Chapter 4: Coming home.

   So, the sister-in-law had left the home and was living with a friend until her loser father could drive out to pick her up.  With this chapter of my life over we were prepared to move on with our lives and grow our family in relative (all pun intended) sanity and tranquility.  I made sure to move further and further away and me and the MIL got along much better the further apart we were. Several bases and 2 kids later we had come to the end of my military career.

   When I retired I told the wife we could move anywhere in the world she wanted because I've drug her everywhere. Man was that stupid. My first month was living at NANA'S (the MIL's new grand ma’ name) with my wife and 2 kids in a 12 X 10 room in a leaky trailer with bad lighting and poor heat. I had to hear about how she suffered with no A/C so many years ago and that we don't help with the bills. I showed her the check book and all the receipts for gas/electric/groceries. "Don't point you finger at ME!" was the response. I quickly found an apartment and we moved out as soon as we could.  It was a nice little complex with a playground and was so quiet…………..until.

    A few month later Nana decided her renting dollar could be better spent in an apartment rather that an old trailer.  Now I would not argue this fact but I do have to pull out the WTF flag when the only thing she could find suitable was in the same complex we lived in.  Like the toxic mold of a relationship, no matter what you do the Nana keeps coming back.  Nana was looking for a job and I didn't want to support her so I helped and found her one. I myself was looking for employment and found one that paid OK and was just the type of work I wanted. The only problem was it was the same place that Nana worked. I may be dumb (shut up) but I'm not stupid. I told her not to tell anyone that we are related. “But why?”  “Because you are trouble and I want to continue working here” was my first thought but I am a nice guy and just said “It is against policy.”  She bought it even though they had hired family before.  The little white lie worked out to my favor since she got her *ss canned and I had no fallout from it. Well, Nana had burned 1 to many bridges and no one else would hire her.  This of course was not my problem, YET.