Erma Bombeck would be proud.

MIL was at our (her) house this past week.  And as usual, it was excruciating.  She whined about Sonic.  She complained about the temperature.  And she ate all our chips/cookies/skittles - pretty much anything we had to snack on – AND THEN complained that there wasn't anything to eat.  Despite the leftovers from Thanksgiving, the THREE different soups I made or any of the other meals (three a day for five days) that I made while she was here.

It was a short visit (just long enough to grate on my nerves) while BIL and SIL were with SIL's family out of state. 

I truly believe that she takes joy in repaying my husband for what he did to her as a child.  Even though he seemed to be the typical run-of-the-mill kid, she still finds a way to (as I said) eat all our foods, complain ad nauseum about EVERYTHING, and leave dishes, wrappers, clothes, and such where she finishes them.  Whether it be in her room, on the bed, at the table, in the living room.  

After she leaves, it's like cleaning up after a horde of teens.  There are coke bottles under the couch.  Yogurt containers (with spoons) on the floor of the bed room.  Plates and opened bags of chips at the table.

And to make matters worse, the snippy comments are back with a vengeance but with new fire power.  As she left today I got, "Thanks for the food.  I enjoyed visiting my house."  Yes, I know, it's your house.  Believe me, you can have it.

And yet, after all the frustration, after all the quips and moans and crying spells, I felt bad to see her go.  I immediately said to myself, 'that wasn't that bad.'  

Despite the fact that twenty minutes prior, my husband was packing her things (Which you should know they originally planned for her to collect her things after work today, but at the last minute, she decided he could load them in the morning, requiring him to turn around and come back to the house after he had already left, move my car out of her cars way AND move her car closer to the house so that she could reach it – making him late for work).

But still, she is sick.  And I know this.  And she needs us.  So, we will be there for her.  We just may not succumb to every single Sonic Coke request.