So sorry for not updating...but there really wasn't anything TO update. MIL generally, up until this week, had been....sane and somewhat normal. I figured out that she was taking estrogen replacement and supplements, so we figured that was the reason for the change. YAY!
Until my birthday. Now, after going back through the posts and everything she has said and done, we have figured that November and December are her trigger months. The months where she goes bat-shit-crazy. It's the months that she's failed to acknowledge my birthday, where she gives over the top presents for her daughters birthday and then ignores DH's birthday all together. It's when she's given me a birthday card stating that her and FIL love me...yet they've never said to their own kids that they love them. It's the months where she calls our 24 year old cousin a bitch at Thanksgiving, when she's told DH that his partner dying on him is something he should get used to...because this is what he signed up for. And now, it's when WW14 happened.
I finally saw the epitome of crazy...and what DH and SIL have grown up with.
Let me set the stage. MIL has two sisters. One who we're pretty close to and who we want to remain that way...mostly because she's the baby of the family...her husband is only 3 years older than I am...SIL and her two daughters and I are pretty close as well. The other sister, we don't talk to at all...she's kinda crazy like MIL is, but not to the extreme. This other sister has not talked to MIL in almost 2 years, since our wedding and their brother's death. Fine...whatever. They've seen each other in public but refuse to say hi to one another...
So, MIL...wanted to throw me a birthday party two days after Thanksgiving (before my actual birthday that was on Tuesday). Since my birthday is so close, and usually falls on Tday...we usually celebrate it together. But she didn't want to. OK. I gave her points for trying, she invited her sister, our cousins came...everyone talked about how NICE it was to be together with no DRAMA. Everyone agreed.
Us 4 girls (SIL, the two cousins and myself) took a photo together...the youngest cousin, who just turned 15 posted it on Instagram. Completely harmless. It was a close up of all 4 of us...nothing inappropriate at all. Other that we're all smiling...
While we're all enjoying the post-family gathering bliss, she was hatching her newest plan...Operation Destroy All Relationships...
She found out from someone (refuses to name who) that the 15 year old was texting her sister that she doesn't talk to and telling her all about my party on Saturday night.
MIL doesn't know how technology works and even has said that she's "illiterate" when it comes to it. Her words. Not mine.
15 year old cousin wasn't texting anyone...she posted the pic on Instagram...which other cousins follow...and that's how the sister they don't talk to found out.
MIL called the 15 year old, berated her and attacked her on the phone when she knew that her sister wasn't around to grab the phone and tell her off...she put the fear of God into her by saying that DH was going to start an investigation to see if the 15 year old was lying about texting. Our cousin adores my husband, he's a great role model for her...and being 15 and having your aunt attack you like this, it would devastate me...and it did to our cousin.
The next day, my actual birthday, we had to go to my husband's grandmother's house...where she told us her side of the story, which perfectly matched the 15 year olds...so we knew since we had heard 4 people say the exact same thing...they weren't making anything up. Not like they would anyway. You could see the pain and hurt on my husband's grandmother's face...that her family was fighting again, around the holidays and plans that we all had were ruined because of MIL.
DH and his grandmother talk...and he decides that he has to confront MIL and get her side of the story. We go to their house, make small talk, then DH asks her about what happened...
...we didn't know we'd be walking into WW14 and Operation Destroy All Relationships.
She doesn't like that he's confronting her and that I'm interjecting. Because I am, she starts to speak Spanish to DH and pretty fast so I don't understand. The conversation goes round and round for a good 20 minutes about how a 53 year old woman shouldn't call a 15 year old and yelling at her, how she didn't do anything that we're saying and how the 15 year old is lying about everything.
She tried to tell us that she has the right to be mad at the 15 year old because she didn't know that we were all taking pictures...um, hello! Flashes are going off RIGHT NEXT TO YOU. You can see the phone's screen. That's a damn good indication that people are taking pictures. She went on to say that it's her house and no one should be doing that in her house and that her house is private. Um....you invited people to a BIRTHDAY PARTY....people normally TAKE PICTURES at BIRTHDAY PARTIES.
I tried to talk to tell her to stop using DH's badge and being all secretive about us...that if people want to call, they can call...if people want to visit, they can visit...that she's not the person to be deciding that for us. And especially, that she should have never ever told the 15 year old that DH was going to investigate her. Of course, she denied that last one, but it fits MIL to say it.
Notice how I said I tried...she cut me off 3 times throughout that last little bit, first time she screamed at me, "ARE YOU DONE YET!?!?" and then the second and third times she started talking shit about me in Spanish to DH...that's when he said to her that she needed to pay attention and listen to what I had to say.
DH telling her that, combined with me telling her that she better like and respect what I have to say because I am now in this family too...and what she does effects me too...sent her into a full on Jerry Springer rampage. She got up, screaming and I told her to shut up.....that's when I saw the devil reincarnate. If there would have been a metal folding chair...I'm sure that she would have picked it up and chucked it at me.
She screamed at me at the top of her lungs to "Get the fuck out of the house and never come back" and I just sat there...after all, FIL was just sitting there too...and DH...so why should I move? She screamed it over and over ike a 2 year old in the biggest tantrum over spilled ice cream at the front gates of a closed Disneyland...then she started making her way into the kitchen. DH didn't know what she was going to do, he thought that she was going to get a knife or call the cops, so he said that it was time to go. Knowing her and her violent tendencies, she probably was going to get a knife...and I really didn't want FIL to have to clean up blood on his newly laid tile. We headed for the car...and she was still screaming like a banshee inside...
...and that's how I was on Jerry Springer. I just wish that Steve was there...
We'll see how long the non-communication lasts...after last winter's Airport fiasco it was 3 months...anyone want to take bets?
