family...

I've been lucky enough to have been spared alot of drama from my in-laws for awhile. Unfortunately Tom and I are knee deep in drama. Tommy and Anthony start school on the 2nd, their school open house is the 28th of August, Tom and I agree they should both go especially Anthony. Now, here is where we run into the drama; the MIL and SIL wanted to take the boys for the last 2 weeks of the summer which normally wouldn't be a problem until about 2 weeks before (almost 3) when I found out when the open house was. SIL will have the boys during their open house, and she seems to think that our opinion doesn't matter and she doesn't want to bring them home or let us come get them. I told her about this as soon as Anthony went to his kindergarten testing, I told her that we would call the school and see if we could get the boys in to meet their teachers before hand. Noone asked us when we dropped the boys off last Saturday if they had met their teachers, so maybe the lack on communication is on my part for not specifically telling them that we were not able to get them in to meet their teachers. I called, Tom called; we tried.

Saturday when we got home after traveling all night SIL calls and asks if she can have the boys all week. I explain the situation, again. I tell her that we tried, but we do with what we have. She sounds like she is mad at me, I tell her that I'm sorry we couldn't have made arrangements otherwise, and that I will come get the boys or meet her halfway. She says she's not mad, just disappointed. She says that she's not going to be able to come down for a long weekend to visit like they are accustomed to once we move to CA. This of course makes me feel horrible, but it's nothing we can control. We go where they send us, we tried numerous times to get his orders changed to Lejeune, but even moving there wouldn't enable her to be able to drive down for a long weekend. We get off the phone and I could tell she was more than irritated with me.

So, tonight the MIL called Tom and had to have her say because SIL has called her a couple of times upset about having to bring them home earlier. Tom is on the phone for 15-20 minutes explaining, again, why it is important to us. She asks why can't we just go and get the information for the boys. Then she says she understands and is caught in the middle. She says that if they had known ahead of time (anyone remember 3 weeks?) they could have switched weeks so SIL would have had a whole week with them.

I'm really tired of it all. I feel like we are being punished by them for getting orders to CA (which we've tried to change) and now for wanting the boys (mainly Anthony) to go to their school open house and meet their teachers, get their bus tags, etc. We have to be flexible with Tom's job, we change what we can, adapt and make the best of what we can't change. With everything else we are trying to accomplish trying to organize I don't need this right now. We aren't trying to be mean, I want Anthony to meet his teacher.

Ugh...that's my rant for the day...still waiting on a yes or no from the house we really want, but that's a whole other story.