Gotta love my parents

I love my parents and am thankful every single day for them. However, there are days when I am even more grateful.

My parents flew up from Florida just to help and attend/participate in the wine/mystery event I mentioned numerous times on my blog. Without asking, mom and dad folded, stuffed, shopped, carried, and sweated over the event in order to help make it the tremendous success it turned out to be. They endured the cold of the northeast to show their daughter how much they cared and loved me. That in itself is HUGE especially when the temperatures here were in the 30s to 50s while in Florida they had 80s.

Once the wine/mystery event was over, they turned their attention to me and my “do list”. We replaced the flusher thingies inside the toilets, lined one toilet that sweats during the summer, and changed the plastic seats the builders had put on the potties with ceramic ones that cannot be slammed shut. I swear I have the quietest toilets around – NOW.

Mom helped me take down cabinets installed in basement so I can install them in the garage. Sounds easy, but they are not light and mom is not exactly a body builder. We did it without breaking any cabinet or any injury.

My father raked the leaves in the front yard and mowed it for me. I still have the back yard to contend with but hey, that’s less than what I started with. He also made me bean and ham soup. Yes, I know there are many people that do not care for that soup but I love it especially how my dad makes it. The problem with the soup was not in the taste but in the heat. We decided to eat the soup out of paper bowls. No biggie. . .except when you sit said paper bowl with hot soup on dining room table and it leaves a water stain ring.

Talk about freak out. I flipped. I was so upset thinking my furniture was ruined. Mom comes along as moms do and she pulled out the mayonnaise from the refrigerator and tried the old household remedy. Unfortunately, it did not work, but it was nice that she tried. This morning we were all standing around talking about the stains and decided that there had to be an answer to my water-stained wood. I, my father’s daughter, got up on the Internet and did a quick search. I found several suggestions, one of which was the mayonnaise trick. The one I found and was easiest to try was the hot iron. Yes, this is a tried and true remedy. I immediately grabbed a clean cloth, my iron, plugged it in, set it on low, and tried it. Holy cow! It worked. Of course, both my parents chime in that they “know what I will be doing tonight.” Oh yeah, I will be ironing out the water stains in my dining room table.

Now we come to the biggie, the tile I wanted above the spare bath shower. Mom and I went out and shopped for the tile and all the necessary tools/supplies. The first tile I picked she wrinkled her nose at it so I set it aside and found another one, the perfect one. We took everything home including this new product that allows you to put up tile lickety-split. While mom and I did some other tasks, dad started on the tiling. When I went upstairs to help, I saw that he had the back wall fully tiled. My heart sank, my stomach did this quivery heebie-jeebie and I wanted to cry. It was ugly and so not the perfect tile.

Once again, yours truly spazes out and has to get it removed immediately or life will be ruined. Oh! I am not kidding. Dad and I yanked every last one of those 1-inch glass tiles off the wall. The sound of them clinking and clattering against the tub was music to my ears and relief to my eyes. Well, it was until I realized the tile mat thingy was not going to come off as easily. Damn! What do I do now?

Simple. I packed myself in car, ran down to other hardware store, searched for tiles and bought the ones I liked but mom wrinkled nose at. Before we ran out to meet friend for chicken wings, dad and I replaced the tiles we ripped down. AMAZING! Beautiful! I bow to my father for making my world right again.

After dinner, we returned to the spare bathroom where dad and I finished installing the tile and then he showed me how to grout it. Okay, bring on more tile work. I can do this. My bathroom is now gorgeous. I love it and I love my parents!

We celebrated by me baking a dozen fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and eating them while still warm. YUM!

See. . .these are just a few of the many reason why I just gotta love my parents.


Mom and Dad – if you read this I’m sending hugs and kisses your way.