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Surprise guests, guests who don't know when to go, and other guest mishaps

Discussion in 'Free-For-All Archives' started by Abiyah, Apr 19, 2003.

  1. Abiyah

    Abiyah <img src =/abiyah.gif>

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    A post on the Never-Ending Discussion thread
    reminded me of a couple guest mishaps we have
    had. I wondered if anyone would like to tell of
    their own.

    One mishap was when my husband and I took off
    on a week's trip, leaving our older teenaged
    children to fend for themselves. To set the picture
    up, my husband and I were both widowed and
    married one another, each of us bringing two
    teenaged children into the combined family.
    They were really looking forward to this time to
    themselves.

    While we were gone, we got a phone call from his
    daughter: "Uh, there are some people here that
    Mom (his first wife) used to babysit for in Denver.
    They are visiting the West Coast and they wanted
    to know if they could stay here for a few days."

    Now, my first answer would have been "NO!
    Absolutely not! This is your vacation from us, and
    you do not need them staying there!" But the
    marriage was new, I did not know his children yet,
    and I did not know these people! I handed the
    phone to MtnWalker and stayed out of the
    decision.

    It was decided that they could stay a couple days,
    and my only input was that their dog could not
    stay in the house; it had to stay in the back yard.
    It was, after all, summer.

    Well, it turned out that they stayed nearly all
    week, giving the children only a day an a half
    alone. I nearly blew my top. Then, I found out
    that they not only kept the dog in the house, but
    it had slept in our beds!!!! By that time, I was so
    angry that I literally put the whole thing out of my
    mind, for my marriage and my sanity's sakes, until
    I read the Never-Ending Conversation thread this
    morning!

    All the time I was writing this, I wondered what
    Stubborn Kelly would have done as a teen with
    this situation.

    [ April 19, 2003, 12:09 PM: Message edited by: Abiyah ]
     
  2. Wygal

    Wygal New Member

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    This might count, I'm not sure. We live in the country, and our driveway is really long. Then, when you get to the end of that, we have a big gate. There's a reason for the gate (and fence), and it's the dogs. Everyone that knows us, knows about them, and they don't just walk in. Well, one night, a dark night, we heard a racket going on outside. The dogs were barking that bark that we recognized as something or someone was out there. Then, we heard a big rattling noise. Sounded like someone was trying to break the gate down! My husband jumped up and got the shotgun, and ran outside. When he got around the corner of the house, he saw a DEACON and his WIFE, at our gate! He was rattling the gate to try and get our attention inside, because he couldn't come inside the gate because of the dogs. I think he should've just honked the horn. I bet they still talk about us meeting them with a shotgun! LOL. :D
     
  3. Thankful

    Thankful <img src=/BettyE.gif>

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    I used to want a house with a moat around it with a drawbridge. This was especially true when we had a place on a lake. We had so much company one year that we locked up the place on the fourth of July and went to Colorado by ourselves. We were not very popular that year.

    You should have seen our grocery bills. :(
     
  4. Jim1999

    Jim1999 <img src =/Jim1999.jpg>

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    To my mind, a guest is just that; invited and the length of stay pre-determined. All others are directed to a decent motel.

    To maintain balance in ministry, my policy was "To be friendly to all, but familiar with none." No one could charge you with being unfriendly, nor with having special friends in the congregation. It worked over my lifetime.

    Cheers,

    Jim
     
  5. Gib

    Gib Active Member

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    When we first got married, I was a freshman in college. We often had our friends come over for supper. I was inviting another couple over for a cookout. One of the unmarried students heard and basically invited himself over. Everyone liked Jared. Liked him when he was not around. We ate, watched a movie and said our goodnights. The other couple offered to take Jared home. My wife had already headed for the shower.

    Jared said "Nah, I think I'm going to watch some more TV here and I'll get (me) to take him home." We watched some TV and I put my shoes on and asked him if he was ready. He said he was hungry. I made him a sandwich. My wife asked if I was coming to bed. Jared said go ahead and he would let himself out. I don't know what time he left. He told several people the next week that we were pretty boring.

    I would rather be boring, than obnoxious.
     
  6. TaterTot

    TaterTot Guest

    Well, we used to live in a beach town (on the poor side of town) but people would come visit us ALL the time. Even people we hadnt seen in years. Hmm. Once it was two college girls that we had supervised one in as a summer missionary. They were supposed to stay 2 days. Yeah, right. They stayed until we had to ask them to leave. They slept late (in our resort ministy office in our home) and we couldnt get in there to work - they stayed up late at night, and really werent there to see us. It was so bad. And we were the ones that felt bad - not them! Another family just happened to be coming to town once, and when I asked where they would be staying, they said they hoped thay could stay with us for 2 nights. We gave in, and it was terrible. They left their unruly child with us to take a shower together (without even saying a word!) and it was more than 2 nights. Funny, when we moved to seminary, very few wanted to come see us.
     
  7. I Am Blessed 24

    I Am Blessed 24 Active Member

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    When we lived in Florida we thought we were running a motel! We had 'drop-in' guests from Illinois that we barely knew.

    I finally starting telling them, when they first hit the door and made it known they would like to stay a couple of nights, I will tell you how to get to the grocery store and you can buy the food you would like to eat while you are here!!!

    We moved back to Illinois over 20 years ago and have not seen most of these people since we moved back!

    :confused:
    Sue
     
  8. stubbornkelly

    stubbornkelly New Member

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    [​IMG] Abiyah! I'm not really sure what it means that you wondered what I would have done.

    I think, as a teen, I would have done as my parents said, and made the dog stay outside and told the people that they needed to be on their way after a few days. I fully believe, as did Franklin, that "fish and guests begin to stink after three days." [​IMG] As a teen, though, it's sometimes difficult to make your word be heard, understood and adhered to, so I can also see some guests not doing as I said they needed to.
     
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