Frequent
Fry Her TM
- DrivingMeNuts/Posted: 16-FEB-08 Worst gift: For the
first Christmas that I was married, we spent the holiday at DH's parent's
house. MIL handed me a gift, and since she seemed super excited,
I opened it right away. I got a pack of condoms. Um, my
DH and I have been completely faithful, so why would we need condoms?
And, even if we did need them, why would MIL think it's appropriate
for her to buy them for us?
Frequent
Fry Her TM
- DrivingMeNuts, 1 of 4 needed/Posted:
3-FEB-08
Wedding planning. Ooooh, if somebody wrote about
the troubles involved, I bet a lot more couples would elope.
After the SIL's birthday party incident, DF had not had any contact
with his mother. We decided to go ahead and start planning the
wedding, the bridal party and groomsmen being the first thing we wanted
to "conquer". I knew that I wanted to have my sister
be my MOH, and three really dear friends of mine be my bridesmaids.
DF chose his best friend as his Best Man, my two brothers as groomsmen,
along with one of his old high school buddies. That just set
MIL off on one of her now infamous tirades. 'Why isn't my DD
one of your bridesmaids?' I explained to her that I had originally
wanted SIL to be one of the bridesmaids, but she had said that since
she couldn't come to town to help plan anything, she thought the spot
should go to a good mutual friend of ours who could. MIL began
insisting on the fact that I hated her DD, that I was doing it just
because I didn't like their family (a big lie, I love most of the
family, just not MIL). My DF backed me up, saying that I had
offered it to SIL, but MIL wouldn't believe it until I called SIL
and made them talk. That shut MIL up for awhile, but we all
knew it wasn't the end. My then DF and I planned some more elements
of the wedding, trying to remain on the budget we had created for
ourselves, trying to remain money conscious. I had asked my
MOH and bridesmaids to come with me to a look for a wedding dress,
so I could get a second opinion. In the interest of being fair,
my sister (MOH) asked both my mom and MIL to come along. Everything
was going well. We were gossiping, talking about everyone's
families, just having your ordinary girls day out. Joking around,
my sister suggested that we go to a local lingerie store. We
all knew it was playful joking, even my mom was joining in, but my
MIL's comment just kind of grossed me out: "Mind if I come
along? I'd like to see what kind of body my DS has to work with."
Frequent
Fry Her TM
- DrivingMeNuts, 2 of 4 needed/Posted:
3-FEB-08
After my then future IL's attitude towards her son
and me dating again ("Didn't you learn the first time around?"),
I tried to separate myself from them as much as possible. I
was happy with their son, so I didn't leave him. I simply told
DF that his mother was obviously not happy with our relationship and
didn't like me, so I wanted little to no contact with her. He
was very understanding (one of the big reasons that I love him), and
said that that was fine, whatever made me happy. We dated for
about a year and half, with me having very little contact with his
mother. On the fourth of July, DH proposed to me at the local
fireworks show. I couldn't have been more ecstatic. I
thought that it was an incredibly romantic thing to do, seeing as
how my DH is normally a pretty shy, reserved guy when it comes to
doing romantic things. We decide that, for the time being, we
wouldn't tell anyone about the engagement, to give ourselves a while
to get used to it, and to take things slow. A few weeks after
he proposed, DH's family was throwing a birthday party for his older
sister, who was to be in town for her birthday that year. I
knew that FMIL would be there, but my DH really wanted to see his
big sister. Since we hadn't seen each other in a while, he really
wanted us to be able to spend some time together. I had actually
been good friends with his sister, so I figured that this wouldn't
be a problem. We went, and actually were having a wonderful
time, talking and catching up. SIL caught sight of the engagement
ring on my finger, and, seeing that it was the family heirloom that
their grandfather had asked my DH to use, she immediately got excited.
I admit that I bragged a little bit on how my DH had proposed, and
how great I thought it was. Boy, I should've known that the
moment wouldn't last. MIL came sprinting, and I literally mean
sprinting over, grabbed my hand and pulled it up to her face.
"You're using your grandfather's ring on HER? She'll probably
pawn it for gambling money, or alcohol." Okay, Lady, I
was clearly old enough to drink and gamble, if I so chose to do so,
but I would've never, ever, pawned my engagement ring. My SIL,
her DH and my DH's jaws just dropped. Their GF had been very
close to them growing up, MIL being too busy getting drunk (not kidding,
she's been in rehab, like, three times). When GFIL was on his
deathbed, he gave my DH the same ring he had used to propose to his
DW (who had passed years earlier), and requested that he use it to
make some woman as happy as the ring had made GMIL. I jerked
my hand away from MIL, shocked that she would say something like that,
even if she hated my guts. DH helped me up, saying that if his
DM couldn't respect me, then she didn't respect him either, and he
wanted nothing to do with people who didn't respect him.
Frequent
Fry Her TM
- DrivingMeNuts, 3 of 4 needed/Posted:
6-FEB-08
Our wedding came, and everything seemed to be going
perfectly. My bridesmaids (who had offered to set everything
up) had done a great job with the church and reception hall.
The ceremony was perfect, and the priest, the same one DH and I had
gone to as kids, even cried during the ceremony. We got into
our limo and went off to the reception. All of the stress that
my DH and I had felt building up to the big day was gone, and we just
wanted to enjoy ourselves. I was making what I guess you could
call "the bridal rounds", greeting everyone and seeing if
they were enjoying themselves. My MIL came up to me and apologized
for all of the added stress that she had caused. She actually
apologized!!! That alone made my day better. During the
reception, our photographer was coming around and taking pictures
of random things: our first dance; my DH and MIL dancing; me
dancing with FIL, etc. The photographer told us that the pictures
were due back while we were on our honeymoon (DH and I had a few weeks
of vacation built up, and used it for the honeymoon). MIL offered
to swing by, pick them up, and drop them off at our apartment.
Hey, she was being good and had apologized for the stress, so I figured
that it wouldn't be a problem. I even told her that if she wanted
to get copies of them, she should go ahead and get them and I would
reimburse her when we got back. DH and I left, enjoying every
minute of our honeymoon, not thinking twice about things back home.
Upon walking into the apartment we noticed that all of our furniture
was rearranged. The only one who was able to get into the apartment
was MIL. I knew that I could be angry at her, but it didn't
really matter. We were moving soon anyway, no big deal.
DH and I unpacked our suitcases before sitting down to look at our
wedding pictures. MIL had left a note listing the numbers of
the pictures that she had ordered. I flipped through the book
and saw that the only ones she ordered were of her and DH. Should
I have taken this as an indication of what was to come?
Frequent
Fry Her TM
- DrivingMeNuts, 4 of 4 needed/Posted:
11-FEB-08
I met my now DH when we were kids. I grew up
with him, even going to the same college as he did. We dated
briefly in high school, but tried to remain more as just friends.
In college, we decided to give it another go, figuring that we were
just too young the first time around. When my DH (then BF) told
his mother and stepfather that we were dating again, she turned to
him and said, "Didn't you learn the first time around?"
Grr...
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