after the kids while they played all these games with tokens (at one point Grant put 8 tokens into one game - I was running around like a mad woman). I later heard that my SIL had complained something like "if she (meaning me) doesn't want to be here, she doesn't have to." I don't understand what her deal was. It's not like I was sitting in the corner throwing spitballs or anything, and I didn't stand around complaining about the food.
Anyway, after my niece's birthday party, my MIL calls B to tell him that they're going to go to New Mexico for Thanksgiving to spend time with his family, which was fine with me. I didn't really think anything of it, and we already had plans to have friends over anyway.
As Christmas approached (after the big Xmas show ticket fiasco), MIL said she wanted to come over on Xmas, because SIL was going to her boyfriend's house. I thought that was strange, because for years everyone has come over here for Christmas, and we exchange gifts, eat dinner, etc. To be honest, I am getting tired of always hosting things here. We do have a bigger house, larger table to accomodate everyone, etc., but it means I spend the whole day cooking and taking care of the kids while the IL's and my husband sit around and socialize. The kids don't even bother with them, because they get caught up in conversation and ignore them. So, I end up feeling like the 3rd wheel and working my butt off the whole time. Then, 2 days before Christmas, MIL changes her mind and tells my husband that she wants to come over for Christmas Eve instead. We say fine, that we don't have any plans either way. It turns out, MIL and SIL hosted Christmas at THEIR house and had his boyfriend and kids over, without inviting us. At this point, I have no idea what the deal is, except obviously SIL and/or her boyfriend doesn't want to get together with us. Who knows what the reason is, because she'd never actually talk to us about it. I'm wondering if the boyfriend doesn't like me, because at my niece's birthday party, he wanted to dump my niece on me so I could help her trade tickets in for prizes. I wouldn't have had a problem with it, except that I was already helping Brenna and my older niece. They had 6 or 7 different slips with different ticket amounts on them. I was using my cell phone calculator to add them, and to make things more complicated they wanted to combine their ticket amounts and split them (Brenna lost out on that one but I didn't care). Anyway, I told him I couldn't help her, and I think he thought I was a witch for it. He then dumped her on my husband and went back to watching the game and drinking his beer.
At this point, I'm really close to wanting to cut ties with them completely, because I'm really tired of the head games.