My Parents and My Painted Fence

I have the best parents in the whole wide world! Why do you ask? Well, I'll tell you why...

When I bought my new house last August, my dad saw the backyard and said, we need to paint your fence! Frankly, I wasn't interested in talking about it. The INSIDE of my house was more on my mind, but I agreed it needed some work. Frankly, I didn't think paint would really improve the look and instead I would have to replace the whole thing to make it look better - and there was no money for that. But you never argue with your dad and win. At least not in my family!

Dad insisted that we paint last November. I was a little more inclined to talk about the possibility since the house was more in a livable state by then. We happened to have the mildest fall weather in a very long time in Salt Lake City(SLC) and it looked like it just might work out for an outside project like painting a fence. But the weekend they came, it snowed. So the project was put on hold. Luckily they found several other things to do in the house to help me out - which was much appreciated. Thus, my parents didn't think it was a waste of a trip.

You see, my parents don't come to play and sight-see when they visit me. They come to work on my house. I think they feel bad that I'm up here in SLC by myself and they can't drop by any weekend they want to help me out. San Diego is a long way from SLC! Luckily I have some great friends that come to my rescue a lot. But I think it bugs my parents that they can't help out on a regular basis too. So, when they get a chance, Dad comes up with a plan (like painting the backyard fence), recruits mom, and they drive the 750 miles up. And I must say, Mom and Dad make a pretty good team when tackling a big job!

Now I need you to know that I really don't think my parents should be working on my fence. They should be drinking lemonade and watching the traffic on my street from my fabulous porch. They are retired and have worked plenty of years in the past. But my parents have never been good at watching life go by. They love to work! That's probably why I have such a hard time sitting down on the couch and doing nothing. It just seems a waste of time, especially when there is so much to do. Luckily, when I hang out with my friends I'm able to actually rest and relax. Otherwise, I don't think I ever would sit still and do nothing (I'm actually multi-tasking as I type this blog entry). I TOTALLY blame it all on my parents' work ethic. Although in reality they both come from a long, genealogical-line of hard workers. So instead, we'll blame my ancestors. That's more fun anyway.

But I digress...

After a long prep day on Saturday, 3 additional mornings of getting up at 6:30am to paint before it got too hot by 10am, 5 1/2 gallons of paint, and daily runs to Home Depot, my fence is BEAUTIFUL! I kept telling them not to get UP at 6:30am but they insisted. Apparently they don't sleep anyway. (If only I was more like them in that respect.) I tried to help as much as I could in the morning but I usually was yelled at and told to go to work instead.

So now I'm bragging about my fabulous, kind parents and my beautiful, newly painted fence and shed. And I must say, it looks 500 times better! Dad was right. As usual.

And just so you know my parents didn't kill themselves off from the experience, here is a picture of them in front of their beautiful hard work.

THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!! LOVE YOUR GUTS!!!

And next time you come to SLC, we really will go to 'This is the Place' Monument. I promise!