Can I adopt that as the theme of my life? It could reference my emotions, or the state of cleanliness of the house, or any number of things, but for this blog … I’m talking Internet.
Two weekends ago, I drove the kids to Athena to visit my brother, SIL, and their family. You may remember reading about them barely escaping a house fire with their lives. Well, I’m such a rotten little sister that I had yet to see their new home a year and a half later! A Friday off school provided the perfect opportunity. Angel helped me pack our stuff on Thursday and we picked the other two up from school.
I didn’t stop and let them out of the car for 230 miles! By then, even I was looking forward to the little girl’s room, but we certainly made good time. (As opposed to making bad time. I hate bad time! I mean, can you think of anything that smells worse than time that’s gone bad?!?)
We stayed until after dinner on Friday and then backtracked an hour to Hermiston to see Kevin’s family. Was it weird to go stay with my soon-to-be-ex-husband’s family? Yes, if you mean it is unusual for a divorcing couple to get along so well with the other spouse’s family. No, if you mean awkward.
They love me. I love them. Why does that have to change because I won’t be married to their son? I had considered the fact that I probably wouldn’t be able to call them “Mom” and “Dad” anymore, but Dad quickly disabused me of that notion. He gave me both of their permission, with finger in face, to call them whatever I want to! I also got to spend time with Kevin’s brothers and their wives, which was healing for all of us, I hope. I found out they’ve been reading this blog so I will now begin to insert a “secret message inside a message” to them.
Thank you for always acceptIng me, even as the youn girL Kevin brought home from the ROund-Up. These thirteen years as an official part of your family haVE been the best of my life. As YOU know, no matter the legal status of my marriage, you’ll always be family to me.
So … back to the Internet … My brother had the fastest connection I’ve yet to use. I went crazy, uploading all those pictures from a few posts ago, zooming through my email, watching videos that would have put me over my data limit here at home. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
My in-laws, however, don’t have Internet at all. From sixty to zero in one hour flat. I had brought some counseling paperwork and some home loan paperwork to work on. And guess what? Without the guilt to be blogging or cleaning or marketing or catching up on email I actually got it DONE. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as well.
There’s my personality in a nutshell: enjoy whatever you have while you have it!
Glad you had a great Easter weekend, even with the extremes! And what a blessing to have such loving in-laws (ex-laws?). 🙂
Sounds like you had a wonderful time. It’s a blessing for your kids that all of you love each other. 🙂
It was indeed a very nice visit, and very much needed. We are still your In-Laws by children. there may have been fast internet service in Athena, but was there extra double marshmallow rice krispie treats? I think not. Love you!
Hi Christina –
What a delightful way to spend the Easter weekend! I’m so glad your inlaws are understanding. Also, you’ve given them two beautiful grandchildren. There will always be a connection.
Blessings,
Susan 🙂
Jody, thank you. Maybe I should call them “out-laws?” This was actually the weekend before Easter–for which I’ve got an awesome story to share–but I was just behind and didn’t want to miss posting about the trip. 🙂
Jessica, it all comes down to what’s best for the kids at this point, doesn’t it?
Jen, in case you couldn’t decipher the message, it said I LOVE YOU. 😉 I’m pretty sure I’m still burning off the calories from the bag of marsh mellows.
Susan, I’m so glad we DO have that connection. Otherwise it would be too easy to lose touch … and ultimately lose them in all of this.