Why I've Been Absent Lately

I apologize for my absence this past week or so, both here and on Twitter.

This past week we've had a bit of a family crisis on my husband's side of the family and well, things have needed to get done and I've been a bit busy. Now that my father-in-law has started telling people what happened, I guess it's safe for me to share as well, without going into too much detail though.

In short, my mother-in-law up and left.

Yes, left as in picked up and left town and she's made it quite clear she doesn't intend on ever coming back to the area.

I can understand the reasons she's saying she had to leave, however I DO NOT agree with how she did it or the fact that she did it while her husband is in poor health (if you recall from my post 2 weeks ago, my father-in-law was just in the hospital again) and how she just up and left her 13 year old daughter like that.

That being said, these past 8 days we've been picking up the mess she left behind for us.

We've had to move hubby's dad and sis into the area as they were currently living roughly 60 miles away in the country and with his health condition, he needs to be in town with the majority of his grown sons in order for us to help care for him. He goes to dialysis 3 days a week and we've been fortunate that they got him a quick transfer to one of the centers in town (before he was going to one 30 miles away from us). My father-in-law is involved with a ministry and we are very thankful that the ministry board has gotten underway in looking for housing for hubby's dad and sister, however we cannot move forward until the property out in the country is taken care of.

I've been helping with that - as I posted the other day, we've acquired one of their dogs. They had 6 dogs out there as well as 1 cat. We're currently housing hubby's sister's cat until they get their own home in town as we felt it was important that she get to keep her kitty. The one dog we were able to take in as she's such a sweetie and she seems to be getting along with Jay just fine (he was more than thrilled to have a dog in the house!) and each day Tiger seems to be less territorial than she was when we first brought the dog home.

Out of the remaining dogs, 3 were half pitbull half border collie puppies and I was fortunate enough to have a friend help me find a shelter in the Chicago area that would take them and then she got them immediately transferred to the Anti-Cruelty Society which got them vetted and cleaned up and out on the adoption floor by the weekend! The other 2 dogs... unfortunately no shelter would take them (due to breed, age and temperament and the fact that the mama dog has a bite record). We sadly had to euthanize one and the arrangement that one of my brother-in-laws made for the mama fell through so unless by some miracle someone wants to take her, we're going to have to put her down too. It's nothing something I like to do, but it's more humane than letting them starve or die of dehydration in this heat we've been having as none of us can afford the gas to drive out there several times a week nor the cost of the food. Plus, with their temperaments, I'd hate to turn them loose to fend for themselves and have to worry about them attacking a child or someone's small animal or the idea of them getting shot out in the country or hit by a car.

Anyways, once the animals are out of the house, we can move forward in clearing out the house as there's A LOT of stuff to go through (there's seriously not even words to describe the condition of the house they've been living in - how anyone could live in that house is beyond me, it's THAT bad!) and the realtor said an assessor won't come out to look at it until it's cleaned up.

So, that's what I've been up to as of late. Again, sorry for the lack of posts/tweets but I'm sure you understand! We'd really appreciate any thoughts/prayers you could send our way though as we have some rough times ahead of us and are still trying to make sense of things.