A Visit From Grandma & Grandpa Nash, Who Helped Us Paint A Room (Again)

My parents came from Colorado to visit us during the first full week of January this year. This was the first time they've come to visit us since last spring, when they attended Lorelai's school play and celebrated Easter with us. We, on the other hand, still haven't been back to Colorado for a while...not since my parents sold my childhood home and moved into the nearby retirement community! With any luck, we'll make it back to Colorado multiple times this year, but for now it was good to see my parents again.

Although we'd talked about them coming to visit in January, they ended up making the final decision to travel at the very last minute. For a while, I had been worried they wouldn't be coming at all. Over the last few months, my mom and dad have both had some major health problems. In two months, my dad has spent multiple nights in a hospital. Last November, he was visiting my sister in Utah when he stopped breathing at church one Sunday(!). It turned out he was reacting badly to some new medication. Then on Christmas Eve, he was hospitalized with a nasty strain of the flu that had been going around Colorado.

Long story short, I have been pretty worried about my parents' health lately, and though I wanted to see them, I was on pins and needles at the thought of them traveling during the cold winter in their vulnerable state. When we called them the weekend before they were scheduled to arrive, they were still on the fence about coming at all. But then Celeste got on the phone and pleaded with them to come, and her sweet earnestness apparently won them over. They flew into Tucson very late Monday night, then rented a car and drove to our house, arriving at about two in the morning on Tuesday, January 6th.

To my relief, my fears about my parents' frailty turned out to be a bit exaggerated. Although they were definitely still tired out and somewhat low-energy, they were in good spirits and enthusiastic about playing with the girls. They also wanted to help out with whatever home projects we'd been putting off due to either time or budgetary constraints.

It may make me sound immature to say I love being spoiled by my parents, but...I love being spoiled by my parents! They have helped us out in many big decisions in life, and it is so nice when they can help out with many "little" projects that we have been putting off due to a lack of time or money. It is so nice to get assistance with home projects (even the easy ones), since it frees us up to get bigger, more immediate concerns dealt with later on our own. Plus, they take me clothes shopping, which is always nice. It is great to get some new, smaller-sized clothes now that I have lost some weight.

There were two small-ish home improvement projects that my parents bankrolled. The first was putting up new curtains for the balcony door in our master bedroom. In a way, this has been the most eagerly anticipated home project since Nathan and I moved into this house! Before my parents came, our balcony door was covered by these gigantic, heavy, incredibly flimsy vertical blinds:

Nathan's parents helped us install these blinds when we first moved into the house in 2011. We were certainly grateful for the window covering. The morning sun shines right through that door, after all, and the blinds did an excellent job of blocking out the light. However, we have had to tread so lightly around those blinds over the years that they've long since worn out their welcome. If I walked too quickly past them while going into or out of the bathroom, the force of my passing would jar one of the panels loose. And when one blind panel fell down, more often than not, most of the panels would fall down. The panels are heavy and unbalanced, and are a huge pain to reattach to the slide.

This was an especially big problem when the girls had friends over to play, and they'd run into Mom's room (already a no-no), and then offer to show their friends the balcony (another no-no). Invariably, this would end with the kids tripping over a huge pile of collapsed blinds in a guilty retreat...and with me re-hanging the blinds alone, cursing under my breath.

Now, thanks to the intervention of my parents, I will never have to deal with collapsed blinds again! We took a trip to the local Bed Bath & Beyond, and purchased some new blackout curtains, along with a new rod.

In the last several months, few things have given me as much savage satisfaction as taking down all those blinds and cutting them in half...so they would fit in our trash can! No, we never planned on selling the blinds to anyone else...I wouldn't wish that fate on anybody! Hopefully, they are minding their own business at the local landfill as I write this.

Here's what our balcony doors look like now:

Since we haven't painted our bedroom yet, I wanted to choose a fairly neutral color for the curtains, and one that didn't clash too badly with the blue inside the master bathroom, which I painted a few months back. I think these curtains let in a tiny bit more sunlight than did the blinds, but overall it's a huge upgrade. Now we can move on and off our balcony much more freely, and our room looks a little homier than it did before.

The other home project was a little more ambitious, but yielded even better results; we painted the girls' bathroom and bought some new matching towels to go with it!

We have been letting the girls' bathroom mats get gradually junkier and more unraveled over the last several months...we knew that a bathroom remodel was coming, but we didn't have the exact date. When my parents showed up and offered their assistance (both in labor and in financing), we decided to move forward on the project!

