Oh The Joys of Life

I'm sure some of you have noticed... I haven't been around lately. I have good reasons I promise. Life has just been so insanely chaotic these last couple of months. I haven't been able to carve out ANY time for myself.

I did pretty good over the holiday season, with more custom orders than I really should have taken. I almost didn't get it all done. Quilts and table settings, and more stockings than I can count. A local boutique picked up some of my stockings for the season. And thank God, because we really needed the money. I spent most of Nov and Dec in my studio, sewing like a mad woman.

Our car started dying in November. And we were screwed. With no money to buy another one, we were forced to finance one through a dealership. I hate having a car payment. But what could we do? So I went down and bought a new Chrysler Sebring. Well, almost new. No matter, it's still a large chunk of money every month.

Around the same time our car was dying, my Sister in Law, Kirsten, called. Now before I get into this story, let me preface by saying my husband has been looking for his sister for a couple years. And one day she contacts him through email to say, "Me and my boyfriend and our son are basically homeless. Can we come stay with you?" And then the drama began.

Most of my husbands family lives in Philly, including his sister. Apparently they had already burned all the bridges in Philly. They ALL told us horrible things about them. ALL of them. But my husband felt obligated to his sister. They all said not to let the boyfriend come with her. But my husband felt like she wouldn't come without him. He was torn up over this. Desperately seeking advice from me about what to do. I told him I stand behind whatever he decides. The child, almost 8 years old, was not in school, and basically homeless. The only way to provide that child a stable home, was to let them come down. So we said yes.

They worked it out with my mother in law, who lives here, to go get them. She was supposed to pick them up Thanksgiving weekend. Mind you, this whole time, we still haven't talked to them on the phone. Only through email. Then like a week goes by, and we heard nothing. We were frantically writing emails, with no response.
Then we get a hold of someone at his dad's house, where they had been staying. They had been kicked out of there, after less than a week, for stealing from them, and their son torturing the youngest child there.
But Dad was nice, and gave them money to take a train here. It was scheduled to be in the next afternoon. No one had told us anything. They were coming early, and on a train. So my husband took the day off work, which is costly, and we scrambled to get things ready. The afternoon came and went, and we heard nothing. So we contacted his mom, she called up there and talked to Kirsten, and indeed, she was supposed to go get them, the next weekend.
What it all boiled down to in the end, was that they conned the money out of Dad with no intention of getting on the train. At that point my Mother in law was pissed, and told them she was not going to get them, because they were liars and thieves, and she wanted no parts in pulling a con on the father. I should have said no then!

Then all the sudden, they needed us to come get them. All the sudden I was able to get them on the phone to talk. I heard the sad sob story about how it was everyone elses fault that they had no place to live. That the previous roommate had just snapped one day and kicked them all out, and kept all their stuff. How her son didn't have much in the way of clothes, and on and on. I asked about what they had, and what they needed. And told her not to worry, we would get it all worked out. My husband made arrangements to go get them. I made arrangements to cloth the child and get him enrolled in school. I did Christmas shopping for him, as if he were one of my children.

When my husband went to get them, the hassles began. They had a lot more stuff than they told us about. They stuffed the car with duffel bags and garbage bags full of shit. And they were upset that they couldn't bring the flat screen TV and a bike. They had so much stuff, they all had to sit Indian style on the ride back because the floors were full, the trunk was full, and half of the back seat was full. They weren't on the road an hour before my husband slipped away to call me and say "I already want to strangle this kid!" I thought he was just being crabby because he hadn't had much sleep. Boy was I wrong!


To be continued...