Houseguest Recap

[UnderProtest]

So I thought I would post an update since they are all FINALLY gone and I've had a couple days (and several drinks) to get over the craziness.  Plus, the cleaning lady came and all laundry is done so my house isn't chaos anymore.

So, the second week was a little less crazy.  The girl did end up going to Italy with the man child and apparently he pretty much behaved himself.  He managed to pull himself together and be sociable with the twenty something year old daughter of a co-worker of his, but resorted to silence and playing with his phone when around just the friend he traveled with.  But he did have an incident at the airport where he needed to provide a credit card for check in and couldn't remember if he paid for the flight or if Daddy did.  So the 27 year old had Daddy paying for a lot of his trip.  So no really good stories about man child though.  Although I did have to tell him to turn down his phone/ipad that he was playing with at full volume in the middle of the family room where everyone was talking.  And my husband told all three of them to shut up when they were talking as loud as possible when my husband was on the phone trying to make dinner reservations.  They are worse than kids about talking when someone is on the phone.  Oh, and I did tease him that he was playing some stupid game on his phone while we were all out to dinner and that he was a wuss for not going on the London Eye, but going up the Eiffel Tower.  I had to get some digs in.

The better stories are about my MIL.  She is nuts.  She didn't want to do anything all week, she was too tired from her weekend 36 hour trip to Paris.  They ended up going out to see St Paul's, but she didn't go in and yet was still unimpressed with it.  She much preferred this tiny cathedral near the train station.  Uhmm, okay.  She finally decided to go to Harrods and was shocked at how big it was.  Yeah, I told you it was an entire city block and 7 full stories.  They were not happy they couldn't find sports jerseys there.  So then they went across town to go to the sports store to, get this......take a picture of a shirt that the fiancé's other son's friend might want.  Yeah, that makes sense.  Then one day we went to brunch and the zoo.  I had to pick bus routes with the least amount of walking because my MIL, not the kids, couldn't walk that far.  The zoo was rather uneventful other than her not wanting to go in any of the buildings (aquarium, butterfly exhibit, rainforest, etc).  Oh, and there was a "drill" at the zoo where they herded us all into the closest building where we had to wait.  She kept wanting to leave and kept asking the zookeepers if she could leave yet.  Uhmm, so if it really is drill who cares if we waste 15 minutes in the rainforest exhibit looking at anteaters and sloths?  If it isn't a drill, there is no way I want to leave early.  But we survived and then made our way home.  She would take a kid's hand and just walk wherever.  She has no sense of direction and never knows where she is going, but she always charges ahead and ends up going the wrong direction.  Yeah, that was fun to deal with all week when we were trying to get to the bus stop or somewhere.  But the hour long bus ride home from the zoo takes the cake.  She was like the FIL in the Billy Crystal movie (Forget Paris) where she named EVERY SINGLE THING WE PASSED BY.  Oh my, there is a Starbucks, look there is a Boots, I've never seen one of those before, look there's the Ritz.  Oh, and she has one volume....loud.  I was about ready to pull my hair out and scream.  The best part is that my husband spent an hour with her the next day and was annoyed with her.  I spent 10 hours out and about with them the previous day. I deserve sainthood for that.  The only other story is that I went out with the friend for lunch and asked if she wanted to go (we were going to her favorite pub), she said no, but as soon as we got back, she went to the same place with her fiancé and the son.  WTF?  Oh well, it was less time with her.

So that is my really long story of the rest of the in law visit.  She claims she won't be visiting again, she's seen everything in London, but my husband tried to bring up giving her frequent flyer miles to come back here.  I told him that now was NOT the time to be discussing her return.  I'm already dreading the next visit home too.

[scout8]

I think you get to book yourself a day at the spa now!

[bostonmichelle]

You are a saint. You should be booking yourself a nice little retreat to a spa for doing all of that. I probably would've kicked them out of the house to a hotel at the beginning or booked myself a hotel room.

[ECB]

WHy on EARTH is your DH trying to get them to come back? WHY??

[rubytue]

I hope the girl was able to find a way to enjoy Italy.

And that you really get a chance to relax and enjoy having your house back. Sounds like you are on your way to that!

[ssmjlm]

OMG. I hope your DH realizes that they don't need to visit again for a LONG time.

[lizrd7579]

Wow! I'm glad you survived!!

[carolinagirl831]

Oh god, well at least it's a huge ordeal for them to come back. Yeah tell your DH not to bring up frequent flyer miles for a long time!

[Deleted]

You are a saint.

[compassrose]

Yeah, you're past your quota for MIL visits. And next time you see them wherever it is, I hope there's a hotel in the equation.

[raangoli]

I hope your husband uses the other FF miles to buy you a ticket to somewhere else the next time he invites his mom to visit.

[Pom]

Here's hoping MIL sticks to her guns and doesn't return for your sake.  

:drink:  Enjoy the peace and quiet.  

[WinterWine]

Thank god you have your house back!! You put up with a lot! Definitely time for a "me day" for you :-)

[dexteroni]

Thank goodness they're gone! I can't even believe your DH was talking about future visits. If they do come, I agree that some of your miles should go toward your vacation to somewhere else during their visit. If he wants them to come back, he should really know the joy of hosting them solo, lol.

[UnderProtest]

Yeah, he did shut up about his mom visiting again after the one incident. Many drinks have been had (I think the London GTG girls think I'm a lush now) and he did daddy duty quite a bit this weekend. Good thing we aren't spending Christmas with the family!

[UnderProtest]

Oh and I did tell him that if his dad ever came to visit, I'm going to some spa in Switzerland. He knows I'm not kidding on that one.