Today is the first day of my DH’s (Dear Husband’s) vacation. He had asked his gaming group if they wanted to come over and play games this afternoon. I emailed them all and told them there would not be a game afterall, and for DH to see me when he got the email. So when he asked what was up, I explained the whole encounter with the landlord and how his mother’s animals had to go and how I had called her and she refused to come home and take care of them and hadn’t sent any money for food or anything… and how he hadn’t been taking care of the yard and it was overgrown and there were piles of junk we had to get rid of that I’d asked him to haul off forever, and now the landlord wanted it gone too. So, I told him, no more buddies coming over to the house til it’s all cleaned up, animals gone and everything fixed.
Here’s what the yard looked like before the Landlord even saw it…
So, this morning after work (I get off work at 3am) I did some cleaning up and started a load of laundry and then went to bed because I just couldn’t keep my eyes open (I’d had to get up early the day before to go run errands). So, I set the alarm for DH to get up at 5:30 to get the girls up, so I could get some sleep.
I finally woke up around 1:30pm feeling pretty good, and realized I didn’t hear anything. I got up and went to the bathroom and heard the radio outside. When I looked out the window, he was moving stuff around in the yard. Then I heard him put stuff in the van and leave to dump stuff. Turns out, he fixed the leaky pipe near the water heater, got rid of all the bagged garbage in the house and sitting outside by the trashcan and in the junkpile. trimmed the overgrown shrubs and wild rose vine and straightened up stuff around the yard. Did a load of laundry and had washed a ton of dishes (we seem to always have dirty dishes no matter what).
When the girls got home, he had chores for each one to do and they had a set time limit they could get them done in or they lost priviledges for the rest of the day. So, the animals got fed and watered, laundry was folded, living room was straightened up, and the stray garbage outside that wasn’t in bags was picked up and dumped. He said he was going to talk to one of his gaming buddies to see if he could keep the rabbits and goose at his house since he lives in the country. Then he could take the girls to go feed them and water them every other day instead of driving an hour one way to his mother’s house 3 times a week. He also cooked dinner later and brought it to me when I was working.
So, when his gaming buddy called and asked if he’d like to come to his house to play cards, I didn’t fuss about it other than how he was leaving me to get the kids bathed and tucked into bed on time while I’m working. He said he would have a word with 16 and make sure she knew what time to get them in bed and when they needed a bath etc.
I don’t believe he called the other gaming buddy to ask about the animals. He’s going to have to do that tomorrow. He also is going to have to go pay the water bill before it gets turned off, and make a phone call to the insurance company about a letter we received. If he doesn’t do those things, I’m going to have to put my foot down and not let him go to his buddies to play cards either. I’ve never really been forceful about not letting him do things in the typical cliche wife way. I usually ask him several times til it seems like I’m nagging, then eventually give up or do it myself. But this time, I knew it had to be done, and this seemed the best way. I was actually pretty easy. We’ll see if he keeps it up on Day 2 of Vacation.
I’ll take pics of the After and post them later.
