Mother-in-Law V

So here is another mother-in-law story. It contains things that happened yesterday and today. Two days ago the MIL wasn’t talking to us, made it so the dog ran out into the street and overall was a pain in the ass.

Yesterday complete opposite. She was happy, she went out and bought my wife & I some nice steaks for dinner, talked to us about the move and saying it was a good thing, etc… She also seemed pleased that I’ve got an ‘assessment test’ planned for the first part of Sept for a good paying job.

Today she’s not happy with the move. I just took a quick nap and the wife came in crying because her mom was crying and saying she should not go. That’s its too cold, she’ll get sick, etc… So now my wife is stressing about this right now.

This is the kind of shit I have had to put up with. Being moody and not speaking to us, being happy and doing nice things, to playing games with my wife’s mind. I really have no clue what to believe with her. We know she lies to get her way, we’ve seen her do it with her two sons. She had told one of her sons that my wife wasn’t paying any mortgage at all and that she hadn’t ever. When she said that my wife had been paying the full mortgage and bills for 12 years straight. She’s recently said she should not have to pay for anything in the house, that we should pay for everything.

She’s not all bad, she has helped us out in the past and done some truly amazing things. But what is sad is it takes getting to the edge and just as we are falling over, she’ll help. Most of the time if we ask for help its either a no, or very reluctant or very little help. So it is out of character for her to help out, but she has helped.

For me its just hard to believe what is genuine or her playing games. And really this is why I am wanting us out of here, and actually into a different country, that way her family cannot try and control her, she’s too far away. Plus her family will have to help out with the house and not have it all rest on us. When we are able we will send down some money and help too, because I do think that is important, but I never want us to have the full load all on us again.

I can’t wait to get back to Canada and get away from this.

 

Visit the other sites  doing the blog-a-day challenge. Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Erron – From the Inside Looking In, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, James – Feelings of White, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am, Vlad – Analog Coast, Janine – Because.

A little about me.

Since this blogging challenge I have new people coming to my blogs, and I’m going to theirs and finding out some pretty cool stuff, but I figured I’d catch people up on some things about me. Mostly cause I can’t think of anything to write about today. Well other than my mother-in-law who is in one of her ‘moods’ again. Which is actually a good place to start, my mother-in-law.

She hates me. Quite literally she hates me, and since she lives with us, this makes for some fun times let me tell you. Here is one post I made about her, Mother-in-Law Part 1. Since that first one I’ve done 3 more, here, here and here. Today she hasn’t said a word to us, and when we were leaving in our car the neighbour points at the street as Ares had gotten out. The reason he got out was because the MIL didn’t close the back gate which allowed him to run out. That gate is always supposed to be closed for this very reason, she knows this. SO while Kathy took Ares back inside and to tell her mom to keep that gate shut, I went and closed the gate. When we got back to the car I asked Kathy what her mom said. ‘Nothing'. She just sat there.’ said my wife. I’m not sure what set her off today, maybe its because two old walkmans were left on the table, or because we left two boxes of old records in the Den. She hates a ‘mess’ she does. Or it could be because she is fucking insane. Take your pick, its probably both really.

I also wrote about me having Scoliosis, which I have had since birth. It has given me many challenges in my life, but its also made me who I am, and while I wish my back didn’t hurt so much, it is a part of what made me. I can’t complain about that. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger right?

When we move back to Winnipeg we will be staying with my mother for a short while. My mother is a completely different person. I wrote one post about her. Is it any wonder why I am wanting to get out of here and back home? While my mother is a great person, I really do not intend to stay with her any longer than needed. She has her husband and they have their life, and Kathy & I want to finally have a place of our own where we can run around naked. Somehow I think my mother might disapprove of it if we did that in her house…

Oh… I finally got those extra pictures of Ares.

As you can see Ares and Honey are really close. Both of them are going to be sad when we leave.

 

Visit the other sites  doing the blog-a-day challenge. Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Erron – From the Inside Looking In, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, James – Feelings of White, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am, Vlad – Analog Coast, Janine – Because.

