The Wiggles - again

So here we are watching the Wiggles movie again this morning. We actually only watched the last half this morning, but after her bath C requested it again.

So I don't have anything really interesting to say about my life right now, other than I stayed up until 12:30 playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 last night. Then the girls got up a little early this morning. I'm doing fine though. Not sleepy at all. Yet. :)

Well back to telling about my family. The next person in line (I'm going from oldest to youngest) is my sister S. S and I have always had what you might call an abrasive relationship.

When we moved from Oregon to Idaho she was on a mission in Arizona. She came home and we had to share a room. It wasn't for very long though. S got engaged the same weekend she came home. No. there wasnt anyone waiting for her. She and another missionary from her mission got engaged. He had returned home around 6 months earlier. The way I heard it described went something like this - their eyes met across the room and they knew they were meant to be married. Ironically about 10 years (?) and 3 children later they felt that they were meant to be divorced. Anyway, while they were still married they lived in Idaho, Provo, California and then Idaho again, and then Washington. Provo for BYU, California for Chiropractic school, Idaho to try and set up a practice, Washington to try the same thing.
While they were living in Provo they had their first child and during that summer S had my sister L down to live with her for a month and help with the baby while she finished up school. After L came home, it was my turn. I was excited, but it wasn't all that great. They fought a lot and I was stuck home with the baby a lot, and since I didn't know very many people my age, I didn't do anything with anyone else. It was supposed to be for a month, but I think it stretched a little bit longer. I think it might have been a little hard on their marriage to. A little apartment, and a child and another person. How could you have any privacy? I seem to remember them taking a lot of sunday afternoon naps...

Anyway, after they got divorced, S moved back home with all the kids (oh joy) . There was only Mom, Dad and Me, L , Ae and Ar living at home still. I forgot to mention that right after they finished Chiropractic school they moved in with us. the whole family. This experience left a bitter taste in everyone's mouth and even Dad vowed that he would never do it again. But this time I don't think S had a choice and Mom and Dad felt like they had to help her.

It was another bad experience but eventually she did move out.

When the whole family moved in after Chiropractic school, Mom and Dad had just put an addition onto the house (when we moved in, the house had a 1/2 basement, and they hired someone to dig out the other half) This added 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a huge storage room to our 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house. Right after it was dug out and Dad had just started working on it, S and her family asked to move in. S's husband helped Dad finish the addition somewhat. Anyway, the work was done so quickly and S's husband did a lot of it. And it wasn't done up to Dad's standard. It was never completely finished either. To this day there are unfinished parts. I've always felt a little bitter about this. Before Mom and Dad can move anywhere, they'll have to completely finish it. Also repair or redo the stuff that wasn't done well.

Well, once they were divorced and S had moved out with her kids, life got back to normal somewhat. but S had moved into an apartment that was a 5 minute walk away. So we still saw a whole bunch of them. Also, there was a whole lot of babysitting that occured with my younger sisters (probably 14 or so at the time).

Well currently S has just finished up her degree and has just started a new degree. She had been working at the local DI. I think her job had something to do with occupational therapy. She worked on her degree online through the University of Utah. For the last year or two her kids lived with her ex in Washington. This allowed her to focus totally on her school work. I think it was the right choice because it seemed to allow her to find herself somewhat. Her ex re-married within a year of their divorce and were shortly thereafter pregnant with their first and so far only child. The kids seemed to thrive with them. It seemed like whereas before they were a little uncontrollable and hard to be around (S always said "Mom and Dad disciplined us to much as kids, I'm not going to do that to my kids!") they now seemed to be structured (we aren't allowed to watch more than x hours of TV per day).

So just a week or two ago she started her new job and her youngest child has come to live with her permanently. The other two were doing well in school so it was decided that the best thing for them was to finish out the school year.

Our relationship is still somewhat corrosive. She called me up in early December this year and asked me if I would like to attend a shepherds dinner on Christmas eve at her house. I agreed because we didn't have plans and it sounded nice. My hubby was lukewarm about it because he doesn't care for S to much. somewhat my fault. Anyway somwhere down the line this turned into our house. I was fine with that because then we wouldn't have to drive somewhere and try and keep C from getting into stuff. So along the way, the chicken we were assigned to make turned into the Turkey that Hubby got from work and we decided that if we were going to have turkey that we should have gravy and jello. But I didn't mention this to S until a couple days before. Well she didn't tell me that this was a tradition that she did every year and that it had to be done a certain way. So she didn't take it to well when I told her and said we can change it a little bit right? She was upset with me. She called me later and said stuff like "I can see you want this dinner to be a certain way so lets make it that way" Anyway so she changed the dinner from a shepherds dinner with a little twist (my description) to a turkey dinner. I was upset that she wanted to change it. Anyway, eventually we were able to talk through it to a point where I could handle her being in my house on Christmas eve. One thing that still bugs me (though we talked through it) was the fact that she invited my brother without even asking me. Originally it would be us, S, and sister W's family (W had to work). I found out the day before that she had invited my brother C and his family. Now I would have no problem with this except that A) she didn't check with me first b) C has 5 children. My house is small. I have had large gatherings at my house before and found that there was just not enough room. I didn't want to recind the invitation and risk hurting C's wife's feelings. I like them and they have good kids (most of the time :) )
When we talked through the fact that I had a problem with her inviting other people to my house without asking if I was ok with it, she said ok I can remember that. It will be M's rule. Don't invite people to her house without asking.

OK. Am I the only person who would have a problem with this? I mean yeah, it was her dinner that she was organizing, but it was my house. I just think that most people would want that curtesy and it shouldn't be just my rule.

Anyway, enough about S.