Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies lies lies

Noah woke me up at 6am to eat, yesterday morning. As I stumbled back from the kitchen with his bottle, I could hear my brother-in-law's air conditioner on in his room. It was 65 degrees outside, 87% humidity, with a 5 mph wind from the south..

I know this because I checked in with The Weather Channel. On purpose. For the purpose, I suppose, of just annoying myself about all of this even more.

I sat in our living room in my pajamas.. long pants and a t-shirt. Two of the windows were open. And I was cold. Cold. (I can't imagine how cold it was in a room with the air conditioner on.) Even though Noah had long since gone back to sleep, I couldn't. Too annoyed. Too frustrated. Too.. helpless. The air conditioner nonsense was just the latest in a never ending series of problems over the previous 6 months.

The most frustrating part though, is the complaining brother-in-law does. (Well, actually is it still considered "complaining" if it's all lies?) About me in particular. Because I have to hear about it from my husband, who hears about it from his mother. And I hear about it. All. The. Time.

It started at the beginning of the year, when our current part of the house was supposed to become "our" home, but my brother-in-law refused to leave. (He'll leave when he's ready, we were told. Six months ago.) First it was about the heat. Apparently I turned the heat off on him when I left the house so that he would freeze to death. Even though in sane person land.. I never touched the heat when I left the house- I just kept the heat set lower in general, which in turn kept the bill for it lower. (Weird how that works.) And since my husband and I pay for the heat.. seems like we should have the say in it- not him. But none of that was relevant when he went running off to mom.

After that, I think, it was about the light in the hall. That I turned it off on him. Purposely. And constantly. Every night. I know, right? Imagine not having a light on in a "room" when no one was in it. I WISH I turned it off every night, would probably save a little on the electric bill. Buuut.. I actually leave it turned on, very low (it's a dimmer switch). Purposely. And constantly. Every. Single. Night. Since about the time my daughter got her own room. Because if she gets up in the middle of the night, I don't want her fumbling around in the dark.

That led to my brother-in-law starting to take the dimmer switch off the wall when he left our apartment to go to his parent's. The first time it happened- Lily got in trouble for it. We thought she took it. We thought she was lying when she said she didn't. We thought she threw it down the stairs because brother-in-law came back up with it. And stuck it back on the wall.

Then the same thing happened again the next day. While she was napping..

When she woke up, Jason and I both apologized to her for the day before. Several times. We felt like jerks. We were jerks. And yet.. how could we have known that anyone, other than a 3 year old, would purposely take a light switch, hide it, and then put it back later? For three days in a row. (Until I took if off myself. And he either got the hint or got bored and moved on to other tactics.)

Probably the same people that complain about the type of toilet paper that other people buy for their own bathrooms. Oh, sigh- I wish I had the time to sit around and make this garbage up. A few days ago, Jason told me the whole story- although, at first, I didn't believe him. I really didn't. Because it was so ridiculous. So freaking unreal. Even now, as I write this, I think.. God, I cannot believe this nonsense. Because it wasn't just that brother-in-law doesn't care for the brand of toilet paper that I buy (and complains to his mom about).. he actually has a theory about me. That the toilet paper on the roll in the bathroom isn't the real toilet paper- oh, no .. I apparently have a secret stash of super nice, fluffy toilet paper that I hide from him and just use it for myself. Or maybe Jason gets to use it too, I can't remember..

The worst part of all this? I get the impression, from my husband, that his mother believes all of this. That I truly have so much time on my hands that I sit around plotting, all day, against brother-in-law. And that I am truly such an awful person (I'm sure other words are used), that I put all of it into action.

At first I assumed he really believed everything he was complaining about to his mom (I'm sure I don't even know the half of it). That he was that seriously paranoid. (And we all know how that can happen, don't we?) Now, I'm starting to wonder if he's just that big of a trouble maker? Cus it absolutely is causing trouble. So.. good job.

(Every week when my parents come to watch Lily and Noah while I'm at physical therapy, I tell them the "stories" of the past week.. about our living situation. Finally, today, I said something like "you must be sick of hearing about this stuff.." My mom said no, it was fine. (She thinks I should write a book. "No one would believe it," I told her.) But, when I started the past week's stories, my dad took a few deep breaths and said something about it being like college. Which is true. Very, very true. And unfortunate. Both then. And now.) 

it was not a very picturesque week: what we did

Another week has gone by, and all I have to show for it (blogwise) are these pictures. I resolve to do better next week. Right.

lights at Starbucks / Betty "triple T" White at the White House / purple flowers outside Target / Tabasco packets / 100 degrees in the city / Noah's feet / dinner / Blue's Clues / Pac-Man

what we did last week..

How did a whole week go by and I never even said anything? Too busy looking at new cars and preschools I guess. This is what we did last week..

 

noodles for lunch / coffee / new Toms / funny ymca folks / dinosaur fix / purple flowers / veggie dogs / Noah's train pants / delicious

what we did this week..

fiestaware / noodles / noah's feet / binky death grip / Lily's spider / baby sunflower plants / monster socks / monster socks part two / noodles