To the dogs

So I’m going to write about my dogs today. Why? I donno, cause I pretty much feel like it. We just did more packing and running around today. Got the CRV checked out and ready to go, I even got them to knock 10% off the bill, so not too bad. The mother-in-law stayed nice today and didn’t do anything annoying, so I really can’t bitch about her today.

So dogs it is today.

I’ll start off with Honey, who is a miniature Cocker Spaniel.  We didn’t know she was going to be miniature when we got her, she just turned out that way. She’s very cute and knows it. She’ll look at you with those puppy dog eyes and your heart just melts. She uses this to full advantage when she wants something.

This is her just chilling out in the yard.

This is a common theme to see me with my puppies. I like sleeping, they like cuddling next to me while I sleep. And Kathy (my wife) likes taking pictures of me while I sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think my favourite picture of Honey and I.

A very common theme with Honey, she likes laying on top of me.

Of course Ares likes to  get in the picture too. You should just be able to see his nose there. He is right behind me. Sometimes what happens is when I grab my pillow the dogs will jump up on the couch before I can get there. And with Ares he takes up a lot of room, so what I do is just get as much onto the couch as possible and lean against him. He doesn’t mind, he’s stayed there for hours before.

Ares is a Weimaraner, and a beautiful dog. We got him as a rescue from our neighbour because he was ignoring the dog completely, after spending a full month walking the dog and being a very proud owner of a Weimaraner, a dog he had wonted for ages. Then I guess he got bored and decided to leave the dog locked up in a very small area and never spending any time with him. Now these types of dogs HAVE to have human interaction or they will go crazy. Ares (they named him ‘Harley’ after the bike) had been howling every day for months, and at night too. My mother-in-law was ready to call the cops on them. But, they are friends of ours, even though some things they do really irritate us, but overall good people. He had talked about breeding Ares and then selling him, but he made no move to do either, so one day I just said that we wanted to buy him and what did he want for him?

So one day we brought him home on a leash and I took him to the back yard to visit our other 3 dogs. I kept him on the leash for about 20 minutes, walking him around the yard, letting him sniff things and get used to the place. The second I let him off the leash he took off running all around the yard. He was just so overjoyed at being able to run around, he was soooo happy. When he took off Honey was watching him for a few minutes just running around the yard and decided to join him. They were both fairly young at the time and the same age,  so they took to each other like peanut butter and jam. They were immediate friends.

Here is a bigger picture of Ares.

I’ll have more pictures of Ares soon. Our email isn’t working and the wife has all the good pics on her comp.

Ares is the one we are taking back with us to Winnipeg, and leaving Honey with the mother-in-law. Honestly I’d rather take both dogs, but that’s simply not an option. Ares is a large dog and very protective of the house and us, I simply do not trust the MIL to make sure Ares is kept calm if people come over. I don’t want to get a phone call that he bit someone and had to be put down, cause of course it will somehow be magically our fault, the MIL is never wrong, nor is she ever at fault for anything. But, Ares will have a 2000 mile drive to deal with. It is going to be interesting to see what happens.

One more picture to end this. This is the ‘dog blanket’. Back when we had Bell (Cocker Spaniel) and Angel (Springer Spaniel) this was a very common sight in the colder weather.

I really miss Bell and Angel, both passed away this  last year. Both dogs were super sweet and I was really attached to Bell. When I first came here she was really shy, didn’t really let anyone touch her for very long, if at all, but she should sit next to me as I read a book, and would then sleep in that exact spot every time when I took a nap. It was always a blessing to have her lay down next to you, cause it just wasn’t something she did often. But anytime my wife was in tears there she was to comfort my wife.

Angel was special too, she loved to play ball, loved cuddling and if she wanted your attention her paw would go on your leg. She was the one who wanted the most attention. She was a great puppy.

I’m going to really miss Honey too. While Ares is great and we love him to pieces, it just won’t be the same without Honey around. I know Ares is going to miss him too. Half of the wife’s crying jags about leaving are about missing Honey.  So its going to be tough all around.

