Back to normalcy

In-law visit is over.  Whew, sigh of relief.  I love them, they did a great job raising their son, they are excellent grandparents, but it's good to get back to normalcy around here.  I'm sure they want to get back to their normalcy too.

Here is the highlight reel from the past 11 days:

* Every time they went out they bought Julia at least one thing - more often than not, multiple things. More often than not, Disney princess stuff.  (I am one of THOSE moms who doesn't like characters on stuff.)  Julia is now the owner of a Disney princess puzzle, a Disney princess pool, Disney princess shoes (light-up shoes to even more of my disdain), Disney princess shirts, Disney princess pajamas, and I'm sure I'm forgetting more Disney princess crap. 

* Julia can put together a 48 piece puzzle by herself.  She didn't get MY spatial ability obviously. 

* We were asked where Julia was going to go to school.  We said the public school up the road.  WRONG ANSWER.  S's mother said, "You can't put her in public school!  She needs to be around superior people."  I was too shocked to say anything.  S said something about her being an elitist.  As you can see, we have a different world view than S's parents.

* When we said that S's job isn't looking too stable, we were told to move in with them in their Arizona house.  Ah, nice offer???? But... admittedly Arizona has a crappy economy, living with parents while in our 30s sounds oh so attractive, and of course I appreciate the immediate disregard of my job.  As if my current earnings just pay the electric bill or something since the man is always the breadwinner...

* The really funny thing is that THEY are more likely to end up living with US due to them being extremely underwater on their house combined with their huge spending problem.

* S and his dad replaced the lighting in the kitchen.  It was a great project although having construction/demolition occur when other people are staying with you is not so much fun.

* I can't wait for people to not go through my stuff.  Seriously, I hate people going through my stuff - especially when it's in my private area (my personal bedroom/bathroom).  Even I, the snoopiest person alive, don't go into people's master bedroom when they're not there.

* I cannot believe their consumerism and wastefulness.  Lights left on (the evidence of her going through my stuff since I've never left a light on all day while I was gone in the past 1.5 years, and I came home to find my bathroom lights left on 3x in the past week).  Make more food than possibly can be eaten, leftovers expire, which means lots of food thrown away.  If you don't have an ingredient for something you're making (let's say onion), do you go out on a special trip to get an onion or do you just omit it? I'm lazy, I just omit it.  They say they're going to pick up just 1 thing at the store (aforementioned onion), and they spend at least $50 on random crap.  



* I want my kitchen back, as in, being able to cook what I want when I want and put in the containers I want.

* I'm already sighing about the visit in December.  Things are going to be wonky, and we're told to "stay flexible" as things will change 100x.  Oh yeah, and we're hosting Christmas at our house for everyone else (which I had to acquiesce on), which then means S's mother will then invite people to stay at our house for several days since she's so prone to thinking our house is HER house (that will be impromptu coercion come December). The way they handle all that is seriously a bone of contention between my husband and me.  It's getting so bad that I want to move into a studio so that NO ONE can stay with us ever again.  

* The four course meals put 5 lbs on me in a week although this morning I saw a 2 lb dip, so right now I'm "only" up 3 lbs.  I suppose the positive is that I think Julia is up some weight as well.

* Have I said how much I appreciate getting my house and personal space back?

* I was under the assumption that after heart surgery your diet had to be low fat/low cal.  Apparently not.  Apparently you're allowed to eat non-stop crap.  Had it been S who had heart surgery, he would be on a fruit/veggie/lean meat diet with very little fat. It wouldn't even be me who would have to institute it; he would impose it on himself. 

* I'm sure Julia will ask about her grandparents for weeks; she enjoyed being spoiled. Let's hope she will go back to her previous pattern of not expecting things at the store.

* At least it wasn't 8 people this year; it only ended up being 2 people.