Family.....by appointment only!

My S-I-L is having a tough time getting her new residence in Oklahoma to feel like home. Having recently moved to Oklahoma from Pennsylvania, not only are the style of homes quite different ... but down south we believe in tall soaring ceilings.....throw tile floors into the mix and you can have a Grand Canyon echo going on. She was so unhappy that she was looking at selling said home and purchasing another. So she asked for help ........ and I accepted the challenge invitation to visit her and my brother in law in Edmond. FOB took Friday off and we drove to OK (not without first going to my Friday addiction group meeting....aka...estate sales!) We picked up a couple of beautiful chairs (that I truly do covet) and several pieces of art then made our way North. Said brother in law was not home from work when we arrived so we unloaded the car relaxed for a bit and headed into the city to pick B-I-L up for dinner (had my first real taste of sushi and must say I really enjoyed it) the Appletini's were "delish" and the Thunder basketball game was great fun! After the game we headed home to relax and enjoy conversations over yet again more adult beverages (which now as I reflect back on the weekend, B-I-L really indulged because he realized what was about to take place). Tim had to go into work in the morning for a little bit so he wanted to get up very early ..... 6ish (but, because of said indulgance, ended up being more like 8ish) ... to get things done and then be home early.....because he wanted to supervise spend more time with me .... his lovely sister in law that threw his entire weekend into a chaotic train wreck ....!! Our plans were to drop Tim off at work (left his car there from the day before) and then Mary Beth would give us the grand tour of the "lovely" neighborhoods that surround Oklahoma City, have our coffee and be ready to hit the ground running getting the house rearranged ..... and we did ..... until we heard the garage door going up way sooner than we expected and he was home!!!! Now I don't want you getting the wrong impression of said B-I-L ..... change is not something that he embraces and this entire weekend was about just that ..... change! We had the dining room moved, the living room was in shambles .... and my chemical engineer B-I-L suddenly wanted to add ASID to his list of accolades. The number of times that he asked "why? .....what are we doing with this?..... and where is this going to go now??" were so numerous that I lost count. THEN...... throw in the fact that Mary Beth and I went out shopping in the middle of the chaos to get "more" stuff did not help the situation at all. Oh, did I mention that our shopping excursion didn't happen until well after 4 in the afternoon and they had another couple coming over about 8 to visit? At about 6:45 p.m., the phone call came in ..... on my phone no less, because we didn't hear Mary Beth's phone ring.....twice.... where are you two??? Why do you ask, we are on our way home ...... (later over dinner we learned that we were busted because he heard the beeping of the forklift bringing the two large mirrors to the pick-up door for us to load into the car ...... which didn't fit no matter how many times we asked those 2 poor men to try it again....!!!) I really do think that we would have been pushing our luck to ask B-I-L to meet us with the truck to pick up the mirrors before the store closed since it wasn't open on Sunday, so ..... we opted to wait for Mary Beth to do the pick up Monday ..... mostly for the sake of their marriage and me ever being invited back.....! We had the house picked up somewhat when their friends arrived and enjoyed a delightful evening ..... but, we had one more day to get things back into place, so the day started early on Sunday! We had a lot to accomplish in a short period of time so I assigned tasks to FOB and B-I-L through S-I-L and they were sent on errands to pick up extension cords, light bulbs and plate hangers while we stayed home and hung pictures, rearranged shelves and I prayed ..... prayed that I could get the hammering nails into the walls done before B-I-L returned (did I mention that he doesn't like a lot of holes in the wall, and I work so much better eyeballing the center of things than I do with measuring??) Now I do have to give praise where praise is due to FOB .... he gently informed B-I-L that he really should let it go, that he really doesn't get the vote he thinks he gets, its just a gesture of kindness that is bestowed on the husband part of the couple .... it's going to happen the way they want it no matter what you say or do ..... I stood back like a proud teacher realizing that my student had finally caught on (after 30 years ) to the difficult steps of the problem he had been trying to conquer and I was never more proud of him than I was at that very moment! B-I-L finally did warm up to the changes made, Mary Beth was very happy with everything that we did and "thinks" she may try to give this home a chance before actually moving. There is still a lot to be done, $$$$ to be spent and I'm sure Tim will have more questions ..... but, at one point during the weekend when I had had enough I asked him point blank .... Do I tell you how to drill for natural gas ...... NO! Then trust me when I tell you that the house will look gorgeous when we're done ...... and it does!

I am sure that as the car pulled out of the driveway and we were safely on our way back to Dallas, he took some type of anxiety medication (or began drinking heavily) and asked Mary Beth to please schedule our next visit during one of his out of town trips!

I am going to get them a plaque for their entrance like the one my friend Lisa has...... "Friends Welcome ..... Family by appointment only!"