 

Visit the other sites  doing the blog-a-day challenge. Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Erron – From the Inside Looing In, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, James – Feelings of White, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am, Vlad – Analog Coast, Janine – Because.

What did I do today?

(Be warned I got on a roll and could not stop)

Not that anyone cares, but since I have to write something, you’re going to get a peek into the innermost portions of my day. If you don’t like that, blame Cliff. Its all his fault.

I got a call today from my mother’s husband about a job in Winnipeg. I had already emailed my resume to a friend of theirs who works in MTS, and apparently she called them and told them about a job I had to apply for immediately. So that’s kind of how I woke up today, getting a call about a job. Considering I haven’t had a job in two years this isn’t a bad way to wake up. This friend of theirs actually sent my resume to a few people in MTS, so I may have a few ways in, but we’ll see. They starting pay is really good, and hopefully its a good stepping stone to move elsewhere in the company.

After I did the online application we headed out to Target to find some portable speakers for my MP3 player (Samsung YP-U2J). An older one and considering most of the portable speakers I can find are compatible with the iPod or Zune, I donno if I’m gonna be able to find a set. I thought that if it fits in a headphone jack it should work, but now I’m not so sure. (If anyone knows if this set will work, let me know…)

On the way home we stopped at Honda to get an appointment to get the car checked up and fluids changed, so that is done for our trip. I also changed the wipers as ours were about 4 years old and nasty. (I know this is riveting information)

After that it was making phone calls to change the address on my This Old House magazine, and a few other odds and ends. I love that mag. I really love the last page “save this old house’, where you can find a house that is about to get demolished and hopefully someone sees it and saves it. If I had no worries about money I’d go around fixing up old houses myself and learning how to do everything. I’d probably contract out some of the work, but do some myself. I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to doing projects, so it takes me longer, but when its done it looks damned good and its not going to fall apart either.

The last few days we’ve also had a bit of a scare because Ares got sick. He wasn’t eating or drinking. Monday night he spent the entire night outside laying in the garden. I thought for sure we were going to lose him that night. I figured he was doing what some animals will do when they are dying and finding a place to die in. So it was a tough night. First thing the next morning we took him to the vet and they did some tests and what it seems to have been was just some stomach problems, and while very uncomfortable for him, not life threatening. He’s doing better, but is on a bland diet, which means chicken and rice. Except the mother-in-law seems to think he’s fine and wants to feed him his regular food.

Cliff has read some of my earlier work where I talk about the MIL, and she’s one crazy lady. She just ‘knows’ things and decides that’s what is best. It doesn’t matter if she has no bloody clue at all, she just ‘knows’ and therefore its reality for her. The problem is we’ve lost dogs and spent many thousands of dollars on vet bills because she ALWAYS gives the dogs food from her plate, every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It makes me so mad to think about it, but nothing we have said makes any difference, she keeps doing it. I can’t express my feelings enough about how glad I am to get away from that shit. I know its a sore spot with Kathy being in between us, but 9 years in a house with a MIL that hates me is far more than enough.

Ok… Calm the angst down…

What I’m currently doing is filling up my old MP3 player with music, and since I have to actually listen to a bit of the song before I know it its been 2 hours now and I still have 1.3 gigs left in my 2 gig player. Kathy is liking this though. She’ll get all smiley or start crying depending on the song. On one song a memory came up that she used to follow hot guys around in her car. Oh God, more confirmation she’s a stalker.

OK, I think this is far too long. Cliff… This counts as like 4 days posting right?

Thoughts of children and labour…

One of the other bloggers (Janine) in the blog a day challenge wrote yesterday about how Child Labour is Awesome, which was really about the bonding experience she is having with her child washing her car, and how she bonded with her father doing projects with him. I know that my parents had me and my two brothers doing a lot of chores around the house, and some times I figured that was the reason they had us, cheap labour.

