Mother's Day is around the corner and I'm about to face every daughter-in-law's worst nightmare....the invasion of my MOTHER-IN-LAW!!!! Okay, maybe it's not every daughter-in-law's worst nightmare....but it sure can be darn awkward!
This will be my MIL's (we'll just shorten it to that) first visit to see us...ever. She doesn't travel well (hmmm, wonder where my husband gets it from) and she is pretty high maintenance when it comes to needing things prepared for her. I have visions of her getting rolled out in a wheelchair by a skycap cause she's too lazy and confused to walk to the baggage claim area. I've already got a grocery list (on top of my own) of things I need to get for her during her stay. My husband was reading me her list and it included a 12-pack of Cherry Coke Zero and two 2-liter bottles of Diet Ginger Ale. I was thinking, 'Doesn't she know she's only staying for five days?' It would take me more than a month to finish all that. Apparently, this is her 'water' so I was assured it would all be consumed.
Since this is my MIL's first visit to see us - possibly the first visit ever to the nation's capitol, I have been having my husband grill her on what she wants to do when she's here. She wants to see the monuments. My response to that is, 'Well that's great but she does realize it's a lot of walking?!' My MIL has some health issues - they include, and are not limited to, sore legs, being overweight, constipation, and tiring easily. She has always said that she needs to lose weight - and a couple of times, in my 10+ years of knowing her, she has joined the gym only to quit because it was starting to bother her legs and back. So I wonder if she realizes that the monuments are not all jam-packed into one city block and that to actually see the monuments, you have to walk to the monuments - and it's a good 3-4 hour walk, total. I guess we'll find out. Maybe she'll just ask us to drive by the monuments - that might be easier on all of us.
My MIL is a very nice woman - don't get me wrong. She has just gone through some hard times in her life, including a liver (or kidney) transplant - and I think a lot of it has impacted the way that she lives today. I can understand her hardships and I do greatly admire her for raising a child, on her own, after divorcing her husband when my husband was two years old.
But there are times that I honestly want to wring her neck - those are times when she needs to draw attention to herself when other people are having a conversation (not about her) around her and when she spends money she doesn't have on things she doesn't need. This last statement is a weakness for a lot of women, myself included...shopping...but I have the money to pay for my purchases....she does not.
So this is her Mother's Day and Birthday gift....a flight out to see us in our new home, in VA. She is staying for five days and six nights. I worry about the foods that I should make for her....she doesn't eat seafood or shellfish (which is like my main culinary menu) and she doesn't eat a lot of ethnic or spicy. So I guess it's going to be meat and potatoes for us.
And guess what...my husband is just as enthusiastic about her visit....
Wish us luck!
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