My Rebuttal Blog

This is what Denise blogged about, just before my visit. She has most of these things correct, but there are a couple of items that I need to correct or clarify. :) Here is a link to her actual post, in case you want to follow any of her links.Denise's words will appear in blue and mine will be green.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Michelle's Upcoming Visit

Michelle is coming for a visit. She sweetly posted on her blog, wondering why she was looking forward to this visit, when I am officially the world's worst host. So, I'm going to explain why.

I met Michelle online around 12 years ago, on her transracial adoption group. She and I first met in person 10 years ago. We were vacationing in Virginia with my parents, celebrating J's first birthday. We'd agreed to meet, but she kept telling us how "busy" she was. We finally went to her house, literally after we'd checked out of our timeshare and were leaving to go home.

I might have been hurt by that, but I learned that she's as socially awkward as I am. Besides, her husband convinced her that I was an axe murderer. Okay, this is true, I did put her off until the last day. I'm not sure if I've even told Denise the whole truth about this, so she may be surprised, but here it is. Mike did think they might be axe murderers and that it wasn't safe to meet anyone in person, after meeting them on the internet. I felt that I knew Denise pretty well, though, and most people don't adopt different race kids just to be able to get involved in an internet group so they could meet people to murder! I am very socially awkward and was very nervous about meeting them. However, and here is the part I don't think I've told Denise or Nick, I was terrified that they would be annoying weirdos and if I met with them at the beginning of their trip, they would bug me the entire time they were in Williamsburg! As it turned out, we got along great and I would have loved to spend more time with them.

Here's an account of our first visit, and here are some pictures of my kids from that trip (E insists that the top pic is him!). When I saw that picture, I thought it looked like E, too!

Since then, she's come to visit here several times, and we've gone to visit her. She named our house the Hotel Cinderella, implying that it's an awful place to stay. It is, but at least we let her stay in our hotel. Every time we go to Virginia, she makes us stay in a timeshare! And when we visit, she doesn't let us go upstairs or into her bedroom because she says that they're a mess. One time, she let me venture upstairs to the kids' bedrooms. Um yeah, she wasn't exaggerating. And there really were snow shovels propped against the walls for cleaning! The Hotel Cinderella is the best awful place I've ever stayed! However, I do not make them stay in a timeshare. They are always welcome to stay with us and we would prefer that, but they have allergies and we have 8 cats and a dog. Oh, and when my kids were little, we were a lot overwhelmed by issues, issues, and more issues. Their rooms were horrible! Keeping them even semi-clean was not a priority as we struggled minute by minute just to get through each day. Surprisingly, they have grown out of that and now keep very neat and clean rooms. No snow shovels necessary for quite a while now! The game room has been the exception, but they are even keeping that cleaner now. This last statement does not include Luke. You will probably see him on a future Hoarder's show.

We've also vacationed together in Ohio, Lancaster County, Orlando, the beach, and in the worst timeshare on the planet in Basye, Virginia. There are probably more places, but my memory cells have been destroyed. Michelle, on the other hand, can undoubtedly tell you where we went, when we went, how long we stayed, and how much the price of gas was then. That's where she and I differ. LOL! I do remember things that Denise does not, but she also refreshes my memory on a lot of things, so we work together perfectly.

I let Michelle stay at our luxury hotel because I can be myself with her. No matter how much of a mess I am, I can just be a mess; I don't have to pretend that I've got it all (or any of it) under control. My house is trashed, and that's just the way it is. The rugs are stained, the furniture torn, there are holes in the walls, and I can't walk through the yard without humming the theme to Sanford & Son (yes, I'm that old). True, I never judge people on housekeeping or what they own or don't own.

This is from a person who still attempts to alphabetize her spices, who used to have her clothes arranged by color and length in the closet, who never had a single weed in her garden, and who once was shocked when she visited a friend and saw dust on a table! There will be a mention of the spice alphabetization in one of my upcoming Hotel Cinderella blogs.

Yes, I've been humbled.

I never, ever thought I'd live like this, but there's no use fighting it. I'm learning lots of lessons in acceptance. This is my life right now. The destruction is inevitable, I physically can't fix it, and Nick only has time to focus on the major issues. The cosmetic stuff just has to wait. AMEN!

I digress.

Even though I am stressing just a bit because Michelle recently posted a really clean picture of her house and said that she turned over a new leaf, I'm still letting her see things as they are here. If she really has found the secret to keeping a clean house with destructive kids, I'm hoping she'll show up with her snow shovel and a dumpster and fill me in! This is where Denise outed me. I have been a closet snow shovel cleaner for many years and, apparently, I failed to tell her that it was a secret!

Anyway, I'm so excited that she's coming up, and I can't wait to laugh (even if it is at my expense!). And then we can go to the mall, and get our nails done, and get into all of the latest celebrity gossip...Oh, wait! She doesn't do any of that. No wonder we get along so well! LOL! We did laugh, a ton! While much of the laughter was at Denise's expense, much was also at mine. Do wooden spoons ring any bells, Denise? No mall, although I visited Giant and Home Depot, sans Denise.

I could go on and on, but E just dumped a cup of water on me because he thought I wanted to take a shower.

Give me strength.

I guess my computer time is over.

Oh, and Michelle, my pizza cutter broke, so could you please bring yours? I still have your pizza pan from last time!

;)

P.S. Nick informed me that the ice maker isn't broken. How's that for enticement? Maybe you'll even show up early! I forgot that you said this! As will be evidenced in future blog posts, I showed up on time and got in trouble!