My life is like an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond"

I was sad when this series ended...I really did feel like they were taking video of my life, writing a script, and changing the names to protect the innocent. Let me share with you my latest episode.

A couple of YEARS ago, while we were visiting Honey's parents, my mother-in-law (MIL) gave me her Weight Watchers books. I was toying with the idea of joining so I could loose a few pounds, and she said that she wasn't going to use them anymore, so I could take them and use them if I wanted. Well, I did look at them, and even tried to use them for a little while, but I never ended up joining and soon, the books ended up in the bottomless pit in my house I call "the office".

A few months ago, I began to adopt this lifestyle of "simplify" and I tackled said bottomless pit. I cleaned, purged, donated, and trashed A TON of stuff. (By the way, a few months later, I seem to have accumulated more stuff to replace the junk I threw out plus some! Kinda' like dieting, huh?)

A couple of weeks ago, my MIL called. She wondered if I still had the books she gave me "a while back". I instantly winced, and on the inside I remembered trashing them, thinking, "I'm never going to use these, and they are probably outdated by now anyways."

On the outside, I said, "I don't know where they are, I'll need to look for them."

To which she replied, "We'll look for them when I come to visit in a couple of weeks."

I instantly winced again, and on the inside I thought "That's all I need is someone looking over my shoulder as I go through all the stuff in my bottomless pit."

On the outside, I said, "OK."

After this conversation, I decided that I had two choices. I could A) push aside my pride and admit to my MIL that I'd thoughtlessly thrown them away without asking if she wanted them back, or B) enlist the help of my sister-in-law (SIL) and her friends that are connected with Weight Watchers to replace the books thereby saving face. The next day, I talked with my SIL and found out that she still had her books from YEARS ago and that she was buying new ones and going to get rid of the old ones. She graciously offered me the old ones to give to MIL when she came to visit. I think she would have even kept my secret if I'd decided not to tell MIL the whole story. (We SILs have to stick together, don't we?)

So...Bubba's birthday was this weekend, and the in-laws came for a visit. We got through the entire weekend without mention of the books. (I think she'd forgotten about them.) Just before we left for church, I handed her the books and admitted that no, I hadn't found her originals, but SIL didn't need hers anymore, so she could have them. (I mean we were ON THE WAY to church...I couldn't lie...by the way, the sermon was on being honest...ironic)

In the end, my SIL and her friends saved the day, and amazingly I still had my pride in tact because my MIL was very gracious and thankful that I'd found a solution.