I had a wonderful birthday in spite of my misgivings. My coworkers planned a surprise party for me - which I really would have been fine without! - but I am grateful for them thinking about me. We had cake and ice cream, and they even sang to me. I was embarrassed, but then, I don't like being the center of attention. Not even on my birthday! Hubby and son took me out to dinner and I threatened them with bodily harm if they embarrassed me at the restaurant. Daughter and her boyfriend joined us, and I warned them ahead of time, too. NO EMBARRASSING ME! Luckily, everyone behaved and we had a nice, enjoyable dinner. I'm thankful for family and good friends to share my days with - and not just my milestone days!
Since then, we've been super busy decorating and shopping for Christmas. Today we finished all the big stuff, so now I only have small stuff to pick up. We wrapped the extended family gifts and they are under the tree. Immediate family gifts are still hidden in various places until we can sufficiently mask them well enough to wrap them while others are nearby. Always a challenge but we'll get there. With Daughter moved out, I took over her bedroom as my stash room. I've been keeping the door shut, and hopefully my dear hubby is behaving himself during the day and not sneaking around to see what I've come home with. I haven't left anything out in plain sight, but still.
Today we also visited my father-in-law. He was outside when we got there, packing the truck to go north. He wants to go back to his parents house. His parents are both gone, but he doesn't realize that. We managed to get him in the house and distracted him with other discussions. Hubby and I have gotten good at tag-teaming. One of us keeps my father-in-law busy while the other pumps my mother-in-law for information. I know that sounds bad, but it's kind of what we do. As I've said before, we don't know if what she's telling us is the truth or not, so we ask questions and hopefully what we put together from various conversations is accurate.
But today was not a good day there. My mother-in-law was on the phone with my sister-in-law, who had called unwittingly in the middle of the argument that my father-in-law's parents are gone. When she talked to her dad, and agreed with his wife, my father-in-law was furious and started to hang up on her. My mother-in-law grabbed the phone and talked with my sister-in-law, and the end result of that conversation was that my mother-in-law threatened to pack up and leave because she says she can't take it anymore. Hubby and I are used to hearing it - she says it often - but apparently my sister-in-law thought she was dead serious. She made some calls and found out that the nursing home near her (over an hour away from where we live) has an opening, and that they can take her dad right away, if they deem him suitably ready. Of course, we couldn't say anything to let my sister-in-law know that the threat was not necessarily an immediate threat - not with my mother-in-law right there.
My father-in-law is not ready to be in a nursing home. He has enough of his wits about him that he WILL know what is going on, and whomever he considers responsible for putting him there will incur his wrath. It will not be pretty. I personally don't think he's that far gone, but I do understand how difficult it must be to live with him day in and day out, fighting to keep him safe and also trying to keep him involved in things. The adult day care helps some, but my mother-in-law says the weekends are the worst. I don't know if they are really that much worse, or if it's just because she has to worry about him 24 hours a day on the weekends. Either way, I do feel sorry for her but she's still not doing anything to help herself. That makes it difficult, because we feel that she just wants him incarcerated so she can do whatever she wants. At what point did she stop considering HIM in all this?
I really try hard not to judge. I'm not in her shoes. I don't have to cope with him on a daily basis. I hope we never have to face that. I know it's hard. So I pray that whatever is best for him is what happens.
I also pray for all the families devastated by the shootings in Connecticut yesterday. My heart goes out to them. I can not imagine what they are going through. Hug your kids, and the rest of your family and be sure they know you love them. And on that note, I want to let you - my readers - know how much I appreciate YOU!
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