So being the weirdo that I am I figured I would discuss the pros and cons of child labour. Is having a baby for the purpose of using the child to make home life easier, really that cost effective? I’m not going to go all scientific, or break down the numbers, I’m far too lazy to do the research for that. But what I am going to do is go through a list of pros and cons of hiring a maid for 18 years vs having a child and getting them to do chores.

Children:

PROS	CONS
When they are not doing chores you can play with them	It takes around 5 years before you can really start to get any work out of them (they are lazy bastards until then)
You can do chores with them to bond and have fun with them	You have to teach them how to do it, plus keep an eye on them to make sure its done properly
You can yell at them and they can’t quit, they have to stay in the home	There is a ‘breaking in’ period. Literally. They break things.
When they get older you can withhold allowance to make sure they do the chores	You have to pay for room, board, clothes, school supplies, and then pay them to do the chores
Teaches them responsibility	They throw temper tantrums usually about not doing chores
They’re yours for life	You can’t fire them

Maids:

PROS	CONS
When they are not working, you ‘may’ be able to ‘play’ with them	Sexual harassment lawsuits
No need to train them	You still need to check and make sure they are doing the job
No need to do the work with them, just sit back and relax	If you yell at them they may quit and walk out
No need to feed, clothe, put a roof over their head, buy them school supplies or wipe their nose if they get a cold	Sick days, vacations. Days you’ll have to do the work yourself
Maid ‘uniforms’	Sexual harassment lawsuits
After they are done work they go away	You may have to go through a few before you find the right one
No complaining about work (to your face)	If they get injured they may sue
You can fire them

So there ya go. The Pros and Cons of child labour vs a maid. Make your decision wisely folks.

 

Visit the other sites  doing the blog-a-day challenge (now updated!!). Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Erron – From the Inside Looing In, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, James – Feelings of White, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am, Vlad – Analog Coast, Janine – Because.

A shout out to my fans.

I have recently come to realise I have been ignoring the people that come to my blog. So please accept my most heartfelt apologies. I shall try and do better in the future. Some of you guys have been here almost from the beginning of my foray into attempting to write this blog. You even stayed around and waited during the times when I simply didn’t post anything at all, and you’ve stuck around to this point.

I’m going to try and make this blog more fun for all to read and I hope you’ll stick around further. At least this next month there should be more posts, well at least until I am on the road and then we’ll see if I can find some wifi to post some pics and a trip diary. It should be interesting since we are taking a 100lb weimaraner with us, and driving 2000 miles. Yeah that’s gonna be fun.

But back to my fans. I may not always understand what you are saying, but you always come in with a comment. I just want to let you know I acknowledge your dedication in coming to my humble blog. Thank you!

Here’s to you Chinese spammers!

Visit the other sites  doing the blog-a-day challenge. Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am.

I’m in pain.

Yes that’s right. I’m in pain. Not only because Cliff roped me into this post a day contest, which to be honest is gonna be hard for me, but should be interesting as well. But, I was talking about pain. I am FINALLY moving back to Canada! Yes that’s right, the 9 (<- and yes I’m counting that number as a word Cliff) long years of hell is finally coming to an end. I shall finally be free of the mother-in-law, which is awesome. But that still doesn’t cover the pain.

The wifey and I are packing up to move, and I have been going up and down a ladder carrying heavy shit down from above. Then unpacking, and repacking all the stuff we are going to take with us. So far we are getting rid of 5 boxes of books, 4 boxes of video games (the list is here if you are interested to take a look) and other odds and ends. Not everything is packed up yet either. That video game list only shows the big box DOS/95/98 games, not the smaller boxed newer games. A list of those is going to be made tonight, if I can move.

Yes now we get to the pain. All this bending over, picking stuff up, and moving it has really messed up my back. Its achey and sore. The wifey says today is a rest day, but the sooner I get this done the better off I’ll be. I have to build some shelves before I go, and I want our closets empty for when I do it. Plus I have a garage sale to plan for too.

This will now be the second time I am moving more than 2000 miles. I do not recommend it. Vancouver to Wpg was nothing compared to this.

Visit the other sites  doing the blog-a-day challenge. Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am. Cliff has a lot to answer for.