Surprise visits

This post is brought to you today because of a Facebook message thread (note: not a public thread) where there was a discussion of someone’s house not being “company ready.” I said “Whatever” followed by “Did I ever tell you about the first 2 visits we got from NLPC?” NLPC = New Life Praise Church = where we go. Anyway, she said, “no, you’ll have to give me those stories! ha!” Now with this in mind, there was some discussion a few days prior about “being real” and “masks” and, well, this is kind of me putting my “ugly” out there.


You can click on the image for the larger size if you just have to go looking for cobwebs. 😉

So this was made Christmas ’07. I think. It’s main purpose is to show the old sectional…for scale. Note that right there in the middle of the floor is a big mess. I decorated for Christmas, but never bothered to put the containers away turning them into a “catch-all” spot. Also notice the dog. That’s Buster as a puppy. His middle name is Deuce because he was always dropping one behind furniture. He is also a big outside dog now. Anyway, a couple of weeks after that Christmas we started attending NLPC.

I’m not sure how long we had been going before we got the visit. One Tuesday night, the dogs started barking, and we heard car doors (plural) outside. One of the Tuesday night visitation teams made a trip to visit us. I know it was Charlie and Sylvia, but I can’t remember who (if anyone) was with them. What I do remember is the sectional was so covered with stuff (laundry, junk, whatever) that you couldn’t sit on it. Oh, and the Christmas stuff was still sitting there in the middle of the room. I was mortified. I am sure everything in the kitchen was dirty and covering all the counters, and, well, my house was a pig stye. And I swore that it would not ever get that bad again just in case we ever got another unannounced visit.

So a few weeks later, dogs bark, car doors slam, and we have visitors again. This time it was Gerald & Bonnie, and Sylvia. Yes, same Sylvia, and guess what? The house was in just as bad a shape as it was before, except that I had put away the Christmas decorations by that time. That was it. They had seen the real us. I don’t think anyone from church has ever been by that the house wasn’t a wreck. It’s not that we don’t both want a clean house, nor do we not know how to keep a clean house. It’s just overwhelming, and it’s easier to let it go.

As an aside, we no longer have the sectional, and we no longer pile laundry up in the living room. We keep those piles in our bedrooms now. LOL

6 Responses to 'Surprise visits'

  1. Skye says:

    Yeah, why is it that you never get unannounced visitors when the house is sparkly clean? It never fails that the days I just let everything go that they feel the need to stop by. Either that or some emergency happens, like a pipe bursting, that forces the need for someone to enter my place.

    Lucky for me, I’ve trained most of my family & friends to call first and not just stop by because they’re in the neighborhood. They probably think I’m having some secret affair I don’t want them knowing about, when all it really is is that I don’t want them seeing the bed unmade…haha.

    • DragonLady says:

      Really, these 2 incidents are tame compared to a couple (or more) of incidents that happened when we lived in base housing at RAF Alconbury. The 423rd’s commander saw my house at its worst. And, oh, was it BAD! I was sure I was going to get Article 15’ed over it. LOL

  2. MacBros says:

    Heh. Your place is a shrine compared to mine LOL!

    • DragonLady says:

      LOL! I was pretty much forced to clean it up before taking pictures. 😉 But I was noticing those “drapes” yesterday, and they really need to be taking down and cleaned…which means they probably won’t get put back up because I have done that once and said “Never again.” hahaha

  3. Petra says:

    Oh man! I missed this one too!!!

    That’s hilarious! Whenever my house is super clean, no one comes by unannounced!! It’s always when there’s messes everywhere!

    Back when Britta & Justice were the only two kids, we had just moved and started attending the church we went to for the few years we lived in TN… one visitation evening, an elderly lady came by – Andrew was in only his boxers and answered the door. She said “oh my…!” and was all flustered for a minute. It was hilarious! For us… I’m sure she was like “why is he wearing no clothes?!” (it was a pretty conservative church) ha.

    • DragonLady says:

      And it’s funny that you missed this one given it was you I had that conversation with. LOL

      Bahahahaha at the boxers! Josh and Shevi stopped by unannounced one night. James was fully clothed and answered the door as I was halfway down the stairs in pj’s, but not company ready for men who aren’t the police, ie, that was a quick run back upstairs and put on a bra. LOL