As with the master bathroom painting a few months ago, Nathan was caught off-guard somewhat by the suddenness of this painting project. Painting rooms has a sort of freight-train momentum for me; once I get started, I just can't stop until the job is done! Nathan helped out as best he could, and he helped install some new wall hooks in both bathrooms after the painting was done. He installed a new towel ring for the girls' bathroom as well. Now they have more places to hang towels/bathrobes/etc. I suspect this will come in handy the older they get, and the more accessorizing they do.

Most of the taping and actual painting was done by my father and myself. Grandma, as usual, kept the kids out of our hair for the most part. The job went much faster than I thought; from start to finish, it probably only took us a day and a half (including breaks for sleeping, eating, & socializing). Maybe because I'd already done the master bathroom almost all by myself, but the girl's bathroom felt so much easier to do! And we even painted all the walls this time! (Nathan and I have often left one wall of a room unpainted, both for contrast and because we're lazy.) Taping around the mirrors, sinks, & light fixtures was definitely more tedious, but my dad ended up doing a lot of that. Thank goodness for some extra helping hands.

After the main painting job was done, and after all the wall hangings were re-attached, we went shopping one more time for the cosmetic finishing touches. Once again, my parents were super helpful in this regard.

We already had three larger purple bath towels (they were monogrammed, one for each girl; a gift from our sister-in-law Molly). We had to buy brand-new bath mats, hand towels, and toilet seat covers to finish the purple motif. We never quite got a complete set; there was no toilet seat cover in the matching purple color we chose. Oh well, we settled for a white cover, and it looks fine. And although the new bath mats and hand towels don't quite match the purple towels we already had, they don't outright clash, either. And both types of towels match nicely with the purple walls. We got really lucky with this paint color; it is a very accommodating hue of purple!

The nice final touch was getting a new shower curtain. For many years, we've gotten by with a flimsy boring white plastic curtain. It made the whole room look very washed-out. I wasn't really sure what type of shower curtain I wanted, but I definitely wanted more color! I didn't really find any curtains with any good purple accents, so I went a different direction and got a loud black-and-white pattern:

Everyone loved the new room; friends, family, and especially the girls! I'm so happy they can have a nice room of their very own. And once again, I'm super grateful to my parents for all their help. It is so nice to have this project completed! Our next task is an intimidating one; Nathan and I are hoping to paint our stairwell by the end of this year! We are not looking forward to it, but we are wanting to get it over with!

Besides those projects, we made no other large-scale plans with my parents. We hung around the house; played with the kids; spent most nights playing board games (we had lots of fun with Stone Age, which we played several times); discussed our respective health/family situations; and ate out a few times. They attended sacrament meeting with us, but went home afterwards to avoid exposure to more illnesses (a wise move, in my opinion, given the number of young children in our ward). They also attended the girls' very first volleyball game (more on their volleyball adventures in a future blog post). And of course, we went out to eat a few times as well.

These pictures were taken after dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. For some reason, I keep forgetting to take lots of pictures of my parents when they come to visit. Luckily, I think these pictures turned out great and say a lot about who my parents are and how much my girls love them. They are always so happy to see my parents, and we are all so grateful for this time we have together.

We celebrated an early "birthday" with Aurora, by opening her present from the grandparents the Sunday night before they headed home. The next day (Monday, January 12th), "normal" life began again. The older girls headed to school, and Grandma and Grandpa packed their bags and loaded up the rental car, in preparation to head back to the airport. Aurora was eager to climb into the car and go with them; when she realized just what was happening, she burst into tears and was inconsolable for long after her beloved grandparents drove away.

Deep inside, I was crying right along with Aurora; I always miss my parents when they leave. Not just for their gifts and financial aid (although those have been wonderful blessings as well), but for how much love they leave with us. I hope my parents know how grateful I always am for all the things (both big and small) they have offered us over the years. Everything they do and say is filled with kindness and concern for our well-being. They want so much to be involved in our lives in whatever way works for us; they want to know us, understand us, help us, laugh with us, and share things with us.

I am so glad for their generous spirits, their hard work, and their sacrifices they make for us. Coming as it did just a few months after my father-in-law's death, I was especially grateful for this visit, and for the chance to enjoy every moment with my parents that we have left. I am glad my mom and dad were healthy enough to make the trip, and I pray they will recover quickly and have a healthy and prosperous year. Hopefully we will see them again this spring!